EPICENTERS OF JUSTICE:

Music theory, sound-current non-dualism

and radical ecology

A PROJECT
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE
SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
BY
DREW WILLIAM HEMPEL

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF LIBERAL STUDIES

MAY, 2000

___________________________________
DonnaMae Gustafson, Instructor LS 80002
___________________________________
Stephen Daniels, Advisor
___________________________________

INTRODUCTION
Recently a lawsuit, backed by timber corporations, was filed against a citizen group
called the Superior Wilderness Action Network (SWAN). SWAN has been
successfully challenging timber sales by providing scientific data reviewing the threat
to fragile ecosystems from corporate logging practices. The timber companies argue
in their lawsuit that, in reality, SWAN represents a philosophy of deep ecology that is
premised on religious beliefs and thus is a violation of church and state separation.
Using religious arguments to make government decisions is unconstitutional
according to the lawsuit that has been dismissed by SWAN as a typical corporate
SLAPP-a strategic lawsuit against public participation. While the argument of SWAN
seems obvious, being a group lead by credible university scientists,(1) the timber
companies raise a point that could just as easily be turned on its head: Historian
David F. Noble, a former M.I.T. professor and curator for the Smithsonian, has
presented extensive evidence that in actuality mainstream science is driven by a
technological madness that seeks to recreate God's dominion over the earth and
works to revive mankind's original image-likeness to God.(2)
The origin of the spiritual madness defining modern science is traced to the
Benedictine monks under the Carolingian empire, as directed by court philosopher
John Scotus Erigena. For the first time in western history the mechanical arts were
motivated by an elite, materialistic millenarianism to reconstruct "imago dei" and
restore "Adam" from the Fall. " 'It was precisely [the] power over nature [that] Adam
had lost by original sin.'" An urgency of the beckoning apocalypse ushered in modern
science, an expression of the self-fulfilling crisis. Under modernism Man himself
became the universal co-creator with God, thus formally disconnecting a divine
presence from nature itself and insisting on an abstract transcendent perspective
"epitomized by mathematics." A "saintly existence" and a "new race of men" will
follow the end-times via the "redemptive powers of technology." The final
secularization of these "spiritual men" occurred in the development of modern
engineering elite institutions through the freemasons and their offspring of positivism.
Karl Marx even became one of the greatest proponents of the "Edenic respites from
labor." Space flight, nuclear weapons production, computer-based artificial life and
genetic engineering are all symptoms of an worldview to create an Adam II that will
redeem mankind through the destruction of the Fall and the dawn of a new era. The
"scientific saints" renounce responsibility for necessarily risking escalation toward the
inevitable end-times.(3)
Several leading philosophers have argued that, while the ecological crisis presents a
new unifying common ground for united action, unless the underlying opposing
worldviews are addressed, resolution will only occur by escalating catastrophes that
threaten the future of life on the planet.(4) The last 500 years of colonialism and its
resultant ecological havoc have been rooted in ideas based on scientific materialism,
reductionism, mind/body dualism, and linear causality-what became fortified as the
modern paradigm by classical liberalism and the Enlightenment.(5) Radical ecology
theory is being reconsidered by dominant institutions, in the context of the New
Paradigm-mainly systems theory, the new physics, holistic medicine, postmodernism.
Although strongly recognized since the mid-1980s, post-modernism became
theoretically definitive after Professor Frederic Jameson's tome, Postmodernism or
the Cultural Logic of Late-Capitalism. Post-Contemporary Interventions.
Postmodernism is a zeitgeist driven by relativism where Universal Truth, as a
defining Western goal, is no longer considered possible and the impact of late
capitalism has been the mixing of high and low culture in an alienating climate. This

cultural atmosphere called post-modernism has liberating potential if, as Jameson

states, a new "totality of difference" can be created-what sound-current non-dualism
describes. As explained by theorist Jozef Keulzart, systems theory was formalized by
Ludwig von Bertalanffy during the 1930s by applying the thermodynamics of open
systems to ecology, cybernetics, and information theory. The new physics refers to
the primacy of energy over matter, the limit of reductionism, and the inter-connection
of all reality as proven by Bell's theorem, quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity,
and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Holistic medicine applies the above new
paradigm concepts to mind/spirit/body dynamics for healing. The University of
Minnesota, for example, offers a minor graduate degree in Complementary
Therapies and Healing Practices.(6) Physicist Nick Herbert makes the following
pertinent new paradigm recommendation: "Religions assure us that we are all
brothers and sisters, children of the same deity; biologists say that we are entwined
with all life-forms on this planet; our fortunes rise or fall with theirs. Now, physicists
have discovered that the very atoms of our bodies are woven out of a common
superluminal fabric. Not merely in physics are humans out of touch with reality; we
ignore these connections at our peril."(7)
Many institutional planners though are hesitant to implement ecologically-sound
structural reforms if only for fear of growing irrationalism, extreme relativism, and
even a new all-encompassing big Other of "harmonious Nature."(8) The ecological
crisis is universally eroding the faade of the Western modern paradigm and
exposing the spiritual roots of science. What theory can provide a successful
integration that meets the true and legitimate concerns of rational humanists and that
addresses the ecological justice crisis in a more compassionate and effective
manner?
Not only did modern science develop from a profound structural problem but David
Bordwell, a definitive source for film criticism and social theory, argues that, similarly,
social theory "has tended to be deeply traditional in its assumptions." He, like Noble,
also traces these limited and problematic conceptual assumptions to an origin of elite
spiritual institutions of the West: "While not all societies believe that a symbol is
inherently meaningful, Christianity has been a strongly hermeneutical religion,
seeking thekerygma, that latent sense waiting to be called forth."(9) Bordwell is not
presenting a broadside attack against spirituality, nor even the practice of deriving
implicit moral meanings, but raising an institutional critique that exposes the
epistemological limitations behind western, including modern and postmodern,
theories to date. The same deep conundrum does not elude music analysis.
Caryl Flinn recently accomplished one of the most comprehensive analyses of the
utilization of music theory for social criticism in contemporary times and she comes to
a similar conclusion as Bordwell: By arguing that music represents a special place
within the limited system of symbolic interpretation, cultural analysts have worked to
"nostaligize music as an object of study or have it stand in for an abandoned
ideal."(10) While Flinn does not deny the special role of music for Western theorists
after Pythagoras, she does deconstruct the utopian theories as still mirroring a onedimensional bias of meaning that enforces social repression. Yet in the end Flinn
positively encourages utopian projects around music and Bordwell makes, from his
broader perspective, a surprisingly similar promotion. To overcome the long
continuous limits of analysis, traced back to Aristotelian thought, Bordwell argues for
a poetics that recovers our senses by utilizing "the reconstruction of earlier acts of
comprehension." He states that, like the subordinate role often given to music in
social analysis, style and form are not emphasized enough in theory and
criticism.(11)

My work is, as Bordwell describes theory, a "systematic propositional explanation of

the nature and functions" for inferring implicit perceptional norms that challenge
dominant Western institutions.(12) This is not a nostalgic project but meets Flinn's
goal for music theorists, namely, "how to talk concretely and specifically about the
effects generated by a signifying system that is so abstract."(13) Utilizing Bordwell's
neo-formalist approach that creates "a set of relations of meaning between
conceptual or linguistic units" (i.e. a relation of opposite meaning, diminution in size,
defined by inclusion, etc.), I will be presenting a field of meaning that revolves around
moral categories, as is the norm for interpretive criticism of rational humanism.(14)
While a few recent grand theorists, in my opinion, have each successfully achieved
this new integrative theory, they both have done so in different manners and with the
same epistemological symbolic limitations that Noble and Bordwell describe. The
three most prominent examples are Gilles Deleuze, Ken Wilber, and Slavoj Zizek.
The later two qualitatively move beyond postmodernism by similarly building from
systems theory, idealist philosophy (Hegel and Schelling) and emphasizing
psychoanalysis. Wilber recognizes the need for a new paradigm to address the
ecological crisis with the following: "before we can even attempt an ecological
healing, we must first reach a mutual understanding and mutual agreement among
ourselves as to the best way to collectively proceed....Anything short of that, no
matter what the motives, perpetuates the fracture." Zizek relatedly states: "the
hitherto underestimated ideological impact of the coming ecological crisis will be
precisely to make the 'collapse of the big Other' part of our everyday
experience.....The way to break out of this viscous cycle is not to fight the 'irrational'
nationalist particularism but to invent forms of political practice that contain a
dimension of universality beyond Capital; the exemplary case today, of course, is the
ecological movement." And "significantly, Deleuze and Guattari express their new
vision in terms of 'eco-philosophy.'" (15)
Fortunately Georgia State University philosopher Mark B. Woodhouse wrote, after
building on these grand theorists, the presentation of what he calls energy monism-a
model of reality that would not be possible, "if we were not of the very essence of
music, i.e., rhythmic vibrations of energy."(16) His work is promoted by Tulane
University philosopher Michael E. Zimmerman, author of Contesting Earth's Future:
Radical ecology and postmodernity. (17) Zimmerman considers
Woodhouse's Paradigm Wars: Worldviews for a New Age to be "an indispensable
guide to new conceptual pathways that may lead to the radical and constructive
alterations needed to guide humankind in the 21st century." Ironically at about the
same time that Woodhouse's book came out, I also sent Zimmerman my manuscript,
"The Fundamental Force," which presents dramatically similar integrative work.
Zimmerman also positively reviewed what I have been recently calling sound-current
non-dualism-a label very much like energy monism. Fortunately, and most
significantly, the core concepts of this paradigm can be expressed through basic and
easily accessible music theory-a realization that's been entertained by not only
leading scientists but by the foundation of the Western Academy-Pythagoras.(18)
It's not surprising that energy monism can be easily understood "as a powerful root
metaphor and as a concrete model of explanation," according to Woodhouse. The
same resonating approach to reality is found in cultures across the globe, just as the
same basis for the sophisticated philosophy of Taoism is also found universally.(19)
The harmonic and rhythmic processes of yin and yang forces are rooted in a "deep
ecology of the body," according to the work of Taoist qi gong Master Mantak Chia.
Influential physicist and music analyst James Jeans dismissed the connection
between Taoism and Pythagoreanism in 1937 when he wrote, "the central
Pythagorean doctrine that 'all nature consists of harmony arising out of number'

provided of course the simplest of all answers, but only by building on an unproved
metaphysical basis. An answer on equally uncertain foundations was given by the
Chinese philosophers of the time of Confucius, who regarded the small numbers of
1,2,3,4 as the source of all perfection." Esteemed mind research Dr. Philip Regal
gives a more positive connection, "Taoism had its origins in shamanism, and much
like Pythagoreanism it attempted to develop a systematic 'scientific' aspect." The
brilliant philologist and historian Peter Kingsley in his groundbreaking work Ancient
Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition, well
summarized the bias that my approach openly confronts: "To suppose that a
magician is someone incapable of devising coherent theories about the structure and
working of the universe is in the last resort sheer prejudice, denied by all the
evidence."(20) The reconstructive science of Taoist qi gong and sound-current nondualism successfully address the western crises of self/other dualism and
subsequent reactionary irrationalism, thus enabling an ecological approach to reality
to be achieved. Woodhouse theorizes that the new paradigm, because of its cyclical
universal principles, is a foundation for a rising global culture which is meeting the
planetary crisis of survival.(21)
I contend that the theory of sound-current non-dualism demonstrates that true
science-based music theory and Taoist qi gong are formally equivalent. Both
originate from indigenous systems that are based on universal principles of turning
fundamental quantity into quality or natural law modeled by music theory. Music
theory formally explains why indigenous societies are not "pre-cognitive" or
"backwards" and formally explains how the western self/other repressive system
derives from closed one-dimensional western epistemology and is reflected in linear,
genocidal western development. Music theory provides the formal foundation for
radical ecology, chaos and complexity and, in so doing, successfully and formally
addresses the three main critiques of radical ecology: a) that it's irrational b) that it's
still materialistic and doesn't explain inner consciousness c) that it's another symbolic
hegemony or repressive big Other deterministic system. Music theory, by modeling
the principles of universal energy, explains how to achieve what qi gong master Dr.
Chow calls, "exceptional human functions" of a multi-dimensional sustainable nature.

SOUND-CURRENT NON-DUALISM

Music is derived from a very simple yet profound concept. From the definitive
book Music and Science by physicist Sir James Jeans: "The motion of any particle
[or pulse] will be a succession of waves...but in a vibration the restoring force
is exactly proportional to the distance the particle has moved from its position of
equilibrium."(22) This is known in physics as the law of Pythagoras. The implication
of this law is that "the motion of every particle will be of the same kind, whatever the
structure to which it belongs." (23) Consider the clock, a defining metaphor for the
western modern paradigm(24): "the period of vibration of a pendulum depends on its
length, and not on the extent of its swing; it is because of this that our pendulum
clock keeps time.... the period is independent of the extent and energy of the
swing...Without this property it may also be said that music, as we know it, would be
impossible."(25) The simple motion of regular waves enables time to be ordered and
the plucked string (a.k.a. the first note, the fundamental, the pulse, or the natural free
vibration of the string) when viewed on an oscilloscope, is seen as an empty circle,
like the clock face.(26)
This empty circle, the fundamental, notes music analyst Beaulieu, is also the same
symbol of the Wu Chi, the source for all reality in Taoism.(27) Taoist qi gong Master
Mantak Chia states,
Through observing nature and the effects of energy within the human body,
the ancient Taoists were able to trace universal energy back to its point of
origin. Having developed an empirical approach with which to contact this
source of observable phenomena, they established the concept of the
primordial void as the point of departure for all creation. This void was given
the name Wu Chi. It is depicted as an empty circle in traditional Taoist art
because it is beyond human description."(28) Wu Chi is literally the void or
nothingness from which all arises. Although Wu Chi, the source of the way of
the Tao, cannot be directly referred to with words, music, profoundly, does
measure the nothingness itself, as we'll see next.(29)

By the same law of Pythagoras, the free vibrations, or naturally harmonious relations
to the fundamental, are all "multiples of the same number."(30) The next natural
multiple or harmonic is the octave, the ratio 1:2, or as its called in the Greek source,
the Diapason, meaning "through all" or "through the whole."(31) The scientific basis
for proving harmony of the Diapason (that Hemholtz theory built from the law of
Pythagoras) is at the next order of information, the ratio of ratios or the relation of the
multiples of the ratios. Each multiple has its own set of multiples in an infinite pattern
of dynamics.(32) But for the Diapason, or the first node (where the string is touched
in the center), the beats, as the physicists call the resultant sound of the second
order, equal zero or nothingness itself. Normally the resulting difference between the
multiples of the ratios creates a pulsating sound or beat. Jeans writes, "on this theory
[Helmholtz theory of beats] the octave becomes the most perfect of all concords,
since none of the harmonics can possibly beat worse than when one note is sounded
alone." He adds "the unpleasantness [beats] remains until the octave of
frequency...is reached, at which point [the beats] suddenly disappears."(33)
Since music theory is not considered a model to describe reality by the corporatestate western institutions then the great cosmological magnitude of Hemholtz's beat
analysis is left systematically marginalized in dominant society. By approaching

rhythmic vibrations of energy as the new physics does, the implications of the
Diapason is that the source of reality can now be understood easily (i.e. how
something comes from nothing). As the most successful music theorist and
sympathetic vibrations physicist, John Keely, put it:
There would be no life, and therefore no action in aggregated matter, had the
latent negative force [the nothingness measured by music theory] been left
out...The evolution of power from the latent condition...proves the 'connection
link' between celestial and terrestrial, the infinite and the finite.(34)

Keely's connecting link refers also to the second important implication of the law of
harmony, or beats, which is that the difference between orders of information can be
measured. The problem of clarifying the difference between classes of information is
a perennial quagmire to science and true music theory provides the answer.(35) In
Taoist qi gong these different levels of information are crucial to the concept of
nothingness as the source of creation. The node is the relative void, where string
displacement equals zero, and the zero of the beats, signifying pure harmony and
creation, is the absolute void. The brilliant and profound text Taoist Yoga states:
Seeing the void as not empty is right and seeing the void as empty is wrong
[as the West does], for failure to return to the (tsu ch'iao) centre (which is not
empty) prevents the light of vitality from manifesting...When spirit and vitality
return to this cavity, spiritual vitality will soar up to form a circle (of light) which
is not void. Voidness which does not radiate is relative but voidness which
radiates is absolute. Absolute voidness is not empty like relative
voidness.(36)

This concept has been regained in the new paradigm work of new physics. Berendt
cites physicist Charon, noting,
Both the electron and the black hole [i.e. extremely dense matter or zero
beats] are characterized by totally curved space and by curved time. This
means that the time of electrons and of black holes is opposite to our
'material' time, which moves on a straight line from past to present to future.
This, in turn, may imply that if entropy grows in the 'material' world, then in the
world of electrons (and black holes) precisely the opposite force might grow,
the force of negentropy.(37)

The Diapason, first overtone, or node, as the halfway spot on the vibrating string, is,
Beaulieu points out, equivalent to the complimentary halves of the Tai Chi symbol
from the Wu Chi. Tai Chi, just as with the Diapason, is the basis for all harmony.
Music theorist Berendt comments, "the octave, the proportion 1:2, which has always
been used to signify the polarity of the world: yang and yin, male and female, heaven
and earth, etc."(38)
The source of nothingness from which the totality of difference arises enables further
evaluation of the universal laws of harmony. To reiterate, the node, the place were
the string is touched or first measured, is a relation of the natural free vibrations and,
"a touch will kill all the vibrations except those for which the point of contacts is a
node."(39) The points at which the displacement of the string is zero are the nodes or
the free vibration multiples of the fundamental. By inference the closer the multiple or
ratio of string parts is to the beats of zero or the absolute void (the source of the

harmony through all) the more consonant the interval of the scale. Thus, based on
the Hemholtz law of harmony, at the interval of a fourth and a fifth (ratios 4:3 and 3:2)
beats similar to the octave nearly disappear (for the octave again the beats are
zero).(40) These two intervals are the next natural multiples to the fundamental: "the
fourth and fifth work together as yin and yang...The fifth, and the fourth are the basis
for the 1-4-5 chordal progressions found throughout music of all cultures," states
Bealieau.(41)
Just to emphasize this point, although music is fiercely defended as an expression of
free association and subjective pluralism (which I completely support), at this
fundamental level, true music theory gives proof to universal cultural values from the
harmonic or natural law of energy based on the law of Pythagoras-in fact, as we'll
soon see in detail, it also exposes the repressed one-dimensional symbolic value
judgments (that reflect corporate-state repression and fascism): Jeans remarks,
vast numbers of tribes [sic.] and peoples...developed music independently
and in the most varied surroundings...the principles which guided them-to
choose pleasant noises rather than unpleasant, consonances rather than
dissonances...they were led to much the same result...with a unanimity which
is remarkable...all have at least scales which are built on the same
principle....The octave, the simplest and most perfect consonance of all, must
have been discovered at a very early stage; it is fundamental in the music of
all peoples...(42)

The law of Pythagoras, an example of the inverse-square law so fundamental to

science, can also be approached geometrically through another Pythagorean law,
the law of growth-fundamental to chaos and complexity or open systems science, as
we'll also see. It's represented by the 4:3 or 3:2 proportioned five-pointed star,
"thought to have been a sign of the Pythagorean brotherhood," comments Edward
Rothstein, music critic for The New York Times. (43) The profound simple principle is
thus: "As the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the lesser."
Rothstein notes that the power of the principle is "to contain itself within itself in the
simplest possible fashion." (called the golden mean, the golden section or the Divine
Proportion) Rothstein, also a mathematician, explains that the law of growth can be
stated as "each number being the sum of the two previous numbers."(44) Or as the
music analyst Erno Lendvai puts it: "If every branch of a tree, in one year shoots a
new branch, and these new branches double after two years, the number of the
branches shows the following yearly increase: 2, 3, 5, 8, 21, 34." (also known as the
Fibonacci number series).(45) The mathematical analysis Spirals: From Theodorus
to Chaos by Phillip J. Davis (1993) attempts to demystify the law by giving it further
credence at the same time:
It simply grows its stalks or florets in succession around the apex of the stem
so that each fits the gaps of the others. The plant is not in love with the
Fibonacci series; it does not even count its stalks; it just puts out stalks were
they will have the most room. All the beauty and all the mathematics are a
natural by-product of a simple system of growth interacting with its spatial
environment.(46)

This law of growth has been so important to human civilization that Egyptian, Mayan,
Asian, Greek, Gothic, Renaissance and modern architecture and art have all been
created by its precise measurements.(47)

The growth pattern can be applied to music analysis in at least three manners. The
ratios can be attributed to the number series (i.e. 1:1, 1:2, 3:2, 5: 3, 8:5, 21:13 equals
the intervals of unison, octave, perfect fifth, major sixth, minor sixth and minor sixth
again).(48) Dover publications, known for their prestigious music texts, published the
book The Divine Proportion that investigates how the ratio of the major sixth and the
major third approximate the golden mean proportion. Lendvai applies the number
series to the intervals with each number represented each step of the scale (i.e.
1=minor second, 2=major second, 3=minor third, 5=perfect fourth and 8=minor
sixth).(49)
What are the implications of this further analysis derived from Pythagoras? The spiral
of the law of growth is fundamental to yin/yang transformations and the creation of
form itself, through the principles of music theory, as will be demonstrated. Taoist qi
gong Master Mantak Chia states,
From whirlpools, tornadoes, and the spiraling electrons of our cells to the
spiraling formations of galaxies and nebular, nature moves in spirals. Spirals
initiate vortex-like fields of energy that gather, draw in, and condense other
energies. Just as nature uses spirals throughout the universe, we can use
them to improve the functions of our bodies through meditation.(50)

At this point we can use music theory to examine the basic processes of energy that
derive from the harmonics resonance spirals of yin/yang dynamics based in the void.
We've now deduced, from the void itself, the formation of the first fundamental free
vibrations, or natural harmonics, that govern all of reality or rhythmic vibrations of
energy. Based on the law of harmony (the second level of the law of Pythagoras) the
major sixth (or inversely the minor third) is the next overtone in the creation of the
musical scale. From this next basic harmonic we achieve the pentatonic scale and
the ability to resolve the first basic structure of psychological and spiritual completion,
as the Gestalt or cognitive laws of psychology applied by music analyst Leonard
Meyer will show. Jeans states, "the pentatonic scale in which a considerable amount
of Chinese and ancient Scottish music is written, as well as much of the music of the
primitive peoples [sic.] in Southern Asia, East Africa and elsewhere."(51) Or as the
New Harvard Dictionary states, "scales of this type [pentatony], of which there are
many, are widely distributed geographically and historically."(52)
Although the specific five notes may change, they can be derived from the infinite
complexities of the fundamental rhythmic processes of energy that resolve the
musical scale. The principles of energy dynamics derived from the basic scale
enable a multi-dimensional matrix of reality (i.e. resonance and opposite phase
transformations described in advanced science via synthesize analysis of the Fourier
wave theorem).(53) Or as the equivalent of Taoist qi gong describes, "each of the
Five processes of energy depends on the interactions of Yin and Yang emanating
from the primordial void."(54) These energy processes, through an experiential
science of universal Truth and Harmony, have been correlated by Taoist qi gong
Master Mantak Chia as the following: 1) Energy rising: South, Fire, Heart, virtue of
love, joy, happiness, gratitude, small intestine, Summer, taste: bitter, color: red,
negative emotions: impatience, arrogance, hastiness, cruelty, violence, Mars, mantra
of "Hawwwww." 2) Energy sinking: North, Water, kidney, bladder, virtue of
gentleness, generosity, alert stillness, Winter, taste: salty, color: black or dark blue,
negative emotion: fear, Mercury, mantra of "Woooooo." 3) Energy expanding: East,
Wood, liver/gallbladder, virtue of kindness, forgiveness, Spring, taste: sour, color:
green, negative emotions: anger, aggression, Jupiter, mantra of "Shhhhhh."

4) Energy solidifying: West, Metal, lungs, large intestine, virtue of courage,

righteousness, appropriateness, Autumn, taste: pungent, color: white, negative
emotions: sadness. Venus, mantra of "Ssssssss." 5) Energy stable: Center, Earth,
spleen, pancreas, stomach, virtue of openness, fairness, justice, Indian Summer,
taste: neutral, color: yellow, negative emotions: worry, sympathy, pity, Saturn, mantra
of "WHOoooooo."(55)
The most important implication of the five forces, as derived from the completed
pentatony of the basic rhythms of energy, is the connection not only of energy,
nature, body and mind but, the connection between inner (consciousness) and outer
reality. This point needs to be further solidified since the implications of universal
laws of thought are again easily dismissed as repressive hegemonic ideology. Meyer
is a neo-formalist and, like film analysts Bordwell and Thompson, uses psychological
laws of gestalt science to emphasize the learned and conventional norms that need
to be contextualized throughout different individuals and cultures. The crucial point
not to be lost is that these infinite varieties stem from basic universal principles.(56)
As the Gestalt analysts state there are "natural modes of expectation" with good
defined as regularity, symmetry, simplicity, and completion, otherwise known as the
law of Prgnamz. Meyer emphasizes that "violation of the law of completion, for
example, almost always involves disturbances in the factor of good continuation...a
dissonance which might be unpleasant when heard in isolation may be beautiful
within a piece of music where its relationships to past events and impending
resolutions is understandable."(57)
The processes of Gestalt neo-formalist analysis (Prgnamz--proximity and similarity;
law of Return or the need for cyclic formal structures; law of saturation; law of
completion and law of continuity) reflect the five process of energy described by Chia
(i.e. solidifying, expanding, sinking, rising, stable). But again, crucial to the
application of Gestalt analysis in music theory is that--just like the law of Pythagoras
expresses fundamental relations for music, "the most important pattern-forming
parameter [are] pitch and duration." As Meyer clarifies, in a description of the basic
rhythmic vibrations of energy, "relaxation and quiescence...is associated with the
decline in tension which is effected when pitches are lower-when a progression
descends at its close."(58)
From the resolution of the scale or the harmonic relaxation at the fundamental--the
void of infinite potential is accessed--the secret for supreme harmony where the unity
of infinite reality is experienced. This connection of all multidimensional reality has
been described by the new physics (i.e. the superstring theory) in the same manner
as Nick Herbert explains the secret of quantum theory-"using ordinary waves in
unusual ways."(59) The means of quantum mechanics are still based in the linear
closed systems of one-dimensional western epistemology. Subsequently the final
message of physicist Margaret Wertheim'sPythagoras' Trousers: God, Physics and
the Gender Wars is to seriously reconsider the mega-astrophysics projects that put
the future of the planet directly at risk, i.e. the superconducting supercollider. Instead
she urges that we ground physics in an ethically balanced framework--reflecting the
original foundation of energy wisdom.(60) Fortunately, with the principles of
resonance, the goal of unifying reality can be accomplished by means of humans
without any outside tools.(61) In reflection of the five processes of energy, physicist
K.C. Cole writes, after analyzing the research of Linear Accelerator Centers,
"resonance may provide a good analogy for learning...Resonance, in other words,
determines what we see, and what's reflected; what goes right through, what gets
stuck, and what sinks in....resonance can make things seem to appear out of
nowhere."(62)

Even though fully existing in the void is the ultimate example of the principles of
resonance, Pythagoras could also heal "without touch" just as Taoist qi gong (vital
energy work) Masters are well-documented at doing today.(63) Everyday in China
more people then the whole population of the U.S. practice qi gong. Ironically,
because of China's Marxist scientific materialism, there has been a great research
effort to scientifically examine the workings of qi gong-in 1998 the Chinese
Government officially approved eleven different styles of qi gong based on the
immense scientific evidence supporting their validity. China has several institutes that
use high technology to research qi gong and there's even a qi gong university in
Beijing which produces high-level "healers without touch." There are several qi gong
masters that either live in the U.S. or have traveled here to conduct double-blind
experiments demonstrating qi gong at prestigious universities and research
institutes. Master Chunyi Lin who teaches Spring Forest Qi Gong in Minnesota has
been documented to heal cancer, AIDS, Parkinson's disease and he has even
changed the structure of bones.(64) Master Dr. Yan Xin, considered China's leading
qi gong practitioner, has conducted several experiments where he's actually slowed
down the decay rate of nuclear particles from a great distance as well-considered an
impossibility by western science.(65) Master Effie P. Chow, based in the U.S., has
also been a documented healer of cancer, cerebal palsy, etc. The same type of
multi-dimensional resonance healing is found around the world. Obviously there are
charlatans as well as those who abuse the power of spiritual energy for manipulation
and harm, in the end causing damage to themselves as well, because of the
reciprocal principle (the law of Pythagoras) of universal energy. If Taoist qi gong is
practiced accurately than it can only be used for good. Why is that? Because reality
itself is, as we have shown, inherently structured as harmony and works by
resonance as Dr. Yan Xin has explained-unfortunately the dominant and inaccurate
epistemology of the west does not reflect this fundamental wisdom.(66)
By the principle of the synthesizer theorem, Fourier's wave analysis, all waves can
be transposed from one level of information to the next, because of their inherent
harmonic resonance based in the void, as described by the law of Pythagoras. We've
already modeled this transformation with the difference between ratios and beats (or
ratios of ratios). The way this principle is explained in basic music theory also
inversely reflects how deeply and fundamentally the closed epistemology of the West
is an inaccurate portrayal of the multi-dimensions of information, consciousness and
reality. Again music analyst and physicist Jeans states:
Thus, for perfect concord, each step of one 'hour' on the clock face [the cycle
of harmonics] would increase the frequency by a factor of 1.5 (3:2 or fifth) [the
natural free multiples] and twelve such steps would increase it by a factor of
(1.5) to the twelfth, of which the value is 129.75...the frequency of this last C
[the true Diapason] is only 128 times that of our starting-point, so that our
twelve steps slightly overshoot the mark.(67)

Because Pythagoras limited his mathematical analysis to ratios, as "the severity of

Greek taste resulted in melodies being restricted to a compass of an octave," the
'comma of Pythagoras,' or "overshoot" was created. Trying to squeeze the comma of
Pythagoras into a one-dimensional closed symbolic system also created an
inaccurate, one-dimensional symbolic portrayal of reality. The Equal Temperament
Scale, the Just Scale, the Mean-Tone Scale are all examples of trying to compensate
for the overshoot that Jeans describe, by maintaining closed systems of increasing
abstraction based on the comma of Pythagoras.(68) In response to this fundamental
problem, the very influential contemporary composer Harry Partch built a new toning
system that reflects music as an accurate model of reality. His system is called the

"tonality diamond" and is identical to the Pythagorean Lambdoma or matrix of

harmonic resonance.(69) Contemporary composer Sun Ra also conveyed an
accurate multi-dimensional model of music with it's logical cultural consequences. As
he states,
The music is not part of this planet in a sense that the spirit of it is about
happiness. Most musicians play earth things, about what they know, but I
found out that they are mostly unhappy and frustrated and that creeps over
into their music.... I'm dealing with pure sounds... People have a lot more of
the UNKNOWN than the known in their minds.... Prepare for the journey!
...you will step out of the pages of the Blinding Blend of the Book, and gaze
astounded at the ENDLESS SPACE of the COSMO-VOID.(70)

The comma of Pythagoras thus, if not repressed to one symbolic dimension, explains
how resonance works to transform energy from one cycle or level of information, via
the spiral, to another. Jeans states, "the true clock-face extends to infinity in both
directions." (71) (my emphasis) As I stated the implications of this symbolic onedimensional error are immense indeed and below I will examine the origins of that
western error at greater length. Just as importantly though, in the face of today's
ecological and social crisis, is the inverse implication of spiral infinite reality being
accessible through the use of sound-current or as Taoists call it, vital energy.
The vowel mantras are the linguistic and psycho-spiritual connection between
rhythmic vibrations of energy and symbolic language. Martin Buber, a strong
influence for M.I.T. professor Noam Chomsky and his brilliant structural analysis of
symbols and society, made the following remarks:
The word is an abyss through which the speaker strides. One should speak
words as if the heavens were opened in them...He who knows the secret
melody that bears the inner into the outer, who knows the holy song that
merges the lonely, shy letters into the singing of the spheres, he is full of the
power of God.(72)
Music analyst Berendt comments, "The science of linguistics reveals that the
Christian Amen gradually grew from the primordial mantra OM."(73) Sound therapist
Jonathan Goldman remarks, "We can actually feel different parts of our body vibrate
with sound. For those who have had no experience working with the subtle body
[vital energy or chi], this physical resonance makes it easier for them to accept the
possibility of resonating subtle energy as well...."(74)
In fact vital energy or qi gong can also be translated as "breath work" and by using
resonance of the negative ions and oxygen from air, a spiral of energy is created
which resonates with fundamental frequencies that structure the very nature of
matter and time. Biologist Rupert Sheldrake calls this process of creation through
resonance, "morphogenesis" from "morphic" (form) "fields."(75) The same generative
process can be shown in a more basic manner again with simple music. Dr. Hans
Jenny discovered that by placing various mediums on a steel plate with a crystal
sound oscillator attached to the bottom, the complex biological forms on the plate are
examples of sound nodes organizing matter, called cymatics.(76) Taoist qi gong
Master Mantak Chia explains, "By resonance, this spinning ball [of chi], helps
stimulate the flow of the orbit [or the main energy channel of the body]."(77)
The term sound-current non-dualism is inspired by an ancient meditation practice
called the Quan Yin Method literally translated as "sound-current." Although the
Quan Yin Method is practiced freely the main proponent of it is Master Suma Ching

Hai. The history of her initiation may seem unbelievable to westerners but,
impressively, she was also the recipient of the 1994 World Spiritual Leadership
Award that was presented by the Governors of six States in the United States (viz.,
Illinois, Iowa,Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota). Her principles are the
same as those of Pythagoras and worth quoting at length:
In the Surangama Sutra, Sakyamuni Buddha said that the Quan Yin Method
was the highest of all methods. However none of Her teachers knew it. [Suma
Ching Hai] traveled and searched everywhere and finally, after many years,
found a Himalayan Master who initiated Her into the Quan Yin Method and
gave Her the Divine Transmission that She had sought for so many
years....That Master was the great Master Khuda Ji, who lived in seclusion
deep in the Himalayas. Master Khuda Ji was four hundred and fifty years old
when He initiated The Supreme Master Ching Hai into the ancient art of
meditation on the heavenly Sound and divine Light. He had remained
patiently in His Himalayan abode waiting for Her. She would be His first and
only disciple. Although, She had practiced this form of meditation before,
Master Khuda Ji was to impart to Her the ultimate spiritual transmission that
is the essence of Initiation. Only the few great Masters, who have attained the
Ultimate, can perform Initiation....After a brief period of Quan Yin practice,
She became fully enlightened and continued practicing and improving Her
understanding. She remained in retreat in the Himalayas for some time,
continuing Her daily practice....This primal Vibration or Sound is in its nature
transcendental and therefore perceived in silence. Jesus' disciples called it
the 'Holy Spirit' or the 'Word' (which is from the Greek word 'Logos,' meaning
sound). 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.' After Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment, He spoke
of this Sound too, calling it the 'drum of immortality'. Krishna equated Himself
with the 'sound in ether'. Mohammed perceived this Sound in the cave at
Gare-Hira when He had a vision of the archangel Gabriel, and Lao Tzu
described the Tao as the 'Great Tone'.... THERE ARE TWO KINDS of sound:
the worldly sound, and the supra-worldly sound. The worldly sound is very
important to our sensual and mental comfort, but the supra-worldly sound
draws us back to God. WITH OUR POOR worldly language, every time I
would like to speak about this great treasure within us, I feel so ashamed of
doing such a poor job. But I have somehow to try to convey a part of this
great wisdom so that you may feel interested, and find it out for yourself, and
then you will know it for yourself without any language.(78)

The holy advaita (or Indian non-dualist) sage Ramana Marashi makes a similar
point:
To a question by a visitor which seemed to hint that Realised Souls lived only
for themselves, 'Why does not Bhagavan go about and preach the Truth to
the people at large?' Maharshi replied: 'How do you know I am not doing it?
Does preaching consist in mounting a platform and haranguing the people
around? Preaching is simple communication of Knowledge; it can be really
done in Silence only. What do you think of a man who listens to a sermon for
an hour and does away without having been impressed by it so as to change
his life? Compare him with another, who sits in a holy presence and goes
away after some time with his outlook on life totally changed. Which is the
better: to preach loudly without effect or to sit silently sending out Inner
Force?
Again, how does speech arise? There is abstract knowledge, whence arises

the ego, which in turn gives rise to thought and the thought to words. So the
word is the great-grandson of the original Source. If the word can produce
effect, judge for yourself, how much more powerful must be preaching
through Silence.(79)

Through an extensive process grounded in the infinite void that harmonizes and
purifies the energy of body, soul and spirit, ultimately a person becomes one again
with the infinite void via the great monochord model of Pythagoras and the
systematic principles of Taoist qi gong -harmonic principles that are universal. Being
initiated by someone who is already successful at this is of course very helpful. In the
development of enlightenment and immortality, Taoist qi gong Mantak Chia refers to
new paradigm systems theory to describe the conserving, recycling, and
transforming of negative emotions, the main source of energy blockages, into
positive emotions-just like a healthy ecosystem or any healthy open system should
operate-including human societies. Through resonance and harmonization of the
rhythmic patterns of energy, the practitioner, as Chia describes, strives toward
"combining all the virtues into the energy of compassion, the ultimate virtue and a
necessary attribute for our spiritual being."(80) Chaos systems theorist Ilya Prigogine
states, "there is a need for new relations between man and nature and between man
and man. We can no longer accept the old a priori distinction between scientific and
ethical values."(81) In order to develop the scientifically accurate open systems
approach to reality we need to first examine the roots of today's western crisis.
MUSIC THEORY-THE LOST LOGOS OF THE WEST
The founder of systems theory for social science Gregory Bateson remarked:
"Pythagoras and Plato knew that pattern was fundamental to all mind and ideation.
But this wisdom was thrust away and lost in the midst of the supposedly
indescribable mystery called 'mind.'"(82) As we've shown above, through gestalt
cognitive theory, there is a direct connection by mind and the basic patterns of
rhythmic energy vibrations. This connection though was fuddled and has been the
fundamental root problem of the extreme global crisis induced by western linear
development that mirrors western linear thought. Another facet of this point is that
rhythmic vibrations of energy do not give primacy to material existence over
consciousness as has been a mistaken critique of radical ecology open systems
theory. Meyer states, "the ultimate foundation of rhythm is to be found in mental
activity." Even though, "the more order and regularity the mind is able to impose
upon the stimuli presented to it by the senses; the more likely it is that motor
behavior does play an important part in facilitating and enforcing the musical
experience."(83) Taoist qi gong makes the same point at a deeper level: "When
beginning to cultivate (essential) nature [enlightenment] and (eternal) life [immortality]
it is necessary first to develop nature....This is called fixing spirit in its original cavity
which should be where (essential) nature is cultivated and the root from which
(eternal) life emerges. "(84)
From this primacy of energy as consciousness and virtue, we can begin to analyze
the history of how the "wisdom was thrust away" in the West as Bateson describes.
Starting with the foundation of music theory for western analysis Bateson comments:
This discovery hit the Pythagoreans squarely between the eyes and became
a central secret (but why secret?), an esoteric tenet of their faith. Their
religion had been founded on the discontinuity of the series of musical
harmonics--the demonstration that discontinuity was indeed real and was
firmly founded upon rigorous deduction. And now they faced an impossibility
proof. [The Pythagorean Theorem] Deduction had said no. As I read the

story, from then on it was inevitable to 'believe,' to 'see' and 'know' that a
contradiction among the higher generalizations will always lead to mental
chaos. From this point on, the idea of heresy, the notion that to be wrong in
Epistemology could be lethal, was inevitable. All this sweat and tears-and
even blood-was to be shed on quite abstract propositions whose Truth
seemed to lie, in some sense, outside the human mind.(85)

Rothstein makes the same point, "When they [the Greeks] discovered that numbers
exist which are neither integers nor ratios of integers-numbers which confounded all
their notions of harmony and rationality-they were so horrified that the discovery was
kept secret. Alogon- the unutterable-these numbers were called..."(86)
To begin to understand the direct translation from the hidden secret of repressed
one-dimensional music-math analysis and the development of inaccurate and
destructive linear western logic and epistemology we can examine it's reflection
directly in the structure of the Western language. Music analyst Berendt made this
rare connection so it's worth quoting him at length as well:
For a long time Western rationalists smiled at the notion that the sound of a
single word [a vowel mantra], a single syllable should have a formative,
shaping, creative power.....Aristotelian logic is based on the law of identity (A
equals A), the law of contradiction (A cannot be equal to non-A) and on the
law of the excluded third (A cannot be equal to A as well as to non-A). Beside
it stands (and has stood since ancient times) what is known as paradoxical
logic; which postulates that A and non-A can both be predicates of X....Our
Western concept of logic is strongly conditioned by Western language. It
cannot be an accident that Aristotelian logic came into being in classical
Greece, in whose language the separation of subject and object, common to
all Western languages, found its first clear expression and was immediately
realized, in a magnificent graphic manner that was never duplicated by
subsequent systems....The symbol of the Western way of speaking and of
western logic is the straight line...Argument and discourse in our Western way
of speaking and thinking can be symbolized by two intersecting lines drawn
with arrows at their ends, one pointing to the left and the other one pointing to
the right.... I feel that this excursion in to 'logics' is necessary in light of what
we have said about...mantras and their effects.(87)

Social systems theory analyst Bateson makes the same point, "logic cannot model
causal systems-paradox is generated when time is ignored....apart from language,
there are no named classes and no-subject-predicate relations."(88) Berendt points
out the difference in Asian languages from western language and the cultural analyst
Nol Burch has examined the subsequent different cultural interpretations of
reality.(89) Similarly the translator of ancient Greek, philosopher and mathematician
Robert Schimdt, has shown that western logos was derived out of a broader
language system of phasis--which is the means by which objects spoke to the
Greeks. Phasis is a multiple variant language system, just as the Plato dialogues
are--and they have not been correctly translated. Schimdt contends that logos is an
incorrect simplification of phasis and that the western worldview has structural errors
due to its dependency on logos.(90)
Schimdt's position mirrors the lucid analysis of Peter Kingsley in Ancient Philosophy,

Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition, worth quoting at

length:
...from the point of view of the history of philosophy we are presented with a
very different picture of prePlatonic Pythagoreans from the usual stereotype
of them as impractical dreamers, their minds fogged and obsessed with
number mysticism, who had no 'clear idea of the value of empirical research'
because all that interested them was discovering metaphysical
principles....Pythagoreans could be far more practical than is usually
supposed, sometimes deadly practical. For Plato this emphasis on practicality
remained a powerful ideal; and yet, ideals apart, practically speaking it went
against the grain of his temperament, his abilities, and against the conditions
of the times in which he lived. With him and Aristotle the philosophical life as
an integrated combination of practice and perception fell apart at the seams,
and another ideal came to predominate instead: 'a new type of man, the
unworldly and withdrawn student and scholar'. Certainly there had been
partial precedents in the ancient Greek world for this new ideal. But it was
only with Plato and Aristotle that it received its most decisive turn, so as to
become the defining characteristic of what was to prove the most enduring
Athenian contribution to intellectual history: instead of the love of wisdom,
philosophy turned into the love of talking and arguing about the love of
wisdom.(91)

Like Berendt and Bateson, Rothstein has recognized that both math and music follow
the ancient dialectical reasoning that he traces to the Pythagorean-based work of
Plato. He quotes Socrates, "argument itself grasps with the power of dialectic" and
then follows, "the inner life of the arts is in the world of Forms, in the processes of
dialectic and its argument by metaphor."(92) Bateson built his social systems
analysis, like the phasis of ancient Greek, around the dialectical syllogism of
metaphor-- "Grass dies; Men die; Men are grass" in response to the western logical
paradox "Epimenides was a Cretan who said, 'Cretans always lie'". Bateson states
in Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity that "syllogisms in grass must be dominant
mode of communicating interconnection of ideas...." (93)
In response to the deep epistemological error in the West, like Bateson's
Pythagorean social systems theory, the foundation of radical ecology chaos and
complexity, or open systems theory, is also based from true music theory. As Capra
describes in The Web of Life
In the 1950s scientists began to actually build models of such binary
networks, including some with little lamps flickering on and off at the nodes.
To their great amazement they discovered that after a short time of random
flickering, some ordered patterns would energy in most networks. They would
see waves of flickering pass through the network, or they would observe
repeated cycles. Even though the initial state of the network was chosen at
random, after a while those ordered patterns would emerge spontaneously,
and it was that spontaneous emergence of order that became known as 'selforganization.'(94)

From the seemingly random network of nodes, ordered patterns create harmonic
structures of self-organization (i.e. negentropy or cymatics). The infamous "butterfly
effect" of chaos and complexity, where small changes have wide-spread systemic
build-up, is simply a change in the fundamental node of the multi-dimensional pattern

of harmonic oscillations. The Cartesian phase-space dimensions of the musically and

linguistically inaccurate closed clock-pendulum are now, Capra states, represented
by, "a curve spiraling inward toward the center" (i.e. an "attractor"-the Pythagorean
law of growth) or a more complex multi-dimensional system where the fundamental
is thus called a "strange attractor." The predictions of chaos theory are no longer
reductionist. Capra remarks, "The new mathematics thus represents a shift from
quantity to quality that is characteristic of systems thinking in general....All
trajectories starting within a certain region of phase space will lead sooner or later to
the same attractor...The result is a dynamical picture of the entire system, called the
'phase portrait.'"(95) Complex structures of nature are modeled by chaos and
complexity with fractals being a prominent chaotic and complex example. Martin
Gardner describes the Pythagorean foundation behind fractals with "scaling noise"
in Fractal music, Hypercards and More: "If you play a recording of such a sound at a
different speed, you have only to adjust the volume to make it sound exactly as
before. By adjusting the spectral density we obtain an auto correlation of zero-in
other words the same ratio that expands."(96)
Even with new paradigm science revealing this ancient simple foundation, the
western religion of linear technology and its inaccurate one-dimensional symbolic
reification, is just as strong in the community of public intellectuals or academics
focused on structural change and exposing dominant ideologies. For instance, while
grand theorist Slavoj Zizek has done a brilliant job clarifying dialectic thinking and
crucially applying it to cultural analysis via Lacan's psychoanalysis, he devoted a
large part of a recent book to attacking rhythmic vibrations of energy. It's not that
Zizek's theory is incorrect but only that he refuses to systematically take into account
dialectic analysis beyond that of Hegel and Lacan-or beyond the limits of language
as represented by the Freudian "primordially repressed."(97) (see below for further
description of primordially repressed) Zizek writes, "Hegel's point is not a new
version of the yin/yang balance, but its exact opposite: 'truth' resides in the excess of
exaggeration as such."(98) What is missing from Zizek's understanding of Taoist qi
gong is that the disease is considered the teacher for the cure, just as Zizek states,
"the wound is healed by the spear that smote it." In other words, the dialectical
process, as expressed through music theory and Taoist qi gong, uses resonancethe exaggerated 'comma of Pythagoras'--to achieve a new synthesis or a new form.
Zizek does recognize the meaning of music as "the pre-ontological texture of
relations" when he refers to Plato's "chora" (i.e. chorus) from the Pythagorean
dialogue Timaeus--calling it "a kind of matrix-receptacle of all determinate forms,
governed by its own contingent rules."(99) Zizek also impressively traces the history
of the ego or the Subject as corresponded with the development of opera. The end of
opera coincides with the beginning of modernism and the hysterical subject as the
object of psychoanalysis.(100) In a chapter on music Zizek writes:
What is music at its most elementary? An act of supplication: a call to a figure
of the big Other (beloved Lady, King, God...) to respond, not as the symbolic
big Other, but in the real of his or her being (breaking his own rules by
showing mercy; conferring her contingent love on us...). Music is thus an
attempt to provoke the 'answer of the Real': to give rise in the Other to the
'miracle' of which Lacan speaks apropos of love, the miracle of the Other
stretching his or her hand out to me. The historical changes in the status of
'big Other' (grosso modo, in what Hegel referred to as 'objective Spirit') thus
directly concern music - perhaps, musical modernity designates the moment
when music renounces the endeavour to provoke the answer of the
Other.(101)

One of the main cultural criticisms of Zizek is that the dialectical process of Hegel
has been misunderstood as a new Absolute Subject thus, as Berendt also points out,
causing materialistic Marxism to be a distorted example of dialectical thought.
Currently Zizek has pinpointed new age thinking as also being representative of a
new misguided Absolute Subject through the goal of a new balanced order of
harmonious nature or "New Age Consciousness: the balanced circuit of
Nature."(102) A prominent analysis of qi gong provides an interpretation of Hegel
very similar to Zizek and ironically distinguishes the interpretation from the common
incorrect understanding of Hegel that Zizek has worked so hard to clarify:
The term synthesis in this context does not refer to polar opposites merging
into a higher unity so as to be separately indistinguishable. (This form of
synthesis was one of the goals of the dialectical process identified by the
philosopher G.W. Hegel in his development of the Absolute). The method
may be simply described as positing something as a thesis, then realizing
that it can only be truly defined by taking other aspects or its opposite into
account (antithesis), and finally arriving at the explicit recognition that the
thesis and antithesis are related on a higher level of objective truth:
synthesis). To understand ongoing process, which Chinese philosophy favors
in the spirit of synthesis, we might consider the psychological concept of
integration.(103)

The true dialectical process, for which Zizek expends considerable energy to
describe through philosophy, can also be approached through music theory in a
manner that very specifically and simply clarifies the correct interpretation that has
been the focus of his very serious investigation. As Zizek states, in dialectics first
there is a thesis then an antithesis and as each is taken to their extreme logical
conclusions, like Socrates would do, both points negate each other by their mutual
absurdity (called the dialectical reversal after the unity of opposites). Then that
negation is affirmed as a new common ground that both points now hold in common.
This last formal step is like naming or recognizing the first negation and is called
double negation or determinate reflection. The point not recognized in the dominant
one-dimensional interpretation of dialectics is that it's "the very lack [void] they have
in common" which enables a new synthesis. As Zizek writes, "Being reveals itself as
Nothing at the very moment we try to grasp it in its pureness," and in reference to
Hegel, "the subject is precisely that which is not substance." Zizek then states that
the dialectic process is the same "nodal" problem again and again. (104)
Taking Zizek quite literally is more appropriate then he may ever realize for it is
exactly the nodes of music theory, by modeling different orders of information, that so
precisely describe the dialectical process. The ratios of the fourth and the fifth are
inverse opposites of the octave overtone, in other words, both ratios cause a pull to
resolve at the fundamental (and octave). When the ratios are explored at depth, the
relation of their overtones are in dissonance. As Rothstein describes, "These two
consonant tones (fifth and fundamental) have strongly dissonant overtones...[and]
are the poles of tonal musical drama."(105) It's this paradox of the poles that defines
the description of thesis and antithesis in the dialectics of music theory. Erno Lendvai
states,
By taking a V-I cadence the essential notes in the five chord bear an equal
tritonic relationship according to their overtones. These essential notes are
what cause the strong feeling to I. By inverting these notes the same tritone

relationship is formed...The tritones' overtones act as subdominants [fourths]

and as dominants [fifths] at the same time. These two positions neutralize
and again, the tritone's relationship to the tonic [fundamental] is found, the
two are acoustically interchangeable.(106)

Jeans provides the following on the topic: "In the case of wider intervals such as C
and F# [the tritone] there are no beats to be heard, either pleasant or unpleasant, but
Helmholtz asserted that C and F# sound badly together because certain of their
harmonics (e.g. g' and f'#) make unpleasant beats."(107)
The dialectical process is demonstrated through true music theory by the splitting of
nothing (the root of the fundamental) into two parts, the fundamental and the octave,
that freely resonate into the next multiple of the fifth, forming a complimentary
opposites to the fundamental: the fifth splits the octave and fundamental in half but
also pulls to the octave and fundamental. Then, as described by Lendvai, the free
vibration of the fifth and its overtone become extreme opposites to the fundamental,
via the overtone, forming tritonic relations to the tonic (the tritone is known as "the
unutterable" or "diabulus in musica".)(108) But the tritone has no beats (zero) with
the fundamental-thus forming the first negation. The tritone overtones then act as the
original consonant fifth to the fundamental (with no beats), as described by Lendvai,
thus completing the double negation or determinate reflection for the new
synthesis. This final synthesis is on-going, represented by the spiral of fifths (not the
incorrect circle of fifths taught in the west) that's basic to true music theory--or again,
the same beautiful "nodal problem" again and again.
While Zizek, like Bateson, does not stray from the limit of the primordially repressed,
he does describe that limit as being magical pre-verbal sound. The primordially
repressed are myths that "have no 'original' in the language of intersubjective
communication.'" He gives a very significant example,
at the very moment when the reign of (symbolic) Law was being instituted (in
what Moses was able to discern as the articulated Commandments), the
crowd waiting below Mount Sinai apprehended only the continuous, nonarticulated sound of the shofar [a trumpet-type horn]: the voice of the shofar is
an irreducible supplement of the (written) Law.

Zizek defines the shofar as "a kind of 'vanishing mediator' between the mythical
direct vocal expression of the pre-symbolic life-substance and articulated
speech...this strange sound...is strictly analogous to the unconscious act of
establishing the difference between the unconscious vortex of drives and the field
of Logos in Schelling."(109)
The primordial supplement mentioned by Zizek is also the same Lacanian surplus of
desire or the "excess of exaggeration" that is crucial to the dialectical process. Those
two key components of Zizek's analysis are analogous to the comma of Pythagorasthe inherent resonance patterns of fundamental vibrations are what create
the jouissance (or the sublime enjoyment) that is central to psychological desire and
to ideological fanaticism as analyzed by Zizek (the heresy that Bateson mentions).
Rothstein states, "The music 'in itself' is the abstract model whose essence defies
even a purely formal analysis."(110) Ironically both the symbol for jouissance and for
the Pythagorean law of growth are the Greek character phi.(111)

Like Zizek's mythic source, George Frazer's classic cultural analysis, The Golden
Bough, that was a major influence on Freud, systematically documents the spiritual
process of the "killing of the king" (sacrifice) that in the West became transferred to
symbolic structures and reified into a closed linear, one order system. The
neuropsychologist Karl Pribram, who did pioneering brain and consciousness
research and presented a open systems resonance interpretation of the mind, made
a similar case: "...when, because of linguistic and cultural affluence, the means-ends
reversal occurs, these languages begin to live lives of their own. Thus complexity is
compounded and the original organization can easily be lost sight of."(112)
Zizek's dismissal of social theories that critique western science as a repressive
social institution no longer holds because of the presentation of sound-current nondualism. He refers to Heidegger, pointing out that,
...modern science at its most fundamental cannot be reduced to some limited
ontic, 'socially conditioned' option (expressing the interests of a certain social
group, etc.), but is rather, the [Lacanian] real of our historical moment, that
which 'remains the same' in all possible ('progressive' and 'reactionary',
'technocratic' and 'ecological', 'patriarchal' and 'feminist') symbolic
universes.(113)

This is the same theoretical limit of one-dimensional language that was emphasized
by Bordwell and Flinn and to which sound-current non-dualism gives a formal
answer. Zizek states,
When typical modernist artist speak about the Spiritual in painting
(Kandinsky) or in music (Schoenberg), the 'spiritual' dimension they evoke
points towards the 'spiritualization' (or, rather, 'spectralization') of Matter
(colour and shape, sound) as such, outside its reference to Meaning...it
dwells in a kind of intermediate spectral domain of what Schelling called
geistige Krperlichkeit. From the Lacanian perspective, it is easy to identify
this "spiritual corporeality' as materializedjouissance....(114)

By claiming spiritualization is outside the "reference to Meaning" Zizek falls into the
same epistemological trap and misses the crucial open systems connection between
quantity and quality that the law of Pythagoras models. As music analyst Rudolf
Haase puts it, "in nature an important role is played by those quantities which in man
can be transformed into qualities."(115) Or as Zizek himself admits when analyzing
Mozart's Don Giovanni, "the very external form of the Count's melody, its discord with
its own content (the words sung), articulates the unconscious truth as yet
inaccessible to him, to his psychological experience."(116)
Professor Richard Leppert also, like Zizek, examines the subsequent effects of
Plato's conceptual error. He connects music, nature and politics through a historical
poetics of western art, analyzing how socially the role of music, used for control, has
also paradoxically undermined rationalism of the West. Leppert states,
If Barthes is right, the radical political act of making music for oneself--in
Victorian culture, this means especially women-involves a temporary
reinscription of human 'totality' (mind with body at art) in the lived experience
of 'humanities' second sex. This reinscription marks a refusal to abide by the
terms of Cartesian dualism, the very foundation of the politics of gender,
class, and racial difference-according to which certain men think and all
women merely feel.(117)

Like Fraser, Pribram, Zizek and others, symbolic transference of spiritual power to
linear thought and language is the problem traced by David F. Noble that has created
the modern "religion of technology" which that we are now tracing back to its ancient
western origins. The inherent western killing of heretics and "primitive peoples," by
considering them "pre-cognitive," is explained from by a purely formal analysis of
repressed epistemological error. Unfortunately even the successful grand theorist
Ken Wilber falls into the trap of advocating linear western evolution based on a
deterministic brain model that does not fully process the findings of Pribram's
resonance analysis.(118) Wilber subsequently incorrectly portrays indigenous
cultures as inferior and backward-i.e. claiming that their sustainable indigenous
knowledge systems are merely accidents reflecting their lack Western technology.
Ironically the central text of Tibetan Buddhism, a philosophy from which Wilber draws
heavily, commonly called "The Book of the Dead," has its origins in the indigenous
Bon culture and is literally translated as "Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate
State."(119) Wilber criticizes social theorists for "eulogizing" tribal cultures, when in
fact currently 4 to 5,000 of the 6,000 human cultures are indigenous, still existing with
distinct languages, but extremely threatened by corporate state elite policies. There
is extensive evidence of indigenous cultures commonly interacting in a reciprocal
relationship with the environment as a conscious value system. The outstanding
examples of unbalanced indigenous development patterns that Wilber incorrectly
suggests are the norm, are due to particular breaks in those cultures from extreme
influences (like dramatic climate change and colonialism). Wilber does not recognize
the fact that there has been a strong backlash against indigenous research, precisely
because of its psychological threat to the linear western worldview. His use of Hawaii
to explain his theory of holons is an inaccurate portrayal of genocidal U.S.
imperialism-in fact he claims the contrary occurred.(120)
Certainly neither Pribram, nor the global green movement that Wilber supports, are
advocating a "regressive" return to pre-industrial society as the immediate dominant
fear arises, but instead the societal model of an open spiral process that continually
reaffirms the universal common ground of the void. From systems theory music
analysis, Leonard Meyer calls this societal model "fluctuating stasis" based on
"steady-state" systems theory, a prediction of the same recommendation from radical
ecologist open systems theorist Fritoj Capra.(121) In Noise: The Political Economy of
Music, Jacques Attali presents a similar societal vision-predicted by and achieved
through profound music practices that challenge the hegemony of one-dimensional
repressed symbolic abstraction of the western worldview.(122) John E. Peck, worth
quoting at length, documents how in fact indigenous cultures already enact concepts
of sophisticated open systems theory:
Given its sensitivity to time and place, indigenous knowledge would seem to
be better situated to successfully adopt and apply a nonequilibrium
perspective to ecosystem management than conventional scientific thinking,
particularly in settings unfamiliar to western policy makers. Ecosystemic
trajectories are so contextually contingent that an observer can hardly afford
to entertain a theoretical framework built upon universal "objectivity" and
reductionist "rationality." In fact, the development and implementation of such
programs as intensive rotational grazing, biocultural restoration, preventative
medicine, and early disaster warning-to name but a few-in western and
nonwestern settings alike have relied heavily upon the indigenous knowledge
of local people most directly affected.(123)

The great contribution of Wilber is that he also models an understanding of the void
and clarifies many of the same western epistemological errors--but the crucial
qualitative difference of modeling the void with music theory is that the longestablished immoral, genocidal bias against indigenous cultures need not apply. The
music analyst John Chernoff in his brilliant work with the Dagomba, African
Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms, notes that "The
power and dynamic potential of the music is in the silence, and the gaps between the
notes, [the absolute void] and it is into this openness that a creative participant will
place his contribution, trying to open up the music further." Chernoff realized that
music serves as a conscious cultural practice to access the void and obtain
transformative powers in these cultures. He points out that "both [the dialectical
Marcuse and Lacan] are suggestive of ways in which Western philosophical literature
on alienation is addressed in the aesthetics of African music."(124) It should be
emphasized, of course, that Wilber also draws heavily from the Pythagorean
tradition, as well as Rupert Sheldrake's theory of morphic resonance. Parmenides,
who plays a significant role in Wilber's work, was taught by "the Pythagorean
Ameinias," he notes. Wilber's main analysis, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, is, as he
comments, the first part of a trilogy called "Kosmos," a Pythagorean term meaning
"the patterned nature or process of all domains of existence, from matter to math to
theos, and not merely the physical universe, which is usually what both 'cosmos' and
'universe' mean today."(125)
One of the main arguments that Wilber uses to present the civilized worldviews over
indigenous sustainable models is the concept of depth via holons-it is holons (or
whole/parts grounded in nothingness, just as music models) that fill the Pythagorean
Kosmos. Music theory also ironically proves, by modeling "depth" as well in a more
direct manner, how the dominant post-Pythagorean western worldview is not as
sophisticated or accurate as the majority of human cultures (i.e. sustainable
indigenous cultures) that it's corporate-state policies are destroying.(126) In the
application of the law of Pythagoras and its derivative principles (of harmony and
growth) music analyst Berendt notes that "Each spin [of all particles] contains all prior
whole-number spins....this is the process of differentiation and development...the
higher the spin, the higher the state of consciousness."(127) Thus the vortex or
spirals express the same concept of Wilber's depth, and are a combination of the
hierarchy (vertical) and heterarchy (horizontal) perspectives that have riddle radical
ecology theorists-a topic Wilber gives great attention to. But demonstrating this
concept through music theory has another profound implication, as Berendt quotes
musicologist Gerhard Nestler:
One-line music with an indefinite pitch and with its wide range of intermediate
tones and overtones has a wider base of expression than polyphonic music
with its definite pitch and its interval structure, than Conventional Western
music, that is. In the final analysis, such music is unhearable. What we hear
is its symbol. The symbol is the tones that man chooses from the wealth of
tones provided by the universe. Such music grows out of the polar tensions
between the audible and the inaudible.(128)

Nestler's point explains that the reification of the symbols of the first order of
information (the ratios of the scale and one-dimensional logos), by post-Pythagorean
Greek epistemology, lead to the loss of the open system spiritual music analysis
originally derived from the one-note scales typically found in indigenous cultures.

Modal music, the true "classical" music found around the world, has a "certain
mental, spiritual attitude" because it is consciously reflecting the values of those
sustainable cultures. As Berendt documents, "Many of the world's cultures have
passed down sagas and myths, legends and tales in which the world has its origin in
sound, from the Aztecs to the Eskimos, from the Persians to the Indians and the
Malayans."(129)
To reiterate, this universal primacy of open system harmonic analysis was reflected
by the ancient Greek language of phasis of which logos was just one variant.
Complexity and chaos theorists Marturana and Varela have argued, similarly to
Pibram, that language itself is a development of rhythmic vibrations of energy: Capra
reports that they come to the same cultural implications:
due to resonance phenomenon...cognitive experiential states are created by
the synchronization of fast oscillations in the gamma and beta range that tend
to arise and subside quickly... Varela's hypothesis establishes a neurological
basis for the distinction between conscious and unconscious cognition...since
language results in a very sophisticated and effective coordination of
behavior, the evolution of language allowed the early human beings to greatly
increase their cooperative activities and to develop families, communities,
and tribes that gave them tremendous evolutionary advantages. The crucial
role of language in human evolution was not the ability to exchange ideas, but
the increased ability to cooperate. As the diversity and richness of our human
relationships increased, our humanity-our language, art, thought, and cultureunfolded accordingly. At the same time, we also developed the ability of
abstract thinking, of bringing forth an inner world of concepts, objects, and
images of ourselves. Gradually, as this inner world became ever more
diverse and complex, we began to lose touch with nature and became ever
more fragmented personalities. Thus arose the tension between wholeness
and fragmentation, between body and soul....(130)

The argument presented by the open systems theorists is backed by the historical
analysis of Kingsley who also further confirms that Plato and Aristotle specifically
instituted denigration of a more complex Pythagorean language of meaning. As
Kingsley puts it, "By the time of Plato and Aristotle, the doors of understanding were
closed;" "argument is more important than appreciation, reinterpretation an easy
substitute for understanding;" "[the denigration] destroyed the mythical dialectic." The
Pythagoreans orally conveyed a language and lifestyle built on "see-saw oscillations
and balancing forces" that create an accurate and sophisticated system of meaning
which integrates and explains in detail eschatology, cosmology, geology,
mathematics and energy systems practice.(131) Included in this system was the
"incantatory use of poetry for harmonizing emotions." Kingsley documents that the
Pythagoreans were the source for Plato's Phaedo, Gorgia and Orphic allegorieseven the accurate heliocentric system of astronomy. Plato was "indebted to the
Pythagorean oral tradition" and Plato "himself was only too aware of the limitation of
the written text as a medium of genuine communication."(132)
The degeneration of complexity is well established, as is its intentionality:
...since the publication of Cherniss's work on Aristotle and the Presocratics in
1935 there has been a deeper awareness not only of the fact that Aristotle
and his school were frequently capable of misunderstanding the Presocratics
at a very fundamental level, but also of the fact that he and his followers
systematically used deliberate misunderstanding and 'shameless'
misrepresentation as a way of silencing their predecessors.(133)

The formal reversal of the secret 'irrational' open-spiral of music analysis and its
mirrored inaccurate closed symbolic one-dimensional circle variant and linear written
system can be traced historically:
We have already seen evidence of the role played by Archytas' school in
reinterpreting-often quite radically-Pythagorean mythological ideas which
were current in the generation of Philolaus;...it is quite possible that the idea
of the centre of a circle , or sphere, as its most 'honourable' place [in the
reinterpretation] is related to Archytas' exaltation of the geometric properties
of the circle and sphere.(134)

Ironically the influence of Pythagoras has been so profound for Western culture that
it is the exact original spiritual source for the western elite degeneration to onedimensional materialism that also goes back to Aristotle. Kingsley writes, "Dieterich
devoted a book to showing the extent to which the Christian Apocalyspse-found only
in fragmentary form at Akmin in Upper Egypt and in a version in Ethiopic-is
dependent on Orphic and Pythagorean traditions."(135) Pythagoreans were also
highly adept at creating sophisticated technologies. And like the self-fulfilling elite
enactment of the apocalypse described by Noble, for the Pythagoreans,
it is not difficult to detect an underlying schema of descent into the underworld
as prelude to a celestial ascent. This apparent illogic is the logic of myth. One
dies to be reborn; one descends into the depths in order to ascend....This
fundamental idea was so strong that it managed to survive intact in spite of
the cruder Christian dramatizations of hell-fire, suffering, and
punishment,....(136)

The crucial difference between the Pythagoreans and the later Christians is that for
the Pythagoreans being reborn is a spiritual journey not dependant on a onedimensional restoration of the Fall of Adam through a repressive controlling power
over the Other (nature, gender, non-whites, the poor). The Pythagoreans, believing
in God as immanent in nature, were focused on preserving and utilizing nature in its
multi-dimensional spiraled harmony. Like the power of Pythagoreanism, Taoist qi
gong has also been recognized by the elite-for instance when Dr. Yan Xin first visited
the U.S. President George Bush requested that Master Xin visit the White House
eight separate times! Similarly the military elite of Burma, home of the world's worst
regime, regularly look to the local spiritual masters as a hopes of maintaining
power.(137)
The symbolic dialectics of Pythagoreans and the dialectics of Hegel (both modeled
by a spiral or a systems theory mobius strip for Zizek) are also directly connected to
the dialectics of Taoist qi gong. Kingsley notes, "In terms not only of formal and
structural analogies but also of historical contacts, there can be no separating the
Thracian Orpheus [of Pythagorean equivalence] from central-Asiatic shamanic
tradition." Just as the Taoist qi gong masters, the Pythagorean masters strove for
immortality and were documented to work paranormal acts. This connection with
Taoism is also made explicit by the motif of the Pythagorean Master Empedocles
who, "dies a miraculous death by vanishing into thin air but who leaves a tell-tale
item...A more classic Taoist concept is that of achieving the divine state either by
fashioning a spirit-body...thoughtfully leaving a pile of discarded garments...."(138)

According to qi gong Master Dr. Yan Xin, qi gong is actually older than Taoism and
its shamanic roots are verified and clarified today by the use of scientific dialectical
thought. The global qi gong upheaval will, according to Dr. Yan Xin, achieve a new
global scientific and moral revolution-or energy monism. As Kingsley points out, "On
these principles...the notion of sympathies and antipathies [the law of Pythagoras] in
Greek magic and alchemy and the analogies to both in China, see Needham
[Science and Civilization in China]."(139)
Even still, as Berendt, Zizek have pointed out, the Hegelian dialectical process, just
like dialectical music theory and Taoist qi gong, has been misinterpreted by the West
as a goal of the closed Absolute Subject. Similarly the dialectical theory of radical
ecology where the limits of rationalism are marked by "wildness" (akin to Kant's
antinomies) have also been misinterpreted, by Zizek, and by Keulartz's "cosmic
nature characterized by perfect harmony."140 Systems theorist Gregory Bateson
states,
To see myself as part of a system which includes me and the chaparral
frames a reason for my action-to preserve the ongoing cycling of us (me and
the chaparral) by actively burning the chaparral. I think synchronic actionframed like that-is Taoist-it's a sort of passivity. There is no diachronic action
in the Eternal Present. But to rush to preserve the human species against a
galactic threat or to get ready for a biblical apocalypse, that would be
diachronic.141

Unfortunately, as Morris Berman has documented, precisely because of the psychospiritual repression under a reified one-dimensional closed symbolic system, when
the undercurrent of non-dualism is tapped, it is assimilated by the dominant
reactionary forces.142 Corporate-state fascism has already promoted the guise of
being nature-loving under the label of Nazism and now eco-fascism, a term Berman
uses, is the threat of a genetically-engineered micro-chipped social cleansing lead by
the "life sciences" of Cargill, the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto and their
interlocking elite associates.143 Systems theory, ever since it was co-opted by the
Rand Corporation for the promotion of military jingoism and the corporate-state-has
been applied in an inaccurate and thus immoral manner.144
Unlike the unified authoritarian structure of the corporate-state, radical ecology based
in music theory, does not call for an all-encompassing master plan but only basic
principles--the most important of which is that all energy derives from the common
void that connects us. We are forced to literally accept nothing and its infinitely
cycling potential. Or as Kelartz states, "Power is in the hands of the people, to be
sure but it 'belongs' to no one; it retains its transcendent position in an sense, but this
position is necessarily vacant."145 Music theory and its resultant infinitely complex
universal steady-state, uniquely emphasizes this fundamental priority, thus
counteracting the social Darwinism of other so-called "holistic" models based in
positivism-thus affirming Keulartz's critique of Murray Bookchin's social ecology.
Bookchin has also been discredited by radical ecology itself, as David
Watson's Beyond Bookchin: Preface for a future social ecology demonstrates.146
To further address Keulartz's insightful criticisms in The Struggle for Nature: A
critique of radical ecology, unlike Foucault's concept of bio-power that arose during
the Victorian age, death is not discredited in radical ecology, as Bateson's above
"burning" example shows. Also, unlike Keulartz' description of bio-power, the
institutions of society are considered creations of people's sovereignty and
inalienable rights in radical ecology, as expressed by the Earth First! movement

consistent call for the legal right to revoke corporate charters. Open systems
anarchism and radical ecology do not discredit the role of people's sovereignty, as
Keulartz incorrectly claims, but affirm the fundamental right of citizens to a form of
free association that respects sovereignty-this same revolutionary right is maintained
in the constitutional framework.147 Master Mantak Chia points out that people, as
the most complex receptors of universal energy, play a special role in manifesting
universal harmony (structurally our heart-brain is the direction recipient of refined
energy whereas for most animals their tail channels the energy to the body first).148
Ecofeminist Dr. Vandana Shiva clarifies the connections between systems theory,
sovereignty and radical ecology:
One of the rights is local sovereignty. Local resources have to be managed
on the principle of local sovereignty, wherein the natural resources of the
village belong to that village....Self-healing and repair is another characteristic
of living systems that derives from complexity and self-organization...External
control reduces the degrees of freedom a system has, thereby reducing its
capacity to organize and renew itself...A system is autopoietic when its
function is primarily geared toward self-renewal. An autopoietic system refers
to itself [sovereignty]. In contrast, an allopoietic system, such as a machine,
refers to a function given from outside, such as the production of a specific
output...Self-organizing systems form from within, shaping themselves
outwards. Externally organized mechanical systems do not grow; they are
made, put together from the outside....Self-organization is the essence of
health and ecological stability for living systems....Ecological problems arise
from applying the engineering paradigm to life. This paradigm is being
deepened through genetic engineering, which will have major ecological and
ethical implications [i.e. extinction]...life is seen as having instrumental rather
than intrinsic value. Thus, there is a self-directed capacity for restoration. The
faculty of repair is, in turn, related to resilience. When organisms are treated
as machines, and manipulated without recognition of the ability to selforganize, their capacity to heal and repair breaks down, and they need
increasing inputs and controls to be maintained. 149

In fact, Keulartz's promotion of Hannah Arendt's theory on inter-subjective power,

mirrors the difference between Keulartz's fear of "submission to a higher force" and
the role of resonance in music theory. As he describes, "Power appears as soon as
and as long as people act and speak together. Unlike violence, power can never be
appropriated and in fact is increased by sharing. [i.e. resonance or harmony]" 150
The concept of submission draining energy is emphasized by Mantak Chia and both
Taoist qi gong and music theory are premised on the indigenous concept of natural
law or reciprocity, as the proportional law of Pythagoras demonstrates. Keulartz goes
on to refer to Habermas' assertion that "The more language succeeds in freeing itself
from sacral bonds...the better able we are to arrive at a shared understanding by
ourselves."151 It is precisely this affirmation of the true roots of language via music
theory that enables a psychological cure to the repressed "sacral bonds."
With this overview of the relationship to logos in mind, multidimensional rhythmic
patterns of energy are an accurate premise for the matrix of the Deleuze's "lifeforces" mentioned in the promotion of his "eco-philosophy" by Rosi Braidotti in the
recentSustainability and the Social Sciences. 152
Keulartz's final point is that evolutionary ecology has eclipsed systems ecology but
evolutionary ecology is based on the same teleological systems theory worldview
that he dismisses, namely the principle, easily modeled by music, of absolute void

negentropy or self-organization. The principle of self-organization reflects the natural

law from which radical ecology is derived but it is not the same "natural law" to which
Keulart refers to: Kingsley documents that natural law is not accurately reflected by
the "divine logos" of the post-Pythagorean stoics as Keulartz assumes. Also there is
a fundamental qualitative difference between dissipative structures of chaos and
complexity occurring through natural evolution and the planet's fastest mass
extinction that is enacted by corporate-state eco-cide.153 I agree with Green Party
Presidential candidate Ralph Nader's recommendation--let us all be epicenters or
resonating nodes of justice.
Pythagoreans very much represented an integrated culture that was cooperative,
multi-dimensional and reflected a love of wisdom, ecology, and compassion.
Pythagoreans practiced a culture of equality of sexes, integrity of justice,
sophisticated herbology and strict vegetarianism.154 Pythagoras focused on social
change and creating a cosmopolitan ecological society of transcendence founded in
the void. C.A. Bowers in The Culture of Denial bases a radical ecological model of
society from the Pythagorean-inspired open systems theory of Gregory Batesonthose ideas are also conveyed by New Paradigm theorist Fritoj Capra who makes
the appeal:
...we need to think systemically, shifting our conceptual focus from objects to
relationships. Only then can we realize that identity, individuality, and
autonomy do not imply separateness and independence....This reconnecting,
religio in Latin, is the very essence of the spiritual grounding of deep
ecology....A major clash between economics and ecology derives from the
fact that nature is cyclical, where as our industrial systems are linear...The socalled free market does not provide consumers with proper information,
because the social and environmental costs of production [as well as intrinsic
value] are not part of current economic models.155

References:
(1) See the Superior Wilderness Action Network web-page for an overview of the
lawsuit, with accompanying newspaper articles-- http://www.superiorwild.com/
(2) David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of
Invention (NY: Penguin Books, 1999). See also Lynn White, 'The Historical Roots of
Our Ecological Crisis," Science 155 (1967), pp. 1203-7 and L.W. Boncrief, 'The
Cultural Basis for our Environmental Crisis," Science 170 (1970) pp. 508-12.
(3) Ibid., p. 36; pp. 64-65; p. 87; pp. 111-112.
(4) A good presentation of this spiritual-ecology-worldview connection is Michael A.
Cremo and Goswami, Mkunda. Divine Nature: A Spiritual Perspective on the
Environmental Crisis. (New York: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1995). See also
David Ray Griffin, ed. Spirituality and Society: Postmodern Visions (Albany: SUNY
Press, 1988). For the escalating crises, Chris Bright, "Anticipating Environment
'Surprise'" in State of the World 2000: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress
Toward a Sustainable Society (NY: W.W. Norton, 2000).
(5) For a sound scientific critic of the institutions of modernism see biology professor
Mary E. Clark's Ariadne's Thread: The Search for New Modes of Thinking (NY: St.
Martin's Press, 1989). The founding statement of the Union of Concerned Scientists,
as well as their "World Scientists Warning to Humanity" gives credence to the current
crisis resulting from the institutions of modernism: "Misuse of scientific and technical
knowledge presents a major threat to the existence of mankind. Through its actions
in Vietnam our government has shaken our confidence in its ability to make wise and
humane decisions. There is also disquieting evidence of an intention to enlarge
further our immense destructive capability." (1968 MIT Faculty Statement resulted in
the founding of the Union of Concerned Scientists in early 1969) From the World
Scientists' Warning to Humanity: "Some 1,700 of the world's leading scientists,
including the majority of Nobel laureates in the sciences, issued this appeal in
November 1992. [Introduction] 'Human beings and the natural world are on a
collision course...Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our
present course will bring about.'"
(6) Frederic Jameson. Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late-Capitalism. PostContemporary Interventions (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991). For U of M
minor graduate degree in Complementary Therapies and Healing Practices see
http://www.csh.umn.edu/programs/brochure.htm
(7) Nick Herbert. Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics, an excursion into
metaphysics and the meaning of reality. (NY: Anchor, 1985), p. 250.
(8) One of the noted fears regarding radical ecology is its assumed status as the
latest manifestation of Foucault's bio-power-a negative repressive force of
modernism. The Foucauldian argument is discussed in Jozef Keulartz. The Struggle
for Nature: A critique of radical ecology (London: Routeldge, 1998)--a sophisticated
analysis that raises these issues in a mature, albeit misguided, framework--to which
I'll be returning.
(9) David Bordwell, Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of
Cinema (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), p. 259.
(10) Caryl Flinn, Strains of Utopia: Gender, Nostalgia, and Hollywood Film Music (NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 7.

(11) Bordwell, Making Meaning, p. 266.
(12) Ibid. pp. 105-107.
(13) Flynn, Strains of Utopia, p. 7.
(14) Bordwell, Making Meaning, p. 105. On neoformalism see also Kristin
Thompson, Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible": A Neoformalist Analysis (N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1981). In support of rational humanism, Bordwell assumes the
cognitive logic of problem solving by "rational agents" what my colleague Chet Kite
calls "the detective aesthetic." An approach which ironically, through psychoanalysis,
social theory, and new paradigm analysis, has proved the inherent limits of
rationalism as an epistemology of modern Western elite institutions while also
showing that all matter acts as "rational agents"! (i.e. for the limits of rationalism see
the general science theory texts The End of Science: Facing the limits of knowledge
in the twilight of the scientific age by John Horgan; Beyond Science by John
Polkinghorne, and The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human
Extinction by John Leslie). In an attempt to get to the root of the same out-of-balance
genocidal assumptions of Western institutions, as they were manifested during
Nazism, the film director Syberberg uses the term "music of the future" for his
approach to utopian meaning. I'm indebted to my colleague James Hong for the
reference. To get beyond the horror of corporate-state modern regimes, my "music of
the future" or sound-current non-dualism maps what film director and social theorist
Raul Ruiz describes in his discussion regarding utopias as, "events that could move
from one dimension to another, and that could be broken down into images
cooccupying different dimensions, all with the sole aim of being able to add, multiply,
or divide them and reconstitute them at will." Poetics of Cinema (Paris: Editions Dis
Voir, 1995), p. 22.
(15) The term "grand theorist" comes from The Return of Grand Theory in the
Human Sciences, Quentin Skinner, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1988. Ken
Wilber. Sex, Ecology and Spirituality : The Spirit of Evolution. (Boston,
Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 1995), p. 148. Slavoj Zizek. Tarrying With
The Negative: Kant, Hegel And The Critique Of Ideology(Durham: Duke University
Press, 1993), pp. 237, 220. Deleuze ref. from Braidotti, see footnote 11. Discussion
of their work will follow below.
(16) The emphasis here is on rhythmic, harmonic vibrations or resonance not just
vibrations.-as physicist K.C. Cole discovered, " 'resonance' was behind the very
nature of matter."--the fundamental basis for transposing quantities to
qualities. Sympathetic Vibrations: Reflections on physics as a way of life (NY:
Bantam, 1985). Mark B. Woodhouse. Paradigm Wars: Worldviews for a New
Age (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Press), p. 178. According to
http://www.markwoodhouse.com/ "Mark Woodhouse, Ph.D., is Associate Professor
of Philosophy at Georgia State University, [and]...is the author of a widely used text,
A Preface to Philosophy, adopted by universities in all fifty states and abroad. He is
also a consulting editor for the Journal of Near-Death Studies."
(17) Michael Zimmerman, Contesting Earth's Future: Radical ecology and
postmodernity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994). Zimmerman is
considered a leading critical expert on Heidegger and has recently wrote on why
modernism is, overall, outright dismissing and ignoring obvious anomalies like the
alien abduction phenomenon.

(18) Two other recent "grand theorists" that also cite leading scientists--similar to
Woodhouse and myself--are Joachim-Ernst Berendt's The World is Sound, Nada
Brahma: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness, forward by Fritjof Capra and
promotion by Stanislav Grof (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1991) and Ross
Wiseman. Universe Of Waves (New Zealand: Discovery Press, 1999). See also the
directly related work of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff --his law of the octave, law of
three, etc.
(19) Mantak Chia. Awaken Healing: Energy through the Tao. (Santa Fe, NM: Aurora
Press, 1983). See also http://www.breath.org/internet.htm According to Chia, Dr.
Johan Mann and Larry Short, authors of "The Body of Light," count 49 cultures
around the world "that articulate the concept of Chi [or vital energy] in one form or
another." (p. 34) James JeansScience and Music (NY: Dover, 1968), p. 154. Philip
Regal The Anatomy of Judgment (Mpls. MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1990),
p. 260. We'll elaborate on the same Taoist-Pythagorean connection examined by
Kingsley.
(20) Peter Kingsley Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and
Pythagorean Tradition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 232.
(21) This global culture, represented by over 1200 civil society organizations,
gathered at the 1992 Earth Summit and at the Shutdown of the WTO in Seattle,
1999. As David Korten states in The Post-Corporate World, there is a "new integral
culture" based on the sage Sri Aurobindo's vision of divine anarchy. According to
surveys done by Paul Ray, the U.S. is 47% modernist, 29% "heartlanders" (premodern western values) and 24% "cultural creatives" or of the new integral culture.
"Now they are a major and growing cultural response to the accelerating failures of
modernism." David C. Korten, The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism.
(West Hartford, CA: Kumarian Press, 1999), p. 215.
(22) James Jeans, Science and Music (NY: Dover Press, 1968), p. 29, p. 64.
(23) Ibid., p. 29. In an open system analysis, music analyst Berendt quotes the
research Hans Kayser, "As the spatial aspect, the string length, diminishes, the
temporal aspect, the number of variations, increases, and vice versa." Hans
Kayser. Arkasis: The Theory of World Harmonies (Boston: Plowshare Press, 1970).
For further Kayser references see also Joscelyn Godwin, ed.Cosmic Music: Musical
Keys to the Interpretation of Reality: Essays by Marius Schneider, Rudolf Haase,
Hans Erhard Lauer(Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1989).
(24) Mary E. Clark notes, "Curiously enough, it was not workers, but monks in the
monasteries and cathedrals of Medieval Europe who first kept track of the
hours...This all-pervasive consciousness of the passing of time is an absolute
prerequisite for the building of an 'efficient' society. It is a fundamental part of the
Western worldview." Ariadne's Thread, p. 275. In further verification of Noble's
analysis, the first famous clock was from 966 of the imperial monk origins, as music
analyst Berendt notes. He comments, "The only thing we know for sure is the fact
that it was the clergy who saw to it that the mechanical clock became a functioning
timepiece." Berendt, The World is Sound, p. 98.
(25) Jeans, Science and Music, pp. 29-32.
(26) John Beaulieu. Music and Sound in the Healing Arts. (Barrytown, NY: Station
Hill Press), 1987, p. 25. Music analyst Berendt calls this, "whole-number

quanta...relatively easily demonstrated on the monochord." The World Is Sound, p.

62.
(27) Ibid., p. 25.
(28) Chia, Awakening Healing, p. 14.
(29) Ibid., p. 45.
(30) Jeans, Science and Music, p. 67. Or again as music analyst Berendt cites
physicist Jean E. Charon, "Each particle...has its own spin, and all these spins
vibrate together in the whole-number proportions of the overtone scale. This then is
the prime model of mind and spirit." The World Is Sound, p. 125 citing Jean E.
Charon: L'Esprit, cet inconnu (Paris: n.p., 1977).
(31) Bealieau, Music and Sound in the Healing Arts, p. 45.
(32) Pythagoras, for reasons (and with profound cultural implications) to be
discussed below, limited his overt analysis to the logical type or order of information
of ratios from which the notes of the scale are determined. I.e. space-time constructs,
as the new physics has shown, are relative to the void. An example follows from
physicist Nick Herbert in his chapter Wave Motions: The Sound of Music: "Just as
sine waves are the natural vibrations of a stretched string, so spherical harmonics
are the natural vibrations of an elastic sphere...Whenever a sphere vibrates,
certain nodal circles appear where the sphere stands still." The multidimensional
implications for quantum theory are derived from Fourier's Theorem that determines
the fundamental wave of complex wave-forms by analyzing spatial frequencies,
amplitudes and phase relations. Herbert, Quantum Reality, pp. 25-30.
(33) Jeans, Science and Music, p. 157, p. 153. A follower of George Ivanovich
Gurdjieff states what happens when the natural free threshold or limit is reached
(when the octave accesses the nothingness): "To increase the rate of vibrations of a
material, we need to apply energy to it. Eg, to raise the temperature, you need to
apply heat to a substance. In popular physics not much attention is given to the fact
that the increase in the rate of vibrations is not always directly related to the rate of
application of energy, i.e. applying energy at a constant rate does not always give a
constant increase in the rate of vibrations. A very simple example is in heating water
from ice to steam - there are two points, the point when the ice is at 0 degrees C, but
not yet melted, and the point when the water is at 100 degrees C, but not yet steam.
At these two points, one has to keep applying heat for a longer period of time for the
temperature to rise....Now, the theory is that this pattern will occur for vibrations in
any kind of material, and here we are talking about a wider category of material than
physics usually deals with, for instance, one's own psychology." See
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/1080/7law.html. This musical interval leap or wholenumber multiple was the direct inspiration for Max Planck's "quantum leap" where the
particle of energy mysteriously "jumps" from one atom to the next. Theorist and
author Bruce Cathie has applied the interval leap to explore energy nodes on the
planet and nodal links to other dimensions.
(34) John Keely. Universal Laws Never Before Revealed: Keely's Secrets Understanding and Using the Science of Sympathetic Vibration. Peyton, Colorado:
Delta Spectrum Research, Vibration Research Institute & Laboratories,1996-1999. p.
117. See http://www.svpvril.com/
(35) As Bateson discovers, "the Pythagoras theorem [developed from music theory]

is all there in the axioms...no 'self evident' propositions but self-evident links. The
essential requirement of tautology is that links between the propositions shall be
empty - i.e. shall contain no information about the subject of discourse." Angels Fear:
Toward an Epistemology of the Sacred (NY: Bantam, 1988), p. 60.
(36) Lu K'Uan Y, Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality (NY: Samuel Weiser, Inc.),
p. 3.
(37) Berendt, The World is Sound, p. 123 citing Jean E. Charon: L'Esprit cet
inconnu (Paris: n.p., 1977). Berendt also cites music analyst Wilfried Krger who
remarks, "By establishing that time stands still, that 'place' is nowhere and
everywhere, and that the mass of a particle moving at the speed of light (such as a
photon) is equal to zero, nuclear physics approaches a threshold that mystics have
approached, and still approach, from the other direction." Wilfried Krger: Das
Universum Singt (Trier: Editions Trves, 1983).
(38) Bealieau, Music and Sound in the Healing Arts, p. 47; Berendt, The World Is
Sound, p. 61.
(39) Jeans, Science and Music, p. 76. This is already an allusion to the development
of bio-energy from the resonance of natural harmonious free vibrations.
(40) Ibid., pp. 153-154.
(41) Bealieau, Music and Sound in the Healing Arts, p. 47. Even the highly renowned
music analyst Leonard Meyer of the University of Chicago, noted for emphasizing
pluralism, states "the octave, fifth and fourth are basic, normative intervals in the
music of almost all cultures." Leonard Meyer, Music, the Arts and Ideas: Patterns and
Predictions in Twentieth-Century Culture(Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p.
289.
(42) Jeans, Science and Music, p. 161.
(43) According to Graham Hancock, "This proportion [golden section], which had
been proven particularly harmonious and agreeable to the eye, had supposedly been
first discovered by the Pythagorean Greeks." Graham Hancock. Fingerprints of the
Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization (NY: Crown Publishing, 1996), p.
336.
(44) Edward Rothstein, Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life of Music and Mathematics.
New York: Avon Books, 1995. p. 156, p. 159.
(45) Erno Lendvai, Bela Bartok: An Analysis of his music (NY: Stanmore Press,
1971), p. 29.
(46) (Wellesley: A K Peters, 1993).
(47) See Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods.
(48) Keely, Universal Laws Never Before Revealed, p. 230.
(49) H.E. Huntley, The Divine Proportion (NY: Dover, 1970) p. 18.
(50) Chia, Awaken Healing, p. 119.

(51) Jeans, Science and Music, p. 164.

(52) Don Randel, ed. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1986), p. 618.
(53) Herbert, Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics, an excursion into
metaphysics and the meaning of reality, p. 250.
(54) Chia, Awaken Healing, p. 17.
(55) Ibid. pp. 17, 173, 105, 337. Mantak Chia, Taoist Ways to Transform Stress into
Vitality: The Inner Smile, Six Healing Sounds (Huntington, NY: Healing Tao Books,
1985).
(56) Meyer states: "The psychology of human mental processes: Those musical
events, whatever their particular stylistic-syntactic premises, which are so structured
that they conform to the Gestalt laws of pattern perception (the principles of good
continuation, closure, return, and the like)-laws which are themselves perhaps a
reflection of the neurophysiological organization of the central nervous system
(CNS)-will be more redundant [not in a pejorative sense] than events which are
incongruous with the natural modes of cognitive ordering." Meyer, Music, the Arts,
and Ideas, p. 277. Similarly Bordwell states, "Chomsky has suggested that
knowledge of language consists not of rules, but of 'principles.'" Making Meaning,
citingKnowledge of Language: Its Nature, origin, and use (NY: Praeger, 1986)
(57) Leonard Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1961), p. 92
(58) Meyer, Music, the Arts and Ideas, p. 284.
(59) Herbert, Quantum Reality, p. 71.
(60) Margaret Wertheim, Pythagoras' Trousers : God, Physics, and the Gender
Wars (NY: W W Norton & Co, 1997).
(61) Technology can be created from the sound-current principles. Woodhouse
in Paradigm Wars examines the potential of many examples that use sound-current
non-dualism to create paranormal realities, like radionics, radioscopy, photo-acoustic
spectroscopy, holography, and scalar electromagnetics. For instance Pythagoras,
Ptolemy and Kepler were right about the harmony of the spheres: "the fact that from
an unlimited wealth of possible orbits [the planets] have chosen precisely those
which oscillate and sound in the proportions of undivided numbers prevalent in our
'earthbound' music." (derived from the angular velocity constants relative to the sun).
Berendt, The World Is Sound, pp. 60-64. For the principles of resonance used to
make nuclear waste non-radioactive, see Robert A. Nelson, "Transmutations of
Nuclear Waste" in Nexus: New Times Magazine, Feb-March, 2000, p. 47. For a
sound-current model of genetics that's an alternative to the corporate-state
reductionist model see Derald G. Langham, "Genesa: An attempt to develop a
conceptual model to synthesize, synchronize, and vitalize man's interpretation of
universal phenomena," US International University: Ph.D., 1969. The same model
from a Taoist perspective is Martin Schnberger, The I Ching and the Genetic Code:
The Hidden Key to Life (Santa Fe, NM: Aurora Press, 1992).
(62) K.C. Cole, Sympathetic Vibrations, p.264, 275.

(63) Effie Poy Yew Chow and Charles T. Mcgee. Qi Gong: Miracle Healing from
China. (San Francisco: MediPress, 1994). Paul Dong and Aristide H. Esser. Chi
Gong: The Ancient Chinese Way to Health. (New York: Marlowe and Co., 1990). Dr.
David Eisenberg. Encounters with Qi: Exploring Chinese Medicine. (New York:
Penguin, 1987).
(64) Monica Isley, "Eastern healing method getting results for Two Harbors' Tom
Gow," Lake County News-Chronicle, 2-3-2000.
(65) Yan, Xin, Lu Zuyin, Zhng Tianbao, Wang Haidong, Zhu Runsheng, "The
Influence of External qi on the Radioactive Decay Rate of 241 Am. Proceeding of the
First Tianjin Human Body Science Conference, Tianjin, China, Sept. 1989. Cited in
Yan Xin, Hui Link, Hongmei Li, Alexis Traynor-Kaplan, Zhen-Qin Xia, Fen Lu Qi
Fang, Ming Dao, "Structure and property changes in certain materials influenced by
the external qi of qigong," Mat Res Innovat (1999) 2:349-359, Springer-Verlag.
(66) Dinghai Zu, et. al. "A Study of the Recuperation Function of Qi Gong on
Hypertension Target organ Impairment," Journal of Clinical Cardiology, 1992; 8(2);
Dr. Kenneth M. Sancier, Binkun Hu, "Medical Applications of Qi Gong and Emitted Qi
on Humans, animals, cell cultures, and plants: Review of Selected Scientific
Research," American Journal of Acupuncture 1991; 19(4): 367-377.
(67) Jeans, Science and Music, p. 165.
(68) Ibid., p. 166.
(69) For Partch's musical system see
http://www.deandrummond.com/zoomprimer.htm#just intonation. For the
Pythagorean Lambdoma see Joscelyn Godwin. Harmonies of Heaven and Earth:
Mysticism in Music from antiquity to the avant-garde(Rochester, Vermont: Inner
Traditions, 1995). Bela Bartok also created a Pythagorean system derived from the
intuitive pentatony of the Magyar people-see Lendvai.
(70) For Sun Ra quote see http://www.holeworld.com/stellar.html
(71) Jeans, Science and Music, p. 168.
(72) Joscelyn Godwin, Harmonies of Heaven and Earth, p. 56.
(73) Berendt, The World Is Sound, p. 131.
(74) Jonathan Goldman. Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics. (Boston, MA:
Element, 1996), p. 116.
(75) Rupert Sheldrake, A New Science of Life (London: Blond and Briggs, 1981). Or
as Joseph F. Goodavage describes it, "...[On] the energy fields discovered by Drs.
Harold S. Burr and Leonard Ravitz at Yale University's School of Medicine. Like
polygraph expert Cleve Backster, who in 1966 discovered something he calls
"primary perception" in plants, these medical men published numerous reports
describing the existence of a complex field of energy surrounding every man, woman
and child and every living thing on Earth. They call it the L-field or Field of Life - a
refined form of energy which could be a kind of "higher octave" force existing beyond
the familiar electromagnetic spectrum. These fields surround every cell and seed.
Apparently in existence everywhere in the universe, they coalesce prior to the
formation of the physical organism (and may survive its dissolution)." from Magic:

Science of the Future (London: Signet, 1976), pp. 72-73.

(76) Beaulieau, Music and Sound in the Healing Arts, pp. 37-41.
(77) Chia, Awaken Healing, p. 261.
(78) Hai, Suma Ching. The Key of Immediate Enlightenment. Formosa, Republic of
China: Suma Ching Hai International Association, 1996..
http://www.GodsDirectContact.org/
(79) Sri Vaishnavi Shrine, (Madras, India: The Sanmarge Sangam, 1967) pp. 76-77.
(80) Chia, Awaken Healing, p. 261, p. 62.
(81) Ilya Prigogine, Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature (NY:
Bantam Books, 1984).
(82) Bateson, Angels Fear, p. 60.
83 Meyer, Music, the Arts and Ideas, p. 81.
(84) Lu K'Uan Y, Taoist Yoga, p. 5.
(85) Bateson, Angels Fear, p. 24.
(86) Rothstein, Emblems of Mind, p. 29.
(87) Berendt also gives the broader context: "Chuang-tzu, the ancient Chinese sage,
wrote 'What is one, is one. What is not-one, also is one.' And Erich Fromm notes:
'Paradoxical logic was predominant in Chinese and Indian thinking, in Heraclitus'
philosophy, and then again under the name of dialectics in the thought of Hegel and
Marx....Our Western concept of logic is strongly conditioned by Western
language....Weizsacker points out that 'the philosophies are closely related to the
grammatical structures of the language. The subject-predicate scheme of Aristotelian
logic corresponds to the grammatical structure of the Greek declarative sentence...In
his tome, Nietzsche noted that the 'astounding family likeness' seen in Western
philosophies could be explained 'simple enough,' namely by their 'unconscious
domination by the same grammatical functions'....By way of contrast, the thinking
behind the Chinese and Japanese languages do not move in a straight line from the
subject to the object with no aid of the verb. It circles around its object and envelops
it until it is specified as precisely as the objects in our Western languages (which
presupposes an inner predicate); in fact, specialists feel that these Asian languages
are even more precise since they do not simply 'objectivate' but rather let subject and
object 'become one' so that the active and the passive mode fall together...."
Berendt, The World Is Sound, pp. 44-49.
(88) Bateson, Angels Fear, p. 117; p. 27.
(89) See To The Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in the Japanese Cinema
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979).
(90) Robert Schmidt, "Phasis and Logos," presentation at FortFest Fall 1997 of the
International Fortean Organization, MSS available at 532 Washington St.,
Cumberland MD 21502 or http://www.chironline.com/

(91) Peter Kingsley. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and
Pythagorean Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 158
(92) Rothstein, Emblems of Mind, p. 238.
(93) Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (Toronto: E. P. Dutton,
1979), p. 116.
(94) Capra, The Web of Life, pp. 83-84.
(95) Ibid., pp. 129-130, pp. 135-136.
(96) Martin Gardner, Fractal Music, Hypercards and More: Mathematical
Recreations from Scientific American Magazine (NY: W.H. Freeman and Co., 1992),
p.,3.
(97) Bateson had the same limit as Zizek. Fortunately Ken Wilber has also made the
same point as myself regarding the limit of the primordial repressed.
(98) Slavoj Zizek, The Plague of Fantasies (New York: Verso, 1997). p. 92.
(99) Ibid., p. 208.
(100) Slavoj Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative, p. 165.
(101) Ibid., p. 192.
(102) Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative, p. 237.
(103) Dong and Esser, Chi Gong, p. 199.
(104) Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative, pp. 122-123.
(105) Rothstein, Emblems of Mind, p. 28.
(106) Lendvai, Bela Bartok, p. 24.
(107) Jeans, Science and Music, p. 157.
(108) Rothstein, Emblems of Mind, p. 29.
(109) Slavoj Zizek, The Indivisible Remainder : An Essay on Schelling and Related
Matters (NY: Verso, 1996), p. 104.
(110) Rothstein, Emblems of Mind, p. 212.
(111) For jouissance as phi see Slavoj Zizek, The Sublime Object of Subjectivity,
(London: Verso, 1989). For Pythagorean law of growth, divine proportion as phi see
Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods, p. 336 and Rothstein, Emblems of Mind.
(112) Pribram, Languages of the Brain: experimental paradoxes and principles in
neuropsychology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hill, Inc., 1971). See also Michael
Talbot, The Holographic Universe (NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991).
(113) Zizek, The Plague of Fantasies, p. 32.

(114) Ibid.
(115) Haase cited by Berendt, The World Is Sound, p. 80.
(116) Slavoj Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, p. 189. Or as Rothstein states,
"The music 'in itself' is the abstract model whose essence defies even a purely formal
analysis," Emblems of Mind, p. 212.
(117) Richard Leppert, The Sight of Sound: Music, Representation and the History of
the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 213-215.
(118) This is even after Wilber edited The Holographic Paradigm and other
paradoxes: exploring the leading edge of science(Boston: Shambhala, 1982).
(119) Berendt, The World Is Sound, p. 145.
(120) See Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality for several references on "tribal
consciousness" p. 52 and p. 166 and throughout the book. The conscious
sustainable ecological practices of the world's indigenous practices are reviewed in
Alan Thein Durning, "Supporting Indigenous Peoples," State of the World 1993: A
Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society (NY: W.W.
Norton, 1993). For a review of the backlash against indigenous research see David
Watson. Beyond Bookchin: preface for a future social ecology (NY: Autonomedia,
1996) and Jack Weatherford, Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas
Transformed the World (NY: Fawcett Columbine, 1988). On the repressed history of
the destructive U.S. take-over of Hawaii see Noam Chomsky, Year 501: The
Conquest Continues (Boston: South End Press, 1993). See also Annette M.
Jaimes. The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonialization and
Resistance (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992). Bruce E. Johansen. Ecocide of
Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and Peoples. Santa Fe,
NM: Clear Light Publishers, 1995.
(121) Meyer, Music, the Arts, and Ideas, p. 172.
(122) Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music (Theory and History of
Literature, Vol 16) (Mpls, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1985).
(123) John E. Peck, "Nonequilibrium Perspectives and Indigenous Knowledge for
Community Management of Natural Resources in Zimbabwe," (MS, Geography 920,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996).
(124) John Chernoff, African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African
Musical Idioms (Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1979). There's a large literature
proving the same regarding indigenous cultures and their sophisticated
understanding of spiritual-philosophical concepts: Frances Densmore, Chippewa
Customs (St. Paul, MN: MHS Press, 1929, reprint edition, 1979); Frances
Densmore, Chippewa Music. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletins. MHS Press,
January 1910, reprint edition); Charles Boiles, Man, Magic and Musical
Occasions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada: University of Montreal Press, 1978); Marina
Roseman, Healing Sounds from the Malaysian Rainforest : Temiar Music and
Medicine. Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care, Vol 28.
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); William K. Powers. Sacred
Language: The Nature of Supernatural Discourse in Lakota (London: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1986).

(125) Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, p. 38.

(126) See Al Gedicks, The New Resource Wars: Native and Environmental Struggles
Against Multinational Corporations(Boston: South End Press, 1993). Joshua
Karliner, The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of Globalization (San
Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1997).
(127) Berendt, The World is Sound, p. 126.
(128) Ibid., p. 154 from Gerhard Nestler: Die Form in der Musik (Freiburg and Zurich:
Atlants Verlag, 1954).
(129) Berendt, The World Is Sound, p. 174.
(130) Capra, The Web of Life, 292-294.
(131) Kingsley, Ancient Philosophy, p. 203, p. 198, p. 256. The same Pythagorean
ancient wisdom of basic Universal Truth is communicated through myth, math,
cosmology and architecture worldwide as documented by the following works:
Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods. M.I.T. professor Giorgio de Santiallana,
with Hertha von Dechend. Hamlet's Mill: An essay on myth and the frame of
time (Boston: Gambit Inc., 1969). Thomas Worthen. The Myth of Replacement:
Stars, Gods and Order in the Universe (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991).
(132) Ibid., p. 108, p. 110.
(133) Ibid., p. 3.
(134) Ibid., p. 203.
(135) Ibid., p. 119.
(136) Ibid., p. 252.
(137) Personal communication, Aung Koe, co-director of Minnesota Free Burma
Coalition, March, 2000.
(138) Kingsley, Ancient Philosophy, p. 236.
(139) Ibid., p. 298.
(140) Keulartz, p. 110.
(141) Bateson, Angels Fear, p. 108.
(142) For this well-researched important history see Morris Berman. The
Reenchantment of the World. (New York: Bantam, 1989) and Coming to Our Senses:
Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West. (New York: Bantam, 1990).
(143) For the misguided spiritual motivations of Monsanto and Cargill see Brewster
Kneen. Farmageddon: Food and the Culture of Biotechnology. (New York: New
Society Publishers), 1999.
(144) On cybernetics used to promoted genocidal social Darwinism see Jeremy

Rifkin, in collaboration with Nicanor Perlas,Algeny (NY: Penguin Books, 1984). Zizek
makes the same argument--a section called "Cyberspace, or The Unbearable
Closure of Being" in The Plague of Fantasies. Peter Drucker is a leading proponent
of this deterministic inaccurate use ofsystems theory. The same co-optation is
expressed by E.O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. (New York: Knopf,
1998).
(145) Keulartz, The Struggle for Nature, p. 140.
(146) David Watson, Beyond Bookchin: Preface for a future social ecology (NY:
Autonomedia, 1996).
(147) Noam Chomsky, the most-well known proponent of anarchism, bases his
theory in the arguments of freedom found in classical liberalism. For the two most
lucid explanations of anarchism see Rudolf Rocker, preface by Noam
Chomsky, Anarcho-Syndicalism (London: Pluto Press, 1989) and Daniel Gurin,
introduction by Noam Chomsky, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (NY: Monthly
Review Press, 1970).
(148) Chia, Awaken Healing, p. 24.
(149) Vandana Shiva, Biopiracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (Boston:
South End Press, 1997), p. 111, pp. 31-33. For further connections between
sovereignty and spirituality see Staughton Lynd, Intellectual Origins of American
Radicalism (NY: Vintage, 1969).
(150) This phenomenon of social harmony arising from the void has been proven
scientifically to exist cross-culturally by Paul Byers of Columbia University as well as
Boston scientist William Condon. Berendt, The World Is Sound, p. 116.
(151) Keulartz, The Struggle for Nature, p. 41; pp. 107-108.
(152) Rosi Braidotti, "Towards Sustainable Subjectivity: A View from Feminist
Philosophy," in Egon Becker and Thomas Jahn, eds., Sustainability and the Social
Sciences: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Integrating Environmental
Considerations into Theoretical Reorientation (London: Zed Books, 1999), p. 86.
(153) Dissipative structures are explained by the resonance principles modeled by
the comma of Pythagoras. Corporate-state policies have instituted a faster rate of
extinction than any time in planetary history according to a recent survey of
professional biologists-see Earth Island Journal at http://www.earthisland.org/ and
Rainforest Action Network at www.ran.org For a scientific overview of the extinction
crisis from conservation biologists see Reed F. Noss and Allen Y.
Cooperrider, Saving Nature's Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity (D.C.:
Island Press, 1994).
(154) Kingsley., p. 162.
(155) Capra, The Web of Life, pp. 296, 299, 300. For the best overview of how to
address this clash see Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins. Natural
Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (NY: Little Brown and Co., 1999).
C.A. Bowers, The Culture of Denial: Why the Environmental Movement Needs a
Strategy for Reforming Universities and Public Schools. (New York: SUNY Press,
1997).