By DEVIN WEEKS

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — In that twilight place between asleep and awake, the mind does wondrous things.

When combined with soothing sounds that resonate within the body and spirit, the stage becomes set for an internal journey.

Comfortable and relaxed, surrounded by ambient lighting and olfactory-pleasing aromas, these internal journeys are commonly embarked upon during Dream Time Sound Healing's sound bath sessions.

"I've experienced a lot of healing in these dream times," said Brooke Olson of Coeur d'Alene, who has attended sound baths for several years. "It’s a space for peace and tranquility and acceptance of yourself, and to give yourself space and love yourself."

The Dream Time Sound Healing team that conducts the sessions, husband and wife Seth and Alesha Blackwolf of Coeur d'Alene, describe a sound bath as just that — bathing in sound.

"It is a full submersion experience in the great depths of sound in such a way that a beautifully mysterious cleansing process unfolds," Seth said. "This experience can be seen in the light of a bath in a tub of warm soothing water. Within what is known as the 'sound current,' many individual lives are changed. These meditations are designed to bring the body back into vibrational harmony after being offset by the demands of day-to-day life."

The Blackwolfs held a sound bath Friday evening in the Coeur d'Alene Wedding Chapel. It was a special public session with two featured guests: energy healer Lorri Simpson, who owns Pretty Angel Botanicals and hosted the session; and Midwest-based throat singer Shaamaahs, who performs kargyraa (harmonic) singing in the style of the Gyume and Gyuto Tibetan monastic traditions.

"While Seth does sing at our regular sessions, he does not throat sing, so we thought this would be a really neat collaboration," Alesha said. "Every now and then we bring in a guest to offer a special treat for our dreamtimers. As far as our regular sessions, they are actually always different. We have many instruments that we change out to create the feel that we are going for."

About 50 people entered the event space for the special session, wearing cozy clothes and carrying blankets, pillows and other cushy items to keep them comfy on the wooden floor.

Crystal singing bowls, a gong and a few other instruments were at the front of the room as colored lights moved along the ceiling like sunlight reflecting off a stream.

When all were ready, the doors were locked. Instrument and voice began to drone and the beating of a drum began to wash over the space as participants closed their eyes and prepared for takeoff.

"The sound reverberates and you can feel that vibration and every sound in your body, head to toe," said Mandy Foster of Coeur d'Alene. "As Seth does the drum wash, my mind does this 'mental vomit' thing and then you just fall into meditation."

Foster has attended the Dream Time Sound Healing sessions since the first one in late 2015. She was drawn to them for several reasons.

"For me, it was an interest in learning how to meditate," she said. "The qualities described with the sound bath as ‘opening up your body’s natural ability to heal itself, to prevent illnesses’ interested me, so I tried it.”

She attended one session a month for a year, each time experiencing something a little different.

"It did a lot of good for me," she said. "Life gets stressful and hectic and you really get caught up in your daily things that pull at you, bring your immune system down and just lay you vulnerable for taking stresses that you maybe shouldn’t necessarily be having. It’s a good thing to recenter yourself."

As the sounds are created — drumming, chimes, singing bowls, gongs — sound bath participants are relaxed into a meditation where the constant internal monologue hushes and the mind is filled with scenery, patterns, memories, adventures and overall peace. Usually, the sessions include guided meditation and Yoga Nidra, or yogic sleep, which is "a state of conscious deep sleep for extreme relaxation and subtler spiritual exploration."

"It is a unique marriage of science and spirit, taking your brain to the alpha state and eventually the even deeper theta wave state," information on the Dream Time Facebook page reads.

Olson said she usually "pushes off" and "wanders the world" during these meditations, but Friday's session allowed her to be still rather than mentally busy.

“I just curled up with my spirit animals and we kind of hung out and slept,” she said. “I feel super relaxed."

In some sessions, several people "see" the same thing.

"One of the group visions that everyone sees is the spinning vortex,” Olson said. “It’s like the energy vortex, all the energy spiraling up and then spiraling down. That’s one of the themes of one of the dream times I went to. Everyone was seeing it."

Seth said the benefits of these sessions are many, including but not limited to: relaxation, pain relief, grief processing, creativity, sleep for insomnia, energy, mental clarity toward pressing decisions, calmness that replaces hyperactivity and help with anxiety, depression, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder and more. He said he's experienced a rich sense of community in these meditations.

"People report feeling more free to thrive after receiving relief from sometimes debilitating/toxic stress," he said. "Sound vibrations and guided imagery are non-invasive tools used to facilitate a psychic or mental journey of sorts deeper into one’s own psyche. We are all deep wells of life from which we can find all that we need to be well. Dream Time aids us in re-centering and grounding our human energy while allowing us to encounter our higher selves — our highest good, that part of ourselves we remember and newly discover at the same time.

"Dream Time helps us love who we are until we become who we were meant to be."

The sessions are usually about $25 ($35 for special sessions) and are held in the Morning Light Yoga Studio at 1319 N. Government Way in Coeur d'Alene. All are welcome, however special family sessions are occasionally offered for families with young children to prevent disturbances at regular events.

Info: 208-819-5785