Der-Heuy Yee
Graduate Institute of Religion and Culture Tzu-chi University
Wei-Lun Lee
Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology Don Hwa University
Sih-Hui Lin
Department of Indigenous Languages and Communication Don Hwa University
99 Tibetan Singing Bowl Group
Graduate Institute of Religion and Culture Tzu-chi University
This study explored a sound realm, arisen by playing Tibetan singing bowls, and assumed to be located at the intersection of bodily sensation and mental imagery by inter-disciplinary efforts from clinical psychology and Schmitz’s New Phenomenology. The sound realm can be regarded as a virtual rather than reality. It must be actualized otherwise material reality, its actualization must be through some particular mediums or situations to induce a temporary state, where mental imagery is not yet well formed, and the meaning not yet realized. In this state our consciousness feels its existence in the dark, no clear mental sense but a creation a flesh realm other than bodily sensations. The realm possesses a new sense very close to what Schmitz describes in his New Phenomenology. The empirical data presented in this study were taken from various Tibetan singing bowl players and patients, using phenomenological terminology to rewrite those self-reports in phenomenological terms. A self-dissociation phenomenon was illustrated and the nature of self-identity was explored.
Keywords: Tibetan singing bowls, sound space, imminence, body phenomenology, Deleuze, Bergsonism