Riding the Numbers: Ratios & Resonant States of Consciousness

Is it possible that the human body is like a tuning fork capable of going into attunement or resonance with fundamental ratios that give rise to blissful connection – states of quantum coherence resulting in deep insights, even samadhi or cosmic consciousness? History is replete with a variety of techniques that appear to support this hypothesis.


Introduction
Evidence in the sciences has been mounting that there is an underlying mathematics of harmony in nature [1]. It appears that certain ratios e.g. 2, 3, 5 , and particularly the golden ratio are central to this harmony. Throughout nature adjacent Fibonacci numbers approximate the golden ratio. The chaos border, fine structure constant, and quark masses, as established by El Naschie, are functions of the golden ratio [2,3]. In fact, in 2010, the golden ratio or Φ was found at the core of quantum mechanics [4]. Penrose and Hameroff provocatively suggest that consciousness emerges through the quantum mechanics of microtubules [5]. And microtubules are composed of 13 tubulin dimers exhibiting a 8:5 phyllotaxis. Clathrins, located at the tips of microtubules, are truncated icosahedra abuzz with golden ratios [3]. And DNA in both its decagonal structure and its Fibonacci guided nucleotide organization exhibit a golden ratio or Φ resonance [6,7,8]. Even the heavens seem to be structured according to Golden Fibonacci "phyllotactic" relationships. When viewing Venus from Earth a pentagonal rosette forms every eight years (or thirteen Venusian years) i.e. 13:8::8:5. Also both the mean orbits and mean diameters of Earth and Mercury are in a 2 :1 Φ relationship [9]. These ratios and proportions which appear to govern all of nature, considered by some to be nothing less than sacred, may be accessed through a variety of methods. These include geometric constructions (whether drawing, painting, sculpting, model building or architecture); contemplation of nature's forms (flowers may be the most obvious, but plants in general, animals, minerals, beauty of the human form, and microscopic or telescopic observations); listening to or creating harmonic sounds (music, singing, chanting of words and names, or drumming); and even visualization of harmonic ratios. The discussion will include Theurgy, Gematria, Name worshiping, or "imiaslavie," of the Moscow School of Mathematics, and the profound insights of the mystical mathematician Ramanujan. Theurgy, or "divine working" is an ancient technique for the transformation of consciousness by achieving resonant identification with the Divine energies present throughout nature and the cosmos. Fortunately, fragments exist from one of the leading exponents, Syrian Neoplatonist, Iamblichus (c. 245CE -c. 325CE). A sincere follower of Pythagoras and Plato, he was a spokesperson for the ancient mystery traditions. His treatise, Theurgia, was known in antiquity as On the Egyptian Mysteries. And he clearly perpetuates the central role of the golden ratio when he refers to the primordial scission: "God produced matter out of the scission of materiality from substantiality… [and] molds it into forms and organizes it according to numerical ratios…. God's 'rhythmic weaving' of monadic and dyadic archai." [10, pp. 29 & 30] According to Iamblichus, the objective of the theurgist was to use ritual actions to resonantly identify with aspects of the Divine Source. This was accomplished through recognition of the numinous tokens or "signatures" of the Divine present in our world, progressively ascending to the non-material "ratios and proportions" that ultimately would lead the soul back to the Divine Source Itself, the One.

Theurgy
Iamblichus referred to these numinous cues, tokens or "signatures" of the Divine as "sunthemata," and organized them into a three-fold hierarchy. (A) The lowest or material level of stones, plants, animals and other objects of nature could help ease life's pain. (B) Sounds, chanting of names or visual images could be used for purification. (C) At the subtlest level, sacred geometric shapes, ratios and proportions could join the soul with the archetypal realm of numbers, bringing it closer to the One. Iamblichus recognized this as an alchemical transformation of consciousness involving fire, if not kundalini! "The goal of all… theurgic ritual was 'the ascent to the intelligible Fire' and theurgists, Iamblichus says, 'are true athletes of the Fire.'" [10, p. 228]. Much of this may be rooted in Carl Jung's notion of synchronicity, meaningful coincidence, a causal connecting principle linking together consciousness and nature [11].

Gematria
Gematria is a coded system in which letters of the alphabet are simultaneously numbers. And therefore, the words they form are numbers, and intriguingly sometimes equate to particular ratios or logoi. Thus, words, names and phrases may have been purposefully created to encode sacred numerical values. In other cases, two words in relation to each other can produce a special ratio. This is true with Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek and Arabic languages.
In his masterful work on Greek gematria, David Fideler writes: "To the ancient philosophers and cosmologists, the universe physically reflects the 'Word' or Logos of creation: an ordered matrix of harmoniously arranged principles which, when viewed as a unity, is the living manifestation of the Absolute…. The names of the gods were designed to resonate on many levels, mirroring the mathematical principles behind creation…. They were composed to relate to one another through a hierarchy of natural relationships based upon the primacy of the geometrical principles and ratios." [11, p. 206] Striking examples include the gods Zeus, Apollo and Hermes. Apollo and Hermes are both gods of music, sons of Zeus, and represent harmony and reciprocity. Hermes gives Apollo the lyre (the first musical instrument), and Apollo

Name Worshiping and Resonance
Name worshiping, or imiaslavie, was a secret practice for some of those enrolled in the Moscow School of Mathematics, famous for its work towards understanding infinity and set theory. Under the leadership of Dimitri Egorov, Father Pavel Florensky and Nikolai Luzin, they would pronounce their name(s) for God, entering the "Jesus prayer trance," in an effort to achieve resonant states of visionary consciousness. This was undertaken to deepen their understanding of higher mathematical concepts, like infinity. Considered a heresy, they were banned and persecuted by both the Orthodox Church and the Communist authorities [12]. In a similar manner, the Hindu Brahmin Ramanujan entered into resonance with Narashima, the 4 th Avatar of Vishnu, receiving visions of some of the most fascinating equations.

Conclusions
Each of the techniques thus described, appear to be Sociology and Anthropology 5(1): 72-75, 2017 75 centered in the mathematics of harmony underlying nature. Humans may well be hardwired for attunement with the ratios underlying form and function. Like tuning forks seeking union or resonance, such resulting transformative states of bliss have traditionally led to expanded states of awareness. Perhaps Siddhartha Gautama was right; the body is an eye. And when in a state of quantum coherence with nature's divine ratios, one may even achieve the yogic state of Samadhi, or cosmic consciousness, blissful union or entrainment with the consciousness of the universe itself.