The Salty Air

Our writer checked out the Bethesda Salt Cave

August 20, 2018 12:46 p.m.

With Giordano’s words hanging in the air, I made a mental note to leave my phone at home and take walks in the woods more often. Though I’m doubtful that I’ll be seeking treatment with a psychic medium or pocketing magic salt cave rocks anytime soon, I did take Narayadu up on her recommendation to return to the Bethesda Salt Cave for its weekly Tibetan sound bath ($35 per person). A sound bath is a musical performance played with singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks and shamanic drums, and it includes some guided meditation.

I went in with an open mind and made myself comfortable on a cloister of embroidered pillows in the back of the room. Is salt therapy a false idol? Once I caught the girls’ cold, it did seem to help a bit in my recovery. And Cecile and Genevieve hadn’t gotten sick beyond a runny nose since our visit together more than two months earlier; the previous winter we seemed to be cashing in prescriptions for antibiotics every three to four weeks. Could the salt cave be responsible for this year’s health streak?

The concert began, and I closed my eyes. A crescendo of sounds and vibrations drowned out my many thoughts, except one: Perhaps some things don’t have to be of concrete use to have genuine value. In other words (and you knew this was coming): Take it all with a grain of salt.

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Elizabeth McNamara is a freelance writer living in Arlington, Virginia.

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