as medicine and a tradition exists in which Pythagoras is thought to have travelled in Egypt, suggesting that he may have gained his knowledge of this subject from their priests.13
Before discussing the mechanisms that underpin sound therapies let us take a brief look at the organizing power of sound.
Sound: primordial organizer of the universe
Many spiritual traditions speak of sound as the forma- tive force of creation. The prophetic opening words of St. John’s Gospel are a good example:
“In the beginning was the Word, [sound] and the word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Another example is that of the Vedic Brahmanism tradi- tion of northern India (circa 1500 BCE) in which the
The prophetic nature of such spiritual traditions has come to light due to recent studies pointing to sound (rather than gravity) as the prime organizing force of all matter
in the early Universe. Sound cannot travel in the vacuum of space but sound can travel wherever matter is dense enough to allow atomic particles to collide; scientific theory suggests that the early Universe was filled with high density particles during the first 380,000 years of creation.14 It is this process of collisions between atomic particles that provides a clear definition of sound:
Sound is the transfer of vibrational information at the moment of collision between any two atoms or molecules.
Sound may also have been a prime mover in the creation of life. It is generally held that life began in the vicinity of hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, places where (even today) hot, mineral-rich gases bubble up from earth’s core into the seawater, making contact with molten lava. Yet, the structuring and organizing force that triggered life has
of Limits, illustrates this point with great flair. He analyzes sea creatures, shells, butterflies, flowers and many other life forms to validate the phi ratio as one of the defining character- istics of life.
Geometric sonic structures, typically containing the phi ratio, are com- monly observed with the CymaScope instrument and provide us with a hypothetical model for the way in which the earliest life forms may have been shaped in the ancient seas. The surfaces of microscopic bubbles, cre- ated near hydrothermal vents, could have been host to geometric patterns of sonic vibration, providing nodal points in which the building blocks of
A Transmission Electron Micrograph of “Sulfolobus Icosahedral Turreted Virus” found in a ther-
mal pool of Yellowstone National Park. On the right, the unique lattice of this icosahedral virus
r
is shown superimposed upon a cryo reconstruction.
Courtesy Dr George Rice, Mantana State University
theme is strikingly similar to St. John’s Gospel,
“In the beginning was Brahman, with whom was Vak [the word] and the word is Brahman…by that word…he cre- ated all things whatsoever.”
A final example, of many, is that of the inscription on
the Shabako stone in the British Museum, considered by Egyptologists to be one the most important hieroglyphic texts and second only to the Rosetta Stone. The Shabako Stone text tells of the god Ptah, the cosmic architect who created the entire Cosmos simply by uttering words. Predating the Old and New Testament by hundreds (and possibly thousands) of years, lines 56-57 of the ancient Shabako Stone text state:
“Lo, every word of god came into being through the thoughts of the mind and the command by the tongue.”
Shakabo Stone (British Musuem)
always eluded theorists. Could it be that sound, one of
the most potent organizing forces in the Universe, was in- volved? Although invisible, sound has holographic prop- erties and has the power to structure matter at the atomic scale. In water sound acts to form “sonic scaffolding” that causes molecules to coalesce in an orderly manner. This dynamic, sonic mechanism may have sparked life.
Artist’s impression of sonic scaffolding appearing on the surface of a microscopic bubble--image courtesy of Dustin Schmieding
The shape of sound and life
The CymaScope is the world’s first scientific instru- ment that allows us to study the visual geometry created when sound encounters a membrane or fluid medium. (“Cyma” derives from the Greek, “kyma,” meaning wave). The device creates sound images called “CymaGlyphs” that are the imprint of sound on the surface and sub surface of pure water. Pure
sinusoidal sounds contain many mathematical ratios, perhaps the most important of which is “phi” that is often referred to as the “Golden Mean” and is the ratio of 1 to approximately 1.618. Phi is prevalent in
all living things, suggesting a link between sound and
life found safe haven. Simple crea- tures that exhibit clearly defined ge- ometry, such as diatoms and starfish, offer support that sound may have been involved in the triggering and/ or structuring of life.
A Starfish from the Ordovician era, 450 million years ago, with geometry overlay, illustrating the golden mean ratio
A virus with a geometric morphology and a lineage stretching back 3.5 bil- lion years also provides some support for this hypothesis and was discov- ered in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, leading to the intrigu- ing proposal that the earliest life
forms may have been viruses 15.
One of the greatest mysteries in un- derstanding how life came into being concerns the helical nature of RNA and DNA. One possibility stems from CymaScope research in which vor- tices can be created in water by pure
a form of scaffolding to which the
molecules of life could have adhered. The dynamics necessary to create mi- cro vortices in the ancient seas may have derived from the low frequency sounds generated by hydrothermal vents. The pure form of sound needed to power this mechanism may have derived from a certain class of hy- drothermal vent bubbles. Pure tones have been detected emitting from hydrothermal vents and the largest vent bubbles are thought to act like Helmholtz Resonators, effectively tuning out all frequencies except
those that resonate with the gas cavity formed by the bubble16. It is intrigu- ing to think that naturally occurring micro spiral vortices in water, created by pure sounds, may be part of the mechanism contributing to the origin of life. Although further research is needed to clarify this hypothesis it is clear that sound and life are inextri-
cably linked. For an expanded treatise
on sound as a life-creating force, see
Sound, the Trigger for Life at:
www.cymascope.com/cyma_re- search/biology.html
Therapeutic sound principles
If sound was the trigger for life it should not be surprising that sound has the ability to support and heal life. Put simply, sound has the almost magical power to restore order to
and heal life. Put simply, sound has the almost magical power to restore order to organisms that are malfunc- tioning–magical in the sense that we don’t yet fully understand the mecha- nisms at work. For example, studies have shown that audible sound in the form of music has significant heal-
ing properties in both humans and
