The Gong

The gong is one of humanity's most ancient instruments, first mentioned more than five thousand years ago. In Indonesia — considered by some to be its birthplace — the instrument is called "chakram", from the Sanskrit "chakra", the word used in yoga for the energy centers of the human being. From the time of the Buddha (600 BCE), all sacred Chinese gongs were marked with two characters, "Tai Loi", meaning "Happiness Has Arrived".

Many civilizations recognized the gong as a magical instrument. In antiquity it was used as a tool of initiation on the path to enlightenment, for healing illness, banishing spirits, calling the attention of the gods, and commanding the elements. In Borneo gongs are still used to drive away storms. Commanders used them in war to frighten the enemy and gather their armies; princes and chieftains proclaimed their rank through the gongs they owned, and oaths were strengthened by drinking from a gong.

Birth, death and marriage still take place to the sound of the gong — at funerals, weddings, ceremonies, rituals, festivals and dance performances. For many centuries Tibetan monks have used the gong for meditation. In Southeast Asia it is believed that every gong has a soul; they are given respectful names such as "Invincible Tiger" or "Your Majesty Earthquake". The gong also holds an invaluable place in classical music — it sounds in the works of Glinka, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and many others.

Like yoga, the gong touches body, mind and spirit. It works on every level of healing and transformation: physical, emotional and spiritual.

"More than a musical instrument, the gong is a means of transformation. When the gong plays, body, consciousness and spirit change." — Mehtab Benton, gong teacher, author of "Gong Yoga"

The gong produces a very powerful sound wave that acts on the surface of the skin, stimulating the dermatomes — the segments into which the body's skin is divided. They are connected to the central nervous system through the spinal nerve roots, which in turn communicate with the various organs. During a gong session these segments are stimulated by sound waves, influencing the corresponding organs and other parts of the body.

Research has shown the gong to be especially helpful with insomnia, neck pain, headaches and menstrual pain, migraines, spasms and tightness in the chest and upper respiratory tract, joint disorders and psychosomatic conditions. When the gong is played close to the listener, the sound wave can literally wrap the body in a "sound massage". Its sound supports cell renewal and is often used in the recovery of cancer patients; faster recovery from injury has repeatedly been observed when a gong is played nearby, as the living sound stimulates blood circulation while its wide range of frequencies stimulates the nerve endings affected by trauma.

Because physical complaints are so often bound up with stress and emotion, the gong's effect on those areas also affects physical wellbeing. It acts directly on the pituitary gland, the central organ of the endocrine system, which in turn balances the whole glandular system. The gong also balances excitation and inhibition in the nervous system, relaxes the muscles and stabilizes the autonomic system.

The gong is a powerful instrument of transformation. Bringing complete relaxation and a clearing of the mind, its sound reorganizes feelings and emotions and ultimately affects consciousness itself. In antiquity the gong was used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other mental disorders, and the method is still used in many psychiatric clinics today: by leading patients into a sound trance, an altered state and transpersonal experience, doctors help them integrate their own experience. The discovery of the gong was a breakthrough in music therapy for autism.

In 1973 Yogi Bhajan first applied a gong-based program for overcoming drug addiction. In its very first year it was recognized among the top 10% of such programs, with a recovery rate of 91%. Gong therapy is also a method of transpersonal psychology, allowing a person to rediscover joy and feel their own wholeness and identity. It is an excellent support during stress, crisis, depression, chronic fatigue, and feelings of aggression, hostility, fear and loneliness.

The sages of antiquity believed that the sounds of the gong have the power to heal the spirit, to fill a person with universal life energy, and to support spiritual growth and the development of intuition. Since time immemorial the gong has been used for meditation, allowing one to switch off the mental "noise" of the brain. Spiritual healing begins when union occurs between the listener and the primal sound waves — with that transcendental reality and infinity that lie beyond body and mind. In that space the gong becomes a portal to the Divine, a gateway to an eternity that has always existed and always will. The gong is rightly recognized as an instrument of self-knowledge, self-transformation and enlightenment.

Cymatics — the science of visualizing sound and vibration — demonstrates that frequency and vibration are master keys and organizing principles for the creation of all matter and life on this planet. When sound waves travel through a physical medium — sand, air, water — the frequency of the waves directly shapes the structures they create as they pass through that medium, such as the human body, which is more than 70% water. Listening to the gong helps our organs tune to their own correct vibrations, harmonizing bioelectric rhythms. Behind all these transformations stand entirely natural psychophysiological processes: the effect of polyphonic sound on bioelectric activity in the central nervous system and other regulatory organs.

Gong and yoga can exist separately, but their combination is especially healing. Yoga is itself a practice of healing that leads to Union. There is a whole direction of yoga-gong therapy, in which asanas, mudras, bandhas, pranayamas and mantras are combined with the sound of the gong. Such practice awakens intuition, balances the chakras and the emotions, and improves the functioning of many systems of the body.

The gong is also widely used in yoga nidra, allowing the deepest imprints of samskaras — the karmic forces behind many of our actions and life events — to be cleared. Through the combination of yoga nidra and the gong you enter those layers of the subconscious that help reveal and dissolve habitual patterns of behavior which often cause physical and psychological problems. The gong is used everywhere in Kundalini Yoga as well.

Founded in Estonia in 1906 and now Swiss, PAISTE produces gongs of the highest quality. Alongside symphonic gongs, it makes so-called planetary gongs, tuned to the vibrations of the Earth and other celestial bodies according to the calculations of the Swiss mathematician and musicologist Hans Cousto. The palette of these gongs is deeply mystical and creates an atmosphere of unfathomable depth. At Castillo del Sol we use a Paiste 38" Earth Gong.

Frequencies: 3rd octave — 136 Hz; 4th octave — 432 Hz.

This gong is also called "Om". According to the Vedic heritage, "Om is the vibration that gave rise to the Universe". In Hinduism "Om" is the sacred sound, the primordial mantra, the word of power. It is also the fundamental note of the sitar in classical Indian music, vibrating at exactly 136 Hz.

The frequency of 432 Hz is called the frequency of happiness; mathematically it is the natural frequency of the Universe, uniting the properties of light, time, space, matter, gravity and magnetism with biology, DNA and consciousness. Music based on 432 Hz carries a benevolent healing energy, because it is a pure tone of nature's mathematical foundation. Natural sounds — flowing water, birdsong, ocean surf — all vibrate at 432 Hz. The Earth Gong balances all the chakras; its relaxing frequencies bring grounding, relaxation and harmonization, and a natural presence in the here and now.

The sensations that arise while listening to the gong can be compared to a powerful vibrational massage: the whole body resonates with the sound and enters into a kind of dance with it. The sound waves are like ocean waves, lifting your feelings upward and then opening a path into the depths. The experience is so strong and unusual that everyday worries and problems recede far into the background, losing their sharpness and urgency.

Many experience states similar to those induced by psychedelics. People often hear different instruments, animal voices or singing within the sound of the gong; they see beautiful colors, images, symbols, events of past lives — this is how our mechanisms of perception try to adapt to the fullness and changeability of what is perceived. Experiences that reconnect us with the deep essence of our nature become a resource, filling us with strength and harmony.

For many, the journey along the waves of the gong becomes a valuable and inspiring experience that helps to find a way out of a dead end in life. All you have to do is lie down and allow yourself to be in the Sound — without preconceptions, without judgement, ready to receive whatever experience may come. It is always a journey into the depth of the Universe and… into the depth of yourself. A journey in which everything becomes possible.