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I remember the first time I went to a sound bath. It was at a mysterious, other-worldly place just outside of Joshua Tree California, called the Integratron. There was a man set up to play 10-15 crystal bowls of varying sizes sitting in this circular, wooden, domed room. I was in the early years of my yoga journey and I was surprised to discover how transformative the experience was for me.

It was as if the sound emitted from the friction applied to these bowls had the ability to move to the deepest levels of my inner physicality, while also enabling me to access more expansive dimensions of awareness into my non-physicality. I was drawn deeper into myself while simultaneously expanding beyond my known limitations of mind. After the 30 minute session, which felt like a lifetime and the blink of an eye at the same time, I sensed that a strong healing recalibration had occurred physically, emotionally, and spiritually within me.

Sound baths, or in general the experience of sound healing, have become pretty common in yoga, wellness, and spiritual communities. One is invited to sit or lay down to indulge in the immersion of sound vibrations and tones produced by some unlikely instruments. Gongs, singing bowls, chimes, rattles, wind instruments, and drums are incorporated to help call forth healing and relaxation to the body, mind, and soul.

If you’ve ever participated in one of these sound events you can likely say without a shadow of a doubt that the experience had a transformative effect. Most people immediately remark that their quality of mind shifts from a state of activity, anxiety, and preoccupation to an undeniable experience of stillness and calm that has perhaps otherwise been inaccessible to them. It’s not only the mind that is relaxed and pacified into a peaceful state. The vibrational frequencies of sound healing instruments like crystal bowls have the ability to move through skin, fluid, and bones of the body, creating a full body relaxation and recalibration down to the level of the cellular structure. The experience creates an environment of “resonance” within the body.

Cellular healing
In her book Sound Medicine, Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary refers to our cells having “antennae-like structures…called cilium that receive and respond to vibrational energy fields, such as sound, light and radio frequencies.” The existence of cilium is why the state of our physical bodies, in addition to our mental perspective, is impacted so positively by sound healing modalities. The sound vibrations are imparting a healing effect at the cellular level of our physical being that is being received by these cilium structures.

Everything that has an atomic structure has a vibration. The speed or rate at which it is vibrating is called its frequency. The most ideal frequency for an object to naturally vibrate is called its resonance. Every cell, organ, and bone in our body has its unique resonant vibrational frequency. When illness takes hold, at a fundamental level the vibrational resonance of that structure has been compromised, or become “dissonant”. The goal of sound healing or sound therapy is to bring all the systems in the body out of a state of dissonance, back to a state of resonance.

Returning to a natural, resonant environment with practices like grounding, hearing and feeling the sound vibrations of nature, or instrumental sounds that reset our resonant frequency, is said to have a profound impact on our health, longevity, immunity, and mental and emotional stability.

Primed to receive
The natural origins of quartz crystal are fascinating. Two very mundane and well known elements, silica (Si02) and water (H20), join naturally under heat and pressure to create the crystalline structure we call “quartz crystal”. This creation of nature can also be easily manufactured under controlled conditions, which is where many of the crystal singing bowls we see today come from, as well as the microchips that enable all of our modern technology to work. Quartz crystal has a piezoelectric quality that enables it, when placed under pressure, to amplify, transform, store, and transfer energy. This is why quartz crystal is the most integral and necessary component in electronics that allows computers, phones, and other electronics to work. Without the unique structure of quartz crystal these modern advancements would not be possible. The crystalline elements of quartz crystal are also present within our bodies. In this way the resonant vibration of crystal singing bowls has a powerful and impactful effect on the resonant frequency of our physical bodies. Generating resonant tones from quartz crystal singing bowls enables the crystalline structure within our bodies to resonate at the same frequency, thus re-establishing balance and harmony at a vibrational and energetic level.

Sound of the chakras
As we learn through examination of a rainbow, the various spectrums of light result in the display of color. Color is visible because of the type of energy called a photon. Photons are a type of energy, just as sound vibration is a type of energy. Sound and light travel, or vibrate, at different speeds, or frequencies, which makes it so we perceive them differently with our senses. Typically, color is seen and sound is heard. Sound is usually described and measured in terms of Hertz (Hz), whereas light is measured as a wave, or particle. Regardless, the two dance together quite beautifully. This union between light and sound is how we are able to determine sound waves that resonate with the various colors that align with the chakras of our body. This is also why people are apt to “see” colors when hearing the sound frequencies of crystal sound bowls.

Each chakra has its area of resonance within the body, a color spectrum, and a sound vibration that brings it into resonance:

• Root Chakra: Red, C Note
• Navel Chakra: Orange, D Note
• Solar Plexus Chakra: Yellow, E Note
• Heart Chakra: Green, F Note
• Throat Chakra: Blue, G Note
• Third Eye Chakra: Indigo, A Note
• Crown Chakra: Purple, B Note

When we are exposed to the crystalline healing sounds of these keys they bring the energy centers of the body back into balance in a multidimensional manner, helping us to restore health and balance holistically.

Putting it into practice
A great deal of value is placed on the healing and rebalancing benefits of sound vibration in the practice of Kundalini Yoga. As a teacher, I find the incorporation of crystal singing bowls in my classes to add an undeniable benefit to the healing and rebalancing benefits of the practice. Sitting or lying down in an intentional state of receptivity immersed in the sound allows the body and mind to receive and adjust passively while the vibrations do their work.

In my season of Kundalini Rising, you can experience the incorporation of crystal bowls at the end of each of my classes. I’d love to know what your experience is with the sounds!