WHEN I TOOK a course on hypnotherapy in graduate school, my teacher used sounds to alter our state of consciousness. He would ask us to close our eyes and then play a tape of temple bells ringing. In no time at all, the entire class would be in a trance. Rock music, I suspect, has the same effect on teenagers.

SOUND is believed to soothe the energies of the atoms in any living space. It causes them to become balanced and harmonious. As such, the use of sounding objects is an ancient practice in all the countries of Asia. Temple bells, drums, and gongs -- all these instruments are often used in space blessing and other rituals.

In feng shui, which is the practice of harnessing the forces of energy to benefit one's well-being, sounds are used as a "cure" to manipulate energy. The Chinese refer to this energy as qi or chi.

I dabble in feng shui myself and my favorite "props" have to do with the creation of sound.

WIND CHIMES

My first favorite prop are wind chimes.

I saw the movie Body Heat starring Kathleen Turner and William Hurt many years ago. The only scene from that I movie I remember now is that of Kathleen Turner leaning on a veranda railing, seeking relief from the heat in a soft breeze. What made the scene memorable for me was not Turner but the sound of what seemed like a hundred wind chimes swaying in the breeze.

Wind chimes moderate the flow of qi. They disperse, temper, and redirect it in a beneficial way. When hung on eaves, wind chimes symbolically raise a house's energy. When hung near an entrance, they act as alarms, warning of intruders entering a home.

BELLS

Just like wind chimes, bells are also believed to bring good fortune and protection to their owners.

A story is told about a California bank robbed in the mid-1970s. After the robbery, upon the advice of a feng shui expert, the manager installed a bell on the door to the tellers' working area. The bell would ring each time the door was opened. It was a primitive but effective security system. It must have unnerved would-be robbers because no hold-ups ever took place in that bank again.

Hanging a bell on the door handle outside your main door will entice good fortune to enter your home and warn you of intruders. A bell can also clear your home of negative and stale energies.

How is this done?

First of all, this bell is not rung like a church bell. Instead, you hit it with a small wooden mallet.

Start at the front of your main door. Beat the rim of the bell three times and focus on the sound created. Then walk slowly around your living area in a clockwise direction, allowing the sound of the bell to resonate off the walls. At each corner, beat the bell a little harder to create a louder sound.

Continue in this way until you have gone around all the rooms. In the toilets and kitchens, store rooms and unoccupied rooms, beat the bell even harder, to dissipate any lingering stagnant energies.

SINGING BOWLS

My third favorite prop is a singing bowl. In the olden days in China, Taoist monks used singing bowls to purify the palace chambers of the emperor. The bowls were also used to purify the homes of wealthy and powerful mandarins.

To purify a cleared space with your singing bowl, start by placing it on your left palm, on a small cushion. You then walk slowly from room to room in your home, striking the bowl with the mallet three times, each time you enter a room.

Move in a clockwise direction around each of the rooms. You must stay close to the walls so that any unbalanced energy stuck to them will be refined by the purity of the sound. As the sound begins to fade, strike again. Keep doing this as you move around the room, until you are done with the whole house.

i THINK it will do you no harm if you fill your home with pure sounds a few times each month to induce balance and harmony. Like I said, these sounds can be generated with wind chimes, a bell, or a singing bowl. If you don't have these props, you can simply clap your hands in room corners to disperse the static energy. Perhaps, singing "My Way" a la Frank Sinatra in the bathroom may even help, who knows.

I am in no way the only person who believes in the power of sound. Lillian Too, a leading feng shui expert from Malaysia, swears that on the days when she purifies space with her singing bowl, everyone moves around her with a smile. Even -- or maybe especially -- her husband.