Article by Catherine Meeson © 20111 & 2015

Everyone appreciates music. The why that we do so varies, but the vast majority of people have a love of the ability to vocalise, make sounds and create  pleasing patterns of sounds. We do this from birth naturally. Before it becomes music it is sound. Yet the experience and perspective on what music is, is entirely subjective. The chirping of a bird, the rumbling of a train upon the tracks, the play of children in the playground. These things have inherent musical nature, as they contain rhythms, patterns, tones, they are all utterances, uttered from slightly different types of beings- human, animal and mechanical.

We are now able to incorporate all of these sounds into musical forms. Many modern instruments are types of machines, especially within the electronic domain, they contain synthetic parts, circuit boards, knobs, and levers, wiring, which are constructed into wholes for a common purpose. Even that concept is musical, because music its self is about relationships, about harmony and relatedness of parts and wholes.

Sounds are an abundant phenomena, even within the seeming silence. It has been said the World is Sound (Nada Brahma). It is a very complex system of evocation and vocalisation. It is not necessary to have vocal chords to produce sound or music. Crickets do it with their wings, bees their wings in flight, the wind with its’ movement and the interplay with  the environment. Water with its’ passage against the rocks or shoreline. The fridge produces its hum from its’ motor and from the transmission of energy, the force involved in it’s mechanics coming to life, the 60 hz hum. A bell is struck; it does not sound alone. Most sounds need something to receive them, the air, the water, mass or something to act upon them. Then there is the domain of will and intent, the ability to initiate because the desire and ability is there to produce, the word/ sound.

The battle for dominance and power has always involved sound, battle cry’s, primal expressions, now it is bombs and guns, or the tearing of space with planes that fly at the speed of sound. Sounds arrest our attention, our ear instinctively responds, we can not deny or inhibit it or shut it down. It has been proven that when we sleep our hearing faculty remains active, processing the environment in which we dwell. Sound surrounds and encompasses space, but just as quickly as it comes, it goes. It’s vibrations pass into and through, sometimes absorbed, sometimes reflected, resonated and amplified. Sound interacts with it’s environment.  Sound is.

Our modern world is a sensory bombardment zone. We do not seem to have conscious choice. Everywhere we are exposed to sound. The norm is to have sound playing everywhere in the consumer world, as music drives cultural identification and stimulates behaviours and can be used to manipulate an unaware public. Train stations, at home, mobile phones, the internet, television, planes, automobiles, all forms of transport . The internet silently transmits the signal which magically we make audible again at the receiving end. Music transports our consciousness.

The point being, we are enveloped, but we Do have choice. We can choose what to tune into and out. To seek silence is crucial for health, to know one’s own thoughts and mind, one’s own feelings and heart. We are conditioned and absorbed into our cultural norms and it is not until insight dawns or we are otherwise taught that we realise we can shut it out for our health, and choose what we will give our attention and ears to. It is a bit of the old see no hear no speak no. It is essential.

Just as much as the silence is essential, is our own ability to sound and resound. Silence and sound are partners in health, the yin and yang of sonic phenomena. We have many words to describe sound making, din, racket, cacophony, symphony, serenade, song, sizzle, swoosh, thump, bang, screech, overture, melody, rhythm, harmony etc. I bet you could think of many descriptive terms.  Each has objective and subjective meaning and resonance, but they are all shared. A beautiful bath of sound for one irritates and jangles the nerves of another. The pounding bass at a fast rate faster than the aroused heartbeat, at incredulous volumes, is damaging to the ears and organs and literally hits one like a good hard thump in the guts. Such activity produces unease within the nervous system and hyper states that can not be sustained, the human heart rate can only ascend so much, and beyond that it is downright dangerous. Our world and being are vibratory in nature. It seems the louder we go the louder we want it to go . Thankfully along the road we have learnt a thing or two about Sound, Music and Health. There are elements everyone can employ without too much background or training to increase their health and well being. ‘Understanding the effects of the sonic environment on the nervous system, psyche and total health is not beyond the grasp of most people. Most people know intuitively and respond so.

We have likes and dislikes. This is our first guide, though sometimes stretching the boundaries to incorporate other musical tastes and styles is just what the doctor should order. We may grow up only with pop, be aroused all the time- unable to relax and be receptive to finer states of relaxation. In such instances one could be prescribed classical, ambient or new age music. In contrast a person whom only listens to easy listening and is depressed, morose and lacking physical vitality could do with a dose of Latin or middle eastern dance rhythms, to enliven , get the heart rate up and stimulate activity. This will naturally produce a change in the state of the being. One could also suggest songs with lyrics that touch on the core of the issues to help stimulate emotional connection, response and release, that could be the perfect antidote. A person who’s work environment plays music all the time to mask the Industrial rumble; could benefit from some ambient music, or silence infused with rustling leaves, frogs and birds to sooth the jangled desensitized nerves and ear cilia. A few days in a cottage by the sea could be the remedy for one struggling with relationship endings, needing solace and emotional release.

Sound is a primary force phenomena as our physics tell us, it is a waveform. It affects the particles of air and matter around it, it creates form (cymatics). It stimulates movement and entrainment (the coming into synchronisation and harmony with). It resonates and affects matter. Matter of the body, soul, emotions, mind and spirit, and subtle bodies.

So what use is all this? We can create guidelines for the conscious selection of music and sound for health. Being mindful of how sound, and music affect us personally, is the best place to begin educating our selves. To be sound is to be whole. To resound is to express that wholeness and being.

We can engage in soundwork practises to resonate the body, mind, spirit and shift blockages. We can massage our insides with sounds, sooth our nerves, raise our heartbeat, slow our brainwave state to enhance learning and relaxation. We can stimulate the imagination, enhance immune responses, increase our energy and come into union with the divine. We can release emotion and trauma. We can do many things with sound and music for health.

BASIC GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING MUSIC AND SOUND FOR HEALTH

To STIMULATE

Increase tempos to above 8o beats per minute (the pace of the music and heartbeat)

This has applications physically for integration, physical activity getting grounded and earthed. Also any shift here will affect the other bodies and states of being, ie emotional, mental, spiritual energetic.

To RELAX

Decrease tempos to below 80  - 60 bpm for further relaxation (choose music with slower or minimal percussive elements) and to promote the  stimulation of lower brain wave states such as Alpha and theta which are states conducive to relaxation, healing, enhanced learning and memory retention.  Caution  DO NOT do this whilst driving or operating machinery, one needs to be in a safe environment. Trust your feelings and your body sense and energy fields. You will know what is instinctively good for you.

Take head of warnings about sound levels and be moderate when listening to live or amplified sound. Wear plugs. It can exceed safe levels very quickly causing hearing damage, nervous system over stimulation, producing hyper states and excessive adrenalin thereby producing fight flight response patterns with bio-physiological changes.

Seek out nature and attune to the sounds of the natural world, the planet, water, wind, insects, birds, the frequencies they produce are at volumes  very life affirming and are completely organic. If you cannot access physical space, seek out recorded musics with these sounds, the internet has many such resources available to download or order.

Develop awareness of your sonic environment, what is there? Remember you can turn down, tune out, remove, and relocate the source of irritation or yourself at times. Communicate with any problematic noise producing persons/ situations (if you can) and try negotiate a pleasing outcome for both parties. You can take positive affirming action.

Appreciate sound and music from other cultures, they stimulate thought, feeling and the body and spirit in ways that our own indigenous styles do not and open one up to the larger human community, enhancing empathy and relatedness.

Appreciate sound and music are not only about entertainment and monopoly, they are primal expressions, original creative impulses, they have a sacred dimension in all our cultures before this materialistic age. They are a way of being in tune with self and the divine source. Music creation comes from the core of human beingness.

Develop your inner ears, the ears of discernment. Listening is about a lot more then what is audible. To listen is to perceive directly the essential natures of things and relationships between things. This involves the heart, the will, the spirit. Listening is multi-leveled; yet it involves the ability to comprehend; and comprehension is something that comes in stages at certain ages of human development. It is the getting of wisdom and this is, our life’s journey. Coming to know the self and realising the unity of all beings in Creation.

To Resound and be sound

To know The silence within,

Is the source of all knowledge

The field of the One.

That which births into time

Resounds within the all

Sound Is the expression of eternal becoming.


Blessings Catherine Meeson 20 2 2011

 

 

 

©CATHERINE MEESON 20.9.2013

Avolokiteshvara the Buddhist Avatar of Compassion is known for their role in listening to and responding to the cries of the world. And within this philosophical And cultural framework  is the notion of the bodhisattva, a being on the path to buddhahood that embodies the teachings of the dharma and the commitment to love and serve all species all life. This is one of the beautiful flowers of the cultural garden, a distinct sounding symphony originating from within  the Orient.

The Indigenous of most nations are known for their roles as Keepers of Lore and traditions which place emphasis on the role of listening, heeding the voice of all relations. They know that their actions effect the generations to come and consider this is all actions. They have always strived to live in balance and close to their conception of the creator and guiding beings/ ancestors. This worldview is embodied in sayings such as In La kech, I am another yourself, and Miyayuke, Oyasin for all my generations for the next seven generations, as I understand. These are other flowers in the cultural garden of being, keynotes of the larger symphony, from many places around the globe, the Nth and Sth Americas, Africa, Australia, Alaska, are the many voices of cultural wisdom saying the same things, but in different ways.


The symphony of Oneness is an expression of the life of Planet Earth, the sounds of time- An Interspecies soundscape. Acoustic ecologists( a field of study currently inspiring me), speak of the voices of the natural world as geophony (sounds of earth, wind, water, volcanoes, etc), biophony( the sounds of animals and I wonder plants?), and anthrophony (the sounds originating from mankind or in relation to our activities and inventions). The Soundscape is the total sounds of place at any given time.

Our current predicament suggests our Orchestra  of being, of harmonious relationship is out of order, out of tune, out of key. The voices of anthrophony reign supreme, the voices of biophony fade as habitat is lost and monetary value eclipses relational worth. The sounds of geophony, are regarded as non essential for survival , not so core in our educated industrialised paradigm. We are not dwelling in caves anymore, so why listen for predators, or howling winds heralding storms, (maybe we are the predators?). We block out , we tune out, we choose ‘to what; we will attune. But do we ignore our ancient instincts oriented around sound, and bring about our collective destruction in our haste to live the modern life and not take heed of the ancient knowings? Do you enjoy the voice of birds? How does the sound of the ocean make you feel? What of the sounds within a forest? Do you hear them or do you have plugs in the ears to generate your own sound cocoon? I do it , many do it. How often do we do it? How often do you have conversation with others? Are they physically present of virtual? Being needs being.

We are the dominant species , but our domination is destroying ourselves and all life. Realisation is the key, yet can only come through love and balanced relation with. Consciousness is able to ascend into greater aspects of being, as the capacity to love all and serve all grows within us,  we understand;  but for many it is very hard to attend to this knowing these exalted levels of being if we are bound to survival in our daily lives.  It is not impossible to act on realisation in such a circumstance but much more harder, requiring  different aspects of human ingenuity ; one thing that we are very good at. If knowledge is confined only to a discipline how can its teachings, its realizations benefit the collective . Realization is intrinsic to being, yet the specifics like pieces of the pies or atoms of the molecule, needs translating into the many tongues of the human community, of the common humanity. Therefore it is the responsibility of those that do understand , who do have aspects of knowledge that relate to the whole to be stewards of all life, to act from great beneficence and to be the voice of sanity to the policy makers, economists,  those of might and power within the halls of high courts, who hold the reigns of civilisation tight.

The symphony will play on regardless of our efforts, for we are not its only players, yet we are fast eclipsing the players who do not conform to our vision of reality, (other life forms, the Indigenous nations, third world etc)., the symphony of wilful egoist greed. We need to be guided by love and the higher principles common in all cultures.  Principles of order, and relation. Symphony members come and go, their skill levels voice and  performative capacity vary. They have different hearing capacity,  occupy different places in life and within the frequency domain., At times for many reasons being s, players; become dissonant as a result of misuse of knowledge motivated by greed. There can be no one unity of being within such diversity of population when the ground of being is cast aside- the fundamental of our symphony, which allows us to sound, to be Sound and to perceive sound; as earth  and the elements within it which allow sound to propagate. We abuse these elements and therefore ourselves. We are all related, we are all made of the same cell stuff, the elements which constitute life on earth have been found elsewhere in the universe, of course!

Just because we can does not mean we should. Our modern  Symphony conductors are economists, and corporations, military  and governments, who manipulate the masses and the elected governments with their resources. The songs that they sing, the tunes, alluring like the Pied Piper of Hamelin- appeal to the base instincts, appeal to the essential needs, the senses, and there you then have  people as a “Maestro manipulating music and matter alike”.

This may appear cynical, it sort of comes with age, but it is a perspective on our collective predicament, a specie hood critique if you will, of which I also am a player. I endeavour and many like me, to play a symphony all will like, where all are welcome because the concert is never ending, and the tickets are free.

The Symphony of Oneness an Interspecies Soundscape is the reality of the Sound world of Planet Earth. It’s nature changes over large spans of geological time. Change- modulation is a constant on the systemic level, but when human agency has wrought in 200-300 years changes which will echo on in the valleys of future mountain ranges of earth for millennia, what are we to do?. The modes of thought that got us here are what need to change, our view of reality our fundamental sonic , upon which all of our assumptions are built and that sonic is our modern civilization, the flower of the model from Ancient Greece, and Rome. If we truly understood the nature of what we were doing , if we heard clearly, we would realise the need to rewrite our symphony at the level of players and actors, actions and  directions for our collective species hood orchestra.

We must step outside ourselves for a while and step into the feet of other species, into  the cell, the soul of the world. The trunk of the tree growing, the wings of the bees labouring for the Queen. There would be no toxic pesticides in my colony. Everywhere in the natural world supreme order and harmony of relations is mirrored, is sounded, is sung in the dance of the symphony that modulates between concord and discord.

The collective stories and myths of the Great flood, the tale Of Noah, tells us we have  not changed much, each round our desire nature must be transmuted, or great change will make us. We become as children, forget the high ways of civilization before , and we progress down the same road manifest in a different way. Noah embodied the repository of wisdom, listening to guidance and making preparations,, and realizing the bigger picture is worth labouring for. He became , so we are told; steward to all life,  protector;  his role was to be the arc reaching from the old world to the new, the one to come after reconfiguration, after cataclysm. The world was repopulated so we are told, species hood again evolved and diversified. We had had great loss , we had  better make sure we remembered into the future, so how will we do it, Through art, story, song, myth, all over the world..

 But what we stand to lose this time is immense, whether through just human agency or the forces of larger spans of geological  change sped up, Do we think our sciences are evolved enough to re engineer?, revive all life forms because we have genetic repositories, because we are mapping genomes? I don’t think we are that far along yet, despite the science. We are still Mr Frankenstein  in the lab making monsters, like Monsanto cross breeding species and forms, waiting for the results of future mutations and experiments to get out of hand. What would these species sound like? Are we to be the progenitors of tomorrows symphony, do we even deserve to be? Do we know what divine will is? Do we know what it will sound like fifty years from now, a question Murray Schafer asked? Maybe it will just be a gentle wind blowing over the bones of the forgotten race. A slight melodic variation, due to holes in the bones of  the humans. Maybe distant visitors will come, and reseed the earth and clean it up, maybe their knowledge and capacity to love is greater.?

The collective will of all species is to life. Most people given the facts and the truth, if it is within their ability to understand, will choose the will to life. To love to harmony. It is the great composers who govern the collective symphony as revealed in the daily song, the yearly and future forecast  levels of governance that must be brought to account. They orchestrate the belief systems and social fabric, the norms entombed in the courts of the land as Law. The gnosis transmitted in the schools.  They is us. The laws were revealed by all great teachers in all cultures . The laws are revealed in nature herself. If we have indeed been nurtured, seeded from realms above and beyond this one, what is it that you think the higher forms of intelligence would want for us? What would the gods? Angels,? Avatars say, now? How would they guide us?

Haven’t they all along? Is it us who fail to understand the message and listen? Maybe the greatest teachers are those species around us who sacrifice themselves so that we may come to realization and knowledge. And within it, what symphony will we play into the future? Will it be a symphony of Oneness?

I do hope so.

Blessings Catherine Meeson

By Catherine Meeson © August 2014

TAPPING THE ANCIENT INSTINCTS TO REVEAL ESSENTIAL TRUTHS.

WHAT DOES SOUND OR THE LACK OF TELL US?

How does sound reflect the community of life?

The presence of sound is a revelation, a revelation of relationship. It demonstrates what is  and what is not. What is active and what is passive. It demonstrates ecological balance or lack of. It  presents a picture of  the  life of a given region , or globally of the world. It presents the preoccupations and outcomes of its inhabitants,  and of the earths  primary causative agents and forces. What does sound tell us? Listen. What does the lack of tell us? Listen. Take heed, come to our senses.  Sounds are a prime creative force, a tool of creation. We must ask what is sound creating, what is sound revealing? How does sound reflect the community of life. I will only narrate a version of events, as I see it. The seeing is up to you, the realisation is up to you. I can do no more than sound and resound the voices of the world which wish to be heard.

Scenario 1. 3am and one is awoken by the howling wind, raising the tin roof and slamming it back down again. Distant  dogs bark, and an eerie sense of the ominous pervades, am I safe one considers? One feels on edge. It is just the wind. Hope the roof holds and the trees down fall on the house. The mind races  into scenarios, movies play out in one’s mind, the brain cycles faster sleep does not return.

Scenario 2. 4 o’clock in the afternoon, looking forward to the end of the working day, a jackhammer starts  just out the front. One jumps out of their skin, on edge, not only is it loud, one can literally feel it through  ones feet. Uneasy, irritable and angry and has trouble finishing ones required duties. Is one safe? Objectively yes, there is not threat, but the peace and quiet is gone, the headroom necessary for work. Yet why does the body still respond when the mind knows there is no physical threat to ones person? For sound is implicated in our survival at the deepest levels.

‘Sound acts as portal, sense as signifier’. Barry Truax  called “Sound Signifier of relationship”, in his brilliant work Acoustic  Communication (1). R Murry Schafer before him did an extensive study of the world soundscape in his pioneering book ‘The  Soundscape’ (2). Both men helped establish  a field of study into  nature of sound and its influence on the sphere of all life in a field called Acoustic Ecology. Acoustic Ecology as I understand it examines and reflects upon the relationships between aspects of local ecologies, places and the sounds inherent within and produced by them. Another member of the field  Bernie Kraus, penned the terms Anthrophony, biophony and geophony. Geophony examines the sounds of earth, water, wind, earthquake etc etc. Biophony:- the sounds of animals. Anthrophony:- the sounds of persons and the  technologies and artifacts created by humans.

We have come to understand the inherent link between sound and health and how sound impacts the body mind and spirit of all orders of being. Studies exist demonstrating the effects of thought, intention, spoken song, vibrations, frequencies, wavelengths both sub and infrasonic on living beings and matter states. From plants to animals, water, people and other inorganic matter. Studies also demonstrate sounds negative  and positive effects and its primordial link with survival.  We would dismiss our innate body sense as an evolutionary artefact  from a Neanderthal hunter gatherer era survival mode. But we need to take heed , as the world is becoming louder, mainly with discordant stress producing anthrophony, and the life enhancing sounds of biophony and geophony we have evolved with  and their relationship to co evolutionary development are becoming more apparent, as they fade into memory. We are drowning  out the natural world and causing ourselves immense stress, leading not only to hearing problems , but to nervous system, heart and stress related disorders, relationship problems, mental health issues such as anxiety, depression post traumatic stress etc. Yet what concerns me most is that  everything is about us humans, and few are attending to the voice or place of other species , of their right to be within the web of life, and so they are, in increasing numbers fading into oblivion, ie, becoming extinct.

SOUND IS PORTAL TO OTHER WORLDS


It takes us through time, through memory into thought and feeling. Out of our body (physical) and  into our energy bodies  as well as initiating shamanic soul flight. It reveals the mysteries of creation of form (cymatics) and the geometries of creation. It’s visible affect exhibits pictures of consonance and dissonance in various matter states:- water , sand, plasma etc.

Sense as signifier tells us it is supreme storyteller, it teaches directly through our embodied form- our body. Our soul may  comprehend or it may not. Yet even if it does not, the senses still signify, sound still acts as portal. We still receive, information at an unconscious and supra-conscious level.

Together sound as signal – is sound as revealer of source. Follow the sound reveal the source, reveal the nature of the created. Is the signal harmonious- is the sound in harmony with life? I ask for you to  contemplate. Sound has already taught me many things and I will remain an eager student for the rest of my life.

Sound as portal takes us through the mists of time to previous civilizations and cultures, to perceive as they did for a time, as they encoded information and knowledge within the structures they built and occupied , instruments, dolmens, temples, architecture, adorned caves and ceremonial sites. This take us into the realm of archeo-acoustics and the supernatural. The archaeology of sound. Considering both the  technologies of former times and the perceptions of the psyche of the living.

So What does sound or the lack of tell us? How does it reflect the community of life? If time is a construct of the congealing of forces in space what relevance does it have now?

For us now more than ever in history we need to tap the ancient instincts beyond the level of mind to reveal the essential truths, truths relevant to all orders of being. It is no good for the goose it is no good for the gander.  We need to come to terms with what ‘is’ and reflect deeply, than we must act.

Our obsession for power as expressed through sound as well as other media knows no bounds. The consumer can now buy systems capable of producing exceptional wattage to power audio systems within homes and vehicles. Legislation does exist, to protect persons and property but is it being enforced? Where is the department responsible for sound damages. Where is the Ministry of Sound? Make no mistake sound creates and it also destroys, our legends tell us this, our modern science demonstrates. Our love for the loud and the pounding is assaulting not only us, but the community of life, and our actions in this context are immoral. Forests do not wish to be assaulted by screeching machines  cutting down trees and  blaring techno parties. Birds do not wish to be terrorized out of the trees. Who asks about what they hear,  what they feel within their bodies? Who asks and understands that we affect their mating patterns, their instincts their home? I have gone to and played at these outdoor parties, yet no one I have met speaks for the community of life in such events. They are often not isolated in broadcast reach and they are taken into forests and places where wildlife exists and damage is done. People are literally sonically blasting their bodies, they are being levitated off the ground. In boom cars they are reconfiguring the cellular matter of their bodies by sonic assault. Once sound reaches a certain level it will kill. This is why the military  and police forces have researched its affect and  incorporated it into their arsenal as a non lethal crowd control mechanism. At certain frequency ranges and decibel levels it will cause harm, often temporary ranging from nausea, headaches etc, to extreme anxiety, trouble thinking etc. Normal functioning  recommences when the sound generator is removed or turned off. It does not need to be audible, as the range of sound as a frequency goes  both above and below the level of human beings and as such its hz cycle rate is only a small part of the sound/ frequency spectrum.

We want everything bigger and  louder for our pleasure, more powerful, without thought without understanding the nature of power, of the nature of sound and its affect on living systems/ life. Sound can be potentially just as destructive as a bomb and expect the creation of weapons of war unthinkable as yet, for they will come .

And so what is sound or the lack of telling us? It is telling us to listen, it is demanding our attention, to listen beyond our species, to the great die off the sixth great extinction. It is indicating how we are affecting the community of life, as we grow parasitically as the dominant species changing the  face of the earth. It is indicating how we are affecting the community of life through our actions.  The sounds of severe weather events due to climate change could parallel  the old gods displeasure. Storms cut over land to clear the air, waters cleanse by flood. What do they reveal? They reveal the  attempt to rebalance and maintain homeostasis for the larger life support system that is the earth:- that of balanced relations. Sure the sounds of nature an catastrophe  be natural phenomena , but with many different purposes when one questions the nature of being.

Life in native ecosystems or communities in health reveal a diverse  range of voices, of sounds, dependent upon the local  geography, topography, and climate, and the type of community it supports i.e., desert, river, forest, tropic, swamp, intertidal zone, deep ocean, etc. Once upon a time the gods were embodied and implicated in the sounds and health of the world around us. Pele Volcano goddess, Neptune the Sea God. Tempests , volcanic eruptions and other such demonstrations  of natural  phenomena were  the displeasure of the gods. We know better now don’t we? In the rationalist  post Darwinian era? There exists the term, anthropomorphosize   to describe placing human or divine attributes  upon things. An Angry father figure,  a vengeful goddess, a mischievous Djinn. Our symbolic unconscious has always drawn associations  that link between forces and things, that it did not comprehend rationally.  I believe that in the dark mists of pre history we suffered major trauma of a sonic nature that have never fully left us The traumas  are encoded in our genes. The knowledge of sound as agent of hurt as well as of healing is deep within the genome. Sonic warfare, warfare with sound as a by product, natural catastrophes such as 300db meteor strikes,  so embedded into the realm of myth and scripture that now they only remain as stories that whisper of such times. But such times were, such times are such times be again, such times  approach, times of tearing the sky in two, of earth being rent, of catastrophic force at the hands of the humans.  Most of the predators are gone or controlled and  restrained. We are the biggest predator subjecting the world to  many warfares including sonic warfare as a by product of human activity. Everywhere the noise is incessant within the cities, the din (djinn) mischievous spirits of the machines grow louder by the day. Tales exist and dreams reveal the patterns of yesterday. Atlantis rises – the ether is penetrated, The akashic records open, the technologies poor onto the planet manifesting the mind of days gone by. We did not learn the lessons of misuse of power the same souls are reincarnate.

If we listen to place, place will tell us everything about it. What voices are present, what voices are dominant, what voices are absent? What dwells there, what no longer dwells? The tragedy of species loss revealed by sound, is not beyond our senses or our sensibilities, and surely not beyond the open compassionate collective heart. Enter sound as Portal- Sense as Signifier of Relationship.

If you would like to know more information about this or engage in dialogue please contact the Author

REFERENCES

 Truax, Barry 2001, Acoustic Communication , 2nd ed., Ablex Publishing, Westport, Conneticut, London.

Schafer, RM 1977, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, 1994 ed., Destiny books, Rochester, Vermont, United States.

Tame, D 1984, The Secret Power of Music- The Transformation of Self and Society Through Musical Energy, 2nd ed., the Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, Northhamptonshire.

"Think  Ahead is a new exhibition about advances in science and technology which blends innovative exhibits with hands on experiences to inspire you to research, think creatively and share your ideas” (Museum Victoria, 2014).

Melbourne’s Innovative Children’s education center  Scienceworks in  Spotswood, focuses on kinaesthetic and multi sensory exhibits. It has presented another fantastic exhibit with a special ‘Sound Room’. It immediately evoked the inner child in me who first discovered the joy of making sounds and the effect they could have on ones state of being ie. consciousness.  It is a sci fi inspired sound module or sound pod  which introduces people to the basics of Sound Psychology, and has an easy to touch, screen sample composition module – using pictographs. It is a similar concept to one of their previous compositional  models using pictograms with preset sounds one can select from, easy to use for instant playback and recognition, and is gratifying for youngsters. The control sits in the center of the sound pod and there are four reclining seats to listen from and select feeling responses .

The compositional unit uses multiple tracks of audio as in any standard digital recording and playback technology. It is always in play mode scrolling right to left along the timeline. One can choose between four themes and four moods and compose a basic sound palette exploring sonic effects and feeling states and  physiological responses. One is still exposed to the low freq sound waves from another part of the exhibit , it acts as  constant background drone demonstrating the acoustics of a standing wave.

Sound has been acknowledged as a prime agent of state change, able to affect persons physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually going back in historical records to cultures like the ancient Greeks, Chinese and Egyptian. So the field of Sound psychology is not new, just a revision of aspects of previous knowledge conveyed under slightly different terminology (culture and time context dependent).

Sound has a tremendous impact on state of health and stress production.  It is  a phenomena of the physical universe of vibrations made audible travelling through the air, but frequency phenomena  including those outside of the range of human hearing  (20-20,000 hz) also passes through matter states, just at different frequency wavelengths ( as in ultrasound and infrasound). Sound waves can travel through dense objects, air and water, and as inaudible  frequencies through space, more of an emission or pulse.

The ‘Create a Mood with Sound’ ( see picture)- pictographic composition gave the following

General themes

Future 

Musical                               

Human                

Environmental

The wave or mp3 samples, were dragged and dropped to play, conducted long the “play zone”. The listening pod/ sound module has other panels for selection for  the listener  with smiley faces, (see photograph) to express how the sounds being played made one feel. It is not prescriptive however studies have informed the choice of samples, they are most definitely themed  according to known parameters of music /sounds effect on body and mind. These factors are too numerous to mention here in detail, but mention such things as rhythmic element, pitch, timbre,  natural and synthetic, frequency, etc.

The Faces include

Scared

Sad

Happy

Calm

Another board spoke about the rhythms of the body and the resulting feeling states i.e. affect and introduced tonality and tempo as factors known to affect us. The dominant soundscape of city life is  mentioned  with reference to how we may adapt our sound world in the future to deal with the stressors of 21st century life. City soundscapes are known as being particularly stressful, and have impacts on the health of humans and the diversity of biological species, such as bird populations.

The other element of ‘Creating a Mood with Sound’ to select from was the selection of emotions which together with the other presets of Music, Nature, etc brought up, pre-selected palette of samples. The choices were

Scared

Sad

Happy

Calm  

This linked in with the listening selectors so people could offer their reflections which in some cases may differ, depending of course on a persons subjective response. Sound & health studies as a broad field has some universal aspects and some that are more of the subjective kind.

The children could compose “Scary future sounds”, or Calm environmental “ for example by dragging the picotgrams onto any of the three tracks of the ‘play zone’. It is a fantastic way of generating awareness and educating about the rapidly evolving field of sound studies. Sound studies have so many implications for Future Culture and all living beings.  It is timely that we are examining the effect of sound on other forms of life. Historical recsearch and recent studies have been done regarding sounds effect on plants, animals as well as persons.  Sound has been used in medicine and engineering and will no doubt continue to be the cutting edge of innovation of many fields of study, with broad applications.

I found it engaging and timely, as it accords both with my lived experience , which is what drove me into researching the phenomena of sound on all levels and being a sonic archaeologist . Many years or private research have me able to recognize the importance of Exhibits like this, and able to offer commentary of interest. My exegesis and thesis last year 'Oriental Temple Gardens Complex composition  explored the ideal sonic world, a sonic utopia, exploring all aspects previously mentioned in this blog so far, in a written thesis and a composed work, of 22.20. It considers sound music and health, inter-species relations, music healing traditions, cross cultural spiritualities and acoustic ecology.

To conclude, I think the ‘Sound Room’ has huge potential, and is a timely exhibit marvelously presented. It connects to some of my own ideas and has great future applications.

Photos taken on phone by Catherine Meeson of exhibit elements, from Scienceworks/ Museum of Victoria.


REFERENCES

Museum Victoria 2014, ‘What’s on Today’ Pamphlet and map , Scienceworks, Spotswood Victoria.

All rights reserved in full, no unauthorized usage without prior written consent of the author.

Avalokiteshvara the Buddhist Avatar of Compassion is known for their role ( dual as in masculine feminine) in listening to and responding to the cries of the world. And within this philosophical and cultural framework  is the notion of the bodhisattva, a being on the path to buddhahood that embodies the teachings of the dharma and the commitment to love and serve all species all life. This is one of the beautiful flowers of the cultural garden, a distinct sounding symphony originating from within  the Orient. The Ancient Chinese Emperors understood sound and its effects upon civilization and would survey their kingdoms, guided by the Dao. They knew that disorder within the sound of the World would spell doom for the people, and hence their kingdom sought in its ways of governance, to be strictly in accord with the Cosmic Tone.

The Indigenous of most nations are known for their roles as Keepers of Lore and traditions which place emphasis on the role of listening, heeding the voice of all relations. They know that their actions effect the generations to come and consider this is all actions. They have always striven to live in balance and close to their conception of the creator and guiding beings/ ancestors. This worldview is embodied in sayings such as In La kech, I am another yourself, and Mitakuye Oyasin for all my generations for the next seven generations, as I understand. These are other flowers in the cultural garden of being, keynotes of the larger symphony, from many places around the globe. The Nth and Sth Americas, Africa, Australia, Alaska, have many voices of cultural wisdom saying the same things, but in different ways.

The symphony of Oneness is an expression of the life of Planet Earth, the sounds of time- An Interspecies soundscape. Acoustic ecologists( a field of study currently inspiring me), speak of the voices of the natural world as geophony (sounds of earth, wind, water, volcanoes, etc), biophony( the sounds of animals and I wonder plants?), and anthrophony (the sounds originating from mankind or in relation to our activities and inventions). The Soundscape is the total sounds of place at any given time.

Our current predicament suggests our Orchestra  of being, of harmonious relationship is out of order, out of tune, out of key. The voices of anthrophony reign supreme, the voices of biophony fade as habitat is lost and monetary value eclipses relational worth. The sounds of geophony, are regarded as non essential for survival , not so core in our educated industrialized paradigm. We are not dwelling in caves anymore, so why listen for predators, or howling winds heralding storms, (maybe we are the predators?). We block out , we tune out, we choose ‘to what; we will attune. But do we ignore our ancient instincts oriented around sound, and bring about our collective destruction in our haste to live the modern life and not take heed of the ancient knowings? Do you enjoy the voice of birds? How does the sound of the ocean make you feel? What of the sounds within a forest? Do you hear them or do you have plugs in the ears to generate your own sound cocoon? I do it , many do it. How often do we do it? How often do you have conversation with others? Are they physically present of virtual? Being needs being.

We are the dominant species , but our domination is destroying ourselves and all life. Realization is the key, yet can only come through love and balanced relation with. Consciousness is able to ascend into greater aspects of being, as the capacity to love all and serve all grows within us,  we understand;  but for many it is very hard to attend to this knowing these exalted levels of being if we are bound to survival in our daily lives.  It is not impossible to act on realization in such a circumstance but much more harder, requiring  different aspects of human ingenuity ; one thing that we are very good at. If knowledge is confined only to a discipline how can its teachings, its realizations benefit the collective . Realization is intrinsic to being, yet the specifics like pieces of the pies or atoms of the molecule, needs translating into the many tongues of the human community, of the common humanity. Therefore it is the responsibility of those that do understand , who do have aspects of knowledge that relate to the whole to be stewards of all life, to act from great beneficence and to be the voice of sanity to the policy makers, economists,  those of might and power within the halls of high courts, who hold the reigns of civilization tight.

The symphony will play on regardless of our efforts, for we are not its only players, yet we are fast eclipsing the players who do not conform to our vision of reality, (other life forms, the Indigenous nations, third world etc)., the symphony of wilful egoist greed. We need to be guided by love and the higher principles common in all cultures.  Principles of order, and relation. Symphony members come and go, their skill levels voice and  per-formative capacity vary. They have different hearing capacity,  occupy different places in life and within the frequency domain., At times for many reasons being s, players; become dissonant as a result of misuse of knowledge motivated by greed. There can be no one unity of being within such diversity of population when the ground of being is cast aside- the fundamental of our symphony, which allows us to sound, to be Sound and to perceive sound; as earth  and the elements within it which allow sound to propagate. We abuse these elements and therefore ourselves. We are all related, we are all made of the same cell stuff, the elements which constitute life on earth have been found elsewhere in the universe, of course!

Just because we can does not mean we should. Our modern  Symphony conductors are economists, and corporations, military  and governments, who manipulate the masses and the elected governments with their resources. The songs that they sing, the tunes, alluring like the Pied Piper of Hamelin- appeal to the base instincts, appeal to the essential needs, the senses, and there you then have  people as a “Maestro manipulating music and matter alike”.

This may appear cynical, it sort of comes with age, but it is a perspective on our collective predicament, a specie hood critique if you will, of which I also am a player. I endeavor and many like me, to play a symphony all will like, where all are welcome because the concert is never ending, and the tickets are free.

The Symphony of Oneness an Interspecies Soundscape is the reality of the Sound world of Planet Earth. It’s nature changes over large spans of geological time. Change- modulation is a constant on the systemic level, but when human agency has wrought in 200-300 years changes which will echo on in the valleys of future mountain ranges of earth for millennia, what are we to do?. The modes of thought that got us here are what need to change, our view of reality our fundamental sonic , upon which all of our assumptions are built and that sonic is our modern civilization, the flower of the model from Ancient Greece, and Rome. If we truly understood the nature of what we were doing , if we heard clearly, we would realize the need to rewrite our symphony at the level of players and actors, actions and  directions for our collective species hood orchestra.

We must step outside ourselves for a while and step into the feet of other species, into  the cell, the soul of the world. The trunk of the tree growing, the wings of the bees labouring for the Queen. There would be no toxic pesticides in my colony. Everywhere in the natural world supreme order and harmony of relations is mirrored, is sounded, is sung in the dance of the symphony that modulates between concord and discord.

The collective stories and myths of the Great flood, the tale Of Noah, tells us we have  not changed much, each round our desire nature must be transmuted, or great change will make us. We become as children, forget the high ways of civilization before , and we progress down the same road manifest in a different way. Noah embodied the repository of wisdom, listening to guidance and making preparations,, and realizing the bigger picture is worth labouring for. He became , so we are told; steward to all life,  protector;  his role was to be the arc reaching from the old world to the new, the one to come after reconfiguration, after cataclysm. The world was repopulated so we are told, species hood again evolved and diversified. We had had great loss , we had  better make sure we remembered into the future, so how will we do it, Through art, story, song, myth, all over the world..

 But what we stand to lose this time is immense, whether through just human agency or the forces of larger spans of geological  change sped up, Do we think our sciences are evolved enough to re engineer?, revive all life forms because we have genetic repositories, because we are mapping genomes? I don’t think we are that far along yet, despite the science. We are still Mr Frankenstein  in the lab making monsters, like Monsanto cross breeding species and forms, waiting for the results of future mutations and experiments to get out of hand. What would these species sound like? Are we to be the progenitors of tomorrows symphony, do we even deserve to be? Do we know what divine will is? Do we know what it will sound like "fifty years, a thousand years from now?", a question Murray Schafer asked Maybe it will just be a gentle wind blowing over the bones of the forgotten race. A slight melodic variation, due to holes in the bones of  the humans. Maybe distant visitors will come, and reseed the earth and clean it up, maybe their knowledge and capacity to love is greater.?

The collective will of all species is to life. Most people given the facts and the truth, if it is within their ability to understand, will choose the will to life. To love to harmony. It is the great composers who govern the collective symphony as revealed in the daily song, the yearly and future forecast  levels of governance that must be brought to account. They orchestrate the belief systems and social fabric, the norms entombed in the courts of the land as Law. The knowledge transmitted in the schools.  They is us. The laws were revealed by all great teachers in all cultures . The laws are revealed in nature herself. If we have indeed been nurtured, seeded from realms above and beyond this one, what is it that you think the higher forms of intelligence would want for us? What would the gods? Angels,? Avatars say, now? How would they guide us?

Haven’t they all along? Is it us who fail to understand the message and listen? Maybe the greatest teachers are those species around us who sacrifice themselves so that we may come to realization and knowledge. And within it, what symphony will we play into the future? Will it be a symphony of Oneness?

I do hope so.