The Boys and Girls Club Thrift Store in Ventura seemed an unlikely place to find a Kundalini yoga ‘sound bath’ practitioner’s quartz crystal singing bowl. JE wrote me that her “FIND” is a whopping twelve-inch diameter, ten-inch-tall delicate blue bowl. She thought it expensive at $75 with rubber mallet. Shoppers find real bargains in the higher priced items at these places. Online, JE said, she might have spent $600 for this bowl. But did she really need a quartz crystal singing bowl? “what is it FOR?” She said she wanted it as a centerpiece fruit bowl. It’s much more than that say some practitioners of sound healing.
JE owns a tuned piano so I asked her to match the sound of the bowl to a note. She reported matching it to G or G#. Makers of Hindu and Buddhist bronze singing bowls for centuries found G natural or G# a highly beneficial rate of vibration, measured today as ~392Hz. The “science” of sound healing assumes that many parts of the body and mind have certain vibrational frequencies that, like the note on JE’s piano, a sound “match.”
G or G#
This frequency of G or G# is associated with the Ascension Point or the throat chakra. JE’s thrift store treasure is “tuned” to respond to and balance the vibrational energies of the throat, the voice box, the thyroid, the lungs, and the cellular structure of the neck, ears, and mouth. Since communication is primarily experienced through the voice or through hearing, the proper balance between the inner person and the outer sound aids in the ability to communicate clearly with others, and with ourselves in dreams. Also to positively communicate our needs, to listen mindfully, to express ourselves harmoniously. That word, “in harmony” is also a musical terms, meaning two sounds that blend. Maybe the term points to something deeper?
Practitioners say every part of a person’s body contains a vibrational frequency. JE’s bowl corresponds with the bottom of the skull and base of the spine (5th Chakra). I own a large collection of bell-metal singing bowls in bronze, a mixture of copper and tin. So I researched the properties and theories behind these ancient tools. But I didn’t know about the popularity of quartz crystal singing bowls until JE shared her thrift store find with me.
Why quartz crystal?
Under pressure two simple elements do marvelous things. Silica and water are the main ingredients of quartz crystal, naturally occurring in nature but also manufactured. Because quartz crystal stores, amplifies, and transfers energy, the microchips of the electronic world also use quartz crystal. It’s absolutely necessary to our modern technology, essential as a semiconductor. In sound healing theory, parts of our bodies serve as semiconductors as well. Healers claim we’re made of energy and have crystalline structures in main areas of our bodies.
For example, a primary crystalline structure is in our bone matrix. Significantly, the inner ear contains calcium carbonate crystals, amazing if you assume a connection between the frequency of G or G# and the 5th chakra that concerns the ear and the mouth. We have a crystalline structure in our teeth, enabling speech, and in the collagen molecules of our connective tissues. Maybe there’s something to the healing properties of sound?
Do Singing Bowls “Cure” Dissonance?
If JE’s quartz crystal singing bowl represents more than a bargain, and if she makes it “sing,” MIGHT she report the sound is responsive to her own crystalline structures. Therefore she’s enabled to harmoniously communicate? What is the dosage amount: how many strikes of the mallet per week does it take to realize the resonance of the bowl?
These quartz crystal bowls mean to “cure” dissonance, an interesting use of musical term to describe a modality we know little about. We know more about the properties of healing through art, a visual balancing through the eyes. Devotees who participated in ritual “sound baths” often report they “see” the sound in a color, possibly because both sound and light come in waves. A sound bath includes many of these bowls in various frequencies, determined by shape and size. As well as gongs, and drums, chimes, natural sounds played to a quiet, willing listener to create resonance in a “perfect pitch” to the listener’s body. What a marvelous find—even if it becomes JE’s new fruit bowl after a few weeks.