Singing Bowl Healing Bath : Reality or Brainwashing ? A review by Quentin Olivier
Main article reference : Goldsby, T. L., Goldsby, M. E., McWalters, M., & Mills, P. J. (2017). Effects of singing bowl sound meditation on mood, tension, and well-being: an observational study. Journal of evidence-based complementary & alternative medicine, 22(3), 401-406. doi: 10.1177/2156597216668109
Keywords : tibetan bowl – sound meditation – mental health – depressed mood – anxiety
Introduction
« Sound healing has been used for centuries and been utilized in various forms by cultures the world over, including native peoples » (Goldsby et al., 2017, p. 401).
This article is a scientific paper written by Tamara L. Goldsby a, Michael E. Goldsbyb, Mary McWaltersc and Paul J. Millsd . The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of singing bowl sound meditation on mood, anxiety, pain, and spiritual well-being. To that end, authors conducted an experiment in California with 62 individuals in order to measure the effects of tibetan bowls on mood, tension and well-being. In this transversal study, participants had to complete standardized questionnaires before and after a one-hour sound meditation session. The authors compared the questionnaires of participants before and after the meditation session. This article is valuable because it investigates, on a psychological side, a phenomenon studied in medicine. Indeed, it has been proven that singing bowls have beneficial neurophysiological effects on humans. For exemple, a study of Walter and Hinterberger (2022) demonstrated that singing bowl massages decrease the heart rate and the electroencephalogram. However, these authors didn’t study the effects of tibetan bowl on mood or pain for example. That’s why this present article is interesting to examine.
Summary
The aim of this study was to measure the effects of singing bowl sounds on mood, tension and well-being. In that end, authors conducted an experiment in California in three different locations. 17 participants did the experiment in the Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas ; 39 participants did it in the Chopra Center for Well-Being in Carlsbad ; and 6 subjects did the experiment in the California Institute for Human Science in Encinitas.
All participants had to complete standardized questionnaires about tension, anger, confusion, fatigue, vigor, anxiety, faith and spirituality before and after a one-hour session of sound meditation. Tension, anger and confusion were measured by the POMS-SFe . Depressed mood and anxiety were evaluated thanks to the HADSf. Finally, spiritual well-being was assessed by the FACIT-SPg. It is important to notice that the sound meditation session was mainly composed of tibetan bowl sounds. However, some other musical instruments like tingshas, crystal bowls, bells and gongs were also used. Even if these instruments were always played in the same order in the three places of the experiment, the number of instruments in every place was dependent of the number of participants.
Authors compared the results of questionnaires before and after the meditation session with statistical analyses in order to draw conclusions about the effects of singing bowl sound meditation. Acoording to the authors, the results show that tibetan bowl sound meditation reduced significantly tension, pain, anxiety and depressed mood of the participants, Nevertheless, the effects of tibetan bowl were stronger on participants who never experimented this kind of meditation before.
Critical evaluation
Although the authors demonstrated that singing bowl sounds have positive effects on tension, anxiety, and depressed mood, their results also suggest that age has a significant impact and could modulate these effects. It would have been interesting to point it out more explicitly in the results. For instance, in Table 3, results showed that tibetan bowl sounds had only a significant impact on depressed mood for participants aged 40 to 59. Similarly, for the reduction of tension and anxiety, the effects of tibetan bowl were stronger for young adults than for elderly individuals, which confirms that taking age into account is necessary to qualify results.
Furthermore, it is not possible to affirm that the results of participants were only related to tibetan bowl, because the meditation session involved other musical instruments. There is also a methodological bias related to the different number of musical instruments used depending on the place of the experiment. The three groups didn’t experimented the same meditation session and so they were not equivalent.
Finally, a review made by Stanhope and Weinstein in 2020 pointed out that even if it has been proven that tibetan bowl sounds might have beneficial effects on mental health and cardiovascular health, the results are not reliable because of methodological bias. This review must be taken into account as it included the present article.
Conclusion
This article gave me a better understanding of the effects of tibetan bowls on physical and psychological health. I think tibetan bowls have an real effect on well-being, even if there is a need for more scientific research on this subject. Finally, I would say that tibetan healing bath is a reality. I enjoyed this article and I felt a lot of consideration for the work of the authors, and more precisely for the motivations of Tamara L. Goldsby. Before reading this article, I was hestating to buy a tibetan bowl. This article enabled me to make decision and to find interesting informations about traditionnal uses of tibetan bowls.
References
Goldsby, T. L., Goldsby, M. E., McWalters, M., & Mills, P. J. (2017). Effects of singing bowl sound meditation on mood, tension, and well-being: an observational study. Journal of evidence-based complementary & alternative medicine, 22(3), 401-406. doi: 10.1177/2156597216668109
Stanhope, J., & Weinstein, P. (2020). The human health effects of singing bowls : A systematic review. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 51, 102-412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2020.102412
Walter, N., & Hinterberger, T. (2022). Neurophysiological Effects of a Singing Bowl Massage. Medicina, 58(5), 594. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina58050594
Websites consulted
For more information about Paul J. Mills, see https://chopra.com/bio/paul-j-mills
For more information about Mary McWalters, see https://www.linkedin.com/in/marymcwalters
For more information about Michael Goldsby, see https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgoldsbyphd
For more information about Tamara Goldsby, see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tamara-Goldsby-2
Keywords translation
tibetan bowl : bol tibétain
sound meditation : méditation par le son
mental health : santé mentale
depressed mood : humeur dépressive
anxiety : anxiété
Words I have learned
tingsha : cymbale tibétaine
to qualitfy results : nuancer les résultats
session : séance
Footnote
a Tamara Goldsby is a clinical research psychologist at the University of California, passionate about healing sound research. She conducted some research about the rôle and the effects of cultural, religious and spiritual practices on health.
b Michael Goldsby is a professor and social entrepreneur in public health. His passion is to solve purposeful problems with creative solutions in order to create positive human impact.
c Mary McWalters is a therapist specialized in social work. She practices in areas such as social justice in order to reduce stigmas and to help vulnerable communities.
d Paul Mills is a professor of Family Medicine and Public Health, director of the Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Integrative Health. He is also director of Resarch for the Chopra Foundation and published over 325 manuscripts and book chapters about expertise in psychoneuroimmune processes in wellness and disease.
e Short-Form of the Profile of Mood States
f Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
g Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale