I'm torn on how to review this book. On the one hand, Sound Bath /does/ deliver on its promise to talk about the therapeutic effects of sound baths and suggests methods for having our own sound baths. However, the book spends more time focusing on Auster's life. We learn about her relationship with music, how she got into the field of sound meditation, and what she exactly she does for a living. There are ample plugs for her sound bath album and for her guided meditation practices. In fact, there are swaths of pages dedicated to testimonials from customers. The one or two testimonials that focused on the experience (not the product) might have fit, but glowing praises of Auster and her work made me question the intention of this book.

I'd love to try a sound bath because I'm quite sensitive to sound and I've long been interested in the sonic experience, but I don't think this book would have convinced me to try one if I didn't have the background that I do. I would have loved for Auster to go more into sound baths themselves. I'm giving the book three stars for the information it does provide, but taking off stars for the marketing effect.

Ever since I read Brunonia Barry's novel THE FIFTH PETAL, I have been interested in the power of sound to heal. Auster has great insight into how sound affects us and can heal us and she presents the material in a way that even those unfamiliar with the process can understand. It definitely made me want to experience a sound bath for myself and explore more deeply how sound affects us on a cellular level. Fascinating book.

"Sound Bath" is about the author's life, what led her into facilitating Sound Baths, and what her Sound Baths are like. The book sometimes came across as an ad for hiring the author to do a Sound Bath for your group or for buying her recordings. She spent chapters describing how she got into doing Sound Baths, what attending one of her sound bath sessions is like (with sound alone or in combination with scents, yoga, etc.), and how to get the most out of a Sound Bath session. There was a chapter full of letters from people who attended a sound bath and how it helped them.

She also gave an overview of the (mostly Eastern) ideas that inspired what she does in a sound bath. She talked about deep listening, yoga, mindfulness meditation (and using sound as your guide), why stress is bad, your voice and words as sound, mantras, doshas, meridians, prana, chakras, etc. I thought the book was supposed to be about how sound benefits health, but she started talking like the point of Sound Baths is to achieve an altered state of consciousness. The author also briefly described the instruments that she uses and their history (origins, what they were used for in religious rituals, etc.). At the end of each chapter, she gave an exercise relating to that topic that you can do by yourself, but I felt like this was a what-she-does book rather than a how-to book.