If you’ve ever dabbled in a few yoga classes, you’ve likely come across the word “OHM” (also spelled as “om”). Perhaps you once saw a bearded hippie character in a movie, cross-legged in the Lotus pose, chanting ohm with his eyes closed. 

hand of someone meditating
Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash

As a mantra, Ohm does have a very sacred energy to it. You feel calm and centred almost right away! Both meditation and psychedelics are seen as the ways to reach enlightenment (with the latter route being the short cut!) This means that the Ohm has a strong tie to psychedelics such as magic mushrooms and truffles — total pros at blasting open the doors of perception.

When done right, chanting Ohm the sound feels ancient, as if it comes from the very beginning of the universe. Like it vibrates from a secret place deep within your soul. The early Hindu sages knew it, too. In Devanagari, the concept of Ohm has a written symbol, drawn like this:

Photo by Brecht Corbeel on Unsplash

What if the sound of Ohm itself can be visualised? Is it even possible? Believe it or not, invisible sounds can have a physical shape!

The secret? All about good vibrations…

How Sound Works

In order to discover what Ohm looks like, we must first know more about how sound works. Basically, a sound is a vibration which moves through air, water, or solids. This vibration then makes a “wave” of pressure — something you can actually feel. Like when you’re at a rave, and you stand close to a bass-heavy speaker. 

bee making vibrations in water
Photo by Mike Lewinski on Unsplash

Dude, wear noise-canceling earphones if you want. The music still throbs on the dance floor (and you’ll feel it). Sound waves may be invisible, yet they also exist on the physical plane.

How to See Sounds

Cymatics is the study of visible sound. Using a special tool called a tonoscope (a plate covered with sand), you can pick up the vibrations made by sound, and reveal their shape in the process. Just like pinecones, crystals, and nautilus shells, sounds can display a special geometry of their own. It’s absolutely bonkers, and beautiful. Take a look right here:

waves become matter tonoscope

As sound waves vibrate, grains of sand on a tonoscope begin to form elaborate shapes. Pretty cool, huh?

What OHM Looks Like

Now that we’ve proven you can see sounds, it’s time to show what Ohm looks like. When seen on a tonoscope, the sacred sound Ohm takes on the most basic shape of our universe… the ellipse. Here’s what happened when Steven Halpern — a Grammy Award-nominated new-age musician — played a 1981 recording of him chanting Om in the Great Pyramid:

“See the ellipse?,” Halpern asks his friend at 1:35.

“Oh, yes!”

As you can see, the results were quite astonishing. The sacred sound Ohm took on the physical shape of an ellipse, very clearly. By the time the video gets to 2:55, Halpern admits:

“It freaked me out completely.”

The Sacred Shape

Curious to see more? Here’s some crazy examples of how the ellipse — shape of the sacred sound Ohm — reaches out into the universe far far away:

“Om is the imperishable word. Om is the universe, and this is the exposition of Om. The past, the present, and the future, all that was, all that is, all that will be is Om. Likewise, all else that may exist beyond the bounds of time, that too is Om.” — from the Upanishads, a sacred Hindu text

In the Beginning was the Word…

The mystical sound Ohm comes from Hinduism.

According to ancient Sanskrit texts, Ohm is the primordial sound of the universe — the sacred first breath of God Himself. This is why Ohm has served as a “source tone” for prayer songs and chants, for thousands of years… 

Hindu prayer at the Ganges River
A family joining in prayer in the Ganges for morning rituals, Varanasi Benares India- Creative Commons

As a mantra, Ohm is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. The Christian tradition also refers to a mysterious “word” spoken during the Creation:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” — John 1:1

According to legend, there was a time when people’s hearts were quiet. They could hear echoes of the First Ohm. This echo inspired how they tuned musical instruments, like the sitar. 

To pronounce Ohm the right way, you must first divide it into 3 sections: ‘A-U-M’. The ‘A’ (“ahh”) sound vibrates in your heart. ‘U’ (“oooh”) sound vibrates in your stomach. And the ‘M’ (“mmm”) sound vibrates in your head. The whole syllable Ohm (“home”) must be said all in one breath, as deeply as you can. Try it for yourself! 

As Above, So Below

“Man is the microcosm of the macrocosm; the God on earth is built on the pattern of the God in nature.” — Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology

Now you’ve seen what the sound Ohm looks like. How do you feel? Are you surprised that Ohm has the shape of an ellipse? It kinda makes sense, doesn’t it? Sacred sounds are expressed in sacred geometry.  

sacred geometry in shell
Sacred geometry in nature via Wikimedia Commons

Before Ohm, there was nothing. But as the first sound came forth, its cosmic vibrations formed the planets, which moved in elliptical orbits, and filled the emptiness. We may call it God, or Brahma, or the Big Bang, they all refer to the same creative force. The first breath of Life which gave us our home… Ohm. 

Check out our amazing “OHM” magic mushroom grow kits!