东北大学伦敦校区心理健康周：学生体验“声音浴”

一场被体验的校园活动

东北大学心理健康意识周期间，伦敦校区在Chapter Spitalfields住宿空间的放映厅办了一场声音浴。它不是水浴，而是让人暴露在深沉的声音振动中，以放松和恢复精神。带领者Sherene Banner来自伦敦健康服务提供方Circular Flow，她带来的乐器包括喜马拉雅制作的藏式颂钵，有金属也有水晶玻璃，另有装满珠子的海洋鼓，用来模拟海浪声。

理论多于定论

东北大学哲学与宗教学教授Elizabeth Bucar在新书Beyond Wellness中说明，声音浴正作为灵性健康实践流行起来，但它究竟如何作用于人体，科学仍处早期。她列举的理论包括：声音改变脑波状态、诱发更放松的状态；或刺激迷走神经，带来更强的幸福感。这些说法共同预设人有某种可被振动改变的内在节律。报道没有给出对照实验或生理测量，因此这些是理论，不是已验证的机制。

参与者与记者的即时感受

约八名参与者躺在双人沙发上，跟随引导注意呼吸。带领者走动并更换颂钵以增强沉浸感，声音浴持续约30分钟，以小铃铛声结束。社区协调员Wilf Fitzpatrick说自己几乎睡着，感到更放松、头脑清明；一年级工程学生Jonah Sullivan从马萨诸塞州乡村来到伦敦，觉得这里很吵，特意来找安静。记者本人没有睡着，但感到更放松、身体更松软，并明确表示不确定单次声音浴是否有长期效果，认为可能需要反复参与。

如何理解这类活动

这篇报道的价值在于呈现一次真实体验和多方说法，而不是证明疗效。参与者反应各异，带领者本人也提到有人感到不适、头痛或声称看到颜色。把声音浴当作短期的放松方式，与把它当作改善心理健康的治疗方法，是两种不同的主张；后者需要材料中尚未出现的系统研究支持。

Students and NGN take a sound bath for Mental Health Week

A sound bath is a restorative audio experience aimed to reduce anxiety and improve mental health. NGN went along to NU London’s event to see if it really works.

A close up shows a person holding mallets with bowls set up to conduct a sound bath. — A sound bath is a restorative audio experience aimed to reduce anxiety and improve mental health. Getty Images

by Jonathan Chadwick October 21, 2026

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LONDON – It’s Mental Health Awareness Week at Northeastern, which means NU London has a range of events for students to get involved. One of these in particular piqued my interest: A sound bath, taking place at Chapter Spitalfields, NU London’s accommodation space. I’d never heard of a sound bath before, so I went along to experience it firsthand.

So, what is a sound bath? Well, it doesn’t involve an actual bath, nor is there any water. It’s an immersive experience where you’re exposed to deep sound vibrations to help you relax and feel rejuvenated. The vibrations come from “singing bowls”, which are simply bowl-shaped instruments made of metal and glass. The practitioner can either strike the bowl or rub the rim to get a sustained vibration – much like how I like to make unnecessary noise at the dinner by rubbing the rim of my wine glass.

Related: Does mindfulness miss the point without religion?

According to Elizabeth Bucar, a professor at Northeastern University’s Department of Philosophy and Religion, sound baths are gaining popularity as a spiritual wellness practice – but the science of how exactly they work on the human body is still at an early stage.

“There are scientific theories about why sound baths have these effects,” she explains in her new book Beyond Wellness. “Some posit that sound alters brainwave states and that sound baths induce states associated with greater levels of relaxation. Others suggest that a sound bath stimulates the vagus nerve to produce an increased feeling of well-being. Underlying all these theories is some version of the idea that humans have an internal rhythm that vibrations can alter, thereby improving us,” according to Bucar.

My sound bath was performed by Sherene Banner, a sound healing facilitator at Circular Flow, a wellbeing services provider in London. As I walk into the cinema at Chapter Spitalfields, she’s sitting on a rug on the floor, surrounded by an assortment of deep bowls which, she explains, are Tibetan singing bowls made in the Himalayas. Some are metal, others are made of crystal glass. I start to wonder how the vibrations will affect me and if I’m going to fall asleep.

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“People react to sound baths in different ways,” she tells me. “Some feel sick, some get headaches, some profess to see colours.”

I lie on my back on one of the cinema’s comfy two-seater sofas and try to forget about the outside world – including the student playing the piano in the lobby. As the sounds begin, Sherene encourages the participants – a group of about eight – to “tap into the natural rhythm of our breathing” – in and out, in and out. Even though my eyes are open and I’m staring at the ceiling, everything starts to look blank. This must be what it’s like to be in the womb – no words or vision, just pure frequencies, I think to myself. I feel tingles on the very top of my scalp and outside distractions start to fade away.

A person in a dark room lit up with floor lights uses large bowls to create a sound bath. — The sound bath practitioner for the evening was surrounded by metal and glass bowls. Photo by Jonathan Chadwick/Northeastern University

At various points, Sherene walks around the room with her assorted bowls to increase the sense of “immersion in sound” akin to being immersed in bath water. There’s also an ocean drum – a circular object filled with beads, which remarkably replicates the sound of ocean waves hitting the shore. It strikes me how musical the whole crescendo is, and sometimes quite ominous too, like the start of a Radiohead record or a 1980s horror movie.

The sound bath lasts about 30 minutes, concluding with the gentle tinkling of little bells. I sit up and let the circulation flow back into my hands and feet. While I didn’t fall asleep, I certainly feel more relaxed and floppier than I was before. As for my mental state, I feel happy to have experienced something entirely new. But how did my fellow attendees find it? And has it improved their mental health?

Wilf Fitzpatrick, a community coordinator at NU London, was almost falling asleep, having lay down on the floor right in front of the bowls.

He told Northeastern Global News that he “was conscious but I felt myself going into the ground,” he said. “It was really nice. I just feel a lot more relaxed. I was also thinking as well; it wasn’t like there was nothing. I just had quite a nice clear mind.”

Jonah Sullivan, a first year engineering student from Massachusetts, mused about growing up in a very rural area and how he found it “very loud in London.”

“So, I thought that coming somewhere quiet would be good,” he said. I didn’t know if I was asleep. My eyes were open but I didn’t know. I feel more relaxed, I don’t know how to explain it.”

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As I walk back into the noisy London streets, all the stresses of modern city life come flooding back. I’m not sure if a single sound bath would have any long-term effects, but in the short-term it definitely feels physically and mentally beneficial. A bit like an actual water bath. Repeated dips are probably necessary to keep the mind clean and healthy.

Look out for more sound bath events at NU London coming soon!

Jonathan Chadwick is a Northeastern Global News reporter based in London. Email him at jon.chadwick@northeastern.edu