Sound is a powerful force, and as humans, we know this intuitively from the day we’re born. Even for those born deaf, sound can be felt physically, such that it can still evoke a response. 

When we think about sound at its most basic definition, it seems relatively simple — acoustic vibrations resonating as waves through some medium. But the way sound makes us feel is more complex, nuanced, and often ineffable.

Sound can elicit chemical changes in our brain and take us into transcendent states of euphoria; it alerts us to impending dangers or opportunities in our environment; it can distract or focus our minds on a task at hand, and it can even drive us to the brink of insanity if used nefariously. 

Sound is also one of the major tools we use to manifest material reality and bring our ideas to fruition — in fact, verbal communication is like magic when you consider the impact it can have on others.

The etymology of every magician’s favorite utterance, “abracadabra,” is ambiguous and contested, but many believe its roots come from ancient Hebrew or Aramaic where it means, “I will create as I speak,” or “I create like the word.”

In nearly every religion, the origin story of the universe begins with sound. In Eastern philosophy, “aum” was the primordial reverberation that sparked existence; in Christianity, God spoke the universe into existence; in Jewish mysticism, creation texts like the Sefer Yetzirah, stress the significance of specific Hebrew letters and powerful root words used to create the universe. 

And beyond contemporary religion, this concept of a “sound of creation” was even taught in ancient Egyptian schools with Ptah, the god who gave life to all through his heart and tongue.

When we consider the physics of sound, these creation stories actually make a lot of sense, as sound and matter are intrinsically connected. Because sound is unable to travel through the vacuum of space, some physical medium is necessary to not just generate it, but to propagate its waves — whether that be a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma.

This underlying connection between sound and vibration, the fundamental elements, and the architecture of the universe has been pondered for time immemorial. In modern esotericism, the Platonic solids are the best example of this, stemming from Plato’s idea of an unseen blueprint existing throughout the universe that dictates the structure of physical reality. The Platonic solids are commonly recognized today and are essential figures in what we call sacred geometry.

The ancient Greeks conceived of these solids, though they weren’t the first — stones carved in similar shapes were found in Scotland 1,000 years prior – and let’s be honest, ancient Hindu yantras clearly depict the same concept. So, no matter who we give credit to, this is clearly archetypal knowledge (read gnosis) conceived by numerous cultures.

Essentially, the idea is to consider our universe as you would a circle or sphere, where every point is equidistant from the center, or source. Within that circle, there can then be continued polygonal divisions — the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron, and so forth. These divisions, on a cosmic scale, are tantamount to the various vibrations (sonic, frequential, or energetic) within our universal plane that create the fundamental elements and their permutations. 

If we jump ahead a millennia or so from the Greek thinkers, we begin to see the Renaissance intelligentsia philosophizing over these connections. Polymaths like Da Vinci, physicists like Galileo, and the more obscure English scientist Robert Hooke started making astute observations about our physical reality in terms of resonance, wavelengths, and the possibility of visualizing sound — all of which laid the groundwork for the revolutionary study of cymatics.

By taking a glass plate, covering it in lycopodium powder, and running a bow along its edge, Hooke was amazed when he observed specific patterns spontaneously appear. Soon after, German musician and physicist Ernst Chladni repeated Hooke’s experiments and documented them further, giving the various arrangements their eponymous name — Chladni Figures.

Ernst Chladni’s method of creating Chladni figures.

But these incredibly symmetrical figures weren’t just aesthetically pleasing… a century later they would provide a crucial hint to the father of quantum physics, Erwin Schrödinger, as he was working out the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. The nodal patterns depicted by the Chladni figures were found to be relevant to Schrödinger’s equation in one-electron atoms, while he was conceiving electron orbital patterns. Suddenly, the underlying connection between sound, vibration, and matter came clearer into focus through the lens of materialist science.

Soon thereafter, a Swiss scientist at the Rudolf Steiner School in Zürich picked up where his acoustic predecessors left off and coined the fascinating study “cymatics.” Equipped with modern technology, Hans Jenny discovered an incredible range of Chladni figures he could produce through crystal oscillators and sonorous devices that ran the gamut of ultra-low to ultra-high-frequency sound.

Today, the science of cymatics is more exciting than ever, as practical applications in medicine may prove it a useful tool for advanced medical procedures. Researchers are using cymatics to image cancer cells against healthy ones, in order to enhance the efficacy of targeted surgery. Meanwhile, other scientists are using sound to literally regrow human bone and other tissues. 

As we continue these studies and explore the incredible possibilities sound has to heal, we realize how foundational it is in every facet of our existence. Could it also be the key to our transcendence?

To learn more, watch the all-new Gaia original series, “Sound of Creation.”