Lesson 1.6: The Two Directions

Course One: Foundation · Lesson 6 of 8 · 9 min read

The two directions

There is one rule in this tradition that decides the shape of every session you will ever give. It fits on a single line, and most people who learn sound healing from books never encounter it at all.

Root to crown — therapy, for massage.
Crown to root — healing.

That is written in Sunita's notebook almost exactly like that, in two short lines, without further explanation. It is the kind of thing a teacher says once to a student who is standing in front of them. Written down and unpacked, it is the most useful idea in this course.

Why does direction matter?

In this tradition, energy enters the body at the crown, flows downward through the seven centres, and leaves through the legs and feet into the ground. That is the natural direction of flow, and it is why the notebook instructs the practitioner to pray before beginning — so that the energy runs from crown to leg rather than gathering somewhere in between.

Working with that flow settles a person. Working against it lifts them. Neither is wrong. They simply do opposite things, and choosing the wrong one for the person in front of you wastes the session.

The two directions compared

Same bowls. Same technique. Same person. Reverse the order and you have a different treatment.

When do you work upward?

Upward is therapy — it is the direction for the body.

You begin at the feet and the base of the spine and rise through to the head. This is the direction used for sound massage, and it is what you would choose for someone who is physically tired, stiff, achy, heavy-limbed, sedentary, or recovering from exertion.

The logic is that you are starting from the ground — the foundation, as the notebook calls the root — and building upward through the physical structure. Course Three covers the full sound massage sequence, which runs in this direction and includes work on the spine, hips, legs and toes.

When do you work downward?

Downward is healing — it is the direction for the mind and the emotions.

You begin at the crown and descend to the root. This is the direction for someone who is anxious, overthinking, unable to sleep, grieving, restless, or simply carrying too much in their head.

Everything in Vedic healing runs this way. Sunita's notebook is unambiguous about it: healing always comes from crown to root. The crown bowl opens the session, and the sequence works down the body until it reaches the root and the energy passes out through the legs.

If you have to choose one direction to learn properly first, choose this one. It is the direction most people who come to you will need — and it is the direction of the self-session you will do in Lesson 1.8.

Practice: feel the difference yourself

This exercise takes two days and it is the only way to actually learn this lesson. Reading it will not do.

Day one — downward.

1. Sit comfortably with your bowl resting on a flat open palm.
2. Before you strike, say to yourself which direction you are working in. This sounds unnecessary. Do it anyway — a session drifts when the practitioner has not decided.
3. Rest your attention at the crown of your head. Strike once. Let the sound fade completely before you strike again.
4. Move your attention down one chakra with each strike — crown, third eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral, root. Seven strikes.
5. Sit in silence at the root for one minute.
6. Write one line about how you feel.

Day two — upward. Exactly the same, reversed. Begin at the root and rise to the crown. Write one line afterwards.

Then compare the two lines. Most people find the downward session leaves them heavier, slower and more settled, as though they have been pressed gently into the chair — and the upward session leaves them lighter and more awake.

If both feel identical, you are almost certainly moving between chakras too quickly. Slow down and let each strike finish.

Common mistakes

• Not deciding before you start. Choosing the direction halfway through means you have done neither.
• Striking before the last sound has died. The silence between strikes is part of the method, not a gap in it.
• Working upward on someone who cannot sleep. The most common error there is. They came to be settled; you have stirred them up.
• Working downward on a stiff, sluggish body. Less harmful, but you have missed the opportunity.
• Assuming downward is the "spiritual" one and therefore better. Both are the tradition. A body in pain needs the upward direction.
• Rushing the root. The last chakra in a healing session is where the energy leaves. Give it a full minute of quiet.

How do you know you got it right?

You can state the rule from memory, and — more importantly — you noticed a genuine difference between your two practice sessions.

You should also be able to answer this: a friend tells you they have been lying awake until three in the morning all week. Which direction do you work in, and where do you start?

If you said downward, starting at the crown, you have understood the most important idea in this course.

What comes next with this

Course Three builds both directions out into complete session protocols — the Vedic healing sequence downward, and sound massage upward — along with the second system, Tibetan healing, which reorders the notes entirely and is used for stress and anxiety. You do not need any of that yet. You need the rule.

Everything from here to the end of Course One runs downward, crown to root.

Something to sit with

Which direction does your own body ask for today — and how do you know?

Practitioners develop this sense over years, and it starts with asking yourself the question before every practice rather than after.