Gong Bath Meditation - My Journey

Having never been to a Gong Bath meditation I had no preconceived ideas about what I was going to experience or even what it was about. The idea is that the sound from the gongs can aid the meditation, either as you concentrate on the sound or the sound breaks up the line of thoughts that continually flow through your head, which often make it difficult to meditate. The meditation was to last between 1 -1  1/2 hours and would use the sound of various sized singing bowls and gongs that the sound therapist would play.  We all had mats to lie on, cushions and blankets to keep us warm and comfortable for the duration of the session.  A short awareness relaxation was given, to help us settle and then the session commenced. 

My Journey - as the various sounds filtered through the air and me, I became aware that I was stood in snow watching Aurora Borealis, the colours and movement flowed with the sound I was sensing.  As the sound grew louder I realised I was now in an underground cavern looking upwards to a large hole in the roof, through which I could see the night sky, the sound was reverberating around the cavern.  As the vibrations died down I found myself stood by a fire watching the flames dance about as the noise grew again, the flames danced higher and higher.  As the sound intensified I became aware the the flames had now changed into a wall of water rising up and up before crashing down again.  As the sound mellowed I found myself floating then in the cosmos amid stars, colours and energy, I gazed at all that was around me and within me.  Looking back now, I can see that through all these images, I had experienced all the elements, air, earth, fire, water and spirit/ether.

What came next was blast of images containing subjects that I've recently been researching, The Pyramids, Atlanta, River Styx - to The Underworld, Aliens and Channeling.  It was all pretty random, with no real pattern. 

The next image was crows over battlefields - war & bloodshed - to me this makes me think of Morrigan.

After that I seem to remember associating each sound, pitch and tone with the vibrations of various things, so I would perceive a sound and I would see a tree, next sound might be water, then the next a stone and so on and so on.  This carried on until we had reached the end on the meditation and silence enveloped the room.  Of course everybody's experience will be different - this was just mine!

We were given as much time as we needed to come back and ground ourselves.  Drinks and biscuits were available to aid us in this and there was the opportunity to swap and share our experiences and ask any questions.  Talking with people afterwards, I found that some did have intentions that they wanted to focus on whilst meditating, such as journeying and healing.  The sound, the space and the time, give them the opportunity to really focus and intensify their experience.

I found it an absolutely amazing experience and one that I would certainly partake of again and encourage others to try. 
The Gong Bath I went to was organised by a local group in the Southampton area, called Active Arts.  They organise many other activites too, for those interested, here is the link to their web page

http://www.activeartists.org.uk/index.html

Moon - Waxing Crescent 6%

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Card Message - Queen of Cups
May signify you, your mother, a therapist, or a woman that inspires love in you and stirs the depths of your emotional nature.  Loving, maternal and intuitive, possibly working in a field of relationship counselling and healing