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Chakra bowls help people connect to their inner selves

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 8, 2017

By Rikki King

Chakra bowls help people connect to their inner selves
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Chakra bowls help people connect to their inner selves
Jim McCall stoops over holding a chakra bowl as Vandana Murray listens to and feels the resonating sound during a concert at Vision Quest Bookstore and Wellness Center in Everett on March 10. (Ian Terry / The Herald)
Oneness blessings are offered at the concert. (Ian Terry / The Herald)
Each bowl produces a different tone. (Ian Terry / The Herald)

EVERETT — To sing, each bowl needs a different touch.

Jim McCall, 63, thinks of the sounds as reflections of the monks who fashion the bowls in Tibet and India. Some give freely. Others demand discipline.

McCall plays frequent chakra bowl concerts in Everett. The concerts include what are called Oneness blessings. Oneness teaches unconditional love, joy and freedom, he said.

McCall had questions that religion didn’t answer. In 2012, he was told to read a book, “Awakening into Oneness,” that sparked a new spiritual interest. He twice has traveled to India for Oneness training and plans another trip in May.

McCall attended a chakra bowl concert for the first time about two years ago. He bought his own bowls from India months later. The bowls are made from metals including copper and zinc.

They are “not something you have to believe in,” he said. “It’s something you experience.”

His favorite use of the bowls, which is sometimes part of the concerts, is to put one on someone’s head, atop a soft cloth. The bowl is rubbed or struck with tools to produce sound. The effect is calming, like being underwater. Some Oneness events focus on that practice.

“The most common quote I can get from people is, ‘Wow,’ ” he said. “I end up with a long line.”

The sounds help to connect with the inner self, he said. “It is these overtones and harmonies along with the physical vibration of the bowl that wash clean your thoughts,” he said.

McCall works for the Everett Fire Department and also volunteers as a yoga teacher. He and his wife are empty-nesters who lived in Everett and on Whidbey Island before buying a home in Seattle. His wife, who is Catholic, doesn’t mind him keeping bowls in his man cave at home, he said. He also recently purchased a 32-inch gong.

His concert in March drew 28 people. The next is planned for 6:30 p.m. April 14 at Vision Quest Bookstore and Wellness Center, 3602 Colby Ave. Registration is required: 425-252-1591.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @rikkiking.

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