Determining the Energies of Names (Revised Version)
D.C. Wade · 2007
This article is a revised version of an article with the same title that was published by the author in 2006, and it corrects errors that are present in the previous version. A method is presented for determining the energy of a name as the acoustical energy of the vocalized name. The names, Madonna and Esther, as spoken by the author and by a computerized text-to-speech program, were used to test the method. Differences between the acoustical energies of the two names depended upon the method used to measure the energies. There was no difference between the energies of the names as spoken by the author, but when the names were vocalized with a computerized text-to-speech program, Madonna had 2.6-fold greater energy than Esther. Introduction On June 16, 2004, the pop singer, Madonna, announced that she had taken the Hebrew name of Esther, in order to attach herself to “the energy of a different name” [1]. Nameologist, Maryanna Korwitts, has written that “...every name carries a frequency or vibration established by the characters that make up the name.” and that “...the creative (or discordant) energy of a name is released every time that name is spoken, written or even thought.” [2]. To the natural scientist, these statements about energy can have physical interpretations. Scientists ascribe different types of energies to different objects and actions of the natural world, such as mechanical energy, heat energy, electrical energy, atomic energy, etc. Do different names have different “energies” in the scientific sense of the word? Is it possible that the physical parameter, energy, has a role in the choice of names, and, if so, how could the energies of names be determined? The physiological processes of thought, speech, hearing, writing, and vision involve complex brain and muscular activities. All of these processes are known, or believed, to have a biochemical basis, and associated energies that can be measured and described with physical parameters. The transmission of speech between humans through the medium of air begins with compressions of air by the lungs and vocal cords, propagation of these compressions through air in the form of waves, reception of the compressions by the human ear, conversion of the compressions into vibrations of the ear drum, and, finally, conversion of ear drum vibrations into the electrical and chemical energy of nerve impulses by the apparatus of the inner ear. If the human ear is replaced with an electronic reception device, such as a microphone and recording device, it is possible to measure the acoustical energy associated with speech, such as spoken names. This methodology enables the comparison of the energies of names, in terms of their acoustical energies. Methods The names, Madonna and Esther, were vocalized by two methods, and the resulting sounds were recorded electronically (Figure 1). The first method involved vocalization of the names by the author. A human sound source may unintentionally introduce bias into the manner in which a name is vocalized. For example, the speaker may emphasize certain parts of a name, or emphasize one name more than another. One way to avoid such bias would be to use computer generated speech as the means of vocalization, as it permits control of many aspects of the speech process and should make it possible to generate identical vocalizations of the same name. Therefore, the names were also vocalized by a computerized text-to-speech program. Regardless of the method ────────────────────────────────────────────────────── © 2007 Wade Research Foundation