Gong Inside Your Head
Like many gong players, I have moved my gong events online in webinars and trainings.
I have managed through various instruments and recording techniques to get a gong sound online that is “listenable” and people are responding well to the virtual experience.
And while the sound is not what you would expect in a live event and my own playing style has been restrained by the recording technology, there is a gift and silver lining to online gong events – at least as far as the listeners are concerned.
Here is what one person said:
“I feel the Gong inside my head.”
And it is true. When you listen to the gong through headphones or earbuds, the sound moves from outside of you to inside of you.
Instead of being in a room of sound, the sound is in the private room of your brain. There are no other ambient sounds – only the sound of the Gong prevails.
And with good recording equipment and good headphones, the sound becomes more internalized. as well as, even separated out into stereo, or different sounds in each ear.
And while you may miss the actual vibratory effect within the room, with the sound of the gong on your skin or physical body, here’s the question for me:
Is there an additional energetic or therapeutic benefit in experiencing the Gong in this new way?
According to some sound healers, and the way the brain works, my answer is that there is a new benefit to the Gong sound when you do experience it through headphones.
Consider this:
When you hear the sound of the gongs reverberating inside the echo chamber of the room in which they are played in-person, there is a fluctuation in how the volumes and frequencies are experienced by the listener on the right side and left side of the body and brain.
In other words, the gong sound is distinctly separated by your ears depending on where you are in the room and in relationship to the position of the gongs.
The sounds from the left and right sides of the room blend and merge into one sound that is heard by both ears. There is no real “stereo” separation of the gong sound, and both hemispheres of the brain respond in the same fashion.
However when you separate the Gong sound out into headphones, there is one sound going into the right ear and a second sound in the left ear and your brain then has to create a third sound or blended frequency, and the two hemispheres of the brain have to work together to integrate the experience.
When this occurs, the Corpus Callosum or the nerve fiber that stretches across midline of the brain connecting the left and right cerebral hemispheres “lights up” and connects the two sides of the brain for full human potentiality.
In effect, you have your whole brain online.
Another exciting possibility is to use bone conduction headphones, such as used by runners and office workers who need to hear the sounds around them. These types of headphones may have an even more direct effect on the brain as the sound vibrations are passed directly into the cheekbones and the head.
And if all of this does not convince you of a possible advantage in using headphones for the Gong, then consider this one:
When you have your headphones on, you will not be able to hear the person next to you who has fallen asleep snoring.
