Sound waves from bowls at Stillpoint Center for Spiritual Development meant to relax

A getaway doesn’t have to entail leaving town. It can be as close as Stillpoint Center for Spiritual Development on West Sahara Avenue and only take an hour, say participants of Singing Bowls Meditation.

In January, facilitators Frances and Scott Meyer of Boulder City brought various-sized bowls that provide harmonic tones by which to relax. Their singing-bowl program has been offered at Stillpoint since 2005.

“If you’ve ever run your finger around a wet crystal goblet and you get that sound, that’s what it’s like,” Scott Meyer said. “The bowls let you do a chakra alignment, only musically.”

Their bowls are made of silicone quartz and mined in Texas. They are tuned to notes that resonate with one’s seven major chakras, the Meyers said, and range along the octave C, D, F, G, A, B. The larger the bowl, the lower the sound. The biggest is about 25 pounds and 18 inches across. The chord that resonates with most people is the heart one — the note F, Scott Meyer said. The couple said they feel the effects of the tones, too.

“The challenge for me is to stay focused and not drift off,” Frances Meyer said.

Mia Alfonso, who works in health care, said he has been coming to the meditation events for more than five years.

“The first time I did it, I went home and I couldn’t sleep at all,” she said. “I was so energized. … I felt refreshed and renewed. When I don’t come, I feel tired and sluggish.”

As an orthopedic spine surgeon, Andrew Cash is under a lot of stress. He’s relatively new to the program.

“It kind of turns your inner cellphone off and gives you sanctuary for an hour,” he said of the singing-bowl program. “You can just disconnect.”

Linda Hinze, a teacher, said she has been coming to singing-bowls meditation for about 10 years.

“If you only get one thing, a nap with background music, OK,” she said of potential attendees. “But I come to relax and be in a place that’s almost healing. I crave it.”

The evening began with the lights being dimmed. The participants — 11 this night, but the program has seen as many as 30 at a time, the Meyers say — unrolled yoga mats and got comfortable. Most aligned their heads to be closest to the center of the room, positioned like spokes of a wheel.

For the next hour, the sound of the bowls filled the room, the vibrations felt internally. This was no quiet meditation. The bowls make loud, resonating waves of sound.

Crystal Hadobas was there for the first time, attending as part of her battle against her fourth round of cancer since 2008. Hadobas said she’d be back for the following month’s event, as “There were times when I felt I was floating and just really in touch with my body. I felt a lot of energy.”

Vickie Macaluso, also a first-timer, said she’d expected little chimes to sound, not the overwhelming sound the bowls emitted.

“So at first, it was like, whoosh,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to be that loud. I was getting into it and muscles here (rib cage) started relaxing, an interesting feeling. I didn’t know I was that tight over there.”

She said the lower back pain she’d been experiencing dissipated, and her spine got warm and felt good. She also had bone spurs and compression in the back of her neck. That area, too, felt better.

Frances Meyer was a registered nurse and specialized in hospice care before beginning the Singing Bowl Meditation. She began studying energy healing in 2000. Three years later, she got her first Tibetan bowl and later turned to crystal bowls. She became certified in healing-touch therapy about the same time.

“One’s spiritual journey takes on many forms, and this is one of the many programs that complement our core,” said Roxanne Rawson, Stillpoint’s executive director. “We have spiritual readings, spiritual prayers and spiritual contemplation groups … We all come to the divine in different ways.”

To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.