Good vibrations

Photo: Donna Rickles

In Buddhist cultures, gongs typically play a ceremonial role: They announce important meetings and accompany chanting monks. But in the stressed-out States, gongs are fast becoming a serious tool for life-changing healing, thanks in part to Richard Rudis (pictured) and his portable gong baths.

Rudis, a California-based Buddhist practitioner, got his gong training in Tibet while making his first pilgrimage there in the late 1970s. In the years since, Rudis created his own gong presentation, or gong bath, adding Tibetan singing bowls and tiny cymbals called tingshas. Nowadays Rudis takes his hour-long gong baths on the road, visiting yoga studios around the country. He’ll be in Chicago and the suburbs later this month.

Less a “bath” than it is a spiritual cleansing, gong baths aim to give overstimulated city slickers a chance to truly relax. While there aren’t scientifc studies confirming tangible health benefits, gong-bath junkies swear by the bath’s results, from shrunken tumors to reduced stress. Rudis says the healing occurs as the sound waves from his giant earth gong affect your body “at a molecular level, driving negative energy from cells.”

It sounds like something out of a science-fiction book, but there’s nothing uncomfortable about the experience. For the duration of the gong bath, participants lie faceup, with their head toward the gong in the center of the room. Rudis starts with the smaller singing bowls that emit a gentle sound, eventually building up to a body-shaking finale on the gong.

“People feel cold, and they may feel very hot at times,” Rudis says. “It’s the energetic signature of toxins being processed from your body.”

Toward the end of the gong bath, as Rudis approaches “a high spectrum of sound,” some folks supposedly experience out-of-body sensations, like levitation and contact with a higher spiritual self. “People experience epiphanies,” Rudis says.

It sounds farfetched, but the healing philosophy is gaining steam in Chicago, so reserve a space soon and bring a blanket, mat and pillow. For lingering effects, Rudis suggests placing a water bottle near the gong. The healing vibrations will stay in the water long after the gong bath is over.

Classes will be offered at various Chicagoland studios Wednesday 22 through September 2 (buddhistartifacts.com/programs_calendar.php). Classes are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.