Gong bath

A gong is a large metal disc, usually struck with a padded beater, and unlike a bowl it has no clear single pitch. It produces a broad spread of frequencies that rise and fall as the sound develops, and it can be played from a whisper to a wall of sound by changing nothing but how hard and where you hit it. In a gong bath the instrument is the centre of the session rather than an accent inside it.

What it is for is the physical end of sound work. A large gong moves a great deal of air; at close range the sound is felt in the chest, the teeth and the palms, and that bodily component is why some people prefer it to bowls, which are gentler. It is also the least melodic instrument in the room, so it gives the predicting mind nothing at all to hold on to.

In a KEO session the gong is used sparingly and deliberately: once near the middle of a sound session when the group is deeply settled, and once at the very end, played so quietly that people often cannot say when it stopped. If loud sound is difficult for you — sensory sensitivity, tinnitus, migraine — say so when you arrive, and you will be placed at the far side of the room where the gong is a presence rather than an event.