Relaxed states and altered states are conducive to healing, that is, eliciting the body’s natural and innate healing responses and mechanisms. Chanting may arouse these states.

     Chanting is a part of nada yoga, or the science of sound. Chanting has been an integral part of human lifestyle for thousands of years, some say since the beginning of time. Chanting is both a sounding meditation practice and a listening one.

Seed sounds or mantras are sung or chanted in primordial energetic languages of Sanskrit, Gurmukhi, Arabic, Hebrew, and Hawaiian, for examples. These languages differ from English, in being vibrational, and thus believed to act on vibrational levels, perhaps we will discover, electromagnetic levels.

Sound codes are thought to create movement, raise frequency, and ultimately serve to dissolve feelings of separation. Chanting and singing activate dorsal vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system relaxation response.

Sound codes are thought to have specific properties and effects. Mantras are considered to be keys to different doors which all lead to the same sacred place- inner peace and joy. The effects of sound codes may be studied empirically. For example, the sound, “AH,” which we naturally make when we see a beautiful sunrise or vista, is believed to awaken or open the heart.

We make the sound, “AH” when we come see, feel, something deeply touching, beyond words. “AH” is in sacred words, such as the Hawaiian, “ALOHA,” which may translate as “open your heart,” and “the Creator is here.” The Arabic, “ALLAH,” which Sufis chant to return the heart to the Beloved.

    The Hebrew, “AHAVAH,” which translates to “love,” may be used in Kabbalah, teaches Catherine Shainberg PhD in her book, “Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming,” as it returns the heart to the positive vibration of love anytime that we feel darkness (ex. fear, anger) creeping in. Dr. Shainberg teaches the simple practice of singing “AH HA VAH” to the tune of “MI DO RE” three times.

    The Sanskrit MAHA (great) mantra are: “HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA, KRISHNA, HARE, HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE.” In the Vedic Tradition of India, this is a transcendental sound vibration of three holy names. My friend, Gopal Damerla MD, (https://prabhupadaresearchinstitute.com ) teaches that chanting this mantra brings to you fresh life energy. Dr. Damerla’s research on the effects of chanting the Maha mantra found that it may balance the nervous system and improves heart rate variability (HRV), predictive of a person’s willpower to create health-promoting lifestyle and self-care. Participants reported increases in feelings of love and connection.  

I was introduced to sound healing by friends in 1998.  2001, I guess is when I began my study of nada yoga with Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa PhD, of the Guru Ram Das Center in New Mexico, at the “Therapeutic Applications of Yoga,” conference in Estes Park CO. It was the day after 9/11, and we chanted a healing light mantra, “RA MA DA SA SA SAY SO HUNG,” into the world.