Healing with soundwaves

„ Life is the expression of love in sound waves and energy currents, throughout the creation and in man. Love is light, which crystalizes as beauty in the spectrum, becomes color and gases as it is reduced in speed of vibration, and also forms the beautiful colors in the buds, the flowers and the fruits. .. Everywhere is life in motion and in sound effects, such as speech, the song of birds,… There is music everwhere as plus and minus tones, without and within, if we can but hear it and see it in love and in understanding of the Creator`s Grace and Being„R. Stone, Health Building

In ancient times sound was known as a creative power. In creation myths and religions there is the understanding that sound and words create the world. From the knowledge of the vedas the basis of the world comes from sound.

Sound is waves with certain frequencies. We can hear from 16.00 to 20.00 HZ ( 1 HZ= 1 vibration/sec). There are also vibrations that are inaudible for human beings, like ultrasound. Sound and music have a certain effect on people. They take us into different moods, allow us to settle down and mobilize and influence the body. This is known and applied in therapeutic work to assist the healing process in mind and body.

How is it perceived?

Sound is an audible vibration. It is perceived through ear and skin. Sound transmits from the outside of the ear to the middle ear to the ear drum. This begins to vibrate and brings the oscillation to the inner ear and its tiny bones ( malleus, incus, stapes). The stapes transmits the vibration to the fluid of the inner ear and this stimulates the auditory nerve and the brain.

But sound and music are more than audible vibration because they have the power to design and organize. Hans Jenny (1904-1972), natural scientist and physician, has observed several systems in the effects of vibrations. He was inspired by Ernst Chladni, Jules A. Lissajons. He used a quartz oscillator to make vibrations visible through different materials, like sand, water, spores, etc. He also develeoped a tonoscope to make the human voice visible. He called this Cymatics. .

     1)Vocal „A„

      2)

Jenny shows that every cell has its own frequency and that cells with the same frequency build an organ system. He observed that material changed depending on the quality of sound input. He claimed that each structure or material, whether in nature or in bodily functions, like breath, heartbeat and nervous system, had its change continuously vibrating and pulsating and resonating. In his research, he also noticed that spoken vocals from ancient languages like Hebrew or Sanscrit show the same shape as the written vowels. He asked himself if this could be the evidence of the effects of sacred languages and their power of healing influence to the body. In the end, he was convinced that the body could heal through sound. Nowadays, we don`t have access to visible language.

Music therapy works with vibration waves and tones, producing overtones. Often they are too weak or we are not trained to hear them. Well-known instruments are sound bowls, gongs, didgeridoos and the singing of overtones. Further possibilities are tuning forks.    

   How do tuning forks work?

You take two tuning forks, tap them together and you get a musical interval. An interval is a connection beween two tones and the space between. When you listen to that interval, that sound goes from the ear to the brain. The nervous system attunes and you get a direct reaction in your body. It stimulates the natural rhythm of your cells. New researches have shown that the production of nitrogenoxid ( cN0) in the cells increases with the pulsation of the sound. It causes relaxation of the vascular wall and has a positive influence on your cardio vascular system. cNO is an effective antioxidant, antiviral and antibacterial agent. cNo assists the immune system, blood circulation and in the removal of waste products from the cells. Working with intervals and overtones stimulates the craniosacral system and its fluidity.

If we look back we can see that overtones were used centuries ago as  a method of tuning in sacred sound. 

„ Sacred sound is healing music. It was developed in almost all cultures and was expressed in all aspects of life. Throughout the ages, people have allowed that generated sounds of the cosmos to flow through them and enveloped this: rhythm and the harmony. It is a part of an endless interplay and through the ebb and flow of the sound, the eternal play of what has come to past and what the future holds.“ Martin Mittwede

For hundreds of years humans have assembled knowledge about the effect of sound. Egyptian and Greek erudites like Plato, Kepler and Pythagoras dealt with this matter. As founding father of geometry, Pythagoras harmoniously connected the realm of figures and the cosmos through harmonics. His teaching of figures not only served as description of the world or as calculation of stars, but also as description of a harmonious integrity of the body, of lifestyle and peace of mind. He observed that sound is subject to rhythmical vibrations. He called it Spherical Music transferring the proportions of astrophysics into musical terms. His concept of Sherical Music divided the distance between earth and heaven. The respective instrument was the monochord consisting of a singular string drawn a piece of wood. By playing the string in different lengths, he discovered that sound vibration naturally occurs in a sequence of whole tones that repeat in a pattern of seven, like the octave of seven tones. Plucking the string also creates overtones as an additional tone to the fundamental. By dividing the string into intervals the amplitudes of oscillation can be quantified as integral numbers like 2:1, 3:2, 4:3. These fractions of integral numbers are like archtetypes of form.

Oscillations correspond to tonal values and between these tonal values originate the intervals. The term interval describes the difference in pitch between two notes. The name of an interval is determined by counting the number of degrees between the two notes
For example: C and F, as a perfect fourth is five semitones (or 2 and a half whole tones). C and G, as a perfect fifth is seven semitones (or 3 and a half whole tones). A perfect octave is twelve semitones (or 6 whole tones). The human body is similar to a musical instrument with sounding body. Listening to a musical interval the body aligns with the frequency of the waves and changes is form or pattern.

Hans Cousto, musicolist at the time, writes in his book „The cosmic octave“ : „The octave as a unit of measurement can be applied to astronomic periods to the frequency sequences of the earth`s atmosphere and to the vibrational microbiological phenomena… „ and he points out that the octave is the interval with the lowest degree of energetic resistance.

In ancient times, the fifth was the most influential harmonizing interval on the human body. Lao Tsu, a Chinese philosopher refers to the perfect fifth as a sound of universal harmony. He says that it balances the forces of Yin and Yang.

Randolph Stone, the founder of Polarity Therapy used the five pointed star as a natural geometric pattern and as a picture of sound projected on the human body. It has the same proportion as the intervals of the fifth ( 2:3) . Working with the five pointed star is therefore a method of bringing the body and the soul in connection with the universal harmony. It gives you access to the universal principle through higher consciousness. You can also use the five star pattern as a diagnostic tool. Modification of the 2:3 portion, shown as a distance between the hip to the diaphragm or diaphragm to the head, can be caused by mental and physical blocks and weakness.

Pentagram comes from Greek, pent means five, five pointed star. It is an ancient symbol. Phytagoras knew this as a symbol of health. He was very interested in the mathematical aspect of it, and it was also the basis of the golden ratio. The golden ratio was a symbol for the circle of life, beautiness and was used as a basis of sacred architecture. The number 5 and the geometrical symbol, the pentagram belongs to the principle of form in nature. As an example: the finger of the human hand shows five phalanges at the end, most flowers are five pointed and animals, like the starfish are five pointed, too. The five points of the pentagram represents the 5 elements ether, air, fire, water and earth. These elements are manifestations of energy, density from above downwards. They are expressed in the structure, the thoughts, feelings and actions and influence changes in health and illness. Chakras are the sources of the elements. They are build by crossing two currents, Ida ( Yin) and Pingala ( Yang). Each chakra represent different vibration, and attribute, quality and color of the specific element.

Both five pointed star and overtones/ sound help us to harmonize the body. Looking at the chart you can see that if you balance the element fire, you should use the tone C + E or C + A and the corresponding color. The tone combinations C+D and C + B harmonize the element water, and the element air would be supported by C + G and C + A

You can also see that different colors are the same as hearing different tones depending on the organ of perception.

But there is one important aspect of harmonizing that you shouldn`t miss:

Silence

Silence is the source of sound. It arises out of silence and returns to silence and out of this, power and form are created. Silence is everywhere. You can find it in all transitions, at the end of inhalation and exhalation, in cell activity, in motions of fluids such as tides, etc. It is the moment when movement in one direction is finalized. We can also find silence in our rhythm of life, our changes of mood and the start of new projects. Points of silence or stillpoints are breaks in movements. They enable the access to the deep forces of healing. Silence in biodynamic craniosacral therapy is called dynamic silence. It is the basis where form arises and returns. In ancient traditions there is a concept of silence, where the intention of the Breath of Life arises like the great wind. The Breath of Life is the divine creative Intent which organises the tides of life. It generates an inherent reorganizing power within the human system and is embodied inside the bodily fluids. In the vedic elements, ether is the silence, also referred to as space. Ether provides space in which further creation ( elements) takes place. It is the matrix through which thoughts crystallize in physical expression. It relates with prana, the life breath of the cosmos. The element ether defines the fields of the body and also bodily represented in the joints and the throat. Ether relates directly to sound and is associated with hearing. It is the first overtone. In Chinese tradition it is called Wu Chi, represented as an empty circle and the equivalent to the word Om or Aum.

Sound is vibration with different frequencies shown as a wave. At the point of intersection there is silence.

Hans Jenny`s pictures of cymatic shows the movement and the point of silence at the same time. Material moves in a pattern according to the tone frequency . Points of silence are shown as the lighter area in the picture.

3)

 Life is motion and where there is movement there is life. In between movements you can find silence. We can experience by silencing out thoughts and when opening to the experiences of the silent sound of the universe. Then we are open to the universe`s healing power. There are so many ways to attain stillness; one is the work with tuning forks. They create a direct path to connect with your unconscious and its healing field.

Author: Rita Sandau, 2008

Publicication of the pictures (1-3) from the book „Cymatics“ with permission of  © MACROmedia Publishing, USA