In the following article, I am explaining the issue about loud gong playing, some historical facts and how it should be done properly.
Since some years the gong meditations are getting more and more famous all around the globe. I am a gong master my self and I play a set of 6 symphonic gongs from the German manufacturer PAiSTe.
In 2001 I started to tune my own music productions based on the cosmic octave tuning, which is also the tuning of the so-called planet gongs. For about 15 years now I am deeply into that matter and researching the nature and effects of these natural frequencies. Because I am also a musician, my approach is holistic to the entire issue and I am writing this blog entry to put out the word about the right and wrong way of playing the gong.
Historical Background
In the Kundalini scene, it is very common now to use the gong and these people follow the way of Yogi Bhajan who introduced the gong and now everybody believes this way of playing the so-called “pink/white noise” is good and correct.
Facts
In fact, it is the opposite! White noise is the loudest sound a gong can produce and it is important to understand, that the symphonic gongs are the instruments with the widest sound spectrum of all instruments. They cover the entire audible spectrum and even blow and above.
It is common knowledge, that it is very harmful to the health to be exposed to very loud sound for a long period. So, it is clear, that the white noise of a gong is very dangerous and can harm the people who listen to this.
Experiences
In my gong meditations, I have regular people coming who report their terrible experiences with this white noise gong sounds at a kundalini session and they reporting of covering their ears or even running away after some moments being exposed to this loud noise. It is frightening and on a cellular level, it is stressing every single cell and therefore also the mind and spirit. There is nothing good to it and I find it important to tell the world and make them understand, that they are on the wrong path.
The Inventor
Jens Zygar is a world-famous gong master and he is the inventor of the planet gongs. It was his initial idea to tune gongs to the planet orbital frequencies, based on the Cosmic Octave calculations of his friend, the Swiss mathematician Hans Cousto. Jens is offering gong training (Klangtage.de) and teaching people the correct way, how to play the gong. I am very close friends with Jens since 2001 and I have learned everything about the gong playing from him.
We call it “The Soft Manner” and the decades of experiences by playing the gongs, Jens has developed this fantastic way of playing the gongs.
I would like to recommend anybody who is playing for himself and especially to everybody who is playing for other people, to attend one of the gong training by Jens Zygar and learn the proper way.
There are many experiences, collected by Jens during the past decades and his knowledge exceeds by far what others pretend to know and even teach. I don’t wanna name those pseudo-teachers, but there are very famous ones out there and what they teach people about how to play the gong, is simply wrong and even bad.
If somebody wants to learn how to play an instrument a proper way, usually we look to find a good teacher and learn it. For every instrument is a proper way how to play it and so it is with the gongs too.
Open Your Mind!
I could report of many personal experiences which support what I am writing about here, but I like to recommend you to experience the difference by your self before you judge or deny this.
To me it is impossible to listen to most of the gong recordings and videos out there on the internet because after some seconds of listening to that wild playing of the most self-announced gong masters, I must switch it off and protect my self from this insane noise.
As I mentioned, I am a musician and I am very sensitive to music and harmony. If I wouldn’t know Jens and his way of playing the gong, I would have never bought a gong or even thought about ever playing one.
I travel the world with my gongs and have played for some thousand people already and I keep getting this feedback from people which attended a kundalini white noise gong session, who are all basically telling me the big difference and how thankful they are for the experience of hearing the soft manner.
Sure, we all want the best for the visitors of our gong sessions and four our selves. Therefore I suggest to all of you to open your minds, forget what you have told before and look at this from the new perspective.
The gongs have to be played in waves, soft and smooth. There can be some peaks in amplitudes, but only for a short while.
Long periods of loud noise is medically an attack to the holistic health of any living creature.
I hope this article will help to raise the awareness for this issue.
Thank You.
Konstantin Jagoulis (gong master)