Sound is a powerful tool; it is used cults, motivational speakers, and advertisers to influence your mood and your thoughts. You may have noticed how different music and sounds affect you. Music can make you more productive, it can energize you, and it can help you relax.
Some sounds are more beneficial than others. Tonal healing is based on the idea that certain sounds will help balance out the energy in your body and foster healing and positive mood changes. Specific sounds and notes have been used for thousands of years by mystical practitioners during meditation. For example, a frequency of 256Hz will produce the note “C,” and will directly effect the root chakra, which is where your issues of survival lie; therefore, this note can actually refuse an overactive fight-or-flight response, calming panic attacks and soothing PTSD triggers. A frequency of 341.3Hz will create an “F” note, hitting the heart chakra, and engendering an overall sense of well being and connectedness.
Some instruments are better at creating the exact right note for healing and meditation. Singing bowls, both metal and pressed crystal, are some of the best. Jonathan Goldman’s Crystal Bowls Chakra Chants and Deuter’s Nada Himalaya are two albums that are excellent for meditation and self healing through the use of singing bowls. I myself offer periodic live group meditation sessions wherein I play various singing bowls, toning bars, chimes and the occasional wave drum to create a soundscape that facilitates relaxation, journeying, and healing.
A singing bowl meditation is what I call a “passive meditation,” in that you are specifically not focusing on any given thing, such as a mantra or even the idea of being present. Instead, you allow the sounds to carry you out of your conscious mind, so that you can experience just being. People have reported feelings of joy and release, even bliss. The meditation experience has even been known to shift psychical discomfort for some people.
I really enjoy doing these sessions, because there’s something amazing about being able to “bliss people out.” I was offering them monthly, in several different venues, but my schedule is shifted and I am currently only doing one every other month up in Canyon Country. This may change in the future, but, for now, they’re a somewhat rare offering from me.
Ayamanatara’s next Singing Bowl Meditation will be this Wednesday, march 28th, at 7:30pm, at Kenneally Acupuncture and Healing Light Resource Center in Canyon Country. Please call (661) 252-4100 for reservations; space is limited.