Untapped Powers of Sound
Feb 19, 2007 04:04 AM
by Mark Jaqua
Re: Acoustic vibrations
Here is more dusted off creaky
bones (mine under pen-name):
UNTAPPED POWERS OF SOUND AND VIBRATION
Probably the most extraordinary invention in the realm of "pseudo-science" was the motor developed by John Keely in the 1870's and progressively improved until his death in 1898. Among the "black boxes," "orgone accumulators," "spirit communicators" and various perpetual motion machines lingering about the borders of science, none are based upon as much comprehensive theory and practical demonstration as is Keely's Motor. Keely claimed to have tapped the "vibrations of the ether" and in front of renowned scientists his motor broke massive ropes as if they were string, propelled projectiles through 12-inch planks, lifted 5-ton weights, caused levitation and, according to one account, disintegrated an ox! With only few failures Keely demonstrated his mechanism hundreds of times. Some of the leading scientists of the day such as Joseph Leidy and Daniel Brinton came to Keely's support in his later years while most of the scientific community declared all to be "humbug"
and refused to acknowledge as other than some unspecified trickery what so many had witnessed.
Keely would start his motor by means of bowing on a violin. When the correct vibration was reached the machinery would start in motion. By a complicated arrangement of resonators he claimed to produce the dissociation of water, which was contained in minute quantities in a chamber. A certain amount of "ether,"* according to his theory, was held in bondage at a particular vibration in the water molecule. At this particular vibration rate ether caused the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen to associate into a molecule of water. Another precise vibration caused the molecule to disintegrate and a great deal of ether was resultantly liberated as force. Keely maintained there was enough of this force in single bucket of water to knock the planet out of orbit.
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* In 19th century physics ether was thought to be a tenuous substance that permeated all space. Light and other electromagnetic waves traveled on this ether.
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The editor of the "Scientific Arena" magazine described what took place in one of Keely's demonstrations at which he was present:
"The confined vapour was passed through one of the small
flexible tubes to a steel cylinder on another table, in which a vertical piston was fitted so that its upper end bore against the underside of a powerful, weighted lever. The superficial area of this piston was equal to one-half of a square inch, and it acted as a movable fulcrum placed close to the hinged end of the short arm of this lever, whose weight alone required a pressure of 1500 pounds to the square inch against the piston to lift it.
"After testing the pressure by several small weights, added to that of the lever itself, in order to determine how much power had already been accumulated in the receiver, the maximum test was made by placing an iron weight of 580 pounds, by means of a differential pulley, on the extreme end of the long arm of the lever. To lift this weight, without that of the lever supporting it, would require a pressure against the piston of 18,900 pounds to the square inch, counting the difference in the length of the two arms and the area of the piston, which we, as well as several others present, accurately calculated. When all was ready, and the crowded gathering had formed as well as possible to see the test, Keely turned the valve-wheel leading from the receiver to the flexible tube, and through it into the steel cylinder beneath the piston, and simultaneously with the motion of his hand the weighted lever shot up against its stop, a distance of several inches, as if the
great mass of iron had been only cork. Then, in order to assure ourselves of the full 25,000 pounds to square inch claimed, we added most of our weight to the arm of the lever without forcing the piston back again.
"After repeating this experiment till all expressed themselves satisfied, Keely diverted his etheric gas to the exciting work of firing a cannon, into which he placed a leaden bullet about an inch in diameter. He conveyed the force from the receiver by the same kind of flexible copper tube, attaching one end of it to the breech of the gun. When all was again in readiness he gave a quick turn to the inlet valve, and a report like that of a small cannon followed, the ball passing through an inch board and flattening itself out to about three inches in diameter, showing the marvelous power and instantaneous action of this strange vapour."
Most scientists of the day held the opinion that Keely performed his marvels by trickery and the use of compressed air, regardless of the fact that it was then impossible to produce compressed gas at 25,000 pounds. If Keely were an imposter using compressed air then he would have been far better off patenting his compressor and becoming a rich man instead of simply becoming the object of public scorn.
Keely developed a mass of very comprehensive theory behind his discovery. Unfortunately, but perhaps necessarily, he coined many new words as well. Professor William Crookes said that reading his manuscripts was like trying to read Persian without a dictionary. Keely held that all of manifestation was the result of differing vibrations of a primal substance. The rate and "chord" of this substance determined what object resulted - whether it be air, a tree, a dog, a human or ether. There were seven distinct levels of vibration and the visible world was the result of the lowest of these. Every object has its specific and individual "mass chord" or "tone" and the interaction of these vibrations determines if the people or objects are sympathetic or antipathetic to each other. Perhaps Keely's thoughts were the same as the poet who wrote:
The force which binds the atoms, which controls secreting glands,
Is the same that guides the planets, acting by divine commands.
In the 1700's the German physicist Ernst Chladni invented a method of making sound patterns visible by mounting a metal plate on a violin. Sand was scattered on the plate and when the violin was bowed different beautiful patterns would form in the sand. These different patterns are all geometric and parallel patterns commonly found in Nature such as the geometric and parallel patterns commonly found in Nature such as the conch's spiral, the bee's hexagon (honeycombs), concentric circles (tree rings), radiating spokes (spider's web) and parallel lines (tiger stripes). In all her manifestations Nature repeats and makes variations on these basic forms. The spiral recurs in such widely varying aspects as the DNA molecule, a vine growing up a tree, and the pattern in which hot air rises. Chladni demonstrated that there is direct relationship between vibration and form. Occultists have claimed for thousands of years that all creation is formed according to the
differing vibrations of a solitary substance. The spiral of the DNA and the spiral of the tree creeper would be of different vibration rate but of the same "chord."
Hans Jenny of Switzerland has recently been doing work along similar lines to Chladni. His invention of the "tonoscope" converts sound into a three-dimensional representation. It is very curious that when a person speaks the letter "O" into this machine a perfectly spherical pattern is produced. It is uncanny that the circle is the very figure we have chosen to represent this sound. Hindus claim that the ancient tongue of Sanskrit was designed by priests so that each letter and sound most accurately represented a principle or basic vibration of Nature. This is the principle behind the supposed magical power of certain Indian mantras or chants. By using his voice the chanter "resonates" himself with beneficent forces and thus focuses this power into himself.
We are used to thinking of sound as a simple occurrence and are unaware of the mysteries that surround it. Scientifically, our knowledge of sound is shallow. According to one author, if a single tuning fork is struck in a room that contains 100 tuning forks of the same frequency - then all these tuning forks will begin to resonate with a force that exceeds the total power of the first fork. If true, this simple experiment would violate the most basic law of physics - conservation of energy. If a soprano sings the proper note in the presence of a fine crystal glass then the glass will shatter as if hit with a hammer. The singer's voice represents only a few watts of power yet it does the work of a fifty-pound weight. We see here the principle of resonance. The crystal glass is already vibrating at its own characteristic frequency and a proper note will emphasize this vibration in an extreme manner. Amount of power is not so much the question as is correctly
applied power in consonance. Galileo observed this principle when he wrote:
"Even as a boy, I observed that one man alone, by giving impulses at the right instant, was able to ring a bell so large that when four, or even six, men seized the rope and tried to stop it they were lifted from the ground, all of them together being unable to counterbalance the momentum which a single man, by properly-timed pulls, had given it."
There are Indian manuscripts, thousands of years old, which tell tales of whole armies being destroyed by the occult use of sound. Among these is the story of "Kapila's Eye." H.P. Blavatsky writes in The Secret Doctrine:
"It is this vibratory Force, which, when aimed at an army from an Agni Rath fixed on a flying vessel, a balloon, according to the instructions found in Ashtar Vidya, reduced to ashes 100,000 men and elephants, as easily as it would a dead rat. It is allegorized in the Vishnu Purana, in the Ramayana and other works, in the fable about the sage Kapila whose glance made a mountain of ashes of King Sagur's 60,000 sons, and which is explained in the esoteric works, and referred to as the Kapilaksha - 'Kapila's Eye.'"
Blavatsky writes further:
"We say and maintain that SOUND, for one thing, is a tremendous Occult power; that it is a stupendous force, of which the electricity generated by a million of Niagaras could never counteract the smallest potentiality when directed with occult knowledge. Sound may be produced of such a nature that the pyramid of Cheops would be raised in the air, or that a dying man, nay, one at his last breath, would be revived and filled with new energy and vigour."
We must remember here that the word "occult" actually means "hidden" - knowledge not available or as yet discovered, except perhaps by a few. Modern science would be occult science a few hundred years ago in some aspects such as alchemy.
We do not have to go to ancient manuscripts to discover the occult side of sound. There is a seemingly valid modern-day account of Tibetans raising 10-ton blocks of stone by the power of sound. In Playfair and Hill's The Cycles of Heaven we find this most amazing account. The authors state that they hesitated to publish the information except for the very detailed evidence provided by the respectable Henry Kjellson, one of the pioneers of Sweden's aircraft industry. According to Kjellson:
"Blocks of stone measuring 1.5 meters square were hauled up to a plateau by yaks, and placed over a specially dug bowl-shaped hole one meter in diameter and 15 cm. deep. The hole was 100 meters from the sheer rock wall on top of which the building, presumably a hermitage of some sort, was to be built. Sixty-three meters back from the stone there stood nineteen musicians, spaced at five-degree intervals to form a quarter-circle... Measurements were taken extremely carefully, using a knotted leather thong.
"Behind the musicians, about 200 priests arranged themselves so that about ten stood behind each musician. The instruments involved were drums and trumpets of various sizes. (Kjellson gives the exact dimensions of the 13 drums and six trumpets that made up this unusual orchestra.)
"Then, at the command of the chief priest, the music began. The beat was set by a gigantic drum weighing 150 kilos and slung from a specially built frame so that it was off the ground. Two monks took turns at each trumpet, blowing a total of two blasts per minute. All six trumpets were pointed towards the stone of its launching pad, and after about four minutes of what must have been indescribable racket (since the meticulous Kjellson fails to describe it), the stone rose into the air, wobbled slightly, and then, as the noise from the trumpets, drums and chanting priests increased, followed up a precise parabolic course of some 400 meters up to the top of the cliff. In this way, we are told, five or six blocks were lifted in an hour, although some of them apparently broke upon landing."
Today's science is perhaps stumbling into similar areas. On a new program some weeks ago it was demonstrated how through acoustics scientists are able to levitate small bits of matter such as drops of water. If the ancients had mastered this ability it would explain how such marvels as Egypt's pyramids or Peru's Machu Picchu were built. At Machu Picchu 200-ton blocks of stone had to be raised up a 1000-foot vertical mountainside. Modern science has also developed sonic cannons which are reminiscent of the powers of "Kapila's Eye." During World War II the Germans developed a "whirlwind cannon" similar in principle to the laser in that it concentrated a beam of coherent sound on a target. This instrument was powerful enough to knock over a brick wall at 500 yards. In the Bible we find that the walls of Jericho were brought down by ram-horn trumpets fashioned by the priests.
Sound also has a profound effect on man's emotions. There is a story about Pythagoras that illustrates this. Pythagoras observed a disillusioned lover feverishly gathering wood and piling it in front of his girlfriend's door, intending to burn her house down. A musician nearby happened to be playing a stirring and forceful melody. Pythagoras induced the musician to change his tune and play a mellow and soft song. Shortly the angered man stopped gathering wood and made his way sadly home. Man instinctually knows the effect music has on his emotions. If there is a fight or other trouble at a public gathering the band is always instructed to start playing in hopes of soothing the crowd. Different forms of music induce different moods. A story is told about Gurdjieff in which the modern philosopher/ psychologist accurately predicted that a particular woman would begin weeping when a certain chord was played on the piano. Gurdjieff apparently had the emotional
effects of music down to a science.
There was some experimentation using music with mental patients before the use of drugs became prevalent and destroyed most therapy in favor of "chemical confinement." In the late 1930's Dr. Ira M. Altshuler made such experiments on over 800 patients at the state institution in Eloise, Michigan. He found that soft music was 35 per cent more effective in calming manics than such treatments as the wet sheet pack. In another instance of music therapy psychiatrist Dr. Lauretta Bender was unable to get a 15-year-old Jewish girl to speak for over five months. When she happened to hear the Hebrew folk song "Eli, Eli" it produced an immediate effect on her. In a psychiatric journal Dr. Bender cites another case in which a woman became deranged after childbearing and would have nothing to do with her baby. After being played Brahms' "Lullaby" she returned to her normal self. Hindu shamans used to require their patients to rock to and fro in beat with special music that
was played. This would have a curative effect and also loosen the person's tongue so that he could talk more freely about his ailment.
We and everything about us are intimately affected by vibrations. Music can sometimes elevate us to ecstatic heights while other sounds can put us "on edge," make us sad or angry and even destroy our sanity. It seems that the realm of sound, music and vibration holds answers to questions in areas from physics to metaphysics. In this age where many feel that man is running out of new frontiers, sound may be the passage to a new world of discovery.
- TAT Journal, No. 10, Fall 1980
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