The Power of Sound  - Denys Blacker

When I first worked with Anet in Holland in February 2001, I was one of five invited artists who had come to take part in the show The Wolf and the Winter which she had organised. She was the last to perform and what struck me most about her work were the way she used her voice and the power she transmitted with her singing. For me the central and most important themes are Anet's use of her voice as a tool and the mysterious communication that takes place in her performance as the audience is pulled in by its vibration, at times moved to tears and at times to laughter. The artist is no longer there, but is as if possessed by a stronger emotion which shudders through her body contorting her face and giving birth to extraordinary sounds. When Anet asked me to write something for her book I spent some time contemplating her work and inspired by the images, I decided to investigate the qualities of sound and communication and to write a piece that focuses on the magical nature and the power of sound.

The Power of Sound

The voice is life itself. The movement, the glance, the touch, even the breath that comes from the nostrils do not reach so far, not as far as the voice reaches.
Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Sound and its magical power permeate the creation stories or cosmologies of many cultures and traditions. The primal sound is considered to be the most subtle and divine form of sound. In Hindu cosmology the primordial creative tone Aum is the power that gives birth to the many worlds of existence.
The Sufi sect of Islam attaches considerable significance to sound, starting with the abstract sound called saut-e sarmad. Creation comes into being from saut, and from saut spreads all light. The creative sound hu is also held most sacred. Muslims call it ism-e Azam, or the name of the Most High. They consider it the origin and the end of every sound and the background of each word. They say every animal, bell, and gong utter hu; thus all creation continually cries out the name of the Most High.
In the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, Elohim pronounced ‘Let there be Light', and there was Light. The result of his divine utterance is Light.
The Native American Tsalagi (Cherokee) legend says, ‘The primary tone, the foundation of all worlds, is sung by the quartz crystal.'
The Hopi Indian's story of creation tells of the animation of all forms on earth by having the Spider Woman sing the Song of Creation over them.
Chinese Taoist stories speak of Kung, the Great Tone of Nature.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that the god Thot created the world by his voice alone.
In the Popul Vuh, from the Mayan tradition, the first real men are given life by the sole power of the word.

Modern physics now understand the universe and its creation in terms of vibration. In a recent experiment conducted by cosmologists, a telescope suspended from a high altitude balloon circling the South Pole has detected the existence of harmonic notes which rang out like a bell in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang. Paola de Bernadis from the University of Rome says, ‘the early universe is full of sound waves compressing and rarefying matter and light much like sound waves compress and rarefy air inside a flute or trumpet.'
The British scientist Rupert Sheldrake writes of morphic fields of energy, these are energy fields that cause shape and form to occur.
Dr Hans Jenny, a Swiss doctor and scientist has found in his experiments with sound and material that inorganic substances take on geometric forms when they are vibrated by sound. He calls this cymatics.

At every level and in every context of our modern day lives we are day and night assaulted by sound. This constant barrage of noise has become so familiar to us that most of the time we no longer even notice it or hear where it comes from. Our ears have become numbed and insensitive. The overload of information that comes to us through our ears is too much for us to handle so we cut out, and every day that passes we become less and less able to distinguish and to recognise the sounds from the world around us. We shut off indiscriminately. Eventually we may become so insensitive that we will be unable to understand our own environment, too shut up in ourselves to feel anything and too numb to care.
Yet by turning a deaf ear to all sounds, by hearing but not listening, we are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water for amongst all the noise pollution there exist tones, vibrations and music that do not effect us in a negative way but can in fact inspire, transform and heal our being. We can no longer hear the sound of the Universe above the noise of the television but the Universe is ringing for all those who take the time to listen.

Around us are all kinds of frequencies and vibrations; frequencies we can see, frequencies we can hear and others beyond our perception. The effect of these vibrations on us has been known for thousands of years and is explained in detail in the Indian Vedic texts and other ancient mystic teachings.
Modern science measures sound vibration in terms of hertz.
Low level vibration (anything above 11 hertz) have been proved to make us restless and agitated. (High voltage power lines throw off 50-60 hertz).
Extremely low level (ELF) frequencies can penetrate anything, in theory they can be used as a weapon to kill living beings.
Frequencies of less than 7 hertz create a feeling of well being and relaxation known as the alpha state. The most beneficial frequency is said to be 6.8 hertz. Interestingly the pyramid at Giza has a constant frequency of 6.8 hertz running through it.
Attaining the alpha state through natural means such as physical disciplines which control and direct breathing, allows one to reach a state of heightened perception and deep relaxation, the body itself creating more balanced frequencies and entering into a higher consciousness.

What is as important as the actual sound that we hear or the vibration we perceive is the message that is carried by it, something that cannot be described or understood as merely sound. Dane Rudhyar uses the word tone to describe this phenomenon. ‘As sound and will are neutral, they can be used for destructive or constructive purposes. A tone is a tone and not merely a sound because it carries a definite intent and purpose. It projects and communicates at the physical-biological level the conscious will. It is a vocal tone endowed with magical power.'
In Indian Vedic teaching Anahata means unbeaten, unstruck, unwound, and intact. It is a latent sound ready to unwind from the mind and find expression. It is the sound not of the tongue or the larynx but of the heart. It is an inaudible, spiritual kind of sound, to which in special conditions the non-physical aspects of the human consciousness can resonate.
Jonathan Goldman calls it intention; the understanding that sound has the ability to transmit the intention of the one creating the sound to the one receiving the sound. ‘Intention is the energy behind the sound. It is the thought and will which we have when making a sound.'
Goethe after listening to Paganini wrote of ‘A mysterious power that all may feel and no philosophy can explain.'
The Spanish poet Garcia Lorca writes of the quality duende, that he explains in his writing as, ‘the mystery, the roots that probe through the mire that we all know of and do not understand, but which furnishes us with whatever is sustaining in art.'

This then is the quality that empowers prayers and supplications, magic spells or any spoken desire that is invoked with intention. It is also what makes us feel emotion when listening to poetry or enables us to capture the mood of a person by the tone of their voice. It is what transforms a series of notes into a work of art, capable of transmitting creativity and inspiration to the listener.
Dr Tomatis, a French doctor has spent many years studying the sacred sounds of the world and the function of the ear and hearing, and has found that sounds rich in harmony and over tones charge the cortex of the brain and stimulate health and well being. When we chant for long periods of time we stimulate the limbic area of the brain, the gatekeeper as it were between the conscious and unconscious.
The creation of harmonics is based on vowel sounds, which are present in sacred words and sounds from around the world.
The AH sound for example is found in most of the god and goddess names on the planet; Buddha, Kuan Yin, Mary, Krishna, Yah, etc as well as in many sacred words; Aum, Amen, Alleluia and in Indian tradition corresponds to the heart chakra and heart energy.
Ah is the sound we make as we fill our lungs for the first time and the last we will make as the breath leaves our body.

We are healthiest at all levels when we are vibrating at the same frequency as the rest of the natural world, literally in tune with the universe. By focused chanting or singing of sacred sounds, mantras (thoughts that liberate from illusion) or prayers one can bring the energy and vibration of the spiritual world to oneself by a sort of invisible conductor of transcendental energy, our words resonating with the original creative sound. Rudolph Steiner writes ‘When man is artistically engaged with tone, he puts his ear to the very heart of nature itself; he perceives the will of nature and reproduces it in series of tones.' Once in contact with this energy it is possible to direct it as a creative or destructive force.
There are recent controlled studies by the cardiologist Dr Randolph Byrd, M.D. in which he observes the efficacy of prayer as a healing tool and the results show clearly that prayer has a positive effect in the physical world. Patients who had prayers said for them at a distance required less medical intervention and had a higher recovery rate than patients who had not.
In Japan, martial arts practitioners are trained to produce a deep, very intense shout called Ki ai that is intended to kill one's opponent.

We can be sure that whatever noises we make, whatever music we create, whatever sounds we utter, these will have an effect on everything around us and will resonate in the world. From the tone of our voice and our choice of words to the more focused activities of chanting and singing, we interact with the universe in a direct way, adding to the disharmony or to the harmony around us.
We live in an age where our planet is saturated and confused by the man-made vibrations of millions of mobile phones, televisions, radios etc. No one can yet begin to evaluate the effect this may be having on our health and environment.
It has become not only an act of faith but a political act to turn off the television and sit alone in prayer, intoning your creative power and your wishes for a better world or to switch off your mobile phone in order to listen to the sound of the wind, to choose the creative way above the apathetic and to believe in the power of sound.

Denys Blacker
Madremanya, November 2003