Pauline McCrann - a tribute

The Gong Community, along with the College of Sound Healing, recently lost one of it’s most beautiful souls: Pauline McCrann, my dear friend and long-time workshop assistant passed away suddenly last weekend.

Pauline discovered gongs synchronistically, as most important things often happen. She came into my life about twenty years ago after finding me on the Internet. She had visited the Findhorn community in Scotland, and had experienced her first gongbath session with renowned Sound Healer Gordon Burdall, at his B & B in the village. It affected her so profoundly that when she got home, she searched for Gong practitioners in the south, and found me. She booked in for a workshop, and basically never left! After that she came to every workshop I ran and eventually became my trusty and invaluable assistant and right-hand person, helping and supporting in every Course and workshop weekend and at the all-night Puja ceremonies.

In earlier life, as a long standing and experienced Ultrasound practitioner for the NHS, Pauline had instinctively collected various Sound Healing instruments without really knowing why. When she met the gongs it became clear that she had found her true vocation, and she was able to incorporate all those instruments into her Sound Healing work along with the gongs.

Some years ago she started arranging group gong bath sessions in her local area, and people just came flooding in – it was almost magical! She never really had to advertise – the success and popularity of her sessions was fuelled by word of mouth recommendations from people who brought family and friends, after having wonderful beneficial experiences with her. She was a sensitive and caring gong player, whose beautiful and selfless spirit shone through her playing.

In class, Pauline was always reliable, kind and supportive to the students, and learned to second-guess my “scene-changing” needs during workshops, often starting to rearrange things before I had even asked. She just understood what was needed.

I couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated, loyal and caring friend, and assistant, and she is an incalculable loss to me personally. Pauline and I have had a wonderful journey, and I know that these years she worked with the gongs have been the happiest and most inspiring of her life, which fills me with gladness. I hold many lovely memories of our times together both in class and at the many social and gong events we met up for. She is much loved by our fellow College Tutors and ex students, and her quiet wisdom was greatly valued by us all. It is a shock to realise she is no longer here in person with us. She will be sorely missed in our community – she is truly irreplaceable.

Rest in Peace my dearest Pauline... your work here was well done. And maybe that was why it was your time to go and join Phil in gong heaven. But I have the feeling that, like him, you will still be very much with us in spirit, supporting and helping from there.

Sheila Whittaker 17.6.26