Life is a Symphony

“Now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya, now you do what they told ya”

When I get really angry, I put on a tune like the one above to escape overthinking and release my emotions.

The melody, rhythm and sound of music moves me and gives me chills. The lyrics that reads as poetry touches me. Clearly both the content and the form of music impacts people, but have you ever stopped to wonder why not only the melody, but also the lyrics in music are oftentimes repetitive?

This tendency has a deep significance. We find the same repetitive vocalization in mantra chanting and singing prayer. Lately a contemporary spiritual modality has been developed, utilizing this phenomena for healing purposes, namely the Emotional Repression Inquiry of the Kiloby Inquiries (KI). Its ultimate tool is called Intentional Rapid Fire (IRF). The details of this tool has just been made public by the developer, Scott Kiloby, in his free course accessible here.

In this text I will propose an alternative name for the tool, give an example of its use and explain the meaning of inquiry broadly. I will explore sound-based metaphors to understand both the bodymind and Emotional Repression Inquiry. I suggest thinking in terms of the inaudible and the audible. Lastly, I compare the KI modality to Ressonant Language, and illuminate the healing path of dissonance to resonance suggested by KI.

(A disclaimer is that I am not a certified professional of this modality, so my description is an outside observation and philosophical perspective. The official expression of the modality can only be found through their website)

Intentional Repetitive Vocalization

The Kiloby Inquiries is an exploratory vocalization where one inquires into the utility of thoughts («utility inquiry»), reverse beliefs to notice denial («reverse inquiry») and enable somatic sensations to have a voice («mining tool»). In beginning phases of KI, the internal dialogue flows like a journey and don’t stop to repeat.

The KI developers made a discovery that repeating goes deeper than journeying. They say every repressed body is stuck in some form of "continous trauma response" and named the inquiry tool that can make this conscious, "Intentional Rapid Fire" (IRF).

An example of a sequence of IRF would be to notice a knot in the stomach, say to it “I am not angry”, hear a “yes” from the knot and then say: “I am angry, I am angry, I am angry, I am angry...” (with the precondition anger is actually repressed for this person) for as long as it takes for the somatic experience to move, expand, contract or dissolve, and overall reach a more downregulated state throughout the body. The emotional experience has to stay within the window of tolerance for this to be conducive to healing. If the reader is interested in thorough instruction, the KI organization offers mentorship. 

I suggest Intentional Repetitive Vocalization as an alternative name. It is descriptive as repetition happens continously and rapidly. It escapes the association to machine guns and war inherent in the original name. Metaphor matters, especially when it comes to healing the image should be filled with natural life.

Intentional Repetitive Vocalization is a name that can be used to describe both the instructions given in the Kiloby Inquiries, and in guided yogic mantra chanting and repetitive prayer. By removing “intentional”, we name the repetitive vocalizations observed in highly acute incidents, for example screaming “no, no, no, no...” in reaction to an accident about to happen. This unintentional repetitive vocalization and its effect on the nervous system is an underexplored topic in psychological research, but also not the focus of this text. The focus is the intentional, the repetition done on purpose. Whenever the inquiry is not repetitive, it is exploratory vocalization.

The KI modality is built on the principle that an intentional use of an individual's internal and external voice can heal the bodymind. It is therefore arguably comparable to musical therapy, and singing for release, but also to the overlooked impact of the voice itself in conventional talk therapy.

What is Inquiry?

As a Norwegian native speaker, the term is foreign and has no direct translation. However, the concept is simple. To inquire means to employ one's language to ask questions or make evocative statements. The act of inquiry involves waiting and listening for a verbalized response. If no words appear, the option is to describe a somatic sensation. This somatic inquiry is also necessary to heal the bodymind, not just the mind.

Through focusing on internal verbalization, healing can happen. However, to access repressed emotions the vocalization needs to be repetitive and prolonged, the developers of KI argue. It could be that chants and some sequences in popular musical tunes help the listener/practitioner access repressed emotions as through the KI Intentional Repetitive Vocalization. (If an anger repressor listened to the first mentioned song when feeling hurt, maybe they could access some repressed anger underneath the hurt?)

A human can think in terms of language, we can talk and we can sing. We can listen to our own voice, to others' voices and the internal voice. What is said is conscious. The unconscious consists of what has never been stated. The first time it is said or heard, it is made conscious, and by repeating the process it becomes clearer and more understood. This is not just thinking, it is inquiry. 

An individual dont need to wait for another individual to have a healing conversation or talk therapy. A single person has the inherent resources to heal through language. If one overcomes the stigma of “talking to oneself”, one can both ask and answer. This is self-inquiry, a principle of Emotional Repression Work. 

The Bodymind as Sound

The human body seems to be a physical object. It is undoubtably also an object in process, constantly changing, interacting and regenerating. It is not static, and it is also highly interdependent. Philosopher Allan Watts said “on the planet earth, the thing peoples! In just the same way that an apple tree apples!” continuing to state that “we grow out of this world in exactly the same way that the apples grow on the apple tree.” Physicist and philosopher Nikola Tesla stated that “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” This is in contrast to thinking in terms of the physical, visible and tangible. By mixing these two culturally unconventional ways of thinking: process-language and frequency-language, we can see the bodymind as specific movement in time, with renewed hope of healing through practicing KI.

Objects have physical boundaries, music has temporal boundaries. The latter is most like a human life. The physical boundaries of the body seem absolute, but are ever changing. The temporal boundaries are forgotten, but absolute. An individuals life is a countinous stream of time in vibration, until it isn't anymore because of death. Ones own birth is always already forgotten.

Life as body is a trajectory from birth to death, with a prelude of conception, pregnancy and birth, and a postlude after death. The body is decayed and absorbed in the postlude, and composed in the prelude. Let's imagine your whole life as a symphony, playing continuously for about 85 years. I have illustrated it as follows:

Let's look at the body, the mind, time and space as music and sound. When the seemingly material body and material world is viewed through the metaphors of sound, constant change is evoked and the efficacy of the Kiloby Inquiries Repression Work can be better understood. 

What is vibrating? Every nerve of the nervous system, every strand of fascia, every molecule of water, the magnetic field of the heart and all our emotions. Sound is not just metaphor, it is also reality.

The Kiloby Inquiries as a Sound-Based Modality

Vocalization is making the unconscious conscious. In sound based metaphor, we could say we are making the muted audible. The focus in KI is on the emotions. KI claim we should have at least five different emotions available, namely anger, hurt, sadness, joy and fear. To repress anger is to be an anger repressor, in their terminology. The typical anger repressor revert to expressing and feeling hurt or sadness, and are unaware they are deeply angry. According to the instructions, if they do the inquiry "I am angry" no feeling of anger will arise, only a bodily sensation with no emotional content. An ideal anger repressor can no longer feel anger, and has forgotten the sensation. Anger has been muted, turned of and made inaudible.

I have illustrated the emotional life as five layers of a mixing board, where one or can be switched of, at one specific point in the trajectory of a life.

This sound-based metaphor is in contrast to what the Kiloby Inquiries depend on.

They use the Freudian iceberg metaphor for the unconscious emotions. The ocean is viewed as a physical barrier, dividing the iceberg into above and below the water. What is above is consious, what is below is unconsious. This is a solid material metaphor that can create some confusion. As an alternative, I propose to use the mixing of an audio track as a metaphor. The repressed emotions are the muted layers. They are real, they are as constant as the other layers, but we can't hear them. We don't know what they would bring to the composition, and how they would sound like, if unmuted. 

Through Intentional Repetitive Vocalization of the missing emotions, they lost access can be regained. The repression can be reversed through language: "I am angry, I am angry, I am angry..." The audible metaphor illustrates this more inntuitively than imagining a molecule of ice in the iceberg moving from below the water, to above the water. The repressed emotions dont have to switch locations, as they will reside within the same complete human body as repressed, unrepressed and expressed. This pros of the sound-based metaphors are evident.

Comparing Modalities

The Kiloby Inquiries evoke what is not spontaneously appearing in consciousness. The Reverse Inquiry is the main tool for this, as one makes statements that sound like mantras "I am perfect as I am", but are stated to evoke the content of the response "no, I am a failure."

Inquiry seek to provoke up and find unexplored ways of thinking, and previously ignored sensations. The modality is both similar and different from Resonant Language developed by Sarah Peyton.

Resonant Language is a mix of Nonviolent Communication and lessons from Relational Neuroscience. It includes instructions for self-resonance which is similar to self-inquiry, but has not suggested to vocalize repetitively or focus on emotions and needs not arising to awareness. Through bringing resonance to the emotions that appear, needs are met. This is framed as healing.

In the KI modality one is urged to be wary of meeting needs, as this can play into the pleasure-pain cycle. In Ressonant Language going with the experience is adviced. Through KI one also intentionally goes agains ones experience, and brings dissonance to the emotional experience and thoughts that appears. Through extended repetition, a resonance with the missing emotions can flip the switch, unmute the emotion and turn up its volume to a level that can be handled by the individual. Instead of meeting needs, this reverses emotional repression.

KI problematizes doing spirituality for relief and nervous system regulation. I suggest we could name this to "white-noise". The sound of white noise can overpower all other sounds. However they reappear whenever the technique is left. To reverse emotional repression removes the need for the strategy of white-noising.

KI instructs us to bring dissonance to what appears, which bring resonance to the repressed emotions. An illustration of expression being met with resonance and dissonance is illustrated under:

Resonance brings continuity. Dissonance brings change and discovery, when done safely and effectively.

Conclusion:

The Kiloby Inquiries is developed by three individuals who are also musicians; Scott Kiloby, Dan McLintock and Toshi Matsunaga, but they themselves have to my knowledge not made a public reflection of the interaction between their experience in music and the development of this new modality. This text has served as a celebration of its ultimate tool, Intentional Rapid Fire, being made public. This text has explored and developed a sound based metaphorical alternative to present the technique in a way that is intuitive and easily grasped. Intentional Repetitive Vocalization has been named. It has been suggested to understand the bodymind through the interface of a sound mixing software, and repression work as a repetitive process of dissonance as a path resonance. 

Through unmuting all the layers of our human experience, life becomes a fuller sympony.

“From my heart flow. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you”