Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Vibrational You

In the beginning There was neither existence nor non-existence, All this world was unmanifest energy ... – Nasadiya Sukta (The Hymn of Creation), the Rig Veda

Who are you really? What are you? Consider this for a moment. Your physical body is constructed from a variety of chemical elements, assembled in such a way as to form molecules, cells, blood, bones, organs, teeth, hair. A staggeringly large number of atoms – an estimated seven billion billion billion, which is a number almost too vast to contemplate – cooperate in accordance with Natural laws to produce the physical representation that you describe as 'you'. You are made from the very same basic building blocks of life that permeate our entire galaxy, bound together in complex ways to form intricately detailed structures. Within a period of seven years or so, every single one of the atoms in your body will be replaced. You will get a haircut and trim your nails and they will regrow. Scabs will form over open wounds, only to fall, replaced by fresh new skin. Your blood will be replenished. Your organs will regenerate. You are not the same person you were even a few moments ago.

Clearly, your physical form is nothing like the one that gasped for air as you first entered this world. You are a very different configuration of molecules today to the one that resembled that toddler making mud pies. You probably don't appear much like the pouting adolescent you once used to, trying to look cool in front of your friends, nor the version of you that eases into old age. You certainly don't look like the you that might one day lie still beneath the ground, or be scattered to the four winds many years from now. Yet despite all these changes you retain a sense of self. Even following the amputation of multiple limbs you would feel no less you. You know you are still the same person, despite the physical transformation that is constantly taking place. Who are you then, if you are not just the sum of your physical parts? If you being you is not dependent upon a collection of physical components, then you must surely be comprised of aspects and attributes that are nonphysical.

You are a collection of thoughts and experiences and the information you have accumulated about them, a bundle of beliefs, memories and emotions. You are the stories you tell yourself. A master translator of frequency and vibration, you are a wondrous synthesizer of life. Your bodily instrument is a musical marvel, constantly generating a glorious spectrum of sound, both audible and inaudible, combining electrical signals of different frequencies. You are simultaneously a transmitter, receiver and interpreter of data, like some magnificent router that is always connected, ever in intimate relationship to all that exists. You are an array of ordered photons, particles and waves of light. You are a powerful and indestructible force. Above all, you are a process, ongoing, never finished, an integral part of life seeking to experience itself.

We are vibrational beings. Every thought, every emotion, every sound, every smell, every color that we are capable of perceiving is merely our interpretation of vibration.

If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.

– Nikola Tesla

We see, smell and feel things because they vibrate. We hear sound because of changes of air pressure, vibrating at differing speeds within our eardrums. Each and every vibration has its own unique signature and specific frequency.

Today's scientists are finding that at the most minute scale we are capable of studying – the quarks and leptons of quantum physics – there is very little, if anything, that is substantial about the things that appear in our material world. Everything that exists within this visible galaxy is made of energetic particles in motion in space, energy vibrating at different rates. A steel girder might appear extremely solid and stable, but this is just a very powerful illusion. Matter is mind-bogglingly empty. Within the structure of all matter are a vast number of subatomic particles, each seemingly vibrating and randomly popping in and out of existence, behaving in accordance with the laws of nature that scientists have dubbed 'quantum mechanics', in ways that we are still grappling to understand. If we examine any solid object under a powerful microscope we will find that only around 0.1 percent is made of ephemeral subatomic particles, which change from matter to waveform depending upon how we observe them. These changes pose a huge challenge for scientists as, for the time being at least, it makes measurement impossible. The solidity of this remaining 0.1 percent may well be called into question as our technology evolves and we develop instruments capable of scrutinizing the tiniest of tiny things even more closely. It seems increasingly likely that these subatomic entities are just oscillations, without any solidity at all.

What's left is mere excitations of force fields.

– Dr. Jude Currivan

Solid matter is simply energy that is more readily perceived. When things vibrate more quickly they become less visible to most people's limited range of perception, even though they still exist. The extent to which they are audible changes. A good example of this is the humble electric fan. When it is still or moving slowly it is very easy to see and it appears as a solid object. Yet if we increase the speed at which the fan rotates it becomes blurred, and if we turn the speed up really fast it becomes transparent and almost disappears from view.

It's said that if we were able to remove the space from our bodies, the whole of our compacted humanity could be squeezed into an area the size of a single cube of sugar. The remaining 99.9 percent is seemingly devoid of substance yet it oscillates with vibrational frequency, like music, teeming with potentiality. This offers much food for thought, as our ancient forebears held this primal sound to be at the origin of all material existence.

The notion of energy is so abstract that scientists have yet to define it, or agree on what it consists of. Indeed, at the time of writing science has also still to define concepts such as mind, consciousness and mental health. When Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, a pioneer in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, asked a group of 150 physicists the question "What is energy?" their collective response after many deep and insightful conversations was:

Energy is the movement from possibility to actuality.

The truth is, it is impossible to put a label on. It is something that is beyond words and labels, beyond human comprehension. It is the essence of all life and is omnipresent, sustaining everything that exists: humans, plants, animals and minerals, the water that we drink, the air that we breathe, the earth that supports us. This mysterious energy flows through every atom, from the smallest molecule to the largest planet, permeating the entire cosmos. It is formless, yet is the motivating principle via which form is organized and structured, linking spirit and substance. Imperceptible, this indefinable force is what sustains life and animates all living beings. It is what makes the sun shine and the trees and flowers grow. Since time immemorial great sages, yogis, seers and spiritual masters from every corner of our world and every conceivable culture have talked of it:

There is a force in the Universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.

– Mahatma Gandhi

It is not associated with any visible material being. It's an unseen spiritual power that radiates vibration and lifts one into harmony. This power is incomprehensible to man, yet every single living being is receiving its blessings.

– Hawayo Takata

We hear this benevolent, intelligent, infinite life force energy referred to by many different names:

• Qi or chi (Chinese)

• Ki (Japanese)

• Prana (Sanskrit)

• Spiritus (Latin)

• Aether or ether (Latin)

• Pneuma (Ancient Greek)

• Holy Spirit (Christian)

• Sekhem (Egyptian)

• Great Spirit (Native American)

• Gitche Manitou or Kije Manito (Algonquian)

• Wakan Tanka (Lakota)

• Mana (Polynesian)

• Lüng (Tibetan Buddhism)

• Megin (Norse)

• Rûah or ruach (Hebrew)

• Quintessence (Middle English)

• The fifth element

to name but a few. In scientific circles it is more likely to be discussed in the context of electromagnetic emission or photonic radiation. We can call it anything we like, but we can never be separate from it. It affects all levels of our being: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Since the dawn of time the great religious and spiritual texts have pointed to non-duality, telling of the interconnectedness, the oneness, of all things. All ancient philosophies have told of the ways in which this vital essence gives life to all creative thought, enabling it to manifest in our physical reality. It is an exquisite, loving, benevolent, balanced, unpolluted and harmonious state of pure consciousness in which all possibilities exist. It is our True nature.

Many things can't be seen with the naked eye, which is why we have microscopes. A great deal of vibrational information is of a frequency which is way beyond the normal range of human awareness, yet it exists nevertheless. The vast majority of people are aware of less than one percent of the electromagnetic and acoustic spectrums. The average range of human hearing includes sound frequencies between 15–20,000 Hz, or cycles per second. Outside of this range sound goes undetected by most people. Elephants, with their large ears, can pick up infra-sounds, low frequencies that to us seem inaudible. Dolphins communicate using low frequencies and make use of high frequencies for echolocation. Bats too use high frequency ultrasound to navigate. The human eye is only capable of seeing a miniscule portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, that which lies between 390 and 700 nm (a band of around 430–770 THz in frequency terms) which we refer to as 'visible light', whereas eagles see the world in vivid brilliance with far more clarity of focus. Isn't it funny how we readily accept that a dog can hear a high pitched whistle which is inaudible to most human ears? We acknowledge concepts such as radio, microwave and gamma waves, yet are often deeply skeptical of notions such as subtle energy and psychic sight.

Within this closed system that we call earth the very same water that nourished our ancestors thousands of years earlier continually shifts states, changing from liquid to ice, to cloud, to rain and to steam. The amount of space in between each particle increases or decreases in response to thermal and pressure changes, causing substances to expand and contract, to become lighter or denser and to behave in different ways. Particles that are active or 'excited' vibrate quickly and produce heat while those that are closer to stillness are cooler. The same processes are constantly occurring within the unseen world, they just pass largely unnoticed. Through movement and vibratory rates, the subtle becomes become grosser, denser, descending so as to manifest in a way which is physically visible, while that which is apparent ascends to become more ethereal in nature.

Our inward being, our essence, is comprised of very fine vibrations, whereas our outer being and the external material world we see around us are formed from gross vibrations. We often hear the finer part referred to as spirit, and the grosser part as matter. Life materializes from the stillness of the soul through greater levels of vibrational activity generated in no small measure by our thoughts and our emotions.

Experience

Light a stick of incense and watch the smoke plume rise upwards. At what point does the smoke no longer exist? Listen intently to the oscillating voice of a Tibetan singing bowl. At what point does the sound no longer exist?

At any given moment each of us is emitting our own unique vibrational tone, dependent upon what we are thinking and feeling at the time. But what determines how that tone manifests into something that can be perceived in our physical reality? The life we see around us is molded by that insubstantial, unreliable force called human will, by the decisions that we make and the actions we take. If we learn to properly manage our vibrational tone then we are much better able to experience the richness that life has to offer, rather than be enslaved by it. This is not always easy to do; it takes practice. Just as it is hard to stop a ball once it is rolling down a hill, it's not always possible to call back the events that occur once our thoughts have gained a great deal of momentum. Yet the desire to be able to regulate one's vibrational state is a valuable aspiration to hold, as it is through vibration that mastery is achieved.

Every vibration has both length and breadth, frequency and amplitude. The lower the frequency that is produced, the longer the standing wave it generates and vice versa; the higher the frequency, the shorter the standing wave. Each frequency has a musical note that is associated with it. A higher frequency sound wave corresponds to a high pitch and a lower frequency to a lower pitch.

Although it has been dimmed by manifestation, your thought, your mind, is also made of sound.

– Hazrat Inayat Khan

Within the spectrum of visible light each frequency is related to a specific color. As the frequency gets higher so the colors change, ranging from red (low frequency) through to orange, yellow, green, blue and violet (high frequency). A vibration may be fleeting or it may last for billions of years. The vibrations of the soul are amongst the most powerful, extending far in their influence.

As particles vibrate at different rates, or frequencies, they move and behave in different ways, offering the potential for changes of state and transformation. Those in solids are compacted closely in a regular pattern, and vibrate in a fixed position, attracted and held together by strong forces called bonds. In liquids such as water or mercury they are bonded randomly, still close but in a way which allows them to move around each other, so that they are able to flow and take the shape of their container. The particles of gases such as air,

Ancient Teachings for Modern Times

helium, water vapor and chlorine are spaced further apart and are arranged in a random way. They are not bonded, so can move rapidly in all directions.

Empty your mind! Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, or creep or drip or crash. Be water, my friend.

– Bruce Lee

When energy is added to or subtracted from a substance its physical state changes. For example, by adding heat through kinetic energy (the energy of something in motion), molecules move and vibrate more quickly causing the strength of the bonds holding them together to decrease. When energy is decreased the process is reversed. Changes in temperature cause the light of an object to brighten or dim, sometimes quite dramatically, and they affect the pitch of sound and the speed at which it travels.

Many of those who have had mystical experiences describe feeling intense vibrations and heat in the moments immediately preceding them. To the Ancient Greeks, the original source of vital heat in every living being lies in the heart, and is intimately connected with the soul. They taught that just as the sun lies at the center of our solar system, imparting life and light to all the planets that revolve around it, so the heart is crucial to all parts of the body. Without it there can be no motion, intelligence or sensation. The Ancient Chinese were of a similar opinion, considering the heart to be the king of all organs and recognizing that all other organs will sacrifice themselves if necessary to keep the heart in balance. They held that the heart houses the shen, our mind, spirit and vitality, and is responsible for regulating the circulation of blood. The heart influences our mental activity, intellect, emotions, memories and conscious awareness.

Intense activity in any sphere, such as that of a stormy ocean or a violent tornado, has destructive power and the potential to destroy everything in its wake, bringing weakness and damage. Spiritual energy can be seen more like a calm sea. It is much less subject to change and destruction than matter. Oscillating like an electric current between souls, one vibration inspires changes in the vibrations of another and thus gives rise to a myriad of forms and colors. In between these two extremes lies balance, like the ebb and flow of a moderately active sea in gentle motion.

---

Excerpted from "Ancient Teachings for Modern Times"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Peta Morton.
Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---