Emotional Release · “Die to Be Reborn”
Lee Holden's Six Healing Sounds
To use six specific breath-sounds, paired with organ-focused attention and emotional release, to exhale ‘stagnant’ energy and stress out of the organs and shift the corresponding emotion toward its positive counterpart.
Six Healing Sounds in 6 lines: Sit relaxed, breathe slow. For each organ: bring attention (and arms) to it on a gentle inhale, then exhale a long, soft sound, breathing out the stress and its emotion. Lungs = “SSSS” (grief→courage); Kidneys = “CHOO/FOO” (fear→calm); Liver = “SHHH” (anger→kindness); Heart = “HAAAW” (impatience→joy); Spleen = “WHOO” (worry→trust); Triple Warmer = “HEEE” (whole-body balance). Repeat each 3–6×; rest in calm to finish.
What it is
The Six Healing Sounds (Chinese Liu Zi Jue) is an ancient Taoist practice that Lee Holden teaches as a core self-healing tool: you make six specific sounds on the exhale, each one paired with attention to a particular organ and its associated emotion, to “cleanse the body of negative or stagnant Qi.” Holden’s framing: certain sounds, combined with deep breathing and slow movement, can be used to “heal the liver, stimulate the heart, balance the adrenals, activate digestion,” release stress held in each organ, and convert a negative emotion (anger, fear, worry, grief) into its positive counterpart (kindness, calm, openness, courage, peace).
It is less about volume and more about the vibration of a long, soft, intentional out-breath aimed inside.
The Method
In the Taoist Six Healing Sounds as Holden teaches it (the Chia lineage he co-authored), each organ has a sound, a colour/emotion, and a simple arm posture. The standard sequence and correspondences: Set-up: Sit upright (or stand), relaxed, and breathe slowly.
For each organ you inhale gently while bringing attention (and the arm posture) to that organ, then exhale slowly while making its sound — long, soft, drawn out — imagining stale/stressed energy and the negative emotion leaving with the breath.
Then rest a moment and feel the positive quality settle in. Repeat each sound 3 to 6 times before moving to the next.
- Lungs — “SSSSS” (sss / “ssssss”). Emotion released: grief / sadness → virtue: courage, openness. Arms can rise overhead, palms up, then frame the lungs as you exhale the sound.
- Kidneys — “CHOO / FOO” (wooo, like blowing out a candle). Emotion released: fear → virtue: calm, gentleness, willpower. Round the arms in front (hug-a-ball), leaning slightly, exhaling the sound toward the lower back/kidneys.
- Liver — “SHHH” (shhhh). Emotion released: anger / frustration → virtue: kindness. Raise the arms out to the sides and overhead, then exhale “shhh,” sending the breath through the liver (right side under the ribs).
- Heart — “HAW / HAAA” (open “haaaw”). Emotion released: impatience, hatred, arrogance → virtue: joy, love. Similar arm raise; exhale “haaaw” with attention on the heart.
- Spleen / Stomach — “WHO / HOO” (a guttural “whooo” from the throat/centre). Emotion released: worry / overthinking → virtue: fairness, openness, trust. Hands press in under the left ribcage as you exhale the sound into the digestive centre.
- Triple Warmer — “HEEE / SHEE” (a soft “heee”). This is the balancing sound that harmonises the whole system and brings energy down for deep relaxation — done lying or sitting, arms sweeping down the front of the body as you exhale “heee,” smoothing energy from head to toe. To finish: rest in stillness, breathing naturally, and notice the calm. (Sourcing note: that Holden teaches the Six Healing Sounds and frames them as exhale-sounds that clear stagnant Qi and stress from specific organs is documented in his materials. The specific sound spellings, organ–emotion–virtue correspondences, arm postures, and 3–6 repetitions are the classic Taoist / Mantak Chia version Holden inherited and co-authored; exact phonetic spellings vary across teachers and transliterations. Faithful paraphrase; treat the spellings as guides to the breath-sound, not strict phonetics.)
Source & Lineage
The Six Healing Sounds is among the oldest documented Qi Gong practices (Liu Zi Jue), formalised in Taoist and Chinese-medical traditions over many centuries. Lee Holden learned the modern Healing Tao version directly from Mantak Chia (he co-wrote Chia books including Cosmic Healing and works on the Taoist self-healing system) and teaches it through Holden QiGong courses, “Self-Healing with Sound” workshops, and PBS programming. → originator (if present); lineage.
It rests on Chinese medicine’s Five Element organ–emotion correspondences and connects outward to all sound/vibration and toning practices.
The Traditions' versions
Liu Zi Jue (classical Qi Gong) — the parent six-sound system; many lineages with slightly different sounds.
- Mantak Chia’s Six Healing Sounds (Healing Tao) — the direct version Holden teaches, with arm postures and organ colours.
- Mantra / bija seed-syllable chanting (yoga/tantra) — using specific sounds/vibrations directed at body centres.
- Humming / Bhramari pranayama (yoga) — extended vocalised exhale for calming; closest validated cousin.
- Toning / vocal sound healing — sustained vowel sounds for relaxation and emotional release.
Common refinements
Making the sounds loud or forced. Holden’s approach is soft, vibrational, almost a whisper-tone on a slow exhale — straining the voice or pushing the breath defeats the calming effect.
- Hyperventilating. Keep inhales gentle and exhales long; don’t gulp big fast breaths between sounds.
- Rushing through one each. Repeat each sound 3–6 times and pause to feel the shift before moving on.
- Ignoring the emotion. The point is partly emotional release — let the anger/grief/fear come up and breathe it out rather than performing the sound mechanically.
- Getting hung up on exact phonetics. Spellings differ between teachers; the quality of the exhale-vibration aimed at the organ region matters more than perfect pronunciation.
- Treating it as organ medicine. It’s a stress/emotion practice, not a treatment for diagnosed organ disease.