I first experienced a Gong Bath, held by Sheila Whitaker at the World Yoga Festival, summer 2018, in a large marquee that was packed with bodies, and as space only just allowed, I was on the periphery, near the open sides. The sound was incredible; I heard it, but I didn’t feel it, not that I had known to expect to. The sounds drifted into the ether, and the peripheral chanting from another marquee, along with nearby chatter merged with the gongs, and the coffee trailer nearby also played a part in the cacophony of sound. Nevertheless, I thought the Gongs themselves sounded great, and my interest was piqued.
A few months later, I opened my Yoga Studio, and was keen to add Gong Baths to the timetable. I duly found a practitioner based in Newbury, and hosted my first. This is the one that blew me away, the first that I ‘felt’ more so than heard. The metal roof of the studio held the sound, the vibrations held within the walls, and it was felt through every cell of every body in the room. The incredible energy was contained in the space; this was quite unlike the open-sided marquee of my first experience where the sound had drifted, it seemed, across Oxfordshire.
It was bizarre. I didn't expect to be pinned to my mat; my legs felt as heavy as lead. I was gloriously unaware of anyone around me, and even if fire alarms had gone off, I would have been helpless to move; I was entirely relaxed, and seemed to have entered a state of complete absorption. I was utterly astounded, almost annoyed, when a soft voice coaxed us back into presence. Never was that an hour! I truly believed I had been awake and aware throughout, I could easily recall how my arms and legs had felt so heavy, but only at this point, through confusion, did I start to doubt if I had been awake, as the time had whizzed by without my knowing, like I had had a momentary trip in a time machine.
The session was a hit! This was not just my opinion, but from all present, and so thereafter I held Gong Baths regularly, as a regular slot in the studio timetable. On occasion, I would sit up to watch the practitioner play, and I had often thought 'I would love to do that!' and play a gong - yet at that point, I had never held a mallet, let alone struck a gong, but I knew it was an inevitable journey that I must pursue. I enrolled on the Gong Practitioner Course with the College of Sound Healing, and my Gong journey had begun. Upon delivery of my 32" Symphonic Gong, I surprisingly developed an incredible relationship with this peculiar instrument - and I found any excuse to play.
I am still growing with my Gong, and that growth is being further enhanced by the Case Studies I am doing as part of my learning journey. Yet, it is the feedback from my willing bodies that I have found fascinating; on one hand their experiences are so different from person to person, but the one thing that most have in common is that feeling of absorption, immersion, of totally ‘letting go’ and more so the timelessness of “Where the hell did that hour go?!” This is what I felt when I have been a receiving participant, and this is what led me to explore this extraordinary loss of space and time.
A Gong Bath is an easy form of meditation. Speaking as a Yogini, when we approach meditation, we require our nervous system to be switched into parasympathetic activity. This is primarily achieved via pranayama, particularly the lengthening the outbreath, and also stimulation of the vagus nerve, shifting the nervous system to the restorative mode of rest and digest.
As soon as we close our eyes, the brain activity in frontal part of the brain immediately settles down mental chatter, and the visual part of the brain at the back can rest. With no visual stimuli, not thinking about the external world, we draw our awareness inward, Pratyahara, and our brainwaves begin to shift from the generally active Beta state, through Alpha, and down to the meditative Theta state as we journey through Dharana, fixed attention, to Dhyana, a place of sustained focus, and thus meditation.
The ultimate aim of such a deep meditative process leads to the transformation of consciousness, a transcendent state known as Samādhi (complete absorption), the state in which we experience our Oneness - enlightenment. Samādhi is the 8th and final limb of yoga, as described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, following the Yamas, Niyamas, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana and Dhyana, the latter as above. So, whilst I refer to myself being ‘absorbed’ and in an altered state of consciousness during a Gong Bath, in reality, it’s surely not going to allow me to find that ultimate enlightenment of Samādhi, is it?? But let’s just take a step back, to Samapatti – a state of mental absorption in which one becomes completely absorbed in the object focus, the mind is completely focused and all other distractions block out. Samapatti is often considered the pre-requisite for reaching the advanced state of Samādhi.
Let’s talk about the brainwaves, the electrical impulses in the brain. Simply put, brainwaves are categorised into different frequencies, based on mental states.
Our brainwaves tend to synchronise with the frequency of the sounds being played around us, be it heavy metal or Mahler, they respond accordingly, and sync with the music; this is known as Brainwave Entrainment
During a Gong Bath, the deep resonance of the sound does just this, and we shift through the brainwaves, through to Theta, to allow us to meet that meditative state, where all sense of space and time eludes us.
The combination of the parasympathetic nervous systems' predominant activity, and the brainwaves meeting the slower Theta pace allows us to reach that stillness. That feeling of immersion, of losing that sense of space and time, lead me to look a little further and I considered if what we actually achieve during a Gong Bath is actually a Peak Experience.
So, what is a Peak Experience? The concept a of Peak Experience was originally developed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in mid-1940's and the term was coined by him in 1956. He describes Peak Experiences as moments of profound joy, transcendence, and connectedness that significantly alter an individual's perception of themselves and the world around them. These experiences are often characterised by intense feelings of ecstasy, clarity, and a sense of oneness with the universe, and serve as gateways to higher states of consciousness and self-realisation.
Peak Experiences can be categorised into spontaneous and intentional types. Spontaneous Peak Experiences may arise unexpectedly during ordinary activities, such as engaging in something creative, such as art or music, experiencing moments of deep connection with others, or goal-oriented activities - sports people refer to this as being 'in the flow', simply being 'at one' and totally focused 'in the moment', with an oblivion to everything and anyone else around.
In contrast, intentional Peak Experiences are actively sought through specific practices, such as meditation, prayer, or participating in rituals - or in Gong Baths, it seems!
Those who intentionally cultivate Peak Experiences through meditation often report increased levels of happiness, creativity, and emotional resilience. During Peak Experiences, individuals have reported changes in their sensory perceptions, such as enhanced colours, sounds, and feelings of bliss; and it's these that are commonly experienced during a Gong Bath too.
Since Maslow first spoke about it, an extraordinary amount of work has gone into understanding the 'Peak Experience.'
A Hungarian-American psychologist named Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is known as the 'Father of Flow' for his work on Peak Experience or 'Flow' as it can also be called. What he discovered in his extensive studies, was that whatever the activity that lead to a Peak Experience, they all had specific characteristics:
1 - First is loss of self-consciousness - The activity is so engrossing that it doesn't allow other activities or intrusions from past, present or future. Mihaly is clear, however, that "loss of self-consciousness does not involve loss of self, but rather a loss of consciousness of self."
2 - Transformation of time - In the optimal experience, Mihaly noted that "time no longer seems to pass the way it ordinarily does." The things we usually use to tell the passage of time: night and day, the hands of a clock, seem to fade into the background as our attention is taken by the activity we are engaged in.
3 - Finally, an end in itself - The key to the optimal or creative experience was that it was an end in itself. Even if the activity is undertaken for some other reason, the activity itself becomes the all-consuming thing. Whatever its origin, the activity becomes one from which expectation of any future benefit is removed - the reward is in the doing of it.
In the collating of the feedback from my Case Studies, these characteristics seemed to fit with people's experiences. Have they indeed had a Peak Experience? They were certainly in the moment, in the 'flow', and experienced the wonder of timelessness. They included:
The Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler, while in a Spanish prison during the Civil War and condemned to execution, kept himself sane by solving mathematical problems. While completing such a problem he had a peak experience that he described later in his memoir entitled, 'Invisible Writing'. He wrote:
“... A wordless essence, a fragrance of eternity, a quiver of the arrow in the blue... I must have stood there for some minutes, entranced, with a wordless awareness of ‘this is perfect – perfect’.
... Then I remembered I was in prison and might be shot. ‘So what?’ ... Again, I was floating in a river of peace, under bridges of silence, a river that came from nowhere and flowed nowhere. Then there was no river and no ‘I’. The ‘I’ had ceased to exist.”
Gong Baths are becoming more and more popular. Some people attend out of curiosity, some for the benefit of relaxation for an hour, and some for the healing quality of its origination. But whatever the reason, look a little bit deeper than hearing it or feeling it. Consider that as the vibrational energy reverberates through every cell in your body, the minute electrical pulses through your brain are slowing, and you begin to flow; flow into that state where space and time don't matter, you're absorbed, you're immersed. You may have reached Samapatti, you're focused - still, but flowing, flowing to a place of immersive bliss, like Koestler in a river of peace; the ultimate Peak Experience.
Luci Trendle
September 2025
With thanks to Swami Ambikananda.
©October 2025