It’s a funny feeling, not really being able to comprehend the sound around you. I’m laying on a mat in a candlelit room with Lake Atitlán just outside the window. I’m surrounded by about twenty people, most wrapped in blankets and stretched out in various positions. A few dogs are roaming peacefully among us and the occasional bird is chirping somewhere off in the distance. As night sets on the lake, I’m trying to navigate the audio landscape I’m experiencing: Is that a synthesizer? A human voice? Where in the room is it coming from?
This sound experience is part of the programming at a wellness retreat in Guatemala, co-hosted by Secular Sabbath, a Los Angeles-based, self-described alternative educational institution and intentional community, and Anzan Atitlán, a boutique hotel in Guatemala and frequent retreat destination. Secular Sabbath hosts a series of events in LA and beyond, focusing on yogic breathing, meditation, and sound healing. The wordless singing I’m hearing belongs to Mike Milosh, the man behind the popular musical project Rhye and the partner of Secular Sabbath’s founder, Genevieve Medow-Jenkins. Milosh walks around the space singing live, as his teammates amplify, loop and blend his voice and other sounds.