Oriental Secrets of Healing Sounds

45 years of researching religious Taoism and Tibetan Buddhism has taught Dr. Michael Sasa, an authority on Asian and comparative religions, how (in his words), "to pull out of the liver a bright green sound of happiness." In this exercise-style video, Dr. Sasa shows how to achieve this and other similar feats using a set of meditative practices based on the "six healing sounds" of traditional Chinese medicine. According to this age-old tradition, each sound corresponds to 1) an organ in the human body, 2) a color in the spectrum, 3) a direction and 4) a season of the year. When performed correctly, using appropriate posture and breathing, these exercises are believed to promote health and longevity--an unabashedly holistic view that may appeal to proponents of alternative medicine and those seeking meditative and spiritual practices that embrace Eastern religion without qualm or question. Unfortunately, the subtlety of the exercises, not to mention their spiritual underpinning, is compromised in a traditional exercise-style format where silence and contemplation--integral components of Dr. Sasa's exercises--must surrender to the myriad distractions of television production, not the least of which is the doctor's somnolent narration. In spite of its practical intentions, a little more background and a little less repetitive "how-to" would have helped establish a cultural context for viewers being introduced to these ideas for the first time. An optional purchase. Aud: P. (A. Cantú)