Sound Healing is Ancient. Sound Baths Are Not.
Before you read this article and decide I’m a cynic, let me tell you I LOVE sound baths; my living room is devoted to giving sound baths and I play my gong first thing every morning. But I don’t love how lies and myths have spread in the wellness community in order to sell expensive instruments. Inspired by one of my teachers Jamie Bechtold, I’ve done some deep research into the origins of sound baths and the instruments synonymous with them:
The History & Origins of Singing Bowls:
1. “Tibetan” Singing Bowls Didn’t Come From Tibet
The metallic bowl you know of as a Tibetan singing bowl originated in Nepal as a rice bowl. Known as dabaka or bata in Nepali, these bowls were (and still are) finely crafted from seven metals: copper, tin, zinc, lead, iron, silver, and gold because is believed that eating from these bowls provides essential minerals to the body, particularly benefiting pregnant women. [source & source]
It’s unknown whether any ancient Nepalese monk played their rice bowl to meditate, but whoever first played their bata gave a great gift to the world. Because what poetry: Seven metals, three precious, that happen to make heavenly sounds when played.
They became known as Tibetan singing bowls and played as instruments in the 1990s, the same time people in the west were playing crystal singing bowls.
2. “Crystal” Singing Bowls Aren’t Crystal
Buy crystal singing bowls for their beauty and sound, but don’t buy them for their crystal healing properties. Because, while they are made from 99.2% High Purity Quartz powder, they cease to be crystal once the powder is heated in a centrifugal mold. Then they become high purity glass. Glass is an amorphous solid, more liquid than crystal. Ironically, metal is crystalline, so the “Tibetan” bowls are the actual crystal singing bowls.
3. Crystal Singing Bowls Aren’t Ancient
At a recent sound bath I attended, I was told ancient Egyptians played crystal singing bowls. This is not a claim any archaeologist can backup. Another woman, trying to sell me a $1300 bowl, told me its creator remembers playing one in a past life in Atlantis. Believe the mythic if you want to, but singing bowls are no less miraculous because they are modern.
Crystal singing bowls emerged in the 1980s as a byproduct of the computer industry, which used high-precision and high-purity glass bowls to cultivate silicon chips. Eventually, someone noticed the sounds these vessels made and decided to play them. Who this was is unknown, but they created something powerful.
History & Origins of the Gong
4. An American Brought the Gong to Kundalini Practice
Gongs are ancient. The earliest record of them is from the 3rd century BC from Vietnam. Gongs were played across Asia for millennia, to transmit signals or during religious ceremonies. Made of brass, these instruments play a loud, resonating sound which can travel distances. When they made their way into symphonies, gongs were mostly musical punctuation.
The first to perform a gong bath was credited to Don Conreaux in 1975. Inspired by American modernist composer and humanistic astrologer Dane Rudhyar, Don Conreaux performed for his fellow Kundalini yogis. Because he was one of the first and closest disciples of Yogi Bhajan, Conreaux’s gong baths became integrated into Kundalini yoga classes, which is where many westerners first experienced the gong.
The Difference Between Brass & Silver-Nickel Gongs:
5. Modern Gongs Induce Deeper Meditative States
Asian gongs are made from brass. The modern gongs you probably heard in your last sound bath are made from nickel-silver. These gongs, pioneered by European percussion makers such as Paiste and Meinl, produce rolling symphonic sounds, rich with overtones, ideal for bringing on states of meditation. The droning sounds of gongs are said (and in my experience this is true) induce deeper brainwaves by inducing trance-like states.
Now, you can find an abundance of sound baths. If you’ve been to a retreat, you’ve probably experienced one. If not, we have an abundance of sound healing events to try.
