Ancient reverberations heard

The New Scientist article, Echoes of the past: The sites and sounds of prehistory, reviews evidence from the emerging field of acoustical archeology. Do stone circles, dolmens, ancient temples and earthworks amplify sound in ways that are of intentional design and if so, are those amplifications effective or beneficial?

Bruno Fazenda at the University of Salford, UK., studied a concrete reconstruction of the Stonehenge monument at Maryhill, Washington state:

“What Fazenda measured was impressive. “It’s actually like walking into an enclosed space with a lively acoustic,” he says. “It is a really good space for speech because reflections from the stones mean you can be heard everywhere within it, even if you’re hidden behind a stone.” Clap your hands in the space and the sound reverberates around the monument as it reflects from stone to stone. The reverberation takes about 1.2 seconds to die down- typical for an opera house or school hall but astoundingly long for a space with no ceiling.”

Although the original purpose of the site is unclear, the resonating qualities of the megalithic stone circle may have been to assist ceremonial gatherings, perhaps to allow participants to hear easily within the large space. Sound amplification in the space is revealed in this study, yet intentionality or usefulness remain unclear.

Roman engineer Vitruvius suggested placing resonating bronze vases in theaters with the intention of amplifying actors’ voices. In other parts of the ancient world, vases were installed under seats in churches (“lydpotter” in Denmark) to purportedly dampen sound.

“Various scientists have examined vases found in about 200 churches and mosques built between the 11th and 16th centuries in many parts of Europe. Measurements have shown that the vases do very little for the acoustics of the churches: there are usually not enough of them, or they resonate at frequencies different from those needed to support the human voice. Why they were put there remains a mystery (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol 112, p 2333).”

Current research suggests neither vase placement practice had much of an effect on audible sound. Perhaps another kind of frequency was intended to be manipulated by the vases?

Omphalos comes to mind. In Greece, omphalos were used in divination at Delphi and other oracles in the ancient world. Apollo is shown seated on an omphalos in coins and sculpture. Does the omphalos direct energy of the earth through the human chakra system and into the heavens? (Apollo is, after all, a sun god.) Clues to the process of divination exist in Helena Blavatsky’s esoteric description of a typical Delphi seeress in “Isis Unveiled:”

“A Pythia, upon the authority of Plutarch, Iamblichus, Lamprias, and others, was a nervous sensitive; she was chosen from among the poorest class, young and pure. Attached to the temple, within whose precincts she had a room, secluded from every other, and to which no one but the priest, or seer, had admittance, she had no communications with the outside world, and her life was more strict and ascetic than that of a Catholic nun. Sitting on a tripod of brass placed over a fissure in the ground, through which arose intoxicating vapors, these subterranean exhalations penetrating her whole system produced the prophetic mania. In this abnormal state she delivered oracles. She was sometimes called ventriloqua vates,* the ventriloquist‐prophetess.”

But I digress, we’re taking acoustics here, not metaphysics. My mind glances on Johannes Kepler’s music of the spheres theory, where planets all emit a sound frequency, and a BBC article I read on solar flares a while back:

“Immense coils of hot, electrified gas in the Sun’s atmosphere behave like a musical instrument, scientists say. These “coronal loops” carry acoustic waves in much the same way that sound is carried through a pipe organ. Solar explosions called micro-flares generate sound booms which are then propagated along the coronal loops.

“The effect is much like plucking a guitar string,” Professor Robert von Fay-Siebenbuergen told BBC News at the National Astronomy Meeting in Preston.”

Maybe Kepler was on to something when he wrote Harmonices Mundi in 1619, five books promoting the idea of earthly harmony as a facet of geometry and a reflection of musical harmony. That’s a topic for another day.

~

Afterthought and speculation: What OBEs speak to this these findings? Could amplified sound waves in megalithic stone circles be generated and harnessed for locomotion or energetic healing? Was Stonehenge a facility in the ancient global society that Michael Tellinger proposes and if so, and was sound amplification a key facet of that society?

Columns, singing and the power of sound

I’ve been fascinated with vibrational medicine ever since my first stint in grad school when Fritjof Capra’s The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems was required reading. I had already discovered the work of Louise Hay and Joan Borysenko, offering mind-body-spirit approaches to healing and wellness. In Capra’s exposition, I found information which shifted my world view in the direction of my soul’s longing— that of the esoteric, of the seemingly hidden forces of the intangible on the tangible.

I am reminded of John 1:1 in the Bible: “In the beginning, there was the word”— anecdotal evidence of the power of sound to create somethingness (physical) from nothingness (non-physical).

Sound temples are my latest fascination. Michael Tellinger has been researching artifacts, including the phenomenon of stone circles worldwide, hinting at an ancient global society. In one ancient circle, he found stones of a material composition that ring when you strike them. Imagine a megalithic stone structure, activated by striking, that begins to ring and interacts with the other stones around it that also begin to ring, which creates a harmonic in a circular structure, suggested to be a standing wave by Tellinger.

Aerial reconstruction of Woodhenge (UK)

Some of these structures were activated by human voice, possibly in groups, akin to singing in church today. Were these purely ceremonial sites, or are these relics of an aeon’s old technological age? If the latter, what was the energy produced by these sound emanations harnessed for?

Looking to science, I find an article in Archaelogy Today’s online edition: The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt. Meresamun was a part-time singer and musician in the interior of the Temple of Amun (also known as Amun-Ra) at Karnak, likely from a long lineage of women who entertained in service to the temple, and in Mere’s case, a wealthy family, as the remains of her coffin indicate. In her time— around 800 BC in Thebes, Egypt— women were singers, priestesses or “wives of god,” inside the temple, while men played instruments outside the temple.

Temple of Amun Karnak Floor Plan

I look further and find photos of the Hypostyle Hall in the interior and a floor plan of the temple. The columns are huge and arranged inside a rectangular wall in straight rows unlike the older megalithic stone circles, a four sided enclosure rather than an open, circular perimeter. (Some, like Woodhenge, with interior concentric rings.)

But Meresamun’s life history is a mere three thousand years ago, and Tellinger suggests that the civilization who built the stone circles and other megaliths world wide were perhaps 450,000 years ago in our timeline, back in the Paleozoic Era, itself another fascinating hypothesis.

Tellinger is touring the US early this autumn and you may be able to hear him present his evidence live in a city near you. If not, watch Tellinger discuss his controversial theory on man as a slave species on his website, slavespecies.com. His book is also available on Amazon.com.

Read about Meresamun in the book that accompanied the 2009 exhibit in Chicago’s ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt) and Oriental Institute.

Torbay meet Toray… signs from the future?

Okay, I can only say this story will go in and out of time a bit. It starts last summer and where it ends remains to be seen.

Last August, I painted some art works “intuitively” and without subject, simply setting my mind clear, putting paint to paper and watching what unfolded. This was exciting for me, seeing form pop up without expectation, especially since my ability to see forms clearly with eyes closed (clairvoyance) had nearly faded after I had seen something that I’d rather not have known. To discover this new way of “seeing” via paint was a thrill.

I found that words accompanied the paintings, almost always as they were nearing completion. (In this painting, “See Toray.”) I was uncertain of what they meant, but sensed meaning nonetheless. And clearly I could “see” a “sea” or body of water in this painting, so seemed to fit.

“Toray” reminded me of “torus”— I’d been fascinated by torsion and natural geologic energy vortices as employed in energy systems, reading volumes on scientists like Nikola Tesla and the Austrian Viktor Schauberger from February through March prior to the painting. (And Shauberger is all about natural energy. He suggests fish swimming upstream jump into energy vortices created by the turbulent river itself, like unseen elevators that propel them stealthly to their elevated destination.)

After the painting, I set it aside to not force interpretation from my own mind. If I’d learned anything about these clairs of mine, it’s that they work best when I allow the information to find me, not the other way around. I simply set it aside in anticipation of how serendipitously I’d get my answers. After all, “Sardinia” had spoken in a painting a week before, and within a week we received our copy of National Geographic’s Traveler with “ITALY: A Dream Drive on the Sardinian Coast” boldly on the cover. Still no obvious “answers” but a breadcrumb nonetheless… I’m down for a drive along the Emerald Coast.

But I’ll try to stay on track. Those of you who’ve wanted a peek at my breadcrumb experiences can likely endure.

So last week, eight months after I painted See Toray, I stumbled across some breadcrumbs while doing an unrelated search online. My notes as jotted in my journal:

4.16.10 update: Torquay found via online search on artist promo, reminds me of Toray” words that came to me while painting a landscape overlooking water (intuited landscape) with a big spiral pattern open cistern type circle. Here’s what one Google search result showed:

“Torquay (pronounced /tɔrˈkiː/) is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England on the west of the bay. The town’s economy was initially based upon fishing and agriculture as in the case of Brixham across Torbay, but in the early 19th century the town began to develop into a fashionable seaside resort, initially frequented by members of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars while the Royal Navy anchored in the bay and later by the crème de la crème of Victorian society as the town’s fame spread. Renowned for its healthful climate, the town earned the nickname of the English Riviera and favourable comparisons to Montpellier.
…
Torquay’s name originates in it being the quay of the ancient village of Torre. In turn, Torre takes its name from the tor, the extensively quarried remains of which can be seen by the town’s Tor Hill Road.[4]“

OH MY GOD, I just clicked on the “Tor” reference and found it a site of ruins. SERIOUSLY, I CANNOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP! I love it, this is like some sort of unguided remote viewing or past life recall or what, but effing serendipity of some sort. Exhilarating!  Okay, now I have to find the painting from last year, then I’ll look at different photos of the ruins. I’ve got to blog this… it’s so surreal.

And so here I am, blogging this, LOL. Here’s one photo from Devon region of England, this one Castle Rock, which features the Valley of Rocks below:

More from my journal:

“Wow, there’s even an opening there. I remember leaving a blank like a doorway only thinking it seemed out of place. Did I paint over that? It’s not as obvious in the painting, but I remember it because the positioning I intuited seemed odd, felt like a doorway but the scale seemed odd.”

I further discovered that “Torre” is Spanish for “tower” and that  torres are often found along coastlines, as in Spain, Sardinia, and yes, the British Isle, remnants from Spanish occupants of centuries ago.

Now, the above photo is not of a torre in that sense. The one at left is, and located along the southern coast of Sardinia. The height is too tall to match my painting and the elevation above the sea is off, but I love the circular form and rough texture of these towers. I think I’ll include one in a future painting, one I actually plan to paint. (Would be delightful in a landscape with orbs.)

Castle Rock seemed most compelling, and I searched a bit for lore or history on the place, finding this from Picturesque England (L. Valentine, 1893):

“The North Walk – the more picturesque of the two roads that lead to the famous Valley of Rocks – is one of the finest cliff walks in England. It was made by a Mr. Sanford in 1817. After walking along it for the distance of about half a mile, a great, rugged, and fantastically jagged tor appears on the left. It is the celebrated Ragged Jack with his companions. There is a legend attached to these tors. It is said that some Druids were dancing here on a Sunday, and making impious revelry, when Satan suddenly appeared in the midst of them and turned them into stone. We must suppose that Ragged Jack was an Archdruid – but what had Druids to do with Sunday? Very shortly after passing Ragged Jack, the Castle Rock comes into sight, and on rounding the last turn of the cliff walk we see before us the whole of the wonderful Valley of Rocks, with the Castle Rock on one side and the Devil’s Cheese Ring on the other. It was in the Cheese Ring that Mother Meldrum lived when John Ridd sought her in “Lorna Doone.” We will give “John Ridd’s” description of it: “This valley, or ‘goyal’ as we term it, being small for a valley, lies to the east of Linton, about a mile from the town, perhaps, and away towards Ley Manor.”

Well that’s a bit weird and creepy. “Ley” is mentioned, and ley lines are alignments of “natural and artificial features” across a geographical area, a term coined by Alfred Watkins in the early 20th century. I’d been researching those last year and had read there may be some type of magnetism or supernatural force associated with ley alignments. And throughout history, the devil was often blamed for natural forces that were not yet understood by humanity, which comes to mind as I ponder Valentine’s description of the place.

I also found another beautiful photo of Castle Rock in Devon, below, from Paul Forsdick’s Flickr photostream:

So what does it mean? Are these sacred points where vortices of energy naturally exist, perhaps ancient Druid energetic healing centers utilizing earth-based “medicine?” Is it built or naturally eroded rock, and does that even matter for this interpretation?

I’ll let you know when the next coincidental breadcrumb comes my way. For now, I HAVE spent much time pondering it and am weary, knowing the universe will present all the answers to me eventually, even as I want the answers RIGHT NOW.

I am truly developing patience through the emergence of these visions. And it is good.

On a related note, I’ve been painting and prepping for the upcoming art walk in downtown Battle Creek, my first ever public display of my fine art, a much different beast than my graphic design work. If you’re in the area, come check us out at Spring Into The Arts.

Enjoy the remainder of April!

Jinjee’s healizations on fasting

I love this gal. Jinjee authors the blog “Garden Diet,” where she shares her story (and amazing photos) of her most recent raw vegan pregnancy. Absolutely inspirational for anyone interested in a raw food lifestyle.

Today Jinjee blogged about her “healizations” from fasting and it’s worth a read. I haven’t felt like eating lately and have wondered if my body is just talking to me, asking for relief. This serendipitous message has found me at the perfect time.

Relief!

Read Jinjee’s blog here.

Wordless

I’ve been feeling wordless lately. Mostly painting.

Warp speed, anyone?

Frontiers of Propulsion Science is the first-ever compilation of emerging science relevant to such notions as space drives, warp drives, gravity control, and faster-than-light travel.

AAIA asks “When did you know? (you wanted to be in aerospace)” . Watch the video interviews here.

Pondering torsion fields