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We are bombarded these days with sound, from the noise of
the city to the chaotic sound of the TV Music has to get louder
and 'catchier'just to be heard. To add to this the relentless
struggle for perfection and the ability to find a version of
it with computer recording and editing has left us with music
devoid of life energy.
There is relatively little mystical, sacred, or healing energy
left in music today. There is an increasing interest in these
areas but most of that are commercialized ideas rather than
the real thing. How do we know whatŐs real? Our bodies know
but first they have to be desensitized and cleansed from all
the sound pollution we have ingested.
The best way cleansing our bodies frequencies is to spend time
in the quiet of nature. Here the 8Hz resonant frequency of the
earth along with the music of the earth will re-integrate the
hemispheres of the brain, which get thrown off by modern music,
and the chaotic noise and energy of modern life. Once we get used
to a subtler vibration our bodies will feel what sounds throw
them off and intrinsically know what music is beneficial for us
in each moment.
The only problem is thereŐs so much sound and noise in our
modern life to throw us out of sync. We end up becoming numb
to music and just accept what we hear blindly without realizing
the affects it is having on our body, emotions, mind, and spirit.
Good healing music will allow and help the listener to find
their own optimal rhythms and frequencies and enter brainwave
states conducive to healing.
Another aspect of healing sound utilizes sounds, frequencies
and music to deeply enter the psyche of the listener, consciously
hooking emotions, shaking up blocked energy pathways and working
in all matter of subtle ways that need clarity of purpose, intention,
understanding and strong intuition. In this way all styles of
music can be healing, and it becomes the life energy in the
performance and recording as well as its proper application,
which give the healing benefits.
We must become aware that we are responsible for the sounds
we allow into our bodies, just as we are responsible for the
food we eat. Sound is a kind of vibrational nourishment that
has a profound effect on our health. Just as certain foods can
increase or decrease our vitality and general health, so can
the "diet" of certain sounds and music help with our bodies
state of health. We are able to be discriminating by closing
our eyes or mouths to that which we do not want to take in,
but our ears are always receptive and open, even when we sleep,
we are still hearing, for this reason hearing could be described
as the feminine sense. As with the feminine in general in our
culture, hearing is very much abused. The sensitivity and receptivity
of the ear and hearing are very misunderstood and accosted by
the flamboyant, loud displays of progress we seem to honor.
Though the ear is still given major credit for hearing, or
aural processing, there is a great deal of scientific evidence
that the entire body hears, or is sensitive to sound. All the
cells in our bodies have vibratory properties and hence are
capable of being receptive to sound. Our environment is inundated
by supersonic and subsonic 'sound' waves that universally affect
our physical and energy bodies with there vibrations such as
microwaves, radio waves, electrical currents, and the multitude
of invisible networks based on vibration such as cell phones.
Sound researcher and music professor Murray Schafer discovered
by testing a group of North American students, that after deep
relaxation the musical note B natural was the easiest pitch
to maintain and recall. However, after the same tests in Germany,
G sharp was found to be the common note. The difference? In
North America, we run our electricity at 60 cycles per second.
We hear the corresponding frequency subconsciously in all our
electrical devices. The corresponding pitch to that frequency
is B natural, exactly the pitch the students recalled. In Germany,
the electricity runs at 50 cycles per second with a corresponding
pitch G sharp, exactly as the students recalled. This shows
how at an unconscious level, our bodies are constantly ingesting
and being transformed by the sounds and vibrations in our environment.*
sometimes these vibrations are very noticeable. Have you heard
the low hum of electrical transformers, or the buzz of old fluorescent
light fixtures? As a sound engineer the 60 cycle hum is something
we must battle with all the time, so much so that there is usually
a low cut filter or equalizer that removes the sound at and
below 60 Hz caused by all the electrical equipment. These hums
are especially apparent when electrical equipment is not grounded
properly, but even at the best of times electromagnetic fields
are radiating in all directions from electrical equipment, especially
those with moving parts, transformers, motors, TVs and computer
monitors. Stephen Halpern describes our bodies as "bio-oscillators,
much like crystal receiving sets that pick up radio sounds from
the environment".
The brain can dampen and or be sensitized to different sounds.
A mother can distinguish her sonŐs small voice in a large crowd
but when her own mother, who has complained and whined ever
since she was a child, speaks her brain tunes it out. In fact
the mind can tune out any sound that even reminds this person
of her mothers voice, the pitch, the particular inflections
similar words etcÉThis can be one reason people begin to lose
there hearing, tuning out what they donŐt want to hear.
A study done by Dr.Sheldon Cohen showed that children living
near an airport did not "perform as well on difficult and complex
tasks" and were "more likely to give up in discouragement" compared
to similar children in quiet areas of the same city. Another
experiment by Dr. Cohen showed 80% of people stopping to help
a researcher in a cast who dropped some books. But when a lawn
mower was on close by only 15% stopped to help.
It is clear that sounds and music affect our lives in very
real ways and that certain sounds contribute to stress, ill
health and dis-ease, whereas others will optimize our vitality
and life. Long range ingestion of noise creates damage to the
ear, disrupts the central nervous system and creates perceptual
distortions in hearing and other senses. The work of Dr. Bose
in India shows that the effects of different kinds of music
affects animal productivity and plant yield. Dorothy Retallack's
research noticed that when plants 'disliked' certain types of
music, they grew away from the speakers. When they 'liked' the
music, they grew towards the speakers even if it meant moving
away from the source of light. When Indian classical music was
played continuously, they literally wrapped themselves around
the speakers, while when heavy metal was played for extended
periods they withered and died.
Dr. Hans Jenny studied extensively the relationship between
waveforms and matter, how sound vibrations affect and create
physical form. He would send constant pitches into materials
such as a droplet of water, and a thin surface covered with
licopodium powder, as well as others. When the pitch sounded
it would create incredible geometric patterns in the substances.
They would look like pentagonal stars, hexagonal cells, spirals,
leaves, and complex mandalas. (A mandala is a circular, complex,
usually mathematical collection of harmonious geometric patterns
often used for meditation). All these varied shapes would hold
there form as long as the pitch was constant, as soon as the
pitch was shifted the form would dissolve into chaos and then
form a new pattern. As the pitch went higher in frequency the
patterns became more and more complex. More fascinating still
when two pitches were played simultaneously the patterns created
would pulsate and move like living organisms. Some would look
just like blood pulsing through vains, others exactly like spinning
galaxies, if you did not know what you were looking at you would
think you were looking at black and white movies of weather
patterns, space scapes, close ups of nature, and human biology
pulsing with life. These patterns illustrate an underlying order
in the physical universe and human consciousness that appears
to be intimately related to sound. Even at a microscopic level
a substance, when exposed to sound, arranges itself in mathematically
precise formations, which reveal consistently meaningful proportional,
numerological, and beautiful, relationships. Basically the sound
vibrations are causing physical chaos to coalesce into form.
As in Genesis stories from many major religions and myths there
is a primordial chaos which becomes the physical world through
Gods spoken word or a sound such as Om. One interesting fact
related to Dr. Hans Jenny's work are the Yantras used in ancient
Vedic and Tantric practices. A Yantra is a type of mantilla
that relates to a particular sound, (Mantra) which in turn relates
to a particular energy (symbolized by a deity or aspect of god).
When these sounds were put to similar tests as Dr. Hans Jenny's
they were found to create there corresponding Yantra exactly.
One example is that of the sound OM and its corresponding Yantra,
the Shri Yantra (see illustration on each page on this site)*
Modern biochemists, astrophysicists and yogis all agree that
at the molecular level of reality, our bodies are systems of
vibrating atomic particles. Each part of our body, each cell,
gland and organ resonate with different frequencies and hence
can be said to have their own particular keynote. In a very
real sense then, at the very core of our being, we are composed
of sound.
Being composed at our core of vibration it would make sense
that the vibrations around us would have impact on us but how?
Through the principle of resonance and entrainment. Two objects
containing similar vibrational makeup are said to be in sympathetic
vibration, or resonance. The body as a total system vibrates
at a rate of approximately 7.8 to 8 cycles per second when it
is most natural and relaxed. The alpha brain waves, which correspond
to a state of relaxation, are also in the 8 per cycle range.
The Earth itself vibrates at the same vibrational frequency
of 8 cycles per second. The nervous system of each life form
is attuned to this fundamental frequency. When we say, we are
"in tune" with something or when we are feeling "in harmony
with oneself or the universe" we are actually more literally
accurate than we may realize. Dr. Manners, a British osteopath,
showed that when vibrating matter moves, rather than fragmenting,
it tends to move collectively as a whole. The human body is
not a random collection of matter, but a well-organized whole.
Each person has his or her own collective pattern of tones and
frequencies that expresses our unique harmony within the universal
harmony. This is particularly important when we consider our
total health. For optimal health, we need to ensure that our
liver, our kidneys, our glandsÉ are all vibrating at their healthy
frequency. We know that any deviation from an organŐs original
harmony, due to the discordance of a foreign impulse, will produce
undue stress. When two or more objects are vibrating in the
same field at nearly the same rate, they tend to shift their
pulse so that they are vibrating identically. This is called
entrainment.
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