Listen within
and look into the infinity
of Space and Time.
There resound the Song of the Stars,
the Voice of the Numbers,
the Harmony of the Spheres.
Hermes Trismegistus
This is the first of two articles that aim to look at Harmonics from a more modern and comprehensive perspective, in a language that can be a bridge between Science and Esotericism. In this first paper we will see how the wave nature is a constant and seminal signature throughout the known manifest Universe and we will do so through examples that show how modern science is getting close to affirm the same things that the ancient masters already knew. In the second article, to be published in August, we will see how Music, Number and Harmonics are inextricably linked by a fascinating mathematical garland and how they are, in fact, manifestations of the same entity. These two articles, while remaining understandable, require constant attention and a focused mind since Harmonics is a concept loaded with profound meanings, transversal to many disciplines. Having said this, all that remains is to begin, letting the words of Hermes Trismegistus that opened this post resound.
In a forest. Anywhere on this planet. The atmosphere is calm, the air clean and fresh. You can only hear ancestral sounds and the embrace of Nature, who is a mother. Above, through the tree tops, life develops its song and, below, among the fragrant mosses and blades of grass, other life echoes with its counter-song. We are immersed in this wood and walk slowly. We look up to better hear the voice of a tree resonating in the wind and, every now and then, we gaze down where our feet meet tiny twigs that match the melody enfolding us. Now, to understand how these songs and melodies began, we have to leave the forest and go back in time some fourteen billion years.
What happened then? What happened was that the water started to boil.
Well, not quite, but the principle is the same. In fact, when water boils, it is said that a phase transition is taking place: water is moving from one state of equilibrium to another state of equilibrium, it is moving from the liquid state to the gaseous state. So what happened fourteen billion years ago? There was a phase transition. We are shortly after what in scientific literature we are used to calling the Big Bang and at that moment the whole Universe is just a sea of pure energy where there is still neither matter nor manifest mass. There is only a vibrating energy field “on a fixed note” that at some point, like the water in our pot, undergoes a phase transition. The result of this phase transition is to bring this field into resonance with itself (what in the Science of Harmonics is called Unison or 1/1) and this inherent First Relation causes other fields to be generated in this primordial Universe and for them to come into relationship and interaction with each other. Depending on how these fields interact with the initial harmonic field, substance enters into manifestation, mass is created. In Physics, in Quantum Field Theory, the oscillating harmonic field that permeates the entire Universe (the modern version of the Luminiferous Aether of the ancients) and that vibrates at the astounding frequency of a billion quintillion (1 followed by 27 zeros) times per second is the Higgs Field. One of the most fascinating hypotheses in modern Physics [1] is that truly the “harmonic vibration” is at the origin of every entity in manifestation in this Universe and that it is at the origin of the Universe itself. Now things get a bit complicated.
The fascinating idea that harmonic oscillation is seminal in the manifestation of the Universe is a hypothesis of Theoretical Physics that originated in the 1960s (and was initially conceived by an Italian, physicist Gabriele Veneziano) and has undergone considerable mathematical refinement over time. But since antiquity, it has been thought that a “creating sound” could be at the origin of everything, and as early as 90 A.D., Nichomacus of Gerasa introduced the concept of Lambdoma [2] to “order” the tonal intervals of a vibrating string: the Monochord.
These ideas were taken up in full many centuries later by Hans Kayser for his harmonical theory. Returning to Physics, we see that here too we have a monochord. For Nichomacus and Kayser, a monochord is a simple taut string of a length that can be varied, and on the oscillation and subdivision of this string the entire theory of Harmonics is based. A fundamental idea, but the true substance of the ‘string’ and all its transitional phases must be explored and understood in order not to simplistically reduce the song of the Universe.
Now let us close our eyes.
Imagine, by visualising it, a string made of pure energy, intangible, but vividly real. This is our new monochord. According to the most fascinating and modern hypotheses in mathematics and theoretical physics, the vibration modes of these strings of pure energy would bring into manifestation every elementary brick of tangible matter as we perceive it.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
A string of pure energy vibrates in its own characteristic way and a little piece of the Universe enters into manifestation. But the wonders do not end there. Again with our eyes closed let us visualise these strings of energy buzzing. Obviously we will see these vibrating filaments immersed in a space and this space will necessarily be three-dimensional. This is normal because this is how we perceive the space around us. The really difficult thing now is to visualise these strings of pure energy vibrating not in a three-dimensional space, but in an eleven-dimensional space. Here the mind gets lost and our human limitations do not allow us to see this Universe except through the purity and beauty of mathematical abstraction. So let us open our eyes again and try to add up what we have said so far.
Modern Theoretical Physics, well… its frontier branch, has a theory [3] according to which everything that is in manifestation in this Universe (including Space and Time) is the result of the oscillation modes of tiny (immensely smaller than an electron) strings of pure energy vibrating in an eleven-dimensional space.
Of these eleven dimensions, four (three spatial and one temporal) are manifest and seven are “twisted” in a mathematical space called Calabi-Yau manifold. We should not be surprised if we speak of “mathematical space” here. This can be just as “real” as the physical manifest space. Let us give an example.
Take those objects that are part of fractal geometry. They are entities of great aesthetic beauty and even without understanding their essence, many take pleasure in using them as wallpapers for computers or mobile phones. These objects are exclusive residents of a mathematical space that uses Imaginary Numbers, that are different and have different properties from Real Numbers, the ones we use every day, just so we’re clear. Yet, in Nature, what we see and touch follows morphogenic rules derived from fractal geometry. Therefore, just as the Imaginary Complex numbers find physicality in the fractal nature of the world, so it is possible that the eleven dimensions of the mathematical space of vibrating strings find some correspondence in entities that we can perceive in this manifestation.
In this regard, there is a theory [4] that states that our perceived Universe could be a four-dimensional holographic projection of a more complex eleven-dimensional Universe.
Here, then, is our new monochord, a more modern version on which to base a whole new Harmonical Theory. Physics is trying its best, with new tools and new languages. But in this new Harmonical theory, how can the idea of Lambdoma be transformed and evolve? This will be, among other things, the subject of the next article: “Harmonics and Science 2”. Taking modern scientific theories into account is therefore stimulating in order to renew our reference models, so that the scientific foundation turns out to be properly updated.
The song of the Universe still has so much to tell us and we have just learnt to marvel at the chorus of Nature singing melodies of which we too are part. A score that is revealed to us as it unfolds, note by note, chord by chord.
Originally, everything was vibration and still is. Theories change and the humanity that studies them changes, but the important thing is that we continue to listen to the Song of the Stars, the Voice of the Numbers and the Harmony of the Spheres within and without us.
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[1] Here we are in the field of theoretical speculation. This theory only works very well from the point of view of mathematical consistency, but we are not yet technologically capable of confirming this hypothesis through experimental demonstration.
[2] Fabiola Guida: The Rediscovery of the Pythagorean “Lambdoma”
[3] The theory in question is String Theory, the evolution of which is now called M-Theory. For more technical details, please refer to the text: ‘String Theory and M-Theory, a modern Introduction’ by K. Becker, M. Becker and J.H. Schwarz.
[4] This is Juan Maldacena’s Holographic Principle also called in more technical terms: AdS/CFT Correspondence.
