1. Audible Sound
2. Emotional Sound
3. Mental Sound
4. Spiritual Sound
5. Cosmic Sound
Audible Sound
Sound has two aspects, its physical aspect and its subtle aspect. The physical aspect of sound is the sound that we hear. It is created by sound waves vibrating in our ears and our body.
Low-pitched sound effects the denser parts of our body, the bones and muscles. Low-pitched sound effects the lower parts of the body. High pitched sound effects the finer parts of the body, the skin and the nerves. High pitched sound also effects the head and upper body.
Different rhythms effect our heartbeat and our breathing pattern. Slow tempo music will slow down the heartbeat, while fast tempo music will speed it up.
Emotional Sound
We all have an underlying emotional vibration. Our emotional energy field is formed by the main emotions we have experienced during our life. Psychics will often perceive these emotions as colours in the auric field around the body
In Chinese medicine there are said to be five elements. Each element has an association with an organ in the body and an emotion. This emotion will be heard in the sound of the voice.
Wood - Liver – Anger – Shouting
Fire – Heart – Joy/Lack of Joy – Laughing/Lack of Laugh
Earth – Spleen – Sympathy – Singing
Metal – Lungs – Grief – Weeping
Water – Kidneys – Fear – Groaning
Chinese medicine uses Six Healing Sounds to treat these imbalances in the elements.
Mental Sound
When we think positive or negative thoughts it creates a subtle vibration in our body and in the energy field around our bodies. All of us have a mental energy field around us, which is created from our persistent thoughts.
The Buddha said that each of us is the result of our past thoughts -
“Our present thoughts create our future life. Our life is created by our mind. If a person speaks or acts with a mind grounded in fear suffering will follow him as surely as summer follows spring. If a person speaks or acts with a mind grounded in love happiness will follow him as surely as his shadow never leaves him.” (Dhammapada)
Negative thoughts towards other people can have a harmful effect on our bodies.
In the book ‘The Magus of Strovolos’ the spiritual healer Daskalos describes a man he knew who had violent and hateful thoughts towards people in his village. Daskalos saw these thoughts as energetic snakes coming out of the man’s heart that sought to attack other people. The ‘snakes’ would bounce off people with healthy energy fields and come back to the angry man and wrap themselves around his heart. Eventually the man died of a heart attack!
Spiritual Sound
Great spiritual teachers emanate a powerful subtle energy. In India there are said to be two types of mantra, an inert mantra and a spiritually charged mantra.
An inert mantra is one learnt from a book or from an ordinary teacher. A spiritually charged mantra is one given to us by a realised spiritual teacher. The spiritually charged mantra contains the power of the teacher’s spiritual realisation and is transmitted to the student when they are ready.
There are many occasions where a person has been enlightened by hearing a word or mantra from a spiritual master. When siting in the presence of the great Saint Ramana Maharshi people found all their questions answered inwardly and many were healed of their illnesses.
Cosmic Sound
In Sanskrit the name for the heart chakra is ‘Anahata’. The word ‘Anahata’ means un-struck or unbeaten. ‘Anahata Nad’ or ‘Anahata Shabda’ refers to the Vedic concept of unstruck sound, the sound of the celestial realm.
“Anahata is so called because it is in this place that munis or sages hear that sound (Anahata – Shabda) which comes without the striking of any two things together.” (John Woodroffe p120).
A muni is an ascetic, a great sage. The word means "he who is silent". The inner sound heard in deep meditation is said to be ‘Aum’ by the sages of India, ‘Hu’ by the Sufis.
Aum is called the ‘Shabda Brahman,’ eternal sound or God as sound/vibration. According to the Vedas the entire universe has emanated from this primordial sound.
“The Supreme Being has been called by various names in different languages, but the mystics have known him as Hu, the natural name, not man-made, the only name of the Nameless, which all nature constantly proclaims. The sound Hu is most sacred………for it is the origin and end of every sound as well as the background of each word. The word Hu is the spirit of all sounds and of all words, and is hidden within them all, as the spirit is hidden in the body.” Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Voice
The scriptures of India (Vedas) state that music provides the vehicle for the manifestation of the cosmic sound. The voice is the most potent medium for the expression of the cosmic sound. No instrument can express so perfectly all the delicate subtleties of spiritual feelings.
“When the soul desires to express itself in the voice, it first causes an activity in the mind; and the mind by means of thought projects finer vibrations in the mental plane; these in due course develop and run as breath through the regions of the abdomen, lungs, mouth, throat, and nasal organs, causing the air to vibrate all through, until they manifest as voice. The voice therefore naturally expresses the attitude of mind whether true or false, sincere or insincere.” (Hazrat Inayat Khan).
We can tell from listening to a person’s voice if they are healthy or sick, if they are loving or unkind.
Sound Healing
When we give a sound healing treatment to another person the sounds we make will act as a carrier for our healing/loving intention. The person receiving the sound healing will feel this healing intention.
The voice is the primary medium for the most direct and natural form of sound healing. Our earliest memories of the power of the voice occur when we hear the lullabies sung by our mother. Whenever we sing, chant, or produce harmonic overtones with our voice, the reverberation is felt throughout the body.
Sound effects our physical body through resonance. Sound effects our emotional body through tone colour, harmony and intervals. Soothing songs sung softly will have a calming effect on our emotions.
Sound also has an effect on the mind. Some sounds, songs or music are calming while others are energising. In India there are scales (ragas) that are played at different times of the day and at different seasons. Some ragas are played for healing specific illness.
Hazrat Inayat Khan says - “There are instances in ancient tradition when birds and animals were charmed by the flute of Krishna, rocks were melted by the song of Orpheus; and the Dipak Raga sung by Tansen lighted all the torches, while he himself was burnt by reason of the inner fire his song produced. Even today the snakes are charmed by the Pugi of the snake charmers in India. All this shows us how the ancients must have dived into the most mysterious ocean of music.” (A Pugi is a special kind of flute)
References
Khan, H.I. The Mysticism of Sound Barry and Rockcliff, 1979
Woodroffe, J. The Serpent Power Dover Publications, New York, 1974
Markides, K. The Magus of Strovolos Arkana, London, 1985
