Never writing about the “process” of making
journalism is a journalistic cliché. It’s considered
“bad” by many conventional journalists, but I’ve
always felt as though readers, being one myself, like to know why
choices are made, why things are ignored when other things are focused
upon. Anyway, in this case, I think the public is better served by a
story in advance of an event than a review of the event. I know some
people will be interested in participating, but they won’t be
able to if they don’t hear about it until after it occurs.
At 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 20, there will be a gong bath at the Unitarian
Universalist Church to celebrate the winter solstice, when the sun
reaches its southernmost point in the sky, which actually occurs here
at 9:47 a.m. on Dec. 21. Gong masters Don Conreaux and Richard Rudis
will lead. They will use earth gongs, tuned to the vibration of the
mantra, Om.
Now, I can’t dwell too much on Conreaux’s and
Rudis’ accomplishments and experience, or there won’t be
room to explain what’s going on, but suffice it to say, these two
men are world renowned in their fields. (For more biographical
information, see holistic-resonance.com and
www.sacredsoundgongbath.com,
respectively.)
A gong bath, to put it simply, is meditation to the sound of a gong.
But that’s too simplistic, so let me explain it another way. We
know that vibrations can have a therapeutic effect, for example,
ultrasound treatments on sports injuries. We also know that vibrations,
through music, can have emotional effects on us, for example, minor
keys make us feel sad, a tritone interval, like used by Black Sabbath,
can make us feel anxious.
In other circumstances, dissonant noises, like those at a
construction site, can be felt in the body, creating irritation. The
sonic impact of explosions can actually damage the human body and
brain. We know that water trickling at a certain speed makes us feel
mellow.
All those effects are caused by sound vibrations. Everything in the
universe—even light—vibrates at its own frequency,
sometimes in concert with other frequencies, like an operatic voice
making a crystal goblet explode with vibration or a barbershop quartet
in harmony.
Now, what if someone had a notion to create a vibration that worked
within the human being to elicit feelings of depth or stillness or
health?
I don’t have the physics to explain why all this is true, but
I have experienced it first hand. One such place was at the Cathedral
Church of the Americas on Easter Sunday last year, during which they
“toned” long resonances to evoke particular feelings. Gongs
have been used in Eastern religious practices for more than 5,000
years.
Event organizer Judy Strauss, who is also a gong player who will be
giving her own gong bath on Feb. 7, says, “At the very minimum,
[participants] can expect to be completely relaxed afterwards. …
It’s a very healing experience. The vibrations go into the body,
and the organs themselves hear the natural frequency at which they
vibrate, and it helps people return to health. But the big thing for me
is it stops the left-brain chatter and opens the right brain to a
meditative space of receiving inspiration from whatever
source—whatever we believe.”
In other words, people feel better and more in tune with the
universe after meditating while a gong is toned by someone who knows
gongs.