You relax with faux-fur blankets in the geodesic dome as the blue sky daubed with little cloud tufts exists somewhere out there beyond the towering trees.
Here somewhere above Summit Road, the storms of life evaporate, as Liliya Goldie, 48, constructs a symphony of ambient sound with a variety of implements and receptacles: singing bowls, glass harp, chimes, rainfall-simulating percussive instruments. Suddenly: the yiping of a forest animal.
There’s peacefulness and tension to the audio journey being unfurled, like a gnarled fisherman spinning an engaging yarn, a yogi annunciating an inspiring-but-challenging object lesson, or a radio newscaster spitting golden-age-radio game with crescendos and release.
“It’s like a massage,” Goldie says in an interview after her performance, when asked why the sonic frequencies she dished out felt so engaging—and soothing. “It’s like recalibrating at the cellular level.”
Technically, you’d have to still file soundbath science under the category of officially unproven woo-woo, at least as far as quantifiable medicine goes. And it’s definitely easy to find a range of YouTube videos claiming such-and-such frequency is perfect for putting you to sleep or increasing your studying abilities or boosting your libido.
But there’s no denying songs trigger emotions and can shift our mood instantly. And anyhow, recent reports indicate government agencies have been using mind-blowingly-powerful acoustic cannons as weapons to alter the course of international diplomacy. So, if warmongers can use the power of the electromagnetic spectrum to tear things apart, why wouldn’t it make sense to embrace soundbath technology to connect people with their deeper self—and with others?
“This is where you slow down enough to really hear within, to really hear your voice, to learn more about the depth of who you are,” Goldie says. “Because we’re not just physical beings. We’re the consciousness that lives within us. And when you get this true connection, you realize—you feel you know—the multidimensionality of self. And what happens after sound healing. You feel your balance and peace.”
(Drew Penner / Los Gatan)
Goldie’s been living here in the Santa Cruz Mountains, amongst the evergreens and birds of prey for about a decade. She went from working for software company NxRev Inc. to teaching yoga to filing the official paperwork to start Goldie Wellness LLC a few weeks back.
“I didn’t do it for the purpose of forming something big,” she says. “The goal for me is, for the person to come and just open their heart.”
Now, she gives a quarterly soundbath at The Club at Los Gatos and offers monthly sessions here in the mountains above Los Gatos. And she recently signed a contract to be able to sell Crystal Tones singing bowls as an official dealer of the Utah-based company.
Goldie has so much to channel when she dishes out her sonics: when she was a teen and bombs hitting her neighbors’ houses during the 1992–1993 war between the government of Georgia and Abkhaz separatists (“People just started hating people,” she recalls. “I was like, What’s going on?”); atrocities causing a citizenry to turn against one another; moving to Ukraine and facing hunger as the train with provisions would arrive infrequently.
But she knows she’s been incredibly fortunate, too, with: good employment in Silicon Valley, a husband who’s a former tennis pro, great friends and the chance to bring her mountaintop dreams to fruition.
Upon arrival you pass the tennis court and two sentinel rocks quarried on the East Coast. In addition to the dome—which reflects sound waves, giving those inside an exciting three-dimensional concert—there’s an outbuilding in a modern style with a fireplace, used for tea ceremonies. Outside there’s a small amphitheater and a Zen spiral for introspection.
“I really want people to find a sanctuary in Silicon Valley, where you can just come and listen to the birds, listen to the fox, and just reconnect with yourself,” she says with a laugh. “It’s just such a beautiful experience of knowing. Because we’re beautiful beings.”
For more info: liliyagoldie.com
