It’s a little kooky. A little spooky. A little ooky. Woo-woo, but also pretty cool. It’s called sound bathing. No better place to do it than in the middle of a lavender labyrinth in Sonoma County at sunset!
Bees N Blooms, just across the street from the entrance to Taylor Mountain Regional Park, hosts a weekly sound-bathing experience. It’s in its fifth year. Blue Muse and the Celestial Voice group coordinates the playing of gongs, bowls, native drums, ocean drums, stream rattles, didgeridoos and chimes to create a “massage of sound.” The experience takes place on a circular grassy lawn saturated in lavender aromas.
If you like to meditate and enter a profound connection to the hear and now—pun, drum flair—consider a sound bath. Although there are many ways to enter a meditative state, such as following the rhythm of one’s breath, another easy way is to focus on a single sense. Sound is often chosen because it is uniquely immersive.
Whenever attention is directed to a single sense—whether touch, taste, smell, sight or sound—and focused for an extended period of time, meditation begins. Sensory perception, by default, is in the present moment. Experiencing the present moment is meditation: past hurts fade, future worries lessen, the present enlivens. Enlightened people reportedly integrate attention to multiple senses in the present moment, creating special awareness and a unique presence…