Omnivos Therapeutics began its life under a different name, Rhythmic Symmetry. If you are wondering why I changed the company name, try spelling and typing it. Not sure Omnivos is any better but I like it: Omni meaning Universal or All and Vos meaning you so, Universal You. Well, it sounded good at the time. Probably should have put an “e” at the end of it. I digress.
Anyway, I hear people play tuning forks, singing bowls, gongs and didgeridoos without any cohesiveness. I find that regardless of what tools you are working with, using rhythm and symmetry makes for a much better experience.
Rhythm is defined as a “strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound”. Symmetry has several different meanings but for our purposes, let’s think of symmetry as harmony and balance.
When I work with a client or in a group session, I usually select three crystal singing bowls. I play them in a pattern, with rhythm. For example, if I have 3 bowls (call them bowl 1, bowl 2 & bowl 3), I’ll play them in succession a few times:
1 – 2 – 3
1 – 2 – 3
1 – 2 – 3
then reverse the order;
3 – 2 – 1
3 – 2 – 1
3 – 2 – 1
then, change the order;
3 – 1 – 2
3 – 1 – 2
etc.
It is also very important to remember that the silence between the tap is also part of the rhythm. So tap – pause, tap – pause, tap – pause etc with the pauses being the same length, say 2 seconds. After playing the third bowl, leave a little longer time for silence, say 4 seconds.
This may be a little hard to explain so there is a video below where you can hear what I am referring to. The main point is that sound therapy should not be approached like a 2 year old banging on a cooking pan.
I did a singing bowl meditation and a local health expo. It was 9:30 AM and about 35 people were there. I played for about 1/2 hour using my rhythm and symmetry method and the feedback was positive. The next day, another sound therapist did the morning meditation using singing bowls, rattles, rainsticks and other shaman instruments. Two separate people who attended both sessions came to tell me that the second session was disturbing to them because the person playing tapping, rattling and in their words, “making noise”. I knew immediately what happened, no cohesiveness to the session.
Watch the video below and see what you think. Feel free to comment or ask questions.
