Gongtastic in Glastonbury. Helping my Sound Therapist Friend at a Glastonbury Fair.

Sarah Weller, Sound Therapist and Gong Mistress, ready to give Glastonbury a taste of her Gong Therapy today

I am in Glastonbury.  I am not alone.  In our twin roomed B&B, snoozing in the bed next to mine, in her pink nightie, is my dear Sound Therapist friend and colleague Sarah Weller. Sarah uses Gongs and crystal and Tibetan bowls in her treatments, and from experience, I can tell you that her treatments are very powerful indeed.  One lies on a couch, with an enormous Gong on a stand at each end.  Both Gongs are controlled by Sarah, who rolls the deep, vibrating sounds from a low rumble almost like an oncoming tropical storm, to overwhelming waves of sound that engulf you and make your hair stand on end with the power, and all the stages of sound and vibration in between.  At this fair, the Glastonbury Magical Art Fair, Sarah is offering taster treatments so that all may experience the effect of the Gongs.

Sarah has 11 Gongs of differing sizes.  Some are absolutely enormous, others are not so large.  All her Gongs are musical instruments, and all are slightly different.  They are massively expensive and as precious as life itself to Sarah;  no one else is allowed to touch them unless they have clearing from MI5.

I am here as her helper, and my job title is Gong Elf.  Sarah and I work together often, and not only are we a very good team, we always end up having an absolute hoot together.  But, I am not allowed to touch the Gongs now because my first job today was to carry in the statue of the Buddha from the car park to the hall, and I dropped it.  Though the Buddha, bless him, bounced and did not break, I have only been allowed to carry boxes and cushions and handbags since.

Let me ask Sarah why she is here and what she thought of today.

Sarah!  Wake up!  Why are you in Glastonbury?

And Sarah sighs, yawns, and says, "It's a very good question. When I said the sentence I shall Gong in Glastonbury, it sounded right.  Yep."  She added, " I had no idea what to expect.  It was like a blind date with Gongs."

What, I asked her, was the best thing about being a Sound Therapist with Gongs in Glastonbury today?

"It was probably the people I met really, in terms of the unexpected connections and the interesting conversations that followed.  It was very good doing a treatments for people today who had had no experience of Gongs."

What was the worst?

"Lugging the huge Gongs from carpark to the venue, carrying such heavy equipment.  The setting up was fun, but carrying the equipment in at first was really tiring."  (Here I cringe because I wasn't allowed to help, being a Buddha Basher, so poor Sarah decided it was safer for her to take all the most expensive and extraordinarily heavy stuff in herself.  I was able to speak words of encouragement though, as she staggered along, and I tell her it was the least that I could do).

What kind of treatments did you offer today?

"Just relaxation sessions for people and a chance to experience a Gong if they had not had any experience before.  It isn't appropriate to offer therapeutic interventions in a public place such as the Town Hall where we were today.  There is no opportunity in a Fair setting to do any diagnostic work and there is no privacy for important therapy work or treatment.  So people were able to recline with cushions and blankets on a reclining chair, and to experience a gentle wave of relaxing sounds from the Earth Gong."

Sarah gonging in a taster session this morning.  The sound of the gongs is mesmerising, it is easy to get lost in the experience which is why it is good to lie down and put a blanket on.

At this point Sarah went back to sleep.  She had been dealing with people from 8.30 this morning until 5.30 this evening, it is more than understandable that she should want to sleep now.  I on the other hand, being her Gong Elf, had much less to do.  I am not yet ready to sleep, the whole night is ahead of me, and I have the tea making facilities, the telly, another bath and my laptop for entertainment.  We have finished the biscuits, so there is nothing left to eat, but that is not a problem because we have eaten a very sustaining and substantial dinner tonight, and there should be no question of any more biscuits after the standard packets left in our room today by Greg, our B&B host.

Greg, our B&B host is just lovely.  We have been here 24 hours and we are best friends, all of us.  He runs the Glastonbury Town House B&B and people, if you want a fun, friendly, thoughtful, witty host who cooks like a dream, cannot help you enough, then come and see Greg.  We hope he can come and see us at the Town Hall tomorrow, and I will stifle a cry of pain if Sarah allows him to lift any of her gongs.  See Greg's website here - http://glastonburytownhouse.co.uk/

I am going to stop now, and continue this tomorrow after our second day at the Magical Arts Fair.

The second day is over.  I am home and it is Monday morning.  The second day was extremely good, there were a steady stream of people wanting to experience the Gongs, and Sarah had to carve out a few minutes in the late afternoon to sit and have some tea and carrot cake.  The effect of the Gongs on people is very visible; after a session they are calm, rested, thoughtful and much happier.  I was sitting opposite at my own rather ramshackle AGD table, and I could see the difference in the Gong recipients.  Before lying down and having the blanket placed over you, and the cushions, should you want them, adjusted, the brave soul looks faintly alarmed.  A Gong is a big instrument, though Sarah is offering a gentle, deep and powerful healing experience with them, there is the possibility in the mind of the patience that she will take a notion (which she never does and never will, she is too highly trained and intelligent and intuitive) to hammer the living daylights out of it and give you a heart attack.  After the treatment, after the amazing effects of the soft, strong, deeply controlled and very powerful Gongs, patients are transformed.  Something has shifted, they are relaxed, calm, thoughtful.  As Sarah starts her treatment, you fall into the vibrations and resonance of this massive instrument, and you trust Sarah completely.

We, in the side room at the fair, the only possible place to put the Gongs, are probably light years ahead of the rest of the world, we had two days of lapping up everyone else's treatments.  As for Sarah, before we set off home she needed a stiff pot of tea and a sit down.  "I am still resonating," she said as she sat down in the cafe with a spaced out bump.  And so she was, after two days of continuous Gonging, if I could see her aura, she would probably be shimmering like a mirage.  "Come back Sarah!" I said, "you have to drive us home!" to which she smiled and said words to the effect of feed me and all will be well.  I wonder if she went to bed last night giving off a distant and primordial hum, soothing both her husband and dog without even having to even say Gong.

Quick News on the AGD and Studio Front

• An excellent meeting on Friday with Team AGD Brighton.  We are planning talks and discussions for the next exhibition, which is Tuesday 20 May until Friday 23 May inclusive.   Team AGD are providing the most fascinating, educated and interesting speakers at this AGD.  I must wait until we get a reply saying "Yes please!"  from our speakers before I say they will come, so please watch this space.
• Glastonbury provided for me some absolutely fascinating people.  I set up a stall with information about AGD, and talked over what I do, and listened to what came my way.  I aim to find a way to come to Glastonbury now, I am inspired by the people I met and feel it would be beneficial to bring the show there.
• Jesus on the Tubes - they are coming along.  The first one is finished, and it needs, as they say in the building trade, snagging and so I am tweaking it before framing it and handing it over.  On to the second one today.  I sit in my studio with the heater on, and listen to the radio.  For the whole day.  Is that not a very enviable way to spend a day?  Especially after absorbing gonging for two days, I may not be able to draw a straight line, I may have Jesus, after a Sound Therapy session, wobbling on the tube with the commissioned family who are also vibrating gently.
• AGD goes to Southampton before the Brighton event, to the A Dead Good Day Out event on 10 May.  More on that as it progresses, I am going to meet the organisers this month and view the venue where I will be setting up, I will tell you where it will be then.  AGD will be part of a huge event with loads of other stalls, events, fun workshops, and so on.  It will be a really good family day out, it will be on the subject of end of life and is part of the Dying Matters Awareness week.  It is, in fact, a Dead Good Day Out.

And now I must give Giant Boy back his laptop.  I was so Gonged out last night that I spilt my tea all over my laptop as I sat in bed hoping to do the blog before I slept.  Not a chance.  Now my laptop only does yyyyyy or rrrrrr.  

Sound Therapy with Gongs, Crystal and Tibetan Bowls, Reiki Drumming, Sound Baths are just a few of Sarah's treatments.  See her details below and give her a call.  

Sarah Weller, Sound Therapist, wit, friend and wonder woman. - contact her here

https://www.facebook.com/SarahWellerAtBlacknest

Om.  Or as my laptop says, yyyyyy rrrrrr.  Have a good week all.