When describing how we select our beliefs and knowledge, many of us talk about "what resonates with us," and when talking about people we like, we may use the term "being on the same wavelength."
Resonance brings to mind cymatics, because cymatics is the study of wave motion. When you sprinkle sand or powder on a vibrating plate, the patterns that result depend not only the frequency of vibration, but on the composition of the plate itself. The same can be said of people -
Two tuning forks resonate with each other because both have the same physical characteristics. Likewise, I would say that two people resonate with each other because they share common soul elements. Having common interests is not enough to cause resonance. There must also be a compatibility on the soul level that you can feel.
There is a difference between resonant vibrations and forced vibrations. A tuning fork and a loudspeaker can both create a certain tone, but only the tuning fork does so naturally. The loudspeaker will not resonate with the tuning fork because the tone it generates is forced and doesn't arise from its natural mode of vibrations.
Many of our interests, personalities, hobbies, tastes, are "forced vibrations" consisting of programs and memes working through us, just as electricity works through a loudspeaker to generate sound. But that doesn't mean these things necessarily arise at the soul level. This explains why having common interests or personalities isn't enough - what's internal is what counts, as that is where resonance arises.
So what about resonating with a particular idea? For example, the method I use to construct my belief system is to question everything, and of all that survives my questioning, take that which resonates as true. But how does this resonance arise?
I can only guess that if we resonate with an idea, it is because we have at one time learned it via personal experience. Let's say your soul is like the vibrating plate, and every lesson you learn impresses a new feature upon the plate that adds to its spectrum of resonant frequencies.
Then even if we forget all the things we learned consciously before, meaning even after the tone is turned off, these impressions remain. Next time the idea comes along, or the tone sounds, it resonates the part of us that was originally impressed by it. So we feel something "connect" even though we have no immediate logical proof or reason to show why it seems true.
This also means that if you encounter an idea or lesson that hasn't been impressed into your soul yet, or perhaps your soul hasn't matured in this lifetime to resonate with all it should, the situation would be similar to a plate being vibrated by a tone that doesn't match one of its natural resonant modes - either the sound that arises is dull, or equivalently the sand sprinkled on the plate shows no recognizable geometric pattern.
The idea can be shouted in your face, but unless there's some part of you that resonates with it, you may not experience that light-bulb firing up. It's like singing into a crystal goblet at the wrong frequency...no matter how loudly you do it, the goblet won't shatter. (to see what a crystal goblet at resonance does, check this out: http://www.blazelabs.com/f-p-glass.asp )
Without resonance, the idea may pass and mean nothing to you until you learn it later through personal experience and conscious growth.
Have you ever read a book without much interest, and after reading it again many months or years later find that you missed so much and it's actually really interesting and exciting? Basically, it's like you grew in that amount of time and therefore could resonate with more of the book when you reread it. It's like a metal plate that sounds dull, and after being hammered into a fine instrument resonates brightly at many different tones.
Acquiring fringe knowledge is like digging for diamonds in a mine field.
