Ever wondered how some songs really pick your mood up while some just annoy you? Or how some sounds really “move” us? Well, this is the magic of cymatics — a term that was coined by Hans Jenny, a Swiss gentleman, who was intrigued with the vibrations and then the resultant patterns that the music or sound causes on matter and water.
When you Google the word cymatics, you would get to see pictures and videos of experiments, where people bend streams of water with sound beats, or rearrange grains of sand in different design patterns on a flat surface using sound frequency. The whole concept of cymatics is making visible sound, and its impact on matter, using science.
The recorded and documented studies on this concept started from Da Vinci and Galileo, and in recent times there are many scientists like Evan Grant, Nigel Stanford, and few others, who experiment and create videos of such experiments to share them online. The fact is, the study of sound and its impact on matter and human body have been around since antiquity.
Cymatics is a modern term and seems like a very new find, but the Hindu religion and other religions have been using sound and musical instruments in their places of worship since centuries! Now, you may wonder why we have those bells in a temple, or atop the cathedral.
Or the Buddhist and Chinese singing bowls and gongs that have been used for meditation and healing since so many years, or why the Vedas recommend chanting of specific shlokas in a particular format only.
Scientists around the world have been coming up with different theories of the sound of the universe. And a lot of people would want you to believe that the sound of the universe sounds pretty similar to the ‘OHM’ sound. It’s quite possible that it may be a specific hum at 432 Hz.
Dr Masaru Emoto, a Japanese author, researcher, photographer and entrepreneur, claimed that human consciousness has an effect on the molecular structure of water. His early work explored his belief that water could react to positive thoughts and words, and that polluted water could be cleaned through prayer and positive visualisation. He spent his life conducting research on water and the effects of sound on it, and it is interesting to look at the results.
Sound energy works wonders on chakra energising
For example, when sound waves reach a liquid surface, they transform it into a specific pattern depending on the wave’s frequency. The patterns created on the water surface are awfully similar to a QR code. A lot of these images would remind you of the classic mandalas or yantras seen across temples around the world. And yes, there is a deep-rooted scientific significance of these mandalas and yantras as well!
When exposed to higher pitches and intense sounds such as loud scrubbing, machine noise, yelling and even death metal music, the crystals become malformed. Our body has the same impact when we expose it to negative vibrations.
Now let’s take a step back and remember what we learnt in school — the human body is made up of almost 70 per cent of water. Imagine how our bodies would react when exposed to sound frequencies. The human ecosystem is not just a physical body but five layers of existence, better known as the Panch Kosha.
Annamaya Kosha — The Food Sheath: It literally means the one that needs food to survive. We have learned so much about this part of us in last 200 years. It’s the layer about which medical science has gained total mastery. All allopathic medicines work on this — and this approach sees the brain as an organ. Essentially, it sees the body as a physical identity — from the cells to organs and body systems.
Pranamaya Kosha — The Energy Sheath: This is the life force that we have — the pranas that govern all the physical body systems. This sheath can be recognised by our breath and can also be energised using breathing techniques and pranayama. Imbalance in this sheath is identified by short, haphazard, or fast breathing.
Incidentally when we are stressed, our breath too becomes short, fast and jerky. When a person is sick or unwell, the pranic layer is weak and we start feeling lethargic and slow. Pranic Healing works on this sheath.
Manomaya Kosha — The Mental Sheath
This deals with our daily mind. The entire gamut of feelings and emotions that we have during our waking moments — our likes, dislikes, hates, fears, phobias, love, compassion, irritations, sensitivities, anger, passion, obsessions, and more. This is a seat of pleasure and pain.
This is the biggest culprit responsible for 90 per cent of our health problems, which originate here but only show up in our physical body much later. Up to here we are not very different from any animal — they also have these first three sheaths (though they aren’t as developed as ours).
Vijnanamaya Kosha — The Wisdom Sheath: This is the higher knowing, our inner voice, our inner conscience. This one tells us what is fundamentally right or wrong. This one is at a higher level than the daily mind. This differentiates us from the animals. This one tells me what I should be doing versus what I actually may end up doing or showing.
Anandmaya Kosha — The Bliss Sheath
This one being the part that can experience complete silence and bliss (which we very rarely experience!). This one is the ultimate goal of any human being — to be happy! This one experiences happiness without any strings attached — pure happiness, bliss, not connected to any material acquisitions or goals. This is where each one of us deserves to be.
The sound vibrations and frequencies created by different instruments like the Tibetan singing bowls and gongs, when exposed to the human body, have some very remarkable results.
An apparatus called the GDV Bio-well camera is a specialised equipment to track stress and chakra energies. The orange bar is before and the violet bar is the after sound session. The impact and results are very visible, stress levels have reduced and overall energy of the body has increased in all the three individuals.
The same test also reflected the chakra energies for the same three individuals. Chakras are part of the energy body (or Pranamaya kosha). At one end, they integrate with our Annamaya kosha (physical body) and at the other end they integrate with Manomaya kosha (mind, emotions, etc.).
While we segregate the layers for our understanding, it is important to realise these are not watertight compartments.
The integration of each chakra with other two of the five layers of existence can be described as below:
1. The major chakras are virtual locations where both these conditions are met (Condition #1: There is major nerve junction. Condition #2: There is a major endocrine gland). You can validate this point with a surgeon, like I did.
2. Each chakra location is also a major emotional centre i.e. the seat of a key emotion. For example, the heart chakra is associated with the feeling of love (or at the negative end — with the feeling of not able to forgive). Thoughts, feelings, emotions, fear, phobia etc. rule the manomaya kosha (3rd of the 5 layers of existence that we call Pancha Kosha). This clearly shows that the sound does impact the human bodies much more than we expected.
Not only chakra energising, sound can work wonders on the human body too — from lifting your mood, to curing multiple psychosomatic illnesses, physical ailments and even has shown results on cancer patients. Different sounds and frequencies work amazing wonders on our bodies. A simple thing like insomnia and stress can be fixed within a week of sound therapy.
If you chant any basic mantra or even ‘AUM’ and extend your breath for up to 12 seconds, your breathing would become more regulated, your chakras and internal energies would resonate in sync.
In yogic terms, this is called the Bhramari pranayama — just five such breaths have the capability of easing your tension. Try it the next time. Whenever you are too stressed, just cover your eyes and ears with your index fingers and thumbs, take a deep breath and say ‘MMM” loudly with your tongue touching the pate of your mouth.
Lastly, your thoughts have an impact on your action. Remember to create your words and thoughts responsibly.
— Love Joshi is a sound therapy master and a certified hypnotherapist
