Article from the Evening Standard, London (2016)

Come On Feel the Noise

Listen up, meditation is over.  The silent type that is.  No longer is the OMM crowd counting breaths in darkened rooms; the hottest way to get head space is by hitting up a “sound bath”.  Thankfully, there’s no actual bathing involved, just a gong, some tuning forks and a Tibetan singing bowl or two.
For the uninitiated, a sound bath is a healing therapy that uses sound to induce a meditative state.  The result?  Intense relaxation and a Zen life, man.  According to so-called sound healers, the vibrations can reduce stress and pain, lower your heart rate and relieve anxiety.
Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan of the practice (natch), which has been around for thousands of years.  But only recently is the gong shedding hippy status.  Sound baths are popping up all over.  We’re not only going gaga for gongs – the demand for “noisy meditation” has never been greater: head to Mantra Lounge or Nikki Slade’s kirtan classes at Triyoga and you’ll find scores of Londoners getting their chant on. 

So what gives? Surely, in an age of constant stimulation, we need less sound? On the contrary, says Kwali Kumara, a kundalini and gong meditation teacher at Triyoga. “Unlike other forms of meditation, sound baths are easily accessible. The gong shuts down the ego point blank and nothing can override it. You can’t help but fall into a deep relaxation.”  (My italics)
"The gong is one of the oldest instruments in the world, yet it was only in the seventies that this kind of meditation took off," says Kumara. “Yogi Bhajan introduced kundalini yoga to the West and started running sound baths to help drug addicts’ nervous systems recover from abuse, so the gong became an integral part of kundalini yoga. It’s a great way to take your practice a bit deeper. But even those who don’t want the physical exertion of a yoga class can come and have a spiritual experience.”
Sign us up.
Alix O’Neill, The Evening Standard, London