AUTHENTIC VOICE
Kefas Berlin
"I want to stress that when I speak of singing, I do not consider this to be
solely an artistic exercise but the possibility and the means of recognising
oneself and of transforming this recognition into conscious life."
Alfred Wolfsohn
"Sounds literally shape our realities. Everything that occured in our lives
is recorded in our bodies. These events are recorded in our tissue as
memories that actually exude a sound, and respond and change shape
when engaged by our voice.
Sound touches us where hands and words cannot reach."
Vickie Dodd
”The reservoir of our psyche is beyond language but
it is not beyond Voice…
The human voice is a metaphor for life itself.”
Paul Newham
Imagine the voice, the sounding, toning, singing voice being a bridge. A bridge between different places in your interior and the audible, visible here-and-now exterior. The interior is your body as well as your soul and your personal history. The bridge creates a connection between the inner and the outer world.
But the bridge is not empty and open. It is busy with traffic and it is full of junk that impedes flow.
Also, you are not completely used to or feel brave enough to cross the bridge.
But you know, it's never too late to start getting over and clearing some garbage along the way.
The term "Authentic voice" has its original idea in the method "Authentic movement" (Mary Starks Whitehouse) - a way of working and an approach to the free movement of one's own body I practiced before I developed a similar method for the voice.
Of course, it's not about WHAT comes out through the voice, but HOW. It is about an approach and
about a method that creates an increasingly authentic voice, a voice that corresponds to who you are,
what you feel, what's on your heart - here and now. A true voice.
Being authentic can never be an ambition, let alone an achievement. Having authenticity as an ambition will be counterproductive. I therefore never mention the word Authentic during my courses or sessions.
Yet that is exactly what everyone is striving for - deep down.
To sound like you really are - even when you sing a song created by someone else.
The music and the song and also the voice are in their authenticity a child of the moment.
To only be and to be what you are in your voice and to be in allowance to what is
right now and here: this is what it is all about. No ambition in any direction.
But to get there, help is needed along the way.
You can get far on your own. But in your solitary practice and searching, it is easy to hold on to the old.
And the old clings to you and restricts the freedom of your voice.
By someone listening and gently guiding you, someone you trust, someone you are willing to be open to, you will go further. The old structuresthat is holding you back, gradually releases its control of your voice.
The guided Authentic Voice session is sometimes more body-oriented while others keep you in touch with the emotional or biographical aspects of yourself. You will be guided to where and how it feels and to places in life. The toning, sounding or singing voice is your bridge to and your contact to reality here and now.
The body and the breathing are always an event here and now. The voice in turn is always in contact with the body. The voice simply cannot sound without breath and body. Words, thoughts and feelings can lock us into past events and what binds us to them in the form of conclusions, judgements, decisions, separations, expetations etc.
A session can also be non-guided but in collaboration with a partner who only listens and observes. Only there as an attentive witness. In the search, in the opening and in the allowance of what one finds in the voice and behind the voice, lies the process that leads to ever greater authenticity and freedom.
The word "Authentic" is about the very allowance to be as it is and as one is, right here, right now. I.e. to let what lives inside, in the body and / or the soul, be expressed - regardless of how it sounds or looks. The only thing that is important is that what emerges in movement and / or voice is what lives in that person here and now.
It means a lot to be in a allowing "safe space" because "people can hear me!" and the mere awareness that "people hear me" can be inhibiting. A trust in and a sense of security with the room and the person / persons who are there always needs to be built first.
As there is no leader / teacher / therapist on hand, you can work with a partner who can then act as a "witness", an observant, listening and permissive person in whom you have confidence and with whom you can then share your experiences. Then changing roles with being the "main character" and "witness" builds trust.
With the listening, the witness encourages the partner to dare.
The better the listener listens, the more the one who works will hear him/herself. And thats the point of listening.
For some, it may feel best to be completely alone at first. But if you are alone, the defense mechanisms are easily activated and you want uncounsciously to be in control of what comes out. What feels familiar and part of the habits gives security. Going outside your "comfort zone" is not reassuring. The "depths" can seem too daunting.
You dare to a certain level but no longer.
If, on the other hand, there is a safe and non-judgemental allowing helper, support person or guide with you, you dare to allow yourself more. The more you feel safe with your partner / guide, the more you dare to venture in, dare to let go of the reins - and the more you reveal yourself.
You let go the horses.
The guided sessions of course need their knowledgeable guide. A person who can read the voice and the process makes lead with simple and wordless clarity, with clear intuition rather than good planning and completely free from judgement.
And above all, allowing.
Authentic Voice provides increased self-esteem and integrity, better contact with one's voice and greater expressiveness. It happens that it initiates cognitive processes which in turn can lead to new life decisions, necessary or desired but where sufficient self-esteem and / or courage has so far been lacking.
That you now find the trust, courage and feeling that is needed is a result of working from the inside, almost "plowing", through the voice based on the obvious desire to express the inner experiences.
A lot happens on the way out.
The outflow of inner impulses is accelerated and the voice becomes more and more a open
and manageable tool for the inner life.
The voice material used is never in verbal form and thus bound to logic, thoughts and conclusions but consists only of sound, tone and melody - everything you can do with your voice without using words. Therein lies its strength. The uncultivated, "raw" open voice will thus form a bridge between the dreamed and the subconscious and the now active, expressive and, inward-hearing singer.
The bridge or path between the inner rooms and the awakened consciousness can be extremely precise in its in-sounding wordlessness. In words it can be, as is well known, so and so with the truth, while the sounding Voice always rests in its own truth.
Now, to begin nothing flows freely and unhindered. Body and soul is resisting. But over time, the resistance drops and the voice flows.
The voice can reach extremely deep in to the soul and the past - and at the same time extremely precise into the present - where the lungs move, the blood is pulsating and the voice vibrates.
In this way, an intuitive self-esteem is created. With "inuitive" meant: non-cognitive but just as conscious and its intuitive consciousness in contact with what, how and what feels, in contact with the inner true life impulses that contribute to the transformation of the life you live.
We all want transformation and change deep down, but do not always know in what way it will happen.
But deep down inside us we know. Deepest inside us, we are united with everything around us with which we interact. Therefore, the deepest impulses in us are not egocentric but altruistic.
However, knowing the difference is a school in itself.
The singer, "the voicer", hears him/herself - in real time the deeper layers of soul and body are unconsciously heard by the voicer.
The voice is simply such that it reveals the source - for the one who can hear clearly. And the work of the guide is to hear clearly.
When you see a chymatic image, you realize that sounds are complex events, more complex than any "QR code".
In the voice is everything: how it is right now, emotionally and physically and what you carry with you from the past.
The voice is in fact more or less naked. Hence this common embarrassment of exposing the wordless melodic voice.
But the important thing is not to understand what is heard through your own voice. The important thing is THAT it is heard, that it is expressed, that a channel is opened between the hitherto unknown and the listening present.
Once the inner space has been projected into the audible, ground for new possibilities has been created.
The energy from the repressed inner spaces that also contain long-standing (sometimes lifelong) dreams and desires begins to flow again…. and it continues to flow after the sessions because a brave heart has paved the way, plowed a furrow… ..and now it suddenly becomes possible to realize hidden projects. Old fears melted away and instead power began to flow.
An example: A participant went after a weekend with Authentic Voice straightforward and re-educated herself into what she had been dreaming about for 10 years but did not dare, given the security of the habit and the finances she had in the current situation. From computer programmers to weavers.
Another participant noticed after such a weekend how he suddenly functioned differently at his job. The long-awaited contact with the co-workers arose. According to his own analysis, it was due to social fears he carried but which now simply no longer existed. He dared to be straight and open in the meetings with others and thus he invited to contact. He was the one who had not let the others in before. He said that this had directly to do with the singing sessions.
As a result of the more body-oriented Authentic Singing sessions, there are examples of how individual clients or workshop participants have noted relief or marked improvement in a physical (often psychosomatic) disorder. Hip injury. Urinary tract infection….
But what is psychosomatic or not can sometimes surprise you. An almost unbelievable example is the 55 year old workshop participant, whose vision spontaneously improved by 1.5 dioptrins after a 30 min session (a session that was not body-oriented but a "Landscape trip with Self-encounter"). After the session, her vision was blurred, both with and without the strong glasses. During the visit to her optician two days later, this change was noted for the better and she had to get new glasses. "This never happens", he said.
And there are many more stories of how life itself changes after this kind of work with the voice has been done. A work that is not directly dealing with life and life results that is not voice related. But it is all connected.
If you free the voice, the voice will free you.
I mention sound, tone and melody as material, but as a rule the singer ends up quite quickly in a melodic use of the voice. This is understandable because the melodic voice, with its "open throat", has the greatest power and the strongest flow. It can be said that the client sings his way through the body and voice barriers, breaks through singing bravely through ramparts and walls into the reality of now.
The obstacles, the blockages can be experienced physically as well as emotionally. Emotions such as fear and sadness, emotions that can turn into anger, joy and experience of strength.
Repeated sessions with Authentic Voice create a stronger connection between body and voice, between the subconscious and the day-conscious, between you, who you thought you were, and you, who you really are.
The subconscious becomes an increasing part of the voice and thus the voice becomes more compliant and soft and increasingly an expression of HOW it is and WHAT you are.
Welcome side effects: increased voice volume, increased register, timbre, stability and agility.
It is however important during the session that you do NOT care about these effects and strive for them but let everything happen as it happens.
Authentic Singing is given both as individual sessions and as part of my courses.
Kefas Berlin 2015/2021
picture at the top:
Alfred Wolfsohn (right) in voice work with Roy Hart who was his singing student for 12 years. 1950s
picture below: Alfred Wolfsohn - a pioneer within the free work of voice. Read more about him >
