Good Vibrations

Soothing sounds from crystal singing bowls and sacred drums take JOSEPHINE FAIRLEY on a journey of holistic healing

- Josephine Fairley

I’VE ALWAYS loved the sound of a gong — mostly because my mother used one to summon us to mealtimes from the further reaches of our house. But the response to the sound that is pulsing through my entire body as I lie on a cosy sheepskin rug in the airy, all-white front room of a Victorian terraced house in central London isn’t triggering Pavlovian hunger pangs. The deep, vibrational waves from the gong feel as though they are swishing through me, rearranging my stressed-out atoms — in harmony with a series of singing bowls tuned to different healing frequencies, a shruti (Indian squeezebox) and a rain stick. Eyes closed, it isn’t possible to see which instruments are being played, but after a minute or two my brain stops even trying to figure it out.