Alternative healer uses ancient Tibetan bowls

These curious workers of physical and emotional wellness are the tools of a local alternative healer. Kasandra Lor says that if music can soothe the savage breast, then beautiful sounds should certainly heal the body and heart.

"This is sound you not only hear with your ears, but feel with every cell of your being," Lor said. "It's the sound of perfection in the universe."

Most people in the West don't normally associate bowls with musical sounds, but Tibet's "singing bowls" have become an increasingly popular tool in American alternative healing. Practitioners strike the bowls, making them sing out with a majestic ring that can reverberate strongly for up to 90 seconds.

The bowls are then moved over a client's body to find imbalances and bring about healing. The ringing sound can be sustained by drawing the mallet used for striking around the mouth of the bowl.

"They run the bowls down the body and you listen. The bowls react to the body's energy field," Lor said. "Sometimes they won't sound just right, telling me that there is a vibration here that needs some attention. Sometimes the sound feels like it's getting swallowed or it may sound like 'whum whum whum.' It is a sound healer's job to listen carefully."

Lor, a longtime alternative healer in Yuma, recently began giving sound healing at Serenity Yoga. That's where Lor also works as a Reiki master, using an ancient technique sometimes more commonly known as healing touch.

Tibetan singing bowls may be considered somewhat New Age, but they're anything but new. People have been using Tibetan bowls for about 2,500 years, even predating the famous Chinese medicine tradition.

"The bowls are tuned to the sound of 'OM,' tuned to the sound of perfection that's within all of us," Lor said. "That's where we come from, that state of wholeness. But because of whatever life is throwing at us, there are disharmonies in the body, whether it's emotional, mental or physical blockages that occur, and disease may happen. The sound healing brings you back to that place of center."

Healing can be performed with one bowl or a choir of 12, or even more. In some cases, clients lie on the floor with various bowls touching them or resting near them. Bowls may be placed in each hand, clustered like a crown around the head or on top of the tummy and down at the feet for grounding.

Lor uses four bowls, which she moves around the body during the 45-minute healing that also includes Reiki sessions. Lor sometimes has her clients lie on a traditional massage table. Some sound healers prefer simply using the floor.

Lor's clients report everything from sensations of great peace and general well-being after sessions to improvement in health. Following her stroke, client Nancy Bretag's right foot felt like it was "encased in a block of cement."

"Since the bowls experience, my toes will spread and wiggle. They aren't permanently curled up anymore," Bretag said. "Before I felt like it was the end of my life. This has been like a miracle."

Lor's bowls were made in Tibet and were forged several centuries ago. She purchased them from her San Diego-based instructor, who imports the bowls, many of which come from monasteries.

"There is a wonderful process to making these bowls. They aren't just some old cooking pot that happens to have a nice sound," she said. "They are made by Buddhist monks, and they are made in prayer. The monks chant while making the bowls, which are imbued with prayer and given the intent of healing right from the start."

The bowls are made from seven metals, all of which carry a metaphysical meaning, representing the sun or a particular power. One of those metals comes from a meteorite in Tibet. Some bowls are shaped for physical healing, while other styles deal more with raising consciousness.

Lor, who stresses she is still a student of sound healing, began her training a year ago in San Diego. She is studying with sound healer Diane Mandle, who performs entire concerts using a large number of bowls.

Lor said it just took one concert with the bowls for her to realize her calling.

"You are just transported on this wave of sound during the concerts. . . . It's just incredible."