The Sound of Silence 

Some metaphysical properties of sound and music

by Thomas Váczy Hightower.

"What is the sound of one hand clapping?" This kõan from Zen can in many ways stand as a header for this treatise, because my aim is to encircle the metaphysical properties of sound and music.
Metaphysics means a level above the physical matter. So this little treatise is about inaudible sound, other vibrating phenomena than sounds, about the silence underneath the music; the silence deep inside oneself where God resides.
I had in my young days a strong encounter with nature and mother Earth, when I was visiting Greenland. Standing by the inland ice, I heard for the first time the sound of silence. It nearly struck me to the ground, so strong was the pressure. I felt so insignificant, so little, just a spark in the wilderness. Then a quiet tone from the depth of myself began to fill me up, and slowly the sound within  made me feel alive and strong again. Some say that it could be my life song, I heard. It surely made me so immense alive yet appalling alone, but in the same time in communion with some mighty powers. I found myself chanting, and my feet seem nearly not  touching the ground, so light hearted I walked.
John Cage, a 20'st. Century composer, has in a interview told about an outstanding experience in a scientific sound dead laboratory. Much to his surprise, he heard two sounds. He explained his experience to the sound engineer as a high pitch "white" sound and one low, fizz sound. "Oh, yes", the engineer said, "the high sound is you nervous system, and the low sound is the roar of your blood pulsing through your veins."

Thies pages will try to grab something with symbols and letters, which is incommensurable with what I am writing about. The spoken words carry much more than printed words. Hearing music affect you stronger than reading about it. A singer and musician such as Paul Simon, who created the song, "The Sound of Silence"(Simon & Garfunkel), is in way a level higher in terms of adequate language to express this dichotomy.
When I named this page, I was not aware of where the title came from. Recently I played my old Simon & Garfunkel records, and recalled where The Sound of Silence originated from. Wikipedia informs, that Simon wrote the song in the aftermath of the assassination of J.F.Kennedy.

A quote from "The Life of Music" by a Sufi musician, Hazrat Inayat Khan, makes the right setting: 
"Music should be healing; music should uplift the soul; music should inspire. There is no better way of getting closer to God, of rising higher towards the spirit, of attaining spiritual perfection than music, if only it is rightly understood."

Here I will focus on the potentials and opportunities we have to embrace the vibrating Universe and to gaze at the hidden fabric of patterns in the awesome Nature. Man has an unique capacitive of awareness to perceive this inter connected world.
Intuitively we know that, so I would like to support that feeling with examples, that will puzzle your brain and give you a broader perspective of the amazing, vibrating Universe.

One can study musical theories, acoustics and hearing as I have given a briefing in The Creation of Musical Scales, but it does not actually explain, why music and chanting effect our emotions and in some moments bless our soul. In this page I will expand the scope.

My method

My methodology is not scientific - more like a jigsaw puzzle, where intuition and emotions fill out the missing pieces in the whole picture. I will however use scientific data, but pull them together in my own mix of intuitive links and connections, hoping this way will give a broader picture, than mainstream science can provide.
This does not mean, that the hard scientific method is questionable. It has for centuries proven its enormous success, and is necessary for a solid foundation. It has, however, its limitations when it approaches more intangible phenomena such as consciousness and the spiritual power of man. 

My aim is to melt spirituality (consciousness) and scientific data into a puzzle about the magical power of vibration and sound.
When I refer to spirituality and consciousness, it applies to a mental state limited by ones own being. Spirituality is the underlying general, creative force in science and art, and in the psychological development of the being of Man.
It prepares the soul for the love of God - much in accordance with the philosophy of the ancient Pythagoras. He stressed the importance of exact discipline such as geometry and mathematics as a counterbalance to the more intangible work on being and development of the soul.

It is risky to juggle with scientific data by viewing them in the light of spirituality and consciousness. Such a blend can easy tend to pseudo-scientific phraseology or worse to cheap, pseudo religious commonplaces.
I am therefore anxious to emphasize, that my writings has nothing to do with religion or faith, which is an entirely different category of the human mind. The attempt to blend science and religion is odious and is definite not my intend!

In the last decade, especially by fundamental Christian in USA, a new subspecies is trying to force its way into the educational systems, called Intelligent Design. It is designed as a contrary to Charles Darwin's evolution theory, but does not contain the proper scientific method. It is an attempt to brush up the myth of Creation as a "scientific" theory, but I do not understand why religion and myths shall be disguised, unless a hidden agenda is at work?
In the last Century we have witness several idealistic, but totalitarian social theories, which was canonized to taken the place for religion and with catastrophic outcome, such as Fascism and Communism.
In this Century we have experienced a new, bloody blend of religion and politics in rigid, totalitarian regimes in the Middle East. It is shocking to see, what an impact small, radical, political Islamic groups can have on the entire world. To use religion as a justification for killing will apparently never cease.

However, we shall not forget, how the development of modern science started in the late Renaissance: It was founded as a method to study and understand Gods Creation. One of the pioneers was the Danish astronomer, Tyge Brahe, (1556-1601), which systematic and precise observations of the orbiting plants was the foundation for his student Johanes Kepler's scientific theories.

The wish to study and understand the Creation of God was also deeply rooted in the founding fathers of the classical physics, Isaac Newton (1642-1727), and chemistry, Robert Boyle (1627-91). They concidered themselves as philosopher of Nature. In those times faith and science was able to work wonderful together. Charles Darwin (1809-82) did also consider his work, "The origin of species", as an account of Gods hand, though he later became agnostic due to the loss of his dearest daughter.
A reader (John Thomas) has kindly mentioned Paul Feuerabend, a 20th.Century philosopher of science, who suggested, that science should be separated from the state in the same way, that religion and state are separated in a modern secular society. He considered the close funding from the government as a serious threat to the freedom of science. 
I do recall my father words about the freedom of science, when the Communism still was in power. He was a professor of History in the University of Budapest. Much to my surprise, he stated, that the freedom of science did not differed much between the West and East. The means of control was different. In the East the politic makes the direct control. In the West, the indirect control is carry out by money and funds. 

Key words to table of contents

• Levels of consciousness, levels of reality

• The Hologram - Natures information storage

• Some physical/ mathematical characteristics of the 4^th and 5^th Dimension 

• Zero-Point-Energy and SuperString Theory

• Dimensions and Scales

• Scalar wave - higer dimensional influx?

• The Cosmic octave

• The pendulum and its strange behavior in rest positions

• Time traveling on regular basis

• The Platonic Year (The Pythagorean Great Year)

• Music can shape the mind and alter the society

• The Music of the Spheres

• Brain waves - octaves below musical octaves

• Information theory and Cybernetics; way of communication in complex living systems.

• The mystic of Pythagoras’ Comma, the Calendar and measurement of space, not time.

Man as a multi-dimentional being

Writing about the metaphysical properties of sound and other vibrating phenomena is risky business. Keep your sound common sense, as I have tried to use mine, when I am surveying or mapping consciousness. What can awareness, intuition and meditation actually do to enhance consciousness. Can different forms of music and chanting be a tool for opening a gate to a multi-dimensional world in which man, the Earth and the Universe is inter connected?
Such notions as consciousness, meditation and higher dimensions are just words. A fishing net applied to catch the fish. When you have caught it, you throw away the net. When there is silence!
Well, I am still working on the fishing net!
The purpose in mentioning meditation and consciousness applys more as recommendation of useful tools and techniques, than a description of such.
There are two senses of dimension. The specific physical application: the sphere has one dimension more that a circle; and the linguistic meaning: the artist made a new dimension with his creative power. The director of a motion picture has one more creative dimension, than an artist of a single frame of a picture.

Our body is much more than a vehicle for our mind and soul. It is an ideal antenna, a marvellous tool right between the quantum world and the heavenly bodies to establish a dialogue between our consciousness, Earth and Cosmos. 

In this context man is considered as an entity with a cellular body, a mind (molecular body) and a soul (electronic body) as a triad. By using such description of three bodies of man, I have open the possibilities of moving beyond the limitation of one body in 3 common space dimensions.
In ancient cultures there are numerous accounts of a living presents of realities beyond the 3D + time. Shamen, medicine men or religious leaders incorporated higher dimensions in their magic and rituals, which has been observed by anthropologists.
In my ½ year stay in Australia, I gathered material about the Aborigines 40,000 years culture and especially records about the merits of medicine men of high degree. "Dreamtime" and multi-dimensional worlds was not just a poetic show off for tourists, but had for the older generation still a living presents.

A twist on locality

First I will give an example from the quantum mechanics, that made a strong impression on me, when I read about it some decades ago. It was about  Bell's theorem from 1964. He proved, that the results predicted by quantum mechanics could not be explained by any theory, which preserved locality.
It was a severe blow to the basic of science and Einstein's principle of Relativity since Bell demonstrated, that on the quantum level locality does not exist. Either particles are aware of each another beyond the speed of light, or they are connected beyond the local event in the huge space. 
Of cause a lots of experiments in the late twentieth Century were done by experimental physicists, and the predictions of quantum mechanics proved to be accurate.
Though I am not a physicist, I can see the significance of the under laying reality in some way is connected beyond our physical world in a higher dimentional space.

The fifth dimension

In this portion I have to lean on a recent published (2006) book  by Dr. Willy De Maeyer & Dr. Gabriele Breyer, called "Tools of Awareness", covering in depth all the subjects and more, than I have been writing about in thise pages. It is the most comprehensible book on thise matters, I have read. Here I will give a taste of higher dimensions application in physics.

Already in 1921, the Polish mathematician Theodor Kaluza combined electromagnetism and gravitation as a unified theory. Kaluza added a fifth (spatial) dimension to Minkowski's 4D-space, and tried to show, that Einstein's General relativity theory and Maxwell's electro dynamic equations could be gathered in the 5th. dimensions.
The Kaluza-Klein theory was later considered inadequate, and the development of the Superstring Theory required at least 10 dimensions to unified gravitation and electromagnetism. See further down.

A common 5-D potential is responsible for both electromagnetic field and gravitational field. The "bleed-off of this 5-potential in the 5th dimension into our 3 space world, is the well knowen electromagnetic force field (which is wrapped around each point in our 3-space). This is our common electric power.
The gravitational force field in the 5 dimension "bleed-off" very weak - by a smaller factor of 1042 for electrons- in and through our 3-space, according to Col. Tom Bearden.
This tiny "bleed-off" gravitational force field is not recognized by the scientific establishment.

Scalar wave - higher dimensional influx?

Since I read about Scalar waves on the Internet a decade ago, I was unable to figure out, what this officially non existing waves was about. It is first after reading "Tools of Awareness" (2006), I began to get the notion of the basic idea, though as a layman I do not understand the scientific underlying arguments.
This is an attempt to explain the disturbing evidence and experiments since Tesla demonstrated the ability to tap into energy beyond the fundamental law of the energy equilibrium.
Too many "crazy" scientists have since demonstrated energy producing devices, that yield more energy, than is available in the system. So called over unity, or free energy devices. But what if they are tapping into higher dimensional realms?

Bifilar coils

Bifilar coils (with opposing windings) are extremely interesting devices. These types of coils when powered do not create an external magnetic field. Their construction is similar to that of a normal solenoid, but each turn of the coil carries the current in opposite directions.
The opposing currents create an overall canceling effect, thus no major external field is produced. A bifilar coil will produce almost no inductance to a changing, or AC current. This makes them useful for creating non-inductive wire wound resistors.
Scalar theory suggests, that this type of coil produces scalar waves, but since the standard model of physics do not accept scalar waves as a valid theory, the traditional physics is really in big trouble by giving an acceptable explanation for what really is going on.
Therefore, bifilar coils are often mentioned along side so called over unity, or free energy devices.

This is because the vacuum fluctuations, or Zero Point Energy are like cancelled vibrations with a massive energy density, and are seen as scalar waves. Standard scientific theory tells us, that the entropy (disorder) of a closed system always increases and therefore  should no useful energy be able to be extracted from the vacuum.

Tesla's bifilar coil

The image shows a patent by Nikola Tesla for a type of bifilar coil. In this configuration the two wires are wound the same way and then connected in series so that the current flows in the same direction. This allows the magnetic field to combine and produce a larger overall field.
Prof. Dr Meyl has been able to construct such a device with stunning results.
Test devices as well as advanced demonstration systems are now available, though officially, the longitudinal electric Tesla waves, electrostatic energy flow and electro dynamical over unity devices, do not exist.
A Tesla wave is a longitudinal electro-scalar wave. Other theorists claim that Tesla's longitudinal wave is a longitudinal magnetic wave, but this is not how Nikola Tesla described the longitudinal wave phenomenon. Also the Russian scientist Ignatiev back engineered Tesla's energy transmitter as a transmitter of longitudinal electric waves without magnetic field component.

The alteration of Maxwell's genius equations

There is a long story about the scientists in-ability to comprehend the genius of James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electrodynamics. Firstly Maxwell was very modest, when he published his electro-magnetic theory in the second half of the 19th Century. Secondly, the equations was difficult to understand and there was no experiments to confirm the theory.

After Maxwell's death a single man - Oliver Heavside - directly altered Maxwell's equations. Heavside did with intent eliminating Maxwell's most advance part of the equations concerning localized electro-gravitation.
It is Heavside's alerations of Maxwell's equations, that has produced the theory taught throughout the West today as "Maxwell's theory."
In his numerous publications, Col. Tom Bearden makes clear, that the Soviet scientists on the contrary did assume the possibility of local space-time curvature. This is particularly ironic since the basis for just such an experimental theory was produced by Maxwell himself in his original theory of electromagnetism.

However it should be kept in mind, that when Einstein wrote his general theory of relativity, he probably did not know, that the original work of Maxwell already indicated the unification of gravitation and electromagnetism, and indicated the ease with which local space-time could be electro-gravitationally curved locally and engineered.

Because of Einstein's limiting assumption of no local space-time curvature, it has been assumed by the Western scientists, that direct experimentation with general relativity in the lab could not be possibly done.
On the astronomical scale the general theory of relativity was soon proved to be as predicted.
John Wheeler summed Einstein's equations up as: "Space tells bodies how to move, and bodies tell space how to curve".

I can recommend Ray Tomes' main page: Cycles in the Universe. His page, Harmonic Theory, is in my opinion very fine.

Quantum electrodynamics and Zero-Point-Energy

Again I have to draw on Dr. De Maeyer & Dr. Breyer's book, "Tools of Awareness", which is a goldmine of informations and reference about scientific theories, that unlock hidden sources of energy.
Before quantum mechanics was generally accepted, classical physicists rejected the existence of the ether and considered the vacuum of space to be truly empty.
From quantum mechanics arose a mathematical term in the description of the ground state of any oscillating system called the zero-point energy. (The term "zero-point" refers to zero degrees Kelvin, which means this energy exists even in the absence of all heat!).

If we calculate the lowest possible energy of a harmonic oscillator, we get a bigger answer, when we use quantum mechanics, than when we use classical mechanics. The difference is called the "zero-point energy".
Quantum physics and astronomy are often working on the same problem. In these years "the dark matter" or "dark" energy is a serious problem for astronomers, and some of them are using vacuum-energy theory to explain the presents of most of matter and energy in the universe can not be seen. The accelerate expanding universe creates growing vacuum, and adding up the minute energy in vacuum to universal proportion, could make up the missing 9/10 of the energy in the universe.

When Dirac in the 1930's showed, how electron-positron pair production could arise from the vacuum fluctuations, quantum electrodynamics was born. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle allowed quantum mechanical systems to "borrow" this energy for short periods of time. The ether came back in science, this time not as a material substance, but rather as a randomly fluctuating energy.
Since I do not understand electrodynamics laws, I will just state, that quantum mechanical effects arise from matter's interaction with ZeroPointEnergy, and the energy density of the ZPE at each point in space should be infinite!
In "Tools of Awareness" there is an account of different ways to calculate ZPE, working with small wavelengths of Planck's constant, where the outcome vary between infinite and huge definitive energy.

Science has not yet been able to tap into zero-point-energy. Some pioneers has however made experiments with wortx energy, that produced uncontrolled energy release way over the amount of the energy input. This is a violation of the known law of energy equilibrium.
It is strange, that no prestige or money was/is granted to further explorations. On the contrary, the pioneers of wortex energy was prosecuted and their labs was destroyed.

"Wormholes" and "quantum foam"

John Wheeler applied the theory of general relativity to the ZPE by creating a natural cut off in his theory of geo-metro dynamics. In general relativity, the texture of space curves as a function of the energy density. When the density becomes sufficiently great, space pinches like it's forming a black hole.
This gives rise to the formation of hyperspace structures, that Wheeler called "wormholes."

The resulting view is, that the fabric of space consists of constantly forming and annihilating pairs of microscopic "mini" black holes and white holes, which channel electric flux into and out of our three dimensional space. These mini holes manifest dynamics which could be modelled as turbulent, virtual plasma, that Wheeler calls the "quantum foam." In this view the elementary particles are like bubbles or vortices arising from the dynamics of the vacuum energy.

At first sight it seems to be impossible to tap this energy, since it is extremely difficult experimentally to observe its existence.
However, the theories of quantum electrodynamics indicate, that all of the elementary particles are dynamically interacting with the ZPE resulting in vacuum polarization. In particular, quantum electrodynamics shows, that the different elementary particles polarize the vacuum differently.
If this is true, it offers virtually limitless energy. It can best be supported by noting that there are interpretations of quantum mechanics and relativity theory, which imply the existence of a physically real, higher dimensional space, and the notion of super space is well discussed in the physics literature.

How the other conditions could be fulfilled as well, can be understood by modelling the ZPE as virtual plasma. Like plasma, it is nonlinear in its dynamical behaviour; it may be driven off of equilibrium by the abrupt motion of nuclei, and it might well be sustained by an energy flux intersecting our 3 dimensional space from a higher dimensional, super space.

SuperString theory - 10+ dimensions

In 1919, the Polish mathematician Theodor Kaluza proposed, that the existence of a fifth spatial dimension might allow the linking of general relativity and electromagnetic theory. This idea was later refined by the Swedish mathematician Oskar Klein, which expressed the theory, that space consisted both of extended and curled-up dimensions.
The extended dimensions are the 3 spatial common dimensions and the curled-up dimension found deep within the extended dimensions and can be conceive of a circle.
Experiments later showed that Kaluza and Klein's curled-up dimension did not unite general relativity and electromagnetic theory as originally hoped, but decades later, string theorists found the idea useful, even necessary.
The mathematics used in superstring theory requires at least 10 dimensions. That is, for the equations that describe superstring theory to begin to work out— for the equations to connect general relativity to quantum mechanics, to explain the nature of particles, to unify forces, and so on — they need to make use of additional dimensions. These dimensions, string theorists believe, are wrapped up in the curled-up space first described by Kaluza and Klein.

String theory

In string theory, the elementary particles we observe in particle accelerators could be thought of as the "musical notes" or excitation modes of elementary strings.
As in guitar playing, the string must be stretched under tension in order to become excited. However, the strings in string theory are floating in space time, they aren't tied down to a guitar. Nonetheless, they have tension.
The string tension in string theory is denoted by the quantity 1/(2 p a'), where a' is pronounced "alpha prime" and is equal to the square of the string length scale.
If string theory is to be a theory of quantum gravity, then the average size of a string should be somewhere near the length scale of quantum gravity, called the Planck length, which is about 1.6 x 10^-33  centimeters, or about a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter.

Unfortunately, this means that strings are way too small to see by current or expected particle physics technology (or financing!!) and so string theorists must devise more clever methods to test the theory, than just looking for little strings in particle experiments.
String theories are classified according to whether or not the strings are required to be closed loops, and whether or not the particle spectrum includes fermions. In order to include fermions in string theory, there must be a special kind of symmetry called super symmetry, which means for every boson (particle that transmits a force) there is a corresponding fermion (particle that makes up matter).
Super symmetry relates the particles that transmit forces to the particles that make up matter.

Super symmetric partners to currently known particles have not yet been observed in particle experiments, but theorists believe this is because super symmetric particles are too massive to be detected at current accelerators. Particle accelerators could be on the verge of finding evidence for high energy super symmetry in the next decade. Evidence for super symmetry at high energy would be compelling evidence, that string theory was a good mathematical model for Nature at the smallest distance scales.

If superstring theory turns out to be correct, the idea of a world consisting of 10 or more dimensions is one that we will need to become comfortable with. But will there ever be an explanation or a visual representation of higher dimensions, that will truly satisfy the human mind? The answer to this question may forever be unknowen.

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The reason I trouble you with quantum theories, is just to point out the existents of a multi-dimensional world.
However, it is not new. Indigenous people from ancient time did not show much doubt about higher dimensions. They lived accordinly to its exsistens, and shamen and medicine men showed them in their magic. Higher dimension was a vital part of thir daily life.

Later I will tantalize your brain with more of that sort. My conjecture will be, that the higher, dimensional space also applies to the cellular world, to human beings.

Self-reference

One distinctive feature about the human mind is its awareness of its self. We are bound to understand oneself by means of oneself, namely by self-reference.

This paradox was first formulated in western culture by the ancient Greek philosopher Epimenides', who came from Crete, and formulated one sentence, that has haunted logical thinkers since: "All Cretans are liars". There are others versions such as "I am lying", or "This statement is false".
A paradox is typically a kind of communication, where a part of the statement has a negative assertion and is referring to itself.
An important discipline in information theory is meta-mathematics. It is about what can be proved in a mathematical, logical axiom system.
In the beginning of the 20th Century Whitehead/Russel released a book, Principia Mathematica, which dealt with the relationships between categories and their elements in an attempt to solve the logic of paradox. A category cannot be an element itself, which would create a paradox, but have to be on another level of abstraction or another logical type.
Meta is a Greek prefix meaning "after", and was first known used by Aristoteles' Metaphysics, which was the book he wrote "after" his book about physics.
Those having read Douglas Hofstadter's bestseller "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" may better understand the meaning of violation of the language system by self-reference. Professor Hofstadter points out the many loops that operate in our language – and thinking system.

By stating "I am conscious" we are dealing with a similar problem of self-reference. One has to ask what is observing the "I" that claims it is conscious. It has to be an "I" on a higher level outside or above the "I" that states it is conscious! Is that higher "I" outside the brain in the person that makes such a statement? Is there some kind of a loop here?

Self-reference is a loop, because it refers to something inside the system, the person itself by that person. 
Is the person who states "I am conscious" in imagination or deceived by wishful thinking? Probably, but not necessarily - it depends on that person’s level of consciousness and development of being.
This is a critical question: is there a level of consciousness, that exists "above" or "outside" our brain that thinks it is conscious?

My answer or guess is an exsistence of a multi-dimensional self. (Dimention above the 4th. is well established in the world of science.)A reference point or entity on a higher level. A higher self. In that case there is a way out the trap, the self-reference loop. 

The meta-meta symbol level may in my understanding be located above the actual brain in another dimensional body. You have to raise your attention above the system, (divided attention) and elevate to a macro level, in order to observe that system. 
The right music, sound or rhythm has in my view a possibility to support such kind of work. This is why any culture at any time have used music & sound to reach to a higher grounds.
Of course one can ask, what observes the next level of consciousness?
In the end we have to say God, the Absolute or the Universal Consciousness.

Mind and Nature

Gregory Bateson, an American who was an anthropologist, but was in close connection with the key players in the creation of the 20 Century information theory, which method and terminology he altered and extended in his own way. He described himself as a behavioral scientist and his field work gave him materials to formulate a theory of the immanent mind in Nature.

His definition of mind in complex living systems has nothing to do with the common idea of a "religious" mind in Nature. He did not accept the notion transcendence, as the keen scientist he was, but considered control and self-regulating as a mental aspect, which did not belong to a part of the system, but was inherent in the whole system. 

The individual mind, which is immanent in the circuit within and outside the body, is only a subsystem of the supreme mind. This larger mind is not some transcendental deity. It is still immanent in the total interconnected social system or planetary ecology.
It is an entirely self-adjusting unity, which "think, act and determine" and the boundaries do not coincide with the organisms or parts involved, but is weaved in or incorporated into the whole system. 

In the terminology of Bateson, mind does not imply the common notion of the self or consciousness, but the mind of the many involved systems. He uses a simple example to illustrate what he understood as mind. (The tricky part is basically connected to the semantics in the western thinking.)

"The man cuts down the tree with an axe."

In the language itself we have already established 3 different parts of the process independent of each another. The man, the axe and the tree. The ratification of the process is already done by the language, in separating into 3 different things with the assumption that it is the man, who contains the will power and controlling the process. The language itself has already divided the cycle, (which is a simple cybernetic feedback system) into 3 separate parts which interacts.
However, according to Bateson, the mind does not belongs to the man!

Bateson's statement was, that the mental aspect - the mind - was laying immanent in the whole circuit, not in the brain of the man.  
Strictly in the cybernetic sense one can say, that the crucial guiding factor is the differences in the marks on the tree, not the brain, which only respond to the differences. See for more in my page about Information theory.

Electrostatic fields

There are different names for those fields around the body, that could serve as a connection or an intermediary to higher worlds, such as Auras, Astral body, "the higher bodies of Man" or chakras above the 7^th. These are meta physical terminologies. Other more biblical notions such as Soul and Spirit could be in that category too. 

We can turn to a more scientific terminology by looking at the oscillating fields, that surround our body. 
The electromagnetic and electrostatic fields making op and shaping our body are relative strong and serve to hold our atoms and molecules together. They weaken as they move outside our body. There is a relative strong field about 4 inches outside the body. Then it weaken strongly and fade slowly out to 20 inches. The strengths of the field depends much on the vitality of the person. If the vitality is low by sickness or depression, there will be practically no field at all.
Actually, it is a electro dynamic field caused by the motion of the body. The heart/aorta blood system is the main supplier of the pulsing motion of the body. The body resonance meausered from the fingertip in a normal state, shows a peak frequency around 12 Hz.

Meditating resonant mode of 7,8 Hz

Here comes an interesting phenomenon: if a person is able to meditate properly, the breathing becomes so gentle, that the metabolic rate of the body slows down and the heart beats too. The blood flow in the heart/aorta system reach a state, where the usual interference by the resistance in the aorta change into a resonant mode. The whole body will stay in a coherent motion about 7 Hz. It seems that the natural frequency of the normal body lay in the same range, so a nice resonate system is working with a little effort and the amplitude of the electro dynamic field increase by factor of three.
Nature has a tendency to choose energy saving systems. In regard to oscillating bodies with frequencies in the same range, the vibration of the bodies will begin to work together in the same pace, rather than continue with different frequencies. This phenomenon is called rhythm entrainment and can be observed in many different cases.

If we stay with our meditating person, who is spreading a fine tuned signal out to the world. Other meditating people are sending a similar signal and there is a chance to come in rhythmic entrainment.
The Earth itself has an electrostatic field which lay between the surface and the ionosphere, a cavity in which a resonant system produce a standing wave with a fundamental frequency around 7.8 Hz. It is called Schumann wave after its German discoverer.

Though the size of a human and the Earth differ a lot, we can suggest a tuned resonant system, that can couples well to a person in deep meditation and an exchange of energy can take place. 
This is occurring at a very long wavelength of about 40,000 km., or just about the perimeter of the planet. So now we have signals from a meditating soul, who can be in touch with the whole Earth in about one seventh of a second through the electrostatic field in which we are embedded. Such a long wavelength have no obstacles and its power does not weaken much over long distances. Telepathy seems to have a good chance to be conveyed. So does mass hysteria too!

The brain

This example is meant as an illustration of the potential of our body. There are other ways where the level of consciousness can move above the physical, vibrating body. 
My guess is that we could look at our brain as a highly sophisticated, re programming "response machine" enbedded in a bigger cybernetic system. It is presumably a resonant neural network, that on an immanent level process and store information's needed for orientation and survival in life, but also have the ability to receive more subtle and remote input. The brain has many bands of informations.

The brain waves

The brain has its own set of vibrations it uses to communicate with itself and the rest of the body. EEG equipment disdinguishes these waves by measuring the speed with which the brain neurons fire in cycles per second. The frequency bands and wave patterns depends of the state of the mind.
Briefly there are 4 levels of consciousness:
Beta waves (12-25 Hz) dominate our normal waking state of consciousness when attention is directed towards cognitive tasks and the outside world. Beta is a "fast" activity, present when we are alert or even anxious, or when engaged in problem solving, judgment, decision making, information processing, mental activity and focus.

Alpha waves (7-12 Hz) are being considered a basic rhythm of brain assemblies, and are present during dreaming and light meditation, when the eyes are closed. As more and more neurons are recruited to this frequency, alpha waves cycle globally across the whole cortex. This induces deep relaxation, but not quite meditation. In alpha, we begin to access the wealth of creativity that lies just below our conscious awareness. It is the gateway, the entry point that leads into deeper states of consciousness. Alpha waves aid overall mental coordination, calmness, alertness, inner awareness, mind/body integration and learning.
Alpha is also the home of the window frequency known as the Schumann Resonance, which propagates around the planet. When we intentionally generate alpha waves and go into resonance with that Earth frequency, we naturally feel better, refreshed, in tune. It is. in fact, environmental synchronization.

Theta waves (4-7 Hz) occur most often in sleep but are also dominant in the deepest states of meditation (body asleep/mind awake) and thought (gateway to learning, memory). In theta, our senses are withdrawn from the external world and focused on the mindscape-intemally originating signals. Theta waves are associated with mystery, an elusive and extraordinary realm we can explore. It is that twilight state which we normally only experience fleetingly as we rise from the depths of delta upon waking or drifting off to sleep. In theta, we are in a waking dream; vivid imagery flashes before the mind's eye and we are receptive to information beyond our normal conscious awareness. Theta meditation increases creativity, enhances learning, reduces stress and awakens intuitive and other extrasensory perception skills.

Delta waves (0-4 Hz) are the slowest but highest in amplitude. They are generated in deepest meditation and dreamless sleep. Delta waves confer a suspension of external existence and provide the most profound feelings of peace. In addition, certain frequencies within the delta range trigger the release of a growth hormone which is beneficial for healing and regeneration. This is why sleep, deep restorative sleep, is so essential to the healing process.(from "Tools of Awareness" by Dr. Willy De Maeyer & Dr. Gabriele Breyer).

Steven Lehar, an independent researcher, former Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Salem State College, has kindly mailed me an alternative paradime of neurocomputation:

Itzhak Bentov suggests in his elevating book, "Stalking the Wild Pendulum", that our brain is not the source of thoughts, but an amplifier of thoughts. The tiny impulses are magnified by the brain, and only then they become a thought. The thoughts does not originate within the brain. It is our field outside our brain, the astral, mental or causal bodies, that receive the tiny impulses and implant them in the brain, which amplify them into thoughts as we know them. "Thoughts" exist below the threshold of recognizable thoughts.  
This theory support many phenomena such as isolated scientists, who worked on the same discovery, (or the hundred monkey syndrome).

The Hologram - natures information storage

If we drop a few pebbles in a little pan with water, we will soon see a complex pattern of waves interfering with each another. Let us say that we can freeze that interference pattern very quick, so we will have a sheet of ice with the pattern. If we illuminate the interference pattern with the same light under which the information originally was recorded, an 3 dimensional image of the pebbles appears in space.
The ice sheet has stored the information about the pebbles that has caused all the ripples. 
If this ice sheet or lens breaks into pieces and one piece is illuminated the same way as before, we will still have a 3 dimensional image of the pebbles- though it may be not so clear.
We know that the waves from each pebble crossed the face of the whole pan, naturally, they must have interacted with each other across the whole surface. As each wave can be traced back to its source, so will a piece of the whole also preserve information about the whole.
This is the essence about hologram.
There are evidence, that our brain store information in a holographic form. This is a very compact way of storing information's. The genetic code carried in our chromosomes could be another example. Each cell in our body carries all the information's needed to produce a copy.

The power of coherent light

A key element in the process of storing information as a hologram is the orderly behavior of the waves in the system. They must be consistent both in velocity and in wave lengths. Otherwise there will just be chaos. This is where coherency comes in - an order of a certain kind.
Coherent light is the basis of which good holograms can be made. The most common source of coherent light is a laser. It produces light of just a single color - monochromatic light, and the light is emitted in an even, "flat" form and extremely fixed phase. This makes it possible for laser light to stay in a narrow, even beam over very large distances.

The coherent laser light is necessary in order to create holograms. There has to be a coherent reference source similar to the source, that illuminate the object so an interference pattern can be recorded and recreated in the same way. 
A simple way to make a holographic picture, is to split the light into two components by a half mirror - a semi transparent mirror. This allows part of the beam to continue undisturbed, while part of it is deflected to another mirror, which is guiding the beam to the object, we want a holographic picture of.

We have two beams; one is going straight to the film. That is the reference beam. The other beam is lead to the object, which the light will illuminate and interact with. The disorganized reflected light from the object will then reach the film and form an interference pattern with the reference beam. 
When the film is illuminated with the reference beam, a holographic picture is created. 
We notice the importance of the reference beam, the pure, virgin and untouched source, which serves as a baseline for comparison.

Our whole life is a constant struggle making such comparisons. Our senses, which describe our reality to us, are making these comparisons all the time. Unfortunately, our senses, having no absolute reference line, must generate their own relative base line.
In general we perceive information's and adapt them in relation to their differences only.
We have no absolute measure of anything, as far as our reality is concerned. 

Hermes Trismegistus

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. 
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”:

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"

  As the ancients seemed to know, everything in the Universe is in a state of vibration.  

Hierarchies of motion

If we use a scientific language of this age, we first have the subatomic particles, which have properties such as: charge, a spin, magnetic moment and "charmed", "colored" quarks. Stepping up in size, the are atoms made of a nucleus and electron shells. The electrons are rapidly orbiting the nucleus while at the same time rotating about their own axes. We are talking about vibrations in the category of a million billion times a second (10¹⁵ Hz). 
The next level is molecules where atoms are bound in groups, which have a much lower vibration due to the larger mass, but still in the category of Gigahertz (10⁹ Hz). 
If we look at an aggregate of atoms in a crystal, we find at they vibrate about their fixed position in the lattice of the crystal. At this level we still find the two kinds of motion: a circular spin like motion and a reciprocating, to and fro motion at relatively fixed points.

Concerning large molecules the atoms are confined to relatively fixed positions. Any free branches will tend to exhibit pendulum like movements and rotations or resembling the movement of a stretched vibrating string. 

The organic cell, the building blocks of all organisms,  is a further step down in vibration (kiloHz) due to the many molecules tied together in a complex order. The movements of simple organic life such as plankton, we find only one kind of motion: the reciprocating or to and fro motion much like the swing of the pendulum. The spin we have seen for the atoms and molecules are gone.

Looking at the specialized nerve cells, neurons, linked together in a nervous system, nature has made it possible to translate a sensory input into a "Morse" code of action and rest, that can adapt the fast vibratory rate of molecules into an acceptable frequency response of the cell.
Our sensory system operates by means of electro chemical  substances creating a pulse or spikes by simulations. Action comes when the neuron fires a spike. Rest arises as the cell is regenerating. Out of this action-and-rest code our brain translate the sensory input into a perception of our reality.

Throughout the animal kingdom we find that the reciprocating motion prevails. There are almost no spin in living organic bodies. The heart beat and the pulsing blood flow make a pendulum like or oscillating behavior.
When we reach into the next step in the hierarchy of sizes to the celestial bodies, the movements of orbiting and spin reappear. Our planet system behaves in that double motion, rotating about their axes while in the same time orbiting around our sun.

The Cosmic Octave

Humans are living on the surface of Lady Gaia (the Earth) in her biosphere, the thin film of organic life. I would like to give a very short introduction to a portion of the Gurdjiff-Ouspensky system, that display the universe as one descending octave, the Ray of Creation, since it is the study of that system, that made me start the study of octaves.

The passage of Forces

The Ray of Creation shows the passage of forces in the descending Cosmic Octave. It begins with the high do as the Absolute. The interval, do-si, is filled by the Will of the Absolute, unknown to man.
The tone si represent All Worlds, the tone la contains All suns, the tone sol is our sun, the planets in our solar system is represented by the tone fa.
Between the planets and Earth, in the fa-me interval, the passage of cosmic influence formed as interacting triads of active, neutralizing and passive forces, are stopped. (The active force is called Carbon, the passive force is Oxygen and the neutralizing force is named Nitrogen.)
Therefore the planets can not pass their influence direct to Earth, so in order to make a passage, a special contrivance was created, which we call the organic life on Earth. In this scope humans can be considered as sensitive nerve-ends of the Earth. 
So humans are tiny little receptors on the surface of Earth for the cosmic influences and can fill out the link in the great "food chain".

Octaves inside the octave

One of the faculties of an octave is the property of having octaves within the octave. One tone in an octave can branch off into a new octave and so on. In the Cosmic octave there is such an example in the lateral octave. 
Organic life on Earth is created in the form of a lateral octave, where the Do is our sun, Si the planets and La, Sol, Fa the organic life on Earth, which bridge the interval. Then Mi in this additional octave enters into the Earth and Re into the Moon. 
After the tone re the cosmic octave has its low 'do', which is also the Absolute. One Absolute is All, the other is Nothing. But there can be no two Absolutes, for by its very nature, the Absolute is One. Therefore All includes Nothing and Nothing includes All. 
In our subjective, dualistic perception of the world, opposites can not be grasped as actually being One. This dichotomy is one of the many, we face when we are dealing with the big questions in our existence. 

The pendulum

In the following I will - with assistance of Itzhak Bentov and his book "Stalking the Wild Pendulum" - explain why the simple movement of the pendulum convey an astonishing account of our existence and reality.
There seems no mystic in the old-fashioned pendulum in the clock. The laws of classical mechanics tell us that it is a simple harmonic motion. At the point of rest the acceleration of the weight is maximum. The potential energy is maximum; its velocity is zero; and the time required for changing the velocity of the weight is zero.

Peculiar things begins to happened, if we look at the zero point from the point of view of quantum mechanics! 
We have to scale down below atoms -even elementary particles - level, down to the quantum level, and watch the micro movement as it approaches the turning point. 
When we go below the distance of Planck, which is about 1.6 x 10^-33 cm, we enter a new world, where time and space become "grainy" or chunky. 
Planck's length represent the smallest region of space, that can be described meaningfully.
Juggling the fundamental constants in a different way yields one, and only one, fundamental unit of time: the Planck's time, which is about 10^-43 sec. 
By combining the fundamental constants of gravity, Planck's constant (E=hv) and the speed of light (the three constants of physics), it is possible to obtain a unique basic unit of length and time. (John Gribbin in "In search of Schrödinger's cat")

The pendulum can be anywhere in the Universe

This distortion of time and space at the quantum level means, that a pair of events would occur in either time or space: The pair do not connected casually, but by a random fluctuation.
Suppose that a material point can traverse space without necessarily requiring any chunk of time for the process. If so, a chunk of space has been spanned without any time elapsing. That tiny piece of distance divided with zero time yields infinite velocity - no matter over how short a distance.

I have to continue a little more with quantum mechanics in order to fully understand the oscillating behavior. There is a principle in physics stating, that any event which is not prohibited by the law of physics can take place.
So what happens really to the pendulum in the point of rest, the split second where it shift phase? All the points in the pendulum behave the same way, therefore all of it must for a tiny fraction of a second move at infinite velocity.
But can a physical object move faster than the speed of light?

The principle of Uncertainty

We have to turn to another pioneer in quantum physics, to Heisenberg and his principle of uncertainty. This principle states, that in trying to measure two parameter of a particle, for instance, its momentum and its position, we find that the more accurately we measure its momentum (mass * velocity), the less we can know about its position, and vice versa.
If we know the exact momentum of a particle, then its position is completely unknowable, and vice versa.

We also know when the pendulum is in the changing point, when it is at rest, its velocity is zero. But the momentum, at low speed at least, is equal to velocity multiplied by mass. We know the velocity is zero, so when we multiply any quantity with zero, we get zero.
According to Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty, the position of the pendulum at rest becomes diffuse and completely indefinite. 
In other words, the pendulum can be just about any place in the Universe for just a tiny fraction of time with infinite speed.

The rapid disappearance of the pendulum into the Universe is so fast, that we do not detect it in our level of existence and reality. 

The reason we have used the swing of a pendulum as a showcase, is because the pendulum represents any system, that oscillates or move back and forth, whether such an oscillator pulsates concentrically, goes around in orbits, or turns about itself.

From the standpoint of one observer, there are always two points at which either of these systems appears to be at rest. To be completely at rest means, that the movement has reached the point, where it change or reverse direction. That point of rest implies somehow a disappearance of matter in a infinite or almost infinite velocities.
Infinite speed and total rest seem somehow complementary. Again we face a condition where extremes meet its opposite. At our level of reality we can not be aware of the atoms in the pendulum, that oscillates at a rate of 10¹⁵ Hz. We can simply not observe it!

What is reality?

One way or another the aspect of reality comes down to movements. At the sub atomic level the world is made up of a void, a vacuum, which is filled by pulsating, oscillating electro-magnetic fields, that in turns move between two points of rest. The point of rest is reached through a period of motion. We have seen how weird the pendulum behaves at that level, which is called the objective reality.

When we reach the level of human in the hierarchies of motion, we are limited to the subjective reality by the total sum of impressions conveyed to us by our senses. The nervous systems translate the objective reality for us into a Morse code of action and rest, which are oscillating electrical states of our nervous system.

There is a common factor in both realities, that is connected to what I will call the meta physical notion of being "real". Itzhak Bentov's definition of "real" means there has to be a change or motion occurring between the two states of rest to create reality.
It is the motion that forms the reality. If there is no change, there is a state of perpetual rest, and a state of perpetual rest means no perceptible reality. 
The tangible reality exist for us only as long as there are movements. When the movements stops, matter and "solid" reality become diffuse and disappear into the void of rest.
This description of the tangible reality is not new. Actually, the old Tibetan Buddhist masters states, that "the tangible world is movement, not a collection of moving objects, but movement itself. There are no objects 'in movements'. It is the movements which constitutes the objects, which appear to us: there are nothing but movements". (Alexandra David-Neel and Luma Yongden from their book, The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects).

Subjective time or expanded consciousness

It is generally known and experienced, that in moments of present, actual danger time "slows" down and the impressions are received at a much higher speed. The nervous system switches to a faster mode, to a much wider band of information. In terms of telephone systems from analog cables to light cables. (See Information Theory)
Even higher speeds in consciousness are recorded in the near death experience, where ones whole life is presented in seconds, (as one is taping into the Akashic record?)

The slow down of time can be experienced in a less dramatic way, if one master the art of meditation, or is trained by biofeedback to produce theta brainwaves. If one can obtain such meditative state and at the same time is able to watch the second hand of a clock, there are chances to be surprised by finding, that the second hand has come to a stop! As soon the intellect discover what has happened, the second hand will accelerate into its normal pace again, unless one has long training in meditation. 

Time-traveling on regular basis

The only time travel machine there is accessible is so far I know the human mind. I do not mentioning the body, since mass as Einstein has shown, will increase by an astronomical size approaching the speed of light. 
Shaman and mystic's have through time demonstrated time traveling. Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce are known examples in our culture.
The trick is to leave the body for a while. The technique might be diversified, the aim as well, but it is possible for an entity, that correlates and make sense of the information submitted to it by the brain, to be absent and far away.
The out of body experience (and time travelling) has been well documented by Robert Monroe in his books, which are highly recommended. 
A more secret aspect of out of the body performance, was conducted by the US defense forces during the cold war under the name, "remote viewing of natural targets". According to Discovery channel the most skilled remote viewers performed very high accuracy in the controlled tests. The interesting part in those tests was, that they viewed the random moving target in advance of time. The saw the target a hour before it was there.

In the following I, again, will relate to Itzhak Bentov, an American engineer, who practiced life long meditation, which was the base for his book, Stalking the wild Pendulum, because he present - in my view - the most consistent theory. 

In the analysis of the pendulum we have found that the body also oscillates in a pendulum like fashion about 7 times in a second. Each time the body reach the point of rest about 14 times a second the "observer" or the entity having no physical mass, expand at a very high speed into space.
Where does the observer goes in those split seconds of perpetual rest when the natural boundaries of space and time collapse?

Not only to the end of the rainbow, but everywhere in the universe. For a very short moment it becomes a "star" - Miss Universe - with mighty omnipresent. It is an awesome expansion of consciousness. A shame we are not aware of it.  Or maybe somewhere deep inside a tinkling little voice says, I know! The intuitive gut feeling, knowing the harmony with the universe.

Space/time diagram

The fastest action in the physical world is naturally limited by the speed of light. In a four-dimensional space/time diagram the vertical direction stands for time, the horizontal direction represents the three space dimensions. A 45 degree diagonal line indicate the boundaries between space and time representing the speed of light. The cross section is the "now" point.
In the advanced physics there are some hypothetical particles called tachyons, which can move beyond the speed of light. Tachyons may also be the anti gravitational particle, that eliminate the gravitation in the expanding universe. Suppose that the tachyons travel at almost infinite speed, which implies that they are moving practically along the horizontal space axis without much regard to the vertical time axis. In no time they can be everywhere. They behave space-like, not time like. They have omnipresence.

Concerning mortals beings the objective coordinates in the space/time diagram are still representing the time like universe as we know it in normal consciousness, so the subjective coordinates overlap or stay parallel. 

In case of the higher meditative state of rest where the out of body observer fill the universe in a space like behavior, the situation change dramatic. The subjective time/space coordinates separate from the objective and rotate about the "now" point, the common center. The subjective time line has gained an arbitrary angle to the objective time line. Projecting with a parallel line to the objective time line we see, that the subjective time is longer than the objective time.

The more the subjective time line angle approach the space axis, the more subjective time is at hand and consequently an increasing space like manner. In an altered state of consciousness, we are rapidly expanding into space. An expansion of consciousness leads to an expansion into space.

We have to remember, that the observer as an entity with no physical mass can slip through the velocity of light barrier. However, the observer is still tenuously linked to the physical body, and the physical senses still relay messages to the out of body observer in an undistorted form. 
The values of the subjective/objective time ratio increase rapidly as we go beyond 89 degrees. The ratio is over one million at an angle at 89,9999 degrees. The subjective time becomes infinitely long at 90 degrees, because cosine at 90 degrees is zero.

Level of consciousness

From the above we have describe a person's level of consciousness by the ratio of his subjective time to his objective time. The range of these ratios is very broad depending of the ability to hold an expanded state of consciousness.
It starts as small wandering of attention as the example with the clock, where we was able to slow down the second hand for a brief moment. A step further could be hypnotic time dilation, or dreaming, which is in fact an altered state of consciousness. It is first in deep meditation or trance by trained people that the ratio can be significant and persistent. The angle does not close or become zero, but fluctuates at some distance from the objective time axis.
The consciousness index is: subjective time / objective time. E.g. 4 seconds / 1 second = 4.

The subjective time coordinates rotates together with the subjective space axis, so the subjective time stretches as well as the observer expand into the subjective space. The space axis approaches the objective time axis. The "time like" subjective space is becoming objective time. This means that the observer travels in what is supposed to be the space, but actually is moving through his own and others peoples objective time. Depending of direction it means traveling in the objective past or future. 

Clairvoyants often use the term, "I am going into your past", describing the movement though time. Time is space for the clairvoyant, who might even give some predictions of ones future, but since the future is made up of probabilities depending of human free will, such travel into the future should be vague and uncertain. 

Untrained people are not aware of those fast out of the body experiences. They do not reach the normal conscious thinking level, but remain in the subliminal level. Trained observers who can stay at a high level of consciousness for a while and stretch the subjective time, managed to be imprinted with impressions from other dimensions and realities.

But what is actually going on with the body. We have to imagine the huge amounts of atoms we consist of. They oscillates at a rate of 10¹⁵ Hz. and disappear and reappear at their own rate and we have no chance to notice such rapid phenomena. Further more it is very unlikely that all the atoms in our body vibrate synchronously or coherently; presumably only parts or areas are blinking on and off gradually.
The key to higher consciousness seems to consist in coherency - to be one. Spiritual masters from different traditions have stated the necessity of being one unit. The language may differ, but the meaning is to bring the legions into one army; to be one.
If total coherency occurs in the body, as may be the case for ascended masters, the whole body will blink off and on as a unit, and truly miraculous events can take place.

Two aspects of consciousness

Let us examine some basic premise about consciousness by expanding it to apply to any being or matter. We can say that an atom have consciousness because it can respond to stimuli. Since all physical reality is constructed of atoms in a smaller or larger aggregates, we can say, that a given mass contains a certain amount of consciousness. The percentage will vary in quantity and in quality according to the different evolutionary level. 
There is a certain relationship between the number of responses per stimuli, or the quantity of consciousness, and the level of quality. We will express the quality of consciousness in terms of frequency response. The higher the quality of consciousness, the higher the frequency response range of the system.
So quantity of consciousness is given in terms of number of responses a system is capable of as a reaction to a stimulus.

Quality of consciousness is the degree of refinement or intelligence of such responses and their range expressed in terms of frequency response. 
Each frequency range stands for a certain reality band.

The ladder of evolution

In Nature we have a spectrum of realities, each occupied by a population having a certain level of consciousness. Each band or step of the ladder has its own range of frequency response (quality of consciousness), which could be the vertical line. The horizontal line display the range of information handling capacity of the (nervous) system (quantity of consciousness). 
In the bottom of the diagram we have an atom. Next step could be a virus, then a plant, next an animal, then a human, and above the human reality band, the realm of astral or emotional reality, further up the mental reality, then the "causal" or intuitive reality band, and above some spiritual levels approaching the maximum energy exchange level with the universe and control over the nature, e.g. changing water into wine.
The point in such a diagram is to give a picture of different level of realities. This spectrum of realities do not have sharply defined boundaries, but to some extend reach into each an other. 

Looking at the diagram as a whole we see that the relationship between the quantity and the quality of consciousness is given by a curved line. As this line is approaching to top which we can call the absolute, it becomes almost parallel, meaning accumulating all beings. In other words, the absolute contains all the consciousness there is in the universe. It is the source of all consciousness.
An example of the consciousness of a plant is described in Carlos Castaneda's book, The Teachings of Don Juan, where the spirit of the peyote plant, Mescalito, was a very powerful theacher. If the book is a fraud, it does not take away a vivid description of the reality of a plant.
In Robert Monroe's book, "Far Journeys", one can find a very interesting account of the astral world. I find Monroe's writing about his out of body experiences highly reliable.
Stanislav Grof, the Czech/American pioneer and research worker in human consciousness and trans-personal experience, has a long row of books border on this subject, especially in "The Cosmic Game", Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness..  

The "sea" of the absolute

Earlier we have stated that our reality is coded in terms of movement and rest. When an oscillator is in a state of rest, it tunnels into a space like dimension, which implies infinite speed, that are equivalent to a state of rest. It becomes omnipresent. 
It has attained a state of just "being" for a very short period of time. As soon the oscillator gets into movement, everything is back to usual. We are dealing with two components of reality: movement and rest.
We can make a bold comparison: this state of "being" can be compared with the absolute, since both imply no motion, no action, just total rest - just "being". 
At the same time, it is a state of high potential energy, because the state of rest is equivalent to infinitely high velocities. Further more, the two contrasting concepts of movement and rest, become reconciled in the absolute. 

The bottom line is, that this state of reality, can be an absolute reference line against which all in the world or in creation, can be measured. The absolute is an ever present baseline for all the other realities.
This sounds as a the master hologram, where we have the undisturbed reference beam, the absolute, and a experienced or modulated out of phase beam, the relative reality.

The absolute can be pictured as a boundless deep sea. The surface of the sea is very calm and so smooth, that it is invisible and not in existence but contain the potential of any existence.  
Ripples or waves break up the surface and makes it visible. By analogy, when motion or vibrations appears in the absolute, it becomes visible or manifest, and we call it the relative or physical reality.

From the consciousness diagram we have a display of levels of realities. We can compare the size of the ripples or waves to the different realities, but the "deep" layers of the sea will never be disturb; a state of eternal rest will prevail.
The different type of ripples will correspond to the level of consciousness. Some will have a low quantity of consciousness and a low frequency response, while "fine" high frequency ripples will correspond to the highest level below the absolute.

Mind over matter business

We have earlier stated that matter "contains" more or less of consciousness. In view of the above mentioned it would be more correct to acknowledge, that matter, being made of quanta of energy, is the vibrating, changing component of pure consciousness. It is all made of the same "stuff" in different forms. Water, e.g. is still water either in form of ice, liquid or in steam or vapor. 

Realities are made up of two components, one is the steady reference line or immutable background. The other is the dynamic, vibrating aspect of the same thing. So mind and matter are both made of the same basic stuff. The difference has to be found in the composition of vibration or ripples. Matter belongs to larger and slower waves, which implies that it possesses less energy of the absolute. 
Mind is made op of much finer ripples, which indicate that it contains more of the consciousness of the absolute. So the common concept of mind over matter should be formulated as mind "over" a different aspect of itself.
It may be a comfort to realize that no matter how relative or remote we are from the absolute, we are still made of the stuff of the absolute. (This make me think of the phrase: we are all made of dust from the stars.)

To sum up this extremes business about the absolute, one can say, that the absolute is an infinitely fine relative, in which the size of the waves is so minute and the frequency so high, that they are invisible. Movement and rest is fuse into one. In this state the energy is tremendous high and is full of creative potential, plus full of intelligence. This stands for a self-organizing capability to any entity in creation. 
Our reality is a vibratory reality - from sub nuclear level to atomic, molecular, and macro levels. Every thing is oscillating between two states of rest. Everything is producing a vibration, a "sound". 

Vibrating bodies

 We have investigated the pendulum in the moment of rest. Let us now have a look of the full swing of the pendulum and think above grandfather's clock. 
Imagine our beloved Earth orbiting the sun in a period of a year as an astronomical 3 dimensional pendulum, where the gravitation field is the "string" in which the Earth is tied to the Sun. 
This is a simple circular, periodic motion, that also apply to the law of a pendulum pictured as grandfather's clock, which only moves linear. As long as the time required for the to-and-fro movement is not changed, we still have a simple harmonic motion, whether it is a circular, elliptical or linear.

A point of confusion may enter this conversion of circular motion into harmonic motion because subjectivity plays a part. The two extreme points of the pendulum, e.g. at which there is no apparent motion, are different for different observers, unless the event is observed from the same angle and same place. 
The bottom line is, that any uniform circular motion, whether it is that of an electron or of a planet, can be converted into a simple harmonic motion of a pendulum.

According to the formula of the pendulum, the length of the string can be calculated:
L = T² * g / 4pi² ,where T is the duration of the pendulum back and forth, g is the gravitational acceleration on earth, pi is the proportional number of the diameter and circumference of a circle.
The length of a pendulum, that correspond (scaled down) to the 24th. octave of a tropical year, is about 88 cm. and oscillates in 1.88 sec. (A pendulum of a fourth or four times this length does so as well).

The Indian sitar

Turning to India the length of the string of a sitar - a common musical instrument - is 88 cm. (in most cases). This is not a coincidence. The basic note of a sitar, Sa, is in accordance to the frequency of the year, (see below) which is 136.10221…Hz. in the 32nd octave. So we have 2^{(32- 24)} = 2⁸ = 256th overtone or harmonics of a frequency of a pendulum with a length of a sitar string.

According to Indian tradition it stands for the primordial vibration, which is called "nada" and express the universal OM.
The OM sound, according to Cousto, corresponds approximately to the C sharp in the small octave of the present day tuning system (136 Hz) and corresponds to the 32nd octave tone of the Earth year. In reverse order it means, that by lowering 136 Hz tone by 32 octaves, the resulting frequency will be as slow as the amount of time it takes the Earth to circle the sun.
It is interesting to note that the Indians arrived at this tone, which we can calculate mathematical, "simply" through intuition and meditation.

The tone of the year

It takes the Earth 365.24219879 days to orbit the sun and make a tropical year. This period shall be converted into seconds in order to gain the corresponding frequency, which is 1 / 31556925.97.. = 0.000000031..Hz. This frequency shall then be multiplied by 2, until the octave note reach the range of hearing. Having multiplied 32-times by 2, the audible frequency is equal to 1/ length of period x 2³² = tone frequency of a tropical year = 136.10221…Hz.  This frequency is slightly  below the note C# (C sharp) in the chromatic scale. 
About 40 octaves higher one obtains the matching frequency of the visible range.  

The concert pitch

Before a concert begins a reference tone, the concert pitch, is played so the instruments can tune their middle a'. In modern time the pitch is set to 440 Hz. by the second International Standard Pitch Conference in London 1938. It is a high pitch compared to the older concert pitch of 435 Hz. which was introduced by the French government in 1859 in cooperation with musicians such as Hector Berlioz, Meyerbeer and Rossini.
The concert pitch has vary earlier depending of Country and time. In the book, "On the Sensation of Tone" by Helmholtz, a record of concert pitch in Europe covers many pages. The characteristic for the Western music is, that concert pitch is arbitrary. It has no relation to forces above man. There is no reference to earthly or celestial influx, but only an artificial standard.

For the old Chinese the tuning of their fundamental tone, Kung, was a matte of outmost importance for their civilization and had to be in alignment with the Cosmic tone so the celestial influence could be channel into the society by music. 
According to Custo the Kung relates to the frequency of the Platonic Year. The note of the Platonic year is F in the Western Equal Temperament pitch, which is found in the 48th octave with a frequency of 344.12 Hz.

The Indians method had a character of meditation since the musicians not only in the prelude had to tune his instrument to the keynote, he also attunes himself to it, and gives the audience the opportunity to do so too. This long introduction was essential since the musicians had to tune in to the "sadja", the everlasting, never ceasing tone. According to Indian tradition it stands for primordial vibration, which is called "nada" and express the universal OM.

The OM sound, according to Cousto, corresponds approximately to the C sharp in the small octave of the present day tuning system (136 Hz) and corresponds to the 32nd octave tone of the Earth year. It means that by lowering 136 Hz tone by 32 octaves, the resulting frequency will be as slow as the amount of time it takes the Earth to circle the sun.
Foucault's pendulum in Paris has nothing to do with the frequency of the Earth. The pendulum is demonstrating the spin of the Earth by an ingenious suspension of the pendulum, so it is free of the ground (Earth) and relates to the fix stars.

The tones of the Earth

The period of an average solar day lasts 24 hours = 86400 seconds. Using the same way of calculations as above, we have in the 25th octave or the 2²⁵ the partial note of a solar day the frequency at 388.36 Hz. (The sidereal day is 23 hours and 56 minutes and the difference between the average day is about 1 Hz in the 25th octave)

The 388.36 Hz corresponds approximately to a G' in the well tempered scale with a A' at 435.92 Hz. as the reference tone (concert pitch). The common modern concert pitch, A', is 440 Hz. so we see, that the reference tone is out of tune with the tone of day. This concert pitch was decided at the 1939 standard pitch conference in London and is used throughout the West.
It is an entirely arbitrary decision and is not in harmony with neither the Earth nor Cosmic tones. The concert pitches used in India and China are in resonance with the Earth year and The Platonic year.
The older concert pitch, A',  introduced by the French government in 1859 was 435.4 Hz. and much more in tune with the tone of the day. 
The frequency of the well tempered chromatic tuning system changes from one semitone to the next by the factor 2^1/12 = 1.059463...The matching chromatic A' (2 semitones up) for the note of a day will be 435.92 Hz.

The corresponding Earth notes and concert pitch will accordingly be:

The average day	Western pitch	G	388.4 Hz	25th octave
The year	India pitch	C sharp	272.30 Hz	33rd octave
The Platonic year	China pitch	F	172.06 Hz	47th octave

This has only been a brief tour into the world of vibrations by stalking the wild pendulum.  There are many other metaphysical aspects of sound and music, which will be presented in the next part.

Thomas Váczy Hightower, © 2003-7.

To be continue in part II of The Sound of Silence 

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