Von Kessels

Did you ever wonder why Om is *known* by more people throughout the world than the combined works of Beethoven, Elvis, The Beatles, Don Ho, Britney Spears and Andre 2000 of OutKast? One hypothesis suggests Om's universal popularity is the result of geophysical phenomena and our biophysical response to the environment rather than an overly hyped Hollywood marketing campaign. Whoa...that's Heavy! Since even Marty McFly is curious about its origin, let's read on! There is a deep interrelationship between geo-cosmic fields and life, simply because life evolved in the presence of specific natural EM fields on earth. Evidence suggests that geophysical fields regulate life. Some of the natural frequencies associated with Earths Schumann resonance, a transverse resonating waveband spanning between the Earth and ionosphere, (ranging from approximately 7.83 Hz.with detectable overtones extending upwards into the kilohertz range) produce beneficial effects on many organisms, including humans, even at extremely low intensities. Consider that brain waves at 8 to 13 Hz form the alpha band of EEG, which is associated with relaxation and meditation. When EM fields in this frequency range are applied to the human, the brain is dynamically entrained at those frequencies, and the person goes into a psychophysiology state of relaxation. Organisms, in fact, may be stimulated by certain key frequency components of the geomagnetic field that acts as pacemakers for their internal biologic oscillators. Way cool... Credit DE ES "Stoneman" When you are completely relaxed but not yet asleep, your brain hums around 8 to 12 cycles per second. 8 or 9 cps is considered a very creative state, marked with contemplative thought and increased intuition. Moving down the awareness scale we arrive at the theta frequencies, and a very interesting set of frequencies they are. Encounter by VK Between 4 to 8 cps is where dreams, deep hypnosis, ESP, out-of-body projections and other odd mind phenomena start to pop up. Somewhere in this range lies what is called the hypnagogic state; that twilight-zone of consciousness on the border between being awake and falling asleep and where conscious and subconscious thought start to overlap. By listening to the audio offered on this site, the theta state can be sonically induced, thus allowing the entrainee extended periods of exploration. We refer to these listeners as Sonic Pilots. Now that you've been briefed on the basics, you've graduated Om 101 Congratulations! Not too many people have made it this far. The spirit of Professor Albert requests your presence at the Message Boards. If you surf on over, I'll meet you there. When you are finished listening, you can meet the rest of my friends at Cliff Pickover's unique site:

When Von Kessels first approached me about helping him record a gong, I envisioned endless hours of mallet strikes followed by decays long enough to nap through. My experiences with gongs were limited to what I'd seen at the beginning of old movies, and at the end of old rock concerts. If a musical instrument can become a cliche, The Gong Show had certainly catapulted this one to downright silliness. The words "It's like nothing you've ever heard" are also cliche, but coming from a skeptic such as Von Kessels, my curiosity was peaked."To hear it, you've got to put your ear a few inches from the gong". A few inches from the gong? "Oh yeah" he said, "Thats where the overtones are." He had me, I was hooked. The challenge then, was to capture the intimate sound he was creating. A fifty six inch gong is impressive, even before it is played. There in the center of the recording room was a massive gold disk, reflecting an ocean of light from hundreds of tiny pits that had been hammered into its surface. Light seemed to dance across it as I walked by. Suspended by a giant black ring, the gong resembled an alter, paying homage to centuries of artisans who had toiled over hot furnaces, carefully forging life into molten brass. This certainly was not the gong of my high school music class, tarnished and misshapen but rather an instrument of striking beauty and craftsmanship. There is a certain irony when making a state-of-the-art, digital Recording of an ancient instrument. While the instrument has remained unchanged over millennia, the technology to record it is still in its infancy, constantly evolving, minute by minute. It took weeks of preparation to assemble all the gear we needed, and pieces of this puzzle only came together the day of the recording. Having arrived from all parts of the country, a quick inventory revealed missing components and a mad scramble ensued. Digital audio is like a finely tuned, high performance racecar. All the integrated parts must work together perfectly, within very close tolerances. Parts are esoteric and hard to find, and our resources were limited. It took all day to get it right, but that evening we were finally ready to record. Once having positioned the microphones, a simple test strike with the palm of the hand unearthed a sound that left me awestruck. "Over and Under" VK So rich and complex, the myriad of "sound shapes" evolved and intertwined as it dissipated into the air. Its richness was beyond anything I had ever heard, with overtones riding high above a foundation of densely packed drones and beating rhythms. This proved only to be a foreshadowing of experiences yet to come. The sounds you will hear on this disc were created as if by spirits, with Von Kessels acting only as the medium through which they flow. Unpredictable and fleeting, sometimes flowing while at other times needing to be coaxed, these spirits speak directly to our souls. Within these gongs lies centuries of life cycles. Not only of earth but of worlds beyond our own. The frequencies generated by these spirits seem to resonate at the fundamental pitch of the universe, an overtone of the dissipating big bang. Sir Arthur Payson

Never live...only Memorex!

Electromagnetic fields from Earth.

Only *the* Largest Chinese Wind Gongs on the Planet!

Just some inspiration...