I feel a healing begin, as tears form, and I am so grateful to release what’s building in side — something so wonderful it becomes too good to contain.
I wish I was bigger. I’d have a greater capacity to handle the joy that’s flowing to all parts of my body. It’s like a liquid, this healing I feel, almost palpable like an elixer that cures each and every doubt, concern and thought from one’s past or future.
Here I sit, taking part in a “Sound Bath,” where two healing practitioners enable Tibetan Singing Bowls and Tuning Forks to resonate with me and 10 others snuggled together in the New Way Sanctuary, an Educational & Wellness Center for Conscious Living, in Erdenheim, PA, some 20 miles out of Philadelphia.
We’re “bathing” in the rich vibrations penetrating our bodies, our hearts, our souls. But you got to “let go” to really take it in, let meditative techniques absorb this form of communication that needs no language or schooling to understand. The more you “empty” yourself, the fuller the sound’s magic cleanses you inside.
I feel it washing over me starting at my feet stretched out on a carpet floor. The purification eases into and around the legs and hips, the sternum and buttocks, gently caressing my back, soothing the pain that’s developed there over the years.
It flows through the chest, upper arms, shoulders and neck bringing a calm not felt since I was a baby cradled in a loved one’s arms. The “Love Sound” reaches the saliva glands. I gulp, swallowing traces of “essential oil” mix of rose and other drops we tasted passing a small bottle of aromatherapy that Katryn Lavanture and Tracie Nichols, the skilled Earthkeepers, had prepared and chosen for this gathering. And that’s when the various tones and pitches of sound push me toward a crescendo. My container is too full, and I weep. Unashamed. And grateful.
I’m proud to show that this man, this youth who was raised not to show such emotions, can disregard such an imposition. Go a little “Greek crazy” and allow tears to flow from my cheek into the moustache and mingle with my beard before connecting at the chin below just as the sound’s rhapsody comes to a halt.
Roz, who along with her husband attends for the first time, sees various colors as the “music” took her deeper and deeper, changing from color to color. Karen, a Qi Gong instructor, tells us the color green represents love.(Yes, I want to shout. True Love. It’s the Love that took over and cleansed me, too!)
Another person describes seeing Michael Jackson gyrating and singing along with each note the Singing Bowls produced. Amy, who writes spiritual poetry on the side, calls her vision of the “Gloved One” joyous, uplifting and fun!
Too soon, our cleansing ritual has come to an end. But several suggest we meet twice a month instead of once, and Pat says she may have approval from a nearby Unitarian Church to hold the “Sound Bath” there to accommodate more people. Maybe her husband, who could not attend because the ceremony was “filled to capacity” this time, could sit with us again.
Wish I didn’t have to leave and go home. I want this Sound to stay with me forever. Stay within and sooth me. Comfort me. To be me.
Contoveros 
IF You Want To Learn More About Aromatheraphy
You can visit :
AROMATHERAPHY FOR BODY AND SOUL
http://aromatheraphy-4-bodynsoul.blogspot.com
LikeLike
This site offers a good history and use of aromatherapy, and while I do not endorse anyone’s products here, the prices appear reasonable to me, a novice.
michael j
LikeLike
Hi Michael,
I really enjoyed reading this post about’sound bathing’. I love working with Tibetan singing bowls. I’ve also experienced ‘sound baths’ where the group or practitioners use vocal toning intuitively. The human voice also provides incredibly moving vibrational energy which illuminates the spirit – and helps us to ‘feel’ as well as ‘see’ the Divinity within each other! It’s something we’ve worked with quite a bit in my Art Therapy course, and it’s powerfully healing.
Thank you for sharing your meditation experiences through your blog.
Warm regards,
Suzana
http://www.arttherapyjournal.wordpress.com
LikeLike
Suzana,
I gotta try this. Vocalizing sounds to merge with others both human and metal. Singing bowls and singing practitioners.
I harmonize whether they like it or not at the Chenrizig Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia, as we chant a certain phrase over and over again. I climb the scale with my voice, enjoying myself to the utmost, hoping I’m not disturbing anyone else, but feeling more in “tune” with words I can’t understand for they are Tibetan or Sanscript.
Did I tell you I used to harmonize in an a capella group in the late 60s? Still try it when I hear the right song. Now, I can try it when I hear the right “vibration.”
Thanks,
michael j
LikeLike
Here in Atlanta the International Sound Therapy Association (http://www.ista-usa.org/) and the Divine Om Trio (find them on Facebook) do this kind of healing work to great success. I hope that people reading your post will look to their local sound healers and support them…and have an experience similar to yours! It’s easy to do. Don’t overlook the simple joys of sound, folks!
LikeLike
Therracat,
Now that the Arts Commission in Georgia has been saved, I might just return to Atlanta to visit the sounds of your music and the Home of the Braves.
Hope to lunch at that restaurant downtown that twirls above a swanky hotel showing all sides of your city’s beautiful skyline. It’s got to be one of the wonders of the world. Well, at least of the 20th century world when I was there some xx years ago.
The Underground City. Hills of red clay, Designing Women (sorry about that last one!)
It’s amazing how a certain vibration from a man-made object can bring about such a purification. I hear monks “offer” prayers as they mold a bowl out of seven different metals in creating a singing bowl. I feel their blessing as the first musical note awakens my soul.
I thirst for more, never wanting to leave the fountain.
michael j
LikeLike