Community Highlights: Meet M. Lori Torok of Eloia Healing Arts | Temecula Reiki & Sound Therapy

Today we’d like to introduce you to M. Lori Torok.

Hi Lori, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am an alternative healthcare practitioner and owner of Eloia Healing Arts at Temecula Reiki & Sound Therapy, a thriving practice in Southern California, where I am dedicated to assisting individuals on their path to health and wellness in body, mind, and spirit. My personal journey has taken me through careers in the performing arts, where I was a Radio City Music Hall Rockette and a college professor in theatre arts and dance. My work has also been a demonstration of the healing potential of the arts. And now, as a Reiki practitioner and sound healing therapist, my work lies somewhere between experiential art and healing practice. 

Before my journey with Reiki began over ten years ago, I was making music with elephants. Little did I know that this experience was an introductory course in vibrational healing and the frequencies of life force, which vibrate through all living things. 

I awoke one morning in 2001 and heard a voice tell me to contact the Los Angeles Zoo and ask if I could work with their elephant population in creating music. This wasn’t entirely out of vibrational “left field,” as I had just been recently connected with two distinct bits of information that were to change the course of my life—although, at the time, I found them merely interesting. 

The previous Saturday, my husband and I had ventured out to a gourd festival in Fallbrook, California. We were new to the area and thought this would be a fine way to spend an afternoon. The gourd art was appealing, but nothing really caught my attention until we happened upon a piece that was shortly to come up for auction. This was a gourd painted by an elephant at the LA Zoo, Gita. Ahh, blessed Gita, I was to learn later was a star at the Zoo and had appeared in many Hollywood films and television shows. She was, in fact, Hollywood royalty. 

I learned that the LA Zoo had a “Behavioral Enrichment” program to assist the animals by giving them seemingly interesting activities to alleviate the boredom of incarceration and the unnatural environments in which they were expected to live. Painting was an activity they sometimes did with Gita for mental and eleph-artistic stimulation. 

The gourd wordlessly spoke to me. This was a freeform collaboration between pachyderm and paint. What was Gita saying in her art? What did she want me to know? The kind people at the Behavioral Enrichment table had photos of the enormous artist creating her relatively small artwork, which requires focus and a bit of precision, with brush-in-trunk. They spoke about the artist’s palette choice and insistence on avoiding the color orange. 

Not since seeing Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” or experiencing Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations” live with full orchestra had I felt so exhilarated by a single work of art. My husband and I won the piece in the auction and left that day with Gita’s gourd proudly in our arms. 

The next day, we had a houseguest passing through and shared the artwork with him. Apparently, the world of elephant art was familiar to him. He, a musician like my husband, had been introduced to elephants who were creating music with the Thai Elephant Orchestra. He pointed me in the direction of this group, as they had produced a CD to assist with the cost of keeping the elephants safe and well at the Thai Elephant Preserve. My heart was reeling. I imagined myself moving along a new path, leaving my job as a college professor and becoming a mahout. 

After that weekend, I awoke on Monday morning bright and early, still half asleep, and heard the voice that told me to call the LA Zoo, get in touch with the Behavioral Enrichment program, and ask if I could work with their elephants in creating music with them. I followed the guidance. 

The following year was spent deep in research about elephants, animal arts, animal communication, and sound vibration. At the time (twenty-four years ago), sound healing was not well-known. 

I learned from the elephants about the subtle vibrations that we cannot hear with our physical ears. See, relative to the size of an Asian elephant, their ears are pretty small and very far off the ground. However, the pads of the feet are substantial and very sensitive. They are quite adept at feeling the vibrations through the ground at lower frequencies than we can audibly hear. Large though they are, elephants are sensitive creatures and are attuned to feeling the vibrations through their feet and their trunk. 

After an intense period of training at the zoo, my husband and I got to work creating vibrational experiences for the elephants that would interest them in unique ways. In part, we modeled the instruments on what they were already doing in Thailand, and we also created our own. Steve, a professional saxophonist, would also play for them in the elephant house to explore their responses to different frequencies, tones, and qualities of sound. Their interest was obvious, and their responses were unique. 

At the start of our work, only one elephant was considered friendly and safe enough to work with. However, another one of the female elephants made it very clear that she wanted to be included in the sound sessions. Slowly and steadily, we were able to bring the second elephant into our “music class” as the sounds calmed and soothed her. 

Though there are many notable behaviors we witnessed, the most compelling, for me, was their interaction with the sound waves via their trunk. When we brought drums in and taught them how to strike the drum or cymbal with a modified drumstick with a rubber ball on the end, something like a mallet, they would strike the drum, throw the mallet down, and hover over the drum with their trunk. Then they would pick the mallet backup, strike, throw it down, hover. This was the pattern over and over again. They would hover over the surface of the drum or cymbal for quite some time, long after we could no longer hear it. This is how I became keenly aware that the vibrations continue to resonate well beyond the human ear’s ability to hear. 

I started to train my physical body (often called an instrument) to feel the vibrations beyond what my ears register. Gita and Ruby taught me to be awake and sensitive to the fullness of the vibrational energy field around me, even expanding the awareness to elephantine proportions. On some level, I consider Gita and Ruby to be my first sound therapy teachers. 

For me, sound therapy has been a perfect marriage with Reiki light work. My Reiki sessions will often incorporate voice, singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, or chimes, as the sound waves assist in the release of blockages and restore energetic flow through the four lower bodies: physical, etheric, mental, and emotional. 

Often, during Reiki sessions, I am filled with sound, hearing/feeling particular tones flowing with Reiki. Sometimes I am even guided to hum or tone with the flow of Reiki, which generally results in a deeper connection to the energy. This has become a familiar part of Reiki for my self-healing sessions, universal healing sessions, for planetary healing, as well as sessions with clients. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course, there have been many obstacles and challenges along my path, as with everyone. However, when you look back, you can begin to see the growth that occurs through the challenges. You can’t see it while you’re in it–it takes time and space before you can recognize the value of the challenge. In the midst of the challenge, we need grace to hold our space and hold our light through it all. I have been very fortunate to have my husband, Steve, at my side through this amazing journey. 

We’ve been impressed with Eloia Healing Arts | Temecula Reiki & Sound Therapy, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Eloia Healing Arts is a center for alternative and cooperative healing modalities, such as Reiki, sound therapy, flower essences, and mindfulness/meditation practices. 

We offer Reiki and sound healing sessions, teach classes and workshops, and regularly offer community sound bath experiences. Private sound bath events are also scheduled at the center.

M. Lori Torok is the author of FORGIVENESS: Journey to a Clear Place, which Eighth Ray Publishing. This workbook assists those seeking to set themselves and others free through forgiveness.

What matters most to you?
Surrounded by matter, one might be inclined to think that everything matters. However, the things that really matter have no matter at all: love, peace, and harmony. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eloiahealingarts.com
• Instagram: @eloia_live
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TemeculaReikiCenter/
• Youtube: @eloiahealingarts

Image Credits
M. Lori Torok
Anne Watson