A Sonic Universe - Sound Design as Key to Understanding Physical Reality | #1: Everything as Vibration on One Spectrum

Long before understanding anything about sound design I came across an idea that I found most peculiar and effortless to relate to, an idea that should definitely be mentioned here in part 1 before diving any further into conceptions of how sonic behavior may relate to physical reality.

And that idea is that there really is no such thing as sound at all.

Nor is there light, nor radiowaves nor really anything else as a separate "thing" or class of phenomena. Rather everything we perceive (and don't yet perceive) is part of the same frequency spectrum.

As a sound designer you'll quickly learn that the audible frequency spectrum perceivable to the human ear is generally said to be 20 Hertz to 20 KiloHertz (from low / bass, to high / treble).

Some people with good ears can hear (higher) frequencies outside of this range and generally it is said that older people cannot perceive high frequencies around 20 kHz anymore as easily as children can. But that's the general idea, 20Hz to 20kHz.

If you want to hear how that spectrum sounds you can listen to a sine wave starting at 20 Hz travelling all the way up to 20 kHz so you can hear what the audbile range is like in the experiential.

Now the thing is, frequencies beyond that audible limit of around 20 kHz can also be measured in Hertz, only we don't hear them anymore. Frequencies up high on the same spectrum eventually start becoming... light!

It's not that they are light and the lower frequencies are sound, rather everything is part of that vibrational spectrum, perceivable by different means. Where our ears stop perceiving we start to enter the "electromagnetic spectrum" where we usually find radiowaves in the kHz ranges, and other types of radiation and electromagnetic wave phenomena in the respective frequency ranges above until we reach actually visible light. If we go even higher than that we move into the ultraviolet part of the spectrum which our eyes can no longer perceive either. As human beings we have learnt to use machines to make these ranges accessible, visible and useable for various purposes - ranges of frequency that are usually not perceivable by us like X-rays or even gamma radiation.

Like so:

What about matter?

Some psychonautically minded people have claimed that what we call matter is also part of that same frequency spectrum, only going the other way, far below the audible 20 hz.

If this model is accurate it would quite literally mean that everything is related as different segments on that same spectrum. Where there is seeming separation there really may just be different frequencies - speeds of oscilation - allowing for all the various forms, manifestations and phenomena in physical (and nonphysical) reality. Everything is vibration...

Gives the phrase a whole new connotation doesn't it?

It's also a great reminder to stay humble and know that there have been phenomena in existence long before we were able to perceive them through artificial means. It's quite possible that this range is much broader than we think and that this continuation moves into both directions - possibly AT INFINITIM.

If the focus of research in the public space would be more willing to turn to analysis of this spectrum and less hellbent on analyzing artificially separated phenomena that may - in reality - just be the same phenomenon at different frequencies I think we have a great chance of discovering a truly unified theory of everything.

To be continued...

Read up on the foreword and aim of this series here

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