Sonic Flow™ the Second Time

This two-hour Sonic Flow™ with Amanda Ling focuses mainly on sound therapy. No floating in a pod like the last round. This second session offered a more in-depth understanding than the first one I attended, and felt wayyy better. Perhaps it was the wood flooring that transmitted sound vibrations from the bronze alloy bowls much better than a concrete floor. Perhaps it was because my circadian rhythm prefers stretching out in the day over the nights. Or maybe because the two hours taken this time felt less rushed than a one-hour session.

Dunno how to describe the yoga portion since I don't actually do yoga. Neither do I know much about it. This session was supposed to be a yin-yang flow which stretches out the lower body. Lots of hips, quads, toes and feet. After stretching out, we had a good 30 minutes of sound therapy. Laid down (yogis call it 'savasana') to enjoy the sound waves wash over us. That felt wonderful.

Amanda explained that the each bowl represented the seven chakras and the right use of it in producing sounds would guide meditation and rebalance chakras. Okaaaay. I was lost. I did better with information on music theory and math- in terms of how each bowl is tuned to an interval of fifths, the tritone. The layered binaural beats (+2 or -2) soothe the mind and help to clear it of thoughts. I was able to filter out the traffic sounds, the irritating pop music from ceiling speakers of the shop downstairs, the dragging of a trolley past the shophouse, et cetera. Sank deep down into a state of relaxation. I was thinking about...nothing. I was just happily floating in my mind space. Till Amanda 'called' us back to reality with three gentle chimes on the tingsha.

At the end, Amanda had time and could come to each of us to place the bowl on our preferred areas on the body and make it sing. That was fun to feel the vibrations sinking down into the body. I really couldn't tell if the sound vibrations help with chasing away physical aches and pains. However, stretching and a quiet relaxation window with minimal sound pollution and appropriate sound accompaniment would.

The practitioner, the person creating those sounds from bowls, will affect the sounds. It's like, no two guitarists will play the same riff exactly so. (I like Amanda's style.) It could be in the way they strike the bowls, the pacing, the material on the mallets or it could also be their frame of mind. I wouldn't know. The whole premise of sound healing could be quackery, or not. New Age? Definitely. It's like the matter of crystals. If you believe in them and lovingly bathe them in moonlight, then they work for you. As long as a session of sound healing achieves your desire of chilling out or have a calm moment to yourself amidst crazy work deadlines, then I suppose it's all good.