The Benefits Of Chanting, by Sean Johnson

Sean Johnson's Wild Lotus Band from New Orleans 
& the Benefits of Chanting

An Article Written by Sean Johnson in CHIL Magazine October 2002

With the stratospheric rise in popularity of yoga in recent years, more and more Americans are returning to the practice of chanting mantras as a form of meditation and spiritual expression. Chanting is likely as ancient as humanity itself and is heard in nearly all the spiritual traditions of the world. Christian monks and nuns sing the heavenly melodies of Gregorian chant in Latin to praise God. In Jewish temples, cantors lead worshippers in melodious Hebrew scriptures. In Islamic communities, each morning the Imam awakens Muslims with the Arabic call to prayer followed by the intonation of verses from the Koran. Brahmin priests lead Hindus in worship by reciting the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of India, often called "the song of God." Buddhists utter powerful mantras as a form of meditation and a means to cultivate compassion and loving kindness. Native Americans raise their voices and drum to attune to the powers of nature. In indigenous African traditions, chant is a means to connect with the soul of the world. But, what is it about this primal act of chanting sacred sounds that continues to capture the imagination of people in our contemporary, technologically-oriented society? Following are some possible answers.

The World is Sound

Perhaps contemporary chanters are intuiting what our ancestors took for granted-that the fabric of the world itself is comprised of sonic vibration. We can find references to the power of sound and speech in the creation stories of many cultural and spiritual traditions. The Judeo-Christian tradition says, "In the beginning was the Word..." (John 1:1,14) and "God said, 'Let there be light,' And there was light." (Genesis 1:1-3) In the Ethiopian cosmology, God created the Universe by calling out his own name, and Egyptian and Babylonian myths tell similar stories. The aboriginal people of Australia say the world and its creatures were sung into existence. In the Vedas, India's oldest scriptures, the mantra "OM" is described as the vibrational force that forms the essence of all creation. We could choose to dismiss these stories as fables devised by unsophisticated people trying to explain their world, were it not for the fact that contemporary science, in its own language, tells similar stories. Today's physicists state that subatomic particles in all matter-even the hardest, densest material-is in fact vibrating. In this light, we can see that both the poetic narratives of our ancestors and the empirical data identified by science are telling us that the world is sound. People who chant are deliberately participating in the song of life.

Chanting is Good for Your Health

The pioneering French doctor Alfred Tomatis, lauded for his breakthroughs in auditory neurophysiology, made significant discoveries about sound and chant. In 1967, Tomatis was asked to come to a French Benedictine monastery where many of the monks were experiencing a bizarre exhaustion and illness. Tomatis discovered that a new abbot had recently taken the helm of the monastery. In this post-Vatican II climate of change, the new abbot ordered the monks to cease chanting the Divine Office, the traditional six-to-eight-hour-a-day chanting practice, because he believed chanting was no longer useful. After Dr. Tomatis convinced the monks to return to their ritual of chanting seven times a day, their health and energy magically improved. The revitalized monks resumed their prodigious work schedule. As a result of this study and others, Tomatis proposed that certain sounds, particularly higher frequencies, charge the brain with electrical potential, and are capable of creating more physical and mental vitality. He actually referred to sound, particularly self-created sound in the form of chant, as "nutrition for the brain." According to chant expert Robert Gass, author of Chanting: Discovering Spirit in Sound, chanting improves one's health for many reasons: the repetition of the chant slows down and deepens the breath; the sound vibrations resonate and massage the body from the inside out; brain wave patterns are measurably altered, creating states of relaxation or heightened creative energy; muscle tension relaxes; skin temperature changes; blood pressure and heart rate go down.

Chanting Quiets the Mind and Frees the Spirit

 "Mantra," comes from two Sanskrit words that translate "to set free the discursive mind." People who chant a mantra over and over again often report that the repetition of the sound washes away their distracting thoughts and creates a peaceful clarity that is difficult to achieve in daily life. Others find chanting to be an extremely effective way of entering into silent meditation. In the Indian tradition, chanting is called by the Sanskrit word, "kirtan", which has its roots in the Bhakti tradition, the yoga of devotion. Kirtan is a heart-centered spiritual practice, in which people pour their emotions into prayerful song. In this style of chanting, the notion of musical or vocal "talent" is not important. Contemporary chanter Jai Uttal says, "There is no right or wrong way to sing kirtan. Kirtan can be breathtakingly beautiful, the music can be stunning and masterful; and it can be cacophonous, dissonant, and almost painful to the ears. Aesthetics don't matter. All that matters is the spirit, the feeling . . . Kirtan is an oil well digging deeper and deeper into the heart. As we sing, we immerse ourselves in an endless river of prayer that has been flowing since the birth of the first human beings, longing to know their creator."