Local musician Leon Joseph Littlebird and Qi Gong practitioner Chriss Cowan both know a lot about healing, not just theoretically, but also practically.

Doctors diagnosed Littlebird with leukemia 12 years ago and didn't give him much of a chance to live. But these days, he's cancer-free.

“Through energy, prayers and love ... I had an amazing healing experience,” Littlebird said. “It was the beginning of me knowing I was going to do what I was here to do.”

Before the diagnosis, Littlebird held a high-paying job in the retail industry. As part of his healing, he reoriented his path and vision, moving back to the mountains where he was born a native Coloradan. He also took a leap of faith and focused on his music rather than on making loads of money.

Cowan began practicing Qi Gong when doctors diagnosed her husband with cancer. She started the practice to help heal him but soon discovered it opened her up in new ways. Though her husband died last year, she doesn't see it as a failure of Qi Gong to create health.

“The whole idea about healing is not that it's getting rid of symptoms or being in perfect health,” Cowan said. “It's being whole regardless of what your situation is. That's what I hope to bring to people.”

And, indeed, she and Littlebird have brought a new realm of healing through their CD, “Dantian Meditation for Healing.”

The process

Cowan moved to Summit County from Rochester, N.Y. in June 2008, to live closer to her daughter. She met Littlebird briefly when her son-in-law, who teaches skiing with Littlebird, introduced the two.

Some time later, as Cowan walked along a trail with her daughter, she blurted out: “I'm going to do a meditation CD with Leon.” She e-mailed him out of the blue, saying, “You probably don't remember me, but ...”

The timing couldn't have been more serendipitous. Littlebird had been working on a folk album, but he kept hearing meditation music “coming through channels, almost to the point of distraction,” he said.

They met, and as Cowan shared her vision, Littlebird experienced the music in his mind; he automatically started writing a chart of overtones and key notes, since he was already familiar with which tones allow energy to flow through the body more than others.

Littlebird spent four weeks putting the music together. As a meditator for 35 years, he naturally started his sessions in quiet to become clear. One day, thoughts of what Cowan told him about her husband, Jim, kept coming. He took out his oldest classical guitar he's had since 1968 — and never recorded with — and said, “This is for Jim.” Then he began recording what he played.

“This gorgeous passage came out of the guitar,” Littlebird said. “It was a one-take. I never rehearsed it. I played it one time. (Then) I said, ‘thanks, Jim.'”

When Cowan heard the entire 30 minutes of Littlebird's music, the portion that made her cry was the guitar passage. At the time, she didn't know Littlebird felt as though Jim directly inspired that passage.

Before she heard Littlebird's music, Cowan struggled to pen guided meditation words onto paper. So she began to record her thoughts whenever they occurred to her, even if it was 4 a.m. Then, in Littlebird's home studio, she let go and spoke the words to the sounds.

Dennis Rogers generated the artwork for the package, which uses fractals to represent the layers of unfolding dimensions recorded on the disc.

The result

Cowan chose Littlebird to work with because she felt the Native American culture he represented along with the Qi Gong she had to offer blended two traditional cultures. Littlebird explained the partnership in terms of overtones, which are third notes created by two sympathetic harmonies.

“We took two ancient cultures and combined their healing spirits and created an overtone of vibration,” he said.

Musically, Littlebird played nine different instruments, including the cello, keyboards, guitar, crystal bowls, Tibetan prayer bowls and Native American flutes, to create healing tones and overtones.

Though the goal was to produce healing sounds through a deliberate thought process, the finally result astounded Littlebird.

“When it was over, I couldn't believe I wrote it,” he said. “I thought I dreamed it.”

In the same way, Cowan “got out of the way” and allowed healing energy to move through her with “greater energy and magic,” Littlebird said.

The result of the 30-minute guided meditation set to Littlebird's music, followed by the same 30 minutes of his music for listeners to practice self-guided meditations, takes listeners on an amazing journey of relaxation and increased energy flow. In fact, never would a listener guess that Littlebird is the same guy who plays in bars and restaurants down the street, often telling cowboy and Indian jokes.

“This thing had a life of its own,” Littlebird said. “We were just lucky to have it come through us.”