HARMONICS AND HEALING: THE MEDICINE OF THE FUTURE
INTRODUCTION
The psychic Edgar Cayce predicted that sound would be the medicine of the future. As we examine some of these uses of sound for healing, we may find that the future is fast approaching us. Healing means to become whole or sound in body and mind. In this chapter, we will take a look at some sound therapies that specifically utilize harmonics in their work. Most of the different sound therapies utilize resonant harmonic frequencies.
While the uses of sound for healing is extremely ancient, it has, for the most part, been restricted to spiritual and esoteric traditions. Within the last decade, however, the use of sound as a healing modality is coming more into focus in both the scientific and the medical communities. There now exist organizations such as the International Society for Music in Medicine and the Arts Medicine Association which draw together doctors, scientists and others working with sound as a therapeutic tool.
HEALING AND RESONANCE
As we have discovered, there is a basic principle of using sound as a healing modality and this is the concept of resonance. Resonance is the basis of every sound therapy that I have examined. As you may recall, resonance is the basic vibratory rate of an object. Everything in the universe is in a state of vibration. This includes the human body. Every organ, bone, tissue and other part of the body has a healthy resonant frequency. When that frequency alters, that part of the body vibrates out of harmony and this is what is termed disease. If it were possible to determine the correct resonant frequency for a healthy organ and then project it into that part which is diseased, the organ should return to its normal frequency and a healing should occur.
CYMATIC THERAPY
One of the pioneers in using sound to heal is Dr Peter Guy Manners, MD. An English osteopath, Dr Manners became aware of Dr Jenny's cymatic experiments discussed in Chapter 2 and learned of the extraordinary ability of sound to affect form. Since 1961 he has been engaged in research into the effects of sound upon the structure and chemistry of the human body.
Dr Manners is the creator of cymatic therapy which utilizes the Cymatic Instrument. For over twenty years, he has been treating various illnesses with sound. Working under the premise that disease is an 'out of tuneness' of some aspect of the body, Dr Manners has correlated different harmonic frequencies which are the healthy resonant frequencies of different parts of the body. He states:
A healthy organ will have its molecules working together in a harmonious relationship with each other and will all be of the same pattern. If different sound patterns enter into the organ, the harmonious relationship could be upset. If these frequencies are weak in their vibration, they will be overcome by the stronger vibrations of the native ones. If the foreign ones prove to be the stronger on the other hand, they may establish their disharmonious pattern in the organ, bone, tissue, etc. and this is what we call disease.
If, therefore a treatment contains a harmonic frequency pattern which will reinforce the organs, the vibrations of the intruder will be neutralized and the correct pattern for that organ reestablished. This should constitute a curative reaction.
The Cymatics Instrument is composed of a portable computer which is about briefcase size and a sound generator which resembles a hammer-like vibrator.
The harmonics of the Cymatic Instrument are tabulated and reconstructed by computers and the corrected frequency is then projected directly into the affected area. The harmonics from the Cymatic Instrument are a composite of five different frequencies that Dr Manners has found most effective for creating sounds that heal the human body. These sounds from the Cymatic Instrument are very different from the vocal harmonics we have been discussing in this book. They are electronically created and are really single tones. Yet they are harmonics of the calibrated frequency of the human body. They are usually octaves of this frequency, brought up many, many times in order to put the sound into the audible level, or brought down many, many times. Nevertheless, as tones that are octaves of a tone (whether this fundamental is in the ELF range or ultra-sonic), these tones can technically be called 'harmonics'.
In the Cymatic Instrument are calculated literally thousands of different composite harmonics designed to place the body back into alignment and health. There are the frequencies for every organ in the body and for specific diseases. There are also frequencies for the emotional and mental problems. Some imbalances treated with cymatic therapy include: anaemia, asthma, colitis, constipation, diabetes, eczema, glaucoma, heart disease, hernias, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, sciatica, sleeping sickness, syphilis and tonsillitis. If the theory of resonant frequency healing is correct, there would be few, if any, illnesses that could not be effectively treated with sound.
Cymatic therapy is but one of the new sound-related therapies that are being utilized for healing. While there are many testimonials of people who have had extraordinary healings through this and other therapies, the hard scientific data needed for verification of these therapies is often lacking. A reason for this is that the proper research needed to collect data that is suitable for the traditional scientific and medical communities requires a lengthy and costly process. Many times grants and funding are needed and sadly most organizations that give grants will not extend their finances to unproven methods – which is a case of Catch 22, for how can one prove a method if the funding is not available?
Nevertheless, though adequate research is not presently available, this does not mean the various sound therapies do not work. I have talked with people who have experienced extraordinary transformations and healings through the use of different sound therapies. I have also witnessed amazing healings with sound therapies, particularly using vocal harmonics for healing as described in the chapter on Overtoning.
Unfortunately the video cameras are never running when these healings occur. It is hoped that in the near future, the necessary research for the validation of these sound healing modalities will take place. It is my belief that the emphasis of these studies should be on why they work, rather than if they work. This research would no doubt indicate the importance of resonance as a phenomenon in this process.
On first meeting Dr Manners, I asked how the frequencies for the Cymatic Instrument were determined. He replied that many of the frequencies were scientifically determined but that others were the result of radionics, or radiathesia. Radionics works with the premise that all matter radiates energy. This energy, which is not simply 'magnetic' or 'electric', operates at very subtle and refined levels of vibration. Using devices such as pendulums which seem to swing back and forth in response to this energy, radionic practitioners have been able to determine frequencies for various parts of the body.
Dr Manners stated that in actual laboratory tests the frequencies found for the liver, for example, match the frequencies given by radionic devices. The laboratory tests take several hours while the use of a radionic device may take a few minutes.
THE LAMBDOMA AND HEALING
Another frequency-based healing modality that utilizes harmonics is Barbara Hero's Lambdoma frequencies. In our chapter on the Science of Harmonics, we briefly discussed the Lambdoma Diagram. The Lambdoma is a mathematical table that is said to have been discovered by the master Pythagoras and saved from destruction by his disciple Iamblicus.
Barbara Hero is a mathematician and artist who has been working with the Lambdoma for over twenty years. She believes that the Lambdoma is actually a formula for healing with sound and she has created a series of tapes designed to balance and resonate the chakras based upon these frequencies.
The chakras are subtle centres of energy located along the centre of the body. They align with the spinal column. Different esoteric traditions believe that the energy that affects the physical body comes from the chakras. Scientists are now attempting to validate the existence of the chakras, as well as the other subtle energy system of the meridians, the basis of acupuncture. Imbalances in chakras are said to affect the physical body. Balancing the chakras may therefore balance and heal problems in the physical body.
When I first listened to and experienced Barbara's Lambdoma sounds, I thought they were quite interesting though I don't know if I was attuned enough to feel any effect from them. I was impressed by their synthesized sounds which were single tones moving up and down the scale. I was also intrigued by how these frequencies might have been calculated. My wife Karen is much more sensitive than I am. During her experience listening to the Lambdoma frequencies, she had actually felt her chakras being affected and balanced by the specific sounds on the tape. Many others who have worked with Barbara Hero's Lambdoma frequencies also report beneficial results.
When I investigated the Lambdoma frequencies, I found that they were all harmonically related. In fact, the Lambdoma Diagram is nothing more or less than a table of ratios based upon the overtones. The sounds which Barbara had put on her tape were simply harmonically related frequencies. It seems quite possible that the chakras are harmonically related and that they do respond to harmonically related frequencies.
Many scientists, including Izthak Bentov, author of Stalking the Wild Pendulum, believe that the etheric fields of the body, such as the astral and mental, are all harmonically related to each other. The chakras and the physical body are also understood to have had this harmonic relationship.
THE HUMAN VOICE AND HEALING
Thus far, the harmonics we have been discussing in this chapter have all been electronically created sounds either put on tape or projected out of the end of an instrument. But what of the harmonics that we can produce with our voice?
During my first meeting with Dr Manners, I told him about a technique called 'Overtoning'. In this process, described in Chapter 10, the voice can be used to scan the physical or etheric body of a person and then project vocal harmonics into that person. I had seen many remarkable healings from this technique and asked Dr Manners if this was not similar to the use of the Cymatic Instrument. He replied that indeed it was. He felt, however, that the medical community would be more interested in an instrument that projected sound rather than having a person making strange sounds to another person.
In theory anything that can be done with a machine can be done with the human voice, and probably better. This is especially true when you contemplate the importance of 'Frequency + Intention = Healing'. When a person is using their voice, it is quite easy to focus upon the intention which they are sending. It sometimes becomes more difficult to remember to do this when you are pressing down notes on a synthesizer keyboard or programming a numerical sequence into a computer.
BALANCING THE CHAKRAS WITH THE VOICE
The use of the voice to balance and align chakras has been part of Hindu Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years. This application of sound is usually practised through recitation of mantras. However, there are harmonically related vocal sounds which also work on the chakras. The use of vowel sounds, for example, is discussed at length in another chapter. There are also other applications for using harmonically related sounds to affect the chakras.
McClellan's System
Randall McClellan, author of The Healing Forces of Music, created a system for balancing the chakras using the human voice. Dr McClellan suggests that a person sing notes which are harmonically related to each other. This is not actually overtone chanting, but the principles are the same. Thus a series of fundamental tones are being sung. Dr McClellan suggests, 'The use of the harmonic series does require at least a two octave vocal range. . . . The fundamental or first harmonic of the series, lying a full octave below our 2nd harmonic, is below our vocal range. We might consider this to be our fundamental.'
In Dr McClellan's system the root chakra resonated by the fundamental of a note an octave higher than the first note (in the key of C, this would be a C); the second chakra resonated by a note (a G) a fifth higher than the previous note; the navel chakra resonated by another octave fundamental (a C); the heart chakra resonated by a note (an E) which is a major third above the last note; the throat chakra resonated by a note (a G) which is a fifth above the previous note; the third eye chakra resonated by a note (Bb) which is a flattened seventh above the last note; and the crown chakra resonated by a final octave note (a C). Thus the notes created from the first seven harmonics are used to resonate the chakras. Dr McClellan writes:
Drawing upon the pitch relationship from the harmonic series, specifically the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th harmonic, we find that the natural relationship of the base of the spine, solar plexus and of the crown is reflected in the corresponding octave relationships of the 2nd, 4th and 8th overtones of the harmonic series (remember that the rate for the octave is 2 to 1) that are assigned to them. The relationship of the second chakra and the sixth chakra is reflected in the octave relationship that occurs between the 3rd and 6th overtones of the harmonic series assigned to them. The heart chakra receives the fifth harmonic and the stabilising effect of the major triad. The third eye receives the 7th harmonic.
When I first came upon Dr McClellan's system, I had already done some experimentation myself in terms of chakra resonance and tones. Using a fundamental tone as the frequency to resonate my physical body, I found that the first overtone created could resonate my root chakra, the second overtone resonated the next chakra, the third overtone resonated the navel area, the fourth overtone resonated the heart chakra, the fifth overtone resonated the throat chakra, the sixth overtone resonated the third eye and the crown chakra was resonated by the third octave harmonic. This is an exercise that those who become proficient in the creation of vocal harmonics could practise and validate for themselves.
Gardner's System
Musician Kay Gardner, author of Sounding the Inner Landscape has a system of harmonically related notes for chakra resonances that is relevant to this topic. Citing Peter Michael Hamel, author of Through Music to the Self, Kay states that Raga Saraswati is composed of (in the key of C) C, D, E, F#, G, A, and Bb. She further explains that these are the notes that would be created from the overtones within the first four octaves of a fundamental. Kay then relates the note C to the root chakra, the D to the second chakra, the E to the navel chakra, the F# to the heart chakra, the G to the throat chakra, the A to the third eye and the Bb to the crown chakra.
When working with these tones to resonate chakras, Kay actually uses the fundamental and not the harmonics. Nevertheless, since they are composed of the notes found in the first four octaves of the harmonic series, we include them in this portion.
Stockhausen and Resonation of the Brain
Another potential healing use of harmonics involves the resonation of the brain with these sounds. Many people report being aware of vibrations in their heads when they create vocal harmonics. Sometimes they see light when their eyes are closed. Others indicate they can actually feel different parts of their brain being resonated by the harmonics. I too have experienced these sensations and more. I have always been intrigued by the possibility that the creation of vocal harmonics may be used to resonate and stimulate portions of the brain. This intrigue can be traced back to a taped lecture I heard in 1984 on 'Healing with Sound' by Pir Vilayat Khan, head of the Sufi Order in the West. In this taped lecture, Pir Vilayat related:
I visited some time ago Stockhausen, who is a German composer . . . and he demonstrated at a meal his extraordinary skill in producing overtones. And he was able to produce something like 28 overtones as clear as a bell. He said that he concentrates on a particular point in the brain above the palate for each overtone and that each overtone is placed higher up in an area within the brain.
It occurred to me that you should be able to produce an overtone that is resonant with the specific resonance of the Pituitary for example. You set the Pituitary into action, which would immediately start secreting hormones which would have various effects. But you would have to know exactly what you are doing. It would be quite dangerous just to simply stir up the Pituitary without specifically knowing which hormone. Is it going to be the growth hormone? Or is it going to be the gonad hormone or what is it going to be? So it's much more complex than that. But I'm just giving you an indication of the lines of research that will hopefully be followed up in the next decade.
Karlheinz Stockhausen is an avant-garde composer. He is also considered a mystic and visionary. Stockhausen was the first to compose music which he titled Stimmung (meaning 'tuning'), created entirely for overtone singers. His influence in the growth of vocal harmonics has been great. Among his students were British overtone singer Jill Puree and German overtone singer Michael Vetter.
Stockhausen had these comments to make about his 1969 recording Stimmung:
You will hear my work Stimmung, which is nothing for seventy-five minutes but one chord – it never changes – with the partials of natural harmonics on a fundamental, the fundamental itself isn't there, the second, the third, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth harmonics and nothing but that . . . The singers needed six months just in order to learn precisely how to hit the ninth harmonic, or the tenth, eleventh, thirteenth, up to the twenty-fourth . . . It's a wonderful technique to learn because you become so conscious of the different parts of the skull which are vibrating. If you met the singers, you'd see how as human beings, they've changed. They're completely transformed now that they've sung it more than a hundred times since the World's Fair in Osaka.
Stockhausen was able to observe physiological changes in the skulls of the singers he had trained to create vocal harmonics. The question remains: what exactly are these physiological changes? Are these changes restricted to the bones of the cranium or are there actual changes in the brain as well? If it is possible to resonate different portions of the brain through self-created sounds such as vocal harmonics, this seems a great deal safer than drilling a hole through the cranium and then attaching electrodes to the brain. This latter method is the one which is currently the only available way modern science can stimulate and directly affect the brain.
OTHER RESEARCH INTO OVERTONE CHANTING AND HEALING
Don Campbell, in The Roar of Silence, writes of the power of harmonic tones. His words apply both to sounds projected to the body and to the brain:
The vowel sound that carries the vibration to the body determines the effect of the sonic charge. The pitch of the vowel sound determines the location of the epicentre. There is no other way to localize oxygenation, energy flow, and pulsation as noninvasively within such a short period of time.
In interviews, overtone singer Jill Puree has stated:
Overtone chanting is extremely healing . . . When you're doing overtone chanting you're beginning to differentiate mental and physiological processes that are not normally differentiated. This requires incredible concentration – you use parts of the brain that you don't normally use – and when you do that something else happens and you enter into the world of spirit.
Harmonics and Cranial/Brain Resonation
In presentations to various medical doctors and scientists I have often suggested the possibility of resonating different portions of the brain with vocal harmonics and the important need for research in this area. Thus far, there has been virtually no work regarding this. However, I have personally had some interesting experiences that seem to validate this use of harmonics to resonate the cranium and brain.
The Sound Healers Association is a non-profit organization I founded which held meetings once a month featuring guest speakers who talked on their area of expertise about using sound and music as healing modalities. During October 1986 at a Sound Healers Association (SHA) meeting in Boston, our visiting guest was Dr Harlan Sparer, a chiropractor from New York. Dr Sparer talked of the uses of sound to affect the body and the brain. As part of his presentation, we conducted an experiment in which I began to tone other people harmonically while Harlan checked out their bones and, in particular, the bones of the cranium. He found that the bones of the cranium were able to move when a subject was chanting vocal harmonics. This also occurred when someone else was toning the harmonics into the head of another person. While we experimented using only live sound, it seems quite likely that listening to recorded music of vocal harmonics would also have this effect.
According to Dr Sparer, and later validated by Dr John Beaulieu, harmonic toning seems to affect not only the cranium and the entire brain, but also the primary respiratory rate and the flow of cerebral spinal fluid through the cranium. The flow of cerebral spinal fluid may be the physical counterpart to the kundalini energy of the Eastern mystical traditions, discussed in Chapter 8 on Vowels as Mantras. Cerebral spinal fluid seems to have an overall effect upon the health and wellness of an individual. A blockage in this flow can create imbalances in the physical body. The use of vocal harmonics may alleviate these imbalances and help restore energy and health to individuals.
Helga Rich
In 1985 I was a lecturer at the 4th International Symposium on Music: Rehabilitation and Human Well-Being, being held at Goldwater Hospital in New York City. I had completed my lecture and was preparing to leave for a Medicine Wheel Gathering, being held in New England.
Before I caught a taxi to the airport, I decided to have lunch at the cafeteria where the symposium was being held. I bought a sandwich and a drink and sat down at a table. A woman was sitting opposite me and although I had not seen her before, I thought she might also be here for the symposium. I asked her about this and she replied 'Yes!' Her name was Helga Rich. She was a vocal instructor and a yoga teacher who had just arrived from Denmark to give a presentation that afternoon.
I asked Ms Rich what she did and she told me that she worked with sound to help patients suffering from aphasia, muscular disorder, Down's Syndrome and other problems. When I asked her more specifically how she did this she replied, 'I teach them to sing vowel sounds and project them here, ' and she pointed to her forehead.
My mouth dropped open in amazement and I excitedly said, 'You have them project harmonics to the third eye!'
'Yes', she replied, 'but I cannot call it that!'
I asked if she had had any success with this technique and with a knowing smile, she said, 'Come to my presentation this afternoon and find out.'
I told Ms Rich I had to catch a plane, but that I would be in further contact with her. That was the last I saw or heard from her. A student of mine from Denmark recently told me of her death in 1990.
Here is an extract from the Symposium about Ms Rich's presentation, called 'Theoretical Aspects of Vocal Teaching':
The first phase in teaching vocal production to a handicapped student is instruction in slow and relaxed breathing. The second phase involves teaching the student to breathe so that the air-stream passes through the vocal cords and up to the central part of the forehead. The importance in tongue placement in relaxing the throat muscles is stressed. After a period of exercise and training of the tongue and lips, the patient follows a program using two different groups of vowels. The speaking and singing functions are generally restored after several weeks of intense training.
Though it was extremely brief, my meeting with Ms Rich greatly affected me, for I am positive that there was great validity in her work. Contained in the vowel sounds are different harmonics and Ms Rich's work indicates that, through teaching people with neurological disorders the ability of creating vowel sounds, it may be possible to restore imbalances in the brain. It seems likely that through resonating the brain with harmonics new connections may be made, connections which pass damaged areas that no longer function properly.
Susan Gallagher Borg
At the 1st International Symposium on the Study of Subtle Energy Medicine in Boulder, 1991, I met Susan Gallagher Borg, a singer, body-worker and movement therapist who utilized a process called Resonant Kinesiology. Susan gave a presentation on 'Singing in the Brain: Using Vocal Sounds to Evoke a Healing Response' which focused upon using vocal harmonics to resonate the brain. Susan and I shared similar thoughts on the effects of vocal harmonics to stimulate the various epicentres of the brain.
Susan had come upon vocal harmonics on her own and had spent much time investigating the mechanism of the body and the brain. In particular, Susan had studied the effects of sound upon the fascia. The fascia, a gelatinous substance, is the connective tissue of the body. Sound makes extremely fast physiological changes in this tissue as it is easily affected by sounds. The fascia also plays an important part in the connection of the synapses of the brain.
Susan believed that it was possible to resonate different portions of the brain with sound. She also felt it was possible to create new neural synaptic connections in the brain using vocal harmonics. In a conversation, she told me:
By stimulating the neurons of the brain, you cause them to pay attention. When they pay attention over a period of time, the portion of the brain in which this occurs will habituate and will grow a synapse. The synapse perpetuates that particular attention. This will cause brain cells to connect.
Susan's statement indicated that, by stimulating the brain with sound, it was possible to create new neural synaptic connections. This came very close to my own understanding of the potential power of harmonics to affect and activate the brain. At her presentation, Susan suggested to those scientists and doctors present the need to investigate if the brain can be resonated by sound, and if so, which portions of it are resonated by which harmonics. This is a most important area of investigation which may produce extraordinary information about new ways of helping people suffering from head injury and other neurological disorders.
There is research to indicate that sounds which are discordant and disharmonic may have damaging effects upon the brain. In 1990 Schreckenberg and Bird, a neurobiologist and a physicist, experimented with exposing rats to different sounds. One group of rats listened to Strauss waltzes while another group listened to disharmonic sounds in the form of incessant drum beats. The group which heard the discordant sounds developed difficulties in learning and memory and also incurred structural changes in their brain cells. The neurons showed signs of wear and tear from stress. The researchers believed that what they were observing was the effect of disharmonic sounds on mammalian brains.
There is also research which indicates that it is possible to grow new brain cells. Ten years ago, Fernando Nottebohm and colleagues at Rockefeller University discovered that songbirds have the ability to grow new cells in the brain – a phenomenon previously considered impossible in adult animals. Songbirds, which have the ability to sing two notes simultaneously, can grow new nerve cells and increase the size of the HVc, the area of the avian brain involved with singing. This study of 'neurogenesis' has excited many scientists with the prospect of someday stimulating a damaged human nervous system to repair itself. These researchers are attempting to find the gene that controls the process of nerve regeneration. Perhaps the key to neurogenesis in songbirds lies not in the gene itself, but in the sounds which the songbirds make.
Judith Hitt
Judith Hitt, a Registered Nurse from Vermont specializing in rehabilitation, has worked with patients suffering from strokes and other neurological disorders using vocal harmonics. A schooled musician, she also studied sound and bodywork with Susan Borg.
Judith says of her work: 'Sound seems to be a very powerful and direct way to "touch" the brain and nerves. I find that I can vibrate specific areas of the brain by using certain harmonic frequencies. These frequencies vary from person to person, even from day to day on the same person. The same is true for each of the cranial nerves as well as the spinal cord and spinal nerves. The flow and pulse of the cerebral spinal fluid, very much affected by a stroke for example, can be altered with sound, helping to clear up blockages.'
Judith applies visualization and vocalization in her work, using both guided imagery and harmonics with her clients to enhance the intention of the sounding.
'If, for example, we are focusing on hand movement, I will ask the person to visualize making a fist with that hand, imagining what it would feel like to squeeze the hand into a fist. When that intention is fully placed, I will sound into the corresponding area of the brain and travel down the appropriate nerves. I will ask the person to be aware of the connection between their brain and their hand, and to feel the nerve impulses travelling from their brain to their fist and back again as they visualize this. So, I sound into the appropriate areas of the nervous system while the intended movement is being visualized. I believe that this creates an environment for new learning in the nervous system; for new synapses to be created, making new connections to relearn a movement.'
Judith finds that the harmonics from 'the vowels Aye and Eee resonate brain tissue the best and that the first octave and , the fifth harmonics resonate the larger areas of the brain. The highest harmonics that I can create seem to be the most effective on the smaller, more specific neural areas such as the caudate nucleus or a cranial nerve junction.' While Judith has not yet tried teaching clients techniques of self-created vocal harmonics, this is an area of therapy she plans to explore soon. In her work, Judith utilizes many of the concepts and techniques found in the chapter on Overtoning.
Tomatis and Brain Resonation
The work of Alfred Tomatis, MD on the ear and listening has been discussed in Chapter 6 on Meditation, though it could easily apply here as well. Dr Tomatis's research into sound seems to validate the use of harmonics to resonate the brain. While he believes that the actual charging of the cortex of the brain occurs through sound stimulating the auditory nerve, it is quite possible that mechanical resonance of the brain through sonic stimulation may also occur.
Dr Tomatis, through his Tomatis Method, utilizes both the Electronic Ear and the human voice, rich in high-frequency harmonics to correct dramatically many problems related to speech, language, motor control and motivation. Tomatis has enjoyed success with those who are dyslexic, autistic, stutterers, adopted or depressed. Enhanced learning, improved music ability and increased attunemen tin acquiring a second language are also possible outcomes for those without specific problems.
Heat Thermography to Measure Effect of Vocal Harmonics
In February 1989 I was a guest speaker at the 1st International New Age Music Conference. One of those in attendance was Dr Elizabeth Phillips who was conducting some tests with heat thermography equipment. She was attempting to correlate the relationship of music and relaxation via this process. Heat thermography measures changes in skin temperature. When a subject is relaxed, their skin temperature is raised.
Dr Phillips was just about to disassemble her equipment when I wandered by her booth and asked her about her work. When she told me about her project, I asked her if it was still possible for her to take pictures using her equipment. She replied affirmatively. A few minutes later, Dr Phillips was photographing my chest and head with her equipment while I sang Tibetan and Mongolian Overtones.
I left the Conference before Dr Phillips had a chance to look at the resulting photographs. Several months later I received a phone call from her. She had forgotten about the photographs she had taken until that afternoon when she had developed them and then telephoned me. She had never seen such rapid changes in skin temperature. She wanted to know what I had been doing.
I explained to Dr Phillips about vocal harmonics. Then I asked her what the changes meant. Heat thermography, she explained, showed changes in skin temperature. There seemed to be a major relationship between these changes in skin temperature and the organs behind or below the skin. In my case, it was the organ behind the skin of my forehead the brain. The photographs showed incredibly rapid changes in colour on my forehead and the top portion of my skull. There were changes in the activation of skin temperature which matched the portion of my head where I had been projecting the vocal harmonics.
Dr Phillips consulted a neurologist with the photographs to see his response. The MD was baffled by the changes in the skin temperature and, believing I was somehow able to affect the autonomic nervous system, he wanted to know if I had been doing any visualization while making these sounds. I had not, but I had been consciously projecting the sound to different portions of my brain.
Dr Phillips asked if I thought there was a possible use for treatment of headaches using this technique. I replied that I thought this would be just the tip of the iceberg. I told her that I felt there were extraordinary healing possibilities with the use of vocal harmonics as a means of stimulating the brain. While heat thermography shows only changes in skin temperature, it gives an indication of activity in the organs below the skin and in this case, the brain. This is another example of the potential validation of the brain's being resonated by harmonics.
THE PINEAL GLAND
In the Introduction, I related the story of my journey to Palenque in Mexico and having the darkened room become illuminated as I sang vocal harmonics. This experience was one of the more dramatic episodes in my life. It was only later that I began to process the experience and try to understand what had gone on.
As often happens after I have a fairly unexplainable event occur in my life, I meditate. After I returned from Palenque, I began to meditate on what had actually occurred during that experience. What I received in my meditation was interesting. It was this: through the use of vocally created harmonics, it is possible to resonate and stimulate the pineal gland.
The pineal gland is a small, pine-cone-shaped gland located in the middle of the head. Esoterically, the pineal is often associated with the 'third eye' and was believed by Descartes to be the 'Seat of the Soul'. It was once thought to be a vestigial organ and is now known to be a light-sensitive clock affecting sleep and the sex glands. Research by scientists such as Robert Beck suggest that the pineal is an organic device which is tuned towards magnetic north to give both humans and animals their sense of direction. Other scientists believe that the pineal is a bioluminescent organ which has the ability to create light.
The pineal is rich in neuromelanin, which, according to scientist Frank Barr, is a phase-timing, information processing interface molecule which is a phototransducer. This is a substance which has the ability, among other traits, of absorbing and converting light energy to sound. It also has the ability to turn sound energy into light. Barr believes that melanin and its brain counterpart, neuromelanin, may be the key link between the mind and the brain.
Through stimulation of the pineal gland, neuromelanin is produced. Neuromelanin, a light-sensitive compound triggers the release of a substance which contains phosphorus, a light-producing chemical. By stimulating the pineal gland through vocal harmonics, it may be possible that actual fields of light around the body are enhanced. In other words, the auric field becomes more luminescent. I hypothesize that through this luminescence, I was actually able to produce light in the room in Palenque.
While this phenomenon is not too widely known, there does seem to be some reference to it in certain texts. Dhyani Ywahoo, a Native American medicine woman, writes in Voices of Our Ancestors that in the Ancient Mystery Schools the initiations were held in total darkness. The initiates had to be able to produce their own light. I believe that this was done through the creation of vocal harmonics.
Spiritual scientist J. J. Hurtak writes of the phenomenon of creating light through the pineal gland in The Keys of Enoch:
The 'light' which activates the pineal gland is not the conventional light of the sun . . . the brain produces its own light field on a molecular level . . . our neurocircuitry can produce its own light field.
I discussed with Dr Tomatis my experience of producing light through sound and suggested my hypothesis of the pineal creating this light. Dr Tomatis knew of this phenomenon of creating light through sound, but believed that this light was created not through the pineal (the third eye) but through the heart. It is interesting to note that the heart is an organ which is also extremely rich in melanin.
What would be the healing benefits of creating light in this manner? The possibilities seem limitless. We would be enhancing and adding energy to the fields around our bodies, creating or restoring health and balance to areas of imbalance and disease. These possibilities of resonating the pineal through sound are yet another example of the potential use of harmonics to influence and affect the brain for health and wellness.
SUMMARY
In this chapter we have focused upon the potential use of harmonics for healing the body and the mind, from instruments and tapes that use harmonically related frequencies to the use of the voice to create vocal harmonics.
In forthcoming chapters we will focus upon learning to use vocal harmonics to balance the chakras and to resonate the physical and etheric bodies. Harmonics are an extremely accessible and easy tool for helping us become sound in both body and mind. Tomorrow's scientific research may validate the mysterious healing abilities of harmonics and their use in the fields of health and wellness. Until then, we can still experience for ourselves the extraordinary benefits which can be derived from the therapeutic application of vocal harmonics.