Scientific Research In Sound

Although the Vedas have very detailed explanations and descriptions of how sound is correlated with material objects, western scientists have only just begun to research this subject with in the past 550 years or so. The first accounts of Western thinkers pondering about sound and matter date back to Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 - 1519).

Da Vinchi writes, "I say then that when a table is struck in different places the dust that is upon it is reduced to various shapes of mounds and tiny hillocks. The dust descends from the hypotenuse of these hillocks, enters beneath their base and raises itself again around the axis of the point of the hillock."

Forward a little over a hundred and twenty years and Galileo Galilei wrote about it in his book, "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" in 1632. In this book he talks about how he noticed that the vibration of a brass plate with a chisel caused some fillings to be straight and equidistant to each other. About fifty years later in the 1680s notable scientist Robert Hook did experiments with a glass plate and a violin bow, noting the various shapes that took place.

With access to Hooks work, Ernst Chladni (1756-1827) a famous musician and scientist, some times known as "the father of acoustics", noted the shapes that were produced with sand when the brass plates were vibrated with the violin bow. He made sketches of each shape which are known as the "Chladni Figures".

Notable scientist such as Michael Faraday and Lord Rayleigh also experimented with this subject, but perhaps that most extensive research has been done by a Swiss medical doctor named Hans Jenny  (1904 - 1972). It was Jenny who invented a machine called a "Tonoscope" and used it to do many experiments with sand and vibrations.

Jenny also had a fascination with Vedic mantras and yantras and included these in his research.

A little background on Mantras and Yantras: a Mantra is a sound that is uttered and is meant to fix the mind on a particular thing. In a sense, Mantras can be a correlation between sound and matter depending on what the mantra is used for. In Sanskrit "Mana" means mind and "tra" means to deliver. The word yantra means "machine". The human body (as well as animals bodies) are also an example of a yantra. Because we are not the body but the consciousness that runs the body called the "soul" or "jiva" in Sanskrit, the body is considered a physical machine and it will become useless if the jiva is not operating it. Just like a dead body, no soul is inside to operate the machine so it is useless and will rot away eventually with out the soul. Yantra's are two or three diminutional machines and they function as a tool for the jiva to use for various things. The body is one example, but they are used also in correlation with mantras to focus the mind. In Vedic ages, mantras and yantras were used to comunicate with personalities who are in charge of particular elements. For instance, the personality in charge of fire is Agni. By reciting a certain mantra to Agni, expert yogis are able to invoke fire.

Back to Hans Jenny: Jenny did experiments with mantras and particularly with the mantra "OM". By producing this sound Jenny was able to manifest the Sri-Yantra, which is a circular shape with triangular sapes inside the circle. 

When Dr. Jenny experimented with sounds of other languages, no results were produced.

In the Vedic ages mantras were practiced by practically everyone due to the advanced consciousness of the people. In the Dwarpa Yuga (a span of 800,000 years) the types of mantras were used to create and detonate atomic weapons. About 5,000 years ago at the end of Dwarpa Yuga and begining of Kali Yuga (our current Yuga) there is evidence that atomic weapons were detonated.

Evidence can be found today in a city near Kurukestra where a 3 square mile location has been sectioned off due to radioactivity from the atomic weaponry. This famous battle is where Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-Gita to Arjuna.

In the Bṛhan-Nāradīya Purāṇa, part of the Vedic literatures, it is stated, "In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy [Kali Yuga] the only means of deliverance is chanting the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way." Chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna / Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama / Rama Rama Hare Hare" is the most effective way to focus the mind in this Age of Kali.