By Brandon Searle
The room was dim and cold. People lay atop bean bags and yoga mats and looked up at luminous jellyfish sculptures. Some participants took off their shoes, laid under throw blankets, or used a pillow. There were noises of chiming, ringing, and humming.
At the front of the room, an instructor, Jenelle Berger, kneeled before bowls that were about the size of cauldrons and glowed. She brushed a mallet along the brims of the bowls to generate sounds and spoke into a microphone in a cool, gentle voice.
“Settle deeper into the ground and be comforted at this time that everything is okay. There is nowhere to go,” Berger said.
Participants lay on yoga mats and bean bags in the Neuberger Museum of Art. (Photo by Brandon Searle)
On Nov. 20, a sound bath was held in the Neuberger Museum of Art on the Purchase campus. The event was free and took place during campus free hours. A sound bath is a form of guided meditation that incorporates spoken imagery and sound.
The bowls each produce a different sound. That sound is believed to energetically correspond to a specific area of the body called a chakra and to have healing and rejuvenating properties.
The instructor told the participants to focus, breathe and imagine. Berger asked them to recall sensory memories, to remember the sound of crickets, the feel of a hot pan, the smell of freshly cut grass. She invited them to resist sleep but summon rest and relaxation, to be totally at peace in the room under the jellyfish.
Janelle Berger kneeling before her chakra bowls. (Photo by Brandon Searle)
Berger is a meditation and yoga practitioner. She said she has been leading meditation sessions at Purchase for about five years.
She talked about why sound baths are helpful. “You start to release tension, agitation, anxiety. It can help you change your mindset too and how you respond versus react,” she said. “We’re in such a reactive way of life right now. In this session we attached a color to a feeling so we could compartmentalize. Like, that’s not me, that's just what I’m feeling at this moment.”
Participants said they had a positive experience and that they liked the location.
Martha Katechis, 38, is a research scientist. “It was grounding and it helped me clear my mind,” she said.
“It’s kind of freaky when you get out of it because it’s like there wasn’t a single thought going through my brain but I was awake,” said Jaelyn Stevens, a studio composition major.
Nicole Perrino, 38, is a journalist from the Bronx. She came to the sound bath with a friend. “It was really nice to be in this space,” she said.
Kathleen Boylan heard about the class through Berger, who substitutes for the instructor of a yoga class Boylan takes at Life Time. “I enjoyed the jellyfish,” she said. Berger and Perrio spoke about one reason why respite is crucial right now.
“Because of technology in this day and age, everyone is always on so now we have to be guided into not being on,” Berger said.
“We all have a million tabs open so it’s really hard to shut those thoughts out,” Perrino said. “It’s good to have someone to guide you and show you how to do that.”
Berger will lead one more sound bath this semester.
“Definitely come by, even if it’s just for a little bit,” said Chana Goldstein, an art history and communications major. “Because finals are coming up, everyone has got to calm down a little bit.”
Participants said you do not have to be adept at yoga to enjoy yourself.
Jaelyn Stevens and Chana Goldstein after the sound bath. (Photo by Brandon Searle)
“I think it’s cool for a beginner because you don’t have to move. It’s not like you have to be doing intense yoga. It’s just for the mind…I think everyone should do this at least once,” said Stevens.
“This is, to me, a relaxation form of yoga so anyone can do this,” said Boylan.
Stevens said her tip to goers is to bring the right accouterments. “Bring a blanket,” she said, “This is my second time doing it and both times I was freezing. Once you sink into it, you forget you're freezing. Also bring a yoga mat. Sign up as fast as you can because the spots fill up quickly. It’s a really good thing to do before finals or midterms.”
The final session of the semester will take place in the Neuberger Museum of Art on Dec. 18 at 1 p.m. Those interested can register for the event on Purchase’s website.
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