Scripture Reference John 1.1-5 (CEB):

In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
The Word was with God in the beginning.
Everything came into being through the Word,
and without the Word
nothing came into being.
What came into being
through the Word was life,
and the life was the light for all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness doesn’t
extinguish the light. ^[1]

When I read this ancient, cosmic view of creation being sung to life, I imagine John’s ancient world. Free of light pollution, John’s exiled community peered into an inky, Vantablack sky set afire with billions of visible high-def stars, twinkling like God’s winking eyes, the light shining in the darkness.

The author(s) of John draw their ideas about Jesus as the Word of God from their ancient Jewish tradition of Wisdom as God’s creative conduit. For John, Jesus is the new Wisdom. Many scholars also believe that John is intentionally written in the style of ancient Jewish mystical literature (such as Sirach or Ecclesiastes), and that the Word is meant metaphysically, as a presence or energy John didn’t have the language—or science—to describe in his era.

People in the early First Century didn’t know that vibrating molecules create the energy that forms matter. I don’t think they’d be surprised to learn about quantum physics, but a couple of thousand years ago people didn’t walk around saying, “Your negative energy is harshin’ my mellow.” Even though the author(s) of John are undeniably talking about energy. For what is a word but a sound emanating from our mouths, and what is a sound but energy moving through air? In the beginning was the Word.

The 2000 years of scientific revelation at our disposal since John was written helps us understand “the Word” the way John intends: as the cornerstone of creation, the cosmic vibration that forms all matter in every parallel reality. If we had the technology to deconstruct everything physical to its simplest subatomic state, current scholarship in quantum physics suggests we’d discover a vibration, a frequency.

The frequency of creation.

What if the fundamental building block of reality is a single, holy sound that sings us all into divinely interconnected being? Imagine the universe singing us into existence with the song of songs. We are all tuning forks, vibrating our unique musical frequencies, each of us an integral part of God’s symphonic masterwork. Harmony is ours for the making. Harmonizing with the Sound of Creation is quite literally in our DNA.

We are all cosmic music

The Bible, The Qur’an, Hinduism, certain Buddhist traditions, and theories of modern quantum physics imply sonic creation. Our reality—this screen you’re reading, the chair you’re sitting on, you and I and every living, breathing creature on the planet—it’s all the remarkable result of a single, fundamental vibration of the universe. God.

In the Jewish tradition, reality begins when God speaks everything into existence. God said, “let there be light.” God said, “separate the heavens and the earth.” God said, “I need creatures in the ocean, and on land.” God said, “I need humans.” God said, God said, God said. The entire first chapter of Genesis is God saying things into being. Even in this ancient creation story, frequencies are the creative force.

In eastern traditions, the “Om” is their name for the preexistent tone through which universes are created. These ideas reveal a deeply human instinct: Somehow, we have always known that as God vibrates, so do we.

We pay too little attention to this idea because we’re so used to hearing. We don’t often think of sound as something physical. We don’t see sound unless we’re looking at an oscilloscope or some other piece of equipment, and then we only see the sort of waveform fundamentals I often use as an analogy for God. Most of us aren’t looking through Oscilloscopes or waveform analyzers so we take sound for granted. But sound is very physical and affects us physically.

We hear because the air around us is moved. Sound travels through the air like waves in an ocean. When we say “Hello!” to someone, we’re moving the air between us, causing it to vibrate. We’re exchanging energy—the same way the Conscious Universe transfers energy to matter. Sound shapes our atmosphere, and us.

Pay attention to the soundtracks of our lives

What this means for postmodern spiritual sojourners is that frequency profoundly affects our state of being. Sound matters. What we hear, matters—the content, of course, but more crucially, the resonant frequencies of what we’re listening to affect us physically. Think about being at the movies—when those ultra-low rumbles occur, you feel that throughout your body. Sound can shake the foundation of your soul, so let it! Let the music of God’s love fill your soul and overflow into our world.

To demonstrate just how massively sound impacts the physical world, I want to share this astounding video on “Cymatics,” a technique used to visualize audio frequencies. It’s about five minutes long and well worth it. Different frequencies create different shapes and even affect the flow of water. My jaw dropped the first few times I watched it. Remember as you’re watching this that the patterns that appear are consistent. A certain note always creates the same sonic pattern.

https://nigelstanford.com/Cymatics/

Harmonization Exercises

I hope you’ll keep the idea that we are energy beings sharing frequencies in your consciousness. I have some thought exercises you can carry around with you that have helped me become more intentionally tuned into the frequency of God, by realizing everything is a frequency of God.

1. When you talk to people, how do they make you feel? Can you harmonize with their energy?
2. When you listen to music, watch a show—how are the tones and the way they are played together affecting you physically? Try to listen to individual sounds. What images do you see in your mind?
3. Be attentive to the differences in your feelings and thoughts when you’re listening to different types of music, watching different genres of television shows, reading, and when speaking with people. Try to listen to more than whatsomeone is saying, try to feel the frequency they’re saying it at.
4. Tune in to every sound around you. How does that affect you? Your conversations?

Finally, always remember: Every one of us is a perfectly tuned resonance of God’s fundamental creative love. Harmonize with one another accordingly.

^[1] Common English Bible. Nashville, TN: Common English Bible, 2011. Print.

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