Gong bathing, a form of meditation that uses sound to focus the mind, is now on offer at St Luke’s Church, Holloway.
The practice, which dates back thousands of years, involves lying in front of a gong and listening as it is played. Carlo Volpi, a practitioner at GONG, the organisation behind Monday’s session, said: “Gong baths are a lot more dramatic than a meditation class… you can definitely feel it in your body on every level.”
“The benefits are very similar to those of meditation, sound makes it a lot easier to access those very deep meditative states, in meditation most people find that they have to practise a lot,” said Volpi.
Mark Smallman, another practitioner at GONG, said gong bathing “can help the mind and body in many ways, including deepening relaxation, lowering stress and anxiety and improving mood”. He described St Luke’s as “a beautiful church in North London” with “great acoustics for such an event”.
Volpi believes that gong bathing may be growing in popularity, saying that “more and more people are discovering gong baths at the moment”.
GONG, which offers sessions across the UK, has also shifted to offering online sessions since the onset of Covid-19. The pandemic led to a surge of interest in meditation in the UK, with Google searches for ‘meditation’ peaking at a five-year high during the first lockdown.
“By offering gong baths in a variety of settings…we are bringing the effortless yet deeply impactful meditative experience to everyone curious enough to try something new” said Smallman.
I am a freelance writer and journalism student at City, UoL, writing culture and sport.