My husband is an
extremely good sport. I have taken him all over the place, talked him into
buying a crystal mine in Arkansas, purchased thousands of crystals and bought
jewelry all over the world, so an hour’s retreat with a sound bath must have
seemed pretty tame for him.
The Integratron
is acoustically perfect in every way. It is an all-wooden structure made
without benefit of nails of metal. There is a downstairs entry which is the
bottom of the dome. Here you remove your shoes, learn what the directions are
and then climb the mostly vertical steps up to the second floor of this Integratron.
Once up there,
you find that your mat and pillow have already been laid out for you. Then you
lay down. In one slice of the arc space on that floor, are 14 quartz crystal
signing bowls perfectly arranged in what appears to be a random order, but
nothing here is random, everything here is purposeful. The process begins by
listening carefully to the brief directions. They warn you not to snore. I
found that rather humorous since once you are that asleep and sawing wood, you are
pretty oblivious to the noises your nose and mouth are making.
However, we were
given permission to tell the person next to us to top snoring or to at least
touch them. They also asked us not to get up and move about, but to be still
throughout the entire experience. Please, no cell phone, talking or moving
about.
They strongly
suggest that you meditate, that you drift into that place of mindfulness and
healing.
I own three
quartz crystal signing bowls myself. I know how they work. They come in a tremendous
range of sizes to correspond to the notes on a harmonic scale and the chakra system in the human body. They are made of
pure crushed quartz crystal that is combined with a resin or an epoxy and then
specifically shaped into these harmonic sizes.
The bowls are ‘played’ by gently
but firmly tapping the outside of the bowl and then caressing or rubbing the
side of the bowl with this same rubber-tipped wooden wand. Once the bowls are
played, they begin to have a unique and dramatic vibration that seems to
penetrate your very soul. The sound is pure, sweet and harmonizing.
Many people are familiar with
Tibetan singing bowls, those small metal bowls that sit on colorful silk
pillows. Metal singing bowls specifically target the musculoskeletal system
while crystal singing bowls directly affect the sensory nervous system. This is
probably why you feel so rejuvenated after the experience.
They play the bowls for 25 amazing
minutes. The sound is nothing like you can imagine and something I find that I
am inadequate to fully describe. The tones penetrate your being, your soul,
your mind, heart and the emotional/spiritual basis of your very life. Not bad
for a 25 minute session. After the playing session, they have you simply lay
there for another 25 minutes absorbing your experience. Then you quietly arise
and leave.
Our experience was a little hard to
describe. Troy pretty much fell asleep, woke up refreshed as if he had had an
extra nourishing nap and had no further description or unique experience.
My experience was completely
different. I tried to meditate, really I did, but I found that I was more than
mindful of the sound penetrating every cell of my body. In fact, I felt myself
pinned to the floor, experienced a tremendous cold wave come over me and could
not move even a finger. It was not unlike receiving an acupuncture treatment
where you dare not move until the energy has finally settled down in your body.
Finally, after the 25 minutes I began to feel warmth return to my body and we
made our way out of this magic chamber.
Then we made our
way back to 29 Palms and spent the afternoon in Joshua Tree national park and
watched the sun set. You can see the San Andreas fault from here. Gorgeous
landscape, almost surreal. There are a number of charming bed and breakfast Inn here. We stayed at Roughly Manor. We highly recommend this beautiful place to stay with its private quaint cottages. This is a
great get-a-away! Photography by Tina Erwin. All rights reserved.
