Sound Baths are better than Psychedelics!

How Sound Healing helps us bridge the gap between different worlds.

When we were coming up with the tagline for our new Sound Baths we thought we would take one of the most popular pieces of feedback we receive and turn it into a bit of provocative tagline.

And why not???

This was exactly one of my first thoughts when I went to my first Sound Bath in Cornwall many moons ago - so long in fact that Bex and the life I have now were but dreams in the ether. 

Come to think of it - I’m pretty sure that the dreams of my present were seeded in those early sound baths.

The tagline seems so appropriate - both the curiosity and fear that the topic of psychedelics create shows us that in one way or another we sense there is more to this world, and more to ourselves. A larger unseen realm of existence that we feel deeply. Trouble is we were taught, through various ways, to forget this larger part of our existence or even worse - to fear it.

The same hemispheric cohesion between the different sides of the brian that happens through psychedelic use is experienced in deep meditative states and especially through the use of sound healing.

The vibrations of the music we play creates harmony in the shared field of those attending but also individually in each person's body and psyche. It is like a soundtrack for your physical relaxation and soul integration. People have told us about how they have revisited old & painful memories or how something they saw in a vision during the Sound Bath came to pass in real life. 

When the brian is lit up, the heart is light and the body relaxed, you don’t need a rocket to visit other worlds.

Make no mistake, this is powerful stuff - you’ll experience yourself in a completely unique way and much like your first positive sexual experience - you won’t look back. Your mind and body will know where the bar and standard is set and your mind will forever be open and aware of this larger part of you. It feels real. It feels like you and because you are in a sober state of mind you will not question that judgment.

I think this is why so many people have said to us about our sound baths that they are better than psychedelics. Now obviously you’ll have had to have had experience with psychedelics to make that comparison and as you might have guessed I fall into that category.

For those that haven’t yet have meditated before, it is much the same. These people often come and find us, as the crowd is coming too (packing up their roll mats, sharing experiences and smiles) and tell us that it was one of the deepest and most meaningful meditative experiences they have ever had.

So what makes it BETTER than psychedelics?

Well, hands up, we wrote it to grab your attention, shock a little and draw you in. Now you're here I’ll tell you why…

It’s not that it is better - it is that there is a vast difference between taking something and inducing a mental state (which has many benefits) and allowing your body to naturally, and at its own pace, to open up and create that experience within itself.

People have many profound experiences during a Sound Bath as well as they do on a psychedelic “trip”. What makes a Sound Bath different is that the transition between so called altered states (where people experience visions, receive messages and healing etc) back into the waking world is soooooo much easier.

The mind isn’t second guessing things - the body isn't trying to readjust after such a massive chemical tweak, even if it is plant organic medicine - that is some powerful stuff and the body needs time to readjust afterwards.

After a Sound Bath both the body and the mind don’t have to contend with anything foreign to itself thus it is a lot easier for the whole experience to be digested and absorbed by all layers of your system - mental, emotional, physical and auric.

There are many purifying and purging aspects of psychedelics which are just incredible gifts. These however need to be done in the right container. Also when you're “tripping” it is not the easiest thing to interact with others, as you can imagine. 

More magic of the Sound Bath is held here - bringing people together, breathing & moving together as one through our group exercises. We are all looking for a bit of community and this is one aspect that we can “feel” richly whilst using psychedelics but we cannot experience physically with our bodies, in conversation & co-operation and through with another.

It is great to have a chuckle with your mates when you're enjoying mushrooms, camping around a fire looking up in awe together at the stars, or sharing a trip in quiet solitude with the one you love - feeling like you’re exploring the universe together, gliding through the stars, holding hands whilst sitting on the couch.

However I think we all yearn for grounding, gentle and incremental exposure to people & environments that welcome all of ourselves in our everyday state. That way we can build on it.

The big stuff happens in the little stuff and coming together to experience sound healing and the journey of a group energy coming together satisfies a need and desire to connect with people beyond the peripheral, to break through superficiality and go deeper into the richer realms of humor, honesty and play.

What I’ve noticed in the culture of self-help, spirituality and the recent promotion of psychedelics (and even some breathwork modalities to be honest) is a desire to push past what is sustainable for the body of the individual. 

It is like blowing a bit too much magic dust into the system where there isn’t just the space for that magic to land. It can become acidic and we can bypass the reality of our physical form.

Imagine the consciousness super trooper, people that you would meet in the smoking area at a rave wearing a flower of life necklace or the vegan tent at a wellness festival on their fifth retreat of the year. They seem a little wide eyed, feet off the ground and probably in need of a few more hot dinners and early nights and less consciousness expanding experiences. I've fallen into this bracket a few times in my life but that is a story for another time. 

And this can happen to those spirit junkies too - it doesn’t matter if you're reading all the books and taking all the supplements, if you are still convinced the power lies outside of you then you’ll always be chasing your tail. Hand up again - also had many stays in this camp too!!

Sound Baths are super gentle. What we wanted to create was a place where we could provide something truly marvelous and I've got to say the sounds we make together melt my heart and rattle the deepest layers of my bones in equal measure. I’m beyond proud to do it, of myself and of Rebecca and everyone who chooses to come to attend and journey with us.

More than anything we set out to make this experience YOURS. The feelings, the transformation that people talk about after our events…you can hear the depth of their voice, their eyes let me know they felt it. Deeply. 

It is so personal and it is honestly & intuitively created together among us all, in the moment, no rehearsal just me & Bex responding and channeling what we feel coming through our bodies. And you guys are brave enough to reach for more. More than the humdrum of the gray life that is sold to us, that in some ways can be forced on us.

You  make it. We play it.

We are in it together.

That is why I am proud of what we do.

And you guys for being brave enough to reach for more. More than the humdrum of the gray life that is sold to us, that in some ways can be forced on us.

I feel like the world is ours.

I feel that freedom for us all in the thick silence afterwards. That kind of silence that you can just melt into, the kind of silence that you notice after something magical has just happened.

And guess what? All that and no psychedelic tonics required!

Plus let’s be honest…

If you are reading this then you are probably off ya nut and weird enough anyway :-)

You and me both eh!

Oliver.