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Cymatics: Dr. Hans Jenny – Study of Geometry in Fluid Vibrations

This article is a comprehensive review of the work of Dr. Hans Jenny and his texts Cymatics Volume I and II.  I will add several images from his work in the near future.  This article references page numbers and image numbers – it is highly recommended that you purchase a copy of this work if you are deeply interested in Sacred Geometry.

Cymatics Vol. I & II is presently out of print, but it is currently being extensively revised and expanded by MACROmedia Publishing.  It is expected to be available once again the beginning of next year (2022)!

All quotes below are from Cymatics Vol. I & II, edited by Jeff Volk, unless otherwise stated.

Robert Lawlor writes, “It is in the work of Hans Jenny that we can begin to see the relationship of form and sound in the physical world.  Jenny’s experiments have shown that sound frequencies have the propensity to call into arrangement random, suspended particles, or to organize emulsions in hydro-dynamic dispersion into orderly, formal, periodic patterns.  In other words, sound is an instrument through which temporal frequency patterns can become formal spatial and geometric patterns.”

The following excellent introduction is written by Jeff Volk at Macromedia Publishing:

“Dr. Hans Jenny (1904-1972) was a Swiss physician and natural scientist who coined the term Cymatics to describe acoustic effects of sound wave phenomena.”2  Let us take a brief, yet deeper look at this extraordinary man named Hans Jenny.  Christiaan Stuten writes that “Hans Jenny was indeed a Renaissance man, his diverse callings woven together by his dynamic personality which was characterized by great intensity and a profound sense of competency in all that he undertook.”  From a very young age Hans had a natural skill and aptitude for music.  He played the organ for church sermons but “his tastes were as broad as his talents and he was equally at ease improvising  jazz as performing a piano sonata.”

Hans Jenny developed a deep love for music, yet was rather indifferent to the religion he was taught.  He did learn the Bible, however, as well as classical and modern history, and the languages of Latin and Greek.  He deeply studied the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Mozart, Wagner, Plato, Aristotle, Heraclitus, Nietzsche, and perhaps most important of all, Goethe.

Hans was described as “a most entertaining man whose sharp wit was tempered with heartfelt compassion.”  He became a family physician in the village of Dornach for over 30 years and was quite popular among his patients as well as the citizens of the towns and villages in the area.  “With his breadth of interest, sense of humor, and his positively magnetic personality, he could quickly develop rapport with just about anyone, and his vibrancy was so infectious that no sooner did he enter the room than his patients would feel better!”

While he continued his medical practice, he was also an avid birdwatcher and artist.  “Since early childhood he had liked to draw and paint, primarily animals and their environs.  This “hobby” grew to become an absolute inner necessity for him throughout his later life…executed in a vital, expressive manner unique in the realm of ‘animal portraiture’, his paintings captured the soul of the animal while at the same time reflecting powerful archetypes within the psyche of man.  The resulting body of over two thousand paintings firmly established Jenny as a fine artist with numerous exhibits throughout Europe and as far afield as Argentina.”

Early in life Hans study of Anthroposophy, a spiritual science taught by Rudolph Steiner, began.  He proved a good student and began giving lectures before he even finished medical school.  “After completing his doctorate eh taught science at the Rudolf Steiner School in Zurich for four years before beginning his medical practice.”  This also allowed him time to experiment with and lecture on the topics of Cymatics.  “Dr. Jenny would frequently begin his lectures stating that he hoped that his research into Cymatics would open the eyes of others to the underlying periodic  phenomena in nature, which he so clearly perceived…The outer form of things, their skin or surface appearance, proved no boundary for his insightful mind and penetrating gaze.  Much like the Cymatics experiments brought to light underlying principles of nature, Jenny’s indefatigable spirit of inquiry, and unparalleled powers of perception revealed his ardent desire to now, to understand, to feel and be at one with the essence of life, a force which he felt deeply within.”

Clearly Dr. Jenny was a remarkable and amazing man.  We will now take a deeper look at his work in Cymatics.  Dr. John Beaulieu states, “Dr. Jenny’s writings are pure “left brain” science.  He sets forth a thorough phenomenological study of vibration befitting an accomplished physicist and systems researcher.  His cymatic writings are embedded in rigor and clarity and supported by exacting methodology and procedure.  He is constantly seeking to observe the integrity of the whole, and to document its behavior through phenomenological categories.”

Dr. Jenny observed three fundamental principles at work regarding vibration.  Dr. Jenny wrote, “Since the various aspects of these phenomena are due to vibration, we are confronted with a spectrum which reveals a patterned, figurative formation at one pole and kinetic-dynamic processes at the other, the whole being generated and sustained by its essential periodicity.”  These three properties: periodicity, dynamic movement and steady-state form he regarded as the “Triadic Nature of Vibration”.

“The three fields,” Jenny wrote, “the periodic as the fundamental field with the two poles of figure and dynamic, invariably appear as one.  They are inconceivable without each other.  It is quite out of the question to take away the one or the other; nothing can be abstracted without the whole ceasing to exist.  We cannot therefore number them one, two, three, but can only say they are threefold in appearance and yet unitary; that they appear as one and yet are threefold.”

This three-fold nature of vibration relates to the structure of the universe, and all that’s in it, in profound ways.  We are living in a dynamic, steady-state universe in which everything oscillates.  These oscillations are the basis of the formation of matter itself.  This includes everything from the scale of the photon up to the structure of large-scale galactic clustering and everything in between.  So once again, in our universe as a whole, (which is discussed abundantly throughout Cosmic Core) we have the three-fold nature of: periodicity or oscillation, dynamic and continual movement, and steady-state form.  These are principles of vibration seen in Cymatics and these are principles of creation seen throughout the Universe.  In our daily lives we usually can only see the static aspect of the form.  This can lead to the assumption that the form is “solid” when in fact it is not.  Everything is constantly in flux and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

As Dr. Jenny wrote, “Look at the whole and you will come to new understanding.  Let these cymatic experiments inspire your imagination to deeper insights into the universal principles of Nature.”  Or, as Dr. Beaulieu tells us, “Systems Theory unites science and art in a quest for holistic vision.  It is a discipline where objectivity and intuition meet, for one cannot see the whole without this kind of vision.  In the vibrational field it can be shown that every part is, in the true sense, implicated in the whole… [Furthermore] Cymatics, from its widest purview, ultimately teaches us that we are limitless beings with immense creative and healing powers.”

Periodicity

Periodicity or oscillation is the key principle we discuss all throughout Cosmic Core.  It is this continual oscillation from the invisible metaphysical realm to the visible physical realm that creates interference patterns that in turn create standing waves upon which matter is built.  These interference patterns, or standing waves, are the patterns that Cymatics makes visible.  Sound or vibration acting upon light (or a light medium called the Aether) creates geometry.  Photons, subatomic particles, atoms, molecules and cells coalesce upon these geometric lines of Aetheric force-flow fields to form matter.  These force-flow fields are the electric, magnetic and gravitational fields in physics and will be discussed in other sections.  The point is that these fields upon which matter is built are the magnetic, gravitational and electric fields themselves and they are created by fundamental oscillations that cause a complex toroidal flow system of the Aether that results in the fundamental forces of physics: electromagnetism (which encompasses the weak force) and gravity (which encompasses the strong force).  Gravity, electricity and magnetism are all different flow fields of the same Aether medium which can be called the dielectric.

The molecules, atoms and subatomic particles that make up the matter are constantly pulsing or oscillating.  This is a scientific fact.  Yet the matter appears solid.  So we have periodicity or oscillation as the fundamental field that creates the two poles of reality: constant dynamic movement and change, and steady-state form.

We live in a dynamic steady-state universe and everything within that universe is its own dynamic steady-state process.  “As above, so below.”  The macrocosm is a mirror of the microcosm and vice versa.  All is created by sound, vibration, oscillation, pulsation.  At the most fundamental level these oscillations originate with consciousness – the all-embracing Universal or Cosmic Consciousness, which is beyond human comprehension, as well as the input of all other individualized consciousnesses including every human and all other life-forms and entities.

Dr. Jenny points out that the idea of periodicity is all-embracing.  He wrote that “Wherever we look in Nature, animate or inanimate, we see widespread evidence of periodic systems.  Events then, do not take place in a continuous sequence, in a straight line, but are in a continual state of constant vibration, oscillation undulation and pulsation.”

Professor Simon Shnoll illustrates this very succinctly.  See Article 113.  Professor Shnoll studied different types of reactions: physical, atomic, quantum, biological, chemical and radioactive, in order to find common patterns.  Most scientists expect all processes will start small, steadily build, and then glide back down to zero.  This is known as the familiar bell curve.  Professor Shnoll found that the reactions did not fit the bell curve.  In some cases they dropped down then shot back up again.  Reaction speeds everywhere on Earth raced up and down.  Interestingly, the fluctuations kept repeating in even intervals of time depending on the rotation of the moon, time of year cycle as well as celestial movements.  Furthermore, Shnoll’s data points to structure in the universe.  He wrote, “The structure observed is found to persist regardless of the time scale used for the phase difference, suggesting that the phenomenon causing this has a fractal nature…”  Clearly we can see the Triadic Nature of Vibration in Shnoll’s work: the fundamental oscillation, continual movement and steady-state form or structure.

Periodicity or oscillation is the fundamental force.  In the deepest sense these oscillations are the result of the movements of consciousness.  Periodicity then relates to the universal principle of the Monad – symbolized as a circle.  The circumference of the circle illustrates one of the most fundamental universal principles that guide all in reality: the presence of cycles.  Cyclic movement leads to the principle of the Dyad: alternation.  Everything moves in cycles.  There are always rising and declining phases in ALL things.  This holds true in all cases and can never be stopped or changed.

Dr. Jenny writes, “The whole vegetable kingdom, for instance, is a gigantic example of recurrent elements, an endless formation of tissues on a macroscopic, microscopic and electron microscopic scale.  Indeed, there is something of a periodic nature in the very concept of a tissue.  Periodic rhythms are [also] a dominant feature of the animal kingdom.  Organs, [for example], are not homogeneous masses, but tissues of the utmost delicacy which go on developing and repeating themselves indefinitely.

In the vast spectrum extending from gamma radiation, though the ultraviolet and visible light to infrared (heat rays), to electric waves (microwaves and radio waves), we have a field which may be termed periodic in the purest sense of the word.  Then there are waves in the various states of matter, acoustic vibrations, ultrasound and hypersonics.  Again, the lattice structures of matter in the crystalline state are also periodic.

Solar physics is another field in which oscillatory and wave processes are prominent.  Many of the systems are polyperiodic in character.  The rhythms and vibrations interpenetrate.  But in every case periodicity is constitutive of their nature; without periodicity they would not exist at all.”

Here Dr. Jenny tells us that periodicity, rhythmicity and oscillation are fundamental processes in the subatomic, atomic, molecular, cellular, crystalline, plant, animal/human and planetary/solar realms.  We can add to this list the galactic realm as well.  All this will be illustrated and discussed in detail.  As Dr. Jenny states, “Only by ‘getting inside’ the phenomena through empirical and systematic research can we gradually elicit systems in such a way that mental constructs can be created which will throw a light on the ultimate realities.”

Methodology

Techniques & Materials

Dr. Jenny used various yet similar techniques in his Cymatics experiments.  He would run pure sound frequencies, or the human voice, through various media including water, milk, glycerin, ether, alcohol, benzene, turpentine and other liquids and plates of different materials using different colloids such as quartz sand, salt, Lycopodium powder (club moss spores) or light (via the schlieren process).  He also used plaster, gelatin, paraffin, egg white, mercury and doughy masses such as kaolin and plaster pastes; and in other experiments ran sound frequencies through gasses and soap bubbles.  The liquids, gasses, masses and colloids would mysteriously arrange in beautiful geometry, fractal patterns, vortexes and vortices or other interesting forms that show up throughout Nature.  Dr. Jenny commented, “This is not an unregulated chaos; it is a dynamic but ordered pattern.” [See Fig. 37, page 39]

Sometimes he used the piezoelectric effect of a crystal oscillator to create vibrations; other times he used the human voice.  When using plates he varied the size and material at will.  Sometimes he used plates of glass, copper, wood, steel, cardboard, and earthenware.  Basically anything can be used and the effects will remain more-or-less the same.  He also reminds us that no plate is ever uniform throughout.  This causes an uneven distribution of energy throughout the plate.  “In such cases,” he tells us “the whole figure is in a state of flow or comprises a number of rotational centers with adjacent centers invariably revolving in opposite directions.”

Plate Shapes

The sizes and shapes of the plates were also varied.  Round plates produced concentric/ radial patterns.  Rectangular plates produced parallel/diagonal patterns.  Experiments were also done using plates cut into ovals, hexagons, random irregular patterns and familiar patterns such as a dragonfly.

[See fig. 78, page 72 to see how the sand moves into nodal lines and the powder into the antinodes on a hexagon.]

Same Frequency = Same Pattern

During these experiments the same tone always created the same pattern.  When serial experiments were performed the same formal pattern recurred at increasing frequencies but with an increasing number of constituent elements.  In other words: the higher the frequency, the more complex the pattern.  Figures at higher frequencies displayed many more elements, yet the basic pattern remained the same.

[See Figs. 1-6, page 22; 27-30, page 34; 41-42, page 44-45;]

Transitional States

The frequency and the amplitude can be, and were altered during his experiments.  This allowed Dr. Jenny to investigate the laws upon which the colloids conformed as well as the transitions and transitional forms as one gives way to another.  As one figure transformed into another currents appear.  The sand or powder is moved around as if it is liquid.

[See Figs. 12, page 25; 25, page 32]

Two Notes & Beats

If two notes were used with frequencies that gave rise to beats then the entire figure pulsated or moved to-and-fro.

Continual Flow & Rotation

Often the powder congregated in small circular areas which continued to rotate at a regular rate as long as the note was sounded.  Dr. Jenny writes, “The actual events in vibrating plates and diaphragms are of extraordinary complexity.  In the fields, for instance, areas appear which the indicator reveals to be in rotation.  Indeed these currents, centers of rotation, evolving heaps with influent streams and connecting flows must actually be expected, and the material occupying the field will indicate the vibrational pattern prevailing there.”

In general the patterns are an expression of the movement and energizing process.  It is extremely important to understand that the particles of sand or powder are not static.  They are in a constant state of flow within the force-flow fields created by the vibration.  Lines of powder flow in circuits.  Round heaps are in a constant state of rotation.  In figure 26 (page 32) Dr. Jenny explains that “the sand is flowing in the two longitudinal areas; it is flowing towards the round shape and joining it at opposite ends.  This exceptionally interesting phenomenon is, of course, reproducible.  It may be termed a rotational system with two bridge arms.”  This is our first sight of a galactic process.

Heat Distortions

If heat is applied while the tone is present the whole shape will be distorted after only a few seconds.  The pattern will reappear once the plate has cooled, so long as the tone is still present. [See Figs. 22-23, page 30]

Liquids & Textural Patterns

Amazing figurate patterns, interference phenomena and woven textural patterns appear in liquids.  Using liquids, the impression created is most definitely one of textures.  These include hexagonal and rectangular tessellations and other imbricate patterns that resemble interwoven fabrics, honeycombs, fish scales, networks and cellular and molecular lattices.  These textures are sometimes seen as ‘standing’ and other times as ‘traveling’ but despite their great regularity in their features they are always in a constant process of change.

[See Figs. 31-34, page 36; 44-45, page 47; 46-53, pages 48-51]

Diagram 80, page 73 shows a matrix formed by Lycopodium powder.  This strongly resembles a cellular lattice.

Liquids, Wave Trains & Vortices

Under frequencies in the lower ultra-sonic range the surface of liquids crinkles to form wave fields or trains of waves [figure 35, page 37; 39, page 41; 54, page 52].  Dr. Jenny writes, “We are struck by the extraordinary richness and diversity of the forms and processes.  Figures, organized patterns and textures appear, real wave processes arise, then the whole is set in motion and fluctuates giving rise to eddies, flows and streams.”  Wave curls, eddies and vortices are formed.  Often these waves and vortices vanish and return with regularity over and over again.  The direction in which the eddy rotates is constant.  The speed of rotation increases with the strength of the vibration.  In other words as the tone gets louder (and the amplitude increases) the rotation speeds up.  The location of the eddy is solely determined by the frequency.

Beautiful flow patterns can also be seen when using black dye.  Eddies form. There is a strict bilateral symmetry.  Rotary currents with a tendency to form vortices can be seen everywhere.  The precision of flow can clearly be seen.  Single pairs and double pairs of vortices form.  In the formation of a single pair each vortices rotates in opposite directions.  In a double vortex an axis of symmetry forms from top to bottom and a dividing line runs from left to right.  In the bottom right and top left quadrants the eddy turns clockwise.  In the bottom left and top right quadrants the eddy turns counterclockwise.  The currents move in layers – this means they are laminar in character.  In the center there are indications of a figure-eight form.

It is key to note here that “the effects of sound have produced circulation.”

[See Fig. 55-64, pages 53-60]

Anti-Gravity Effects & the Strong Force

But perhaps the most perplexing and profound aspect of these Cymatic experiments is their anti-gravitational effects.  Dr. Jenny explains, “The masses affected by a tone are naturally forced into the form corresponding to the vibrational effect.  While the tone impulse persists, liquids and viscous masses will remain in their place if the diaphragm is titled, or even held vertically.  If the vibration is discontinued, the masses slip down under the force of gravity.  If the resumption of the tone is not delayed too long the masses return to their position, i.e. they climb up again.  In a sense it would be legitimate to speak of an anti-gravitation effect…the mass will not slip down so long as the tone is present.”

In Fig. 179, page 243, we see a specific example of this anti-gravitational effect occurring.  In the image we are looking down into a funnel, from the bottom of which conglomerations of particles are rushing up to the rim against the force of gravity.  Dr. Jenny comments, “The behavior of the masses rushing apart is remarkable under certain conditions of oscillation.  If the tone is loud, they expand; if it is soft, they slip down to the bottom under the effect of gravity and reduced adhesion.  The vibration can be adjusted so that these two processes are held exactly in balance.  When this happens, the masses stream radially to the periphery while at the same time the powder comes flowing back.  The whole becomes involved in a remarkable pattern of circulation.  The entire process can be recorded on film.”

The Human Voice – Tonoscope

Dr. Jenny not only used a crystal oscillator to produce frequencies, he also used the human voice just as Margaret Watt-Hughes did decades earlier.  Dr. Jenny used the tonoscope rather than the Eidophone.  “The tonoscope,” explains Jenny, “is a simple apparatus into which the experimenter can speak without any intermediate electroacoustic unit.  Thus vibrations are imparted to a diaphragm on which sand, powder, or a liquid are placed as indicators.”

As long as all conditions in the experiment remain constant then the form produced by the human voice is constant.  That is, if any human produced the same note, the specific form produced would be the same.  The detail and precision are altered based upon the quality of the individual voice but the basic form always remains the same.

This is an interesting phenomenon to ponder since as Dr. Jenny wrote, “speech involves the production of vibrating patterns which continually penetrate and fill space.  So imagine what kind of geometric symphony is being woven between two people while in conversation.  Imagine how that would be altered if they were in a heated debate or a vicious argument; or perhaps if they were telling each other jokes or reciting love poetry, or any number of different interactions.  Now imagine what kind of patterns music can create.  How would the patterns differ based on different music?  [See pages 66-67 for effects created by Bach and Mozart]

“As a further demonstration,” writes Freddy Silva, “Jenny built a tonoscope to translate the human voice into visual patterns on a screen.  As a test he had Om chanted into the device, whereupon it produced a circle which then changed into a triangle, six-pointed star, then various pyramidal shapes as found in the Sri Yantra as the last strains of the sacred syllable faded.  The letter “O” when intoned alone produced a figure in the shape of an “O”.  “It would be really true to say that one can hear what one sees and see what one hears” as Dr. Jenny says.

Lycopodium Powder & Landscape Formation

Dr. Jenny experimented many times over with Lycopodium powder or club moss spores.  In these experiments the powder is strewn evenly over the plate or diaphragm before it is excited by a tone.

As Dr. Jenny reports, some of the effects observed in Lycopodium powder under the influence of vibration are as follows:

These vibratory effects are:

• The creation of forms, formations
• The creation of figures
• Patterned areas
• Circulation

Constancy of the material in a system

• Pulsation
• Rotation
• Interference
• Seesaw effect
• Correlation
• Integration effect
• Individuation
• Conjoining and disjoining of a single mass
• Dynamics of eruption
• Dynamics of current flow, etc.

The list shows that vibration produces a great diversity of effects.

Interestingly, these effects show in miniature how various landscapes can be formed.  Often there is a kind of radial circulation.  “If the amplitude is further increased corresponding to a crescendo for the ear, the movements become increasingly violent,” Dr. Jenny tells us.  “The circulation becomes faster and proceeds on a larger scale.  Eventually messes are thrown up and ejected.  There are eruptions and fountains of powder which swirl high into the air… If the amplitude is greatly increased (fortissimo), the powder changes into a cloud of dust.”  Naturally once the tone is stopped the powder halts its movement, reintegrates in an instant, and lies undisturbed as an accumulation of particles.

Through all this Dr. Jenny is always focused not only on the parts involved, but the process as a whole.  He writes, “For all the changes and transpositions, a certain constancy of mass is curiously retained.  The forms move to-and-fro both when the frequency is changed and the amplitude.  In doing so they move as wholes, i.e. when they move in one direction by putting out an arm, the whole follows, and there is retraction at another place.  Thus locomotion is truly correlated throughout… It is through this generative and sustaining vibrational field that the entire complex comes into being, and this complex whole is omnipresent.  There is no parcelation, no patchwork; on the contrary what appears to be a detail is utterly integrated with the generative action and merely acquires the semblance of an individual, or an individualized quasi-existence, the semblance of individuality.”

See pages 70-71 to see how vibration can cause eruptions, and eruptions lead to growing and/or changing landscapes.

Figures 86-88 (pages 78-79) show “current storms” formed by Lycopodium powder.  The powder streams along at a great rate exactly following the pattern and direction imposed by the vibration.  This illustrates how water, wind and weather currents could form on the Earth as a whole, or in localized regions.  The current is neatly divided into four quadrants as seen here and the flow is laminar, or in layers.

Figure 92, on pages 82-83, shows an amazing example of Earthlike landscape formations.  Dr. Jenny explains, “This landscape of Lycopodium powder under the influence of vibration is a synoptic view in which the various phenomena can be recognized in all their diversity.  Everything must be imagined as a circulating, moving, pulsating, etc. and all this is caused by the vibrations of a tone which can be heard the whole time the experiment is in progress.”  You can easily imagine how something like this could happen on a larger scale as the Earth itself was being formed and transformed during its earlier eons.

Further Landscape Formation with Doughy Masses

Dr. Jenny undertook experiments to see the effects that sound vibrations had on more substantial masses, rather than flat layers of powder or sand.  Figures 106 and 107 (page 92) illustrate this process.  Dr. Jenny writes, “The masses are pushed to-and-fro.  Whereas the field empties in various places, in others the substance forms lumps.  Whole landscapes are plastically molded; a kind of relief which is a reflection of the vibrational processes is shaped out of the material.  The lumps formed frequently sidle to-and-fro, and also show rotational movements within themselves.  This rotational plasticization leads to the formation of balls if the consistency of the material permits easy shaping.  Material which is applied horizontally at the beginning begins to rotate around local centers and clumps into balls, so that finally there are a number of spherical formations which mass together and go on producing larger and larger globular shapes.”

Salt, Plastic Masses & Landscape Formation

Dr. Jenny used a mixture of salt and water to further study the effects of vibration on flowable and solid substances.  In these instances striking landscape formations occurred.  In Figs. 12-15, pages 146-147, ‘coastlines’ were formed.  “This whole ‘coast line’ with its undulations, bays and promontories, etc. is caused by vibration.  It frequently happens that the layers thin out as the process continues and then immediately clump together again.  The processes have a pronounced tendency to repeat themselves.”

We again see anti-gravity effects.  Dr. Jenny explains that, “These two effects of vibration – reduced adhesion and reduced cohesion – play a crucial role throughout.  It should also be noted that the vibrational field is so strongly impressed on the mass that in certain ones the material can be clumped and held against the inclined plane of the diaphragm.  At such points it may even move contrary to the force of gravity.”

In these experiments inactivity, acceleration, movement, counter-movement, direction, thinning and clumping alternated.  The processes were not steady.  There were often abrupt changes from stagnation to violent activity.

If a viscous plaster paste is used instead of a salt mixture it is forced into characteristic shapes by the vibrations.  “The mass may be raised up like a plateau with walls where recesses and projecting ridges are carved out.  At the same time the mass is circulating.”  Figs. 16-18, pages 148-149 show this process.  The results closely resemble the geologic processes of coastline, cliff, ridge and fjord formation.  Dr. Jenny writes, “Each part once more reproduces the whole phenomenon in miniature.  It displays uniform formation, circulates, and creeps round as a correlated whole.”

Plaster pastes are also used in Figs. 19-22, page 150.  More landscape formations are easily seen in these examples.  We see in Figs. 19-20 that “the creeping lobes may collide, one being thrust on top of the other, and produce furrowed valleys.  Flowability is diminished and yet even here the substance continues to circulate.”

In Figs. 21-22 the plaster masses have solidified under vibration.  “The relief is complicated in structure because each of the various stages of consistency the mass has passed through while solidifying has left its imprint.  There are large billow-like formations and tiny wrinkles, wave trains succeeding one another, and sudden changes in the direction of flow.  It is as if the ‘history’ of the process had been recorded in transverse and longitudinal folds.  There is also a tendency for a latticework of folds to take shape.”

Figs. 27-28a, page 154 show more landscape formations such as sharply profiled ridges and valleys and curious patterns of areas bounded by lines and themselves subdivided into similar patterns.

In Figs. 23-25, page 151 we see how solidified masses that were subjected to vibration break up.  “These slabs of ‘floes’ are also in motion. The force driving the fragments apart and also causing them to be over-thrust is vibration and nothing else.”  This process closely resembles the process of ice floe breakup and the formation of icebergs.  It also resembles the process of lava flow cooling and breakup.

Clearly the enormous variety of cymatic effects are found all throughout Nature.  As Dr. Jenny explains, “Whether the material is formed into clumps or flattened into layers, whether it is piled up or thinned out, whether it is thrown into violent commotion or remains inactive, whether it flows together or flows apart, whether its activities are repetitive or whether it assumes a steady shape – these phenomena all demand a flexible imagination in the observer.  It is no use thinking, say, in terms of polarities; one must seek to entertain two opposites at the same time, or polarities proceed simultaneously; masses liquefy, separate, clump together and spread out, grow inactive and erupt, etc.  The only efficient causes we can identify are the effects of standing and moving waves, of resonances and interferences, turbulences and circulations.”

Salt & the Cyclical Changes built into Vibration

In a different experiment Dr. Jenny used a mixture of salt and water in which he ran a vibration through.  Throughout this process the tone remained the same.  Not even the volume was altered.  A cyclical process emerged – one in which change, disintegration, and restoration continued indefinitely.  Dr. Jenny writes, “This experiment shows, then, that one and the same uninterrupted vibratory impulse is capable of sustaining cyclical changes of phase.”

Once again we are reminded of the importance of cycles as an unalterable universal principle.  So it is not only a process of change that is embedded within vibration, but a process of continual cyclical change!  See Figs. 5-11, pages 142-143.

Geometric Formations in Mercury

Dr. Jenny used mercury in some of his Cymatics experiments as a further study of vibration on three-dimensional masses.  He states, “because of their high surface tension, drops of mercury are globular elements which have a very strong tendency always to return to this ball shape and to maintain it.  Under the influence of sound, large quantities of mercury show wave patterns, vortices [and geometric formations].”

When vibration is run through drops of mercury, concentric waves and circles are the first to form.  Under a carefully managed crescendo, these lead to various geometries, depending on the frequency.  The geometry seen includes beautiful triangular, hexagonal, tetragonal, pentagonal, heptagonal and octagonal.  As Dr. Jenny notes “the production of these shapes is very accurate, but not rigid throughout.  Here…the stroboscope reveals pulsations.  [Furthermore] a drop can move in such a way that two triangular figures pulsate through each other.”

In Figure 114, page 96, the mercury drop forms a 3-D geometric shape that “might be said to be quadratoid in shape with protuberances in the facets of the figure as if an octahedron were taking shape inside.”  So here, we clearly see Platonic solid geometry, of form and face, in action here.

In Figures 118-123 “tetragons, pentagons, hexagons and heptagons, etc., can be seen.  The frequencies are between 130 and 240 cps.  Increase in amplitude would cause the configurations to fly asunder.  The processes are extremely complex: forms pulsate and interpenetrate in their oscillations; currents appear; vortices form.  These forms are a fascinating subject of study.  They are reminiscent of the outlines of flowers with concentric circles containing different numbers of elements.  Progressions of the same number such as 4, 8, 12, 16 or 7, 14 can be found.

[See Figs. 110-113, page 95 and Figs. 118-123, pages 98-99]

Once again Dr. Jenny draws our attention to the “whole” at work here.  “These small mercury systems do, in fact, always present themselves as a whole entity which at the same time oscillates, vibrates, flows within itself, pulsates and moves to-and-fro, is a figure and an organized pattern.”

Take note of Figure 124, page 100.  This is a lateral view and close-up of mercury from Figs. 118-123.  “Here, they appear, as it were, in elevation.  They tower up in their numerical progression; one might speak of a law of numerical configuration.”  This image resembles the formations of mineral crystals and early snow crystals.

Geometric Formations in Water

Dr. Jenny further studied the geometry formed by vibration by using drops of water, rather than drops of mercury.  Just as seen in the mercury, drops excited by vibration oscillate in polygonal patterns including the trigonal tetragonal, pentagonal, hexagonal and more.  Here again we see geometry related to the Platonic solids.

As Dr. Jenny writes, “We find that the whole drop pulsates.  The liquid moves as a whole as it passes through characteristic phases.  It rushes to the periphery, then back to the center, then to the periphery again, and then back to the center and so forth…On its return from the periphery to the center, the water changes in shape, so that, for example, in the pentagonal arrangement, the ‘pentagon’ in the central phase appears to have been rotated through 180°.  A kind of inversion or transformation takes place in which one portion of the pulsating mass is pushed into and through another.”  This cyclical movement from the periphery then back to the center and so forth describes a toroidal flow movement.  Remember, there is an oscillating toroidal flow bubble around all mass/matter.  This is related to the magnetic field which gives volume to matter.  See Figs. 73-79, pages 188-190.  Clear trigonal, tetragonal, pentagonal and hexagonal geometry is seen.  The specific formation that occurs depends on the frequency and amplitude of the vibration as well as the properties of the material.

Dr. Jenny continued this experiment by studying the effects of vibration on soap bubbles.  Amazing Platonic solid geometry resulted.  These bubbles, like the drops, pulsated in a regular manner.  The various zones fluctuate to-and-fro between curved and flattened forms.  Dr. Jenny writes, “These pulsating soap bubbles are systems which vibrate in space in mathematically regular arrangements.  If whole soap bubbles are produced, this fact become particularly clear… The zones of pulsation bulge and flatten alternately.  The higher the tone, the greater the number of pulsating zones to be seen.  The pulsations of the bubbles can be seen from the side and also from the top, and so it is proper to speak of regular polygonal vibrations in three-dimensional shapes.  Whole soap bubbles are shown and again the impression created is one of pulsating ‘polygons’.”

Figs. 80-86, page 191-193 reveal how Platonic solids are formed by vibration.  Figure 80 shows half an octahedron.  Figs. 81-84 show half an icosahedral/dodecahedral form that is altered in complexity by the increase in frequency.  Figure 85 clearly shows a dodecahedron and Figure 86 shows an icosahedron.  This is truly astounding and points to a deeper structural process in the universe in which vibration gives rise to geometry and geometry structures matter on all scales.  The secrets of the universe are being revealed by these soap bubbles if anyone cares to look.

Also note that there are flow patterns in the lamellae – which are the ‘cell walls’ of the bubbles seen here.  These flow patterns are the result of vibration and they show, once again, a dynamic steady-state process in which a form appears to remain steady while it continually undergoes change.

The experiment continued.  Dr. Jenny writes, “Drops and soap bubbles tend to be spherical because of surface tension, and the regular vibrational forms are able to develop in interaction with this tendency.  But we also find tendencies to regular formations in masses of powder and paste-like substances.”  In Figs. 87-90, pages 194-196, heaps of Lycopodium powder have been jiggled into geometric arrangements by vibration.  “Vibrations give rise to regular patterns with a tendency towards symmetry.”

These images resemble fungal bodies, viruses, sea creatures, mosses and plant structures.  Figure 89 shows a star-like formation and resembles the formation of a sea urchin.  Figure 90 shows a pentagonal formation and resembles the capsule of a moss.

Geometric Formations of Light: The Schlieren Process

Dr. Jenny further studied the geometric formations that occurred in the interplay of light and liquid.  To do this he used the schlieren process “which consists essentially of observing transparent media via transmitted light.  If there are inhomogeneities in a liquid, the light is deflected accordingly and any configurations presented are made visible.”  This is the same process Ben Browne uses in his astonishing and beautiful Cymatics art.  “The light is projected from underneath and passes through the liquid, and we look down on the processes taking place therein.  By adjusting the length of the lenses we can observe the phenomena at various focal planes within the vibrating liquid.”

So, how does such an experiment proceed?  Dr. Jenny explains, “First we have a drop of water at rest.  As soon as we excite the drop with sound, concentric rings are formed.  If we increase the same tone, there is an abrupt change and a quite different pattern emerges.  If we increase the volume of the sound again, then another configuration appears.  The transitions are always abrupt.  In this way it is possible to obtain a whole series of structural patterns by keeping the exciting tone (the frequency) unchanged and varying the volume (amplitude).”

Figures 117-136, pages 208-218 illustrate this amazing and beautiful process.  The figures appear abruptly as soon as the frequency is introduced or the amplitude changed.  “They are extremely regular with regard to number, proportion and symmetry.  The whole array is flowing and pulsating, and yet these kinetodynamic processes are also fitted into the pattern of symmetry.  These phenomena, displaying regularity in every category, we call harmonic oscillations.  We can now look in detail at these formations which are, one and all, created by sound.  As far as the emergence of harmonic oscillations in concerned, it makes no difference whether we vibrate the liquid as free drops, in shaped vessels, or as a film.”  Also, different materials can be used and the same process will result, though individual factors will slightly vary the phenomenon.  Materials used included: ether, alcohol, water, benzene, glycerin, turpentine, paraffin and egg white.

Here we can clearly see how musical tones become visible figures.  “We find this harmonic character in the various regular figures: hexagonal, pentagonal, tetragonal, trigonal, heptagonal.  Well-defined bilaterally symmetrical figures are also generated.  On looking at these formations one can properly speak of symmetrical diagrams, displaying mathematical order; but these are not merely diagrams, they are concrete reality.”

Figure 117 is tetragonal and Figures 118-120 are trigonal/hexagonal.  In Figure 121 we see beautiful 12-point geometry.  “In this photograph ‘radii’ can be seen around the central point.  Then follows a zone in which two ‘hexagons’ interpenetrate.  Further towards the periphery the situation is repeated; here the ‘hexagons’ have rounded curves.  The radial principle prevails throughout the area.  At the periphery we again find two circles with a petal-like form, the outer one, once again, having 12 countable elements.”

Figures 122-125 show beautiful pentagonal/decagonal geometry.  Number, proportion and symmetry are found throughout.  As Dr. Jenny points out, “They have all the qualities of a diagram but are in fact ‘alive’ in a fluid medium.  These phenomena show clearly that they are harmonic in all their categories: number proportion, form, centering, symmetry, and also in their dynamics, pulsations, transformations, polarities, etc.  At the same time they are seen to alternate.  The radial fivefold figure alternates with its fivefold quintuple counterpart: the five-fold external circles also alternate (rule of alternation).  It is apparent at once that the rule of equidistance also holds true.”  These images resemble the faces of flowers, the formation of sea creatures, particularly the five-fold echinoderms and the cross-sections of DNA.

Figure 126, page 214, shows a trigonal configuration and Figure 127 on page 215 shows a hexagonal process occurring.  “While the tone persists, the phenomenon continues in motion as a total situation perpetually seeking wholeness.”

Figures 129-134, pages 216-217, show tetragonal configurations.  In these examples bounding forms alternate with radiating forms.  “Different formal patterns are created but in all of them a strict harmonicity prevails.  Although the boundary is round the structures appearing are square.  Whatever form these elements take – edges, diagonal, perpendiculars, radiations, fans, leaves, etc. – the system of the pattern in terms of proportion, number and symmetry is preserved in its entirety.  Nor must one lose sight of the fact that there is the same orderliness in the way everything pulsates and flows.  Rotary waves often emerge and set the whole pattern turning.  The elements also stand equidistant from each other and in an alternating pattern.”

Figures 137-142, page 218, show a quadratic lattice.  “As the amplitude is increased, various figures spring into view, all of which are contained within a square vessel.  As we saw in Figs. 129-134, a square container is not an essential condition for the appearance of the tetragonal principle.  In Figs. 138-142 we have harmonic oscillations.  In Figs. 141 and 142 there is a suggestion of rotation.”

Dr. Jenny notes that “a particularly interesting feature of these experiments is that quantitative intensification and structuration being forth qualitative phenomena (tetra-,  penta-, hexagonal forms, bilateral symmetry etc.) for the one pattern cannot be drawn over into the other merely by a steady quantitative increase.  What we really see in these abruptly appearing patterns are qualities.  And certainly the proposition that Nature makes no leaps (natura non facit saltus) does not hold true here; on the contrary Nature does make [quantum] leaps in an expressive way; quantitative augmentation is accompanied by a corresponding gradation – corresponding discontinuities in which something qualitative appears.”

If the vibrating liquid is viewed from the side, rather than from above, an undulating relief is seen.  Figs. 143-146 illustrate this fact.  “As they pulsate these reliefs with their features of mathematical regularity go through changes which can be followed with the aid of the stroboscope.  Again and again the observer is made to realize that structure, dynamics and the changes due to pulsation are all subject to the unifying influence of the vibrational effects.”

Dr. Jenny emphasizes that all the phenomena discussed here are in a process of flow.  These movements proceed in complete harmony with the sequence of events producing the symmetrical figures with their mathematical regularity.  In Figs. 152-154 the flow is clearly seen.  Dr. Jenny used a marker dye in Fig. 152 and Lycopodium powder in Figs. 153-154.  In these examples we see circular or ring currents, not vortices.  The velocity depends on the amplitude and the brush-like strokes are current pathways.  In Fig. 154 the flow areas are regularly distributed in a hexagonal pattern.  “We see how a phenomenon becomes ‘woven into a whole’ only after prolonged observation.”

In Figure 155, page 226 the liquid excited by sound is contained in a narrow vessel with sloping sides.  Circular currents are created throughout.  It is important to note that “a ‘nucleus’ is often formed in the center of the flow pattern.”

In further examples Dr. Jenny studied the effects from two tones.  Sometimes one tone was sounded first and the second added in.  At other times the two tones were sounded simultaneously.  Figs. 156-164 illustrate these effects.   In Fig. 156 one tone produces a hexagonal geometry and in Fig. 157 a second tone produces pentagonal geometry.  Fig. 158 shows the results of the two tones sounded simultaneously.

In Fig. 159 a pentagonal form is produced by one tone and in Fig. 160 a trigonal form is produced by a second tone.  Fig. 161 is the result of the two tones simultaneously.

In Fig. 162 a tetragonal form is produced by a single tone.  Fig. 163 shows a blob-like quasi-dodecahedral form produced from a second tone.  Fig. 164 shows the combination of these two tones.

When films of liquid are irradiated by sound beautiful tessellating geometric patterns are formed.  Figs. 165-170, pages 231-233, illustrate this phenomenon.  “A complicated lattice appears comprising squares, diagonals and perpendiculars.  Curves, circles and radiating patterns result.  But here again, number, proportion and symmetry prevail.  Such harmonic patterns can be produced in films of many different liquids by means of vibration.

Cymatic effects of this kind are also produced at the microscopic levels and can be clearly recognized even after the original has been magnified several hundred times.  We realize that these figure and processes appear in every dimension.”

Figs. 171-172, page 234-235, are a further examination of this process.  Dr. Jenny covered the vibrating films of liquid with Lycopodium powder in order to visualize the flow currents.  “The camera was focused so as to reveal both flow paths and structures.  The tetragonal structure shows through and is interwoven with the pattern of lines representing current pathways.  The system of currents is made even more complicated by the fact that eh whole structure is pulsating.

In Fig. 173-176, pages 236-238, Dr. Jenny used both paraffin and turpentine to visualize both the structure and the flow pattern.  In Fig. 173 “on the one hand there is a very clearly marked structural formation, and on the other there are characteristic currents, particularly on the periphery, which display a bilateral flow pattern.  In this way we can gradually learn through experimentation, to understand and visualize harmonically oscillating systems.  Our power of insight thus takes us through the surface appearance to the totalities beyond.”  This image resembles a honeycomb as well as both cellular and molecular lattices.

In Figs. 174-176 we see a hexagonal and tetragonal pattern occurring together.  “The multiphase systems thus created, manifest a great diversity of undulations, current and pulses, all of which, however, conform to the basic patterns of number, proportional and symmetry.  It should be mentioned that besides excitation by plane surfaces (diaphragm, plate) point excitation can also produce harmonic patterns.”

As Dr. Jenny explains, “What we are really doing is studying the morphology of vibration, or in other words drawing up an inventory of all the variety of forms in which it appears.  We are not concerned with the play of the subjective mind but with the ‘objective play of Nature’, or with physics.  Although it is always ‘the same’, there is an enormous range of mutability in which each individual pattern nevertheless has its precise morphological characteristics.

What one must bear in mind is, that given a specific set of conditions, Nature produces this form only and no other.  Nothing here is diffuse and indeterminate; everything presents itself in a precisely defined form.

The more one studies these things, the more one realizes that sound is the creative principle.  It must be regarded as primordial.  No single phenomenal category can be claimed as the original principle.  We cannot say, in the beginning was number, or in the beginning was symmetry, etc.  These are categorical properties which are implicit in what beings forth and what is brought forth.  By using them in description we approach the heart of the matter.  They are not themselves the creative power.  This power is inherent in tone and in sound.”

The Effects of Vibration on Liquid in a Capillary Space

In other experiments Dr. Jenny allowed liquid to flow into a capillary space bounded on one side by metal foil and on the other by a sheet of glass.  Both the air and the liquid in the narrow space are affected by vibration.  “The inflowing air forms cavities in the film of liquid; the liquid itself puts out fingerlike processes.  The vibration causes these formations to appear in series.  They make, as it were, a woven texture.  And at the same time everything must be visualized as being in lively motion.  The processes float and divide.  The liquid elements maintain their cohesion because of their surface tension.”

Figs. 33-36, pages 160-161 illustrate this interesting process which resembles aspects of mammalian anatomy, the vine-like growth of plants and more landscape formation, particularly that of branching waterways in rivers and deltas and drying of water ponds in summer prairies.  Dr. Jenny describes it as follows: “The curious fingerlike processes, some of which are forked, resemble structures in a hollow organ of the body.  Cord-like and festoon-like processes also appear which look as if they were invested with folded epithelium.  They display a fluctuating motion.  Above, an almost plant-like pattern is being woven.  The impression of a woven texture is, of course, due to the uniform situation generated throughout the field by vibration.”

Figs. 37-39 on page 162 are a continuation of this process.  We see, once again, fingerlike processes appear.   A vegetable-like pattern has evolved by vibration in Figure 37.  “With its ceaseless movement the whole is reminiscent of amoeboid behavior.  They proceed along their paths in correlation; i.e. they execute their movements while flowing as a whole.  It slides and creeps as a single whole around the capillary space.  If two such formations meet they may merge and form a new unity, or they may divide, with each component immediately functioning independently.  The elements go through their activities as drops, as bubbles, as foam in a state of flux, in circulations and in fluctuations.”

The Effects of Ferromagnetic Masses in the Magnetic Field under Vibration

Dr. Jenny also performed experiments in which he subjected ferromagnetic masses to vibration in a magnetic field.  Not only do the familiar effects of magnetic attraction occur, but the application of vibration causes the particles to be held in suspension.  Both effects together cause the iron particles to hover and fly around the magnetic space.  In Figure 45 a magnetic polar figure forms.  “In a radial direction there are masses of powder which are circulating at right angles to their long axis.”  In this figure the areas around the magnetic poles are “brought to life” by the vibration.  Because adhesion and cohesion are reduced, this pattern is in continuous motion.  Circulation is the most prominent feature.”

To continue this experiment Dr. Jenny mixed iron filings with a viscous paste in which he subjected to vibration within a magnetic field.  This produced interesting “flowing sculptures” seen in Figs. 47-60, pages 172-178.  Dr. Jenny writes, “It would be more appropriate to speak of magnetic space than lines or fields of force.  Serial structures stand out from the general pattern.  Then the figures put out new branches.  They grow upwards like plants or leaves.  But the most prominent features of all are turning and helical formations in which a pronounced twist appears.”  In Figure 51 a curved S-shaped form can be seen.  “The impression conveyed to the eye is of a dancing caduceus.  This process is steadily continuous.”

These flowing sculptures reveal an extraordinary variety of forms that resembles plants, fungi, moss, tree and branches, rock formations, ice formations, insects and other varied geologic landscape formations.  “All of these, it must be remembered, are the result of vibration,” Dr. Jenny tells us.  He then says, “Experiments like this based on pure empiricism, stimulate the imagination and develop one’s ability to sense oneself within such a space permeated by unseen forces.”

The Effects of Vibration on Gasses

In these experiments Dr. Jenny ran frequencies through a stream of gas.  “Because its specific gravity is greater than the air and its temperature lower, the gas falls like a waterfall from a height of about 35 cm.  This downward movement causes turbulences…The gas flows in a complicated pattern with eddies and unstable wave formations.”

Once again we see complex textured patterns form in the gas when it is irradiated with sound.  “Patterned elements appear as sequences of layers or as lattice-like arrays accompanied by vertical formations.  Here again we are confronted by an exceptionally complex series of events:  unstable currents, turbulence and vortex formations on the one hand, and an organized pattern on the other.”  See Figs. 115-117, pages 96-97.

Liesegang Rings & Periodic Chemical Reactions

Dr. Jenny also completed experiments studying the periodicity of chemical reactions that did not involve a frequency tone.  In these cases the frequency seemed to be somehow built into the chemical system.  As Dr. Jenny explains, “Liesegang rings or periodic precipitations were discovered by Raphael Eduard Liesegang (1869-1947), and they involve periodic processes in the field of chemical reactions without vibration.  A layer of gelatin containing the chromium salt potassium bichromate is poured onto a glass plate: a drop of silver nitrate is then placed on this gelatin layer.  A chemical reaction takes place between the two salts and silver chromate is formed.  This precipitated salt however, is not diffused evenly, but periodically or rhythmically; zones of precipitation alternate regularly with zones free from precipitation.”

In Figure 93, page 85, the layers are clearly seen.  These layers follow each other in a rhythmic sequence reflecting the periodic nature of the chemical process.  These rhythmic precipitations can be compared with crystalline formations, however they are not a crystallizing process themselves.

By slightly altering the experiment different forms become apparent.  Figure 102, page 89, shows how precipitations with Liesegang rings have formed by dropping silver salt at random on the plate.  “The pressure of diffusion causes the circumambient areas to become displaced in relation to each other; some expand while others contract.  In this way cell-like zones are formed whose boundaries consist of films of constantly increasing thickness.”  This resembles cellular structure around organs, for instance; or the structure of epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous levels of the skin.  The point is, as Dr. Jenny points out, “Everywhere there is a tendency towards a rhythmic process.”

Liesegang rings are commonly found in the geologic structure of sedimentary rocks such as sandstone.  It is interesting to note that Wikipedia states of this phenomenon: “The precise mechanism from which Liesegang rings form is not entirely known and is still under research.”  Liesegang rings are commonly found in other minerals, such as agate but again Wikipedia states, “Despite continuous investigation since rediscovery of the rings in 1896, the mechanism for the formation of Liesegang rings is still unclear.”

Not only are concentric rings formed in this process, but helices and “Saturn rings” have also been formed.  Could this help explain the formation of Saturn’s rings?  The rings of Saturn show a tremendous amount of structure, yet the formation process is still not understood.

The Liesegang process is also found in other natural systems.  As Dr. Jenny writes, “The Liesegang experiment invokes the picture of a zebra, the systematic banding in the plumage of many birds, and the regular banded and criss-cross patterns of pigmentation in many species of animals.  The to-and-fro hydrodynamic patterns are reminiscent of the circulatory systems in the lower animals or in the development of the embryo.”

The Dehiscence of Doughy Masses & Fractal Dendritic Formations

Dr. Jenny also did experiments with the dehiscence of doughy masses.  He explains, “A layer of the doughy plastic mass is placed between two glass plates.  The glass plates are then drawn apart and the cohesion of the mass is overcome.  The result is that the mass is torn apart.  The appearance of the two surfaces is dominated by structures which interbranch and interdigitate in conformity with a law.”  When such a mass is torn apart curious dendritic structures are revealed.  Tree and branch-like patterns are seen as well as delicate filigrees, fine networks and cellular textures.

These phenomena are entirely periodic in character, and as Dr. Jenny states, “there is no end of organizational forms which are brought to mind by the dendritic structure of dehiscence.”  It is interesting to note here that not only are the processes of creation rhythmic and patterned, but also the processes of destruction, as seen here with the tearing apart of a mass.  Even through destruction, fractal patterns are born.

Lichtenberg Figures & Fractal Periodicity

Just as in the experiments with Liesegang rings, the experiments with Lichtenberg figures (electric leakage discharge) did not involve a frequency tone of vibration.  Yet the process is periodic and “shows a typical tendency for discontinuities to recur and for a pattern of regularity to appear even in the absence of a proper vibrational field.”

Regarding Lichtenberg figures “We are struck by the way in which the elements are regularly repeated in the figures.  One shoot comes after another, branch follows branch.  What we have is a true dendritic pattern.  There is a certain tendency toward repetition at intervals, although the figures do not display any periodic or harmonic pattern.  Although neither periodicity nor harmonics are in evidence, the figured elements are shaped in such a way that polar situations are repeated.  Similar patterns are found in the bifurcations in the structure of plants, shrubs and trees, and the same key pattern can be traced down to the finely marked detail in these figures.”  The point is that “even without vibration in the narrow sense of the word periodicity and seriality are disclosed in Nature.”

Figs. 61-63, pages 180-181 show beautiful Lichtenberg figures that resemble nerve pathways, fungal growth or sea creatures.  “These patterns are produced by the familiar method of allowing the electric discharge to imprint itself directly onto the photographic film.  There is a clearly marked repetition in the morphology of these ‘current paths’ where ray is followed by ray, and branch by branch, etc.  A kind of serial arrangement appears in the discontinuities in which no actual vibration is involved.”

Kaolin Paste & Natural Formations

Dr. Jenny used kaolin pastes in some of his experiments.  In these he was studying the process of “solidescence”.  In these a cooling process was used to observe the solidification of a substance.  “A kaolin paste is heated; it liquefies and is then poured onto a vibrating diaphragm.  Wave fields are created and typically, standing, travelling and interfering waves appear.”

In these experiments the wave principle predominates.  Dr. Jenny called these “wave sculptures”.  Round forms, concentric wave trains, organized patterns, to-and-fro motion, circulation and pulsation also predominate.

In Figs. 136-138 “The material at the top is transported from outside to the center and at the bottom from the center to the outside.  There is thus radial circulation with these round shapes themselves.”  This is “toroidal flow” and represents the creating process of the universe on all scales.  “If vibration continues while cooling proceeds, the picture changes yet again.  It begins to rotate around and around.  It rolls, turns on itself like a ram’s horn and is plasticized in volutes…The pattern runs from large thick branches to increasingly more delicate ones until finally there appears a kind of filigree.”

In Figs. 136-138, page 106 we see these amazing circular and spiral formations that resemble plant parts, insects and unfolding embryos of amphibians, as well as ram’s horns.

In Figs. 139-141, pages 108-109 we see the result of the kaolin paste which has solidified under the action of vibration.  Once again we see filigree patterns and fractal dendritic formations that clearly resemble drainage patterns on Earth.

In Figs. 145-146, pages 112-113 we see the formation of beautiful concentric circular patterns.  In Fig. 147 we see how the round shape has become elongated in places of continuous movement.  These three images resemble sea shells, while Fig. 147 also resembles a pollen grain.  It even has the longitudinal fissure.  “The longitudinal fissure is the zone in which the mass flows in.  If the amplitude is increased (a crescendo to the ear) the form creeps hither and thither like a worm.”

In Figs. 152-153, pages 118-119 we see more images that resemble sea creatures and sea shells.  These are in a constant state of rotation and pulsation.  “While the round shape remains stationary if the amplitude is unchanged, the elongated form creeps around, but always in conformity with the vibrational pattern.”

Dr. Jenny states, “If the phenomenon is to remain vital, its spectrum must be grasped as a fluctuating entity.  True, there are significant forms there; but what we have to evolve is the concept of moving form and formative movement.  We have a spectrum of phenomena running at one end into the figurate, into shapes, into organized patterns and textures, and at the other end into movement, circulation, into streaming and sowing, into kinetics and dynamics.  The whole is created and sustained by oscillation, the most explicit and typical expression of which is the wave in the widest sense.”

The interactions are complex yet based on simple rules such as periodicity.  Sometimes different periodicities appear which co-act or interact.  Sometimes form and pattern is dominant.  Sometimes movement and flow is dominant.  Polarity becomes evident – polarity of steady-state form at one end and dynamic flow at another.  They are “figurate, patterned and textural on the one hand, turbulent, circulating, kinetic and dynamic on the other, and in the center, acting in either directions, creating and forming everything, the wave field, and thus as causa prima, creating and sustaining the whole, the causa prima creans of all – vibration.”

Dr. Jenny notes that “if waves are generated in a viscous paste by vibration, a strange phenomenon appears under suitable conditions.  At first the mass is seen to be rising and falling in waves.  Then curious furrows appear which are particularly prominent in the wavecrest phase.  The paste seems to be disappearing down these fissures… The waves must be imagined to be rising and falling, while at the same time the entire mass of paste is flowing symmetrically and bilaterally into the furrows, and then rolling up again only to disappear down the furrows once more.  In other words circulation and undulation are combined.  What is so striking about the spectacle, however, is the elegant way in which the whole process conforms to a uniform pattern… What our minds conceive as separate aspects is performed by Nature as a uniform process; the cymatic effects of pulsation, undulation and bilateral circulation in the viscous mass merge into a whole.”  See Figs. 3-4, pages 138-139.  Note how they resemble skeletal formations on the one hand and the furrows and ridges of certain landscapes, like in a delta, on the other hand.

Dr. Jenny continued these experiments by making the paste less viscous by adding water.  “First of all wave formations appear.  Then round forms appear.  These round shapes reveal a radial circulation within themselves.  Yet, also inherent in them, is the wave principle which now however, appears as an annular formation.”  When the vibration is increased the round configurations rotate more rapidly.  The wave rings then rise up to form walls and peaks.  “Crypts like honey-combs are formed, while close by, the waves rise high.  There are pillar-like prominences: column waves and wave columns…Protuberances of every kind are thrust up…The round shapes display radial ribs; so do the ‘worms’; they even undergo actual segmentation.”

See Figure 144, page 111 and note the resemblance to a worm-like creature or the formation of a vertebral column.

Dr. Jenny reminds us, “Everything is generated and sustained by vibration.  Without vibration everything would simply be a uniform paste.”

“One can proceed to analyze this or that category,” Dr. Jenny reminds us, “but always one must return to the whole, otherwise one is left holding the pieces in one’s hand.   Analysis is essential, but the eye and the brain must restore what they have dissected to the active phenomenon and reintegrate it with the complex reality so as to see it again in the nexus in which is its alone existent.”

Cymatics & Vibration as the Key to all Branches of Science

Dr. Jenny points out “Wherever vibrations are an essential constituent of a system, cymatic effects must be apparent.  The cymatic effects must put in a fresh appearance.  They must declare their presence to us independently in each sphere in question.

We spoke of the whole and its parts.  We came to the conclusion that the part is a modified version of the whole.  [Therefore] any research, however specialized, into the most insignificant of matters retains a connection with research into the nature of the universe and may be of value to it.

Starting from such premises as these we must find common features, uniformities, and essential affinities in the various regions of nature, but this is tantamount to saying that we must encounter Cymatics in diverse areas of observation.  It is, so to speak, inherent in the various regions of the universe.”

Dr. Jenny’s work clearly demonstrates the symmetries found throughout the natural world such as crystals, snowflakes, plants and plant anatomy, moss, fungi, sea creatures, animals,  the hexagonal cloud on Saturn, planetary orbits and galactic structure, to name a few.  “These [Cymatics] patterns are produced by stable standing waves reflecting inside a container, automatically forming additional harmonic waves that interfere geometrically.  It is really the harmonics that “know” how to create Cymatics geometry by simply crossing one another at whole number proportions.”3

Cymatics Effects

Let us compile a list of the regularities we have observed in the physical field under the influence of vibration:

1. Polygonally pulsating drops
2. Three-dimensional formations regularly pulsating (soap bubbles)
3. Heaps of particles (spores of club moss) which form symmetrical patterns, uniformity being conferred by the conglobing effect of the vibration.
4. A paste forms regular segments under the action of sound. Vibration can also cause it to clump into a homogeneous round body in which the material circulates.
5. With the electron beam we can exhibit regular pathways with two frequencies. If the frequencies stand in certain interval-like ratios to each other, the electron beam describes paths displaying symmetry of number, form and proportion.
6. Similarly the mechanical pendulum produces patterns of orderliness with its oscillations.
7. Rendered visible by the schlieren method, liquid systems such as drops, liquids in containers, and films, produce perfectly harmonic figures when subjected to vibration, the patterns changing abruptly one after the other as the amplitude is modulated.
8. If two frequencies are made to impinge on one and the same liquid system, a figure appears which is the resultant of these actions. Each frequency produces a definite figure of its own.  The resultant is a ‘third’ figure.

Now it is beyond doubt that, where organization is concerned, the harmonic figures of physics are in fact essentially similar to the harmonic pattern.

1. In the first place we have the certain experience that harmonic systems such as we have visualized in our experiments arise from oscillations in the form of intervals and harmonic frequencies. That is indisputable.

2. Secondly we are familiar with the style of nature which is characterized throughout by rhythmicities and periodicities, so that we can speak of biological periodicity, and even of biological oscillation in the strict sense; i.e. regular repetition of polar phases as a function of time and space.

3. Thirdly we have knowledge of the interplay of factors in the organic world.

We have:

• Antagonisms and synergisms
• Inhibition and excitation
• Damping and stimulation
• Suppression and liberation

We know, however, that the interaction of these factors goes much farther.  We know that the processes are adjusted ‘to one another’, that there is a delicate interplay of regulatory factors governing the way they are followed out and that they are often correlated with and proportional to each other.

4. Fourthly we can say: if biological processes on and in the biological substrate proceed in an interval-like manner, there must be a corresponding pattern in this field of operation. If biological rhythms operate as generative factors at the interval-like frequencies appropriate to them, then harmonic patterns must be necessarily forthcoming.

5. Fifthly, it follows that if harmonic configurations appear in organic nature (morphological and physiological) then what we see before us is the result of the rhythms, intervals and frequencies of the generative factors operate within a harmonic order.

Now we will take a brief look at these effects at work in the realms of the: atomic, molecular, mineral, vegetable, animal, human, geologic, planetary, solar and galactic.

Cymatics and the Atomic/Molecular Realm

There are abundant Cymatic effects to be seen on the subatomic, atomic and molecular level.  “Clouds of electrons” are oscillatory systems ordered according to proportion, number and symmetry.  Thus these phenomena are harmonic processes and may be observed as such.  Dr. Jenny writes, “The periodic system of the elements shows these ascending relationships in an orderly numerical sequence.  If these systems of number, proportion and symmetry (the atoms of the periodic system) are studied in terms of their ascending and descending genetic levels, we find a pattern similar to that presented by intervals, musical sounds, chords, and harmonic frequency spectra considered as a stepped series of vibrations.  If the periodic system is involved in genetic processes, as it is in fact in star formation and the biography of stars, we have in genesis on the atomic scale a ‘score’ which is played in cosmic systems.  These processes would in fact, as ‘cosmic music’, be the equivalent of music and its domains.  It is not speculative philosophy that we have inferred here, but the real signature of these wave systems, however different each may appear to our perception.”

Dr. Jenny continues: “The objection that the atom involves something ‘totally different’ from acoustic vibrations does not hold if we remember that essentially the same features (proportion, symmetry, oscillations) are apparent in a great diversity of systems, and in all of them we are dealing with three-dimensional wave systems.  The oscillations (periodic system, harmonics or overtones) occur at intervals expressible as quantities.  (The fundamental frequency multiplied twice, three times, four times, etc. gives the overtones.  These are natural and originally quite independent of “our” music.)  The different levels to which the oscillations rise by leaps now acquire a qualitative character: the appropriate element in the case of the atom [quanta]; the appropriate interval in music.  Needleless to say, a vibrating piano string is not an electron shell.  Yet the processes qua waves in terms of proportion, number and symmetry have close affinities categorically and phenomenologically, even though in atoms, by reason of their four different variables of state (which, however, also have different levels of a numerical quantitative nature) the complexity is enormous.

Moreover, the criticism that wave-mechanical ‘pictures’ are, of course, not pictures but only loci of probabilities, is not valid because the orbitals of the electrons nevertheless obey laws which are reflected in such spatial representations of position.  There is not just any number of probabilities: there are the probabilities which exist on the basic of arrangements involving number, proportion and symmetry.  We might perhaps say that certain patterns of regularity in these various regions such as harmonic overtones and the elements of the periodic system highlight features these vibrational systems have in common.  If the tones are built up into periodic series or periodic revolutions (as say, in a spiral) we find the ‘same’ tones occurring again and again in the octaves.  By the way, exactly the same kind of pattern appears when we look at the vertical columns of the periodic table.  The essential thing is that these oscillatory systems are manifested in terms of number, proportion and symmetry.  It is therefore logical to assume that the harmonic principle will also be encountered by research in nuclear physics.”

We see the same phenomena in the molecular realm as we did in the atomic realm.  “Here again number, proportion, symmetry and oscillation predominate, as described by chemistry.  In crystals, in the solid phase, we recognize systems exhibiting these harmonic features.  Research in physics shows beyond doubt that the configurations of minerals are in fact ordered according to number, proportion and symmetry through and through.  Even in the province of chemistry, proportions, symmetries and numbers (particularly in mass ratios) appear in such a way that we can find equivalents in intervals, tones, chords and harmonic frequency spectra.

It is the purpose of these tasks, and part of their solution, to “hear” the systems of Nature, whether in the cosmic or the mineral-chemical sphere; i.e. to perceive them in a way equivalent to the perception of sound in acoustic space.”

Cymatics and Animal & Vegetable Forms

“Throughout the animal and vegetable kingdom,” Dr. Jenny tells us, “Nature creates in rhythms, periods, cycles, frequencies, reduplications, serial phenomena, sequences, etc.  This is the style in which natural structures are built and it is ubiquitous.”  We see this in the structure, processes and/or formation of tissues, organs, feathers, cells, bones, cell division, genetics, digestion, nerve conduction, respiration, vertebrates, arthropods, worms, insects, metamorphosis, plants, trees, flowers, fruits, corals, echinoderms, radiolarians, and animal pigmentation and markings to name but a few.  Each of these will be briefly discussed below.

Tissues, Feathers & Organs: “The very origin of the word tissue (Latin textere = to weave) is a significant comment on the prevailing conditions: cells are arrayed in rows, one pattern following another, wherever we look.  The intercellular structures take the form of framework, networks, grids, families of elements continually repeated and following each other in regular sequence, forming a woof and weft whether looked at with the naked eye, through the light microscope, or through the electron microscope.”

“Apart from the cell tissue as such with its vast array of repeating elements, we find all the skin structures, scales, feathers and hairs arranged in serial patterns, in regular formations, in rows and tracts etc.   Each structure is in turn a serial product.  A bird’s feather in which the pterylae are arranged serially, one after another, is a good example.

Turning to the muscle tissues, we do not find compact homogeneous masses but organized fasciculi of fibers with the elements arranged in rows, one bundle next to another.  Series of fibers of this kind continue in sinews which irradiate into the ligaments and bones.  Everywhere there are fibrillae, lamellae, and folia which develop into the spatial frameworks of the sinew, ligament and bone organization.  In the fields of the sensory cells, in the layers of the ganglion cells, and in the immensely complex communications between these systems, we still find this principle of periodic seriality prevails.

The same holds true in the digestive organs; for instance in the tracts of intestinal villae.  And then there are organs such as the liver, the pancreas, kidneys, etc. which represent “tissue” in the true sense of the word, comprising as they do one basic element (the liver cell, the pancreas cell, the nephron or renal unit) which are regularly repeated.”

Cell Division: “In cell division, in particular in mitosis, the process of the regular repetition of polar phases occurs as a function of space and time.  The basic features remain the same:

• Repetitions
• Regular repetitions
• Regular repetitions of polar phases
• Regular repetitions of polar phases as a function of time (cycle)
• Regular repetitions of polar phases as a cyclic function in time and as a spatial function

Metamerism Structure & Function:  Metamerism refers to the fundamental division into segments of vertebrates, arthropods (insects, crabs, etc.) and a number of worms.  This process “appears as a regular repetition articulating all the systems such as vessels, skeleton, muscles, nerves, etc. and incorporating them in the segmentation.

But it is not only the structural elements which show a repetitive periodic character; functions also proceeds rhythmically, in regular cycles and serial processes.  This is exemplified by the pulsations of the heart, the respirations, the oscillations in contracted skeletal muscle, the autonomic rhythmicity of the intestinal musculature, and the serial action currents of the nervous pathways, etc.”

Plants: We see a virtually endless array of repetitive elements in the vegetable kingdom: node follows node, leaf comes after leaf, shoot after shoot, and bud after bud.  Furthermore, “The phases of vegetation, of blossoming, of fruiting, for instance, or the systems of digestion, respiration or nervous regulation, etc. must be seen in the context of metamorphoses, developmental stages and functional cycles… Regular configurations meet our eyes as we pass from the algae (diatoms) to the highest form of flowering plants, and all display symmetry of form, number and proportion.  If we look at roses, lilies, primroses, cruciferae, ranunculaceae, papilionaceae, labiatae, orchids, etc., we see patterns displaying perfect harmony.”

Sea Creatures: “Throughout the two kingdoms of organisms we have formations and organizations where the elements are repeated regularly in number, form, and proportions and in symmetrical and centered patterns.  Here we have the bilaterally of the arthropods and vertebrates, the mollusks and worms, the radial symmetry of the Coelenterata (corals, medusa), and also the echinoderms (starfish, sea-lilies, sea-urchins).  Here symmetry, number, dimensions and proportions are the ubiquitous keynote of the organization.”

Regarding the anthozoa (the corals): “On the gastrula-like basic form there appear two ingrowths, followed by two more, making four, and then another four, making eight in all, which develop into the septae or internal walls.  In this way octocorallia or alcyonaria develop.  In other groups two more pairs are formed, giving rise to hexacorallia or zoantheria.  What we have now are regular architectural designs.  And these arrangements are reflected in the internal structure, in the layout of the muscles, the digestive organs, and the feelers (tentacles).  At the same time bilateral symmetry prevails throughout the basic design.  The six-fold character is doubled up; 12, 24, etc.”

“Let us now look at the embryogenesis of the starfish.  In the larva of the starfish there are two primordial which are pentagonal in shape and located on either side of the larva’s stomach.  These two pentacles organs unite, “lie up” one against the other and produce the young starfish.  Thus an organism, as it were, arises in the organism.  The starfish arises from one ‘part’ of the larva.  A pentagonal creature emerges from a non-pentagonal basic form.  One embryogenesis after another could be described in this way.”

“Even unicellular creatures show regularity of form and configuration.”  For example, the radiolarians.  “The mind boggles when we look at these space lattices, star patterns, bell-shaped networks, etc.  Here the widest improbabilities become visible fact.  For millions of years, billions upon billions of these and similar creatures have been floating in the sea in thousands of varieties.  Each of these microscopic creatures is a miraculously wrought texture in which harmonic characteristics may be plainly seen.”

Animal Pigmentation: Now think about animal pigmentation.  “How improbable a phenomenon is the zebra’s striped pattern!  And yet zoologists are already speaking of wavelengths and interferences in the zebra coat.  Patterns of stripes, transverse or longitudinal, or a combination of the two, are common enough in the animal kingdom.  Such patterns abound among the birds, insects and fishes.

In the tiger we have a more or less serial pattern.  In the leopard there are characteristic groups known as ‘rosettes’.  These vary greatly in size, and an attempt has been made to separate animals with small spots (leopards) from those with large ones (panthers), but the fact that the spots may vary in size from a walnut to patches of up to 3 inches in diameter has made this impossible.  The annular spots are made up of a number of small black circles, imperfect in shape, moon-like spots and dots united in a broken ring, resulting in real rosettes with as many as eight small spots, rarely only two, and usually five to seven.  We can plunge ever deeper in our observation of Nature and seek to read the riddle of its forms and processes.”

Figure 81, on page 73 shows a sonorous figure appearing in Lycopodium powder at 250 cps.  It strongly resembles the body of a jellyfish with its four-fold geometry in the center surrounded by a spherical gel-like envelope.

Figure 83, on page 76, shows how round heaps of Lycopodium powder migrate to the center following the topography imposed by the vibration.  It strongly resembles a human eyeball.

Figures 84 and 85 on page 77 show round forms that came together at 50 cps and 300 cps, respectively.  These forms resemble sea creatures in formation, coral polyps or egg-like structures.

Figs. 118-123 resemble the faces of flowers.

Figs. 136-138 and 145-153 resemble various parts or types of plants, insects, sea creatures, reptiles or amphibians.

“What we want to do is, as it were, to learn to ‘hear’ the process that blossoms in flowers, to ‘hear’ embryology in its manifestations and to apprehend the inwardness of the process…[and to ask ourselves] How could anything perfectly harmonious arise out of the unharmonious?”

Cymatics and Geologic Processes

The geologic processes caused by vibration and Cymatics phenomena are some of the easiest effects to be seen in Nature.  We are talking about: currents and counter-currents, rotations, relief formation, up-thrusts, mass accumulations, breaking up, floating lumps, liquefied substances, clumpings, dispersions, expansions, turbulences, vortices, clouds of powder and spray, circulations, eruptions, to-and-fro effects, periods of great activity interspersed with stagnation or quiescence and of course cycles of repetition.

To add to this we also see: folds and networks of folds, steep wave crests, upheavals in masses, unfoldings, evacuations, dissolving or separating lumps, extension, retraction, bay and promontory formation, uprisings, subsidences, patterns of curves and arcs, fractures, overlaps and inversions.

Dr. Jenny writes, “Undoubtedly tectonic shocks do produce a change in the behavior of the mass.  We need only recall how vibrations can liquefy cement which has not yet set.  Eye-witness accounts of earthquakes tell us, for instance, that the masses slipping down a mountainside do not simply pile up on the valley floor but run up the opposite slope as if they were on rollers.”

Hans Georg Wunderlich describes the processes of geologic formation in terms of a synthesis of effects.  “Individual processes such as lifting and sinking, extension and compression are viewed together compendiously and conceived as a uniform process.  This novel attempt at synthesis is precisely what we must focus our attention upon.

Wunderlich conceived mountain formation (orogenesis) as a wave process in the full sense of the word.  He draws comparisons between sea waves and mountain waves: they are actually connected together.  At the same time, however, it must be membered that such sea waves are generated by wind movement, starting that is, from the surface of the water.  The frontal course of a mountain formation receives its impulse from the depths.

Thus in practice large portions of the earth’s crust can be implicated one after the other in a folding process without any actual shrinkage of the earth’s crust resulting from the folding contraction.  From this perspective, mountain-building processes can also be viewed as oscillations.”

Wunderlich writes, “it follows from this view of the problem that the creation of the mountains around the Mediterranean can scarcely be interpreted otherwise than in terms of actively flowing substrates in and under the lithosphere, and that turbulent phenomena in the flowing substrate are of prime importance in the formation of upfolds.  Above all, however, it sheds an explanatory light on the way in which mountain chains often peter out abruptly or suddenly change their line of advance, and also on the rapid change in the tectonic plates of alpine orogenesis.”

Other realities in our environment can be experienced in terms of Cymatics such as atmospheric phenomenon in the troposphere, clouds and sea waves.  As Dr. Jenny states, “All we wish to do is simply to let things speak for themselves in each field of research.  Since oscillations are omnipresent in Nature, we must expect to find periodic, rhythmic and cyclic phenomena at virtually every step.”

Regarding clouds Dr. Jenny so poetically writes, “Hardly ever do we look at the sky by day without seeing periodic elements.  Even in a cloudless sky the upward and downward movement of spheres of haze can be observed.  Creation and extinction, concentration and attenuation, condensation and dissolution follow each other in an endless sequence.  The phases oscillate: there is a rhythmic pulsation which shows up quite clearly as the clouds take shape.

Thus it is not a fixed, unchanging object that we are looking at, but rather a process.  What persists is the activity, as it were, of the ‘cloud’.  The constant cloud, as it appears to be, does not exist.  With its convections and vortices the cloud is in a state of constant change and atmospheric flux.  In the cloudscape vaporous masses form up typically in rows. Whatever the type of cloud we look at, the law of repetition is invariably in evidence.  Cell after cell wells up on high.  Then the clouds arrange themselves in layers again.  Vast cloud fields come floating past.  Huge waves or delicate ripple patterns take shape.  Often various undulations interpenetrate in the most diverse ways.  The zones of concentration form a regular and rhythmic pattern.

The morphology appearing in all clouds and waves, in all undulations and interweavings, is also invariably dynamic and kinetic.  We are confronted by a whole spectrum ranging from round clumped masses or extended veil-like sheets, through towering mountains of piled, upwelling clouds, to feathery tissues spreading out like wings.  And if we span our vision to take in ever more extensive nexus of atmospheric phenomena, we become aware of vast formations and see islands or ‘continents’ floating along, while in the far distance similar formations can be seen drifting closer.  However small or large our field of vision, we find waves, interpenetrating waves, circulations, pulsations, cyclic layers, serial fronts, periodic creation and extinction, rhythmic morphology, regular laminar flow, and then turbulent, vertical kinetics and dynamics.

Starting with the raindrop, our vision broadens to embrace the universe.  Nature itself becomes the great teacher.”

Regarding sea waves, tides and the Gulf Stream Dr. Jenny writes, “In spite of all that science has achieved, some aspects of wave action still elude comprehension.  It seems astonishing to think that the initial generation of waves still raises unsolved problems.  When the observer looks at sea waves and realizes how powerless he is to understand their processes, he turns to the science of oceanography in order to get his bearings.

There are standing wand traveling waves, free and constrained vibrations, and surface waves and long waves.  The actual currents of the ocean also enter as a factor in the generation of waves.

The velocity of the Gulf Stream is subject to periodic fluctuations connected with the changing speed of the generating wind.  Then there are small counterstreams on both sides of the Gulf Stream.  And there is also a transverse circulation.  As to the stratification of the Gulf Stream, it has been found that the narrow ribbon of current has an imbricated structure, for it consists of thin layers traveling at high-speeds intercalculated with thin layers moving at lower speeds, all the layers being perpendicular to the direction of the stream.

The pattern of sea waves and currents we have described above is also influenced by the sun and the moon as tide-generating forces.  In these phenomena, which are significantly periodic, astronomy and hydrodynamics act in association.  The oscillatory pattern becomes particularly marked when in the tides of shallow seas there are, besides the astronomical tides, what are known as shallow-water tides appearing rather like overtones in acoustics.

Try to form a graphic picture of sea waves in all their complexity.  It is a grandiose picture that we see: it ranges from the orbital paths of water particles on the smallest scale through wave formations of every kind, through interferences, turbulences, circulations, resonances, to the vast influences of sun and moon, and thus to oscillatory processes which embrace the oceans of the world.  Nature creates this pattern of oscillations and waves on a global scale of Cymatics.”

Cymatics and Planetary, Solar & Galactic Systems

Dr. Jenny shows, throughout his body of Cymatics works, how vibration can create forms we see in many realms including the: subatomic, atomic, molecular, cellular, mineral, crystal, plant, insect, animal and human.  He also illustrates the processes seen in geology regarding landscape formation and the currents of wind, water and weather as well as those seen in eruptions, particularly volcanic.  The effects do not end there, though.  They extend right up through the planetary to the solar and galactic.  As a matter of fact, processes in all realms are well-illustrated by the effects of vibration.

Dr. Jenny writes, “If it is possible to display standing, travelling and interfering waves and their effects in space, to render visible the creans/creatum relationship in large “masses” (dust, gas, plasma), to demonstrate in space organized patterns, dynamics and kinetics through the agency of vibration, the universe of astronomy will have to be studied from these points of view in regard to its morphology and dynamics.”

Simply put astrophysics, astronomy and cosmology are all fields that could learn much from Cymatics experiments.  Nature is indeed consistent in her laws.  The same laws and principles that guide the photon, atom, plant, animal and human also guide the planet, solar system, galaxy and galactic clustering.  Vibration is the organizing principle.  Vibration contains information and is embedded with form.  This is a fact of nature that we can no longer overlook as it points to a deeper understanding of how the universe truly works.

In Figure 26 (page 32) we saw our first sight of a galactic process – a rotational system with two bridge arms.

Figs. 180-182, pages 252-253 display more galactic processes produced through vibration.  We see masses that are in constant rotation.  “At certain frequencies they do not form figured patterns (nodal lines) but begin to flow, and the whole vibrational field becomes involved in the same process.  A group of areas of rotation can be seen.  The sand is flowing into the ‘arms’ of the elliptical or circular heaps of particles, and its constant inflow starts the whole rotating.  After a time all the material from the bridge currents has flowed in and we have the circular and elliptical results seen in Figs. 183, 184 and 185.  In the center can be seen a nucleus.”

Furthermore, extensions, vortices, filaments and more diffuse areas emerge.  It is now common knowledge among the astronomy community that elements exist between galaxies which look like bridges, filaments and extensions, just as we see in Cymatics.  Dr. Jenny writes, “If a number of oscillations are now made to impinge on one another, the picture grows enormously complicated.  It looks as if there were no regular pattern at all, as if everything were scattered at random, while in reality the pattern is based on notes, each having a characteristic frequency.  This is a point to be borne in mind when observing the extremely complex relations arising in oscillating spaces.  The obscure oscillatory pattern in such cases is, as it were, hidden under apparent randomness.”  This is worth contemplating when observing the complexities of our galactic realm.

It is also common knowledge that the morphology of the galactic realm is strongly marked by spiral formations.  Spiral formations and rotations are seen all throughout Cymatics as well.  “Bearing in mind the forms produced by oscillation in experiments, it is possible to make out areas in which phenomena exhibit uniform patterns recognizable as halo formation, areas of rotation with diametric inflows, nucleations, disc formations, clusters, intermediate traces as bridges and filaments, and above all, as sequences of events with precise chronological characteristics proceeding from youth to age.”

The following describes certain Cymatic effects seen on a small scale which could just as easily describe the processes that occur galactically on a large scale, such as seen in supernovas or galactic eruptions that birth new stars: “If oscillations and waves appear in cosmic systems, then the corresponding effects may be expected,” Dr. Jenny tells us.  “When the amplitudes are great, particles are flung up in clouds.  These too retain their spheroid formation although the most violent turbulence is raging round them.  And yet within these storms of particles there are still circulations, eddies and even incipient bilateral symmetrical flow patterns.  As the amplitude is changed (modulation) we witness concentrations and expansion of extraordinary violence.  Unstable though the turbulences may be, structural tendencies are nevertheless discernible and often take the form of regular patterns.  Thus we have conglobations, rotations, circulations, currents and structures occurring side by side and also interpenetrating one another… Currents of energy, expanding substances, and streams of matter may proceed as waves or appear as oscillations ab initio, or through contact with other fields of energy or force fields, or as a feature of their characteristic flow pattern.”

In Dr. Jenny’s study of Lissajous Figures, discussed next, we see how pathways resembling planetary orbits are formed by the interplay of two frequencies.  These two frequencies can represent the interplay between two celestial objects such as Mercury and the Sun for instance, or Venus and Earth.

Dr. Jenny studies Lissajous Figures

Dr. Jenny conducted experiments to study Lissajous figures.  For this he utilized the cathode ray oscillograph which allows for the study of the ways in which an electron beam is deflected when oscillations at two different frequencies are applied.  The strength (amplitude) of the two frequencies can both be adjusted so that the visualized curves go through corresponding transformations.

In Figs. 91-104, pages 198-199, the first frequency is set at 400 cycles per second.  The second frequency of 160 cps is then gradually introduced.  “The interaction of the two frequencies produces a beam pathway exhibiting symmetry, number and proportion…a heptagonal figure then runs through a series of systematic transformations as the amplitudes of the two frequencies are varied.”

Figure 105 shows an infinity sign caused by frequencies of 300 and 600 cps.  This is an octave ratio and thus produces the lemniscate figure – “the basic impulse of the octave”.

Dr. Jenny also submitted these same electron beams to two magnetic fields.  This resulted in complicated deflections of its pathway.  We see how Figure 105 resulted in Figure 106 in this manner.  The process in Figure 106 is still a continuous figure-eight pathway, yet it is in three-dimensions and cannot be captured on a flat screen.  In Figs. 107-109 the same experiment was conducted.  Dr. Jenny started with Figure 107, which is a phase of the Lissajous figure of the minor seventh with frequencies of 540 and 300 cps.  It produces the nice symmetrical geometric process pictured.  When this was exposed to two magnetic fields in different orientations Figures 108 and 109 result. These curves are still continuous, yet are oscillating in three-dimensions.  Once again, the full 3D picture cannot be captured on a flat screen.

“Manipulation of these pathways is so instructive,” writes Dr. Jenny “because in complicated vibrational processes of a structural or kinetic kind, there may lie basic processes and basic impulses which are, as it were, hidden under the interplay of the impinging factors.”

Figures 110-112, page 203, show more complicated geometric patterns that have formed.  “Here a familiar method has been employed in which a mechanical pendulum, to which a light source is attached, inscribes its pathway directly into the camera.  The point of this is to show that oscillatory processes involve patterns exhibiting number, proportion and symmetry.  The pendulum pathways seen here describe patterns with features of regularity in all their parts.  Harmonic elements are visible in every phase of the vibrational process – in the central area of the figured pathway as well as at the periphery.”  Figure 110 is pentagonal.  Figure 111 is heptagonal and Figure 112 is octagonal.  Figure 111 strongly resembles the orbital pathway of Mars and Earth.

The continuation of this experiment shows an even stronger resemblance of orbital pathways between two planets, or between a single planet and the Sun.  In Figures 113-115, pages 204-205 we “are able to visualize the complex relationships between oscillatory systems.  Here a swinging pendulum to which a light source was attached was photographed by a rotating camera, which itself moved along a straight line.  Observations of this kind focus attention on the dynamic relationships existing between regularly revolving and rotating systems.”  Note again: “dynamic relationships between regularly revolving and rotating systems” – meaning the orbits of celestial bodies, among other things.

Once again, Dr. Jenny is urging us to return to a vision of the whole.  “If we wish to take mental possession of these various factors in their true reality, we must – when all our analyzing, dismembering and dissecting are done – always make the imaginative effort to see everything as a whole.”

The Basic Triadic Phenomenon & the “Whole”

As Goethe said: “All have a similar form yet none is the same as the other, and thus the choir shows a secrete law, a sacred mystery.”

The importance of the whole can never be forgotten.  Both Goethe and Hans Jenny continually remind us of this.  “When we observe a phenomenon,” writes Dr. Jenny, “it is natural to concentrate on one single factor and make it the focus of our attention.  Now, if such a factor is abstracted from its context and allowed to dictate our procedure, the investigation tends to become biased and other characteristics of the object under study are easily missed…Even so, the attempt must be made to return time and again to the original phenomenon and time and again to look at it with fresh eyes.”

Dr. Jenny continues by saying, “The whole is of a periodic nature and it is this periodicity which generates and sustains everything.  The three fields – the periodic as the fundamental field with the two poles of figure and dynamics – invariably appear as one.  They are inconceivable without each other.”  This represents the dynamic steady-state universe that is created by and sustained by vibration (oscillation).  These three aspects: steady-state form and pattern, dynamic and kinetic change, and periodicity are three-fold in appearance and yet unitary.  They appear as one yet are three-fold.

This three-fold nature can be seen throughout the universe on every scale for the Universe is an oscillating dynamic steady-state process containing infinite individualized oscillating dynamic steady-state processes.  All is sustained by vibration.  We can use this concept to perceive commonalities among the most varied fields.

“The basic triadic phenomenon,” Dr. Jenny writes, “is an empirical notion which comes to mind in the study of histology, cell physiology, morphology, biology and functional science; likewise in the study of geology and mineralogy, and atomic physics and astronomy.”  The following are some examples:

In the physiology of animals and humans the triadic nature of vibration is found.  “The complex organizations of movement, of rhythmic systems (circulation and respiration), and of nerve physiology become evident to us as frequencies and modulations including amplitude modulations.  Striated muscle [is a vibrational process and] cardiology is, of course, ‘rhythmicity’ par excellence.  Neurology is a field of frequencies and the laws to which they conform (the wave bands of electroencephalography).”

Dr. Jenny notes that the triadic nature is also found in: organ formation and function, protein synthesis, the model of genetic information in the living cell, respiratory enzyme chains and catalysis.

We see the same principles at work in the locomotive system, circulation, respiration and nerve activity.  Each of these has their being in rhythmicity.  So too does the patterns of speech, the wave-like rise and fall of memories, thoughts and emotions, as well as poetry, music, dance and of course, the rhythms of history.

Dr. Jenny writes, “It is a fact that research opens up one new vista after another and that natural science is a “never-ending business”.  It follows, then, that the investigator must remain continually alert within the field of observation.  By failing to do so, he loses touch with reality and forfeits his chance of attaining the ‘really real’.

Attempts to define ‘the whole’, ‘the totality’, often lead to abstractions which are incapable of comprehending the whole living phenomenon and, as it were, allowing it to take shape in the cognitive mind.  What then, is to be done?  The answer is we must make bold use of our judgment based on concrete vision.  This brings us to a form of cognition which analyses and synthesizes, separates and unites, establishes categories, notes their correlations, follows their appearance and disappearance, discovers their unity in diversity, and, at the same time, continuously keeps watch on itself, remains accountable to itself, and constantly asks itself: “Is it you or the object that is expressed here?

In the vibrational field it can be shown that every part is, in the true sense, implicated in the whole.  If we single out a detail, if we follow an individual part, it will be found on careful observation that the sum total of connections, albeit specifically transformed, is reflected in it.  The whole is inherent in the part; the part exists in the whole in a special way.”

“Again and again,” writes Dr. Jenny, “and in ever new forms, the cymatic method reveals the basic triadic phenomenon which man can feel and conceive himself to be.  If this method can fertilize the relations between those who create and observe, between artists and scientists, and thus between everyone and the world in which they live, and inspire them to undertake their own cymatic research and creation, it will have fulfilled its purpose.”

Harmony, Geometry & the Whole

Dr. Jenny reminds us that “harmonics were the main basis of early philosophies.  Indeed these ancient doctrines consisted essentially of harmonics.  The basic tenet of the Pythagorean philosophy was that arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music and ethics were all explained in terms of numbers and their ratios.”  Pythagoras said ‘Everything is number’.

In Plato’s worldview as well, everything “is arranged according to measure and number, proportion and mathematical form.  He explains how the world (earth, water, air, fire) is built up from triangles and how such triangles are formed into regular solids which are assigned to the different states in which matter exists.  This is the tetrahedron or the three-sided pyramid.

In a similar way octahedrons, hexahedrons, icosahedrons and dodecahedrons are evolved.  These five regular solids are assigned to the elements for appropriate reasons: the cube to earth, the tetrahedron to fire, the octahedron to air, the icosahedron to water, and the dodecahedron to the universe.  The book Timaeus then describes how these elements act together and are transformed and the many varieties of fire, earth, air and water are mentioned.

[Furthermore] the numbers of the intervals [3/2, 4/3, 9/8] are also the measures of the planetary spheres and of the cosmos.  This musical scale represents at one and the same time the mathematical structure of the soul of the world and also the essence of the universe modeled on it.”

In the Timaeus Plato writes “And the motions which are naturally akin the divine principle within us are the thoughts and revolutions of the universe.  These each man should follow, and correct the courses of the head which were corrupted at our birth, and by learning the harmonics and revolutions of the universe, should assimilate the thinking being to the thought, renewing his original nature, and having assimilated them should attain to that perfect life which the gods have set before mankind, both for the present and the future.”

Dr. Jenny comments, “According to this description, the way the universe is ordered is reflected in our thought, in our minds.  Birth causes these orbits to be shaken and perturbed.  By investigating these harmonies we can restore in our heads the ordered systems of the universe.  These proportions and numbers in these cosmic revolutions which are, at one and the same time, the good, the true and the beautiful.”

Heraclitus, like Plato, taught harmony in his lifework.  “His soaring visions of the opposites are vividly present in our minds, for in our experiments with vibrations we have witnessed this constant interchange between polarities.”

Heraclitus said:

• “Unite whole and part, agreement and disagreement, accordant and discordant; from all comes one and from one all.”
• “Into the same river you could not step twice, for other and still other waters are flowing.”
• “Into the same river we both step and do not step. We both are and are not.”
• “One and the same thing exists in us, living and dead, awake and asleep, waking and sleeping, young and old. For these several states are transmutations of each other.”
• “All events happen in the form of opposition and all things are in a constant process of transformation…and the world arises from fire and dissolves again into fire, in certain periods, in constant change, to all eternity. But this happens according to Fate.”
• “For, by condensing, fire becomes moist, and condensing further, becomes water. But water, when it is solid, changes to earth.  And that is ‘the way down’.  And again the earth dissolves and out of it comes water, and out of that the rest.  That is to say, he attributes almost everything to the exhalation of the sea.  But that is the ‘way upward’.
• “The way upward and the way downward are one in the same.”
• “For there could be no harmony if there were no high notes and low notes…”
• “The opposites are united, and out of the opposed (tones) comes froth the fairest harmony, and by strife all things arise.”
• “Nature also strives for the opposites and, out of them and not the identical, produces harmony…”
• “They do not understand how that which separates unites with itself. It is a harmony of opposites, as in the case of the bow and the lyre.
• “The Logos which shapes things according to the up and down of opposites is Fate.”

Yet “we are remote from [the Greek thinkers’] sources,” Dr. Jenny reminds us.  “We see them like fair landscapes bathed in the golden light of evening, but their sun is no longer alive in our contemporary hearts.  Although almost all our instruments of thought are derived from these epochs, although we are still fed and nourished by them, we are no longer part of them.  We experience them only as shadowy images and we must take care not to become ghosts.

Here we will end with closing remarks from Dr. Hans Jenny:

“Around us, before us and within us there are mysteries discernible as configurations, processes, figures and movements, but all ill-defined, seen as in a glass darkly.  It is useless to plead disinterest; these mysteries accompany us through life, and indeed we ourselves are these mysteries.  We snatch after traditions, seek salvation in the greatness bequeathed by the past, and all the while are swept along by the cataract of our times.

Where does Cymatics come in here?  If we can comprehend the wholeness of vibration or oscillation, and grasp the totalities in which it is manifested, then we have caught hold of reality.

Again and again we have stressed the importance of developing facilities of observation, perception and insight.  It is not a question, then, of ever more sophisticated apparatus and experimental designs but rather of a cognitive capacity which is continually unfolding.  By letting sounds, noises, musical tones elicit their effects we have discovered perfect systems of order comprising numbers, proportions and symmetries.  These systems are not rigid figures; they pulsate, flow and undergo transformation.  They weave textures out of their polarities and metamorphoses.  They grow in intensity to become phenomena manifesting ‘everything’ in patterns where orderliness prevails in spite of all the kinetics.

More and more we realize that we are only at the start.  Our ridge walk is only beginning.  As scientists we cannot taboo the mysteries confronting us and forbid ourselves to investigate them.

The work must take us back to its Urgrund, to its primal cause; we enrich our experience, we train and exercise our powers, we perform our ‘cognitive gymnastics’ and see where we get to, what the mysteries hold in store for us.  So it is not to the dissecting table that we go but to the generative, creative, ever-active primal cause.

What is this primordial Word?  That is what we bring our minds to bear on as if upon a mystery, what we seek to approach methodically in Cymatics, what we will dedicate ourselves to, using all our power of sight and hearing and with modern science as our basis. In our research we move towards a creative world, towards a world-creating power.  We have no hesitations or doubts.  What will come of it?  Will the mysteries be solved?  Shall we come through alive?  How will this adventure end?

We are, in reality, this mystery; in it we become; it is not that man simply is, he is becoming all the time with an ever fuller and clearer consciousness…for he carries in his heart the new cosmos as the mystery of the primordial word seeking revelation.”

The Whole & Not Killing the Whole to understand its parts

Even this speculative philosophy cannot penetrate the mystery of existence in all its fullness.  This will only reveal itself progressively if we do not merely analyze it and anatomize it to a skeleton; if we do not merely try to take mental possession of it but instead patiently attend upon it, neither raising ourselves above it nor killing it.

Water, Liquids & their Crystalline Form

Wolfgang Finkelnburg’s Einfuhrung in die Atomphysik (1954): “Since it as at first sight surprising to claim that liquids have a quasi-crystalline structure, we will look first of all at the most important evidence supporting this contention.  Direct evidence is provided by Debye’s method of X-ray diffraction in liquids.  If the molecules and the distances between them were completely irregular, the intensity of scattering would decrease uniformly as the scattering angle increased; if the molecules are in a regular arrangement, the X-rays scattered by the various molecules would show peaks and dips in the intensity plotted against the angle of scattering, and these have in fact been observed…Recently the distribution of atoms in liquid mercy has been accurately studies by Hendus by means of monochromatic X-ray irradiation.  At a temperature of 18C he found an atomic arrangement which was almost exactly the same as that of the crystalline state and substantially different from the densest packing of particles expected in liquids.”

“Another no less cogent proof of the semi-crystalline structure of liquids is to be found:…page 123…the fact that this value (6 cal. Mol. degrees) is found for monatomic liquids can be explained only by assuming that here again there is a three-dimensional oscillation of the atoms around a position of equilibrium with the difference that, in contrast to solid crystals, these centers of oscillation themselves perform a translational movement which depends on the temperature.”

By far the most important associated liquid is water, whose anomalous behavior has long been attributed to association.

It has recently been concluded on good grounds that what is actually involved is molecular clusters of indeterminate size.  The precise crystalline structure of these molecular clusters was ascertained by comparison of theoretical X-ray scattering curves and those actually observed: they were found to be tridymite-like in structure with each ‘O’ atom surrounded in tetrahedric configured by four ‘H’ atoms…This special geometrical arrangement of the H2O molecules, i.e. the semi-crystalline structure, is the reason for the special position water is generally known to occupy.

From Pohl’s Einfuhrung in die Physik (1959) we quote: “A liquid is a crystal in a state of turbulence with very small but still crystalline elements of turbulence.  As ‘individual of a higher order’ these elements are in a state of constant change and go through movements and rotations which proceed in common.”

The problem that concerns us here is the way in which physicists are striving to obtain a conceptual picture of water.  Let us look at the facts: pattern (crystalline-like, quasi-crystalline, semi-crystalline) on the one hand, and on the other turbulence, movement, both in a flux of constant change.

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