True story. In a small town along Brazil’s Amazon, there is a warehouse with barrels of honey stacked on pallets. It’s organic honey, certified chemical-free, and it was produced by Africanized bees – the so-called killers of the bee world. All of that is somewhat ordinary. The odd thing about this honey, packed in stainless steel drums destined for Japan, is that musical vibes have been imbibed into its sweet molecules. You see, the buyer has insisted that beautiful new age music must be played day and night in the warehouse – to, um, energize it.

Amazon cotton field   (Source)

I heard about this honey from a Brazilian beekeeper who was given a special MP3 file to broadcast to his own honey barrels, but, alas, my friend failed to get his crop certified as organic. Some of his bee yards were too close to commercial cotton fields, down along the southern edge of the Amazon rainforest. He envied the other beekeeper who was receiving a huge premium for his special musically-enhance honey.

I understand how organic honey may be desirable. And Amazon jungle honey must be the coolest thing since New Zealand’s manuka. But honey that has spent a few weeks listening to meditative tunes? It makes my inner geophysicist wants to scream.

The idea that liquids may remember music in their molecular souls is akin to the memories that homeopathic preparations are said to retain. Even diluted a billion to one, some homeopathic water is believed to remember the chemicals that once floated in it, thus imparting effects far greater than cold water. I’m a skeptic, but there are plenty of believers out there – homeopathy is a billion dollar business. I’m glad it’s not true, else the folks down river from us would be drinking some really memorable water.

Some New Age vendors have taken to exploiting the sound vibration memory idea. The Holistic Works website would like to sell you personal sprays that have been subjected to musical vibrations. The call the stuff Flutterbye (Did you catch the stupid play on the word butterfly? Their entire web page is just as clever, making me think it’s all a joke. But it’s not.)

Here’s their advertising lead-in:  The flutterbye effect: healing resonance from butterflies, bees and dragonflies. These folks are selling “Sound Healing”. In a nutshell (and I really mean nutshell) the stuff you will spray in the air has been impregnated with the vibes of butterflies, dragonflies, and bees. They apparently record the 200-beats per minute buzz of a bee, then play that sound towards a jar of BioResonance Sound Spray so you can “build something very special into your energetic healing – the beating of the wings.” Two things you may need to know about these sound sprays: “Bioresonance Sound Sprays are great for spraying around your aura, as a personal spray”; and, “no tiny creatures were harmed in any way in making these resonant sprays.” Well, that’s certainly reassuring.

The butterfly spray’s vibrations will help you overcome your difficult past and bring peace and openness;  the bumblebee spray will help you overcome inertia and apathy and (as a bonus) you will be more able to relax into your etheric field. The cost for the spray, “made from new sound technology which encapsulates the vibrational sound of wings beating” is just $18.95 for 50 ml (about 4 tablespoons).   Sweet. Wish I had thought of it myself.