Scientists revive sacred sounds

Scientists revive sacred sounds (Cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com)

Ancient peoples around the world seem to have designed their sacred spaces not only for ceremonial sights, but for ceremonial sounds as well, archaeologists say.

In Peru, for example, a 3,000-year-old Andean ceremonial center's design was optimized for the blare of a priest's conch-shell trumpet. In Mexico, the Chichen Itza temple site features a staircase that can make hand claps sound like the chirp of a quetzal bird. And one of the best-known ancient monuments of all, England's Stonehenge, has a layout that's acoustically pleasing as well as astronomically significant.

The big question is, did ancient societies really have acoustics in mind when they built their monuments?

It's good to see that more researchers are opening up to the idea that ancient monuments incorporated sound and acoustics into their design. Ask anyone who has visited a Greek or Roman amphitheater how well the sound from the stage travels all the way to the back row.

The "quetzal chirp" from Chichen Itza is amazing, but the question is, was it an accidental byproduct of the staircase design, or intentional? (you have to turn the sound up loud to hear the echo):

I think they did. Or perhaps their math, as follows their sacred geometries, naturally comes out to form structures that channel sound in a very soothing, sacred manner.

After all, the ancients knew the power of vibration and numbers long before we ever did.

reply to post by Starchild23


Maybe they were so in tune with their spiritual side because the were more in tune with vibrations. Notice the same amount of claps to chirps, but just sped up. They hadnt become ignorant yet, because they were still trying to learn the world around them.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Blackmarketeer,
Thanks for your post! I do also believe that they did incorporate sounds into the architecture to uphold the soul purposes for those places. I do believe there is so much about sound and vibration that we do not know how powerful it is yet. I believe many different religions and countries used sound and sound build alters to perform ritals that involved everything from humming Om to chanting or singing or drums whatever they prefer. Sound carries and travels and when in a figure like that if right, sound can almost put these people on a different leve different state, that is what I believe. I believe that I among a lot of us know very little about the power of sound and I cannot wait to learn more and how and why they used sound like this!
Thank you for your post!

I'm glad this topic exists. Working with sound, these types of things are always extremely interesting to me.

Katharos62191, your post regarding certain acoustics putting people in certain states of mind made me instantly think of binaural beats; certain sounds and frequencies used in such a way that it stimulates certain parts of the brain. Ranging from many uses, they have been used for meditative healing and hypnosis yet have also been known to create intense mental trauma, depending on what the particular binaural beats are in question.

I know it isn't directly related to the main topical question on the Chichen Itza, but I had heard of Stonehenge causing some form of binaural beats. I believe what I had heard speculated that it was used in such a way to create these binaural beats through a ceremonial performance of music that would then cause someone at the nucleus of the Henge to experience an extreme hypnotic trance of some kind. Of course, this is just what I have heard by word-of-mouth, however here are a couple of interesting articles that someone may find interesting relating to Stonehenge and its acoustics.

www.newscientist.com...

soundsofstonehenge.wordpress.com...

Certainly the Greeks knew and incorporated an understanding of sound into their amphitheatres, even today you can hear very effectively the voices of the actors on the stage - even in the cheap seats. However they did so not from a scientific knowledge of sounds but from generations of practical experience.

There is much more to this idea of sound technique/technology than we give the ancients credit for, many great powers of the world have been using sound to create amazing things such as weapons and other cool stuff we only see on movies.

The ancients seem to have mastered incredible techniques using basically everything that mother nature provides.
I've visited that place called Chizten itza, which is btw much much bigger than the square with great pyramid in the middle... The entire "city" is full of breathtaking and mysterious structures that take your breath away...
The gigantic ballcourt aka stadium, the observatory and the buildings around it which any person can see are built by other people than the builders of the pyramid and much more.

Anyways I went way off track now.... I tried the sound thing and other cool stuff you could at that place with sound and light.
Legends say that they communicated with the entire city even nearby towns by sending special coded signals through soundwaves. You could even stand on top of one pyramid and talk to someone on top of another tall structure without having to scream, that's what the natives say anyway. There is too much jungle surrounding the areas now though.

The entire southern part of Mexico, the state of Quintana roo aka Yucatan penninsula has several ancient cities and most part of them have at least one pyramid or pyramid like structure.

They have only uncovered 10-15 percent of the ancient cities covered by the enormous jungles of Mexico.
Just emagine how much knowledge and history that country still has to give us!

My next trip will be to Peru and Bolivia then I'll probably visit Mexico again sometime in the future and see the places I missed plus hit those Caribbean beaches on the coast.

Most of those places are geometrically alignd so I'm sure sounds suppose to vibrate to help with the experience one is trying to achieve during ceremony for and I'm sure we'll find they all vibrate at different levels at different times so different sounds come through each ear just like binureal beats but a bit more primal...