Dear Reader,
It’s so exciting to learn something completely new and completely amazing. I recently learned of a discipline called archaeo-acoustics. It’s been recently discovered that a lot of ancient sites, including caves, temples and henges, were not just visually impressive. They had specific sonic properties. We’ve known this about temples and cathedrals. But it seems now that many cave-art sites were actually immersive cinemas, designed as much for their mind-altering and very particular surround-sound as for their pictures. It’s like we’ve been bewitched by the visuals for decades, but completely missed the sound.
Now some creative and musically-inclined scientists have set about meticulously studying the acoustic properties of these sites. And, lo and behold - a whole new dimension of early human experience is becoming apparent. It turns out there are very strong correlations between the location and content of cave paintings and the specific acoustic properties.
For example, many of the places depicting hooved animals have resonant properties at certain frequencies that are eerily similar to a live experience of being in the middle of a galloping herd. Other sites depicting human subjects have properties that can make a reflected human voice sound like it is coming from another place, behind the wall or inside the mountain. Thus it seems that these places were the sites of transcendent experience. Much like the modern cinema!
I find this quite unbelievable. Or actually, totally believable but what’s incredible is how easily we underestimate people, species or times and places that are not our own.
Another article in the same edition of the New Scientist (22 Nov 2025) explored how plants respond to sounds and frequencies. Cress exposed to the sound of caterpillars chewing, releases higher levels of bitter, protective toxins. Evening primrose nectar becomes sweeter within 3 minutes of ‘hearing' the specific buzz of its favourite pollinating bee species.
So what does this mean for us? One thing it tells me is that trance can be natural, healthy, adaptive and very positive. Plants in trance become sweeter, more interactive and healthier.
Light and sound are natural methods of induction into trance, not to mention the other senses - senses which are always available to us, if only in our imaginations. We get to choose what we hear, see and feel. All of this is available to us, all of the time.
You can take a moment to do it, right now.
What induces positive states in you? And what happens then? What happens even now as you're thinking about it? What small steps might you take to induce positive transcendent states in your everyday life this week?
The most beautiful experiences are right in front of us, all around us and inside us, everywhere, all the time.
We may not be plants, but we can all trance.
Best wishes,
Adam
PS Funnily enough, as these things happen, literally as I’m writing this I’ve just responded to a whatsapp voice message from a client. I’ve been leaving more voice messages myself over the last few weeks, for various reasons, and finding them a really good way to communicate deeply and efficiently. If anyone would like to leave me a WhatsApp message, thought, question, observation, or whatever, I’ll respond in person with my own voice and my own thoughts. I'm on +44 7775 715672. Sound, interaction and the human voice are powerful agents. I look forward to sharing more.
PPS If you haven't heard my podcast on "Facing Fears, Finding Freedom, and the power of positive change" with Laura Whyte at Whyfield, you can find my 2nd episode of the F Word HERE.
