Are you curious of how drinking a cup of chocolate gets you so deep into the rabbit hole that you start a Residential Mystery School of Sound Healing? Thomas Love Power, the initiator of Sounds of Light, shares his personal journey of how cacao and sound led him on a wild ride to this creation.
"Wow... so I am launching a Mystery School of Sound Healing in Guatemala. Whaaaat!?!? How did I end up creating this reality? Well, it all started, as you can imagine, with a cup of cacao on the infamous porch of Keith Wilson, San Marcos, Guatemala. Most people remember very vividly their first experience with the Real Willy Wonka of Chocolate - and mine was no different..."
Cacao Blast - Off
"From the first sip I was shown a shocking image: Me leading cacao ceremonies in a jungle like environment. It was so far off my radar and my very well managed and bulletproof back-to-back retreat plan of sorting and figuring out my life after 10 years in the political activist training field. For sure it was not like any other chocolate I had ever tried. So of course I drank a lot of it! And within a week I started having very vivid dreams of big white crystal bowls and other instruments I had never seen before and sounds from very far away galaxies I had never heard before. What was this magic mayan juice doing to me? Hm, well 1 month later I was on a plane to the jungles of Costa Rica with 70lb of cacao in my luggage! I was being guided. And I was clueless at the same time. Yet some part of me was trusting it all. That I had business with the cacao spirit. But what was I going to do with all that cacao? I had kept buying more almost in sheer disbelief – until I had somehow met the required quantity. I had come to Guatemala for a quick 2 week stop over only for 2 – and now my life had been turned up side down by Cacao. I had become an international pusher of plant medicine overnight! I arrived in my friends jungle home in Costa Rica and was met by another shocking experience. I was looking at a large collection of white crystal bowls in the living space. I had goosebumps all over. Was I dreaming – they were the same as in the dream, how was that even possible? I met the owner of the bowls and I found out she had been on Keiths porch 4 months prior. And she burst out – “lets do a cacao sound ceremony - I am a sound healer!” Sound Healer? Sound heals? Shocked again as I didn't even know there was such a thing. My mind went totally blank and as my mind was formulating a polite NO, I heard my heart and mouth say YES. And what did I know about facilitating a ceremony, I hadn't even made cacao before yet alone serve it...oh dear what a mess. It did feel like candid camera or some very well organized practical joke – and I of course was the total fool. And what came next was even more odd..."
Jungle Party With The Cacao Spirit
"I was preparing the cacao to the sounds of crickets in the dusk light of the Costa Rican jungle. I was chopping it and praying that I would wake up from the daze and instantly know what to do with all this other-worldly-chocolate. The word had spread in the community that there was a sound and cacao ceremony happening – and I was leading it that evening with the crystal bowl sound healer. Only thing was I had never done that before. And I was totally in the dark. I was waiting for someone to come and tell me how to do it – like have what other people called their angels and guides show up with a step-by-step guide to what was about to unfold. Please? No? I finished making the cacao and put my hands over it – I had seen others do that - asking for help and support from at least Keith and the Cacao. You got me into this mess! It was an odd experience as my hands got hot and I had tingles all over. More words came from a deep memory. I found myself praying over the cacao asking for the light for the highest good to guide me and the cacao. Words and prayers I had never heard cross my lips in this lifetime. It was strange yet very familiar. I tasted the cacao and was blown away by the energetic ripples it sent out in my whole body. Hmm, I thought, at least people will have a nice cup of hot chocolate! As people began to arrive I got choked and anxious. What was I going to say? I heard it. Silence. Let us be in silence and we will move from there. So we sat in silence for 5 hours. All I did was to get people to drink the cacao with an intention to connect with themselves and the silence. I guided a short intro about letting their hearts smile them – something that I had picked up on Keiths porch. And for 5 hours we just sat and journeyed with the sounds of the jungle, the crystal bowls, our hearts and the cacao. What had felt like 30 minutes had taken us all deep into presence, into ourselves and our heart. We found ourselves deeply connected. We shared words and there were tears. And laughs. And bliss. And gratitude. Some of the residents of the community shared that they had gone as deep with this cacao as they did in their monthly community ayahuasca ceremonies. Wow, I didn’t really know what that meant but I found myself flabbergasted by the experience. Somehow I had lived out that vision of serving cacao in the jungle that I had seen in my first cacao ceremony. Wild! And more odd was that I had experienced a different “me” leading the ceremony, speaking and guiding people intuitively at the right times. And I had been deeply present as me, Thomas, and yet I was also this bigger knowing presence that had been doing the work. As if I had done this work in so many lifetimes before. It all felt like a rapid initiation, or a sneaky “get him back on track” - heist from my higher self, guides and the cacao spirit. Well I was hooked! And little did I know it was just the beginning of being guided on a wild ride into creating, alchemising and facilitating medicine of sound and cacao."
A Visit From An Angel
"I was still in the jungle. The initial initiation to my path working with sound and cacao wasn’t finished. I went through all the 70 pounds of cacao in a few weeks – and in the midst of that I found myself signing up for a workshop where we would free our voices through song and experience freedom and oneness. Something that I would normally judge as a waste of time magnetized me like nothing else had ever done before. It scared me on such a deep level that a part of me instantly recognized that this workshop would be a goldmine for something incredible in my life. I just had to take part in that workshop. I had never used my voice to sing. I had only used my voice to lead political campaigns, to give speeches at big demos with over 20.000 people and to teach political activists all over the world. I had power in my voice and could use it well. But singing? - That scared the living shit out of me. My only memory of singing was to be told to be quiet in class, so I would spare everyone’s ears. The workshop began and I spent 4 days yawning and sighing ‘aaaahhhhssss’ loudly with 30 other people. We would each take turns to let our breaths take our voice on a little journey into the unknown. In the beginning I was skeptical and even considered leaving. But I saw that people went through deep primal releases of fear and shame around expressing themselves. The sighing and yawning became a bridge to let go – to make sound without thought and to release all of that we had taken on from our environment that had shut down our authentic voices and our truth. And then the Angel came… It was my turn to let sound out alone, in front of everyone. I let go, sighed, and my voice took me up and down until I was out of breath. The teacher encouraged. Come again, let go, let HER in. And in that moment I almost had an out of body experience. As I came to the top of my breath and let my sighing ‘aaaaaahhh’ out in the room, I heard the most angelic voice move through me as if I was being sung by another presence. I had tingles all over. I had never heard my voice sound so beautiful before. I felt amazing as if something beyond me had touched me from inside out. It had only happened once in the midst of all the sighing, 'aaahhhing' and yawning. But I had found a goldmine and I wanted more. Somehow my voice was a portal to something beyond me: something beautiful, deep and powerful. I went back to Guatemala and started sighing, 'aaahhhhing' and singing intuitively every day for months. My intuition and sense of musicality came alive and an entirely different world of sound opened for me. As I allowed my voice to open, I came alive and my creativity and intuition got red-hot! I started following all the breadcrumbs of sound deeper down the rabbit hole and started attracting instruments that I somehow could play. Not as a trained musician, but in a way where I could bridge the worlds and let the angels visit me and the people in the ceremonies I played in. My journey of sound had begun for real! And little did I know that more angels and beings were on their way..."
Remembering The Temple Magic
"My journey with sound has been - and still is - a deep journey of remembering the power of sound practiced throughout time in temples and healing ceremonies. I started to remember lives in Ancient Egypt - in specially designed acoustic chambers constructed to resonate healing frequencies that were unlocked by our voice - and Atlantian rituals - alchemising crystals, herbs, sound and intention that literally became a rocket ship into other dimensions. The veils between the timelines became very thin in the sound journeys that I was weaving. It was as if consciousness could weave itself through the sounds. All I had to do was set a strong intention to serve the light for the highest good and light - in form of higher dimensional energy - flooded in on the vibrations made from the instruments.
I went on a long dark retreat to explore if I could see this energy that would come through the sounds – could I see sound? Fasting on coconut water and cacao for 10 days with all my instruments in the dark left me baffled. Not only could I see the sacred geometric vibrational patterns of sound – but I saw the multidimensional portals open to the sound of different musical intervals, I saw beings of light ride in on the sound waves and gateways to the vast quantum field potential open up to me in the soundscapes I created in the dark. It was a trip!!!
The experience fired me up to explore and bow down to the mystery of sound and light. I would feel guided to open up space for a ceremony and people would show up. I wouldn’t know what to do and then it flooded in: the knowing. I would connect my heart to the earth, my crown to the sky, and start channeling and blasting higher dimensional energy into the ceremony – that gave everyone access to exactly what they needed, intelligently organized by other levels of me and the participants in the ceremony.
Fusing Sound and Cacao in ceremony opened up a multidimensional portal that served the highest good of everyone in the space – and allowed everyone by choice to connect with their own multidimensional nature and being. Some needed to relax their nervous system. Some needed to just feel their heart for the first time in a while. Some reconnected with their inner child and found pieces of themselves long forgotten and left behind in childhood. Some allowed themselves to feel a depth of grief that they had suppressed for too long. Some went into bliss and ecstasy. Some came back from wild astral travel journeys sharing - as modern time travelers - incredible stories of other universes, timelines long forgotten, sonic initiation rituals in temples lost in translation and much more. Some regressed into entirely different lives to complete a journey, to share some light or receive profound messages. Yet throughout all those experiences I felt it wasn't me doing anything – I was somehow a channel for it. That channel was opening more and more and little did I know that I was calling in the next initiation: The Hathors. "
The Hathors Say Hello
"One day something very unexpected happened. I was making love with my partner and all of a sudden, in what I felt at that time, a very inappropriate “walk in” happened – a member from a group of inter-dimensional beings called the Hathors, entered my body and started singing in a strange tonal language moving energy through me and my partners energy centers. It was such an exhilarating activating and ecstatic experience. And I remembered back to my first dreams in the start of my cacao journey – the sounds were the same. Like crystal tones connecting the stars and all cosmic bodies. It didnt feel foreign but a sense of deep experiential familiarity pulsed through me. It wasnt someone taking me over, I was participating with the Hathor. This being was helping me remember what to do with my energy and voice. And Yeah!...initially I was quite upset – after the fact and the ecstasy had settled down I was like, woah!... I didnt give them permission to take me over like that. But then I started remembering lives as a Hathor in ancient Egypt, where I had served in the Tantric Temples and helped use these same tones and sensual energies to heal. It became quite an initiation into channelling. I started being visited by more beings of light singing healing tones through me. Hathors, Arcturians and a bunch of other higher dimensional beings who showed me that they are specialists in sound and frequency healing. And that they are here to help us. And prepare for a deeper communication and visitation. People in my ceremonies began to have more and more multidimensional experiences – especially the Arcturians seemed very keen to assist. People started experiencing being transported on the sound currents into healing chambers in other dimensions and some experienced being on spaceships immersed in healing light and healing technology and beings of light all around. People shared that they were being worked on by beings of light from other planets and dimensions – and if it wasnt for peoples real life encounters and experiences – I would not have believed any of it. But of course at times I did feel that my sanity was being challenged deeply. Luckily I had early on found Tom Kenyon, sound channel extraordinaire, as the initial encounter with Hathors had tuned me into his work with the Hathors and sound channeling. I can highly recommend Songs of the New Earth – for all of us healthy skeptics out there. And for all of us who know already. Its good to have elders who has taken the journey so we can groove in their trails! Thank you Tom!"
Rebel Without A Cause
"So I had shifted my path from political activist and trainer of one of the biggest global social youth movements in the world – to facilitating multidimensional sound journeys, channeling aliens and beings of light – in just a few years. AS you can imagine my inner sceptic and ego was having a field day rebelling against all this woowoo! These experiences radically challenged my academic background, my past career as a trainer of political activists and social movements around the globe. And of course my rational mind couldnt explain it. And my mind and stuck ego rebelled. Partly in disbelief and partly in fear.That this was in fact too real to dismiss. I had long periods where I would drown in the fear and be stuck in self-sabotaging addictions, disconnection, disassociation and depression keeping myself from fully saying yes to this new path – and getting very lost in states of confusion control and mind-fuck. I knew I had left the old world behind but couldnt see the new world at all or see the path in front of me. And I insisted that I had to see that path before I dared to take one more step. And of course that created a false sense of safety and stagnated my energy to the point where getting off this planet seemed the most sane choice of all. To be honest there were many times where I just gave up in despair. Luckily I had dear friends and mentors who kept holding me in the light of my highest potential – and thank you! you know who you are. And so I felt nudged by their love and trust to continue following the bread crumbs of sound and cacao medicine. And yes, the unreal and supernatural kept happening every time I dove back in the vortex of this medicine – and deep healing and transformational journeys were catalysed by this medicine. And this kept me going deeper. I was – and am still to some extent – a sceptic. I didnt really start believing and integrating the mystical in my work until I found Quantum Physics and discovered Scientists who had had similar experiences. And understanding what happens to the brain when we are in pure sound journeys – that the intuitive and creative centers light up as a Christmas tree bypassing our rational mind. And understanding how sound, heart meditation, imagination and intention can super connect us to the unified energy field of all that is - where all potential is real: if you can dream it or imagine it, its real and can become your reality! Wowsa! Sound was hooking people up to the big G-consciousness itself like a phone to the world wide web. I began to understand the energetics of what was happening for people and how to support that more and more. Yet I didnt know how to live a life with this medicine pouch – I was baffled at my past. I spent years and years getting a specialised degree as a learning and education architect and created entirely new approaches to empowerment and learning in the political field. And here I was serving cacao and getting people to aaaah from the heart – and somehow triggering mystical experiences and instant alignment to soul truth and magic. Well it started slowly to make sense. I saw how my unique skill-set made me capable to design empowerment platforms for people to embody their soul purpose, to unleash their creativity and to come into alignment. And create an invitation for some to start walking a different path, from work life to a soul and heart centered life. With cacao and sound as partners."
The Blessings Of Saying Yes To More
"I started running successful and powerful retreats that catapulted people into their shadow work and light body activation – and into more intimate connection with themselves than ever before. With clarity and vision for how to be in this world. Some created their own temples for this medicine and some curiously expanded it in new ways. Yet I wanted to go deeper in my own personal journey of service and creation – and the retreats were no longer an expression of my full potential or highest excitement. They had been a stepping stone and now it was time again to jump off yet another cliff into the unknown. I wanted to explore more fully the potential of sound and cacao – and the role community played in the retreats and in the tribe that grew after the retreats and in between. I kept asking myself and the universe, what more and next?
And then one day in meditation at Lake Atitlan the whispers came from my Egyptian and Atlantian ancestors. Resurrect the Mystical School tradition – form a residential mystery school of sound healing to serve healing and transformation for the highest good of all. A space to heal. Teach. Grow. Align. Create. Play. Connect. Serve. A place for all of us us who had already fallen into the magical medicine cauldron of sound and cacao – and couldn't turn back and just wanted more. A place where we could combine our passion for the power of sound with service to people seeking a space to retreat and find themselves, to birth a new and more authentic and true version of themselves aligned with their soul call. To integrate passion with service and community. To share our practices as a way of life. To cultivate a community of practice that empowers everyone to be their true selves, to safely drop the armoring and be supported in rebirthing the magic and playfulness we lost as childen.
Come play!
Consider yourself invited. To come and find yourself and learn and grow in a strong field of sound healing, ceremony, ritual and daily practice. An invitation to become a member of our community that holds that field together. We offer you to take Residency. Which signifies that you are invited to be initiated into a community of practitioners.. To a way of life, maybe just for a month, maybe for years. A way of life where every day starts with the community coming together in prayer, with cacao and sound – a place to truly empower yourself to embody your unique magic. Most of us back in the day in Ancient Egypt would be standing in the lines outside the Isis Temple for just a chance to make it through the Mystery School initiation rituals. Rituals that gave access to the apprenticeships of learning how to serve from your highest self and for the light of the highest good. We have dropped the death-risky initiation rituals – now you can merely send an application online :) Taking Residency also signifies a commitment from us. That you are not a client or even a student. But a member of our community with the power to shape your participation, membership and involvement with us. Residency is a stepping stone for your path and for our community– and we hope to see you soon!
So there you have it. Thats what can happen when you drink ceremonial cacao. I have always told Keith his cacao should come with a stronger warning label. Ups it did say it is the “food for the shift”. Well I shifted. I am literally a different person today than the one who took that first zip. And thank goodness and cacao for that. And thank you Keith for taking a wild ride that enabled all of us to be able to follow a new path, and join you down the rabbit hole."
Are you ready for your next shift? Take a look at our residencies to find out which one meets you where you are at - or send us a message, because we will be very grateful to help you find the next step on your path.