Positive Health Online

“Birdsong tells the flowers when to bloom.”

How could that be? I sat up and paid attention. The lecturer went on to describe how all of Nature is inter-linked. In the northern hemisphere where the differences in the seasons are very marked, a subtle change in the vibration of sound and in the quality of light herald Spring, and when the time is right birds begin to sing and flowers to bloom — literally ‘in concert’. 

Image by carabito from Pixabay

In a fascinating article on LinkedIn DK Matai writes:[1]

Nicola Tesla, arguably one of the world’s greatest engineers once said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” The same holds true for the world in which we live, our interactions with each other, and indeed our interactions within…

“… What’s most interesting is that, if a frequency is vibrating fast enough, it’s emitted as a Sound and if it is vibrating much faster, it is emitted as a colour of Light.  If we wanted to convert Sound to Light, we would simply raise its frequency by forty octaves. This results in a vibration in the trillions of cycles per second. So, if a pianist could press a key way above the eighty-eight keys that exist on a piano, that key would produce Light. This could create a chord of Light in the same way they can create a chord of sound. And it would be seen as colours of Light because it would be moving at the speed of Light….”

When I first became interested in complementary medicine nearly forty years ago now, I began to be aware that we are made up of substances finer than the eye can see. To a pragmatist and supposedly rational lawyer, it seemed impossible that thought might be anywhere but in the brain, or that the desk I worked on might be pure vibration. But that is exactly what I came to understand after the lecture stimulated my interest in this engrossing subject.

It was back in 1882 in Hungary that Nicola Tesla discovered the Rotating Magnetic Field,[2] but it wasn’t until August 1991 that Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was introduced to the world at the tenth annual meeting of The Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.[3] And suddenly, the metaphysical philosophy of the East became real. Their word aura became the West’s electro-magnetic sheath.

Nowadays no-one denies the existence of subtle energy, although I believe few really understand that it interpenetrates the whole of the (human) body as well as extending for a distance outside the physical boundary of the body.

In the Ayurvedic tradition, this subtle energy is known as ether.

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary[4] ether is defined as:

1. The rarefied element formerly believed to fill the upper regions of space
2. The upper regions of space: heavens
3. Less commonly aether: a medium that in the wave theory of light permeates all space and transmits transverse waves.

while Yogipedia [5]describes ether thus:

“Ether (in Sanskrit, Akasha) is the first of the five elements of the universe as described by Ayurveda, a sister science of yoga. Ayurvedic teachings state that the universe is composed of five elements: ether, air, fire, water and earth. Ether is considered to be the most subtle of the five elements. 

“Ether is sometimes referred to as space because it is the space that the other elements fill. Ether has the properties of lightness, airiness and spirituality. It has also been equated by some with the concept of consciousness.

“Ether is also limitless and boundless, so it fills the whole of space.

“As an element, it is associated with the throat chakra (visuddha). This is because the throat chakra is connected with sound and communication, and it is through ether that sound passes.”

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

This is when it becomes exciting! For Sound is the matrix of the universe.

• Physics states that the universe began with the ‘big bang’;
• In Indian philosophy Om (sometimes spelled Aum) is the sound of the universe;
• In the King James Version of the Bible, John’s Gospel begins with the words ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’

As all these streams of thought testify, sound was the Creating Force in the beginning – and continues to create all through time.  In fact, although we cease to hear sound as it travels through its medium away from us, the vibration that it produces is constant and endless. In the Gloria of the Christian Church these words resonate that fact : as it was in the beginning, is now and ever will be, world without end.

Here is a definition of sound from Wikipedia:[6]

• In human physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and perception by the brain;
• It is known that humans can only hear soundwaves as distinct pitches when the frequency of those waves lies between 20 Hz an 20kHz;
• Soundwaves above 20 kHz are known as ultrasound and are not perceptible by humans;
• Soundwaves below 20Hz are known as infrasound and are also not perceptible to the human ear;
• Different animals have varying hearing ranges. 

For now, let’s consider the medium through which sound travels, whether through liquid, solid or gas: it is the ether in that medium which carries the soundwave. In other words, Sound ‘gets to the nub of the matter’. Our bodies are comprised of liquids, solids and gas, all of which are permeated by ether, the element which carries sound. So sound affects us whether we hear it with our ears or not. Sometimes we may feel it as a vibration. Sound and ether are inextricably linked. And since ether permeates every atom of our body-mind, it follows that sound does too.

How do different frequencies of sound affect us — and all life on this planet?

We have all heard of experiments that show that when a patient listens to music of their choice (particularly classical music) their experience of pain during a medical procedure is considerably lessened. We know that babies quieten when they can feel and hear their mother’s heartbeat. It has been shown time and time again that music has a strong effect on emotional well-being. For this reason, many therapists use gentle music to soothe their clients because therapy is generally more effective when the recipient is relaxed and more receptive.

Sound therapy has become very popular over the past few years, because music is innate in us all and connects all cultures around the globe. Music is used for entertainment, ceremony and communication and particularly for healing.[7]

Image by nicola2070 from Pixabay

I can vouch for the efficacy of Tibetan bowls, gongs and tuning forks from personal experience. The deep complex overtones of multiple gongs, Tibetan bowls and other instruments resonate continuously: melting away boundaries, inducing a state between waking and sleeping and encouraging the internal vibrations to come back into perfect balance. After a session I feel more connected to the living matrix, my whole energy field feels washed and clear and my thoughts less chaotic.

The secret is a phenomenon known as entrainment. The body contains an autonomic mechanism that synchronises strong external or internal rhythms, pulses and beats. In  fact, our bodies constantly entrain to the rhythms around us although we are seldom aware of it. Our feet and fingers naturally tap to the rhythm of a beat; we sway to soft music; drums set us marching down the street.

These are external rhythms but we entrain to internal ones too. For instance, repeating mantras or affirmations entrain the brain even when repeated silently and internally. Jonathan Goldman has studied sound for decades and continues to be fascinated by it. He teaches that our own voice (our personal sound) can bring the body back into balance.[8]

While natural sounds and music generally have many benefits, humans have harnessed sound to work for them in ways that may not be beneficial. An article by Ron Chepesiuk entitled Decibel Hell: The Effect of Living in a Noisy World mentions that as long ago as 1999 The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared: “worldwide, noise-induced hearing impairment is the most prevalent irreversible occupational hazard, and it is estimated that 120 million people worldwide have disabling hearing difficulties.”  Evidence also points to many other health effects of too much volume.[9]

The National Health website has comments on, and links to, a report by Professor Timothy Leighton on the available evidence of the effect of ultrasound (which you will remember is high frequency sound waves) on human health. Ultrasound is used by a wide range of devices and is inaudible to most humans, but this review has highlighted how many public places, including libraries, railway stations and even swimming pools, are now exposed to ultrasound. These are places where people using them have reported several symptoms  including feeling sick, dizziness, tiredness, headaches and a feeling of pressure in the ears. Others have reported more serious symptoms of vertigo and hearing loss which cannot be recovered. You may read his report here.[10]

Similarly, there is evidence that routine ultrasound and Doppler scanning does not improve birth outcomes  for mothers and babies, is not as safe as previously thought and that there are several potential adverse effects from it.[11]

The climate emergency has concentrated minds on improving the natural environment for us all, including planting millions of trees. Hopefully, within a decade we will all be able to indulge in ‘forest bathing’ where, if only for a few minutes a day, we can return to our natural way of living and being amongst the beneficial environment, sights and sounds of Nature. The ether in our bodies will then be able to soak up the sounds that rebalance body, mind and soul naturally and without effort.

Photo by Marion Eaton

Over the past century we have lost many species and many natural sounds. In her book Wilding,[12] Isabella Tree tells of the change in sound when land is allowed to re-wild. She says that birdsong in Spring is almost deafening in volume and that while the sound of a single butterfly is imperceptible:

“tens of thousands have a breath of their own, like the backdraft of a waterfall or an accumulating weather front … as though … their wingbeats … might dissolve the world into atoms.”

This sounds like Meteorology Professor Edward Lorenz’s hypothesis that the flap of a butterfly’s wings might ultimately cause a tornado. Vibration, sound and ether are all interconnected, and all are part of our physical world.

Now is the time to listen to the natural world of which we are part, to open ourselves up to its many voices and enjoy vibrant good health throughout the whole of our being. Ether is the medium for all vibrations. Let us try to ensure we bathe in Good Vibrations!

References

1. Matai DK https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141208075006-6828686-colours-of-sound-and-light-energy-frequency-and-vibration
2. The History of MRI https://two-views.com/mri-imaging/history.html
3. Athinoula A. Martinos Centre  http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/history-fMRI
4. Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ether
5. Yogapedia  https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/4971/ether
6. Wikipedia    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound
7. Mindvalley Everything You Need To Know About Sound Healing 2
8. Jonathan Goldman https://www.healingsounds.com/
9. Ron Chepesiuk Decibel Hell: The Effects pf Living in a Noisy World https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253729/
10. Leighton Proceedings of the Royal Society https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspa.2015.0624
11. Chris Kresser Natural Childbirth IIb- Are Ultrasounds Safe? Not Really. | Chris Kresser 2
12. Isabella Tree book: Wilding https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/28/wilding-isabella-tree-review-farm-return-nature