-In Tune Series Part 4-
Demystifying controversial beliefs within the field of sound healing and modern-day spirituality.
This story is a spicy one, full of surprises. It’s about secret ancient frequencies that got hidden and only recently rediscovered. It’s about Medieval Italian monks and American cowboys. It’s about a battle between good and evil. It’s about cracking the Da Vinci code and healing the world.
Introduction
This story is about the ‘ancient Solfeggio frequencies’. It is perhaps the most popular frequency system within the field of sound healing, even more popular than the 432 frequency. If you are looking for streaming some sound healing through YouTube or Spotify you likely end up with one of both. The forgotten Solfeggio frequencies are claimed to be the essential building blocks of the universe. These exact frequencies are said to appear in the ancient forgotten Solfeggio scale as it was used in Gregorian chants before the middle ages. Recently these frequencies are rediscovered, ready to be used once again for ‘global enlightenment’. The 528 frequency, stamped as the frequency of Love itself, is considered to be the central and most important frequency of the Solfeggio series. 528 Hz is believed to generate miracles for anyone who listens to it.
According to the ancient Solfeggio adherents the Solfeggio frequencies have been known to sound healers from the ancient times. For millennia shamans, Christian monks and healers alike knew these exact frequencies, until they got purposely hidden by the church, locked up in the secret archives of the Vatican. The story goes that recently this knowledge got rediscovered, enabling the people to once again reclaim their power, health and reconnection with the divine.
If this is true… I suppose we all want to know these frequencies, right? Or first we might double-check the story’s sources…
Let’s listen first!
Let’s start off with listening to some of the so-called ancient Solfeggio frequencies. Here you can listen to a song that claims to be the 852 Hz cleanse of destructive energy. So far it has been streamed 43 million (!) times! The goofy thing is that the 852 Hz frequency isn’t even appearing in this song! No one seems to notice it, and when I mention it in the comments there is a silent response. Funny enough this is not an exception. I measured quite a bunch of songs, especially the most popular ones. Just like many of the 432Hz songs, many of them are actually tuned to a totally different reference pitch or have the drone tuned to a different tone (in case of the Solfeggio frequencies). However it might still be an enjoyable, or in some cases, for some people, even healing piece of music. I often enjoy the music myself as well, despite of the misleading titles they have been given.
Let’s call it an unfortunate mistake by some ancient Solfeggio frequency adherents. Now, let’s listen to the pure frequency itself. Here is the 528 Hz frequency (currently streamed 1,3 million times) taken out of its musical framework.
What do you feel? You can listen it up to 8 hours if you want, cause that’s how long this frequency is stretched out in this YouTube video. Only 8 minutes should be sufficient to get you nuts, stressed or agitated. You don’t need to be a sound healer, intuitive or musician to come to that conclusion.
But maybe I’m missing something… let’s dive a bit deeper. Where did the ancient Solfeggio theory originate?
As the story goes…
Around the year 1000 CE in an Italian monastery there lived a man named Guido d’Arezzo. Apart from being a Benedictine monk he was also a musician. He is known for having used the hymn to Saint John the Baptist for a new system of musical notation.
The hymn, written by Paulus Diaconus in the 8th century, goes as follows:
Ut queant laxis Resonare fibris Mira gestorum Famuli tuorum Solve polluti Labii reatum Sancte Johannes.
Looking at the first parts of each phrase we can see the names of the 6 notes emerging:
UT – RE – MI – FA – SOL – LA
(later on UT got replaced by DO and SI or TI was added as the 7th tone)
And thus the Solfeggio scale was born! With this the ‘tone’ was set for writing and learning music in the Western way like we are still doing up until this day. Pretty much the same syllables are being used for the notes of the modern-day scale.
So far archaeologists, scholars and musicologists generally agree with one another. However… the story continues.
Hidden knowledge revealed?
In the mid-1970’s the American Dr. Joseph S. Puleo started an in-depth investigation on numbers appearing in the Bible. What he found was a pattern of six repeating codes around a series of sacred numbers; 3, 6 and 9. He connected these numbers to frequencies and believed they must have been part of a lost musical scale. He also believed that the church was well aware of this information but kept it secret on purpose. The American (former) dentist Leonard Horowitz jumped on this theory, backed it up with what he calls scientific information, and together they published the book "Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse". Horowitz continued specifically with the 528Hz frequency, created a movement with it and commercialised it in any possible way. With the 9 Solfeggio frequencies (6 + 3 that were added later) and especially the 528 frequency theory he claims to have cracked the real Da Vinci code. All of the frequencies are attributed with specific beneficial effects.
Here are the Solfeggio syllables with their given frequencies, according to Horowitz. I added also the corresponding tone (with the chromatic equal tempered 440 Hz system).
UT – 396 Hz – Liberating Guilt and Fear (G in A = 444,5 Hz)
RE – 417 Hz – Undoing Situations and Facilitating Change (G# in A = 442 Hz)
MI – 528 Hz – Transformation, Miracles and DNA Repair (C in A = 444 Hz)
FA – 639 Hz – Connecting/Relationships (D# in A = 452 Hz)
SOL – 741 Hz – Awakening Intuition (F# in A = 441,5 Hz)
LA – 852 Hz – Returning to Spiritual Order (A in 426 Hz)
(The additional 3 Solfeggio frequencies are not mentioned here, but are included in the image underneath from the 528 movement from Dr. Horowitz.)
Before these 6 (or 9) tones got hidden, it was believed that they were abundantly used in music and sound healing, keeping people ‘in tune’ with nature.
The highly dissonant ‘ancient Solfeggio scale’
Any musician can tell that if you would actually apply these given frequencies together in a scale, as is presented, it would sound very weird as many of the intervals are extremely dissonant. It’s a mystery why the given syllables (ut-re-mi etc.) aren’t at all connected to the currently known notes. The intervals between these frequencies are entirely different than those in the chromatic scale. Many intervals are actually missing, and in fact it would be very difficult to make harmonious music with it. The order of tones isn’t even fitting within one octave. Anyone who would try to fit this into a musical piece ends up with a question mark. According to Dr. Puleo and Dr. Horowitz these are the frequencies that our dear Italian monk Guido d’Arezzo must have been using as the 6 notes of the scale. If Guido d’Arezzo and the choirs of Gregorian singers would really have been applying these frequencies in their Solfeggio scale, sadly their music would have sounded horribly out of tune. Without a doubt, calling these frequencies the forgotten notes of the ancient Solfeggio scale, is showing a great lack of understanding music.
The ancient Solfeggio frequencies are based on the numerological research of Dr. Puleo. He studied numbers in the Bible. As I’m a layman in the field of numerology, I can’t tell if this research has any numerological value. I can only guess it has. Numerology shouldn’t be confused with mathematics and musical knowledge though! Suddenly transforming numerological codes into frequencies is highly irrational, and it proves to be the case by listening to the result. Try it out (if you have the means); play all of these frequencies together, or even just one after another, and you will hear an uncomfortable disharmony.
Conspiracy
As outlined above, the theory sprouts from a numerological research, but that’s not all. The great global success of the theory might primarily be attributed to the idea that a small secret group of evil people is consciously trying to manipulate and dominate the mass through vibration and music. The message that some ‘happy few’ are hiding secret information for the public and applying destructive frequencies in order to manipulate, seems to resonate strongly with most ‘Solfeggio believers’. The act of ‘spreading the right information for the well-being and healing of the people’ seems to be presented in a very heroic way. As Leonard Horowitz states in a press conference: “They have held the ancient knowledge; the ancient music by which the pyramids were constructed based on the math. All of the universe is constructed according to these 9 codes. They knew about it.“ (*1)
Who are ‘they’? Well, the Vatican, the Rockenfellers and… the nazi’s. You know… the happy few, the rich, the politicians, the 1% or in short; the ‘bad guys’. The Solfeggio theory is imbued with what could be safely called conspiracy. Leonard Horowitz is preaching love (as the 528 ‘love frequency’), but is clearly continually emitting intensely hateful ‘frequencies’ against these ’happy few’. According to Horowitz it were the nazi’s that were responsible for the destructive 440Hz standardization. An absolutely irrational theory if you know that 440Hz was as early as the mid-1920’s the informal reference pitch in the US. The nazi’s, according to Horowitz, would have consciously chosen this frequency to be the global standard pitch for their agenda of mass manipulation and world control. With the Solfeggio frequencies Horowitz wants to restore the natural harmony and leave the 440Hz standardization.
In one way or another most of us know that indeed governments and world-dominating companies are often manipulating the mass through specific strategies. Leaving aside the idea of ‘evil intent’ for another discussion, there is no evidence at all that manipulation of the mass is happening through the manipulation of frequencies in music. There is absolutely nothing that points to 440 Hz as a destructive frequency. Than why would people use it to manipulate other people? The researches of one of the pioneers of modern-day sound healing, Fabien Maman, even show the healing effects of 440 Hz. (*2) If you find one study or anything that proves the destructive effect of 440 Hz, please let me know. Leonard Horowitz intents to forcefully impose 528 Hz (what he beliefs to be the right frequency) in music in very much in the same way as 440 Hz is imposed by the governments and modern-day musical industry.
The story of a spiritual cowboy
Now we’re reaching the source of the ancient Solfeggio frequencies theory; indeed it is mainly this one person called Leonard Horowitz, backed up by his friend Joseph Puleo. The American Jesus-loving cowboy from the wild west would do anything to defend his theory just like a real cowboy would defend his million dollar treasure. (Or would it be about the million dollar treasure?) Looking at his websites (*3, 4 & 5) it becomes apparent that he is fighting a battle between good and evil. As he viciously attacks and accuses people from ‘the dark side’, some of these people regularly strike back. So it happened that for example one of his websites was taken down recently. The opposite is true as well. Information is circling around on the internet that Mr. Horowitz takes down websites from Solfeggio frequency opponents as well. If you don’t share his opinion, you seem to risk an attack from Mr. Love frequency himself. The YouTube video of Jamie Buturff is just one example. (*6) Could that be the remarkable and mysterious reason why almost nowhere on the internet there sounds a critical voice?! The only well-researched and fully substantiated article I found was the one from Roel Hollander! (*7) Horowitz reacted on his article, calling Hollander to be of ‘demonic malicious intent’. (*8) It’s just one of many furious verbal attacks from Horowitz.
Honestly speaking, the theories of Dr. Horowitz contain quite some kinks, to say the least. Let’s take a look at the credibility of Dr. Horowitz’s knowledge about sound, music and healing. Here I will comment on just a small selection of quotes from Dr. Horowitz.
“Ancient frequencies.”
It’s not even a quote, it’s within the name of Horowitz’ theory itself. As the Solfeggio system was invented only around the year of 1000 CE it is old but cannot be ancient. What is the biggest fraud here though is to call it ancient ‘frequencies’. The first tuning fork was invented in the early 18th century, but it wasn’t until halfway the 20th century that frequencies started to be measured precisely. The term ‘hertz’ was established only in 1935. Before that there was no way of knowing which frequency exactly was generated. As I wrote extensively in the article about 432 Hz, for millennia musicians were really tuning their instruments and voices to a wide range of reference pitches.
“As we look at the six original Solfeggio frequencies, using the Pythagorean method, we find the base or root vibrational numbers are 3, 6, & 9. Nicola Tesla tells us, and I quote: “If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have a key to the universe.””
As I outlined in my previous article, many spiritual oriented people tend to run away with theories from revered scientists like Tesla without actually understanding them. Here is a classic example of someone that confuses spiritual with scientific knowledge. In this case it is confusing numerology with mathematics and music. The work of Nicola Tesla most probably relates to electromagnetic vibration, which is of an entirely different order than acoustic vibration. Maybe this statement would relate to vibration in general (and thus would include acoustic sound). But the work of Tesla isn’t known to have any relationship with numerology and musical harmony.
“Not coincidently metaphysically, the interval between A=440Hz (equivalent to F#=741Hz in the ancient original Solfeggio scale) and A=444Hz (C=528Hz in the ancient original Solfeggio scale) is classically known as the Devil’s Interval in musicology, due to its highly aversive disharmonious sound made when these two notes are played simultaneously.” (*9)
This quote is showing the little knowledge Horowitz has on musical theory. The tritone, or devil’s interval, is the relationship between notes with a difference of six semi-tones (like the difference between the notes C and F#). Horowitz is greatly mistaken in the quote above (originally stemming from his book ‘The book of 528’), and seems to change his mind now and then on the topic. In another video he states:
“The note 741, which is part of nature, is called the devil’s interval in musicology. When you play 741 with 528 it creates such an annoying stressful energy that if you continue to listen to it, you could die.” (*10)
The 528 Hz industry
Over the years Leonard Horowitz got mainly focussed on the MI note of his Solfeggio theory. This frequency he baptised as the ‘Love-frequency’ or ‘Miracle-frequency’. It corresponds with 528Hz, which is actually a C (that relates to A = 444 Hz in equal temperament). He claims that this frequency is the essence of life, the tone of God or Love itself, the great healing frequency and the cause of miracles for those who listen to it. His main ‘scientific’ argument involves the relationship of the frequency with the colour green. Because plants and grass have a green colour and because it is in the ‘heart’ of the rainbow he attributes divine qualities to it. Should we conclude that orange for example is less divine than green? He also calls it the frequency of the heart chakra, because according to him (with the New Age community behind his back) the heart chakra radiates a green colour (which I will counter in an upcoming article).
(image from the 528 revolution movement)
Horowitz started the 528 Love-revolution, through which he aggressively aims to overrule music in 440Hz or basically any paradigm or institution that doesn’t align with his train of thought. He believes if globally everyone would tune their music to 444 Hz (528Hz with A = 444 Hz) all problems of the world would be miraculously solved.
Who’s in…?
432 Hz and 528 Hz
The 2 so-called natural miracle frequencies tend to be mixed up by people who like to have a sound-healing-quick-fix. Both share similar conspiracy ideas (although it is more strongly present with the 528 adherents), as well as oversimplified healing theories and a lack of musical knowledge. The 2 frequencies are not to be confused though. They stem from 2 different sources. (More info on 432 you can read in the 2th part of this series.)
Horowitz perceives many of the 432 adherents as (in his own words) a bunch of “trolls and so-called experts who have misappropriated portions of the 528 information to promote 432Hz for unscrupulous commercial interests, especially to disparage the 528Hz industry.” (*11) Generally he seems to speak of the 432 movement as a bunch of ignorant people that at least understand partially what it’s really about. He seems to approach the 432 movement as a threat for his 528 revolution and industry. At some point he suddenly started to integrate 432Hz within his theory, stating that 432 Hz is the frequency of the 2th chakra, in line with the Solfeggio frequencies. In other sources he connects the 2th chakra to 417Hz, the second frequency in his Solfeggio scale.
Generally these 2 visions are not complementary when it comes down to creating sound or music. While Horowitz promotes the reference pitch to be tuned to A = 444, the 432Hz believers tune their reference pitch to A = 432.
What is Solfeggio, really?
Ffffiiiiiuw… that was a lot of debunking and trying to see some truth behind all the non-sense. When we strip this theory off completely there is not much left…but a simple definition stemming from music theory.
Solfeggio (or solmization) basically refers to the musical system of syllables corresponding with a set of tones. In the West we are all familiar with ‘do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do’. That is Solfeggio. Other cultures used different syllables within their system. In Indian music that system is called Sargam (sa-re-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni-sa). The name ‘Solfeggio’ refers to the notes ‘sol’ and ‘fa’ that used to be always a part of the scale. A Solfeggio can have a fixed do (as with Western music) or a movable do (as with sargam).
That’s it…
Conclusion
The ‘ancient Solfeggio frequencies’ are made famous particularly by one man called Leonard Horowitz. They aren’t ancient, as frequencies couldn’t even be measured accurately before 1935. They are mistakenly called Solfeggio, as the given frequencies aren’t to be poured into a musical scale, if you don’t want to be left with utter disharmony. The great misconception seems to arrive from the confusion from numerology with mathematics and music. The whole story is imbued with conspiracy and the idea that there are beneficial and evil frequencies that have the same effect on all listeners.
As far as I can see, the whole theory is an empty box, stemming from a dualistic and suspicious mindset as well as illusionary spiritual fantasies. Horowitz equals his Solfeggio theory with Sound Healing in general. It’s a shame for the Sound Healing community that this seems to be the most popular Sound Healing system on the globe, putting holistic sound workers in a dodgy spotlight. However, anyone working seriously with Healing Sound should be able to see through this scam. Holistic Sound Healing truly is created from a different place, following different principles than the ones presented by the creators of the ancient Solfeggio frequencies.
Written by Maarten Surya Adriaenssens
Sources
Photos by Vlad Kutepov, Levan Ramishvili, Thought Catalog and Isaac Ibbott
About the In Tune Series
This series contains articles and occasionally videos on vague, mystic and often controversial topics within the field of sound healing and modern-day spirituality. I’ll shine some light on some very ‘settled’ beliefs within this field, and investigate whether or not they really are ‘in tune’ with ‘truth’.