Singing Bowls Therapy
Singing Bowls Therapy
Journal of Evidence-Based
Complementary & Alternative Medicine
Effects of Singing Bowl Sound Meditation 2017, Vol. 22(3) 401-406
ª The Author(s) 2016
Abstract
Poor mood and elevated anxiety are linked to increased incidence of disease. This study examined the effects of sound meditation,
specifically Tibetan singing bowl meditation, on mood, anxiety, pain, and spiritual well-being. Sixty-two women and men (mean age
49.7 years) participated. As compared with pre-meditation, following the sound meditation participants reported significantly less
tension, anger, fatigue, and depressed mood (all Ps <.001). Additionally, participants who were previously naı̈ve to this type of
meditation experienced a significantly greater reduction in tension compared with participants experienced in this meditation (P <
.001). Feeling of spiritual well-being significantly increased across all participants (P < .001). Tibetan singing bowl meditation may be
a feasible low-cost low technology intervention for reducing feelings of tension, anxiety, and depression, and increasing spiritual
well-being. This meditation type may be especially useful in decreasing tension in individuals who have not previously practiced this
form of meditation.
Keywords
Tibetan bowls, anxiety, depression, spiritual well-being
Received May 19, 2016. Received revised August 8, 2016. Accepted for publication August 15, 2016.
Heart disease, diabetes, addiction, and mental health issues instrument for over 40 000 years.12 Ancient instruments have
have all been linked to stress and tension. 1-6 Meditation, also been used for religious and spiritual ceremonies such as
including systems such as mindfulness-based meditations, has Tibetan (also called ‘‘Himalayan’’) singing bowls.13 Tibetan
shown promise in inducing the relaxation response and helping singing bowls are metal bowls usually consisting of a combi-
alleviate anxiety and improve well-being.7,8 The relaxation nation of metal alloys and originally used by Tibetan monks for
response is the body’s physiological response in relaxation, spiritual ceremonies.
including lowered blood pressure to counter the fight-or- While sound healing is not a new concept, there is a paucity of
flight response and activation of the parasympathetic nervous research in areas such as Tibetan or quartz crystal singing bowls.
system.9-11 As promising as mindfulness and other meditation The majority of singing bowl studies relate to the physics of these
systems may be, a common complaint is the time, patience, and musical instruments, including the sonic and wave properties, as
discipline required to learn meditation. Thus, a form of relaxa- well as attempting to model the singing bowl’s acoustic charac-
tion and stress relief that does not require a steep learning curve teristics.14-16 In one study, singing bowls were used for emotional
or a great deal of discipline to utilize could potentially be a
huge benefit to human wellness and health.
The authors set out to examine the possibility that merely 1
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
lying down and listening to the high-intensity, low-frequency 2
California Institute for Human Science, Encinitas, CA, USA
combination of singing bowls, gongs, and bells in a sound
meditation could induce a deep relaxation response and posi- Corresponding Author:
tively affect mood and sense of well-being. Sound healing has Tamara L. Goldsby, PhD, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health,
Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Integrative Health,
been used for centuries and been utilized in various forms by University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla,
cultures the world over, including native peoples. Australian CA 92093, USA.
aboriginal tribes have used the didgeridoo as a sound healing Email: [email protected]
Creative Commons CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License
(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further
permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
402 Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine 22(3)
Table 2. Results on Measures at Pre- and Postmeditation. Table 3. Mean Change in Tension, Anxiety, and Depressed Mood by
Age Group From Pre- to Postmeditation.
Premeditation Postmeditation
Premeditation Postmeditation
Measures n Mean SD Mean SD Change P Za Age Group
(Years) n Mean SD Mean SD Change P Z
Tension 62 1.26 1.03 0.14 0.57 1.12 .000 .51
(POMS) Tension (POMS)
Anger 60 0.85 0.98 0.05 0.19 0.80 .000 .42 20-39 15 1.56 0.88 0.21 0.31 1.35 .000 .71
(POMS) 40-59 33 1.29 1.15 0.20 0.68 1.09 .000 .47
Confusion 60 1.10 0.87 0.30 0.56 0.80 .000 .54 60-79 14 0.88 0.78 0.26 0.43 0.62 .038 .29
(POMS) Anxiety (HADS)
Fatigue 60 1.65 1.12 0.42 0.75 1.23 .000 .46 20-39 15 1.43 0.61 0.67 0.62 0.76 .000 .70
(POMS) 40-59 33 1.03 0.70 0.27 0.52 0.76 .000 .54
Vigor 59 1.97 1.19 1.48 1.05 0.49 .002 .15 60-79 14 0.74 0.46 0.29 0.47 0.45 .019 .35
(POMS) Depressed mood (HADS)
Anxiety 58 1.11 0.66 0.44 0.49 0.67 .000 .49 20-39 15 0.63 0.37 0.48 0.32 0.15 .207 .11
(HADS) 40-59 33 0.66 0.66 0.38 0.39 0.27 .012 .18
Depression 57 0.62 0.51 0.42 0.36 0.20 .002 .16 60-79 14 0.55 0.43 0.35 0.32 0.20 .051 .26
(HADS)
Faithb 62 3.18 1.10 3.46 0.96 0.28 .005 .12 Abbreviations: POMS, Profile of Mood States; HADS, Hospital Anxiety and
Depression Scale.
(FACIT)
Spiritualityb 57 2.85 0.94 3.64 0.46 0.79 .000 .49
(FACIT)
asked if they were experiencing pain prior to and following the
Abbreviations: POMS, Profile of Mood States; HADS, Hospital Anxiety and meditation. Twenty-nine participants reported experiencing
Depression Scale; FACIT, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness physical pain pre-meditation. If experiencing pain, they were
Therapy–Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-SP).
a
Effect size (Z): .01 ¼ small, .06 ¼ moderate, .14 ¼ large effect. asked to rate their pain on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 representing ‘‘very
b
Faith and Spirituality scores displayed a positive direction rather than a slight discomfort’’ and 5 representing ‘‘extremely painful’’) and
negative direction postmeditation. describe the pain and location on the body. Table 5 displays the
mean pain rating of participants (by age group) who reported pain
Participants were also instructed to take their time in readjusting to at pre-meditation and their mean pain rating post-meditation.
a state of awareness. Participants aged 40 to 59 years showed the most significant
effects from the meditation, with a reduction (or elimination)
Data Analysis of feelings of physical pain post-meditation, with a baseline mean
pain rating of 2.00 and a posttreatment mean pain rating of 0.79.
Analyses included 2-way (group by time) repeated-measures analysis Additionally, physical pain pre- and posttreatment was
of variance [(Statistical Program for the Social Sciences (SPSS Ver-
examined for Bowl Experienced and Bowl Naı̈ve participants
sion 22)]. Data were normally distributed.
(see Table 6). Change (decrease) in reported pain was most
significant for participants who were previously naı̈ve to sing-
ing bowl meditations, with a mean score of 1.88 at baseline and
Results
0.69 posttreatment.
There were significant differences between pre- and posttreatment
for all subscale variables on the POMS, HADS, and FACIT mea-
sures (Table 2). Eta-squared revealed a large effect size for all
Discussion
subscale variables, except the FACIT Faith subscale, which This was an observational study designed to examine the poten-
demonstrated a moderate to large effect size. An effect for these tial effects of a singing bowl meditation on mood, tension,
variables was also observed by age (see Table 3). Individuals in the anxiety, physical pain, and spiritual well-being. A significant
age group 20 to 39 years displayed the largest change in tension, difference was found in all endpoints examined in response to
with a mean score of 1.6 at baseline and a mean of 0.2 posttreat- the meditation.
ment, followed by those in the age group 40 to 59 years who had a The tension subscale in particular displayed highly signifi-
tension mean of 1.3 at baseline and 0.2 posttreatment (P < .05). cant effects for participants post-meditation, thus providing
Additionally, effects for participants who had prior experi- support to the hypothesis that a sound meditation would
ence with singing bowl meditations (termed ‘‘Bowl Experi- increase feelings of relaxation and decrease feelings of stress.
enced’’) versus those who had never experienced this type of Additionally, depressed mood and anxiety scores on the HADS
meditation previously (termed ‘‘Bowl Naı̈ve’’) were examined were significantly reduced post-meditation compared with pre-
(Table 4). Significant effects were observed for tension, anxi- meditation. Moreover, scores on the FACIT revealed increased
ety, and depressed mood (all Ps <.01). feelings of spiritual well-being, as well as faith, immediately
In order to assess any potential effects of the sound medita- following the sound meditation. Thus, while less desirable
tions on participants’ levels of physical pain, participants were mood states such as tension, anger, and depression decreased
404 Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine 22(3)
Table 4. Mean Changes in Tension, Anxiety and Depressed Mood for ‘Bowl Naı̈ve’ and ‘Bowl Experienced’ Participants from Pre- to
Post-Meditation.
Bowl naı̈ve
Tension (POMS) 26 1.61 1.13 0.32 0.80 1.29 .000 .500
Anxiety (HADS) 26 1.30 0.69 0.41 0.51 0.89 .000 .590
Depressed mood (HADS) 26 0.80 0.61 0.41 0.41 0.39 .003 .298
Bowl experienced
Tension (POMS) 36 1.01 0.88 0.15 0.26 0.86 .000 .500
Anxiety (HADS) 36 0.89 0.61 0.47 0.43 0.42 .000 .400
Depressed mood (HADS) 36 0.51 0.47 0.39 0.30 0.12 .100 .075
Abbreviations: ANOVA, analysis of variance; POMS, Profile of Mood States; HADS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.
Table 5. Mean Change in Physical Pain Ratings by Age Group From tension, especially for those who were previously naı̈ve to this
Pre- to Post-meditation. type of meditation. Thus, a follow-up sound meditation study
might examine this age group in more depth.
Mean Pain
Age Group The reason(s) for the beneficial effects of singing bowls is
(Years) n Premeditation Postmeditation Change SD unclear; however, various theories have been proposed. One
theory includes the potential effects of binaural beats in which
20-39 8 1.63 0.75 0.88 1.17 the brain entrains to the hertz difference between tones played
40-59 14 2.00 0.79 1.21 1.21
in each ear, propelling the brain into brainwave states of deep
60-79 7 1.57 1.00 0.57 0.9
relaxation, such as beta waves or even meditative or trance-like
brainwave states in theta waves.21-23 In addition, potentially the
Table 6. Mean Change in Physical Pain Ratings for ‘‘Bowl Experi- action of sound waves on the purported biofield or energy field
enced’’ and ‘‘Bowl Naı̈ve’’ Participants From Pre- to Postmeditation. of the body could be a factor.24 Such theories may begin to
characterize the potential effects on mood as well as physiolo-
Mean Pain gical changes associated with singing bowls. Physical healing
Bowl Naı̈ve or Mean
Experienced n Premeditation Postmeditation Change SD was the goal of a study that utilized blood pressure data in
relation to a singing bowl. This study attempted to quantify the
Experienced 13 1.69 1.00 0.69 0.91 sonification of blood pressure through 3-dimensional imprint-
Naı̈ve 16 1.88 0.69 1.19 1.29 ing, designing, and fabricating of a singing bowl using blood
pressure data.25 Allen and Shealy26 examined the use of a
single quartz crystal singing bowl on participants’ electroder-
following the meditation, potentially desirable variables such mal responses (the body’s electric responses) to toning and
as a sense of spiritual well-being increased. playing the crystal bowl. The authors recorded electrodermal
Interestingly, previous experience with singing bowl med- responses of forty acupuncture meridian points on participants’
itations (or lack thereof) also appeared to be a factor in the left hands and right feet, which demonstrated increases and
effects of the meditations. Participants who were previously decreases, respectively, in electrical responses to playing the
naı̈ve to this meditation demonstrated larger effects than those crystal bowl. Another study examined the potential effects of
who were experienced in these meditations. An unexpected quartz crystal bowl playing on perception of pain and revealed
effect was discovered in the significant mean change in the mixed results.27 In a recent randomized crossover study, play-
tension subscale from baseline to posttreatment for partici- ing a single Tibetan (or Himalayan) singing bowl was found to
pants in the age group 40 to 59 years. Those participants in decrease blood pressure and heart rate more than silence alone
this age group who were previously naı̈ve to singing bowl when conducted immediately prior to a guided visualization.28
meditations (‘‘Bowl Naı̈ve’’) had a significant reduction in Participants who listened to the singing bowl also had lowered
mean tension from baseline to posttreatment, indicating a scores on the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS),
dramatic effect of the meditation. On the other hand, Bowl a measure of affect and mood29 than meditation alone but had
Experienced participants in the age group 20 to 39 years comparable PANAS scores to the silence-only group.
reported a significant reduction in the tension subscale There were limitations with the present study. The most
posttreatment. notable limitation was that this was a nonrandomized observa-
Participants aged 40 to 59 years appeared to especially ben- tional study without a control group. The study does, however,
efit from the sound meditation. This age group demonstrated provide the groundwork for future research regarding the
the largest reduction in physical pain and a strong reduction in effects of singing bowl meditations on assessments of stress
Goldsby et al 405
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13. Perry F.Himalyan sound revelations: The complete singing bowl
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
book. London: Polair Publishing, 2014.
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Funding transformations of a singing bowl. In Proceedings of the 5th
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