The Sound of Music and Plants

By:  Lani  Kaub

In 1950, when Professor Julian Huxley, (the biologist grandson, of Thomas Henry Huxley), and brother of novelist Aldous Huxley….was visiting Dr. T.C. Singh. Who was head of the Department of Botany, at Annamalai University. Which is south of the "Tamil-speaking" city of Madras. He found his host studying through a microscope, the live "streaming of protoplasm", in the cells "Hydrilla Verticillata", an aquatic plant of Asian origin, with transparent leaves.

Huxley was struck by the idea, that the magnification might be sufficient for his friend to see if the "streaming process", could be affected by sound.

Because the "streaming of protoplasm" in vegetation, begins to speed up after sunrise, Singh placed an electr ically operated tuning fork, six feet from a Hydrilla. He microscopically observed that the fork's note, (broadcast for half an hour just before 6 am), caused the protoplasm to stream…..at a speed normally attained, only much later in the day.

He next asked his young assistant, a dancer and violinist, if she would play notes on her instrument, while standing near the Hydrilla. When the gir l stroked her strings at a certain pitch, the protoplasm's streaming….was again accelerated.

Because the "Raga", (a traditional form of South Indian devotional song), has a tonal system which can produce a deep religious feeling, and specific emotions in a listener…..he decided to try it's tones on the Hydrilla. Lord Krishna, the eighth and principal avatar, and incarnation of the Hindu deity, "Vishnu", was reputed to have promoted with music, enthralling growth and bewitching verdure in "Vrindavan", ( a city on the banks of the Jamuna River, in north-central India, long famous for it's saint musicians).

A courtier of the famous Moghul emperor, "Akbar", is reported to have been able to perform such miracles, with his songs….as to bring on rain, light oil lamps, vernalize plants, and induce them to blossom…..simply by intoning "Ragas" at them.

Knowing this ancient lore….he asked his assistant to play the South Indian tune, "Maya-Malava-Ganla-Raga", to Mimosas…….After a fortnight, to his intense excitement, he discovered that the number of "stomata" per unit area, in the experimental plants, was 66 percent higher. The epidermal walls were thicker, the palisade cells were longer, and broader, than in "control" plants…….sometimes by as much as 50 percent.

Singh, then experimented on a vast number of species, such as: common astors, petunias, cosmos, and white spider lillies….along with such economic plants as onions, sesame, radishes, and sweet potatoes. Each of these species, he entertained for several weeks, just before sunrise……with more than a half a dozen "ragas", one per experiment. Played on the flute, violin harmonium, and veena. The music lasted a half hour daily….scaled at a high pitch, with frequencies between 100 and 600 cycles per second.

From this experiment, he was able to state that, "he had proven, beyond any shadow of doubt….that harmonic sound waves affect the growth, flowering, fruiting, and seed-yields of plants. As a result of his success….he began wondering whether "sound", properly prescribed, could spur field crops to greater yields……

From 1960 to 1963, via a loud speaker, he piped the "Charukesi Raga", on a gramophone to six varieties of early, medium, and late "paddy rice", growing in the fields of seven villages. They got harvests ranging consistently, from 25% to 60% higher, than the regional average. He also was able to musically provoke peanuts, and chewing tobacco, into producing nearly 50% more than normal.

Merely by "dancing" the "Bharata-Natyam", India's most ancient dance style, (without musical accompaniment), and performed by girls without trinkets on their ankles….the growth of Michaelmas daisies, marigolds, and petunias….was very much accelerated. Causing them to flower as much as a fortnight earlier than controls, presumably because of the Rhythm of the "footwork"…..transmitted through the earth.

"The stimulated plants are energized to synthesize greater quantities of food, during a given period of time, which naturally leads to greater yields." His method of musical stimulation, has even increased chromosome count of certain species of water plants, and the nicotine content of tobacco leaves.

Though the Indians of the subcontinent, both ancient and modern, appear to have been the first , to produce a significant effect on plants …..with music or sound, they are by no means the only ones. In the Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb, a florist, "Arthur Locker", began piping music into the greenhouses in the late 1950s. The difference he observed in flower production, before and after, the broadcasts was sufficiently marked to convince him…..that music powerfully contributed to horticulture. His plants grew straighter, germinated quicker, and bloomed more abundantly. The colors of the flowers…were more striking to the eye, and the blooms lasted longer than usual!

There were many unresolved mysteries…."high frequency" waves, had been used successfully to control insects, in stored wheat. The same wheat, planted later….germinated faster….than untreated wheat.

The frequencies on the so-called sonic spectrum, unlike those on the electromagnetic spectrum, relate to "vibrations in matter", the medium in which they travel, and result from the rate of it's compression and expansion.

Thus, a sound wave can pass through the air, water, and fluids….an iron bar, a table top, a human being, or a plant.

Because human ears, can pick up only those frequencies, from 16 to about 20,000 cycles per second, they are known as "audio", or "sonic" frequencies. Below them, are "inaudible" subsonic frequencies. Some of which result from pressure applied slowly, such as that produced by a hydraulic jack. Which become so slow, that they are measured not in cycles per second, but in seconds per cycle. Above them, are "ultrasonic" frequencies, also inaudible, to the human ear. Affecting man's being….in a variety of ways, which are not fully known.

Extremely high frequencies on the spectrum, ranging from hundreds to thousands of millions of cycles per second, can be perceived as "heat", on the skin. Therefore, termed "thermal", though because they too, cannot be audibly detected, could just as well, be considered ultrasonic.

Peter Belton, a researcher for Canada's Dept. of Agriculture, had broadcast "ultrasonic" waves to control the European "cor n-borer" moth. Whose larvae extensively damage growing cor n. At first, they tested the hearing ability of the moths. It was obvious that they could hear the sounds, at about 50,000 cycles. (These high-pitched sounds, are much like those made by bats, the moth's natural enemy).



They planted 2 plots of corn, each10 feet by20, and divided them with sheets of plastic, 8 feet tall. Capable of stopping "this" sound frequency. Then they broadcast the bat-like sound, across two and a half plots, from dusk till dawn. Throughout the period, the moths lay their eggs. Nearly 50% of his r ipe cor n ears, were damaged by larvae in the "silent" plots.

But only 5% suffered injury, in the plots where the moths had supposedly suspected, "bats" might be lurking. A careful count, also revealed 60% fewer larvae in the "sound" plots, and the cor n was 3 inches taller.

"Ultrasonic" frequencies, markedly affect the germination and growth of barley, sunflower, spruce, jack pine, Siberian pea tree, and other seeds and seedlings. The experiments indicated, inexplicably, that enzyme activity, and respiration rates in plants, and their seeds, increased when they were stimulated by ultrasonic frequencies. Most plants responded best to a frequency of 5,000 cycles per second.

Plants have a natural love for music from India…..this is their favorite music! They also like classical music and new age….and Celtic. They are also fond of Jazz. But they are turned off to Rock Music! One might wonder whether the nationwide craze for "acid rock", among the younger generation….might not be deleterious to their development.

When plants are exposed to "hard rock", they will actually "tur n away" from the sound waves….in revulsion.

Two doctors had reported to the California Medical Association, that of 43 musicians playing amplified hard rock music, 41, had suffered permanent hearing loss.

Musical sound lies within the very hearts of atoms…..

In his book, "The Symphony of Life", Donald Hatch Andrews, invites readers to join him, on an imagined journey…..inside a magnified calcium atom. Taken from the bone, beneath the tip, of his forefinger. Inside the atom, there are shrill tones….dozens of octaves above the highest tones of a violin. The music of the atomic nucleus, the tiny particle, at the center of the atom.

If one listens closely….one is aware that this music is far more complex, than familiar church music. There are many dissonant chords, like those found in the music of today's modern composers.

The whole purpose of dissonant music, according to Cyril Meir Scott, the English composer and Theosophist, was to break up thought forms…..Which, settling over whole countries and people, turn them stagnant with lethargy, or rampant with madness. It is an "occult" musical fact, that discord….used in it's moral sense, can alone, be destroyed by discord.

The reason for this being that, the vibrations of intrinsically beautiful music….are too rarefied, to touch the comparatively course vibrations…of all that pertains to a much lower plane.