A Special Effect of the Doppler Effect

By Wynn Wolfe

Almost everyone has heard a shift in frequency when a car blowing its horn passes by. The pitch while it is approaching is somewhat higher than when at rest, and as it passes, the pitch drops. The result is a kind of eeeeoooo sound. This phenomenon is known as the Doppler Effect after the Austrian physicist Johann Doppler, who first worked out the analysis for sound in 1842. -- Physics, Eugene Hecht, p. 469

With a playful sense of imagination, you can use the "eeoo" transition effect of the Doppler Effect to catapult yourself onto a higher plane of perception -- above our pedestrian world. This is the elevated home of our ubiquitous Quantum Self, an advantageous, quiet place where thoughts and ideas are created, collected, appreciated, and directed. What follows is a nosegay of examples of this special effect:

• I think this is where Walt Whitman "swiftly arose and spread around [himself] the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of Earth." As the German poet Rilke put it, "he had got to the other side of nature." (Cf. Justin Kaplan, Walt Whitman, A Life, Section 5 of "Song of Myself," p. 191.)
• This realm of silence could have been the wedding site of William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
• This silent borderland could be the goal line of raja yoga (union with one's Kingly Self).
• The artist Paul Klee shows us the way to this treasureland with his art-map that he titled "Above the Mountain Peaks."

Paul Klee, Above the Mountain Peaks

• This lofty place might also be described as the twentieth century neo-quiet orbit of the several searching, piercing techno-eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope.
• And lo and behold, I think this is the hovering place in space where Krishna in his chariot coached Arjuna.
• Up here you'll find the helm of the Ancient Mariner within yourself, and if you are quietly attentive that ubiquitous Self may actually let you steer your spiritual thoughts and activities.
• And, while visiting this Buena Vista school you could be asked to sculpt, like Rodin, a solid seat for The Thinker in you, who is the vigilant horoscoper -- the "watcher over the hour."

These special effects of the Doppler Effect can lead to what the French refer to as jouissance ("deep joy") and what we call an epiphany -- a silent moment of sudden intuitive understanding.

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