The Power of Harmonics

In the Creation of Musical Scales, part 1 & 2, the general features of harmonics has been described. The aim of this portion is devoted to the spiritual and the psychological power of harmonics as well as the physical well being.

  Alfred Tomatis is a French physician and specialist in otolaryngology, who has been working with understanding the function of the human ear and the importance of listening for forty-five years. In this connection we will look at his discoveries of sound, which ”charge” the listener. Tomatis found that sounds that contain high frequency harmonics, such as those found in Gregorian chants, are extremely beneficial. It is these high frequencies around 8000 Hz, which are capable of ”charging” the central nervous system and the cortex of the brain. In many of the sacred chants of the different tradition, the main out put of high frequency harmonics are dominant, which offer stimulation to the brain.

Tomatis himself discovered this when he was called to help a Benedictine monastery, where the monks were suffering of fatigued and depression. He found out, that they usually six to eight hours of chanting - due to a new decree -  has been ceased, and within a short period of time the monks was unable to perform their many duties. WhenTomatis re-established their daily chanting, the monks were soon able to continue their rigorous schedule of work and prayers.

For Tomatis, a major aspect of the therapeutic affects of vocal harmonics lies in the conduction of the bones, which are stimulated by resonance of around 2000 Hz. He says:

”The sound produced is not in the mouth, not in the body, but, in fact, in the bones. It is all the bones in the body which are singing and it is like a vibrator exciting the walls of the church, which also sing.”

Bone conduction’s actually amplifies the sound through resonance of the cranium and the skull. According to Tomatis, bone conduction stimulates the stapes muscle of the ear, which he believes is the key to stimulating and charging the brain. Tomatis himself manages with a small amount of sleep, less than four hours a night. He attributes this to his listening to sound, which are rich in high harmonics.

Tomatis has described a phenomenon, which has been called ”The Tomatis Effect”, that states that the voice can only create and duplicate those sounds, which the ear is able to hear. This means that until you are able to hear various overtones, you will not be able to create them in your voice.

  Listening is undoubtedly a key, not only in obtaining the ability of creating vocal harmonies and improvement of the voice, but of understanding aspects of other levels of consciousness. In the Hindu tradition there is a great awareness of listening as a tool for enhanced consciousness. The art of listening to the outer and inner sound.

Inner and outer sound

In the Vedic language of Sanskrit, there is a differentiation between inner and outer sound. There is audible sound, called ”ahata”, or struck sound and is the result of vibration on the physical plane. There is also the ”anahata”, the inaudible, inner sound which are not the result of some physical vibration, but rather are ”unstuck” which can ridden like a flying horse to other planes of existence in meditation.

The American throat singer, Jonathan Goldman, formulates an interesting statement in the book," Healing Sounds”, the power of harmonics:

”I have always wondered if harmonics might not somehow be the bridge between ”ahata” and ”anahata”, the struck and the unstuck sound, but the harmonics which are created do not occur themselves from having been physically struck. Perhaps they are the bridge between the physical and the meta-physical.” (p.78)

  Pir Vilayat Khan, head of the Sufi Order of the West, said that the overtones can be followed with the conscious mind and used as ”Jacob’s Ladder” to climb to other planes of existence.

Sound as a carrier wave of consciousness

If we for a moment give up the common notion about sound as air waves the ear can hear, and extend it to a member of the universal family of vibrations, we will open up for the Hermetic Principles that tell us about the Universe is nothing more or less than an endless number of vibrations and rhythms from the atoms to the stars.

Hermes Trismegistus, Thrice Great Hermes, the scribe of the Gods, as the ancient Greeks named the mystical Egyptian God Thoth, was said to create by the sound of his voice alone. The sacred writings of the ancient mystery Schools over the world, were attributed to him as mediator of divinely revealed wisdom. In thus center of learning the knowledge of sound was a highly refined since based upon an understanding of vibration as the primary causative form of the universe. While there  are many mystical and spiritual paths, the Principles laid out by (the post atlantian?) Hermes Thoth seem to be incorporated in all of these paths. There were Seven Principles  upon which the entire Hermetic Philosophy was based. Describe in ”The Kyballium: a study of Hermetic Philosophy” these are:

1.      The principle of Mentalisme: "All is mind"

2.      The principle of correspondence: "As Above, so Below".

3.      The principle of Vibration:" All is in vibration".

4.      The principle of Polarity: " Everything is dual".

5.      The principle of Rhythm: " Everything flows".

6.      The principle of Cause and Effect: " Everything happens according to Law".

7.      The principle of Gender: " Everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles"

Resonant frequency

Every organ, bone and tissue in the human body has its own separate resonant frequency. Together they made up a composite frequency, a harmonic that is your own personal vibratory signature. This signature encircle the whole body with a field, which some gifted people can see as an aura, and can be recorded by means of Kirlian photography.

Just as it is possible to set an object into its own natural vibratory state through resonance, so it is possible to restore the natural motion of an object, that may be out of tune or in disharmony. We call this disease. When disease sets in, a different sound pattern is established in that part of the body which is not vibrating in harmony. Therefore, it is possible, through use of externally created sound that is projected into the diseased area, to reintroduce the correct harmonic pattern.

 The different rhythms of the body may also be changed through sound. This is known as entrainment and involves the ability of the more powerful rhythmic vibrations of one object to change the less powerful rhythmic vibration of another object and cause them to synchronize their rhythms with the first object. Through sound, especially chanting or overtone singing, it is possible to change the rhythmic pattern of our brain waves, as well  as our heart beat and respiration.

Different brain wave rates have been equated to different state of consciousness. There are four basic categories of brain waves:

1.      Beta waves, from 14 to 20 Hz, which are found in our normal waking state of mind.

2.      Alpha waves, from 8 to 13 Hz, which occur  when we daydream or meditate.

3.      Theta waves, from 4 to 7 Hz, which are found in states of deep meditation and sleep, as well in shamanic activity.

4.      Delta waves, from 0,5 to 3 Hz, which occur in deep sleep and have been found in very propound states of meditation and healing.

  The use of music in sacred ceremonies and shamanic rituals has occurred since ancient times. The changing of these rates creates change in consciousness.

In our age of science it has been verified that sound can be used to effect and change our brain waves. In The Sound of Silence, I mentioned the American engineer, Robert Monroe, who has written books about his out of body experiences and produced sound tapes for the purpose of synchronizing the two brain hemispheres in order to create an altered state where out of body or similar experience can emerge. (I have tested some of these tapes myself, but I have to admit that I came in a state of flying - though not out of my body. Maybe my intend was not strong enough!)

 The changing of using resonance and entrainment are the fundamental concepts behind the use of sound to heal and transform. They are found in every practice that uses sound, regardless of tradition, belief system or culture.

The psychic Edgar Cayce predicted, that sound would be the medicine of the future.  I surely pray to that and the future is here. Within the last decades, however, the use of sound as a healing modality is coming more into focus in both the scientific and the medical communities. There now exist organizations such as the International Society for Music in Medicine and the Arts Medicine Association, which draw together doctors, scientists and other working with sound as a therapeutic tool.

As Jonathan Goldman so keen has detected in his book ”Healing Sound”: sometimes different people apparently used different frequencies or different sounds to heal the same problem? A colleague and friend brought his attention to the missing area in question:

 ”Sound is a carrier wave of consciousness”

This means that depending upon where an individual’s awareness is placed when he/she creates a certain sound, the sound will carry information on that state to the person receiving it. It is the intent or the purpose behind the sound, that matters. With the word intent, we are really talking about the consciousness of the sound being created. This encompasses the overall state of the person making the sound and involves the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of that person.

The initial understanding of intention involves our conscious mind, actually our whole being. A more profound understanding of intent involves what may be understood as alignment with the purpose of our Higher Selves, or the Divine Will. That is to be one with the Universal Spirit. It is that aspect of consciousness that is able to align with the sacred energy of sound.

It is ”Thy will”, not ”my will”.

When we have reached this level of being, our intent is to become a vehicle for the sacred sound and we  are – maybe - able to by-pass the lesser aspect of one self which is selfish, inharmonious and unable to surrender to the Universal Will or God.

For most people, the initial understanding of intent is a major tumbling block in using sound as a transformational and therapeutic tool, for most of us, including healers, has not reached such a being and have never created sound with conscious awareness and purpose. Maybe in our intent to be a vehicle for our Supreme Creator, the tumbling block in a moment of grace becomes a stepping stone and in that moment we are One with our Creator and therefore are able to re-create and heal.

The concept of intent relates to the first Hermetic Principle that All is Mind, for intent stems from the mind of the Creator of sound. All is vibrations and rhythm. The key is the level of being, the degree of consciousness, the development of the mind, the purity of emotions, the level of attention that forms the intent or visualization.

Healing Sound

Resonance is the basis of every sound therapy that I have examined. As you may recall, resonance is the basic vibratory rate of an object. Everything in the universe is in a state of vibration. This includes the human body. Every organ, bone, tissue and other part of the body has a healthy resonant frequency. When that frequency alters, that part of the body vibrates out of harmony and this is what is termed disease. If it were possible to determine the correct resonant frequency for a healthy organ and then project it into that part which is diseased, the organ should return to its normal frequency and a healing should occur.

CYMATICS THERAPY

Dr. Hans Jenny, a Swiss scientist, spent ten years of his life observing and photographing the effects of sound upon inorganic matter. He would put water and other liquids, plastics, paste and dust on steel plates and then vibrate these plates with different frequencies. Much of this work was originally inspired by the work of Ernst Chaldni, an eighteenth-century scientist who put grains of sand on glass and vibrated them with a violin bow. The sand would take on the most beautiful and symmetrical shapes. The experiments of Jenny took this understanding of the relationship between sound and form a quantum leap ahead.

Dr. Jenny spent thousands of hours experimenting with the effects of different frequencies upon the different inorganic substances he was using. Within the hundreds of photo- graphs which he and his staff took are pictures that look like starfish, human organs, microscopic bacteria and underwater life. In reality, these shapes are nothing more or less than lifeless mounds of plastic, dust and other inorganic material that had been exposed to sound.

  Cymatics is the name which Dr. Jenny gave to his work. The name comes from the Greek kyma, a word which means wave. Cymatics is the study of wave-form phenomena. It is proof positive that sound has the ability of creating form. Once they are exposed to sound waves, the inanimate blobs of liquid, pastes, and other materials in Dr. Jenny's experiments begin to undulate and move. Slowly as the sound continues to affect them, they begin to take form. No longer shapeless blobs, these forms pulse and vibrate with the sounds that course through them, looking for all the world like living breathing creations. They are, however, not alive, but merely assume the features of life through the extraordinary power of sound. Once the sound is stopped, these shapes cease and the inorganic creations resume their shape as formless blobs.

Dr. Jenny, in Volume II of Cymatics wrote:

”Now it is beyond doubt that where organization is concerned, the harmonic figures of physics are in fact essentially similar to the harmonic patterns of organic nature.... In the first place, we have the certain experience that harmonic systems such as we have visualized in our experiments arise from oscillations in the form of intervals and harmonic frequencies. That is indisputable. ... If biological rhythms operate as generative factors at the interval-like frequencies appropriate to them, then harmonic patterns must be necessarily forthcoming.”

  According to Dr. Jenny, harmonics and harmonious patterns are interrelated. The intervals created by the frequencies and their harmonics were responsible for giving shape to the different substances with which Dr. Jenny experimented.

Barbera Hero

Barbara Hero has demonstrated a similar effect of harmonics using a laser and scanner system. Barbara placed a mirror under a speaker system which vibrated the mirror when two different frequencies were created. She then projected a laser at the  mirror and the laser was reflected on to a screen, revealing the images created by the sounds. Barbara found that those intervals which were created by the harmonic series created shapes which were geometrically perfect. These shapes, such as a circle, remained stationary as long as the intervals were sounding. Intervals which were not harmonically related created shapes that were not geometrically perfect and their shapes decayed.

Barbara experimented with the human voice using this laser and scanner system. The results were the same. When two people sang notes that were harmonically related, the perfectly symmetrical geometric shapes appeared. This was especially true when the people created vocal harmonics. When the voices created sounds that were not harmonically related, the shapes were not symmetrical.

  The potential of the voice as a healing and transformational instrument intrigued Dr. Hans Jenny, whose experimental focus consisted of recording the effects of sine wave frequencies upon inorganic substances. He concluded Cymatics with the statement:

    ”But the real work on what might be called melos, or speech, is still to be done. This brings the larynx and its action in the scope of our studies. And at the same time, we are confronted with origination of vibrations effects, the generative element; we must learn about the larynx as a creative organ which displays a kind of omnipotent nature”.

Dr. Peter Guy Manners   

One of the pioneers in using sound to heal is Dr. Peter Guy Manners, MD. An English osteopath, Dr. Manners became aware of Dr. Jenny's cymatics experiments and learned of the extraordinary ability of sound to affect form. Since 1961 he has been engaged in research into the effects of sound upon the structure and chemistry of the human body.

Dr. Manners is the creator of cymatics therapy which utilizes the Cymatics Instrument. For over twenty years, he has been treating various illnesses with sound. Working under the premise that disease is an 'out of tuneless' of some aspect of the body, Dr. Manners has correlated different harmonic frequencies, which are the healthy resonant frequencies of different parts of the body. He states:

”A healthy organ will have its molecules working together in a harmonious relationship with each other and will all be of the same pattern. If different sound patterns enter into the organ, the harmonious re1ationship could be upset. If these frequencies are weak in their vibration, they will be overcome by the stronger vibrations of the native ones. If the foreign ones prove to be the stronger on the other hand, they may establish their disharmonious pattern in the organ, bone, tissue, etc. and this is what we call disease.

If, therefore a treatment contains a harmonic frequency pattern which will reinforce the organs, the vibrations of the intruder will be neutralized and the correct pattern for that organ re-established. This should constitute a curative reaction”.

  The Cymatics Instrument is composed of a portable computer which is about briefcase size and a sound generator which resembles a hammer-like vibrator.

The harmonics of the Cymatics Instrument are tabulated and reconstructed by computers and the corrected frequency is then projected directly into the affected area. The harmonics from the Cymatics Instrument are a composite of five different frequencies that Dr. Manners has found most effective for creating sounds that heal the human body. These sounds from the Cymatics Instrument are very different from the vocal harmonics we have been discussing in this site. 
They are electronically created and are really single tones. Yet they are harmonics of the calibrated frequency of the human body. They are usually octaves of this frequency, brought up many, many times in order to put the sound into the audible level, or brought down many, many times. Nevertheless, as tones that are octaves of a tone (whether this fundamental is in the ELF range or ultra-sonic), these tones can technically be called 'harmonics'.

In the Cymatics Instrument are calculated literally thousands of different composite harmonics designed to place the body back into alignment and health. There are the frequencies for every organ in the body and for specific diseases. There are also frequencies for the emotional and mental problems. Some imbalances treated with cymatic therapy include: anemia, asthma, colitis, constipation, diabetes, eczema, glaucoma, heart disease, hernias, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, sciatica, sleeping sickness, syphilis and tonsillitis. If the theory of resonant frequency healing is correct, there would be few, if any, illnesses that could not be effectively treated with sound.

  Cymatics therapy is but one of the new sound-related therapies, that are being utilized for healing. While there are many testimonials of people who have had extraordinary healing through this and other therapies, the hard scientific data needed for verification of these therapies is often lacking.

A reason for this is, that the proper research needed to collect data that is suitable for the traditional scientific and medical communities, requires a lengthy and costly process. Many times grants and funding are needed and sadly most organizations that give grants will not extend their finances to unproven methods - which is a case of Catch 22, for how can one prove a method if the funding is not available?

Nevertheless, though adequate research is not presently available, this does not mean the various sound therapies do not work. There are an increasing number of people, who have experienced extraordinary  transformations and healings through the use of different sound therapies.

  How is the frequencies for Cynmatics Instruments determined?  Dr. Manners states, that many of the frequencies were scientifically determined but that others were the result of radionics, or radiathesia.

Radionics works with the premise that all matter radiates energy. This energy, which is not simply 'magnetic' or 'electric', operates at very subtle and refined levels of vibration. Using devices such as pendulums which seem to swing back and forth in response to this energy, radionic practitioners have been able to determine frequencies for various parts of the body.

Dr. Manners stated that in actual laboratory tests the frequencies found for the liver, for example, match the frequencies given by radionic devices. The laboratory tests take several hours while the use of  radionic device may take a few minutes.

  THE LAMBDOMA AND HEALING lambodoma diagram

Lambdoma Diagram also called 'The Pythagorean Table' or the 'Lambdoma' has been the subject of much discourse among scientists, The Lambdoma is credited with having been discovered by Pythagoras and was passed on by the neo-Pythagorean Iamblichus. The Lambdoma is an ancient musical mathematical theory which relates music to ratios. Mathematicians and scientists have studied the Lambdoma since its discovery. It is said to hold the many esoteric secrets of the relationship between matter and spirit, including being a numerical representation of the World Soul. 
The Lambdoma is composed of two series, One represents the division of a string which indicates frequencies. The other series represents the multiplication of it or the harmonic series.

    Kayser and the Larnbdoma

In the 1920s Hans Kayser, a German scientist, developed a theory of world harmonics based upon the Lambdoma. He found that the principles of harmonious structure in nature and the fundamentals of harmonics were essentially the same. Kayser called himself and others who adhered to this philosophy 'harmonicists'. He devoted much of his life to restoring to the sciences, knowledge of the importance of harmonics. He believed that through understanding the connection between music and mathematics, it would be possible to create an understanding of the relationship between tone and numbers. Thus qualities (tonal sensations) could be derived from quantities (numbers) and quantities could be derived through qualities. In his book Akroasis (from the Greek word for 'hearing'), he wrote:

    ”With the discovery of the relation between pitch and string length, which could be established numerically, western science was born. Qualities (tones) were derived from quantities (string or wave lengths) in an exact way.”

Kayser believed that this knowledge of harmonics had become lost and had created a major schism between science and the spirit. He hoped that a true understanding of this relationship would create a bridge between the matter and soul. According to Kayser, the whole number ratios of musical harmonics corresponds to an underlying framework existing in chemistry, physics, crystallography, astronomy, architecture, spectroanalysis, botany and the study of other natural sciences. The relationship expressed in the periodic table of elements, an understanding of the formation of matter, resembles the overtone structure in music.

  Barbara Hero's Lambdoma frequencies

Another frequency-based healing modality that utilizes harmonics is Barbara Hero's Lambdoma frequencies.

Barbara Hero is a mathematician and artist who has been working with the Lambdoma for over twenty years. She believes that the Lambdoma is actually a formula for hea1ing with sound and she has created a series of tapes designed to balance and resonate the chakras based upon these frequencies. Related websites by Barbara Hero.

The chakras are subtle centers of energy located along the center of the body. They align with the spinal column. Different esoteric traditions believe that the energy that affects the physical body comes from the chakras. Scientists are now attempting to validate the existence of the chakras, as well as the other subtle energy system of the meridians, the basis of acupuncture. Imbalances in chakras are said to affect the physical body. Balancing the chakras may therefore balance and heal problems in the physical body.

Investigating the Lambdoma frequencies, it is found that they were all harmonically related. In fact, the Lambdoma Diagram is nothing more or less than a table of ratios based upon the overtones. The sounds which Barbara had put on her tape were simply harmonically related frequencies. It seems quite possible that the chakras are harmonically related and that they do respond to harmonically related frequencies.

Many scientists, including Izthak Bentov, author of Stalking the Wild Pendulum, believe that the etheric fields of the body, such as the astral and mental, are all harmonically related to each other. The chakras and the physical body are also understood to have had this harmonic relationship, 

BALANCING THE CHAKRAS WITH THE VOICE

    The use of the voice to balance and align chakras has been part of Hindu Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years. This application of sound is usually practiced through recitation of mantras. However, there are in the West developed systems using harmonically related vocal sounds which also should work on the chakras. There are differences but basically the seven chakras correspond with sound and color in this way:

the seven Charkars

7. The CROWN chakra or HEAD chakra is positioned at the top of the head. It is associated with cosmic awareness, highest spirituality, and complete integration with Source.
VIOLET is the color of the crown chakra and the musical note is B. - 123.47 Hz (the note B is also called H)
6. The THIRD EYE chakra is located in the center of the forehead. This chakra is also called the AJNA center. It is associated with intuition, understanding, visualization, and inner vision.
DARK INDIGO BLUE is the color of the third eye chakra and the musical note is A. - 110.00 Hz

5. The THROAT chakra is positioned in the base of throat. It is associated with communication, expression and speaking one's truth.
AZURE BLUE is the color of the throat chakra and the musical note is G. - 98.00

4. The HEART chakra is positioned in the center of the chest, usually shown to be even with the nipple line. The heart is associated with compassion, friendship, empathy and the ability to give and receive love.
GREEN is the color of the heart chakra and the musical note is F. - 87.31 Hz
Sometimes the heart chakra is shown as pink, especially in relation to sending love out from the heart.

3. The SOLAR PLEXUS chakra or THIRD chakra is located midway between the end of the breastbone and the navel. It is associated with issues of personal power, emotions (especially blocked emotions), passion for living, and the ability to protect oneself from being the target of negative or aggressive emotions.
YELLOW is the color of the solar plexus chakra and the musical note is E. - 82.41 Hz

2. The SACRAL chakra, also called the SECOND chakra or the SEXUAL chakra, is positioned in the area between the navel and the pubic bone. Depending on which sources you read, it can be shown to be centered on the navel itself or to be aligned with the sexual organs - ovaries in women and testes in men. It is associated with creativity, sexuality, relationship, and reproduction.
ORANGE. is the color of the sacral or second chakra and the musical note is D. - 73.42 Hz

1. The ROOT chakra, also called the FIRST or BASE chakra, is located at the base of the spine. It is associated with issues of survival, drive, ambition, grounding one's energy in the physical dimension, your life forces, and balancing experiences that create "fight or flight".
RED is the color of the root chakra and the musical note is C. - 65.41 Hz


Stockhausen and Resonation of the Brain

    Another potential healing use of harmonics involves the resonation of the brain with these sounds. Many people report being aware of vibrations in their heads when they create vocal harmonics. Sometimes they see light when their eyes are closed. Others indicate they can actually feel different parts of their brain being resonated by the harmonics. 

A pioneer in Western overtone singing is the German avant-garde composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen.  He was able to produce something like 28 overtones as clear as a bell. He said that he concentrates on a particular point in the brain above the palate for each overtone and that each overtone is placed higher up in an area within the brain.
 Stockhausen was the first to compose music created entirely for overtone singers. His influence in the growth of vocal harmonics has been great. Among his students were British overtone singer, Jill Purce, and German overtone singer, Michael Vetter.

Stockhausen had these comments to make about his overtone composision, "Stimmung" (meaning 'tuning'): 
”You will hear my work Stimmung as one seventy-five minutes long chord. It never changes.
There are only  partials or natural harmonics on a fundamental, the fundamental itself isn't there. The second, the third, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth harmonics and nothing but that ... The singers needed six months just in order to learn precisely how to hit the ninth harmonic, or the tenth, eleventh, thirteenth, up to the twenty-fourth... It's a wonderful technique to learn because you become so conscious of the different parts of the skull which are vibrating, If you met the singers, you'd see how as human beings, they've changed. They're completely transformed now that they've sung it more than a hundred times since the World's Fair in Osaka”.

    Stockhausen was able to observe physiological changes in the skulls of the singers he had trained to create vocal harmonics. The question remains: what exactly are these physiological changes? Are these changes restricted to the bones of the cranium or are there actual changes in the brain as well? If it is possible to resonate different portions of the brain through self-created sounds such as vocal harmonics, this seems a great deal safer than drilling a hole through the cranium and then attaching electrodes to the brain. This latter method is the one which is currently the only available way modern science can stimulate and directly affect the brain.

In interviews, overtone singer Jill Purce has stated:

    ”Overtone chanting is extremely healing... When you're doing overtone chanting you're beginning to differentiate mental and physiological processes that are not normally differentiated. This requires incredible concentration  - you use parts of the brain that you don't normally use -  and when you do that something else happens and you enter into the world of spirit”

    THE PINEAL GLAND

  Jonathan Goldman  tells in his book, Healing Sound, about a mind shaking experience in a completely dark cave in Palenque in Mexico, where his guide asked him to perform harmonious singing. When he began to tone harmonics towards the area the guide has indicated before the lights went out, the cave began to become illuminated, but it was not ordinarily light. It was more subtle, but it was definitely lighter in the room. The outline and figures of the people there could be seen and everyone was aware of it.  
This experience was one of the more dramatic episodes in his life. It was only later that he began to process the experience and try to understand what had gone on: "I had been able to use sound to create light". 
His conclusion was: by use of vocally created harmonics, it is possible to resonate and stimulate the pineal gland.

  The pineal gland is a small, pine-cone-shaped gland located in the middle of the head. Esoterically, the pineal is often associated with the 'third eye' and was believed by Descartes to be the 'Seat of the Soul'. lt was once thought to be a vestigial organ and is now known to be a light sensitive clock affecting sleep and the sex glands.

Research by scientists such as Robert Beck suggest that the pineal is an organic device which is tuned towards magnetic north to give both humans and animals their sense of direction, Other scientists believe that the pineal is a bio-luminescent organ which has the ability to create light.

    The pineal is rich in neuromelanin, which, according to scientist Frank Barr, is a phase-timing, information processing interface molecule which is a photo transducer. This is a substance which has the ability, among other traits, of absorbing and converting light energy to sound. 
It also has the ability to turn sound energy into light. Barr believes that melanin and its brain counterpart, neuromelanin, may be the key link between the mind and the brain.

Through stimulation of the pineal gland, neuromelanin is produced. Neuromelanin, a light-sensitive compound triggers the release of a substance which contains phosphorus, a light-producing chemical. By stimulating the pineal gland through vocal harmonics, it may be possible that actual fields of light around the body are enhanced.

While this phenomenon is not too widely known, there does seem to be some reference to it in certain texts. 
Dhyani Ywahoo, a Native American medicine woman, writes in "Voices of Our Ancestors", that in the Ancient Mystery Schools the initiations were held in total darkness. The initiates had to be able to produce their own light.
May be this was done through the creation of vocal harmonics. Spiritual scientist J. J. Hurtak writes of the phenomenon of creating light through the pineal gland in The Keys of Enoch:

    ”The 'light' which activates the pineal gland is not the conventional light of the sun... the brain produces its own light field on a molecular level... our neurocircuitry can produce its own light field”.

    Jonathan Goldman discussed with Dr. Tomatis his experience of producing light through sound and suggested the hypothesis of the pineal creating this light. Dr. Tomatis knew of this phenomenon of creating light through sound, but believed that this light was created not through the pineal (the third eye) but through the heart.

It is interesting to note that the heart is an organ which is also extremely rich in melanin. What would be the healing benefits of creating light in this manner? The possibilities seem limitless. We would be enhancing and adding energy to the fields around our bodies, creating or restoring health and balance to areas of imbalance and disease. These possibilities of resonating the pineal through sound are yet another example of the potential use of  harmonics to influence and affect the brain for health and well-being.

Edited by Thomas Hightower 2001.

The Creation of Musical Scales

The Sound of Silence

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