Quartz Crystal Singing Bowl

The Boys and Girls Club Thrift Store in Ventura was an unlikely place to find a Kundalini yoga ‘sound bath’ practitioner’s quartz crystal singing bowl, but JE writes me that her “FIND” is a whopping 12” diameter 10” tall delicate blue bowl. She thought it was expensive at $75 (with rubber mallet); shoppers can find real bargains in the higher priced items at these places. Online, JE says, she might have spent $600 for this bowl. But did she really need a quartz crystal singing bowl? She writes me: “…what is it FOR?” She was attracted to it as a centerpiece fruit bowl. It is much more than that, say some practitioners of sound healing.

JE has a tuned piano in her home: I asked her to match the sound of the bowl to a note: she reported it is G or G#. Makers of Hindu and Buddhist bronze singing bowls for centuries have found that G natural or G# has a highly beneficial rate of vibration, measured today in Hz (~392Hz). The “science” of sound healing assumes that many parts of the body and mind have certain vibrational frequencies which, like the note on JE’s piano, a sound can “match.” 

This frequency of G or G# is associated with the Ascension Point or the Throat Chakra. JE’s thrift store treasure was “tuned” to respond to – and balance the vibrational energies of – the throat, the voice box, the thyroid, the lungs, and the cellular structure of the neck, ears, and mouth. Since communication is primarily experienced through the voice or through hearing, the proper balance between the inner person and the outer sound aids in the ability to communicate clearly with others, and with ourselves in dreams; also to positively communicate our needs, to listen mindfully, to express ourselves harmoniously. That word, “harmony,” is also a musical term that means a simultaneous combining of notes in a chord – sounds that blend. Maybe the term points to something deeper?

Practitioners say that every part of a person’s body has a vibrational frequency. JE’s bowl is meant to correspond with the bottom of the skull and base of the spine (5^th Chakra). I have a large collection of bell-metal singing bowls (in bronze, a mixture of copper and tin) so I have researched the properties and theories behind these ancient tools, but I was not aware of the popularity of quartz crystal singing bowls until JE shared her thrift store find with me. Why quartz crystal? Under pressure, two simple elements can do marvelous things. Silica and water are the main ingredients of quartz crystal, which occur in nature but can also be exactingly manufactured. Because quartz crystal can store, amplify, and transfer energy, the microchips of the electronic world also use quartz crystal – an absolutely necessary component in our modern technology, essential as a semiconductor. In sound healing theory, parts of our bodies are semiconductors as well. Healers claim that we are energy, and we have crystalline structures in main areas of our bodies – for example, a primary crystalline structure is in our bone matrix. Significantly, the inner ear contains calcium carbonate crystals, which is amazing if you assume a connection between the frequency of G or G# and the 5^th Chakra that concerns the ear and the mouth. We have a complex crystalline structure in the enamel of our teeth (which arguably enable speech), and in the collagen molecules of our connective tissues. Maybe there’s something to the healing properties
of sound?

If JE’s quartz crystal singing bowl is more than just a bargain, and if she makes it “sing,” MIGHT she report to us that the sound is responsive to her own crystalline structures, and therefore she is enabled to harmoniously communicate? What is the dosage amount? That is, how many strikes of the mallet per week would it take to realize the resonance of the bowl? 

These quartz crystal bowls are meant to “cure” dissonance, an interesting use of a musical term to describe a modality we know very little about. We know more about the properties of healing through art, a visual balancing through the eyes. Devotees who have participated in ritual “sound baths” often report that they “see” the sound in a color, possibly because both sound and light are waves. A sound bath can include many of these bowls in various frequencies (determined by shape and size) as well as gongs, and drums, chimes; natural sounds played to a quiet, willing listener to create resonance in “perfect pitch” with the listener’s body. What a marvelous find – even if it becomes JE’s new fruit bowl after a few weeks.