By session three, Ethan had been doing the work between sessions. His coffee consumption had dropped from six or seven cups a day to one in the morning. He’d been writing prolifically. He’d picked up tai-chi. He was sleeping better, moving better, feeling better.
But healing isn’t always a straight line upward. Sometimes the body reorganizes in unexpected ways, and that’s exactly what showed up when I assessed his energy field before our third session.
A New Pattern
His chakras had shifted. The solar plexus, which had been overactive in both previous sessions, was now normal. The third eye and crown, which had balanced after session one, remained normal. But two things had changed: his heart, which had been depleted, was now overactive. And his third eye, which had come into balance, was now depleted.
This kind of reversal can look alarming on paper, but it’s actually a sign that energy is moving. The heart had been starved for the first two sessions. The release work, the emotional processing, the affirmation “I love myself”, had opened something. Now the heart was flooding with energy it hadn’t had access to, and it hadn’t yet found its equilibrium. Meanwhile, the third eye was temporarily depleted, as if the system had redirected resources to the heart’s recovery.
The body’s energy system is a whole. When one center opens or shifts, the others respond. It’s not a problem to solve, it’s a conversation to listen to.
What Ethan Reported
Before we began the sound work, Ethan shared what had been happening in his life. He said that since we’d started, he hadn’t felt the need for caffeine the way he used to. Six or seven cups to one, not through willpower but because the craving simply wasn’t there anymore. He was more motivated to write and had been very productive.
He also mentioned something that I think is one of the most important outcomes in this entire case study: he’d noticed a couple of people in his life who were pushing his boundaries, and he’d decided to cut them out. At least temporarily. He was stressed about it, but he’d done it anyway.
This is transformation in action. Not the dramatic, cinematic kind. The quiet, difficult kind, where someone recognizes a pattern that’s been draining them and chooses to change it. The sessions didn’t make that decision for him. But they gave his system enough clarity, enough energy, to see what needed to happen and act on it.
He said it himself: “It’s working in ways I never thought it would.”
Session 3: A Different Approach
With the heart now overactive and the third eye depleted, this session needed a different architecture than the previous two. Instead of the E bowl work targeting the solar plexus, I began with the F bowl, corresponding to the Heart chakra, tapping to the left to gently address the excess energy there.
His intention had evolved again: “I am focused and energized. I am nourished and well balanced, and complete my work with excellence.” Each session, he got more precise about what he was asking for. The vague hope of session one had become a specific declaration.
I started with my grail, as always, to establish the connection. Then I introduced the ocean drum, something I hadn’t used in the previous sessions. The drum creates a wash of sound that mimics the sea, and I played it with a specific intention: starting soft, as if Ethan were walking toward the water from a distance, then building as if the waves were engulfing him. I alternated between gentle and strong, and moved the drum counterclockwise to help break up blocked energy.
The ocean drum became a bridge into the release work. I transitioned to the F bowl, working through intervals — the minor second (F-G), then the major third (F-A). With the third eye depleted, I made an intuitive choice: I played the A bowl to the right instead of the left, directing energy toward replenishment rather than release. Sound isn’t just notes, it’s direction, intention, and awareness of what each center needs in that moment.
The Triads Deepen
I checked with my pendulum again before the session, and it swung strongly for D minor. So after the releasing intervals, I introduced the D minor triad and guided Ethan through the affirmation: “I am able to change. It is safe. In love, I open like a flower.”
He repeated it three times, and with each repetition, I could hear his voice settling. Not softening, settling. There’s a difference. Softening is withdrawal. Settling is arrival.
From D minor, I transitioned to F minor — allowing the D and A to fade naturally while the F continued to hold the space. The affirmation shifted: “Aum. The return to the Source.” This was a different quality of work than the previous sessions. Session one had been about first contact. Session two had been about going deeper. Session three was about integration, gathering the released, recycled energy and directing it toward wholeness.
I moved through the grounding intervals: the fourth (C-F), the fifth (C-G), the sixth (C-A), and the octave (low C to high C). At each interval, Ethan chanted Aum in harmony with the bowls. The sound of a human voice finding its place inside a harmonic structure is something that never stops being beautiful to me. It’s co-creation in real time.
What Ethan Felt
He sat in silence for ten minutes after this session, the longest yet. When he came back, he described the experience differently than before. He said it felt like this session was meant to “button up” or complete some things from the last two sessions. It wasn’t the intense, dramatic releasing he’d felt before. Instead, it was nourishing and supporting, reinforcing the work he’d already done.
He described it as getting a few moments of “Well, that’s that, and this is this.” A kind of quiet resolution. Things clicking into place.
I told him to keep chanting, keep journaling, and spend some time in silent meditation. The body was doing good work, and it needed space to integrate.
What This Session Taught Me
I learned to trust the ocean drum more. I’d been using it tentatively in earlier work, but in this session it proved itself as both a relaxation trigger and a release instrument. Moving it counterclockwise while breathing deeply created a quality of energy clearing that the bowls alone don’t quite achieve. It’s a different kind of vibration, chaotic, organic, oceanic and sometimes that’s exactly what a session needs before the precise work of intervals and triads.
I also learned something about the rhythm of a healing series. Not every session is a breakthrough. Some sessions are about consolidation, the body integrating what’s already shifted, confirming the new patterns, letting the nervous system know it’s safe to stay here. Ethan’s description of “buttoning up” was perfect. The earlier sessions opened things; this one organized them.
And I learned to experiment with octaves. I discovered during preparation that my F3 and F4 bowls sound incredible together with the grail. Three different expressions of the same note, each carrying a different quality of energy. I made a note to incorporate that octave layering in future sessions, especially during step 8, reforming patterns of wellness, where the goal is nourishment and wholeness.
Session four would be our last planned session. Ethan had already changed more than either of us expected. The question was: how do you close a container you’ve built across an ocean?
Continue reading: Part 4 — Across the Ocean, Into Himself