{"id":447897,"date":"2026-08-30T07:58:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T07:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/447897\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T07:58:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T07:58:53","slug":"taxidermy-sound-bath-it-just-works-at-the-natural-history-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/447897\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxidermy sound bath? It just works at the Natural History Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I lay on my back and stared at a bright blue painted sky, dappled with puffy clouds. As my mind drifted, the sound of a breeze, created by handheld fans, filled the room. Then came a symphony of chimes, crystal bowls, wave drums and rain sticks. To my right, a black bear cub eyed me curiously.<\/p>\n

Soon a thunderous crescendo of gongs arose. I looked to my left, where two endangered polar bears stood on a sheet of ice, ocean looming behind them.<\/p>\n

The noises softened and went still. With a resounding clap from participants around the room, I came back to reality.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t in a forest, nor the Arctic. And no, I had not recently taken any psychedelic substances. I was at a sound bath in the North American Mammal Hall at L.A.\u2019s Natural History Museum, surrounded by dioramas of taxidermy, meditative instruments and sound healers from Oso Sound Healing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Avery <\/p>\n

Avery Whitmore leads participants in a sound bath.<\/p>\n

Hosted earlier this month, the sound bath was the first of two events in the museum\u2019s new Mindfulness Mornings at the Museum series, where guests can experience a meditative practice in the iconic gallery before opening hours. A nearly sold-out yoga session led by SoulPlay Yoga<\/a> will take place on Sept. 13, and museum organizers hope to host more events after that, said Joel Quizon, the manager of public programs.<\/p>\n

The Natural History Museum always looks for ways to \u201cactivate the museum space,\u201d Quizon said. Ahead of the sound bath, Oso Sound Healing founder Avery Whitmore said the unconventional space would invite a childlike energy, a deeper connection to animals and introspection.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust seeing these older animals, it takes you into another place,\u201d Whitmore said. \u201cIt could invite you into a deeper meditation about where we are, where we come from. In that mind state, you might be a little bit more receptive to exploring the same questions about yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum introduced Mindfulness Mornings following the success of its past wellness events \u2014 including sound baths that were part of its First Fridays after-hours series. With those events, the lines went \u201cdown to the basement,\u201d Quizon said. <\/p>\n

\"People <\/p>\n

The Natural History Museum is an apt venue for mindfulness events as people already see it as an \u201coasis [in] the city,\u201d said Joel Quizon, the museum\u2019s manager of public programs.<\/p>\n

\"Two <\/p>\n

Participants Kenny Mayo of Culver City, left, and Verseilla McCloskey of Long Beach are immersed in sound.<\/p>\n

Whitmore, who previously collaborated with the museum during First Fridays in 2025, founded Oso Sound Healing in 2023. He played piano and percussion as a child and later guitar as an adult, but \u201cput all of that away for many years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

About a decade ago, personal struggle led him to seek out spiritual practices, and that healing guided him toward being of service to others. That led him to attend massage school \u2014 not to start a career as a massage therapist, he said, but to learn how to give back to others.<\/p>\n

The experience inspired him to learn other healing modalities, including breath work and sound meditation: the latter of which reignited his musical appreciation. \u201c\u200aIt helped to revisit that, or reawaken it from another perspective,\u201d Whitmore said.<\/p>\n

When I attended the sound bath, about 100 people filled the hall and Whitmore opened the meditation by asking how many new sound bathers were here. More than half of the attendees, including me, raised their hands.<\/p>\n

\"During <\/p>\n

During the practice, participants can peek and see the varied habitats of North America beside them. <\/p>\n

\"Avery <\/p>\n

Avery Whitmore created a sound bath experience inspired by the unique museum space. <\/p>\n

With the overhead lights dimmed and soft light spilling from the dioramas, the displays looked like windows to other worlds. I took a mat next to the American black bears and American badgers, only slightly jealous that the mats next to the large-scale walrus diorama were taken.<\/p>\n

The meditation lasted about an hour. In addition to the variety of instruments evoking the sounds of nature, it incorporated breathwork, vocal exercises and a small amount of physical sensation: a refreshing spritz of rose water. Sets of instruments were stationed along every wall of the room, fully encompassing us in sound. Peeking at the animals around me, I couldn\u2019t help but think of them as characters whenever new instruments joined the symphony.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely the coolest sound healing experience I\u2019ve been to,\u201d said Kenny Mayo, 35, after the sound bath. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe different stations felt like an orchestra. It was put together in such a beautiful, methodical way, and all of the instruments were harmonizing perfectly. \u200aIt felt like no matter where you were, there was something close to you,\u201d Mayo said.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the meditation, Whitmore asked participants to envision an animal and invited them to receive its message. Mayo said she thought of a hawk, and found meaning in connecting with the spirits of animals that \u201cdon\u2019t exist anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a magical thing, to be able to see the history of all the animals, our ancestors,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can still connect to the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n

I looked at the taxidermy black bear cub, standing energetically on its hind legs, and imagined the future ahead of it; then across the room to the adult polar bears, traversing an icy surface that, beyond the diorama, continues to melt away.<\/p>\n

\"As <\/p>\n

As part of the meditation, participants were invited to think about where they were, and where they\u2019ve come from. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I lay on my back and stared at a bright blue painted sky, dappled with puffy clouds. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1592,177343,177346,1043,36525,177345,177347,48,52,51,47,50,49,6607,53672,177344,1594,6201,10961,177341,177342],"class_list":["post-447897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-animal","tag-deep-meditation","tag-diorama","tag-event","tag-instrument","tag-joel-quizon","tag-kenny-mayo","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-museum","tag-natural-history-museum","tag-oso-sound-healing-studio","tag-other","tag-room","tag-symphony","tag-taxidermy-sound-bath","tag-whitmore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}