Vibrational Awareness
Inside Mike McEwen’s white van lurks an amazing instrument, he calls “The Vibrational Awareness Chamber.” He parked in Cornwall Bridge last weekend and invited a small group of people to experience his creation, an intriguing cross between listening and body mindfulness. Constructed of salvaged brass horns, bugles and trumpets lashed to metal bed frames, the curious critter can be played. Tibetan singing bowls perch in the bells of the wind instruments, and there’s a drum, gongs, bell and clarinets. By striking and stroking these elements, players can set up a fugue of sounds that whisper, ring, toll and above all vibrate. Participants are invited into the van to perform on the reverberating chamber themselves. However, they can also hear McEwen improvise long slow progressions that emit waves of delicate sound. Bench seats and a couch allow people to lie down, close eyes and let sound roll through their bodies.
Header Image: Mike McEwen performing on the Vibrational Awareness Chamber. Photo by Kathleen Hulser.
Pictured: C.C. Arshagra improvises on Tibetan bowls. Photo by Kathleen Hulser.
The effects are marvelous: you float in a suspended state while the hum wraps around your breath and blood. You can literally feel the heart circulating the blood in calming pulses. “At first it seemed the sounds and vibrations entered through my head and progressed through the body, exiting by my feet. Then after about ten minutes lying down with eyes closed, I began to feel like coils of sound were spreading through my body, ripples in a pool whose shores were my skin,” explained one participant. By focusing on the body and its rhythms, the experience upends the usual hierarchy of our senses, downplaying sight in favor of feeling and sound received as movement.
The experience positions your consciousness to hear your own internal systems, and you can feel oscillations that coordinate your body rhythms. I expected to hear music, but this was more like a sound massage. As your ear follows slow sound transformations and appreciates the slow decay of Tibetan bowl humming, you tune yourself to the subtle vibrations of a larger universe. McEwen describes his creation as a “pathway to unlocking awareness, a way of both concentrating and expanding the self.” These results cultivate a deep empathy for self and other. Combining psychological, somatic and spiritual effects, the experience gave me an internal hum that lasted for hours. I’m hoping that McEwen will be setting up in public places across Connecticut this summer to offer his unique vibrational awareness to more people.The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.
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