The word resonance is related to the Latin resonare, which means “to resound”, “to repeat a sound”, or, in other words, to vibrate. In the yoga practice, resonance is a process of initiating and amplifying vibratory phenomena, consciously perceived in the being, produced under the action of the vibrations (energies) coming from certain specific levels of manifestation of the universe.
Resonance occurs only when the frequency of vibration is close or coincides with one of the frequencies with which the yogi’s inner universe is capable of vibrating in unison, as long as this process is maintained with grace and attention. Therefore, resonance is an extremely complex phenomenon, in which the universe’s waves, or vibratory energies, regardless of their nature, are propagated from an emitting focus, generated by a corresponding vibration in a person’s inner universe. This occurs if one of the person’s own frequencies is equal or very close to the frequency with which the cosmic focus vibrates and if the energy carried by its corresponding vibration is big enough with respect to the distance that separates the two systems.
Through the conscious yoga practice, one can notice the amazing multitude of resonance processes, which are assimilated with all the phenomena generated by the vibratory energy, sometimes extremely fine, acting in the various systems that exist in the person’s microcosm. The multitude of phenomena that are noticed at that time are caused by the modulated energy that is directly received by means of these waves that come from gigantic systems or focus centres in the macrocosm and that always vibrate with a frequency that is close to that of the vibrations of the corresponding point from the yogi’s being (microcosm). This (corresponding) point is considered a resonator simply because it is capable of entering in vibration, in unison, due to resonance, when it is excited by vibrations with a frequency that is equal to its own frequency.
The continuity of the resonance process in the inner universe is maintained by uninterrupted concentration. The perceived amplitude of the vibrations that are induced and received in the person’s being, carrying harmony, meaning, energy, and information, is maximum in the case of equality of these frequencies, even tending toward infinity if the factors that trigger resonance are maintained constant. The attention that is focused on the phenomenon will always be essential.
Yoga practice allows us to notice that during the maintenance of the resonance state there occurs an uninterrupted transfer of energy and information from the exciter system, or focus, from the universe to the corresponding specific focus or centre that exists in our inner universe. From the moment in which the phenomenon of inner resonance is triggered, a state that corresponds to the received energy is also triggered in the being. At the same time, the amplitude of vibrations, as they are perceived due to awareness, greatly increases, displaying a characteristic maximum that will be kept unaltered if the inner concentration is constant. In daily yoga practice, resonance is a constant phenomenon, very often perceivable, which the authentic yoga methodologies seek to use only in a beneficial, creative, balancing way, contributing to the person’s completion and integration into the cosmic universal harmony.
The resonance phenomenon can be experimentally demonstrated by using a piano and holding its right pedal pressed while another person emits a strong enough sound in its proximity, for example, a vocal A. The piano will very clearly reproduce the same sound by resonance; the corresponding string that is attuned to that vocal A spontaneously enters in vibration under the excitation of the sonorous vocal waves. The voice that emits the A is akin to one of the hidden foci of the universe, and the piano in this case is our inner universe, which will vibrate in a corresponding area as soon as its specific string is attuned, because of the concentration and awareness that allows the resonance phenomenon. This example illustrates a state of unison by tuning, which is characteristic of the phenomena of yoga practice.
The full analogical understanding of this experience, which is accessible to anyone, enables us to intuit the fundamental secret that has underlain the yoga system for thousands of years. By perfectly noticing the importance of resonance, sages of the West have laconically noted, “Know yourself and you will thus know the Universe, together with its hidden forces” (The inscription from the frontispiece of the Delphi Temple). The sages of the East have expressed the same truth in a different form: “What is here (in your being’s microcosm) is everywhere (in the macrocosm or universe). What is not here is nowhere” (Tantra Sara).