GUEST POST: POWER OF THE GONG BY ALESS MARGARITO

Alessandra Margarito teaches a creative Pilates class at Yogahome and also performs our seasonal gong baths! Here she shares a personal recount of her first gong bath and subsequent journey becoming a sound healer. 

I can still remember my very first Gong Bath. It made me feel,  it made me think,  it changed my relationship with everything around me, it opened up a new world, but I couldn’t quite verbalise my experiences. Words just weren’t powerful enough

Now, years later, having become a Gong Practitioner myself, I’m often asked: what is it, what happens, how does it work, why does it work, explain it?

Of course there’s a science behind this experience…. The sound of the Gong activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which takes the body into a natural state of balance activating your body’s natural ability to heal and detox while calming and soothing busy minds. It may even release emotional pain and mental blockages.

However, I don’t really think the scientific explanation does the experience justice. Years later I now understand that a more fitting way for me to explain the experience is by referencing Kabir’s Ecstatic Poems translated by Robert Bly:  “…near your breastbone there’s an open flower. Drink the honey that is all around that flower. Waves are coming in: there’s so much magnificence near the ocean! Listen: sound of big seashells! Sound of bells!”

The Gong is a sacred healing instrument that has been used ritually for thousands of years for the purposes of healing and inducing altered states of consciousness. If you haven’t already tried a Gong Bath then know that each one is unique and each one will throw up different emotions every time.

All you need do is, turn up, lie down and you will then be bathed in the vibration of the Gong……..the experience is your own.