The mists of drifting fog swept up against the bulk of Morro Rock and spread over the top of the dome, finally dissipating in the sunlight. The Rock loomed large through the huge picture window at Let’s Get Tuned Sound Bath & Yoga Studio. I came that day with a request, not knowing I was to encounter a sound bath session open for free to the community. Twenty-plus people entered, shed their shoes, and spread their mats on the floor of the large room where several gong instruments of various sizes hung on supports along the sides of two windows and five sound bowls rested in front of the largest gong. Jon, our guide with sound for that day, welcomed us and led us into a full experience with sound.

 

It was not my first time listening to the lyrical tones of the sound bowls but was my first time hearing the gongs. These instruments are round and come in a variety of sizes and are decorated in lines of muted greens, browns, black, and red colors. Each has its own tune, most in the lower registers. Depending on the player’s pressure on the bands of the gong with the padded baton is the result you hear. But hearing isn’t all that is affected. The different intensities evoke a different feeling in the body. When the largest gong of about four feet in height and width was played, the tone pulsed through the room. I thought to myself how important sound is to our well-being. This sound bath had my soul singing!

 

Song has been missing from the peace movement for a long time now, and greatly missed from protest actions. It was song that led me into peace activities during the explosives 1960s and early 1970s. Folksingers sang songs originally written for and about war and famine and human rights down from history both in the old world and new. New topical songs were written and learned and sung at rallies and demonstrations. Groups singing together experienced a strengthening of unity and purpose and in some cases, singing was the only thing that brought about bravery and removed fear. Why isn’t it used widely now?

 

As I sat in the studio mellowed out and feeling wonderful, I realized the value of certain types of sound. Not just singing songs but experiencing the depth of the tones emanating from the artifacts being played. Buddhist monks use a variety of similar items in their practice and I remembered the sound of the huge Peace Bell in the Japanese Gardens at the United Nations headquarters in New York. This Buddhist Temple Bell was gifted to the UN by Japan in 1954 and is wrung only twice a year, on the first day of spring and on International Peace Day, September 21st every year. This was the reason I had come to Let’s Get Tuned that day.

 

The words let’s get tuned resonate with the need that humanity has for finding the inner spirit. As I listened to the comments of the attendees of the day’s sound bath, I heard that some had traveled from towns far away from Morro Bay to take part in this sound experience, some for the first time. I saw and heard the need people have for reaching into their spirit for sustenance and renewal. I knew right away I found the right place to hold this year’s Celebration of Peace for International Peace Day – Let’s Get Tuned Action for Peace Morro Bay 2024!

 

We will sing!  We will chant.! We will clap! We will listen to the Sound Bowls and the Gong! It is all “song” and we will bring song back to the peace movement – Saturday, September 21, 2024.

 

“All we are saying, is give peace a chance.”