If there was any doubt that sound can be harnessed to create specific vibrational changes in the physical world, then this video showing what are called “Chladni patterns” should set that to rest. The best way to explain it is by watching the video of the many two dimensional representations and forms that sound can take at each different frequency. What’s fascinating to us is that the patterns tend to hold through a specific frequency until they reach a certain threshold, and then flip over to the new pattern very quickly. The shapes are themselves very interesting and remind us of natural feeling psychedelic drawings and wave patterns. However the true interest lies in the fact that they exhibit a particular and frequency-specific form, structure and symmetry.
How The Naam Transforms Our Brains
In Kundalini yoga, we use mantra and sound also to initiate changes in our bodies and mind. Essentially we use the sound of the Naam (Mantra and Chanting) as a way to organize and balance the mind, and activate the glands. Here, in a sense, is a direct depiction of how frequency can create specific vibrational shifts in nearby elements. It gives us potential insight into how each Chakra (energy node) in our body relates to, and is affected by a particular note of the musical scale. It also provides a clear window of possibility of how the Naam can be used to cut through our negative thoughts and organize the tiny cells, neurons and signals in our minds into more harmonious patterns so that we see more beauty in life. Using mantras and chants can certainly help us relate to the outside world better, have more control over our mental and physical bodies, and ultimately feel more receptive to peace, love and light in our lives.
Yours truly will be attending a transformative experience this holiday at Winter Solstice in Green Gables, Florida on Dec 21st-23rd (since I didn’t make Burning Man, this is the next best thing, if not better!). The peak of the event is three straight days of White Tantric Yoga. The White Tantric Yoga video course is a powerful meditation practice, organized as one large group meditation of partners facing each other, which raises a huge amount of what is called “Z-energy” (much like the criss-crossing pattern of a weave lends strength to a fabric). It’s a technique of group meditation that effectively clears the subconscious mind, allowing change, growth, prosperity, success, and happiness to flow freely into life. It is an ancient and unique yogic science that hyper-accelerates ones psychological growth by dissolving deep-rooted subconscious blocks. It is done by completing a series of 31-61 minute meditation sets, directed by a facilitator and by the energy of Yogi Bhajan, the Mahan Tantric (or “Tantric Master”).
It has been said that 1 day of White Tantric has the equivalent benefit of 1 year of personal meditations. Come join me if you have the time for a great group experience, or make the time to join us next year!
Note: White Tantric Yoga is not to be confused with ‘black’ or ‘red tantric’. Those forms of yoga also transform energy, but in a different way and for different purposes. Black tantric directs the energy to manipulate another human being and red tantric directs the energy solely for sexual purposes… Which I suppose could be useful, but not for personal change and raising group awareness, which are just a few of the amazing benefits of White Tantric.
A new book featuring an anthology of essays on the coming Age of Aquarius in 2012 is about to hit bookshelves! The anthology features contributors to the Reality Sandwich website (a web magazine for this time of intense transformation) and articles covering a diverse array of topics from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies.
The new release, just in time for the (end of the) Holidays (in stores on Dec 26th) is co-edited by Daniel Pinchbeck, a preeminent voice on 2012, and online pioneer Ken Jordan, and features original works from Stanislav Grof, John Major Jenkins, and Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky); interviews with Abbie Hoffman and artist Alex Grey; plus a new introduction by Pinchbeck.
Akin to a revelatory experience with bliss and enlightenment, Jill Bolte’s chance brush with death and a massive brain hemorrhage reveals to us some of the deep differences between the two hemispheres of the human brain.
Link: Jill Bolte’s Speech at TED Conference
What’s fascinating is the similarities of her experience to the teachings of Sikh Dharmic lifestyle and compassionate Buddhism. The descriptions of deep meditations and experiences of practicing yogi’s living a Dharmic lifestyle reflect very closely what Jill Taylor describes as a pure right-brain experience.
Through practice and breathing control, they draw upon this ability to turn down the bee-hive of the left brain and tune into the calm and infinite right brain. And from this they have extracted a philosophy of life that naturally and consciously touches upon kindness, compassion and an infinite consciousness in everything, and everyone.
Reduce the chatter, experience the energy everywhere in the moment. Share the experience with all, because the other person is you. Just as Jill Taylor has said in the video: “I Am, I Am”. It is the new insight of the self in the Aquarian Age. And without coincidence, “I am, i Am” is exactly the same mantra which is practiced and repeated in Kundalini Yoga meditations as taught by Yogi Bhajan.
In this deceptively simple 3-minute talk, Dr. Laura Trice muses on the power of the magic words “thank you” — to deepen a friendship, to repair a bond, to make sure another person knows what they mean to you.
Yogi Bhajan also suggested to invoke the “Thank You Mantra” each morning when waking and before going to sleep, or you may miss your one chance to create a meaningful relationship with the day ahead and your waking consciousness.
The words can also affect physical practices, like yoga. Used appropriately, Thank You Mantra can have magical effects that extend and enhance your postures and actions. Not only are you “truing your wheel”, but the act of thanking yourself during a difficult set will help you get through the physical and emotional blocks. Try it sometime when you are struggling. You’ll be surprised at its power.
In Ascent of Humanity, Charles Eisenstein gives us a examination into humanity’s collective idea of the self, as trapped within the “evolved” civilization of modern (and past) society. It’s a truthful stab at the growing spiritual bankruptcy of our existing social system, and it aims to provide shifts in perspective that may help reverse the dualistic separation that is undermining the fabric of our society. It is a positive, and consciousness book of awareness and understanding that begins with the re-conception of our very humanity – to primarily act as humans being, not just doing the same old thing.
In a fascinating article titled “Building a Religion” Richard Merrick introduces a new theory named interference theory, where he found a way to show how harmonics play a common role in both sound and the structure of our anatomy. Drawing from an array of scientific research in music cognition, neurophysiology, genetics, acoustics, quantum physics, Merrick proposes that life grows as a balance between resonance and damping just like a vibrating string, and that music perception is a built-in pattern matching between the harmonic geometry of sound and identical structures in the ear and brain.
The resulting conclusions that he postulates are built on a revolutionary new perspective of reality. Once you accept the possibility that harmonics really could account for our body structure, then the far reaches of understanding of our connection with the universe and the forces that act upon our bodies, down to the molecules and sub-atomic particles becomes a factor of a new theory of harmonic resonance and dampening, where space actually interacts with our bodies to create the human form.
God and Me. Me and God. Are One.
The amazing part of this theory is that the harmonic lattice he proposes fits seamlessly with many of the natural sensory findings based in the practices of ancient shamanic and esoteric fraternities, as well as being echoed by ancient religious icons, sacred geometrical patterns and the mysterious symbols used by various esoteric groups. “I also noticed that the Hebrew Tree of Life fit within this musical lattice, aligning with the seven points of the Hindu chakra system,” says Merrick.
The article goes on to examine why such an seemingly self-evident pattern would be “so completely absent from general public awareness”, citing the Catholic churches campaign to demonize harmonic philosophy, which was associated with Paganism (the belief of God in Nature).
Get in touch with your inner archetype!
The last part of the posting includes some very interesting reader comments on the article, which require at least as much attention as the original theory itself… But in wrapping up too short of an dip into the subject – which we feel would be certainly valid of further explanation and study in book form – Merrick throws out a few humorous hypothetical scenarios, “if” this view of a musical, and nature-based theory of life were to magically grab hold of human consciousness, and affect the scientific and religious world with its revolutionary implications.
The beauty of the theory is what many practicing meditation probably already know about harmonics and mantras, is that it confirms how music can affect the body and the change the world around us, simply by repetition of a sound at a specific vibration. The mantra may be old… But the changes it can affect are infinite and universal. Merrick’s theory of the harmonic lattice brings us all a simple explanation why mantra and meditation have their universal impact and from where they arise.
I’m not totally thrilled I missed Burning Man this year… But seeing as I totally forgot it was happening, I can’t be too angry… It actually escaped my consciousness for a couple of years now, but it came back into my awareness full force this week while reading “Breaking Open the Head” (Daniel Pinchbeck), where he devotes 3 chapters to describing his virgin voyage there. Appropriately… Just as I was finishing the chapter, the 2008 event just ended on September 1st… I KNEW there was “something” nagging at me this past weekend that I should be doing… Oh well… The 2008 theme was Camps and Art Installations… and, there’s always next year, when the theme will be Evolution… How appropriate.
Skipping, more than a way of life… It’s a constant struggle to break boundaries… Just stick a “360″ and say: “Check it”: Extreme Skipping.
Skipping is to the walk/run duality what harmonics is to the science/religion duality. It’s the happy medium, that, for whatever reason, is socially repressed. I’ve had the thought that everyone who’s aware of the coming change in consciousness should break out in a skip when traveling by foot. It’s healthier, and faster, than walking, as well as less severe, and more “stylizable,” than running. People are uncomfortable with skipping much as they are uncomfortable with the vast nuances among differing types of music.
The 2012 Conference in San Francisco: Shift by the Bay takes place on Oct. 31st - Nov. 2nd 2008. It will bring together the nation’s leading authors, experts and scholars on the subject matter of 2012, focusing on the evolving movement to a higher level of awareness, and bring together a community embracing the magnitude of the subject, discerning facts and fallacies. Guest will include Daniel Pinchbeck (Breaking Open the Head), Dr. Alberto Villoldo, John Major Jenkins, Sri Ram Kaa and Kira, and many more.
A blog for the transformative age
The blog Reality Sandwich runs the gamut from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, remixing media to re-imagining community, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies.
