CROMOACUSTICA PARTE 1

Chromoacoustics: The Science of Sound and Color John S. Sultzbaugh, Ph.D. Go directly to the text of the paper. Abstract The purpose of this presentation is to share findings from a decades-long search to develop the optimal method, with some basis in natural law, for translating music―and perhaps all auditory manifestations―into chromatic visual displays, a process this paper names Chromoacoustics, (“CAS”) or “color and sound.” The outcome could provide insights into the operation of well-concealed natural laws. It is clear that this research could furnish beneficial results through instructional and therapeutic applications, among which are means to provide enhanced tools for teaching the hearing-impaired. Chromoacoustique : La Science du son et de la couleur John S. Sultzbaugh, Ph.D. Résumé Le but de cette présentation est de partager les conclusions issues d’une recherche de dizaines d’années visant à développer la méthode optimale, avec une certaine base avec les lois naturelles, pour traduite la musique – et peut être toutes les manifestations auditives – en des affichages visuels chromatiques, un procédé que cet article appelle Chromoacoustique, (« CAS ») ou « couleur-son ». Le résultat pourrait donner un aperçu de l’opération de lois naturelles qui sont bien dissimulées. Ceci a été accompli car il est clair que l’issue pourrait générer des résultats bénéfiques à travers des applications pédagogiques et thérapeutiques, procurant des outils pour l’enseignement chez les malentendants. Cromo acústica: La ciencia del sonido y del color Por John S. Sultzbaugh, Ph.D. Resumen El propósito de esta presentación es el de compartir descubrimientos aportados por décadas de búsqueda para desarrollar un método optimo, con algunas bases en la ley natural, para la traducción de música y quizás toda manifestación en el auditor, para una exhibición cromática visual, un proceso el cual este documento lo nombra como Cromo acústica, o “color del sonido.” El resultado puede proveer mejores detalles acerca de la operación de leyes naturales que se encuentran bien ocultas. Esto se ha llevado a cabo porque claramente denota que puede aportar resultados benéficos através de aplicaciones instructivas y terapéuticas, las cuales son destinadas a proveer mejores herramientas para la educación de los seres humanos incapacitados que no pueden escuchar. The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 94 www.rosecroixjournal.org Cromoacústica: A ciência do som e da cor Por John S. Sultzbaugh, Ph.D. Resumo O propósito deste trabalho é de compartilhar os descobrimentos de uma pesquisa que levou décadas para desenvolver o melhor método para traduzir música – e talvez todas as manifestações auditivas – alguns baseados em leis naturais, em ‘exposição visual cromática’, um processo chamado aqui de “Cromoacústica” (“CAS”) ou “cor-som”. O resultado poderia dar uma idéia sobre o funcionamento de algumas leis naturais e também poderia fornecer resultados benéficos através de instrução e de aplicações terapêuticas. Farbenklang: Die Wissenschaft des Tones und der Farbe John S. Sultzbaugh, Ph.D. Zusammenfassung Dieses Referat hat den Zweck, nach einer jahrzehntelangen Suche, mit Beruecksichtigung von gewissen Naturgesetzen, eine optimale Methode zu entwickeln zum Uebertragen von Musik, und vielleicht allen akustischen Manifestationen, in optisch-chromatische Darstellungen. Das vorliegende Schriftstueck nennt diesen Prozess Chromoacoustics. (CAS) oder “Farbenklang”. Das Resultat koennte Einsicht in verborgene Naturgesetze vermitteln. Es erscheint klar, dass sich hier eine Gelegenheit fuer instruktionale und therapeutische Anwendungen zeigt. Zum Beispiel, im Umgang mit Hoehr-Behinderten. Chromoacoustics: The Science of Sound and Color John S. Sultzbaugh, Ph.D. Introduction: The purpose of this presentation is to share findings from a decades-long search to develop the optimal method, with some basis in natural law, for translating music―and perhaps all auditory manifestations―into chromatic visual displays, a process this paper names Chromoacoustics, (“CAS”) or “color and sound.” This project was greatly inspired by the Luxatone, a color-organ invented by H. Spencer Lewis and first demonstrated in New York City in February 1916, and by his descriptive article bearing the same name (see Appendix E).1 Another impetus for the project issues from an instinctual empathy for a favorite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, who probably never heard many of his own most splendid works. Just as CAS was inspired by the Luxatone, H. Spencer Lewis was inspired by the thoughts of Aristotle (384-322 BCE),2 which are preserved in the Greek philosopher’s treatise, De Sensu, or The Senses and the Sensible, Aristotle notes that: “… we may regard these colors (viz. all those colors based on numerical ratios) as analogous to the sounds that enter into music, and suppose that those involving simple numerical ratios, like The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 95 www.rosecroixjournal.org the concords [the harmonious blends] in music, may be those generally regarded as most agreeable ….”3 Not only does Aristotle suggest a correspondence between sound and color, but also that this correspondence is based upon mathematical relationships. It appears from the preceding that Aristotle had some notion of harmony and the overtone series. In “The Story of the Luxatone,” H. Spencer Lewis mentions a number of luminaries beside Aristotle, including Johannes Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton, Louis Bertrand Castel, A.Wallace Rimington, and Sir Hubert von Herkomer, among others, who to some degree recognized a connection, however implicit, between color and sound.4 L. B. Castel, a Jesuit mathematician, also published a book, La Musique En Couleurs (Music in Colors) in 1720, in which he described an invention―the “Couleur-Clavessin,” or color-klavier, in which he strove to demonstrate the connection between audible and visible frequencies.5 Yet it is H. Spencer Lewis’s reference to Albert Abraham Michelson that most keenly aroused interest. In 1907, Prof. Michelson became the first American citizen to win the Nobel Prize (in this instance, in physics) for having devised the means for the accurate calculation of the speed of light, and he later contributed materially to establishing the modern metric system.6 In 1902, he published a book entitled Light Waves and their Uses.7 Here he reveals what was arguably his intuitive appreciation of an inherent link between audible and visual frequencies: “… If a poet could at the same time be a physicist, he might convey to others the pleasure, the satisfaction, almost the reverence which the subject inspires. The aesthetic side of the subject is, I confess, by no means the least attractive to me. Especially is its fascination felt in the branch which deals with light, and I hope the day may be near when a Ruskin8 will be found equal to the description of the beauties of coloring, the exquisite gradations of light and shade, and the intricate wonders of symmetrical forms and combinations of forms which are encountered at every turn. “… Indeed, so strongly do these color phenomena appeal to me that I venture to predict that in the not very distant future there may be a color art analogous to the art of sound―a color music [underscoring added], in which the performer, seated before a literally chromatic scale, can play the colors of the spectrum in any succession or combination, flashing on a screen all possible graduations of color, simultaneously or in any other desired succession, producing at will the most delicate and subtle modulations of light and color, or the most gorgeous and startling contrasts and color chords! It seems to me that we have here at least as great a possibility of rendering all the fancies, moods and emotions of the human mind as in the older art.” 9 Although Michelson does not elaborate upon what is meant by “the older art,” viable inferences might include the long-separated visual and audible realms. It might even be inferred by his very use of the term “older” that he views his prediction of the “newer” art as the inevitable synthesis of the two. The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 96 www.rosecroixjournal.org The Brain Connection―Mozart Effect and Synesthesia CAS may shed additional light upon the validity of the so-called “Mozart Effect.” In 1993, researchers from the University of California presented evidence that undergraduates raised their spatial-temporal intelligence scores after 10 minutes of listening to a recording of W.A. Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D-Major, K. 448. The temporal lobe of the brain processes auditory or sound-related information; spatial-temporal pertains to one’s mental ability to manipulate imaginary objects in three-dimensional space.10 The findings have attracted their fair share of attention, support, and criticism. Because tangible results can be measured in at least some instances, proponents note that the findings are significant. Others, however, have pointed out that the repeated experiments do not always replicate the expected result, and that the results can depend on variables such as the testing conditions and the experimenters’ choices in subjects. Replication (or lack thereof) has generally been a challenge in this type of research because of variations among test subjects and because of factors not yet well understood. One of these factors involved in the success/non-success of these studies may be “locale conditioning” or “charged space” that has been the subject of outside research. This phenomenon, if true, is relevant to Rosicrucian teachings.11 It is suggested that CAS might very well shed additional light on the topic and possibly even contribute to more productive outcomes in terms of IQ scores. Another area in which CAS might provide useful information is that of the condition known as synesthesia. Some may infer from the term “condition” that this is a medical disorder of sorts, although this is definitely not my opinion, nor do I detect from my inquiries that any such notion is widely accepted. Synesthesia is a union or blending of the senses in such a way that odors might be perceived audibly, visual images perceived tactilely, or―and of particular interest here―sounds perceived visually, especially as colors. This condition, or perhaps more appropriately, this capability, is said to arise from the limbic region of the human brain, which is responsible for our emotional experiences and responses. The use of visual terms, such as “color” and the “chromatic scale” in describing music, suggests that somewhere in the development of this prehistoric art, musicians began connecting what they produced with the components of the visible-light spectrum.12 Often synesthetes, persons displaying this condition, also display chromasthesia as well; that is, such abstractions as letters and numbers are perceived in specific colors.13 Moreover, chromasthetes, who have these experiences, might also perceive numbers as having textures and even personalities, aside from symbolic importance. Such awareness might help explain some seemingly irrational notions espoused by some of history’s preeminent rational thinkers, as we shall discover. Further research by medical professionals will be of considerable assistance in continuing the investigations here. A third possible application of CAS is to guide perception, for example, as visual art does. One artist’s use of the relationships between colors is so powerful, and can so enhance the viewer’s appreciation of the composition’s subliminal messages, that it deserves attention here. Vincent van Gogh’s life may be considered “colorful” in more than one respect, but it is in its most literal The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 97 www.rosecroixjournal.org The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 98 www.rosecroixjournal.org application of this adjective that his impact can be understood. Van Gogh’s work gives us the opportunity to experience one of nature’s simplest and yet most compelling sensuous secrets: the force of complementary (aka “negative”) colors. It also hints at just how much more perceptive are our minds than we might suppose. The production of complementary colors is so simple and so familiar that elementary school and even preschool students might discover it on their own. The three primary color pigments are red, blue, and yellow; each has as its complement the combination of the remaining two: for red, blue combines with yellow to produce green; for blue, red and yellow produce orange; and for yellow, red and blue produce purple. If one chooses to develop artistic capabilities, s/he will recognize that the plural forms…reds, blues and yellows…are more appropriate labels. Van Gogh describes how he empowers his compositions and infuses them with his personal signature: “To exaggerate the fairness of hair, I come even to orange tones, chromes and pale yellow...I make a plain background of the richest, intensest [sic] blue that I can contrive, and by this simple combination of the bright head against the rich blue background, I get a mysterious effect, like a star in the depths of an azure sky.”14 Any significance of the preceding for CAS may seem to have been lost in a graphic arts lesson, however, in fact, Van Gogh underscores how marvelous our perception of what is suggested, purely through the use of pigments, truly is. He is one of many artists whose talents include guiding or “coaxing” our minds into perceiving powerful images that are not immediately obvious at a casual glance. Today’s computer technology can guide the human mind in much the same way, coaxing from it perceptions of items or events which, in strictly material terms, are not there or are not happening. As noted above, the relationship of complementary colors is simple to understand; the physics of light absorption and reflection (optics) can probe its complex mathematical underpinnings, and neuro-biophysics can explain the material basis for its detection, but that relationship can be explored without knowledge of those disciplines. Our ability to perceive―and clearly―what is not physically present can be experienced in “Lilac Chaser,” one of the many examples of remarkable optical effects provided by Prof. Michael Bach, Ph.D., a neuro-biophysicist (and student of musicology) who directs the Freiburg University Eye Clinic in Freiburg, Germany.15 “Lilac Chaser allows us to encounter what is technically known as “negative retinal afterimage,”16 the perception of an image at a location where the image recently appeared but has since vanished. A remarkable aspect of this experience is that the image is perceived, and quite clearly, as its negative―its complementary―color (for lilac, it is a shade of gre How negatives function in black and white photography can be readily explained: light acts upon photo-sensitive paper by causing it to become darkened through a chemical process. The more intense the light is, the darker the paper will become, but the regions shielded to some extent from that intensity will, to the same extent, remain lighter. The role of complementary colors as “negative” colors is, however, not so easily explained; neither, for that matter, is the manner by which our minds translate the absence of a given hue as its complement. That it happens is, however, beyond question. Yet, what might well be the most extraordinary part of Bach’s “lilac-chasing” is that not only are we guided to seeing something which is not physically present, but also that our eyes are prevented, without material shielding, from seeing items that are present. This is an example of subjective experiences, the realm of non-consensus reality.17 The objectives of CAS certainly do not include confusing or deceiving its observers. Its objectives rather include employing modern technology to guide―to coax―one’s mind into experiencing its greater, and as yet largely unexplored, abilities to perceive, and these abilities can be astounding. Optical bio-physicists can probe phenomena’s complex mathematical underpinnings, and neuro-biophysicists can explain the material basis for its detection; but that relationship is something in which one’s mind requires no in-depth instruction in order perceive it. Instead, it needs only to remain purely focused upon the topic so that information can be transmitted to the observer’s mind―with extraordinary results. Art and Mathematics The preceding discussion suggests several instances in which CAS might form the basis for research in applied science sometime in the future. A proper medium for presenting natural laws is the manner in which all phenomena have been expressed well before the dawn of written history: as an art form. Science may hold a treasured position in the collective opinion of humanity because its innumerable applications have done much to raise our overall standard of living, and the longevity required for enjoying its benefits. But certain intangibles, particularly self-expression and the means for delivering it, have proven to be essential to our mental and emotional evolution. Furthermore, while mathematics―that which is usually viewed as the purest form and language of science―is the basis for the proposed visual co-expression of music, scientific study first requires something to be observed, and the art form proposed should supply ample substance for observation. This is the realm of “non-consensus reality.” It is further noted that even though science and mathematics are more consensus-based than other disciplines, at some level they, too, are based on axioms and postulates that are beyond deductive proof and that are provisionally accepted