Meeting the sound healer. Crystal Bowl of Light.
Have you tried the miracle of a sound bath?
Magdalena
7/20/2026
I hope you will enjoy this brave and open conversation with Candace Cheung of Crystal Bowl of Light, a sound therapy and teaching studio in Hong Kong.
As it happens with most of my guests featured on the One Kind Voice podcast, there is always a prior episode, an indirect meeting. A knowing of the wonderful people here through their craft, through their students, through their events. This knows no exception. I have been captured by the effects of deep relaxation in sessions with crystal bowls for years, mainly through the students of Crystal Bowl Light.
While I knew of Candace and her work, I could only meet her in person a couple of months ago. The best type of encounter, for me. Spontaneous, a quick available time slot became available, and here I was. Standing at her studio’s door with a large wet umbrella, not knowing where to park it. I could have never picked a better lunch break to take such good care of myself. Thanks! Good discernment deserves its own appraisal moment.
What fascinates me about these sessions? I will share more vividly my experience and observation, rather than exploring the science. Candace will share further with us and is really recommended to listen to the episode fully to experience the sound as well.
Well, even if there is a meditation involved, some gentle movement to begin with, a participant in a sound healing therapy soon learns that there is not much talk involved, because we are being surrendered to the gentle, quiet power of the vibration that the skilful practitioner releases. Why would I even consider the word power in this context, referring to one of the most surprising art forms of deep relaxation.
As it happens, during all my experiences, we start drifting apart, the body relaxes without the brain deciding when to switch off or not. To be honest, our brains cannot really decide this anyway. As it also learns pretty quickly, we have no idea where the forty minutes session has come to an end. It looks like a blink of an eye. In fact, the captivating sounds at the beginning of the session, play no big role during the deep relaxation session. The sound, the master of the crystal bowls, takes refuge in the background, metaphorically speaking. Some of us might fall asleep, some might reach a meditation stage where we can feel our body physically, but we are transported to a different setting. There is an alternative medium where we float.
Candace is generous with her sharing, talking about the positive effects of the vibrations on the nervous system, the impact on the chakra system too, the energetic nodes in our body. The crystal bowl therapy is relatively new, a practice maybe picking up only from the 90’s onwards. We are much more familiar with the Tibetan bowls of metal alloy, that can be found in temples, meditation spaces, and yoga studios now. The Tibetan bowls have been witnessing ceremonies in temples for centuries and we can see by ourselves the graciousness of handling them, their special location, their placement on cushions or stands, depending on how large the bowl is. The moment we notice any ceremony in a temple, we can become aware sooner or later by the variety and the impact of the sound, compounded with the skill of a practitioner.
Lay people, in our honest intent to learn to meditate, we can only try to practice using a singing bowl, often maybe just to start or end a meditation sound.
I am not sure I would dare that with a crystal singing bowl. I get the impression that one singing bowl would never be enough even. They do look a bit intimidating and fragile at first glance. They also demand to study this skill properly in advance. Therefore, respect to all those taking these courses and practising. Therefore singing bowls require care, protecting, carrying them with focuses attention to any workshop or meditation session. They require a space, a set up. These are not simple objects. They are objects of patience that require intimate knowledge, training and a particular relationship to be developed with their owner and practitioner. I love their complexity and their presence in the room. We know that just through their glass like beauty, through their angelic colours, opaque, clear, rainbow like, shiny, there is not one alike. Every single one of them looks as if handcrafted entirely for a purpose and cannot be simply mass produced. These crystal bowls fascinated me from their first hello. That is all that I can say.
The rest is really in being in the room. Every form of practice requires our presence. This type of practice, requires our practice to arrive at the studio only. Soon after, the practice of the sound bath requires us to disappear in some ethereal space. We are aware and yet, not really present. We are still in our body, we can move our toes and fingertips, maybe even more, if the practitioner takes notice. The miracle starts when we track the time.
How many times, pun intended, have we tried to make the hour, the moment, the day disappear. Perhaps we wanted a meeting to finish, a ridiculous conversation to end, the day of the exam to be over with. This is exactly what a sound therapy bath does. There is a beginning and there is the end. We cannot really know what happened in the middle of it. We blink, we clap and we wake up.
If you wish to forget something even for forty five minutes, please go ahead and try it. This is for me the astonishing effect. No talk, no questions and answers. I could honestly say I should listen to some sessions online only to listen to the music and test once again, if the deep relaxation continues this way. Just in order to listen to the generated music.
I am sure you would love our conversation and one day you might join me during another session at her place. I would just hope for a day without storms, as last time I enjoyed the session, I had to brace myself for the outpouring rain. That rushing towards sound bath “sounded” counter-intuitive at first, and I have almost given up. Luckily, the good voice in my mind, the kindest voice in my mind, just reminded me gently “Let’s do it anyway! It's raining cats and dogs almost every day in Hong Kong in summer. There will never be a better day. “. And thankfully, I listened to the kind voice and had the most wonderful session, because, where has time gone? No one could be held accountable for it. Now that is what I call a deep relaxation.
What fascinates me even more?
Why are we in the room to begin with? Candace again, tells us how she got to learn this practice as a form of resolving her internal traumas and as a form of healing presence and expression. Learning to release what has been kept inside our hearts, chests, and minds for too long. Learning to take the steps to reach out to practices that can release the sense of safety inside of us. Third spaces where people feel at home, they belong. These are the real miracles. That we keep digging for.
You can find more details about Candace and her studio here:
Enjoy the episode,
Yours truly loving interviewer and time traveller.
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