EARTH

With this record, the third volume of the “Full Spectrum Sound Healing” series, my wish is to bring the healing resonance of our planet to your willing ears. All the tracks you hear are suffused with a frequency that is the ever-present tone of life on Earth.

When lightning strikes the Earth’s surface, a standing wave with an extremely low frequency—astonishingly similar to that of the alpha/theta brain wave state—rises out of the Earth’s electromagnetic background noise and resonates in the chamber between the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere. Corresponding to approximately 7.8125 hertz, this frequency was correctly predicted by, and named for, Winfried Otto Schumann in 1952. The “Schumann Resonance,” the very sound of our planet, was first scientifically observed in 1963 and has been the subject of intense interest and scientific research ever since.

I heard about the Schumann Resonance 10 years ago. I was fascinated to discover that scientific analysis has confirmed that many species, including humans, are positively affected by this frequency.

One experiment isolated human subjects from the Schumann Resonance for four weeks in a specially designed chamber. This exile resulted in head-aches and negative emotional symptoms that went away after a brief re-exposure to the frequency. Scientists speculate that the similarity of the Schumann Resonance to the calm and clear alpha/theta brain state is no accident, but is, in fact, a result of evolutionary biology.

This information inspired me to raise consciousness of the Schumann Resonance and to help create world unity by using it as the foundational tone for the Global OM, an annual worldwide chant of the sacred Om syllable originally launched at Earthdance International in 2007.

Ninety percent of the Schumann Resonance tones on Earth were created from acoustic sources: custom-tuned Tibetan and crystal bowls, a water-based instrument called the Earth drum, and a custom-tuned didgeridoo. The other 10 percent of the sounds were created digitally in order to maintain precision of frequency. Yet precision also came through in a more magical way. When we placed the Earth drum in its water tub, we were all set to adjust the water level to tune it for the recording, but we found that the drum was already precisely tuned to the Schumann Resonance—no adjustment required. This synchronicity felt like a message from the planet, affirming our endeavor to get the people of the Earth to hear her voice. So sit back, relax, and let Earth's songs carry you into the primordial depths of sound—the sound of our mother.

—ALEX THEORY SAN FRANCISCO, 2009