Arriving in Cape Town at the end of an eventful year, I settled into my Southern rhythm.\u00a0 This involved being on my deck meditating before sunrise each morning and then getting to Fish Hoek beach, walking its length and then breathing in the ozone from the waves as I swam out backstroke along the shoreline.\u00a0 This had been my usual pattern, but I believe that was the year it changed. Ten days before I arrived there was a shark attack and a wonderful woman, who had swum out into the middle of the bay for years, disappeared after unwittingly swimming\u00a0 into the space of a great white shark.\u00a0 The shark had been stationary in the waters but visible to the frantic fishermen keeping a lookout from the mountain.\u00a0 Tayna, at age seventy-six, also swam backstroke and I had a similar trajet<\/em> to hers, usually half an hour later in the morning.\u00a0 In the face of this tragedy, I had to adapt and started going down to the Dalebrook tidal pool in Kalk Bay instead, sitting alone perched on the edge of the rocks and practicing my harmonic chant.\u00a0 Gazing into the early morning sun there were often schools of dolphins or porpoises, which glided through my vision.\u00a0 I felt very connected.<\/p>\n I had my practice CDs which David had produced with the tanpura in C # tuning and also in G.\u00a0 This was played as a constant background drone, to which I would chant on the slow outbreath reaching depths and resonances which surprised me.\u00a0 Sometimes it seemed as though my chanting was from another source, and I imagined my blanketed Mongolian self chanting somewhere on the Steppes; I was almost transported there. Or perhaps I was.<\/p>\n I was doing a great deal of practice at this time and finding interesting responses from different animals.\u00a0 Cats were not drawn to the deep vibrations emanating from me when I chanted.\u00a0 In fact, they took themselves off to a distance beyond the field, observing from there.\u00a0 On the rocks in the early mornings, however, several dogs who came with owners would come closer to the sound.\u00a0 One in particular, Petal, would lean up against the side of my back, pressing firmly into the vibration.\u00a0 I was reading a great deal too, at this time, about the healing effects of sound, and these random experiences with animals provided insights.<\/p>\n One rather unusual experience involved a giant mountain tortoise, aged over one hundred years and a beloved long-term resident at the Vineyard Hotel \u2013 a family owned establishment in a beautiful setting below Table Mountain.\u00a0 There are gardens and lawns and paths along the river, and it is a tranquil paradise in the middle of the suburbs.\u00a0 I was to meet up with friends there at sunset and had arrived early, deciding to take full benefit of the setting.\u00a0 Seeking quietude, I sat on my mat and went into a quiet space slowly becoming conscious of my silent breath, and then the sound of the exhales which contained the harmonics, becoming increasingly audible.<\/p>\n I was alone, far away from any hotel activity and surrounded by lush greenery and the indigenous flowerings of March in the Cape.\u00a0 Breathing out and hearing the sounds which must have evoked Solar winds<\/em>, the title of the Harmonic Choir\u2019s first CD, which twenty years ago had sold 300,000 copies.\u00a0\u00a0 Then the fuller chant emerged on the \u2018mmm …\u2019\u00a0 with my lips closed.\u00a0 The ensuing resonance built up and filled my chest cavity, and I began to feel the vibrations flooding through my body.<\/p>\n In this meditative state one is in the present moment, focused and without the usual chatter of thoughts and background noise flitting in and out.\u00a0 I am not sure how long I was chanting.\u00a0 I had my eyes closed.\u00a0 Suddenly, my eyes opened although I did not stop chanting.\u00a0 There, about twenty meters away from me, but bearing down rather fast, was \u2018Oupa\u2019, the giant tortoise.\u00a0 He was huge and from my perspective sitting lotus-like on the grass\u00a0 he,\u00a0 poised on large limbs as he lifted his heavy shell, seemed even bigger.\u00a0 And he was moving purposefully in my direction.\u00a0 That was totally clear to me.<\/p>\n I was still chanting and realised that this was what he was coming towards.\u00a0 In a futile attempt to create some boundary, I lifted the mat and covered my knees.\u00a0 He was now two meters away and moving at the same pace as before.\u00a0 He had not slowed down at all and proceeded to ease his huge carapace onto my lap.\u00a0 He was clearly trying to get as close to the source of this vibration as possible.\u00a0 His shell was possibly half a meter long, and he had clambered into my arms, literally.\u00a0 My left hand was gently holding him under that scrawny reptilian neck, which actually was as thick as my fist when he extended it.\u00a0 My right hand was holding the base of his shell, where his tail would emerge.\u00a0 And there we sat, Oupa and I, for a long time.\u00a0 I was gently toning the OM and it clearly resonated with this ancient one.<\/p>\n At one point, when our communion was somehow complete, his head suddenly twisted round so that his eyes looked directly into mine.\u00a0 I had a sense of primordial connection, of looking into eternity, and of great and intense Love.\u00a0 I felt my heart bursting and tears of love and gratitude welled up.\u00a0 I did not want this moment to end.\u00a0 But Oupa then opened his mouth, his eyes still holding mine, and emitted a sound that is hard to describe.\u00a0 It was gentle, like a strong sigh, a ssshhhh… almost a hiss,\u00a0 but I could hear his love.\u00a0 And then he slowly removed himself from my embrace onto the ground and lumbered off back along the path.\u00a0 I realised how heavy he had been, as the feeling slowly came back into my numbed thighs and calf muscles.<\/p>\n What a gift.\u00a0 I believe this was the first direct experience of inter-dimensionality\u00a0 I was given from the animal kingdom.\u00a0 It was powerful.\u00a0 And I sat for a long time afterwards, allowing the sun to slip behind the mountain before I could bring myself to pack up my things and go up to meet my friends.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A remarkable encounter with a giant tortoise. My first connection with animal kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":414,"template":"","categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","episode_posts","type-episode_posts","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-part-2-music-and-my-soul"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/episode_posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/episode_posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/episode_posts"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}