There is so much happening in our bodies that we want to control but barely understand.
The constant energy of movement in our lives makes it is easy to forget that we are not the solid impermeable bodies we believe ourselves to be. 70% of the human body is water, which means we have the incredible capability to absorb and transmit energy in ways that affect our health and day to day activities.
The idea that sound has an impact on our emotions is something that is fairly obvious to the daily listener, it is the reason why we choose certain songs to play over others when we are in a particular mood. But there is something more to these vibrations and frequencies than what we are recognizing, and this spectrum of emotion is happening to our bodies on a cellular level. Through the modern and ancient practices of medical and spiritual healing, we have been able to document the impact of sound and vibrational healing, particularly in effecting the psychology and emotions of people. As long as music has been made, through voices and instruments, there has always been a colloquial awareness towards the healing power of song, whether based in religion or secular culture, around the world. The congruences between Gregorian chanting and Tibetan sound bowl healing are interesting examples of the universal healing elements of sound. Research and experimental trials with DNA repair, stress reduction, dementia, cancer, and chakra healing are just some of the areas where the treatments of sound therapy have been effective.
With the technology of modern day medical science, we have been able to further the accuracy of our knowledge involving the emotional, physical and neurological responses of the human body to music. As a global culture we have opened the spectrum of instances in which we encounter sound and music, transforming this unique form of communication from its survivalist roots of to a valuable sector of entertainment.
In mainstream Western culture we do not use music to communicate escape routes, weather patterns, oral histories, or any other information pertinent to the survival of people and traditions. This is not to say that there aren't artists who strive to promote those practices within their music, but more to say that survival is no longer the immediate genesis of creative human vibrational communication.
When it comes to present forms of vibrational media (radio, tv, online streaming, videos, etc.), many academic and spiritual scholars agree that certain interactions with vibration can disrupt the natural harmony of the body’s internal frequency. To musicians and musical savants this may be well known, but to average listeners this research provides a new perspective. I am a person who has never produced music (although I did a quick stint with string instruments) I cannot say that I have ever thought about the hertz of the music and sounds that I interact with.
Within sound therapy, 432 hz is significant because it is known to be mathematically consistent with the oscillatory nature of the universe, which has been correlated with the beneficial healing energy related to music in this tuning. The measure of 528 hz used in DNA repair, is also an important number along with many tunings of the ancient Solfeggio scale.
Like with all things under the will of human agency, sound is subject to abuse, and there are well known conspiracies behind vibrational discord; as it relates to societal happenings. The tuning of 440 hz is said to be the level at which a mathematical consistency with nature is broken and generally disturbs the internal vibration processes of the body; often causing feelings of anxiety, irritability, stress and anger.
In 1933, Joseph Goebbels, a member of the German Nazi Party, became Adolf Hitler’s Propaganda Minister giving him control over the radio, press, cinema and theater. Goebbels is known for the multi-media tactics he employed, used to inspire anxiety and aggression within the German population, which centrally included the manipulation of music and auditory culture. There are conspiracy theories that support the idea that Goebbels promoted the alternate 440 hz (also known as A440) frequency as a form of emotional and mental control over the German masses.
In the 1904’s the U.S. introduced this tuning to the world audience and later in 1955 (later affirmed in 1975) this became the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 16-standard, making it an audio reference for the calibration of acoustic equipment and the tuning of many key and string instruments from then on.
All of this is thoroughly involved in the way we receive music and media today, primarily because of the practices in subliminal frequency communication that are being used to promote certain aspects of our contemporary culture. We are constantly receiving messages, not only through the seemingly more active senses of sight and touch, but we are also receiving information from the music that we play in the foregrounds and backgrounds of our life.
Another theory alleging the negative manipulation of the brain and behavior, through the vibrations of sound, surrounds the future of hip hop music. Disclosed in an online letter--from someone whose guilt in allegedly participating had gotten to them-- are the details of the well-paid proposition to use hip hop music as a way to support the prison-industrial complex (most likely spoken by all white men). By producing music with lower frequencies and violent lyrics (...and engendering institutionalized racism), the manifestations of anger in people leave entire communities broken and exposed to further exploitation. As hip hop continues today, many have touched on the transformation of the mainstream audience, and the responsibility of rappers, singers, and entertainers to educate and inspire their people, particularly Minister Louis Farrakhan.
My point in bringing this up is neither to confirm or deny this theory. When you have studied and lived under the intricate system of oppressing and controlling the lives of black and brown people in the United States and around the world, it is pretty easy to see how manipulating something as subliminal as frequency and vibration of sound, is plausible.
As we reflect on the impact of music in our lives, it is important to realize that there are increased possibilities for the way we use sound, because of the direct connection it has to our emotions and our general health. Being mindful of the vibrational messages we absorb and transmit, is part of being an empathetic being and part of the singular and collective process of healing.