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"It don't mean a thing
if you ain't got that swing." Duke Ellington
Resonance comes from the Latin
verb resonare, meaning to "return to sound". It means to sound and resound,
as in an echo. Usually we think of resonance in terms of objects such
as bells which when struck continue to ring or resonate the orginal sound.
Another type of resonance is called sympathetic resonance. When we strike
a tuning fork another tuning fork of the same pitch will begin to vibrate
with the first fork. Resonance can be understood as a merging created
when energy moves back and forth between two or more bodies.
The opposite of resonance is
dissonance. Dissonance happens when energy moves back and forth between
two or more bodies without merging into unified pulsation. The pulses
beat against one another. Resoulution happens when dissonance becomes
resonance. Our personal sensations of dissonance, resolution, and resonance
in our daily life serve as sonic guides. Learning to listen to, differentiate,
and appreciate these sensations in daily life is fundamental to BioSonic
RepatterningTM.
When we meet somebody special
or do something just right, we experience resonance. The longer lasting
and deeper the experience of resonance, the more ecstatic we become. Our
language is filled with words that ring with the taste of resonance. "Being
in tune" or "we are on the same wave length" describe resonante experiences.
Making the connection, being in the groove, or just plain "wow!" are further
examples. When something is just right we say "it clicks."
Imagine that the whole universe;
everything we know, including cars, computers, airplanes, houses, buildings,
lakes, oceans, continents, our bones, flesh, and nerves is a fountain
of dream images generated and sustained by a submerged sound. Further
imagine that everything we do and think, whether good or bad, moral or
immoral, is an attempt to seek out and merge with that sound. Our goal
is to return to the source of the fountain. Although we may identify with
the object of value ie: a man or woman, a car, etc., the real attraction
is the resonance we experience when in the presence of that person or
thing. The experience vibrates us like a tuning fork and becomes a sonic
homing buoy confirming our inner journey.
As children our playfulness
leads us from one resonate experience to another. Teeter totters, swings,
kites grabbing the wind at the right moment, catching or hitting a baseball,
riding a bike, skipping a rock, and bonding with a doll or stuffed animal
are the abundance of a childs world. Children soon learn the value of
pushing forward of leaning backward on a swing. They will try again and
again until they get the "right feeling" of the swing. This is a moment
when the thrust of the pump harmonizes exactly with the natureal rhythm
of the swing. They don't need classes or intellectual reasons, for their
sense of resonance, which they somehow "just know," become both their
guide and goal.
Pretend that you are an ethereal
being floating in drifting currents of light. One day, as days go in light
oceans, you begin to hear special sounds. When you float nearer there
is a feeling of glowing radiance. There are two sounds and they are beginning
to merge. Your light body begins to pulsate. Surrendering to the sounds
you enter an estatic state of resonance..............
...........when we arrive
in our new bodies, we immediately seek resonance. A baby bonds with its
mother and father. Watching a new born baby and mother together is a wonderful
experience. Their bodies are like tuning forks that vibrate in unison.
I remember the indescribable feeling of the birth of my son. I am in the
delivery room surrendering to the rhythm of labor. Push after push I breath
in unison with my wife as my son pulsates his way into the world.
In the "new" quantum physics
matter is perceived as resonate particles. Particles are created when
electrons and protons are accelerated to near the speed of light. Collisions
create a burst of energy in which a particle takes form. The energy of
the collision keeps resonating or feeding back into itself, like a bell
that is struck and continues to ring.
In the universe of particle
physics, matter is simultaneously a particle and a wave. Because it is
a wave, each particle is also a specific frequency or vibration. Therefore,
in the subatomic world the way something vibrates determines what it is.
Remember that not every collision creates a particle; only the collisions
that resonate create particles. Physicists who explore the sub-atomic
world for particles call what they are doing "resonance hunting."
The physicist Werner Heisenberg
borrowed two words from Aristotle--potentia and actuality to describe
his experience of the quantum reality. The world "not looked at" was potential.
For Heisenberg, the quantum wave was a picture of the unexamined potential
of reality. Quantum waves are not existence or actuality, but the tendencies
towards existence. The parallels between "musical experience" and the
sub atomic reality are remarkably similar. Physicists seem to rely mostly
on numbers and instrumentation to "see" and map resonances. An artist
relies on his or her senses and intutions.
Communication is a resonance
between two or more people. Cognitive resonance occurs when someone talks
about an idea or concept that we agree with. Politicians always speak
in generalities to heighten their chances for cognitive resonance with
potential voters. Emotionally we speak of affective resonance. It is the
source of the terms sympathy, antipathy, empathy, telepathy, and apathy.
When we pick up emotional states and feelings from another person, we
say we are sympathetic. The person with the feelings is like a tuning
fork setting off similar feelings in another person. If the other person
is opposed to the feelings, then they resist and become dissonant or without
resonance. This is antipathy. Empathy means "into feeling." It is a state
of merging with another. We allow ourselves to resonate with the vibratory
field of the other until we are the other.
The ideal is to remain conscious
of our self during the empathetic response. Conscious empathy is the foundation
of healing arts and the key for understanding another persons experience.
When we are empathic, distance as we know it ceases to exist. We are both
in the same resonate field. It is therefore possible to experience the
other at great distances. This is the telepathic response or feeling response
at a distance. Apathy means no feeling. When one is apathetic there is
no resonance.
Resonate communication on a
spiritual level is called communion. Although health professionals are
trained to focus their attention on mental, emotional or physical processes
during empathic response with their clients, they often report a special
communion between themselves and the other.
Faith healers bypass these
levels and focus only on the spiritual. They lay their hands on the body
and allow themselves to empathetically resonate wherever spirit leads
them. The resulting interaction between the person and healer becomes
a divine communion. A resonate "returning to sound" creates a healing
response. In this sense, regardless of academic training or analytical
understanding, we all must become faith healers for our insights and studies
to be effective.
I remember a story told by
Elizabeth Kubler Ross. She was in charge of training psychiatrists to
counsel dying people. The young doctors knew a lot about the psychodynamics
of dying as well as the physical condition of the patients. However, Kubler
Ross noticed that when the doctors left the room, the dying person was
quite often agitated and upset.
One day she noticed that when
the cleaning lady left the patient's rooms they were at peace with themselves,
breathing easier, and more open to talking. She asked the cleaning lady
what she was doing. The cleaning lady, who hadn't even graduated from
grade school, said she had experienced a lot of death in her family. She
said she just "felt" for the people and would just sit with them a moment
while she cleaned up. Kubler Ross realized that her ability to "just sit"
and be with a dying person was what the doctors lacked. To the dismay
of her colleagues, she made the cleaning lady her assistant instructor.
The experience of empathetic
resonance through touching has been given many names by bodyworkers. Dr.
John Upledger calls it "melding" and sees it as the prerequisite of all
good bodywork. "The idea is to meld the palpating part of your body with
the body you are examining. As this melding occurs, the palpating part
of your body does what the patient's body is doing. It becomes synchronized.......
The objective is to have that part of your body which is examining and
palpating a patient do exactly what the patient's body is doing, and would
otherwise be doing even if you weren't there. " Milton Tragger uses the
term "hook-up." Dr. Randolph Stone, the founder of Polarity Therapy, called
it "tuning into the energy."
The synchronization of bodies
is traditionally called "achieving rapport" in verbal counseling. In Neuro
Linguistic Programming it is called "pacing." Without pacing there can
be no communication. The research of Dr. William Condon uses microanalysis
of filmed human interaction to reveal precise synchronization of rhythmic
body movements between two people interacting. This synchrony is invisible
to eye and unconscious to the participants.
Dr. Milton Erickson considered
it a necessity to "get into a patients reality." He would sometimes spend
years understanding and piecing together a patient's view of the world,
body movements, and speech patterns. The psychiatrist R. D. Laing illustrates
the principle of "getting into a patients reality" in his description
of a "Schizophrenic Voyage." Laing will spend days with a patient, to
the point of even living in a closet with them to experience resonance
with their reality.
The resonant experience of
love is so powerful that we sometimes feel as though we would do anything
not to lose it. First there is resonance. In her eyes I perceive myself
as mysterious, unknown, exciting and vibrant. She is the lover that awakens
my heart and each throb is a revelation, a vision, and a dream that becomes
a remembrance of who I am. She is the embodiment of the sweetest elixir.
We drink and meld until the other disappears into the mists and is devoured
by the force of union.
The experience is so magnificent
that we want it to happen forever. However the moment we try to keep the
experience, the feeling is gone. The same person that we fell in love
with is suddenly different. It is as though we reached out and put the
palm of our hand an a ringing bell in an effort to keep it ringing forever.
We are shocked when the quality of the ringing diminishes. To make things
worse we grab the bell even tighter and sometimes even hit it to get to
ring again. Eventually we give up. We can not sustain this "grabbing energy."
We say the "life is out of the relationship" or "the thrill is gone."
During a session, a client
described his relationship with his wife as "the ring is gone." He had
done everything to get it back. And it became clear from the tone of his
voice that "everything" meant every possible way of grabbing and holding
onto her. Resonance, or the ringing bell quality of a relationship is
only nourished through surrender. This implies giving up the other in
order to have the other. It seems like a paradox. Experienced from sonic
consciousness it becomes very real.
Everyone wants resonance. Regardless
of our behaviors, relationships, occupations, looks, cultures, lifestyles,
and tastes we are listening for resonance. When each experience of resonance
we move closer to our source. The closer we come to our source the more
we are "beings of sound mind and body." Resonance is everywhere and always
available to us. Everyone has a front row seat in the cosmic concert.
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