Did You Know…that an unusual type of bath can bring you remarkable health benefits?
Perhaps one of the most intriguing structures of modern healing comes in the form of the massive white dome George Van Tassel built in the California desert. Van Tassel says its construction was guided by telepathy as well as the writings of Nikola Tesla and the design of Moses’s Tabernacle.
The 38-foot high, 55-foot across all-wood dome is named the Integratron, and it is intended for it to function as an electrostatic generator that could facilitate rejuvenation and time travel. Now, the Integratron is open to the public for the first time in its history, primarily for the purpose of sound baths.
The sound baths offered at the Integratron are 60-minute sonic healing sessions. For the first 25 minutes, the facilitator plays a sequence crystal bowls, each keyed to the chakras (energy centers) of the body. The remainder of the time is spent integrating the sound and relaxing in the deeply resonant, multi-wave sound chamber.
The Sound Bath Boom
The Integratron is not the only place to offer sound baths. In fact, we are currently in the midst of a sound bath boom. More and more venues—from yoga studios to boutique hotels—offer sound baths. People seeking relief from stress, anxiety, and other ailments find relief through these baths. “There’s been a crazy explosion of sound baths,” Sara Auster, a sound healer who leads baths in New York City, told Well + Good. “For whatever reason it’s happening, I think it’s amazing.”
Jaime Ford, another sound bath practitioner, described the baths to One Down Dog as like “a concert with gongs and crystal singing bowls. I work with gongs tuned to the orbital properties of the planets, sun, moon, and other celestial bodies so the energy of the cosmos are brought into the experience.” During the baths, people experience deep states of altered consciousness and relaxation—some even fall asleep. “The resonance of the instruments is strong, and it’s not just an auditory experience, it’s also like receiving a sound massage.”
Tuning In to Healing
“Sacred vibrational healing delves into the physics of what it is to be a sentient piece of matter in the universe,” Richard Rudis, a Tibetan Buddhist, told the Denver Post. “The gift of sacred sound is a quick, easy, and profound healing experience; and we’re all attuned to it immediately. There are no prerequisites.”
Western medicine has harnessed the power of sound waves as well, for diagnostics as well as therapeutic means. “Being bathed in sound with intention puts people into a deep meditative state quickly because of the sound, frequency, and vibration,” said Dr. Gloria Oberbeck, a Harvard-educated M.D., in the above-mentioned Denver Post article. “If you understand that we are made up of vibration and energy right down to our cells, it all resonates.”
Oberbeck mentioned that many studies show meditative states can relieve conditions such as…
High blood pressure
Stress
Anxiety
Insomnia
Depression
Chronic pain
If no locations near you offer sound baths, you can still access the healing effects of sound by playing a recording in your own home. “I see results when measuring blood pressure, sleep cycles, [and] anxiety levels,” Oberbeck noted. Many such recordings are readily available online for purchase.
