The Ebullient Me

The surprising musicality of your gut

Ebullient: Ebullient is an adjective that means overflowing with enthusiasm, excitement, or high spirits. It describes someone who is joyously unrestrained and bubbling over with positive energy.

The Sonic Anatomy is a system of 42 tones that resonate in specific areas of the body. These are simple root sounds, many sounds that babies worldwide make as they are learning to speak - sounds like Wah, Ma, Pa, Goo, Gee, Yah.

These tones, and their specific areas of resonance, were created (remembered?) by myself, and brothers Isaac and Thorald Koren, through a process of vocal exploration and mutual agreement. They are not based in any tradition, although they do have some overlap with other systems.

We began this process, unwittingly and unintentionally, back in 2020 when we started working together - I had enlisted their assistance in helping me to get over my fear of singing in front of others, through their program called the Songwriters Journey.

When the circumstances of that year left us unable to get together to proceed as planned - co-writing and recording a few songs – we found ourselves, through zoom, embarking together on an unexpected journey of discovery of this somewhat strange yet utterly compelling vocal practice.

We shared it for the first time in 2021, in a workshop called Sing the Body Electric, and since that time, the process has continued to unfold in unexpected and, well, FUN ways. Tones turned into what we call Tone-ics - chords or strings of tones engineered for very specific purposes.

Those Tone-ics turned into songs, leading to the release of our first album in 2025 - created as a vehicle for students to tone along to for practice, and our second album in March 2026, and a subsequent series of concerts and talks that have followed that.

Check out Embodiment, the first track on Vital Awakenings: Sonic Alchemy, here

In addition to live and virtual workshops and events, we also have created a variety of recorded video classes, and most recently created one designed especially for helping people work through fear and anxiety, using their own voices.

We chose a series of tones that we felt resonated in the areas of the body where one might hold anxiety related tension, sat down on a couch in front of a camera, and pressed record. We were thinking it would be about 30 minutes long.

80 minutes later, we were finally able to press stop, fully astonished and curiously invigorated from the voyage our own voices had just brought us on.

The premise was simple - we were going to use our voices like tuning forks. In my practice of Biofield Tuning, a tuning fork sound therapy method I developed starting in 1996, I observe that a tuning fork will initially resonate with whatever distortion is present in the body. But then through the principle of resonance and entrainment, the stronger coherent input will entrain the body into a more coherent expression.

Now, while this whole exercise was surprising and in spots completely hilarious, one tone in particular really gave me a lot to reflect on. The tone was ME, which in this system resonates with the small intestine.

All three of us got terrifically stuck here. There were so many ways to voice ME that were profoundly dysfunctional. Keeping in mind that we were aiming for the long, free, resonant sound that emerges once the tension-based distortion clears, the amount of “stuck sound” that we gave voice to gave me an abundance of insight into how and why we become “stuck” in our lives.

It reminded me very much of the fellow in the nursing home next to Thorald’s house that I heard when I spent a few nights in his garage-turned apartment. I woke up to a sound - MEA! - that made me wonder if the neighbors had a goat.

Every few seconds - MEA. It was slightly disturbing. Especially since I had no idea what it was. Later I learned that it was a resident next door, someone clearly suffering from what we call mental illness.

And as we sat on the couch, letting our own voices become channels for how fear and anxiety and shut down disrupt the flow and resonance of our own bodies, all I could think of was this poor resident - because we all sounded like him for a bit.

The small intestine is host to countless “mini-me’s”. With its abundant surface area, cilia, and microorganisms, it resembles the brain far more than is generally noted. While modern culture heralds the brain, or even the heart, the gut is overlooked as a seat of our well being and self expression.

Digestive issues abound in our culture - leaky gut, bacterial overgrowth, poor absorption, insufficient microflora, fat accumulation and more plague this region of self. From the stomach aches we got in school as kids to the food intolerances we suffer as adults, the health status of our gut plays an enormous role in our health and wellbeing.

At the same time, many people feel as though they “cannot sing”, or even speak up. We don’t often consider what may or may not be going on in our gut as related to this. However, the two are intimately connected.

While the idea of a direct physical connection between the small intestine and vocal cords might sound unusual, they are linked through two major physiological pathways: the vagus nerve and the gut-brain axis.

1. The Vagus Nerve (The Physical Link)

The vagus nerve (Cranial Nerve X) is the longest cranial nerve in the body and serves as a vital communication highway.

• Gut Innervation: It regulates digestion, heart rate, and immune responses in the small intestine.

• Voice Innervation: It branches out to control the muscles of the larynx (voice box) and the vocal cords.

• The Connection: Because the same nerve controls both areas, inflammation, irritation, or stress in the small intestine can sometimes cause physical tension or spasms in the throat and vocal cords.

2. The Gut-Brain Axis (The Chemical Link)

The small intestine and the brain communicate constantly through biochemical signaling, commonly known as the gut-brain axis.

• Neurotransmitter Production: An estimated 90% of the body’s serotonin—a neurotransmitter responsible for mood stabilization—is produced in the gut. [1, 2]

• The Connection: If the small intestine is inflamed, experiencing bacterial imbalances, or struggling to absorb nutrients, it can alter your nervous system. This often leads to heightened stress or anxiety, which directly affects vocal cord tension, breathing patterns, and vocal tone.

3. Acid Reflux (LPR)

Gastrointestinal distress, particularly issues originating from the upper GI tract and small intestine, frequently leads to acid reflux. When stomach contents travel upward, they can reach the throat. This condition, known as Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR) or “silent reflux,” directly irritates and inflames the vocal cords, leading to hoarseness or vocal fatigue.

So - if our small intestine is under-functioning, it is likely our voice will feel and reflect that as well.

What to do about it? Well, this is where this journey took a very interesting turn for me. I started playing with the sound ME more. Not only toning it, but also just thinking it. And what I discovered was truly amazing.

Because of the sheer volume of tissue and content of this organ, it’s potential for making sound is actually quite vast. And the more I played with it, the varied and diverse and expressive it became.

In fact, I discovered that when I was able to fully relax it and release it into its sonic potential, it became … EBULLIENT.

Now this is not a word we generally use to describe ourselves as adults. Life beats us down, stresses us out, teaches us to downplay ourselves. The enthusiastic 4 year old jumping up and down saying, Pick MEEE, give MEEEE that toy, MEEEE next, is conditioned to sit down, be quiet, behave, share, be appropriate.

The natural ebullience of being alive gets tempered, conditioned into a kind of submission, a negating of self-worth. Industrial foods and chemicals stress the gut. Social stress turns life force into debilitating tension. In extreme cases, a soul can end up like the goat man at the residence home.

The invitation:

Toning is a process of elongating sounds through a single breath. Me becomes MEEEEEEEEE for as long as you can sustain it. Place your awareness on your small intestine and imagine you can make the sound ME from there. Say it out loud. Notice the quality of the sound that comes out. Repeat.

Likely you will find it fatiguing, full of tension, flat and maybe dull. But if you keep going, something really fascinating happens. It wakes up. It starts to express nuance. This is especially true if you THINK it. You may find yourself composing entire arias of complex expression, coming from your gut.

Given the freedom to express itself, the gut becomes, well - EBULLIENT. Expressive. Playful. Even joyful. Just like a kid.

And there is more. If you keep at it, you will find that your singing voice improves. It becomes more embodied, more expressive, more resonant when it originates and plays within the small intestine. It is almost as if music becomes free to play YOU. I have a hunch it can likely improve digestion as well. Give it a try and let me know what your experience is!