THE HARMONIC SERIES, THE HEART AND THE CONCH
Pythagoras noted that not only does a string or an air column vibrate as a whole - there is no such thing in nature as a single “note”. Everything has overtones. The string vibrates as a whole, but also in half, in thirds, in quarters and so on. These secondary vibrations are called overtones. They give each sound its unique characteristics. A clarinet’s tone, for instance, emphasizes every other overtone, whereas an oboe emphasizes the higher harmonics.
The sound that we hear coming from a conch shell brought to the ear is the ambient noise, the harmonics that are produced when the air entering bounces about in the hollow cavity of the seashell. Similarly, though we can’t hear it, the heart, which actually has a conch-like structure, makes a whooshing sound caused by the vibration of blood as it moves through the heart.
Stringed instruments of India, such as the sitar, especially utilize overtones by having “sympathetic” strings that resonate the overtones when a basic note is plucked.
Your body may be seen as an instrument that similarly vibrates along its entire length as well as in halves, thirds, quarters and so on. Vibrating in half in a stringed instrument results in a sound an octave higher than the “fundamental” (your whole body vibrating). In the human body that halfway point, the octave, would be at the sacrum! Vibrating in thirds the nodes of the body’s harmonic series would be approximately at the thighs and heart.
Speaking of the heart, there is a wonderful video by Gil Hedley in which he shows the conch-like structure of the heart. The harmonics of the heart are the result of this structure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbOyozg_GTs
Intriguingly there is a Sanskrit word - Panchajanya. Panchajanya is a sacred conch shell in Hindu mythology and is associated with Lord Vishnu, one of the principal deities in Hinduism.
May these associative forays into harmonics stimulate our appreciation of the vibrations around and within us!
In the photo above is the harmonic series and below that is an x-ray of the inner structure of a conch shell.
Panchajanya