This is the full text of background information designed to supplement the CD of PrimaSounds music entitled "LIFE TUNING", Volume 4 of the SCHOOL OF WISDOM English Language Publication Series. The CD with one hour of music and chakra tones may be obtained from WISDOM WARES at SunAngel
Life Tuning is a collaborative work of Professor Arnold Keyserling, Academy of Art, University of Vienna, Austria, the inventor of the new musical scale on which Prima Sounds is based, and R. C. L, J.D., the composer/performer of the music. This document introduces the conceptual basis of Prima Sounds and provides practical listening instructions. Prima Sounds can be used for relaxation, concentration, energy enhancement (chakra stimulation), the awakening of profound inner states and more.
Listen to selections from Life Tuning and other PrimaSounds CDs to hear/feel PrimaSounds for yourself.
Buy the CD at the Wisdom Wares Sun Angel digital kiosk. You will find all of the PrimaSounds Cds, and related books, videos and audio tapes, at this secure credit card ordering site. You can also purchase them over the phone at 1-800-256-3551.
Chapter One: LISTENING INSTRUCTIONS.
Chapter Two: DESCRIPTION OF THE SONGS ON THE CD.
Chapter Three: TUNING YOUR LIFE.
Chapter Four: REDISCOVERY OF ESOTERIC MUSIC.
Chapter Five: THE SEVEN ENERGY CENTERS.
Chapter Six: THE ESOTERIC TRADITIONS.
After-Words: THE SCHOOL OF WISDOM.
Prima Sounds are tuned to "bio-energies", that is, Alpha brain waves, and other fundamental or primal energies. Prima Sounds listening can accelerate the realization of full potential, in all sides of the brain, in three important ways: (1) stress reduction and relaxation; (2) enhanced concentration and energy; and, (3) by serving as a gateway and "push" into peak experiences.
Stress Reduction. The resonance properties of Prima Sounds relieves stress and facilitates relaxation when listened to in the right environment. It puts listeners into a calm, meditative state, where they are able to let go of stress and anxiety.
Energize. After the relaxation stage, the second use of Prima Sounds is possible as you become aware of your bio-energies. Then you can begin to stimulate, open up, and balance your energies. Prima Sounds allow you to strengthen and tune your soul into the primal vibrations of life. For most people success in the second level requires some training, or at least a strong background in related disciplines, but it is not terribly demanding or difficult.
Peak Experiences. With even more training and practice, Prima Sounds can also be used to induce profound inner experiences such as: a deep state of spiritual contemplation; visions and voices from the Higher Self, collective unconscious, and beyond; and even a Cosmic experience of union with the fundamental tone of the Universe.
Once this final peak experience is attained, Prima Sounds can begin to fulfill its highest potential. It can serve as a tool to help in the full integration of consciousness, a process we call Life Tuning. Coherence in the midst of chaos is then possible. Profound understanding develops, ever stronger energies are released and absorbed, as you find and begin to fulfill your meaning in life.
The higher potentials of Prima Sounds are not obvious, and could be missed without some explanation. If listened to with understanding, Prima Sounds can greatly accelerate personal development. Although stress and tension are major problems in themselves, there are many other means to control this, and we feel that greater good can come from Prima Sounds' other applications.
On all levels Prima Sounds are enjoyed internally, not externally as with other music. With Prima Sounds you can tune into the original tone of twelve hertz, Alpha brain waves, and other micro vibrations that animate Man and all warm blooded beings. This kind of inner meditation music has existed in all traditions, but until now had never been achieved with mathematical clarity. Only the scientific knowledge and technology acquired in the last twenty years has made an exact understanding possible, and allows for the first time, the exact tuning of musical instruments to the primal energies, the chakras.
The musical scale of Prima Sounds is comprised of five tones whose frequencies, intervals, and harmonics are totally different from the seven or twelve tone scales normally used in western music. The scale was first calculated mathematically in 1971 by Arnold Keyserling, a Professor of Religious Philosophy at the Academy of Art, University of Vienna, Austria. He wrote a book about his discovery in 1972, and constructed the first musical instrument utilizing these sound frequencies. Professor Keyserling is a remarkable person and there is a short biography of him on the Net.
We theorize that Prima Sound waves directly impact consciousness and bio-energies because of a resonance effect between these sounds and our electromagnetic bio-energies of the same frequency. The 12 hertz vibrations of Alpha brain waves and other primal bio-energies are not tonal and longitudinal vibrations (back and forth only, horizontal to the direction of travel) as are sound waves, but are instead electromagnetic and transversal (up and down only, vertical, moving in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the electromagnetic wave). The only communion a 12 hertz sound vibration has with an alpha brain wave is the rhythm of time, the frequency.
Prima Sounds excite the alpha and other primal vibratory states inductively by means of a vibration of tone in the same way the mechanical movement of a magnet transforms itself into electrical current, such as for instance with a microphone. In this way Prima Sounds can not only facilitate contemplation, but can actually produce it. We have found that certain select vibrational frequencies, tuned to the seventh harmonic, act to excite and amplify our bioenergies. These Prima Sound waves vibrate at the same frequency rate as the chakras.
We hypothesize that the air particles moving at these frequencies are unique and tend to move in a circular, rotational pattern, rather than longitudinally as you would otherwise expect. Sound waves not in resonance with the primal energies of the body, move only longitudinally. It appears that the circular motion of the Prima Waves causes them to have a particularly strong resonance effect on our electromagnetic energies. The circular movements create a bridge between the longitudinal and transversal energies. Also due to the circular movement inherent with these frequencies, Prima Sounds naturally create standing wave form patterns, with a stasis or "wall of sound" effect. This can be easily verified by anyone listening to the music. For more information on PrimaSounds and theories as to how it works, click here.
The first relaxation level of listening requires only that you get comfortable and just fall into the sounds. Let go and relax. Don't try to analyze what you hear or think about mundane things. Instead, think about infinity or spirit, or better yet, don't think at all. Remove yourself from the inner dialogue, step out of the endless stream of worries and plans. For now treat yourself to a time out, a time to just relax and do nothing but feel your body and sense the bath of sound energies running all over you. Listen to the new and unusual sounds and frequencies which you have never heard before. The deeper and more intensely you listen the more you will hear. There are layers of sound and constant subtle movements in what may at first seem to be static or slowly moving sound forms. If you let go, the sounds will carry you inward and may invoke intense feelings of joy and release.
From time to time while listening, turn your head or vary your position in the room. Notice how the sounds themselves vary as your ears enter different parts of the standing wave patterns. By paying attention to these vibrations and accepting the resonance affects, your discursive thinking, anxieties and tension will naturally be replaced by positive sensations and feelings and insights.
Many of the sounds have internal rhythms and changes over time which correspond to basic brain wave patterns and chakra frequencies to heighten the effects. The sounds used in this recording, new and familiar, are among those which I found to be the most effective through measurement with scientific apparatus and personal experimentation, trial and error. The songs were not written or composed, but rather were improvised layer by layer and then edited.
Computers and midi equipment were utilized to edit and record the pieces. Each selection uses from four to twelve channels of electronic sounds. After the initial creative process hundreds of hours of listening and computer hacking went into the editing, mixing and recording of these works over a span of three years. The final transfer from computer hard drive to tape was accomplished using digital recording equipment at the School of Wisdom in Florida.
The Life Tuning audio CD begins with a flute performance of the pentatonic scale over three consecutive octaves. This allows you to hear the new scale and gives you time to settle in before the music starts. Part of this initial tone sequence may be downloaded from the PrimaSounds Web home page.
The first piece, EAGLE'S GIFT, has clean, precise forms with relatively few tracks. It relies primarily upon synthetic violins and other string sounds to create a familiar but very intense sound. Like all of the other works on the CD it is meant to be played as loud as your equipment and ears safely permit. None of the songs on the CD have a higher volume than EAGLE'S GIFT, so you can set your volume control to it. EAGLE'S GIFT will quickly pull you into the mood, into deeper states of awareness. With three peaks, including one at the end, it relies upon low tones and body feelings to forcibly grab and hold your total attention, and strip away your stress and mundane daily thoughts and cares. An altered state is quickly induced as the strong low vibrations couple with the intense violin highs to thrust you into the "Eye of the Eagle." As the title and this description indicates the work is inspired by the Yaqui Way of Knowledge as told by Carlos Castenada in his series of books on Don Juan, a Native American sage.
The second piece, SACRED PIPE, lowers the intensity and volume to facilitate deep relaxation. The beginning follows the seven chakras and you may be able to feel them vibrating with resonance up and down your spine. This piece moves away from the traditional sounds to less familiar otherworldly sounds that bear resemblance to the sounds of bells and other percussion instruments. SACRED PIPE continues the Native American theme and is designed to open you to the Great Spirit. The mood and title of this piece was inspired by Wallace Black Elk and his book "Black Elk: the Sacred Ways of the Lakotas" (Harper 1991).
The third song, PYTHAGORAS, is named after the "Patron Angel" of Prima Sounds, the original founder in the West of the esoteric music tradition. This is the most complicated of my compositions with many tracks and sound layers. Alpha brain wave rhythms are emphasized in this piece to literally lift you up with the strong low tones. Any remaining chatter in your head can be transcended by feeling the powerful throbbing of the vibrations run through your body and by listening ever more closely to the subtle layers of tones and overtones. Several unique sound forms never before created are used in PYTHAGORAS, so that it can be listened to countless times and still remain fresh. My good friend and colleague Chip Weston performed the lead track on this piece and also created the graphics and art work in both the book and CD. By thinking of the Infinite - the inexhaustible Source - you will open up to the powerful alpha brain wave rhythms in a state of deep, yet alert, relaxation. Visions, white light or other indescribable experiences may happen as the peaks of intensity are reached. Try ending your Prima Sounds session with this song some time and then sit in silence for a while afterwards feeling the differences in your awareness, the way your head feels, the previously unnoticed energies inside of you and all around you.
The fourth song, HALLOWED NAME, allows for a short breather as mellow voices play softly over you. It is inspired by the many esoteric traditions using the human voice as instrument, including the Gregorian and the Tibetan. Many layers of voice tones and sine waves combine to slowly sweep you away. Softly singing with these tones can help dissipate any remaining negative energies.
PRIMA LAB, the fifth work, goes back to the tradition of the flute, with the emphasis on the oriental bamboo flute. Only here the flute tones are combined with low sine waves in a simple, yet strong piece with three crescendos. The feeling tones are emphasized, along with the body energies, and at the end, the will tones predominate. This work is inspired by the great meditation traditions of the East, which long ago mastered KI and the inner universe. PRIMA LAB is also what I call my music studio where among all of the computer equipment and electronic gadgets hangs a prized bamboo flute specially crafted to the Chakra scale. Again this is an intense piece which uses the low tones to evoke a peak experience.
The final song, LETTING GO, allows you to totally relax and just let go of everything. It again features voice shaped tones for a mellow, therapeutic effect.
At the end of the CD the seven tones are played - U A E I O U A - in correspondence with the seven chakras, one through seven. Each tone sounds for two minutes. This allows for an exercise of tuning into the Chakras. Try the toning exercises sometimes before listening to the music. Use of the repeat and select functions of your CD player allows you to concentrate on the particular tones you should strengthen to bring your energies into balance. At the very end all seven tones play, and then one by one the top and bottom tones are let go with only the center tone, willing, remaining at the end.
The third (peak experience) level of listening requires both a sustained effort and Wisdom - practical "know how" about how the chakras and consciousness work. The purpose of this essay and our books Chance and Choice and Laws of Wisdom is to provide the Wisdom-knowledge required for deeper experience, the third level, and then even beyond that, to begin the process of "tuning your life". The desire and effort needed for this is a matter of personal choice. But if you so choose, Prima Sounds can be used as a tool to evoke profound peak experiences. Thereafter the last listening stage of life-tuning is possible. You can then use Prima Sounds to fully open, balance and tune the chakras, and help bring them, and your life, into harmony. In terms of consciousness, life tuning is called "integration of consciousness".
Beyond simple altered states of expanded consciousness lies the potential for a much more profound, sacred experience. The essential peak experience of the third level is an experience of union with the Infinite - GOD. The Indians call this tuning into OM, the fundamental tone of the Universe. Only after you have had this experience in its full intensity is the final stage of life tuning possible. The seventh chakra - Spirit - is the starting point for this peak experience, because this is a person's fundamental vibration, their tone. All of the other chakras are derived from it. By tuning into this field you get to the starting point where you will not be determined from the outside, but will decide from the inside. You can then create a continuity, the meaning of your life in space and time.
This spiritual chakra field creates, among other things, an electromagnetic vibration in the cortex of approximately 12 hertz. As mentioned, Yogis and Zen masters investigated in the state of Samadhi or Satori were found to all produce brain waves with about the same number of vibrations per second - 12. (There are other reasons for selecting 12 as the base number, instead of other frequencies, such as 10 hertz, that are within the alpha wave range; but explanation of these reasons would lead us well astray. The interested reader is referred to Laws of Wisdom
Prima Sounds can help you attain this peak experience and thereby begin the journey. It requires a sustained effort and dedication. For many it comes by focusing all attention on the energy at the top of the head, thinking of the infinite - GOD - and just letting yourself go, merging into it. With repeated efforts a profound peak experience may come, but this cannot be rushed. Typically you must first master the first two levels of listening - body relaxation and energy enhancement - before "Satori" can be reached.
Enlightenment is just the beginning of life's tuning, not the end, because unless you have fully integrated your consciousness, you will not be able to maintain the alpha vibrations in a pure form. You will go out of tune. Your energy will be completely overlapped by other vibrations. No energy shield, or sheltered life with only nature or other enlightened people can protect you, for you will still be vulnerable to the ill affects of your own consciousness.
Just as the energies affect your consciousness, consciousness effects your energies. Until your consciousness is radically transformed its effects on your chakras will be largely negative. The essence of the transformation needed is to stay in constant atunement with the fundamental tone of the world, the primal Source of All That Is, to bring your consciousness, and thus your energy, into harmonious integration with it.
What is meant by this key phrase "integration of consciousness"? In the ordinary course of human life we experience a series of disconnected consciousness states. For instance the waking thinking self is usually out of touch with and does not remember the dreaming, sleeping self; the left and right brains are not connected. The sensing, sensual energies do not work well with the thinking or willing energies. Feelings are cut off from thoughts, thoughts from action, perceptions from feelings, etc. We are different people at different times, with little or no continuity between our different states of consciousness. (See RCL's The Problem of the Subtle Sybil Effect for more on this psychological insight). We live in a chaotic world where an endless series of things happen to us that do not fit together, do not make sense. Many important things seem to be the result of chance or luck. There is no conscious being there to see the "big picture". The conscious states alternate unconnected by inner silence. It is like hearing foreign words or sentences without any underlying comprehension.
The discontinuity of consciousness can be analyzed from an energy perspective which reflects the disorders. The frequencies of the different primal energies tend to be out of tune by either all being consonant (the same) with each other, or dissonant, inharmonious. The four lower chakras tend towards consonance, with one energy dominant and forcing the others to be like it, distorting them. This follows the domination of one function over the others. For many people today (particularly readers) the thinking function tends to dominate the others, but it can just as easily be another function dominating. For instance, sensing dominating thinking where the parroting of the thoughts of others passes for thinking; or feeling dominating thinking where desires and feelings replace any thinking, and all is rationalization of what you want.
The upper three energies on the other hand tend to be dissonant, out of tune with each other, and acting separately. The mind does not know the body, nor the body the mind, and neither is really in touch with the soul, the personality, who acts independently of both. The mind and body have to be brought together and made to work in concert with the soul.
The way to tune the energies and integrate consciousness is to retain an inner silence. This inner silence is the sacred dimension or pure Awareness which integrates the otherwise unconnected states of consciousness. Prima Sounds can help you to get to this ineffable sacred silence, the OM. Do not try to understand it if you have not had such an experience, try instead to get to it. For you can only understand what we are talking about if you have already had the experience. Words and intellect alone cannot do justice to the sublime.
So the first step on the spiritual journey to tune into life is a profound experience of the highest primal tone, the sound of silence. Then you can start living from this and Prima Sounds can be used to tune your life, to help you on a path towards fulfillment and Wisdom.
Still, even after you are experienced and on your way, the opening and tuning of the chakras produced by a Prima Sounds session will not last. It will always fade away as long as the silent Awareness is not there to prevent the interference of the different frequencies. But as the silent Awareness grows, the person matures and consciousness slowly integrates, the effects of the resonance stimulation from Prima Sounds will gradually last longer and longer, and be more easily induced. The interference between the chakras, the static and dissonance will be decreased and the seven energies will begin to work together in harmony. As you tune into the five Prima Sounds, Wisdom results; you begin to thrive on the chaos of the world and recognize the hidden fractal order within. It all starts to make sense and your actions take on a higher purpose.
Pythagoras called the first type of music Exoteric Music. He found its basis in the cycle of fifths and in the diatonic scale. He called the second type of music Esoteric Music and kept it secret. It is recognizable today by the symbol of the Pythagorean Order, the pentagram. The same tradition is also found in China where the second music is attributed to King Wen, the originator of the I Ching. He recognized that the sixth and seventh tone repeat the first and second to make the octave.
Today there is still some distinction maintained between the two types of music in the differentiation between serious and popular music. Today's distinction however does not go to the essence. Almost all of today's serious music - classical, electronic and new age - is as much Exoteric Music heard from the outside as is popular dance music. No music now in our culture is designed to enable a person to start an inner ascension up to the threshold of death and the inexhaustible Source, and return other people from death, as is told for instance in the myth of Orpheus and in many Shamanic traditions.
We had lost the tradition of Esoteric Music from our culture. But now with Prima Sounds we can regain it, if we understand the meaning of the tones and the intervals and their role in the human organism. It must be understood as getting in tune or in consonance with the origin of the world.
As a young man studying with George Gurdjieff, and the twelve-tone musician, Joseph Hauer, I had several extraordinary peak experiences of tuning into the fundamental vibration. For twenty years thereafter, as part of my work in religious philosophy, I considered the question of whether this state of consciousness could be induced directly by understanding the laws of vibration. My investigations showed that such music had existed in the past, in all of the world's spiritual traditions, most recently with the Sufis, however, none had ever achieved mathematical clarity and exactitude in the calculation of the scale. Only in 1971, after over twenty years of research and study, did new discoveries in the field of brain wave research allow me to discover the long lost chords of Esoteric Music. Only this time the musical scale has been precisely calculated and with electronic instruments can be exactly replicated.
The Esoteric scale is mathematically derived from the only basic tone interval which does not fit into our music system, the natural seventh. Its frequency and harmonics are dissonant when compared to the fundamental tone or the other basic fractions such as the third and the fifth. It is so different from the rest of the tonal frame that in the musical traditions in the West after Pythagoras it was called non-melodic. The natural seventh was either excluded altogether as an unacceptable sour note, or used very rarely as a "leading tone" to set up dissonant tension. This interval is, however, always present as a natural tone, in the seventh harmonic and can be heard in some instruments.
I had long suspected that the seventh harmonic, corresponding analogously to the seven chakras, might hold the key to Esoteric Music, and perhaps even to the chakras themselves. I knew that when the natural seventh was taken as the basic interval, to the exclusion of the others which normally make up our musical scale, that the resulting vibrations would not be in the standard octave relationship. But I did not know what frequency to use to base the construction of such a scale, nor was I sure what the correlation would be with these tones to the chakra energies.
In the late sixties brain wave research of Zen monks and yogis in Samadhi for the first time showed that the alpha brain wave was always produced when they entered this peak experience. This provided me with the fundamental tone on which to calculate new intervals based on the natural seventh. I made the mathematical calculations of such a new musical scale and discovered that if you take the original tone of Alpha as 12 hertz in accord with brain wave experiments (and other reasons), and you use the 7 to 4 ratio of the natural seventh harmonic, that a new five tone - pentatonic - scale results. I named the five notes after the vowels: A, E, I, O, U. The primatonic scale has completely new tones and intervals which have nothing to do with our musical temperament and the diatonic scale.
The new tone frequencies and intervals created by the natural seventh based on alpha waves we now call Prima Sounds. As soon as we created an electronic instrument to play these new tones we knew that this was the Esoteric scale I had been searching for. It is different from the twelve tone and diatonic scale and also completely different from the popular pentatonic scale, the black keys of the piano, which is comprised of the cycle of fifths after the notes of the seven tone scale have been used. This new pentatonic scale opens hearing to the inner Universe and in most ancient civilizations this Esoteric Music was held sacred and kept secret.
The seventh harmonic and brain wave research revealed the secret of the second music, its attunement to the chakras. Prima Sounds is also called "Chakra Music" because when we first played the tones in 1971 we found that the scale was attuned to all seven "chakras". The overtones of the fundamental tone, 12 hertz, stimulated our seventh chakra and our second chakra. The fifth note in the scale-U- was in resonance with the first chakra and the sixth chakra. The second note- E- was tuned to the third chakra, the third note -I- to the fourth, the fourth note -O- to the fifth chakra. By experimentation with the tones we found that a person can attain fullness of consciousness and inner silence, the fundamental spiritual vibration OM, by listening to these new sounds as an adjunct to traditional meditation. The creation of music with these new tones, however, was an entirely different matter. The training in traditional music was counter-productive; a totally new start was required. For various reasons, including our experience of numerous technical problems with the electronic instruments themselves, we did not pursue this as a musical form. For the most part we limited our use to single tones and simple chord combinations as part of yoga and meditation classes
However, Ralph, one of my students in Vienna in 1971 when the discovery was made, took up the challenge on his own upon his return to the United States. (For Ralph's story of his, and my search for and discovery of Esoteric Music, see In Search of the Lost Chord.) Over the next twenty years Ralph explored and developed Chakra Music into a new art form and type of spiritual path which he renamed Prima Sounds. Upon hearing his music performed for the first time in the Spring of 1992 I knew that the Esoteric Music which I had discovered twenty years before was now ready to come out into the open.
This information only appears today from its hidden historical recesses because the ways of ideology and personality cult imitation are coming to an end. If a person thinks he should be able to follow his own way alone and independently, then he cannot follow the consciousness content of another. He must put together, himself, the components of his consciousness and his life in order to find his personal synthesis.
On the one hand a person must understand in thinking the fundamental elements of reality, as I have shown in my books, including my English book with Ralph: Chance and Choice:A Compendium of Ancient and Modern Wisdom. On the other hand a person must find a way to penetrate to the fundamental vibration, to their tone, and to start living from this. Prima Sounds provides such a way.
This essay is an attempt to provide the listener/reader with the fundamentals of the theory and thinking which led to my original discovery of the scale. It also provides an introduction to the practical "know-how" of using Esoteric Music as a tool for inner development. Much of the material in this essay is also found in our book Chance and Choice and Ralph's book, Laws of Wisdom. These books provide a more complete exposition of the philosophy behind the music, the marriage of Religion and Science through the Art of life.
The seven different energies correspond with the seven consciousness functions, their organic points of gravity, and seven areas of potential:
1. Sensing. Sensation relates to the data of the senses: colors, smells, tastes, sounds and tones, and observation of the sense of touch. The point of gravity is in the organs of generation and excretion. It is the base of all energies and is present in most people as sexual energy. Its basic potential is for creative imagination, revelations. Its vocation, how it's applied in society, is that of a "Worker" who has confidence, trust, intuition and an ability to heal. This energy feels like a force emitted from your self in order to do something. Its direction is the East and it partakes of the "Power of Fire".
2. Thinking. Breathing relates to Thinking. Its point of gravity is, however, found near the sacrum near the tip of the spine, which is also the point of gravity of bodily movement. All thinking is based on language which is heard by the vibrations of air. Its basic potential is to discern and affirm the differences and the similarities between all things. Its vocation is that of a "Designer" who adapts and conceives new things, including a unique style of life and a creative understanding. This energy feels like experiencing movement from out of the center. Its direction is the West and its Power is the Minerals
3. Feeling. The function of Feeling has as its contents the impulses, the point of gravity lies in nourishment, in the digestion and de-posination metabolism. Its basic potential is for creativity and inner growth in the synthesis of new forms of understanding and learning. Its vocation is that of the "Helper" who heals through understanding, personal growth and cognition of the underlying archetypes. This energy feels like awakening. Its direction is the South and its Power is the Plants and water.
4. Willing. The Will means the capacity to decide yes and no on the basis of the inner void, the force of attention. You have to get behind the rhythms of the heart, of the circulation, and get to them from being. Its potential is self affirmation, finding your unique "medicine", in the Native American sense, that puts the Ego into a healthy, positive relationship with the greater Self. Its vocation is that of the "Leader", with affirmative energies, strategies and imagination. This energy feels like finding your role. Its direction is North and its Power is the Animals and nature. The contents of thinking, feeling and sensing are conscious. Willing puts them together in being. Their continuity, their putting together, changes the data of the functions into data of consciousness ordered in the three spheres: Body - Soul - Spirit.
5. Body. The Body continuity, steered by the genetic code, has its point of gravity in the spinal cord and in the central nervous system which is activated from the brain stem and cerebellum just above the neck. This is the basis of material experience; movement activities are stored in the memory so that the force of attention can remain free. Its potential is to start new things and become more human, responsible and discerning. Its vocation is the "Friend", who assists in projects and helps others to see the world and themselves more clearly. This energy feels like becoming an expression. Its direction is the center and its Power is the Sacred Earth.
6. Soul. The continuity of the Soul, which puts Man into family in its farthest sense by endogen engrams, conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, has its point of gravity in the limbic system. There all personal relations and memories, as well as those of Man and our whole evolution, are stored and unite Man with the animal realm. The potential is to heal and to synthesize opposing forces into a larger whole through communication and discussion. The vocation is the "Teacher" who helps set priorities and values and who has strong communication skills. This energy feels like partaking of an abundance. Its direction is the South East and Power is the Ancestors.
7. Spirit. The highest Spirit field of the cerebrum or neocortex with its two hemispheres shows the capacity of mental representation of knowledge in its largest meaning - from language up to opinion and world conception. The basic potential is for responsiveness, to take the lead in reacting to the environment. Its vocation is the "Facilitator" who takes action, questions, cajoles, even fights, so that everyone can find their unique potential and resolve conflicts. This energy feels like becoming aware of the physical totality. Its direction is South West and Power is the Nature Spirits.
SUMMARY OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE SEVEN ENERGY CENTERS
7. Spirit - Knowledge - Cerebrum - Responsibility
6. Soul - Instinctual - Cerebellum and Limbic System - Healing
5. Body - Conditioned - Spinal Cord - Initiative
4. Willing - Attention - Blood Circulation - Essence/AWARENESS
3. Feeling - Impulses - Metabolism - Creativity
2. Thinking - Language - Breathing - Discernment
1. Sensing - Sense Data - Sex & Excretion - Imagination
Each of these points of gravity correspond to one of the centers of vibration of the human energy field and are activated in a certain way. All function at once but consciousness can only refer to one or another. This can be understood by means of the flageolet tone: in a vibrating string, not only the first tone, but a whole series of harmonics are resounding according to the law of whole numbers. If the vibration is regular, after the first impulse the vibration returns from the ends of the string and forms string vibration nodes. This can be visualized in an example. If you take a circular pond and throw a stone into the middle, the point of impact will dive in and up. From this waves go out to the periphery, they reflect back, and where they meet the newly emerging waves there will be a proliferation of water, a node.
If you touch a string instrument at one of these places you will hear only the corresponding partial tone as a flageolet tone (on the guitar there are points to mark these places) and the other overtones will remain silent. In the above example, with each fifth only the great major third will resound.
With the fundamental tone C it would be E.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
c c g c e g x c d e
Our energies are tuned to the seventh, even though our ears are not. The difference arises from the fact that bioplasma is not made up of material vibrations, but of energetical vibrations which keep bodies together, move them, and make them ripe for functions. The pulsating bioplasmic energy is unlike a string which has a potentially infinite number of vibrations. The bioplasmic field has exactly seven points of gravity or vortices of energy and should be steered from those. These seven energy centers exist along the spinal cord.
The existence of these micro-vibrations was well known to the ancient traditions. The Chinese found their points of gravity and their relation to medicine in acupuncture, an art of healing which can prognosticate illnesses out of the disturbances of the relation between Yin and Yang bio-energies. These energy centers have been referred to in the East for thousands of years as the "chakras". Chakra is a Sanskrit word which means simply "vortex of energy".
European scientists have tried to identify the chakras with endocrine glands or with different plexus of nerves. But Chakras are a completely different kind of energy. They are wave fields without particles; pure potential with no content. They are like the other side of Black Holes where the energy is streaming out, not in. They can be initially located and identified as void spaces, pure energy fields. Cosmic energy of immeasurable power, called by the Indians "Prana" and by the Chinese "Chi", can flow through the chakras. Technically speaking the chakras are the fields through which the energies flow, not the cosmic energies themselves. They are like doors and the Prima Sounds can rattle them open a crack.
Prima Sounds work by using resonance and attention in the element of Energy. Our center of attention normally exists in another element, in Consciousness. (There are four fundamental elements or fundamental principals: Matter, Energy, Consciousness and Self Organization. This is explained in detail in Chance and Choice.) As shown before Consciousness has seven basic components: the four functions - Sensing, Thinking, Feeling and Willing; and the three realms - Body, Soul and Spirit. These seven have a natural internal relationship whereby Sensing corresponds with Body, Thinking with Soul, and Feeling with Mind. Willing stands on its own in the center, connected with Attention and Awareness. For example, the senses are sharpest when perceiving the physical world, as opposed to sensing other people (soul) or an idea (spirit). Conversely the Body is most directly apprehended by sensing. Thinking is most acute when in dialogue with other people, as opposed to pure abstract thinking. Conversely the Soul is understood best by thinking. Feeling, and its twin sister imagination, are at home in the Spirit, where free reign is given to it. Feeling in the body or soul is more limited and often negative. Conversely the Spirit is most easily accessed by the Feelings. Thinking about the Spirit frequently leads to erudite nonsense. Spirit must first be felt before it can be seen or put into words.
When these seven components are moved from the scale of Consciousness to the scale of Energy, there is a fractal variation in the internal alignment. In the world of Energy where Prima Sounds vibrate in accord with the seven energy centers, or chakras, there is a new alignment of the original seven. Now Sensing corresponds with Soul, not Body, and Thinking corresponds with Spirit, not Soul. Feeling now acts on Body, instead of Spirit, with Willing remaining the same, in the center related to Awareness, the dynamic Nothingness outside of and underlying the seven. As a consequence of this fractal variation Prima Sounds should be listened to by Feeling the effects of the vibrations on the body, Sensing the energy of soul stimulation, and thinking of the Spirit, of abstract ideas, or no-thinking. See Chapter One for details on listening.
The seven human energy centers (4 + 3 = 7) also correspond to the seven essential criteria of language comprehension, combined as four times three (4 * 3 = 12), to create the basic twelvefold structure of The WHEEL.
As is shown in Chance and Choice and Laws of Wisdom The Wheel is the summation symbol of Arnold Keyserling's creative philosophy. It reflects the structure of number, language, and the mind. With The Wheel we can make sense of the many seemingly contradictory elements of the Human experience and attain coherence in the midst of chaos.
......................Sensing
Feeling..............................Thinking
......................Willing
Each of the traditions brought a part of this knowledge, but completed it with ideas and myth where understanding was insufficient. Thus in Kundalini Yoga, an Indian tradition which specializes in the chakras, there is an explanation of the meaning of the chakras which comes from a phantasmagorical cosmology. But this did not harm the value of the exercises and Kundalini Yoga adepts have repeatedly shown that the chakras can really be developed and harmonized.
The different traditions have chosen different forms, but in the last analysis they all say the same thing: the seven points of gravity should come into harmony (not consonance). An example is the Hindu tradition of Raja Yoga which, like many others, takes the steps one after the other:
In this tradition the way goes upwards from below. The sensual experience only seems to be conscious. In reality it must be activated with certain exercises. The second stage is conscious, but it acts together with the sixth one to create the danger of the false "I". This is transcended by observation.
Once the thoughts are clarified the feelings can be ordered by dream analysis, or by deepening the force of imagination, which in Sanskrit is called the "exhaustion of the vasanas". With these methods the door to deep sleep is opened. This is also the door which leads to transcendence, overcoming death, and the entrance to real consciousness. The inner silence is at the same time Bliss, Silence and Reality: Sat-Chit-Ananda. The fifth state also has its proper content which only now becomes free: the body with its genetic code demands a certain form of realization which will historically fit into natural evolution. You have to unite your own will with the will of God or of Nature. The kernel of being will only become luminous if both the foundations of the world and the spiritual communion become conscious at the same time.
Once this step is realized you then have to transform the soul's condition from static to dynamic. You look for and associate yourself with those people who have gone further than you on the path of integration. You must treat the realized people of each religion and tradition as the real leaders. ("Ajna" means center of obedience).
The last step is the mystical experience of unity with the cosmos. This Cosmic Consciousness can come as a vision, a dedication, an experience of plenitude, pure Awareness, Spirit, a union with the fundamental tone OM, a state of Samadhi or Satori, Enlightenment, communion with Nature, etc. There are many forms and names to an experience which is essentially formless, nameless - the source of all forms and names.
The way is full of dangers because the awakening of the lower chakras can create an identification with their contents. Instead of the finite "I" in a healthy relationship with the Higher self and others, there is losing oneself in (1) sensuality; (2) curiosity; (3) power impulse; (4) even false leadership if contact with a sage living from the upper centers cannot be retained. There is also a danger of aiming only to get out of reality, to become one with the original vibration, OM. But the Spirit is the beginning, not the end. The old traditions warn that after you have realized the highest stage you should then go back into the world and complete the Raja Yoga of will, the Karma Yoga of acting without looking for rewards, the Bhakti Yoga of loving devotion and the Jnana Yoga of mastering discursive thinking. The Buddhist way of the Bodhisattva requires you to renounce your own achievement of personal redemption until the last being has found their way into Nirvana.
The opposite sequential order where you start with seven - Spirit - is found in the Christian prayer of "Our Father":
SPIRIT 7...........Our Father in heaven.
SOUL 6.............The hallowing of the name.
BODY 5............The demand for the coming of the kingdom.
WILLING 4.......Gods will should be done on heaven and earth.
FEELING 3.......Our nourishment comes daily.
THINKING 2.....Forgiving and asking forgiveness.
SENSING 1.......Seduction changed into deliverance.
Here in the Christian path beyond Raja Yoga you try to attain the union of all seven components as an attitude where the fundamental point of gravity is in the middle stage of willing (Thy will be done on heaven as on earth). The three upper ones are related to heaven, which means consciousness. The three lower ones are related to the will, by which you can overcome the opposition between spiritual ascension and life in the world.
It is not, however, the particular wording which creates this transformation - prayer is a definite historical form and therefore limited - but the integration of the functions and the realms and the seven energies that go with them, and the destruction of the "I" as the final value (in the demand of "love your neighbor" or "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"). Only part of humanity experiences God as divine Father. Other ways, like Scotus Eriugena's penetration into the dark will of the original force, the thundering silence of Bodhidharma, or the work on yourself of the Moslem Brotherhoods, all seem to lead to the same result. Thus effective methods and tools such as Prima Sounds, which allow the pure Awareness state to be experienced directly, may help bridge the cultural limitations and transcend the differences between the many religions and esoteric traditions of the world.
The development and transformation of energy was accomplished in the old traditions through many decades of repetition of mantra, rigorous breathing, and other equally laborious techniques. Now with Prima Sounds the continuity is not just created mentally, but with the help of computers and high fidelity sound technologies, it is also created energetically. In the old traditions the energetical and psychological components were either separated or came later. The addition of these components from the start makes the process easier to get going, and easier to maintain.
Even in the traditions which knew of Esoteric Music, because of the difficulties of tuning, the strict secrecy concerning the correct tones, the inability to record any performance, and other reasons, the apprentice in this discipline had to spend decades, or even a lifetime, "just" to find the fundamental tone. There was great difficulty in the initial stage in tuning into OM, the fundamental vibration of Spirit, and only after they had accomplished this could they play the music in tune, and so fully realize the energetical and dynamic affects of the music. For example, there is a Zen monastery in Japan which still maintains the tradition of Esoteric Music using flutes and martial arts. A monk may spend a lifetime in diligent practice with meditation and flute playing under the guidance of an elder master, all to find and play their true tone.
Now based upon brain wave and acoustic discoveries, this preliminary stage is given, the correct fundamental tones are already known. Thus the energy growth and harmonization process has been improved by technology and somewhat automated. The usefulness of Esoteric Music as a viable tool has thus been considerably strengthened.
Although this new technology makes the energy work easier and removes much of the initial drudgery, like the esoteric traditions of old it still requires intense efforts and concentration to reach the end results. The individual must still choose for himself; neither Prima Sounds, nor any other technology, "secret process", Saint or Guru can do it for you. That would defeat the basic purpose of the Universe. Claims of instant enlightenment or energies are a fraud; that is not the way the Universe works. The reorganization and transformation of the seven energies involves a change in the very chemistry of the body. This necessarily requires significant time and personal effort. Although technology may quicken the initial stages of this process and improve it somewhat, the necessity remains for a sustained Herculean effort over years to complete the transformation.
This essay and recording are part of the first English Language Publishing Project of the SCHOOL OF WISDOM. The first three volumes of the SCHOOL OF WISDOM series are the School's translations into English from the German original of Keyserling's great works of sacred poetry:Messages From The Being In The Universe, From Dark To Life and, From The Depths Of The Universe. They are published together in From Out Of Chaos: Visions for a New World. This inspirational book provides a beautiful non-technical introduction to the important work of Arnold and Wilhelmine Keyserling.
The Prima Sounds recording and this essay constitutes the fourth volume. The fifth volume is the another book by Keyserling and RCL Chance and Choice: A Compendium of Ancient and Modern Knowledge, the first book written originally in English of Keyserling's over fifty books. Chance and Choice presents a holistic vision of Science and Religion and serves as the basic handbook of the SCHOOL OF WISDOM. The sixth volume is Ralph's first solo book, LAWS OF WISDOM: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NATURAL LAWS OF HUMAN POTENTIAL. This is the best introductory work to the philosophy behind PrimaSounds music and the School of Wisdom. The full text is available online at its own internet web. The seventh volume is PRIMASOUNDS. Like the first Audio CD which goes with this book , the PrimaSounds CD contains over 45 minutes of original music and almost 15 minutes of chakra tones.
Laws of Wisdom, Life Tuning, Prima Sounds and other creations such as video and audio tapes of the School's workshops, may be purchased over the Internet at the School of Wisdom's WISDOM WARES site.
You can also call or write Molly or Ralph for more information at 1661 Woodland Ave., Winter Park, Florida, 32789; E-Mail: ralph@schoolofwisdom.com
