Sound Therapy Capstone: 7

Ancient Andean Binaural Beat Rituals:

For this post I want to share an awesome research paper I found online titled "Psychoacoustics & Earth Resonance". I stumbled upon this paper while searching for ancient sound therapy traditions.  The paper covers a lot of territory, but one aspect I thought was the most interesting were the instruments that tribes such as the Inca and Chimu created by hand, which produced psychoacoustic effects. These instruments were ceramic whistles which contained two chambers.  The user would blow into the instrument, which was filled halfway with water. The water was used as way to regulate the amount of air that would go into the second chamber.  The user of the instrument would experience a binaural beat effect by hearing two slightly different pitches through multiple holes.  I'm guessing the reason why there was a manipulation in pitch was due to the water acting as a resistant force to the air flow.  Since the air couldn't flow as smoothly as through the other chamber, there would be a modulation of the pitch depending on how hard the instrument was blown into.  As explained before, the difference in frequency between the two sounds would form the binaural beat and bring upon the psychoacoustic effect.

This paper relates back to the article on the frequency that is able to resonate human DNA, and the fact that the frequency was found to be present in spiritual chanting.  Now this article is bringing forth that ancient tribes in South America were building instruments to produce mind altering effects! What I have gathered from both of the articles is that humans have recognized the power of resonance within the human body.  It seems that humans used to be considerably more sensitive to all forms of vibration, audible or inaudible.  Not only were they more sensitive to it, but they also chose to harness the power of sound and use its force to their advantage.

Psychoacoustics & Earth Resonance: http://www.human-resonance.org/A1_Psychoacoustics_&_Earth_Resonance.pdf



Response to Session 4 audio:

On this track there is a particular shape formed by the tones on the left and right sides.  I first felt the vibration directly on either side of my skull, and then it proceeded to sweep forward, across the lower portion of my forehead. After that the vibration went up, across the crown of my head, down my neck, and finally back to my ears.  The u-shaped pattern repeated over and over throughout the track, making it feel as if my brain was being squeezed in and out. The expanding and contracting effect was powerful and soothing, allowing me to slip into a deep, trance like state within the 10 minute duration of the track.  In terms of how the audio made feel,  I would say that my mental state was fairly stabilized by this one.  I didn't feel completely energized, or sedated. Perhaps the balancing effect was due to the vibrational pattern which flowed throughout my whole skull, as oppose to targeting one specific spot. This track could be useful in the future for providing a "centering effect" to those who feel like their mood, or energy level is uncontrollably fluctuating up and down.