A Psychedelic Sound-Healing Journey Is Coming to the Clock Tower

For thousands of years, sound has been used to heal and connect to spirituality (think chanting mantras and singing bowls) in religious ceremonies, and psychedelics have been used for the same reasons for just as long, with cannabis, peyote and psilocybin employed in rituals around the globe. Now, Denver Zen Den is combining the two modalities in an upcoming event called Time Warp — although instead of actual psychedelics, the facility is using its first-rate tech that provides a sober psychedelic experience via lights and vibrational frequencies.

Time Warp will happen across three different floors at the Daniel's & Fisher Clock Tower on Friday, April 4, with Denver-based producer Tommy Dill, aka Soundularity, providing two forty-minute sets of healing-frequency tunes that you can soak up while lying under stroboscopic lights provided by Zen Den on the eighteenth floor. Meanwhile, DJ Loracle will be holding down the twentieth floor while guests sip on mocktails, browse vendors and partake in oracle readings; at the same time, the 21st floor will host an immersive "light journey" called Spaceship Dream.

"Soundularity is one of the premier sound-journey artists in Colorado," says Michael Pottern, founder of Zen Den.  "We've just been geeking out on sound and frequency for the last couple of years together as friends, and in the last two years, we started to do more collaborations."
Those collaborations are "sound journeys," in which Soundularity curates a blissful set of healing sonics to coincide with Zen Den's lights, which stimulate the same facets of the brain as psychedelics, filling your mind with fractals and colorful patterns that leave you with an elated afterglow for hours or even days after the experience.

"We got the opportunity to do it at a very opulent place, the Clock Tower off 16th Street. What better way to get people feeling and being inspired by awe than doing it somewhere that's very unique and novel?" Pottern asks, adding that Sondularity "will be performing his music live while we have the stroboscopic lights going, which will be a very unique thing, because people are usually wearing headphones for these types of experiences. This will really have a group coherence."

The stroboscopic lights used for the Soundularity experience are similar to those used for Zen Den's individual sober psychedelic sessions but are more expansive, so that up to fifty people can be lying under them at a time. The specific sound frequencies used in the set will correspond to the frequencies chartered by the lights, moving from theta waves — frequencies ranging between 4 and 8 Hz, which is believed to unlock creative energy — to gamma waves, a frequency ranging from 35 to 100 Hz that further heightens cognitive function.

"We'll be working with theta waves, which is regulating the nervous system, getting into that more intuitive, connected state," Pottern says. "And then we'll be coupling that with some gamma waves, which is high frequency and more connected to the celestial. So it'll be a graduated journey."
Pottern explains that the intersection between light and sound is where things get really heady. The mind is "finding coherence with those light frequencies by what is called entrainment, and sound does the same thing," he says. "So sound will also complement that receptivity of the body to want to go into a different place."

The result? Pure bliss. Soundularity, Pottern says, "is a very unique sound musician, because he is looping electronics, flute and singing bowls. So it is truly a sensory, somatic experience."

The Spaceship Dream portion will be "more experiential." While seated, you'll be provided with headphones that, combined with the lights above them, will create a "spaceship audio journey," he says. "People will be sitting in chairs, but they'll be going into outer space."

Next up, Denver Zen Den will be part of Meow Wolf's experience on April 19 for Bicycle Day, the unofficial holiday that celebrates Albert Hofmann's first psychedelic experience with LSD. But after Time Warp, chances are you'll be signing up for your own session at Zen Den, which moved into a larger space at 2345 Seventh Street. Pottern calls it the Wellness Mansion.

At Time Warp, Pottern concludes, "We're really inviting people to surrender the week and drop into much more of a fluid state that will prepare them for the weekend."

Time Warp, 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, April 4, D&F Clock Tower, 1601 Arapahoe Street. Tickets are $65.87.