REGARDING THE POWER OF THE HAND DRUM, OTHER DRUMS AND KHOOMEI SOUNDS IN A SHAMANS' MYSTERIUM  THE KHOOMEI  The highest form of activity of a shaman of a Divine origin for the healing of the human spirit is manifested in his classical performance of the 'khoomei' singing.  'Khoomei' in conjunction with the sound of the hand drum creates an unusual unified harmonious entity between the spirit of the universe, human beings and the earth. The 'khoomei' throat singing submits to the divine laws of the Universe. This singing combines the velvety, delicate colors of the spirits, the melodies of mountains, rivers, forests, steppes, birds and animals. It sounds naturally and freely, is endowed with the spirit of love, which unostentatiously alleviates pain and suffering, anger and grief, creates a vibration of the organs, drives out evil spirits from the body, gives help to people, who seek enlightenment and liberation, salvation and awakening. This CD presents recordings of shamans' songs (algysh) in various styles, such as the khoomei, sygyt, kargyraa, and khoomei. The term 'Sygyt' comes from the word 'Sygyr', which means 'whistle'. It is worthwhile to notice that the term 'Sygyt' is derived from the Tuvan word 'Sygyr', and at the same time from the ancient Turkic word 'Sygyt', which means 'sobbing' and 'weeping'. All of these meanings are directly connected with a sound imitating basis. The Shamans used the 'Sygyt' in their rituals as a sign of calling forth the spirits. The word 'Kargyraa' carries the meanings 'wheeze', 'rage'. The Tuvan 'Kargyrya' (formally) corresponds with the Kalmyks' word 'Khorkren' (also 'karkinaan'), which literally means 'camel's roar'. The Shamans use the Kargyraa as a sound of serenity, and a way of sharpening of attention and human consciousness. This sound is meant to conjure away evil forces  from the body, since the Kargyraa is connected with the power of earthly and celestial spirits. The Tuvans consider a throat singer to be a Son of Heaven. Throat singing could be also found in the strata of folk singing, which follow chronologically. The 'Katsnyvay-Mergen' epos, written down by the famous fairy tale recounter, Baazanaya, features a noteworthy episode, in which the main character, Kara-Turu, when returning home from a hunting trip, started to sing the 'Kargyraa' in such a mighty and loud manner, that the blue sky began to shake and black earth began to tremble. The fairy tale 'Tos Shilgi Attyg Oskus-ool' features an old maral (Siberian deer), who sang in the style of Kargyraa. As the tale recounts: 'Oskus-ool began to sing. The sounds of voices of all the birds of Kargyraa-Karatsyg-Taiga broke out from his throat. It seemed that the taiga wind becamre entangled in the branches of the ancient cedars. The magpies and crows, which hovered around over the nomadic camp, hushed down and held their breath. The women cried and men felt as if in a dream. For thirty days - one month, sixty days - two months, ninety days - three months, Oskus-ool voice sounded out throughout the green Taiga.' So what is Tuvan throat singing, in its essence? The Tuvan scientist Tamara Budegechievna asks this question and provides an answer to it herself: 'When a human being does not try to separate himself from nature, when he does not oppose himself to the law of nature, when he does not aspire to the position of its master, but acknowldges himself as an organic and a very humble part of nature... and this human being tries to find a necessary concordance with nature, which is able to help him and others in the difficult living conditions of nomads'. One could say, the shamans are able to use this language professionally. However, in principle, every Tuvan knows its basics, and it helps him out in life. Interesting that Tuvans never used meditation practice as a special conscious exercises. Obviously the reason is that traditional way of life and its rituals were meditative in many respects.  ALGYSH  The CD contains an invocation to the Spirit of the Universe, entreating him to provide help to the listener and to the shaman himself. That is an aim of the appellation 'kham algazhy' - which in Russian is called the Shaman's 'kamlanie'. Algysh is a ritualistic type of poetry, which means that algyshes are, in essence, conjurations and incantations of evil forces, appellations to the Spirit of the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the Taiga, and the indication of the direction of the shaman's flights. The first part of shaman's kamlanie demonstrates how the earthly sound changes when harmonically merging with the energy of the Spirit of the Universe. The sound of the hand drum and the shaman's singing generate a rhythmic picture full of crackling, buzzing, spitting and clicking, as well as random gusts of the wind and flowing of cosmic energies. The Algyshs have their own psychology and express the rhythm of brainwork and the train of thought, whether constructive or destructive. For the sake of recovering of a lost good state of being the Algyshs supplement themselves with the magic of throat singing. Khoomei is a type of sound, which is able to connect the internal and external worlds. It helps the human being to develop his intuition, which is able to sense the difference between good and evil. It gives the strength of peace to the frustrated mind, and provides the ability to obtain knowledge of everything, contained in his memory. The physical effect of the sound provides a great influence not only to the rhythm, lost to humans because of overexcitement, nervousness, fear, confusion and chaos of the mind, but also to the human body through its nervous system. Everything is brought to motion by the force of vibration. In the second part the sounds acts more vigorously and clearly. Various, diverse sounds of the drum penetrate more deeply into the human being's Spirit. Generally speaking, the shamans' songs (algysh) provide expressions of wishing the listener good luck for a long journey, for the future life, for studies and for work, for love towards nature, friends and relatives, as well as good luck in creative life. Featured on this CD are sounds of creative aspirations towards life, a change of consciousness, a knowledge of the world the Universe, change of human destiny towards the better. A classical usage of the drums provides stimulation towards a changing state of mind, an aspiration for diverse ways of life, and accelerates the path towards Spirituality and aspiration for a universal unity and reality.  DUNGUR  The strength of the spirit of the hand drum (dungur) creates a vibrational energy which liberates human beings from their past and present fears. The strength of the spirit of the drums and the hand drum affects the circulation of the atoms in the Universe and in the inner world (Universe) of the human being. The influence of the energy coming from the hand drum and drums causes the atmosphere around listeners to transform due to the vibrations of the environment, which help penetrate to the human spirit through the body's and soul's feeling. The combination of the hand drum's power with the overtone singing produces an attack of an invisible velvet light, and in the form of the shaman song acts a living sound mediating between human beings and the spiritual world. During the song with the accompaniment of the drums and hand drum, a universal spiritual wish is sent by the spirits of the Universe to human beings, a wish for humans to live in a world of joy and happiness with peace for their children, to locate the hidden path, covered in their deep subconsciousness, the path leading to the spiritual world, which enables them to forget fear and illness, and provides ailment for the overall psychic-emotional state of the human being. The shamans' overtone singing, accompanied with drumming and various other instrumental noise effects, creates a universal sedative stream of responding activity, which provides for an opportunity of spiritual communication and a conjunction with the Universe. At the same time, the songs with words in the form of mantra are performed as a source of consolation, inspiration and good wishes. The overtone singing (khoomei, sygyt, kargyraa) helps to liberate soul from the constraints of the body upwards toward a heavenly vision, to travel in the Universe,  to be exposed to mysterious colors, connected with meditation, and also possesses a therapeutic effect, since it brings with strength of the spirits of the drums and hand drum a harmonious connection between human beings and celestial existence. Together with Mikhail Zhukov, in the aim of perfecting the paths for the restoration of strength of the human spirits and soul, we have been carrying out research of the possibility of combining the traditional methods of Tuvan shamanism with the methods of professional performance on percussion instruments. This kind of combination has proved itself to be successful in practice. In the healing sound of the 'khoomey' the sound of the tambourine plays an important and special role. The powerful and diverse rhythmic quality of the tambourine carries out the functions of the shaman's white 'horse'. Mikhail's sounds of the tambourine are filled with mystical forces, which draw special energies and purify the energies of the spirit. Under the influence of the unified rhythm of the hand drum together with the singing, the soul easily travels to the higher or the lower world. Here Mikhail's sound of the hand drum creates a special atmosphere within the human being's inner world, intensifies the power of concentration and leads unostentatiously towards a sense of determination. The sounds of his hand drum provide ornamentation and coloration to the sounds of the 'khoomey' with delicate and diverse, motley colors, which human beings lack so much. This in essence constitutes the shaman's magic horse. We have worked out and are instilling and researching a unified type of technology of modification of human consciousness. Our combined techniques are very simple and at the same time harmonize in a delicate manner, but are granted to very few people. For a very short period of time they harmonize the energy of space and the inner energy of the human being, mutually complement spatial energy with the energy of spirit, and lead to a sacred vision, provide support in life and inspiration to human beings during the course of their lives.  Nikolay Oorzhak Kyzyl-Moscow 27.01.01 (translated by Anton Rovner)