Sound Baths with Jamie Ford

Jamie’s south baths have been completely life changing for me! I’m going to add more to this review later, but I mostly have gone to Jamie for 1:1 sessions and they are worth the price. Totally next level healing and meditation energy work.
Thank you for the amazing work that you do, Jamie!

Jamie is mentioned in the NYTIMES article about Sound Baths in todays NYTIMES. So I guess there will be more attention given to her and others doing these events. Here’s my take:
I’ve attended four sound baths. My experience was mixed… Here’s what I found: I entered the room, sat, then laid down on a yoga mat… the vibe is subduded. The sounds started, and swirled around and thru me… her ‘performance’ is not laid back. The sounds are full and rich and layered. Very interesting and intriguing. The bowls and gong combinations are much more disonnate than I anticipated and for me I really liked most of it…. fans of Ornette Colman or Jerry Garcia’s space-​jams would be proud!
At two or three of the «sound baths» I honestly really felt the sound move and transport me… very realing and fun… I listened from a meditative sorta state, less thinking about and more feeling the sound Then it was over. I felt relaxed, but also a bit worn out…
…then Jamie started talking about the perfect acoustical match of her crystal bowls and gongs, and teh acoustically perfect this, and spritutally atuned that, and how sound energy is able to bend, and travel forever and how certain freqeuencies are more powerful… and my happy yoga spirit left my body I wanted to KILL HER. The use of words and terms in arbitray ways, and lack of any real idea that there is any basis for any of the things said, made me want to run away. For those of us who try and understand the world both as a physical place where real engineering applies and ALSO believe in the spiritual and mystical universe, we try and seperate the way we talk about each space (I like my planes & elevators and cars to be based on real world engineering dynamics so they move in intended ways). Alas Jamie has no boundries when it comes to using terms about sound in ways that are so far afield, you’d think sound is a magical fluid, that changes color as it does its faster than the speed of light tricks!
That all said, I found the Sound Bath sonic portion of the event intriguing enough to attend 3 more times, but left ASAP at the end, before she started speaking! In 2 of the sessions her energy was much more manic and the sessions seemed less successful for most people there.
For me, sound bath was and is an interesting experience, untill she (Jamie Ford) started to ‘explain’ it… HOWEVER, there is a HUGE difference between an interesting or even mystical experience, and being told there is a ‘real’ explaination for what is going on… I would be really interested in hearing a Sound Bath ‘performed’ by a skilled percussionist and would pay extra if there was NO explanation at the end…

If this is your thing you will really really enjoy the experience. I decided to come with my boyfriend because I got him a gift card. He totally loves ASMR and I thought this might be up his alley. So we went and it’s kind of like going to a slumber party. All you do is dress comfortable, bring a yoga mat, or a blanket or a pillow. Think about bringing really sick and comfortable yoga mats or blankets since you’re actually laying on the hard floor. And you really just laydown close to other people in the dark and listen to Jamie play her Gong and musical bowls. I didn’t really know what to expect so when I started hearing The sounds that were coming out of the instruments it was really weird to me. It sounded very outerspace, new agey, and almost slightly creepy to me. I was also very sick the day that we went so I really just ended up taking a nap. However she has a huge following, she’s really great, and I thought it was worth doing at least once in my life. My only suggestion is, when we bought the gift certificate and when we ended up actually redeeming it the price went up about four dollars. I really wish she was just able to honor the price that we paid for it. I’m not sure she’s even aware of the issue because we bought the gift certificate through one of the venues that she uses. And the venue that I went to she was only there the first Friday of every month. However in a 12 month period a couple of the Fridays fall on major holidays like Fourth of July or New Year’s. So the venue was kind enough to extend our gift certificate if we needed to but it never came to that. Overall a really fun experience to try and I think if you really love these types of instruments you will have a blast and love it.

Jamie’s Sound Baths are simply divine.