Sound, frequency, and vibration. How is it all connected?

Although modern-day scientists are only beginning to understand these quotes from Nicola Tesla and Albert Einstein, ancient civilizations worldwide had known the power of sound, frequency, and vibration for thousands of years. It is not with the coincidence that sound and music are deeply rooted in almost every religion in the form of prayers or chantings. The true power of sound, frequency, and vibration can be enormous and limitless. To understand the concept of frequency and vibration, we will look into Science and some ancient spiritual beliefs and see if we can find our answers.


So what are these geniuses trying to convey here referring to the terms 'vibration' or 'frequency'?
Vibration in physics refers to the oscillations or the periodic back-and-forth motion of the particles of a body or medium. In contrast, frequency refers to the number of changes, periods, or vibrations in a unit of time. The derived unit used to measure frequency is Hertz (Hz), which means the number of fluctuations or oscillations in 1 second. It is also the same unit used for measuring sound. Because ultimately, any sound is a molecular essence of vibrations. With advancements in modern Science and Technology, specifically in Quantum Mechanics, it is now proven that every atom or molecule in the universe is constantly vibrating at a particular frequency. That means anything that matters, including all objects or living beings, is constantly vibrating at a molecular level at a specific frequency. The specific frequency at which a particular object vibrates is also its resonance frequency.


Resonance frequency
The resonance frequency is known to be the specific frequency of a particular object or an atom. Once you have an atom's resonance, you can amplify its waves, making it so big that eventually, it will break or destroy that object. It's a fascinating phenomenon that precisely demonstrates how powerful are sound and vibrations. To give you a perspective, with the help of resonance frequency, you can manage to collapse a concrete bridge in 5-10 minutes max. In a recent study, scientists found that a mixture of two specific frequencies can destroy 60% of all cancer cells in the human body in the first 3 minutes.


How does the concept of vibration and frequency relevant to the human body?
At this point, Science has begun to consider some of the beliefs from ancient Vedas. According to some yogic and spiritual beliefs, "We all live in a vibrational universe. Also, we are vibrational beings whose cells, organs, tissues all pulsates at a particular frequency. Our brains pulsate with electromagnetic energy, affected by our emotions, health, and general state of well-being. Also, our bodies contract and pulse at various rates, including our heartbeat, stomach contracting, active breathing, etc. Together, these pulses and all other happenings make up a living body and a composite of frequencies. So each one of us vibrates at our tunes. Whereas any disease, negative behaviour patterns, or depression are all considered the symptoms of our body and mind being out of tune. According to some beliefs, the vibrations in our bodies do not just occur at a cellular level but rather continues to go out in the space into a vibratory continuum and connects with an external energy field. In terms of how you experience the world, the energy and the frequencies you give off will reflect the people and situations in your life. Therefore, raising or enhancing your internal vibrations can create a situation around you reflecting positive experiences." Although some of the views can be contradictory with modern Science, they both tend to be heading in the same direction.


Importance of sound
A sound is a powerful tool that has the potential to unlock the secrets of a healthy and happy life. There are proven studies and experiments to show how sound and music can have magical impacts for curing most mental ailments. These psychological disorders include anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, dementia, autism spectrum disorder, learning difficulties, behavioural and psychiatric disorders, and the most important, cancer from the latest research. Sound and music help us align our minds and bodies. Healthy minds are indeed the key to a healthy life.


How sound impacts the human body?
A sound includes all sorts of music, which is, in essence, molecular vibration compressions in the air that comes to our ear and skin. The ear has hair cells in cochleate that translate those vibrations into electrical impulse signals, and then auditory nerve cells take those signals to the brain. The vibrations from the skin go to the mechanoreceptor, translating them into electrical signals and sending them to the spinal cord and then to the brain. The number of vibrations per second measures a sound in Hz; we call it frequency. It also happens to be the same number of electrical signals among millions of neurons going into the brain per second is also how we measure brain waves in Hz. So, for example, if you are listening to a sound of 40 Hz, it would be triggering 40 electrical signals blasting into your brain per second, creating a brain wave from the electric signals. So in this example, listening to a sound of 40 Hz triggers your brain state to be in gamma waves(30-100 Hz), which usually happens when you're in a deep focus.

This phenomenon works on one of the basic physics principles, i.e., If an energetic force comes in contact at the same resonance frequency as another object in a facility, the vibration will cause the other entity to begin vibrating.

In comparison, our brain emits different brainwaves at different times or while performing various activities. We know about our brain that millions of neurons in our brain do not fire randomly. What we also know is that the neurons that fire together wire together. So what that means is that everything in our senses, including pain, cognition, memory, motor, and mood, are all a bunch of circuits connected among neurons from multiple parts of our brain. When these neurons cannot connect properly or starts to fade down, then bad things happen. If the circuit of memory goes weak, we can have problems like Alzheimer's, or if the motor circuit goes weak, we can have a hard time with the movements in our body. External sound sources can create a brainwave of required frequency that plays a magical role in rebuilding those weak connections and do wonder.


What are the different types of brain waves produced by our brain?
Our brain is constantly producing bursts of electrical activity at all times. That's how the groups of neurons in the brain are communicating with one another. When our brain has these electrical pulses, that's what's known as brain wave activity.
Our brain produces five different kinds of brain waves, each of which operates at a different speed. From slowest to fastest, the five different types of brain waves include:
● delta
● theta
● alpha
● beta
● gamma


Delta Waves
Delta waves lie right at the bottom of the spectrum of brain waves — even beneath theta waves.

Both delta waves and theta waves happen when you're sleeping, yet delta waves are the essential pre-cursor to put the body in a vital state before a period of deep, restorative sleep. These waves have a frequency between 0.5 and 3 Hz ranges.


Theta Waves
Theta waves lie right at the 2nd from the bottom of the spectrum of brain waves — lies between Delta Waves and alpha waves.

Theta brain waves occur when you're in sleeping or dreaming state, this state is known as lucid dreaming. But they don't happen during the deepest phases of sleep. Instead, they may occur when you're drifting off to sleep or suspended in that light phase of sleep just before you wake up.

This state is crucial for processing information and making memories. These Waves have a frequency of approximately between 3 and 8 Hz


Alpha waves
Alpha waves have a frequency between 8 and 12 Hz and fall right in the middle of the scale.

These waves represent the state of mind when the mind and body are both in a relaxed state. For example, when you get up in the morning and sleep just before bed. These waves indicate that you are in a state of wakeful rest or meditative state.

You can increase the production of alpha waves, let's say when you stop focusing or concentrating on a task and simply trying to relax and unwind.


Beta Waves
Just underneath gamma waves on the range are the beta waves. These waves fall into the 12-25Hz range. These are the brain waves in action when you're awake, alert, engaged, or walking.

You can have relatively faster or "high beta" waves, which usually occur when you're involved in very complex thought processes.


Gamma waves
Gamma waves are the quickest of all brain waves. They can oscillate from 25 Hz up to the 140 Hz range or possibly faster since they can be challenging to measure.

Our mind produces the gamma waves when we're intensely focused on something, fully engaged in solving a problem or generated enough momentum around a single thought.


And now for some entertainment 😊

Brainwave entrainment
It is a type of experimental therapy called binaural beats; in this method, the rhythms of a specific frequency stimulate the brain to a particular state using pulsing sound to encourage your brain waves to align with the beat's frequency. This type of therapy can have ultimate effects on the human body. For example, one can use these beats to have enhanced focus, relaxation, entranced state, and sleep. In addition, some research shows that audible brainwave entrainment reduces anxiety, pain, and premenstrual syndrome symptoms and improves children's behavioural problems. Indeed, this is one of the most important therapies; We'll talk about brainwaves in a later blog and explain this one in detail.