Gender: Male
Status: Married
Age: 100
Sign: Libra
State: Southwest
Country: UK
Signup Date: 8/19/2007
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October 16, 2009 - Friday
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Category: Life
Chakras, healing and the musical scale.
'Many say that life entered the human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music.' Hafiz (Persian Sufi poet)
The finest instrument for perceiving the chakras and other energetic
fields is the human sensory system. With remarkably little training it
is possible to at least feel the positions of the chakras by their
vibrational differences from the rest of the energetic field. We have
been doing this for thousands of years. With a little more training it
is possible to become aware of the types of energetic frequencies
involved and what types of information they contain. Again we have been
doing this for thousands of years and it is still taught. (Note:
Harmonics Level 2)
However, it is one thing to perceive it is another altogether to
attempt to balance or heal energetic centres. One of the most popular
ways to attempt this emerging from the 20th century, is through the use
of musical tones.
There are many differing views on suitable tones for healing.
Various writers and practitioners have detailed particular
correspondences between vertebrae and individual notes, (LaSala Kimmel)
colour and sound (Hans Cousto) and energy meridians and sound (Steven
Birch). 1 Theo Gimbel, in his book 'Healing Through
Colour', has an excellent chart of the relationships between vertebrae
weight and pitch in male and female spines.16 Hindu Scriptures reveal
that certain sounds were considered sacred (Vimuktida) and were
regarded as having the capacity to liberate the hearer from the karmic
cycle of birth /death / reincarnation. The most famous of these, the
sacred word Om, (Aum) is considered in Indian thought to be at one with
the rhythms of the universe.2 Om is now considered to be the
note of C# (136Hz) and is the tuning note for both Sitar and Tibetan
bells. However pre-tuning forks, the note was determined by the sound
of various animals.13
In Hans Jenny's famous experiments with his tonoscope which
'transforms sounds uttered into a microphone into their visual
representation on a screen', the sounding of Om 'produces the circle
'0' which is then filled in with concentric squares and triangles,
finally producing, when the last traces of the 'm' have died away, a
'yantra' - the formal expression of sacred vibration which is found in
many of the world's religions.'3 The same relationship of
frequency matching the shapes of the actual letters is seen in some of
the scripts of other liturgical languages such as Hebrew and High
Javanese. 4 These were the sacred languages of energetic
alchemy, where what was said had a physical and structural sense of
meaning. Certain sounds had (have) the power to change the physical
world. In India this science of sound was called Sama Veda, the 5th
aspect of Vedanta. It may be that sounds relating to each chakra
existed in this time. Nonetheless, the concept of the individual
chakras resonating to individual notes is not present in the remnants
left to us from the ancient Hindu writings.
While the concept of notes pertaining to chakras may not be ancient,
it is far from being just a popular 'new age' theme. It is perfectly in
accord with the principles of a vibrationary universe and the sacred
view of sound present in many religions. Note the start of Genesis in
the Christian Bible; 'In the beginning was the word…' This Christian
view of the spiritual usage of sacred sounds continued with Gregorian
chants which were used to 'help one rise up out of the body.'5
The Sufi's see music as a manifestation of the spiritual essence of
reality and say that it 'in point of fact music excels religion; for
music raises the soul of man even higher than the so-called external
forms of religion.'14 It is well known that the shamans of
many cultures have used tones and beat to both stimulate and calm
bio-energies. The Australian Aboriginals and American Indian shamans
still 'use vocal toning and repetitive sound vibration with instruments
created from nature in sacred ceremony to adjust any imbalance of the
spirit, emotions or physical being.'6 The vibrations of sound frequencies certainly affect our energetic centres.
There are two common trains of thought concerning the particular
resonances of the chakras. The first is that they resonate to C,
D,E,F,G,A and B as you go up through the 7 chakras from the base to the
top. The second is that everyone has an individual chakra resonance.
The first concept has a lot more to do with convenience than with
reality. The C major scale was not a part of Indian traditional sacred
music. The major Indian scale that relates to the C - C sequence is the
equivalent of F, including the Bb. Also, as Hawkins notes in relation
to sound acupoints;7 ' The primary acupoint used with the F tuning fork
is Du 20, a point often associated with the crown chakra.' She also
notes that in China, as well as India, F was a fundamental tone and the
tone of the Platonic year which is the amount of time it takes the axis
of Earth to complete a full circle. Natural cycle researcher Ray
Tomes,8 notes that the harmonics calculated according to the Hz of the
ionosphere (the earths electromagnetic zone) exactly match those used
in Indian music, in the Indian scale of F. Tomes calculated the Hz of
the ionosphere by dividing the circumference of the earth (40,000Km)
into the speed of light (300,000 Km/s) to give the 7.49-7.5Hz generally
known as the Shumann wave. This is generated by lightning strikes in
the ionosphere. Another parallel is the central area of activity of a
therapeutic touch practitioner, recorded by both Dr John Zimmerman, -
also in the range of 7 - 8 Hz.9 and the areas of activity in natural
healers measured by physicist Rupert Sheldrake. Sheldrake noted that
the healers were in exact 'beat' to the Shumann wave.
While the F major scale would seem to be a natural harmonic of the
earth, generated in relation to natural laws, the C major scale is not.
However, the F major scale in western music isn't a 'natural' harmonic
sequence either, due to the invention of 'mean temperament.' This came
about several hundred years ago with the invention of the piano. The
existing microtonal systems were replaced by 12 notes that were pushed
and pulled into position to create what is now termed 'mean
temperament.' This allowed tunes to be composed for the piano and led
to the abandonment of the microtonal systems. It also meant that 6 of
the 7 individual notes in an octave had to be altered. So the 7 note
western scale matching the chakra system has 6 contrived notes. The
application by some of the western concert pitch F major scale
(F,G,A,Bb,C,D,E,F) for individual notes for chakra resonance is clearly
also based on convenience. If Tomes belief ('Harmonics, Pythagoras,
Music and the Universe' and personal correspondence) that the true Hz
for A is 450 Hz (based on the 60th harmonic of the Shumann wave) rather
than the accepted concert pitch of 440 Hz, it would put the accepted
concert pitch scale even further out of the true frequency range.
Obviously, we will have to venture outside the piano for accurate tones
for chakras.
Then there is the question of sequences. The tone, tone, semitone,
tone, tone, tone, semitone sequence of major scales is only one of many
possible musical modes which have other patterns of tones and
semitones. Even its naming as the major scale is only 400 years old and
was based on a definition of the Roman theorist Glareanus who confused
the names of the original Greeks modes.10 So, historically,
we're not really sure whether it was ever referred to as major or why.
Again, convenience seems to have had a lot to do with why the major
scale is linked to the chakra system.
The Cymatics films of Hans Jenny and his 1967 book, 'Cymatics - The
Structure and Dynamics of Waves and Vibrations.' (following on from the
work of 19th century physicist Chladni) give us an insight into the
musical interval structure of linked energetic centres. Jenny vibrated
metal discs (with materials such as sand, spores, iron filings and
water on top) to many different sounds including rising pitches, in an
effort to understand the structures of frequency. The rising scale
demonstrations showed clearly defined changing patterns of structure /
fluidity / structure / fluidity etc on the metal discs, following
rising musical frequencies.
There is an interesting match-up here, to the theory of rays and
their interaction put forward in Radionics. As Radionics researcher
David Tansley notes; 'The seven rays are divided into the rays of love
and the rays of will. The rays 2,4,and 6 (heart, brow and solar plexus
chakras) are along the line of love, they interact and have the
capacity to work well together. The rays 1,3,5 and 7 (crown, throat,
sacral, base chakras) are the rays of will, and they too work well
together and interact with ease.'11 In music, the 1st, 3rd,
5th and 7th notes of an octave give us a major chord and the 2nd, 4th
and 6th a minor. As a practitioner working with the chakras for many
years, I have noted correspondances between the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th
or base, solar plexus, throat and crown and between the 2nd, 4th and
6th or sex, heart and brow. In my diagram of the chakra figure 8's on
Alan Kazlev's 'The Chakras' website, it is apparent that the 2nd, 4th
and 6th chakras are the centres of the individual figure 8's while the
1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th chakras are at the outer edges and joining points
of the three figures of 8.
(Note: This diagram indicates 3 figure 8's. The first figure 8 joins
the lower three chakras. The second the higher three chakras and the
third links the two sets by inclusion of the highest chakra of the
lower set - the solar plexus - and the lower of the higher set - the
throat - through the heart.)
This musical chord sequences appear to parallel with the discoveries
of Jenny concerning fluid and solid states of structure. They may also
relate to the work of Belgian physicist Ilya Prigogine who won the 1977
Nobel prize for his 'Theory of Dissipative Structures - a kind a chaos
theory. He showed that a period of dissolution is required before any
system-whether a society, a solar system, or a molecule-can jump to a
higher level of organization.'12 This relates to the
major/minor chord sequence referred to above but it might be more
relevant to the 'chakra web' concept of Alice Bailey. In her 'Esoteric
Healing' the web is seen as a fluid state between the chakras. This
also appears to fit in with the fixed and fluid structures of Jenny.
Note: The concept of dissolution may really reflect our society's
attachment to fixed systems. Transition phases are usually considered
'in-between' phases rather than integral parts of a dynamic system.
What do we have in the end? Certainly no piano and no tempting easy
solutions. Prigogine's 'Theory of Dissipative Structure' sheds some
light on the structural formation of energy centres and should help us
in rediscovering the actual sound/chakra resonances. But until we have
more trained people able to focus on the centres and give a clear
account of the actual feelings of certain sounds, we will be guessing.
Of course, all this presupposes a defined pitch for each centre.
Many disagree with this. The German classical pianist and music teacher
Anuparada taught me the technique of individual sound resonance of
chakras, while at the Rajneesh Ashram in Pune, India in 1986. In this
technique, you are taught to open the throat and to find your lowest
base note, which is called the base chakra note. This differs greatly
between individuals. From there you go up the scale and resonate the
other chakras by focusing on them and singing into them. There is no
question that you can achieve a vibration of sorts using this technique
and also the C, D, E, F, G, A and B approach and intuitively toning to
the chakras. However, the outcomes are all different and could relate
to the old adage of energy follows thought as easily as to harmonic
resonance.
Conclusions
We need to establish a workable way forward, towards an experimental
examination of sequences and particular tones. The structural diagrams
of the chakras survive and may also help in defining the true
frequencies if we can understand how to 'reverse' the process of Hans
Jenny and generate the sound by the form.
We are now at the edge of re-discovering a science and a whole 'new'
world of discovery awaits us. As Inayat Khan notes, 'Music is sound and
rhythm. And if sound and rhythm were understood in their nature and
character, then music would not only be used as a pastime, but would
become a source of healing and upliftment.'15
References
1 Hawkins, Heidi. M.Ac. L.Ac. The Healing Power of Music. 1994
Part of Masters Thesis in Acupuncture. Northwest Institute of
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
2 NAD: Understanding Raga Music by Sandeep Bagchee, The New Oxford History of Music, vol. 1
3 Blair, Lawrence. Rythyms of Vision. Paladin 1976. p-131
4 (Blair, p-132)
5 Hawkins, Heidi. M.Ac., L.Ac. The Healing Power of Music.
6 Souza, Julianna. RN, HNC, http Sound, Music, & Medicine.(web)
7 Hawkins, Heidi. M.Ac., L.Ac. The Healing Power of Music (as above)
8 Tomes, Ray. 'Harmonics, Pythagoras, Music and the Universe' (web)
9 Oschman, James. L. Energy Medicine. Churchill Livingstone 2000.p87
10 Duarte, John. Melody and Harmony for Guitarists. Universal Edition 1980
11 Tansley, David. Chakras, Rays and Radionics. Saffron Walden 1996 p42
12 Borysenko, J and M. The Power of the Mind to Heal. Hay House 1994 p82
13 Sufi , Inayat Khan. Music. Sh. Muhammad
Ashraf. Lahore Pakistan. p20
14 Sufi, Inayat Khan. p3
15 Sufi, Inayat Khan. p15
16 Gimbel,T.. Healing Through Colour. CW Daniel. 1980. p 118
Copyright © 2000-2001 Kevin Farrow
3:22 PM
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