Hidden powers of sound

Even physicists  concede sound has power and doctors concede sound has power to heal. But  there is more to it than that. Sound comes at us in forms  ranging from pure tones to poetry and opera. These sounds have physical, emotional and psychological power.

A pure tone is a sound of a  single frequency and porbably does not exist in  nature though tuning forks and expensive equipment come pretty close.  Any sound can be viewed as made up  from the  superposition of  pure tones all out of phase with each other to some extent. Superimposing two tones results in other tones  (overtones) arising. Some of these tones may be outside the normal range of human hearing but may still  be felt and missed if absent. As an example  in the early days of music CDs HiFi mavens claimed the  music sounded “dry” compared with analogue media, and this was attributed to the fact that digitisation clipped the frequency range in the music.

Pure Tones and White Noise

Pure tones seem to be of little use for healing though I have read claims, linked to Rife Machines , a claim to be treated with suspicion as the original Rife machines used radio waves and the inventor's claims to a cure for cancer have not been verified. In medicine however ultrasound at a fixed frequency has been found to have a beneficial effect and it may be that certain tones have beneficial effects.  Somehave however found benefit from Rife machines but if you choose to use one do not stop conventional therapy.

White Noise, a random mixture of all possible frequencies, is similarly useless for healing but forms the basis of Raudive Voices, voices allegedly heard when listening to the (white) noise obtained by tuning a radio to a frequency between stations. These voices are generally regarded as auditory illusions generated in the listener as a result of the human tendency to perceive patterns everywhere. A similar mechanism causes the “Satanic” messages heard when certain music is played backwards. Apart from the fact that anyone willing to listen to hours of music played backwards is obviously in need of a life and likely to believe anything, the messages are a result of expectation rather than objective fact. A shamans rattle produces bursts of quasi-white noise at regular intervals and this can induce a trance state, implying that the hearers of messages in revrsd music have been on a shamanic ride.

Overall though I think pure tones and white noise have limited use in magic or healing

Music is one of the most ancient of arts. Richard Rudgley in “Lost Civilisations of the Stone Age” put the invention of music firmly in the Palaeolithic, with natural features of caves used as rasps and drums. Most religions use music as part of their rituals and drums and rattles feature in shamanism. In Finland and Lapland I read that a Shaman's drum is regarded as a key for opening doors and that some doors are best not opened.

In the West at least sacred music tends to be sedate with a bias to lower frequencies. I understand that Islam bans music entirely, and I am not familiar with music in other religions. I have felt an ecstasy from listening to some organ music and certain hymns when properly sung and I speculate that the music that induces a state of bliss may have a preponderance of tones at or near the frequencies of natural body and brain rhythyms.

Music has been known to have healing properties. The right music has awakened coma patients and made childbirth easier. Music can insulate one from the world however and deaden the mind, as can television.

Music and magic have long been linked and simple instruments like the drum (Harder to play properly than it seems) or the monochord, a relative of the Berimba, the most important instrument in the Capoeira orchestra may transform a ritual from a banal observance into a tool of power. .

To use music in magic requires little musical ability, especially as pre-recorded music can be found easily. I know from experience that some such music can have very powerful effects.

Imagine a ritual in which music is used effectively. It starts and ends with a single tone consecrating the space time region between, Then music appropriate to the purpose is played with the aim of changing the tate of consciousness of the participants. Maybe quiet music for healing or meditation, maybe loud music to blot out rational thought and to shake the body and mind into new channels. when language is used it is chanted and the music dimmed to an almost subliminal level. Then as the ritual ends the music moves towards normal veryday music till the end tone finishes the ritual. Sounds like a church service, doesn't it?