Through a branch of study called cymatics, scientists discovered something astonishing: Sound doesn’t just move air – it shapes matter.
This field emerged in the 18th century with the work of German physicist Ernst Chladni, often regarded as the father of acoustics. In his experiments, he took a metal plate, sprinkled it with fine sand, and ran a violin bow along the edge. The vibration caused the sand to shift and form symmetrical patterns – now called Chladni figures. It was the first glimpse of invisible vibration becoming a visible design.
In the 1960s, Dr. Hans Jenny, a Swiss medical doctor and scientist, gave this field its name: cymatics, from the Greek kyma, meaning “wave.”
Using tones played through a tonoscope, Jenny discovered that different frequencies consistently produced specific shapes: low frequencies tended to create simple shapes – circles, triangles and lines. But as the pitch increased, the patterns became more intricate. Hexagons appeared. Then mandalas. Even flower-like lattices began to take form. At certain exact pitches, symbols long considered spiritual or mathematical would emerge – not by chance, but repeatedly, predictably.
The sound didn’t just move matter. It is organized, formed by frequency alone.
Jenny called this phenomenon “visible music.”
You can see an experiment online where a woman sings, “Una Donna a Quindici Anni,” into a tonoscope and a perfectly symmetrical seven-pointed star is created – not generated by a machine, but by resonance. Sung – with breath, with intention, with the human voice.
This idea – that sound can shape the unseen – was not foreign to the ancients. The Vikings had a word for it: Galdr.
Galdr wasn’t just melody – it was spoken intention, sharpened into sound. It was the intentional chanting of runes. Warriors, seers and shamans would speak or sing these runes aloud, believing they could influence the forces of nature, shield themselves in battle, or open gateways to hidden knowledge.
Each rune had a sound, and each sound had power. To chant a rune was to call a pattern into being, much like the seven-pointed star rising from the sand on the tonoscope.
Galdr was the understanding that the human voice – charged with intent – was not passive. It was a tool for shaping.
In early Chinese tradition, the philosopher Confucius taught that the key to harmony in the kingdom was to “rectify names” – to speak words that accurately reflected truth and order. If names became distorted, if language no longer matched reality, society would unravel. Disorder in words meant disorder in the world.
And this idea? It’s not foreign to Christian tradition.
The Apostle James called the tongue “a small part of the body, but it’s like a spark that can set a whole forest ablaze.” The tongue, he warned, carries disproportionate power.
Paul compared it to a rudder on a ship – tiny, yet able to steer the entire vessel. In other words, your words guide your direction.
But the most striking example comes from the prophet Isaiah.
In a vision, Isaiah finds himself in the throne room of the Almighty. He sees the Lord, high and exalted, surrounded by seraphim.
It is a scene of perfect glory. But Isaiah doesn’t feel worthy to join in. He falls to his knees and cries, “Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips…”
He doesn’t say, I am unclean because of what I’ve done.
He says, I am unclean because of what I’ve said.
In that moment, a seraph flies to him with a burning coal, taken from the altar. And touches Isaiah’s mouth. In this divine encounter, it’s not Isaiah’s actions that are purified – it’s his speech.
It all seems to point in one direction:
What we say has power.
Today, in the field of modern psychology, we’ve rediscovered the same truth. The language we use – especially the words we speak about ourselves – shapes our perception, our emotions, even our identity.
Say “I’m worthless” enough times, and it becomes more than a thought – it becomes a worldview.
Say “I’m loved. I’m here for a reason.” You carry yourself differently, with a spring in your step. You begin to live into the shape of the words you’ve spoken.
Just as sand arranges itself under sound, your life begins to align with your language.
Your words do not vanish. They echo. Speak with care, for what you say becomes a reality.
• Toby Moore is a Shaw Local News Network columnist, star of the Emmy-nominated film “A Separate Peace,” and CEO of CubeStream Inc. He can be reached at feedback@shawmedia.com.