852 Hz: the tone of intuition and a quiet mind

What is 852 Hz

852 Hz is a tone that vibrates 852 times a second. In air its wave is 40 centimetres long.

The nearest key of a piano is G♯5 at 830.61 Hz, and 852 Hz lies 44 cents above it. A semitone has 100 cents, so the tone sits almost in the middle between two keys. An instrument in standard tuning cannot play it.

852 Hz is the eighth of the nine solfeggio tones and the last of the six original ones, which Joseph Puleo put forward in the 1970s. Its syllable is La, the sixth syllable of the medieval hymn that gave the steps of the scale their names.

The digits of the number add up to 6: 8 + 5 + 2 = 15, and 1 + 5 = 6. The same three digits make 285 and 528. Both neighbours stand at the same distance: 741 Hz is 111 below and 963 Hz is 111 above.

What does 852 Hz do: meaning, benefits and the third eye chakra

In sound therapy 852 Hz is the tone of intuition. The tradition attributes three things to it.

• Returning to inner order: coming back to yourself after a day that pulled you in many directions.
• Intuition: hearing your own quiet sense of what is right for you.
• Seeing through illusions: noticing where you deceive yourself or let others deceive you.

Practitioners assign 852 Hz to the third eye chakra, the point between the eyebrows that the tradition links with insight. In the order of the chakras it stands between 741 Hz, the throat, and 963 Hz, the crown.

Does 852 Hz make your brain quiet

This is what practitioners and listeners say about the tone, and it is one of the phrases people search for.

In plain words they mean this: while the tone plays, the stream of thoughts slows down, the inner commentary falls silent for a while, and attention rests on one thing. The tradition calls it returning to inner order.

No study has tested whether 852 Hz quiets the brain. What can be said without a study is simple. A steady tone gives attention one object to rest on, the same way a breath or a repeated word does in meditation.

So read the phrase as a description of an experience, not of a measurement. You can check it yourself in fifteen minutes with the meditation setting below: notice whether your head is quieter afterwards than before.

852 Hz science: what has been tested

No controlled studies in people have tested 852 Hz on its own.

The science around it is about other things: the tone 528 Hz, solfeggio music in animals, music in general and binaural beats. The table shows each study with its real size.

Two limits are worth knowing. The first study had only nine participants. In the second the control group listened to nothing, so the effect of 528 Hz cannot be separated from the effect of chanting and of daily quiet listening.

For 852 Hz this means: quiet listening is a reasonable way to lower stress, and the particular meaning of this tone rests on the tradition.

How to listen to 852 Hz

852 Hz is the second highest tone of the set and one of the most piercing. It needs a lower volume than you expect.

• Start with the volume of your device near zero. Choose 852 Hz, press Play and raise the volume until you just hear the tone.
• Switch on the brown noise background. The tone should sit inside the noise, not above it.
• Sit with your back straight or lie down, and close your eyes.
• Breathe in for a count of four and out for a count of six.
• Set the timer to 5 minutes for the first session. Move to 15 minutes after a few days if your ears stay comfortable.

A pure tone needs no headphones. If you listen through a speaker, place it at arm's length or further, not next to your head.

852 Hz meditation: a concrete setting

Meditation is the main use of 852 Hz. Set the generator like this.

• Tone: 852 Hz.
• Binaural beat: theta, 6 Hz. The left ear hears 852 Hz, the right ear 858 Hz.
• Background: brown noise, on.
• Timer: 15 minutes. The sound fades out at the end.
• Headphones on, volume barely audible, sitting upright with closed eyes.

Spend the first three minutes on the breath. Then move your attention to the point between the eyebrows, where the tradition places the third eye, and rest on the sound. When a thought comes, do not follow it; return to the tone.

When the sound has faded, sit for a minute in silence before you open your eyes. The tradition links the tone with intuition, so you can use this minute to ask yourself one question and notice the first answer that comes.

What the theta beat does is described on the page about binaural beats for meditation.

852 Hz binaural beats

Both tones of a binaural beat must be below 1000 Hz. With 852 Hz as the carrier the highest tone the generator plays is 862 Hz, so all three beats work.

The beat is heard only in headphones, because each ear must get its own tone.

If the carrier feels too sharp with headphones on, lower the volume first. If that does not help, keep the beat and move the slider to a lower tone.

852 Hz pure tone or 852 Hz sound in music

A pure tone of 852 Hz is one high, steady pitch with no melody and no rhythm. 852 Hz music is music tuned so that one of its notes falls on 852 Hz. Since the tone lies between two keys of a piano, such a piece is tuned away from the standard.

The research on stress was done with music and chanting, not with a bare tone. The generator gives you the tone itself, and the brown noise background brings it a step closer to music.

852 Hz tuning fork: how to use it

Solfeggio forks are sold singly and in sets of nine. The 852 Hz fork is one of the three highest, so its tone is thin and clear.

• Strike the fork on a rubber activator or on the knee. A hard surface damages the fork and adds overtones.
• Hold an unweighted fork a few centimetres from the ear and listen until the sound fades, 20 to 40 seconds.
• Place the stem of a weighted fork, the kind with discs on the prongs, lightly on the middle of the forehead just above the eyebrows. This is where the tradition places the third eye.
• Repeat three times, with slow breathing between the strikes.

A generator holds the tone as long as you like and lets you add a beat or a background. A fork gives you 20 to 40 seconds of the tone and a reason to sit still.

852 Hz side effects

No study has described a side effect specific to 852 Hz or to any solfeggio frequency. Hearing is harmed by loudness and duration, not by a particular frequency. The World Health Organization considers sound of up to 80 dB safe for 40 hours a week.

The side effects you can meet come from the way of listening. A pure tone is more tiring than music at the same volume, and 741, 852 and 963 Hz are the most piercing tones of the set.

• Headache: lower the volume or stop.
• Irritation while the tone plays: lower the volume, switch on the brown noise background, or stop.
• Ringing in the ears: stop.
• Tinnitus or sensitivity to sound: start with 174 or 285 Hz at a very low volume.
• Binaural beat: headphones are needed, do not listen while driving, and with epilepsy talk to your doctor first.

852 Hz compared with 741 Hz and 963 Hz

852 Hz is the middle one of the three highest solfeggio tones.

For meditation sound therapy uses both 852 Hz and 963 Hz. 852 Hz is the lower and slightly softer of the two, which makes it the better one to begin with.