MILWAUKEE — In honoring Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and the ancient tradition of sound healing practices, I met with Bernard Runo, founder of Adagio Sound Healing.
Bernard Runo is a first-generation-born Filipino American. And growing up in America, “there is a pressure to assimilate, to speak without an accent, to speak English well. To fit in as best you can. My parents didn't stress learning the language. They didn't really stress a lot of cultural practices, but I held on to those. I felt there was worth in keeping those ties to the motherland.” said Runo.
Part of those ties are the tattoos Runo wears on his body.
“This is my genealogy. This is my family history," he said. "Each of these motifs represents a member of my family. They are indigenous to the province that I'm from; from the island I'm from. And then it represents who they are and what they did. So, I'm wearing my family history on my arms and on my whole person. And I carry them with me all the time."
After a transformative experience at a violin conference in Barcelona, Spain in 2016 where he was bathed in the healing power of sound, Runo realized that he could pay homage to his legacy, both the musical side and the healing side. This led him to sound healing.
Runo earned a certification as Master Sound Practitioner from the Art of Healing School of Energy Medicine/School of Sound and Healing in Elm Grove, Wisconsin in March 2022.
So, what is sound healing, and how does it work?
Runo says, “Tibetan bowls, crystal singing bowls, gongs, drums, chimes. Some of us use flutes to produce frequencies that raise the body's frequency, which promote healing from within, and that can be on many different levels. Physical, if you have pain, emotional, and spiritual. You get to a very relaxed state called the Theta brain wave state. That is the state of consciousness that you reach just before falling asleep. When you reach that physical state, you are most open to healing.”
I climbed onto Runo’s table for a sound healing, and it was as if I were one with the sounds. I felt as though I was floating in water and that was before he placed a monochord, an ancient instrument, on my body and began to play it. That experience defies description. Suffice it to say, it was wonderful!
The word Adagio translates to “at ease” and that is how I felt after.
For more information, visit the Adagio Sound Healing website.
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