Healing Sound: Tibetan Singing Bowls

“The world is sound.” Ancient cultures knew this fact and modern science confirms it. Everything is in vibration, made up of small particles vibrating in resonance. As adults, we are composed of 70 percent water. We begin as 99 percent water in utero, decrease to 90 percent as newborns and eventually are down to 50 percent by old age. In other words, we exist primarily as water. Water is profoundly affected by the sound around it, forming exquisite, delicate crystals to tranquil classical music and malformed, fragmented crystals when exposed to discordant music (see Masaru Emoto). The sound heard in Deep Space is “aum (om).” When properly intoned, a symmetrical double-triangle mandala forms in crystal. Aum is the basis of all sounds, including “amen.”

Tibetan singing bowls and gongs have been instruments of healing and meditation for centuries in the East. With the expulsion of the Dalai Lama from Tibet in the 1950’s, these bowls and other tools for healing found their way to the West. There is an aura of mystery around the origins of the singing bowl, though they are thought to have been used in spiritual ceremonies of the Bon, a shamanistic people of the pre-Buddhist Tibetan regions.

Initially seen as simple offering bowls for food, it was soon discovered that they produce a core sound with many harmonic overtones and undertones. These tones are the result of both the shapes of the bowls as well as their composition, which is usually an alloy of seven different metals: gold, silver, lead, mercury, copper, tin and iron. Its size and the shape will affect a bowl’s basic tone and duration of sound. The larger bowls have a clearer base tone. As the thickness of the bowl increases, so do the audible undertones, while the overtones are more easily heard in a thinner bowl. Striking the bowl produces one note, while playing the beater around the rim will release a different note.

Why should we play these bowls? Playing a singing bowl allows one to quickly empty the mind of all the noisy and distracting thoughts of a busy day. Each of us is on a spiritual journey, an inward path to find the meaning of our lives. Developing one’s inner pure self allows the cultivation of wisdom, virtues, and, perhaps most importantly, expressing that virtue toward others. The bowls are easy to play, and are thus a readily available tool for sound healing, accessible for all.