Stonehenge and Silat...

By StevenI watched a fascinating show on the History Channel yesterday. MysteryQuest covered recent investigations into the possible acoustic properties of Stonehenge. A careful examination of the stones revealed that they are curved on one side, suggesting that they had an auditory function. Experiments performed by the team both at Stonehenge, and at a replica in Maryhill, Washington, revealed that percussive sound, such as drumming, if done at the correct rate, would be echoed and amplified by the stones of the site. These sounds fell in the range for Alpha waves, one of the two types of waves conducive to the production of altered states of consciousness in humans.

Further testing in a clinical environment showed that human brains would actually synchronize with the sounds produced at the site. They began to respond almost immediately. Studies of people listening to techno music at raves have demonstrated that ravers heartbeats synchronize with the beat of the music. I think that there is a correlation in some of the newer music used amongst Evangelical Christians. I've noticed there is a certain repetitive rhythm to quite a few of the songs, usually in guitar playing. It seems similar to that used in shamanic drumming, though I'm no expert. My wife once accompanied her sister's family to such a concert, and she felt herself getting “spacey”. When she realized this, the effect abated, just as it did for the investigators on the show, at one point.

Cultures around the world work to produce altered states of consciousness in the course of religious worship and esoteric practices. It would seem that this was the case at Stonehenge. Many cultures use psychoactive herbs and fungi in their rites. There is evidence that both marijuana and henbane were growing in Great Britain during the period Stonehenge was in use. Both would intensify and aid achievement of altered states. Another tool available to these ancient people was light. Additional experimentation during the show found that the sounds produced, bouncing off the stones, could affect the flicker of open flames, causing a rather strobe-like effect. We know that strobe lights can initiate seizures in epileptics, so it is appears obvious that this would have been another amplifier for altered states, especially for those closest to the center of the circle.

The show made me think about the way Silat is often practiced in Indonesia. To the accompaniment of a gamelan orchestra. Gamelan has a great deal of percussive rhythm, and it tends to be fast and rather repetitive. Again, this is similar to shamanic drumming. Its not uncommon for it to be practiced at night, by firelight (traditionally). Traditional Indonesian culture, and Silat, are known for initiating trance states, animal and spirit possession in individuals. There is even a practice (classed as a form of ilmu), in some systems, in which one attempts to contact and be influenced (kaeunteupan) or possessed (sambatan, or “ridden”, to borrow a Vodun term) by one's Silat ancestors. Jurus(short forms) practice can be thought of as talari karuhan, a “rope” or connection to the style's ancestors. A side note to this idea...that specific postures could create a link to previous practitioners, is extremely interesting in light of research done by the late Felicitas Goodman and the Cuyamungue Institute. She did considerable research into glossolalia, possession and trance states, and found that the use of certain postures (found in ancient paintings and sculptures) tended to produce specific types of visual and auditory phenomena in people who are in an altered state of consciousness (she also found the link to certain specific rates of drumming aiding in the achievement of these states). I don't think she did research into martial stances of South Asia, or into the the religious poses, dance postures and mudras of the region. Most of her work concentrated on Neolithic and Native American material, I believe. I suspect that some of the postures found in Silat could (and do) produce certain results, if done in an altered state. And I suspect that traditional, old school Silat training is designed to do just that. The belief is that kaeunteupan and sambatan enhance and accelerate one's learning, and goodness knows they didn't have a decade or two to produce quality warriors. I'd like to see some study of this in the future, before all the traditional styles are gone, stamped out by conservative Islam or absorbed into modern sport Olah Raga and the push for Olympic gold.

I also suspect that we are seeing just one aspect of an ancient technology, predating that of the modern world. After all, we have only been agrarian and “civilized” for a few thousand years. We were hunter-gatherers for tens of thousands of years, and its a well-documented fact that such cultures require only about 20+/- hours of work per week from its members. In his novel Tropic of Night, Michael Gruber questioned what they did with all that spare time, and suggested that they developed a sophisticated technology involving the use of herbs, phytochemicals and altered states. It makes a certain amount of sense to me, and its something worthy of greater study.

For anyone interested in more information about the research on Stonehenge and sound, here are some links...

http://soundsofstonehenge.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/

http://aphroditeastrology.com/2009/12/stonehenge-spiritual-transcendence-tool.html

http://www.livedash.com/transcript/mysteryquest-(stonehenge)/71/HISTP/Thursday_December_3_2009/116367/

http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&p=211077

http://mysticbeats.com/Home.php