The scientific nature of Tantras and Mantras

[Guest guest]

Here are some interesting articles I came across about some of the

latest research in the field of sound and its effect on the

surrounding environment. It might provide a wonderful insight on the

scientific nature of Tantra, which was known to Rishis long ago, and

currently brought to the common man by great souls such as Shri

Paramhans Nikhileshwaranand Ji and others.

 

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>From http://9waysmysteryschool.tripod.com/sacredsoundtools/id12.html

 

In 1967, Hans Jenny, a Swiss doctor, published the book Cymatics -

The Structure and Dynamics of Waves and Vibrations.

 

In this book Jenny showed what happens when one takes various

materials like sand, spores, iron filings, water, etc., and places

them on vibrating metal plates. What appears are shapes and motion -

patterns which vary from the nearly perfectly ordered and stationary

to those that are excitingly chaotic and constantly in motion. Jenny

created an invention of his own called a tonoscope which made use of

crystal oscillators to set these metal plates into motion. Unlike in

previous experiments. Jenny could precisely control the rate of

vibration and repeat experiments attaining identical results.

 

"The tonoscope was constructed to make the human voice visible

without any electronic apparatus as an intermediate link. This

yielded the amazing possibility of being able to see the physical

image of the vowel, tone or song a human being produced directly. Not

only could you hear a melody - you could see it."

 

In his research with the tonoscope, Jenny noticed that when the

vowels of the ancient languages of Hebrew and Sanskrit were

pronounced, the sand took the shape of the written symbols for these

vowels. Experimentation with modern languages general produced chaos.

Is it possible that the ancient Hebrews and Indians knew this? Could

there be something to the concept of "sacred language?" Would other

sacred languages produce similar results ie. Tibetan, Egyptian or

Chinese. These languages have always proposed that they have the

capacity to influence and transform physical reality through the

recitation or chanting of sacred syllables and mantras.

 

One of Jenny's most interesting results with the tonoscope was

produced when he took a vibrating plate covered with liquid and

tilted it. "The liquid did not yield to gravitational influence and

run off the vibrating plate but stayed on and went on constructing

new shapes as though nothing had happened." If, however, the

oscillation was then turned off, the liquid began to run. But if the

tonoscope was turned back on and the vibrations re-established,

quickly, before the liquid ran off the plate he not only could

prevent the liquid from leaving the plate but actually set it back

into its original position. According to Jenny, this was an example

of an anti gravitational effect created by vibrations.

 

Jenny, also, pointed out the resemblance between the shapes and

patterns we see around us in our physical reality and the shapes and

patterns he generated in his experiments. Jenny stipulated the theory

that biological evolution was a result of vibrations.

 

"There is a similarity between cymatic pictures and quantum

particles. In both cases that which appears to be a solid form is

also a wave. They are both created and simultaneously organized by

the principle of pulse (the principle of vibration). This is the

great mystery with sound: there is no solidity! A form that appears

solid is actually created by an underlying vibration." (Beaulieu)

 

In his book, Jenny says that the key to understanding how we can heal

the body lies in our understanding of how different frequencies

or "tones" influence our physical reality.

 

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>From http://www.kuruvinda.com/health/music-6.shtml

 

The Physics of Sound and Music

 

We don't often think of the physics of sound, and the fact that sound

has power to effect physical objects. Just the mere fact that you

perceive sound shows this vibrational nature. The sound waves cause

your eardrums to vibrate, which causes a chain reaction in your

middle and inner ear. This eventually causes nerve impulses to reach

your brain that are perceived as sound.

 

To truly appreciate the power that sound can have, it helps to think

of two examples. An earthquake is actually a series of sound waves

caused by two plates of earth sliding by each other in a quick

motion. The scraping that ensues causes a sound wave to be produced.

Sound travels faster in the air than it does in the denser earth, so

you can often hear an earthquake before you feel it. We all know

about the power and destructive capabilities of an earthquake.

Another example of the destructive power of sound is the ability of

some singers to break a glass merely by singing a particular note.

Both the example of the earthquake and that of the singer illustrate

the characteristic principle of resonance.

 

Our bodies also resonate or vibrate in response to and in concert

with sound waves that we are exposed to. In fact, there is some

fascinating research that's been done that even shows the

relationships of this resonance to the planets of our solar system.

Our DNA and RNA molecules, which are the building blocks of our very

chromosomes, resonate to an octave tone (a musical relationship) of

the earth's rotation pattern. Is it any wonder that with our DNA

vibrating in concert to the energies we are exposed to, that when we

listen to certain kinds of music we could be damaging our own bodies

and those of future generations (through our chromosomes).

 

The different frequencies of the sound waves that are produced when a

musical instrument is played correspond to various musical notes. For

example, a sound wave that produces the note that is commonly

called "concert A" vibrates at a frequency of 440 cycles per second

(hertz or Hz). Different parts of your body resonate with different

notes and the harmonics produced by different types of musical

instruments. Each one of us becomes a magnificent dance of tissues,

cells, molecules, atoms, and energy fields swirling in rhythm to the

beat of the sound waves. When this dance is a dance of harmony, it is

healing and life giving. When the dance is one of dissonance and

disharmony it brings on disease and it takes away life energy.

 

This dance of nature to sound and music was visually demonstrated by

two different scientists in similar ways. An eighteenth century

physicist named Ernest Chladni investigated the effects of sound an

music on matter by sprinkling sand on steel disks and watching what

happened when a violin played various notes. The changing patterns

that were produced were striking in their symmetry and artistic and

mathematically precise patterns.

 

In this century, Dr. Hans Jenny took Chladni's work a few steps

further. Dr. Jenny devised a device he called a "tonoscope," which

consisted of a metal plate on top of an oscillator. The oscillator

produces vibrations in the plate that are adjustable according to

volume and pitch. When different materials are placed on the

tonoscope, patterns emerge in response to the vibrations that are

very much like patterns found in nature. For example when paste is

placed on the tonoscope, a patterns emerges which looks like the

early stages of cell division. Other substances mimicked honeycombs

and nautilus shells. A pattern produced when a crescendo of sound

vibrated through powder looked remarkably like the iris and pupil of

an eye.

 

However, one of the most fascinating results occurred when Jenny used

a microphone to vibrate the tonoscope. When he uttered the ancient

mantra, AUM or "Ohm", a pattern was produced which consisted of a

perfect circle filled with concentric squares and triangles.

Coincidentally, the very same pattern is found in the yantra or

geometric artwork that has been used for centuries in the East to

represent the AUM, the so-called mantra of mantras. Once again,

science demonstrates the profound relationship that sound has with

matter.

 

Another profound relationship that sound has with our bodies and

minds was discovered by a French ear specialist named Dr. Alfred

Tomatis. Dr.Tomatis spent decades measuring the affects of different

sound frequencies on our bodies. He researched which frequencies

boost energy and which ones deplete it and how they bring about these

effects. He came to a startling conclusion. Dr. Tomatis says, "The

ear is made not only for hearing. The ear is designed to energize the

brain and body."

 

How can we possibly get energy through our ears? Well, in our

previous discussion of the power that music has, we talked about

resonance and how the right frequencies of sound waves produce

sympathetic vibrations in other physical objects, including our

bodies. Tomatis discovered that certain kinds of music, which had an

abundance of certain frequency ranges, actually were effective in

recharging the central gray nuclei cells in the brain. These cells

act like tiny batteries that power your brainwaves. You would expect

that these tiny batteries must be recharged by your body's internal

systems and metabolism. Tomatis found otherwise.

 

Dr. Tomatis discovered that it wasn't something inside you that

recharged these brain cells, it was certain frequencies of sound from

outside your body that provide the recharge. As sound travels through

your inner ear, it whirls around and around through the coils of the

snail shaped cochlea. From there it comes upon a long line of 24,600

cells called Corti cells, which dance a perfectly synchronized dance

to each sound. This dance of the Corti cells produces energy that

splits off, some going to the brain and some going to the vestibular

branch of your auditory nerve and then to the muscles throughout your

body.

 

So, with all we've discussed about the benefits of certain kinds of

music, what kinds of music would you expect to have the ability to

produce the most energizing of the brain as well as the most release

of muscle tension and improvement of bodily functions and posture.

The same Baroque and Classical music that we've discussed before,

especially those pieces rich in strings, produce frequencies that

Tomatis found to be energizing and healing. In fact, Tomatis found

that it is possible to rejuvenate your ears with sound.

 

Dr. Tomatis developed and patented a devise he calls the Electronic

Ear. This device emits bursts of different high and low frequency

sounds, alternating from ear to ear. This process effectively

exercises the muscles of the middle ear so that they get in shape and

work as they are supposed to. Tomatis found that sounds in the range

of 5,000 to 8,000 hertz recharge the cells that are like tiny

batteries in our brains the fastest. He also found that the music

that is the richest in these high frequency sounds is that of Mozart.

And, he went on to pinpoint those sounds that were damaging to the

body and the mind. These were low frequency sounds, like the noise at

an airport, a construction site, in traffic, etc. Tomatis also

singled out the low pounding sounds in rock music as "brain drain"

sounds.

 

Others have taken the same frequency ranges that Tomatis worked with

and found that these appear to universally benefit life. A researcher

named Dan Carlson found that 5,000 hertz also energizes plants. He

performed experiments in which he embedded a 5,000 hertz pulsed sound

(which resembled big cricket sounds) in tapes of Baroque and other

classical music. He played these tapes to plants as he sprayed them

with a nutrient mix. He found that the plants showed a 700 percent

increase in efficiency of absorbing the nutrients. It was discovered

that this frequency of sound actually helps the little pores on the

plant's leaves called stomata, to open up. Guess what the frequency

of bird song is. Yes, it's around 5,000 hertz. And who says nature

doesn't have a plan. You'll find that in areas that don't have a lot

of birds singing, there's not a lot of plant growth either.

 

Speaking of plant growth, Dan Carlson found that his mix of life

enhancing music and spraying of nutrients on his purple passion plant

produced some record results. He was able to take a plant that

normally grows to a height of around 18 inches and produced a plant

that grew 1,400 feet long in the course of two and a half years! This

feat earned Mr. Carlson and his plant a place in the Guinness Book of

World Records.

 

Researchers have also applied this 5,000 hertz frequency to studies

on people. A recent test was done using this frequency added to

Baroque music played while people ate dinner at a restaurant. It was

found that people who ate to slow classical music ate more slowly,

digested better, and didn't gain weight. On the other hand, those

that ate to rock music ate very quickly, digested poorly, and gained

weight.

 

In addition to benefiting the body and its functioning, Tomatis

discovered that these life giving frequencies could bring

psychological health also. He found that he was able to help learning

disabled and even autistic children to lead normal lives. One of his

lines of research revolved around the sounds that a baby hears when

in the womb. Tomatis discovered that by placing a specially sealed

microphone and speaker into water he could simulate the sonic

environment that a baby experiences before birth. When Tomatis played

the sounds of a mother's voice through this fluid media to her

autistic child, the child went over and turned off the lights,

climbed onto his mother's lap, assumed the fetal position and started

sucking his thumb. Over time, by gradually substituting the mother's

voice through regular speakers instead of through the fluid media,

Tomatis was able to get the child babbling and eventually brought the

child to complete normalcy.

 

Guess which sound frequencies predominate in the fluid environment

that Tomatis used. They are some of the same sound frequencies that

dolphins make and the same frequencies found quite often in bird

song. It was also the same frequencies that Tomatis found to be most

beneficial for recharging your brain cells - around 8,000 Hertz!

 

Choose what you and your children listen to, and choose carefully!

 

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>From http://users.nni.com/aurael/soundform.html

 

Using sound waves and resonance, we can change the form of matter.

When a sound frequency matches the vibrational frequency of any

structure, resonance occurs. You can hear examples of this when you

sing a note and the same note sounds on a stringed instrument like a

guitar or piano. The changes sound produces can be quite dramatic, as

in the classic example of a singer shattering a glass with the voice.

Sound is now being used in the medical field to treat certain

conditions. A treatment called extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy

uses sound waves to disintegrate gallstones. In 1940, the Tacoma

Narrows Bridge in Washington state collapsed due to relatively mild

gusts of wind. The wind started the main span of the bridge vibrating

at it's natural frequency, causing it to sway and ripple violently,

then collapse.

 

Aside from these destructive examples, sound can also CREATE form.

Sound can create complex geometric patterns in various substances.

Hans Jenny found in his research of cymatics that the sounds of

vowels in ancient Hebrew and Sanskrit actually produce patterns that

resemble the alphabetic symbols used for the sounds. Jenny invented

an istrument called a tonoscope, which allows you see the pattern a

sound creates. When the mantra AUM is chanted into a tonoscope, it

produces a pattern that looks like the Sri Yantra mandala, the most

holy symbol of Hindu tradition. It symbolizes the divine creative

aspect of sacred sound, out of which the manifestation of the

physical universe is generated, and the merging of one's soul back

into the Absolute Consciousness.

 

Many spiritual teachings speak of the role of sound in manifesting

form. In the creation story of the Christian Bible, notice that it

says God invoked Light with sound. According to Buddhist

teaching...it is said that if AUM is chanted in just the right way,

this world will cease to exist in it's present form.

 

 

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In Divine Friendship

 

-Mukund