Hi all,

I've taken on a new project, or perhaps I should say that a new project has taken me on...

I will be on leave next semester, and as part of that leave will be on a residency at CMMAS in Morelia, Mexico working on my third CD in the spirituality series begun with In lake'ch (and continued this summer with Kuxan suum in France). In addition, I have decided to do a pilot series of radio programs on Healing and Sound. I chose this subject because it interests me, and having begun to dig into the research, have found out just how little I know...

But, also that my instincts are correct: that sound has the ability to not only tweak our heart strings and make us cry, but it also has the ability to...well, quite frankly...eh hem...I'm not quite sure how to say this...It has the ability to actually just plain..."MAKE US!"

Physicist are toying with the idea that the smallest substance of matter is tiny vibrating strings ("string theory") and in my humble opinion, there is significant evidence of it that can be observable. At least, the notion that at the base of everything is energy vibrating, seems to me to be nearing indisputable.

As part of my digging, I've uncovered "cymatics" or the study of vibration and wave phenomenon. What does this mean you might ask? Well, it's the ability to observe waves physically through a substance. This is done in a couple of ways: 1) to put solid substances such as salt or graphite on a hard surface that is vibrated by a sound wave or 2) through water that is vibrated through sound waves. It is amazing to see patterns emerge that look identical to patterns in nature. Below is a short video that I hope you will find as amazing as I do (and yes, I plan to start my own experiments at home in my basement!).



My mind is racing with the implications of this for me as a composer. All my life, I have thought that sound has power...I've known this...but conventional science and even musical thinking is that it is limited to the emotional mamby-pamby manipulation such as making us cry or smile or laugh, blah, blah, blah. I think, as this simple video demonstrates (and there are many more out there...) that sound has the ability to transmute physical matter. This I have experienced with my own toning, which I've blogged about before.

So, sing, I say, and heal yourself!

What? You are having trouble finding that right brain place?

Well, maybe this will help...

peace,

paul