Serendipity.
What a beautiful word! -
conjuring park serene sailing, with a hint of good-natured fun.
Serendipity -
that chance beneficial meeting,
the unexpected conversation
that provides just the answer you're looking for,
the perfectly timed taxi ride
that takes you past the cinema showing the film you'd be wanting to see,
where you accidentally knock over somebody else's popcorn
who turns out to be the boy from school who you used to have a crush on.
And guess what?
A year later you're happily married -
serendipity.
So if that is serendipity in action, how does it work?
How does it work?
Are there higher powers directing the details of our lives?
Or is it just a random coincidence of events?
Is there anything we can do to enhance the occurrences of these positive events?
It is my proposition today
that whilst life throws many events our way -
some positive, some challenging -
we have within ourselves,
the power and possibility to create an environment
that enhances the probability of these fortunate events
that make our lives a little more plain sailing
and a lot more fun.
Before we continue,
I would like to explain
that I'm a qualified and experienced sound therapist.
I have studied spiritual and scientific texts
as they relate to sound and vibration.
Some of the things I'm going to talk about today
might initially sound impossible,
but I would ask you to suspend your disbelief
and remember in the words of the author Paulo Coelho,
"People never learn by being told, they have to find out for themselves."
It's about taking my words today and relating them to your own experience,
and if enough truth resonates for you,
go out and experience it for yourself;
find out if it holds true for you.
To understand why I believe
we are able to create and influence serendipitous events,
I would like you to consider that we live in a vibrational universe;
you are a vibrational being,
whose cells and organs all pulsate at a particular frequency.
Our brain pulsates with electromagnetic energy,
affected by our emotions, our health and our general state of well-being.
Our body contracts and pulses at various rates,
including your heartbeat, your stomach contracting
and the very act of breathing.
Together, they make up you, a composite of frequencies,
and so we each vibrate to our own personal tune.
Disease, depression, negative behavior patterns -
these are all symptoms of a body and mind being out of tune, quite literally.
Not only do our bodies vibrate on a cellular level,
these vibrations do not end with this skin
but instead, continue out into space on a vibratory continuum
being connected by an energy field or a matrix of waves.
I'd like you to rub your hands together really fast
and then hold them a couple of millimeters away from each other.
Can you feel a slight resistance?
That is energy.
Nikola Tesla said,
"If you want to find the secret of the universe,
you need to think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration."
If an energetic force is struck
at the same resonant frequency as another object in the vicinity,
the vibrations will cause the second object to begin vibrating.
In terms of how you experience the world,
the energy and vibration you give off is met and reflected back.
We can feel this on an emotional level
when we say that somebody's on our wavelength
or we feel in tune with a person or situation.
Why is it important?
Well, if your internal vibration is one of anxiety, depression, anger,
the life experience you have may very well provide you
with people and situations that reflect this back at you,
thereby reinforcing the feeling
and so creating a circuitous, negative experience of life.
It's a bit like tuning into different radio waves,
depending on what frequency you emit or decide on what station you pick up;
therefore, if we can raise and enhance our internal vibration,
we can create a situation
that reflects back a more positive experience of life.
So how do we create that shift?
Ancient teaching’s view of how the world is created
is through sound.
Whilst the truth of these views can be debated,
what is clear from modern research, sound can at the very least affect matter.
In the 18th century,
Ernst Chladni put sand onto a glass plate
and vibrated it with a violin bow.
The sand was pulled into creative and beautiful symmetric patterns.
This work has been continued with the invention of the cymascope
by John Reid,
who uses water as a surface membrane in which to imprint sound
and create a digital representation of sound and vibration.
In the following video clip,
you will see the sound and vibration
as represented on the cymascope of a singing bowl,
much like the one I have here.
(Singing bowl chimes)
As you can hear,
the bowl has rich and complex harmonics.
(Singing bowl chimes)
Notice the symmetrical shapes
and the similarities to those found in sacred geometry
and within the harmonious shapes found in nature.
Through the study of micro cymatics and sonocytology,
we are now able to hear the difference between a healthy and unhealthy cell.
According to Gardner Snook of Manchester University,
the difference between a healthy cell and a cancerous cell
is like two very large orchestras
all playing their instruments at the same time,
but in the cancerous orchestra, the tuba is horribly out of tune.
In the following two clips,
you can hear the difference
between the healthy pulsations of a yeast cell
and the high-pitched frequency of one that is stressed.
Notice the distortions as represented on the cymascope
of the one that is stressed.
(Sounds similar to distant thunders)
(Sharp hissing sounds)
Through the latest experiments using micro cymatics,
it has been suggested that through the principle of entrainment,
whereby a more powerful frequency
causes a weaker frequency to synchronize with it,
we can excite the membrane of a cell
into coherent and geometrical patterns;
therefore, if we direct harmonious sound towards our bodies,
we are able to bring our cells into their own optimum frequency.
Not only do we vibrate on a cellular level,
our consciousness, our thoughts and emotions
all have their own energetic imprint.
Masaru Emoto, in his book "The Secret Life of Water,"
exposed water to harmonious sounds, healing thoughts, and prayer
as well as dissonant music and negative thoughts.
He then froze the water and took photographs of the water crystals.
The water that had been exposed to the harmonious sounds
and healing thoughts and prayer
created beautiful and geometric water crystals,
and those who didn't were misshapen or not present at all.
Many scientists and philosophers have pondered,
Where does consciousness and our thoughts arise from?
Whether you believe that it is from a god-given source
or from somewhere deep inside the brain,
latest research has discovered
that it is through our bodily responses to it,
is in quantum vibrations found in microtubules within brain neurons;
therefore, as we have already found out,
by putting harmonious thoughts into our brains,
we can turn our perceptions and our thoughts
from chaos to beauty.
We've all used music to calm and energize ourselves,
whether it is dance music on a Saturday night
or downtempo jazz on the Sunday.
Pachelbel’s Canon was my go-to when in the throes of teenage angst.
I’ve subsequently discovered
that the perfect fifth harmonic as found in Baroque music
is one of the most healing harmonic arrangements there is,
being both expansive and stable.
By creating a steady rhythm
through the use of Baroque music, toning a single vowel,
or through the use of a gong, a Himalayan bowl,
or through a mother singing a lullaby to her child,
a steady rhythm can be created
that allows the mind to latch on to it, slow down, and relax -
the left and right hemispheres of the brain
begin to resonate to a steady rhythm,
bringing together the more linear left side
with a more emotional and creative right;
the subconscious and unconscious minds become aligned,
unresolved issues are released,
and you become more vibrationally coherent and increasingly powerful.
When we say that somebody is charismatic,
what we are feeling is their personal vibration.
When this happens, life starts to flow, and those serendipitous moments increase.
Why?
I stand to quote the saying,
"We cannot solve problems
using the same kind of thinking we had when we created them."
By creating a more coherent and harmonizing
on our bodies and our thoughts,
we can change our thoughts
and so change the way you perceive the world.
We start to see the world through a truthful lens,
being curious of the opportunities presented to us.
We respond creatively to situations,
taking action that perhaps others might not
and perhaps we have not done in the past.
It is at this moment,
those serendipitous moments that seem so random and elusive
start to become more frequent and expected
because not only are we tuned into a more enjoyable radio station,
we become less passive and more active as steering our course,
whereby we can live a life more expansive and increasingly joy-filled.
Thank you for listening.
(Applause)