My first-ever sound bath came decades ago on a massage table in Taos, New Mexico. The experience was different from some of my more recent sessions where — eyes closed, the room dark — I listened to high-pitched crystal singing bowls, deeply resonating gongs, and rattle-like drums. During this first sound bath, I laid face up on the table as my therapist worked over me (for 90-plus minutes) gently tuning my energy field (chakras). With forks.
Originally used to tune musical instruments, the two-pronged metal tuning forks (which come in varying lengths, thicknesses, and shapes) are used in sound healing to balance and re-calibrate the human body. Longer, heavier forks produce a lower tone and frequency; smaller, shorter forks, a higher.
The concept of sound healing — said to reduce stress and anxiety, induce a state of deep relaxation, improve focus and mental clarity, and for many, relieve pain — is not new. Ancient Egyptians used chanting and vowel-sound toning in healing rituals; their pyramids were actually built with acoustics in mind. Greek physicians incorporated flute and lyre into their therapeutic settings; while Traditional Chinese Medicine has always associated sound and vibration with the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) and health of the internal organs. Australia’s Aboriginal used the low-frequency didgeridoo to aid physical healing; as shamans in Africa and South America relied on drumming, chanting, and rattles.
Going Mainstream
Sound therapy entered the mainstream during WWI and WWII when musicians played instruments for wounded soldiers to help with trauma and pain relief. Today the rise of vibrational medicine aligns with the idea that disease and sickness are a direct result of energy imbalance and that sound therapy helps the body to restore.
According to quantum physics — because everything is energy (and energy is vibration) — each cell in the human body has its own unique vibration and frequency. All too often, daily life — in the form of stress, poor nutrition, lack of sleep — adversely affects the body’s equilibrium. Higher-pitch frequencies such as those emitted from crystal singing bowls (or small tuning forks) are believed to resonate most with the upper chakras (throat, third eye, and crown) working to enhance communication, intuition, and spiritual connection. Lower frequencies (via gongs, drum, or larger tuning forks) focus on the root and sacral chakras, helping to reduce muscle tension and induce a sense of calm and relaxation.
Thor Poening, CEO of Germany-based Burmester, the maker of top-notch surround-sound audio systems for luxury yachts and automobiles (Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes Benz), says that customers often liken the experience of listening to music on a Burmester system as “helping to find their inner self. They describe it as a state of mind; the calm that follows a walk through nature or a moment of true meditation,” says Poening. “The sound is just so pure.”
Increasingly, live-performance sound baths are being offered at spas as part of holistic immersions (i.e. yoga and wellness retreats) and in harmony with nature via healing mountain, desert, and ocean scapes. Following are a few of our favorite spa-based, healing sound baths, along with our wish-list of a few still to try.
Sound Baths We Love
Hotel Manapany St. Barth
“Feel the vibration. Connect. And if anything comes up for you, breathe through it.”
A dozen of us lie face up on yoga mats scattered around the dim-lit studio at Hotel Manapany in St. Barth. It is evening and our muscles are eager to relax. As part of The Art of Self Care (held annually in summer and led by world-renowned yogi and transpersonal therapist, Diana Bourel), we started our day with early (7 a.m.) morning yoga, followed by mid-morning aqua yoga in the Caribbean Sea. The afternoon included a more traditional Iyenger-style yoga session (hold that pose) and, for me, spa treatments — a Dr. Hauschka facial and deep-tissue massage.
Now, as we reconvene for the evening — pillows and bolsters tucked under heads and knees; blankets draped over us — an elaborate display of gongs, gold Tibetan and crystal singing bowls stand ready to perform. Most everyone, including our instructor, Gregoire Bosc, is French speaking. But as he begins the 90-minute session, he moves fluently between French and English, his voice soothing and melodic. He begins with high-pitch notes, before steadily moving into an almost fury-like rhythm —an orchestra of gongs, crystal bowels, rattling drums, and what sounds to me like wind chimes. At one point, I feel a tightening in my chest and heart, a tugging sadness, and remembering Gregoire’s instruction, breathe through it. At another point, the sound once again soft and gentle, I feel a surge of physical discomfort (even though I haven’t moved an inch) in my right hip. Again, I breathe.
We Care Spa, California
Inside the yoga room at We Care Spa in Desert Hot Springs, as crystal singing bowls — in varying pitches and intensities — build into an orchestrated crescendo, I see her. My friend and colleague; her eyes sparkling, a smile on her face. She looks and feels so close — as if she is in the room with me. But she is not. She is in New York, some 3,000 miles away. Still, a warmth radiates through me as a connection is made. And as the gong booms, a loud, deeply resonating, vibrating bellow — rattling windows and every fiber of my being — a sense of gratitude washes over me. In my deliriously happy state, I thank her. And others in my life.
I have come to this place — my all-time favorite spa — to cleanse. Realign. Here, amidst hummingbirds and desert cacti, I drink a liquid diet of fresh-pressed juices, broths, and special (liver, kidney, blood) teas. I practice gentle yoga and stretching; slip in and out of the infrared sauna; and have oodles of detoxifying spa treatments: dry body brushing, lymphatic massage and massages with castor oil, magnesium wraps, and daily colonics. This sound bath, delivered in a blanket of darkness just before bedtime, is an unexpected and much-cherished bonus.
Sensei Porcupine Creek, California
Not long after arriving at billionaire Larry Ellison’s Japanese-inspired Sensei Porcupine Creek (America’s most insanely luxurious spa), I am directed from my stunning suite: a fantasia of live orchids, Japanese art, minimalist teak furniture, and deep-soaking Japanese Toto tub along a garden path spilling with bougainvillea and sweet plumeria to the yoga studio.
Per (pronounced Pear) greets me at the door, his feet bare, and a giant smile on his face. “You have just arrived? Traveled a long way, flew early this morning? This [sound journey] will relax you.” And it does. For the next 60 minutes, in a studio filled with light, I listen as Per works his magic, playing Tibetan singing bowls, a giant, oversized gong, and a drum that — when he moves it just so — sounds exactly like ocean waves.
The Point Luxury Villa, Costa Rica
At wellness-inspired The Point Luxury Villa in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste province — a recognized Blue Zone due to the high volume of centenarians living here — sound baths are a completely customized experience, and in my case (I’m here with my significant other) specially crafted for two as a couples experience.
Seated on cushions in the living room overlooking the pool and sea, Andrea Delmar, our lithe, dark-haired therapist, led us through a deep-breathing meditation before moving us into a lie-down, side-by-side position. Here, for the next 60 minutes, she bathed us in pitch-perfect sound: crystal and Tibetan singing bowls, a symphony of rattles and drums — the high-and-low frequencies working to release any ‘stuck’ chi (or energy) we may be holding.
Etéreo Auberge, Mexico
At Etéreo, sound isn’t just heard —it’s felt. Inside the resort’s dedicated sound bath room, crystal bowls and gongs release rippling vibrations that reverberate both body and mind. The experience is designed not simply for relaxation but for deep restoration. Our editor in chief experienced this as part of her spa journey: “As an avid gym goer and Pilates devotee, I take my health seriously, but I didn’t realize how out of balance I was. I arrived early to my appointment and decided to spend 15 minutes in the sound room. When I emerged, it felt as though someone had massaged places in my head I could never reach. By the time I moved into my treatment, I wasn’t just relaxed — I felt tuned, aligned in a rare harmony between self and place.”
More Sound Baths to Know
The Westin London City, England: Participants float on buoyant airbeds (creating a sensation of weightlessness) in a candlelit pool absorbing the healing frequencies of crystal bowls, cascading rainfall, ocean drums, and deep harmonic gongs.
Seasons Megeve, France: Bathe in both sound and water. Lie on a float in the pool (under snow-capped mountains) as Georgie Sabalczyk, an expert in vibrational therapies, performs a healing sound session.
Amangiri, Utah: Sound bowls, shamanic breathing, and immersions into Navajo traditions are part of the sound healing menu at this desert-chic spa.
COMO Shambhala Estate, Bali, Indonesia: Customized sound healing, along with Ayurveda and detox therapies, are an integral part of the offerings at this luxurious holistic wellness resort.
Bishop’s Lodge, Santa Fe, New Mexico: The spa’s signature “Symphony of Sound” includes Tibetan crystal meditation bowls, chakra healing, and shamanic rituals.
Viceroy Los Cabos, Mexico: This oceanfront spa’s “Strength of Mind” therapy blends sound healing with reflexology. Otherworldly.
Featured image, courtesy of We Care Spa. We may earn commission on the bookings from this article.
