--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu <noozguru@> wrote: <snip> > > No, I'm not claiming that at all. All I'm claiming is that > different mantras have different effects and it is due to the > resonance of the sound which also works at the mental level. > That is not dogma as it can be observed at the audible level. > > They are different in what parts of the body are involved. A > thought is not a sound vibration of air molecules hitting the > ear drum. It may be an electrical or chemical event in the > brain, but it is not the same thing as an external sound > vibration.
There may not be as much difference as you think. Unless we set up specialized instruments to measure the sound, the only way we know there's an "external sound vibration" is by the electrical/chemical event it produces in the brain when it hits the eardrum. It would be interesting to do a study to see whether thinking the mantra activates the hearing area of the brain. There have been studies (not related to meditation) showing that when we imagine a sound or sight, maybe touch/smell/taste as well, the same areas of the brain light up under MRI as when we actually hear or see etc. something external. And even when we set up instruments to measure sound vibrations, the measurements by themselves tell us nothing about whether the sound is pleasant or unpleasant, consonant or dissonant, major or minor. Those qualities are the province of the brain, not the measuring instruments. Speaking of a fingernail on a blackboard, for many people just *mentioning* it is enough to make them wince, because the words evoke the memory of what it sounds like. That's why the analogy is so effective in the TM intro lecture. People "hear" the sound in their mind's ear the same way they "hear" the mantra. You sure wouldn't want to use the fingernail sound as if it were a mantra.
