Can sitting in a giant wooden orb improve your sleep, immune system and memory?

Just before the door shut, enclosing me in a giant wooden egg, I asked Sharon Crowley what I should be doing for the next 50 minutes.

"Do you meditate?" she asked.

"I wish I did," I said. "But I don't."

"If meditating isn't something that you do, then I would say, just relax because it does it for you," Crowley said.

The "it" was the "Harmonic Egg," a big, egg-shaped capsule — "a sacred geometric chamber" — that you sit in to receive "an energy healing therapy that uses vibrational frequencies to bring body and mind into harmony."

Crowley is the owner of the OM Center of Healing, a St. Paul alternative medicine and holistic healing center that offers experiences like detoxing ionic foot baths, aura readings, sound bowl meditations and ayurvedic consultations.

But her most prominent offering is a 50-minute "sound healing" session in a Harmonic Egg.

According to the OM Center, you recline in the egg while healing sounds, music and light wash over you. That's supposed to help with anxiety, sleep and memory. It claims to aid the immune system, increase energy, restore harmony and induce "a state of supreme relaxation."

The egg is the invention of a Colorado woman named Gail Lynn, the self-described "egg mama" who patented the Harmonic Egg sound and light frequency chamber in 2018.

Crowley said when she acquired an egg in November 2020, it was only the 29th Harmonic Egg made and the first one in Minnesota. Since then, Crowley has gotten a second egg, and there are two other locations in the state that have Harmonic Eggs, the Chakra Sound Garden in Sartell and Harmonic Home Healing near Duluth. There's another "egg guardian," as the company calls it, located at I AM. Mindful Healing in Hudson, Wis.

Lynn's company, Harmonic Egg, says there are now more than 180 Harmonic Egg locations around the world, mostly in the United States but also Canada, Peru, Belgium, New Zealand and Thailand. Crowley said her eggs cost more than $50,000. The latest version of the egg is listed at $69,000, not including taxes and shipping.

Crowley, an ayurvedic health counselor, said some of her customers have been cancer patients who have used the egg to supplement their regular medical treatments. She's said she's had police and military users who have sought out the egg to help with PTSD. Testimonials on the Harmonic Egg website include claims that it can help with pain or Lyme disease.

"It shifts your thinking. It shifts your consciousness," said Erika Way, a Twin Cities area chiropractor. She said she's been in the egg about 60 times and has recommended it to dozens of other people. "Everyone would benefit from it."

It might even help your dog.

Crowley said she allows customers to bring a pet in with them in one of her eggs. She said said sessions in the egg have helped dogs with barking and aggressiveness issues.

If you don't think your dog would enjoy being in a giant wooden egg for 50 minutes, there's an alternative, a remote session where you place a photo of the pet in the egg while the dog relaxes at home. That's supposed to provide the benefits as if the dog were in the egg listening to "resonant frequency" music.

"That may be a little too out there for readers," Crowley said.

Crowley wasn't able to point me to any scientific studies specifically evaluating the Harmonic Egg's health claims, but she cited studies about the benefits of meditation and the apparent calming effects of music on dogs.

When I showed up for my $125 session in the egg, I filled out a form describing what kind of ailments I suffer from, my typical emotional state, my sleep, exercise, diet and so forth.

I also signed a document acknowledging that my "relaxation therapy session" wasn't being provided by anyone licensed or certified by the state as a health care professional.

Crowley asked me about what I enjoy doing, if my digestion was good, if I was in search of a balanced and peaceful state and "What fills up your soul?"

Then she talked about what kind of music I wanted to have playing during my egg session. Crowley said she had about 70 options.

Out of the handful she suggested, I was interested in a piece that featured a Japanese bamboo flute, cello, piano, Tibetan bowls and a Greek lute called a bouzouki.

Crowley said she uses that music for brain balance, belief reprogramming, blood pressure, confusion, digestion, divine connection, PTSD and spiritual journey, among other things.

There are also options that include the sound of "bee harmonics," "tree harmonics," water, whales, dolphins and birds.

When we got to the egg, she asked me what kind of lighting I preferred inside the egg. I was hoping I might experience a whirling vortex of colored lights similar to what Dave the astronaut experienced at the end of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

But my options were just a steady, soft LED illumination in the egg in green, purple or indigo blue. I chose indigo blue. I kicked off my shoes and reclined in a "zero-gravity chair" positioned in the middle of the egg.

Basically it's a recliner. You sit about where the yolk would be, facing the side where the door is located. There are speakers inside the egg on each side of you at the pointy ends.

"If you imagine the difference between playing a guitar and being inside the guitar while it's being played, you're inside the guitar," Crowley said.

Crowley adjusted the chair angle manually. She said the egg is designed to not have any magnets or motors.

Then she closed the door and turned on the music. I thought I might feel a little claustrophobic, but the egg at about 11 feet long and about 9 feet tall actually felt pretty roomy. I've been in hotel rooms that felt smaller.

The new agey music lasted 40 minutes. I might have dozed for a bit, because I remember dreaming that a friendly demon was sitting next to me. I also got a little bored, but in a relaxing way. I resisted the temptation to look at the phone in my pocket. The chair was comfortable.

My mind wandered. Not every thought was tranquil or trippy. Some unharmonic thoughts intruded: I wondered if I should use the company credit card to pay for the session.

After the music ended, I sat in the egg for another 10 minutes of silence, and Crowley came to get me out, maybe summoned by an egg timer.

She gave me instructions to drink plenty of water for the next week and avoid heavy meals or heavy exercise.

It was relaxing. It was restful. But more than that, I'm not sure.