INSTRUMENT SPOTLIGHT: CRYSTAL BOWLS

I always knew of the crystal bowls. I don’t know how or why I knew of them, but it wasn’t until 2023 that I heard them in the flesh. They (and Mark, the wonderful individual playing them) completely took me away, to a place I couldn’t understand, explain, or remember afterwards. 

At this time in my life, I was very consumed by the material world, think think think, do do do, rush rush rush. I didn’t really see myself as much of a spiritual person, or at least as one with any proclivity for these practices and concepts. It all seemed far beyond me. 

Sure, I did the occasional meditation that made me feel or see flashes of things outside of my realm of belief, but nothing like this. This was not a flash. This lasted, and it wasn’t going anywhere. 

My conscious mind was gone. I was suspended and incubated in sound. And the sound was light. It was dark. It was warmth. It was a gentle breeze. It was everything and nothing. I was everything and nothing. 

I find it so hard to reflect on these moments, what it felt like, what I saw, what it all meant. These powerful experiences that are so outside of myself but also so deeply within. But anyway, that stuck with me. 

And 3 months later, there I was, learning the practice of Sound Healing; playing these beautiful instruments for the first time. That first time, a similar feeling to being handed a newborn baby. Nervousness and caution, but a heart full of love, and a willingness to do right by this beautiful thing, to experience pure goodness. 

It took a while after my training for a set of bowls to find me. I put it off for a longer time than maybe was sensible. I’ll admit that the drone harp did take precedence in the early days, budget wise. So I set the crystal bowl dream aside, to revisit later down the track. But as things go, a set popped up on Facebook Marketplace, and lo and behold, the seller was Mark, the man who had given me my very first experience of these instruments! Straight away, my brain went “oh my gosh, is it THAT set of bowls? How fateful! How special! How grand!” 

It was not THAT set of bowls (LOL). But it was MY set of bowls. And with that, my 8 crystalline babies entered my life. 

There is no denying that since that day, they’ve been a massive part of my Sound Bath work. And if you’ve been at one of my sessions, perhaps you’ve experienced similar to what I’ve described above, that deep, inward state that strips back all obligations to the “real world”. Some visit past lives, or far-away places. Some get a much needed deep snooze. Some are overcome with creative ideas and new perspectives. The crystal bowls are a big part of all of the above. 

Much like the Tibetan bowls, the bowl vibrates when struck, or rubbed/sung, and here come the sound waves. These sound waves can help reduce overstimulation of the mind, regulate the nervous system, facilitate cellular healing, and lower the heart rate. All of this paves the way for deeper healing or understanding of things we may have buried deep within, without even realizing. 

Some of us resonate with them more than others. A few times I’ve had 90% of a group gushing about how incredible the bowls made them feel, and then one person shyly admitting that they were waiting for it to be over from the moment it began. They are loud, powerful, and there is no hiding from their vibrational power, even if it feels/sounds borderline intolerable. The same can be said for all of my instruments, sometimes things strike an unexpected chord. 

Speaking of chords! The other wonderful thing about the bowls is that I get to play with chords, harmony and dissonance. High school music theory 101: if I play a C, E and G note together, it creates a major chord. Major chord = happy sound. Then there are minor chords = moody sound. Regardless of major, minor or other, these chords are harmonic. They are made up of notes that are appropriately spaced on a scale of notes. 

Now, if I was to play two notes next to each other, i.e C and D, these notes will “clash”. I find that these clashes can create some really interesting and potent effects. A bit more intense and heavy, but sometimes it’s just the time and place. They can be the necessary shake up to hit a real crucial and transformative part of a session. Some will steer away from dissonance, but I’m a dissonance advocate! If you want to nerd out with me about dissonance at the end of a session one day, just let me know. 

I think that about wraps up my gush about the crystal bowls! Ultimately, biggest piece of advice - you gotta hear it to believe it (I’ll see you at my next session heheheheh).