Mantra - Vibration and Energy

I raise my voice in chant and my heart is filled with joy.

As the words form on my lips my mind opens and connects.

I vibrate with cosmic energy and my soul takes flight.

As the sound waves travel out from me I travel in.

That is how I feel when I chant. And I know it sounds super hippy-happy and new agey but there is more to it!

Don’t mistake chanting for singing

Let me start by saying: I have a rubbish singing voice! I love to sing but you really do not want to hear me do Karaoke for love nor money and apart from when I’m in my shower I never give sing along performances. After all my shower can’t complain. Well I might sing along at a concert or in a pub with live performance but only because it’s loud enough that no one will hear me.

Not everyone can sing even if you can hold a tune it does not make you a singer but everyone can chant. Chanting is not about singing but about being the sound vessel for the chant as the vibration travels through you.

Chant is created with full use of the diaphragm and not at the shallow end of the lungs so to say. Breath is part of this energy creation as we let the mantra sounds travel up through our body. From the base of the spine to the top of our head we vibrate the sounds through us. Often in traditional chanting styles special breath patterns are used and whole verses are chanted on one breath as we sound them out, deliberately working the breath from bottom to top.

The purpose of chant

Now chanting comes in many different guises and is used for many different purposes. Is it a religious practice? It can be. The idea of vocal praise to deities is as old as time time itself so to say but the vibrations and energies we deliberately create in chant (and that is a crucial difference to singing) can be used in a multitude of ways, worship is but one of them.

Generally I set out to write this in order to speak about my love for Mantra meditation and why we should all embrace this MAGIC practice. Alas I find I need to go a bit further so bare with me as I diverge.

Lets take a D-tour

My first introduction to chant was not through yoga but religion/spirituality. I am pagan and in paganism we love to chant to raise energy and call on various gods, goddesses as well as elemental beings and sometimes to just give praise/celebrate our deities. And when I was introduced to it, as so many before me, I just went along with it. It’s what you do, it’s part of the ritual and oddly enough it’s fun and fills you with joy and energy but I never questioned it as to how and why it works. Eventually as you build your own rituals you use the same chants or bring new ones in, maybe because it feels they should be part of it but mostly because the chanting creates energy which enlivens ritual, you notice how different chants create different energies. But why is that?

As I said before using our voices in worship is an ancient concept and in paganism we like to draw on all sorts of traditions from reclaiming ancient yuletide songs, over the use of beats, rhythms and vocal sounds of African and native American chants to our own creations adhering to similar basic rules as used in indigenous music. In all indigenous/multi god/goddess cultures chant plays an integral role in worship as well as in daily life. Specific chants are recited for rites of passage, to avail illness, to bring good fortune, to make it rain, to apprise weather and earth goddesses/gods, to bring prophetic dreams, to sing the soul back home from a trance, to mark the seasons or a significant change in life to bless a union or a child.

But why?

Vibration!

Vibration powers all

Everything is made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies, be it solid, fluid or gaseous, including us funny human beings, are made up of vibrational energy fields at the quantum level. Molecules communicate through vibration, our DNA vibrates, animals quite clearly use vibration and sound waves created through vibration in order to communicate and so do we through chant try to attune with nature/the gods/the self/the universe etc.

Often 432Hz is referred to as the heartbeat of the earth, the scientific pitch assuming this to be a multiple of the earths frequency therefore being able to resonate with all and everything helping us to attune back to nature. Often people will say AUM vibrates at this base vibration. Just google it and you’ll be bombarded with articles from music theory to alternate healing. How much scientific truth there is to it is very much debatable but that vibrational frequencies have an effect on us is not.

I mean we all know the school project where we use music on plant growth right?

However, have I sat down and measured the frequencies of chants? No.

Am I attempting to make this a scientific debate? By Tartarus no!

Whether AUM is tuned to 432Hz or whether aboriginal/indigenous chants use this “base” vibration is immaterial in the face of the fact how people feel when they do chant mantras.

Music moves us

Now instead of going with this ominous chanting stuff lets have a look at regular music before you think I try to make flowers grow out of your arse. We can find similarities in regular music as it can effect us equally as much as chant, just usually without meaning to or at least without purposeful direction. There are songs that uplift us and fill us with joy and energy and others that calm and sooth us. Music can make one angry, happy, sad and a multitude of other feelings that are not derived from the music’s lyrics but their pitch and vibration. Some music may make us cry without reason and some may even make us feel like being on a natural high. I am sure most of us have some sort of happy song that when played even in our darkest mood will lighten our hearts some. How much music affects us of cause depends on how finely we are attuned to ourselves and the universe (cough I sound like a hippy) or more precisely how much we actually pay attention to the music with more then our ears, as well as other influences such as substances we take (drugs of any kind, legal or otherwise including alcohol, nicotine, medication and hormones). Even our work or hobbies may factor in as both spectres of science and arts may lead more to an affinity towards the effects of vibration as both understanding and exposure opens the minds doors to fine tuning. After all everything we do and are effects our own brain waves, heart beat and so on, making our very being vibrate at our own unique frequency, travelling closer to or diverging from the overall base frequency.

Personally I pity the humanoid who has never experienced the natural high music can give us. Especially in combination with body movement, such as dance, it is amazing how intoxicating music can be. This can also be seen in the combination of dance and chat in many indigenous traditions, where such ceremonies often lead to trance states. As certain sound vibrations travel though my vanes I am frequently left with an elevated heart rate, a tingling sensation throughout my body (but often centred at belly button region) that gives me goosebumps, a dazed mushy feel around the brain and a throbbing in my nether regions that makes me want to rip of the clothing of any sexually interesting human being at hand. In chant we experience much of the same, alas luckily without any sexual tension being created as the called up energy is usually directed in one way or another with defined purpose.

So regardless of whether we belief in magic Hz numbers or not vibration equals energy. And different vibrations create different energies and with it different emotional responses. If we can sign up to this concept, the way chant can help our overall well being, how it can be used in meditation and healing, becomes a lot more transparent.

But what about all of us vibrating at our own unique frequency?

Well chant appears to work a bit like a tuning fork which I belief is also the principle behind sound healing using singing bowls or gongs. And even in the scientific world music therapy has been used in psychology for a long time too don’t forget.

We are all made up of the same molecules so it is only logical that those molecules share a base vibration, a common language they communicate at, which I did say earlier we all deviate from to a lesser or greater extend, and chant appears to tab into this base vibration frequency, creating alignment in all of us to some extend by resonating with us. Of cause group dynamics and belief created placebo effects should not be totally forgotten about or underestimated, tricking the brain can sometimes be our greatest tool.

Mantras and their many forms

Mantra chant is an ancient technique and yes often derived from Indian religious/sacred texts. However that does not mean that chanting mantras is a purely religious practice. It can form part of a religious practice but it is not intrinsically religious in and of itself.

Mantras as I said come in many forms and guises and so we find that we have Mantras comprising of single sounds, over the repetition of a few words to full verses or whole stories that are recited in in a certain rhythm.

Single sounds like the chakra sounds Lam – Vam – Ram – Yam – Ham – Aum – Ohm are considered seed mantras (Bija Mantras) where their vibrations are said to resonate with certain parts and energies in the body correlating to the chakras. They have as such no word meaning in and of themselves and work purely on the energy created though their repeated vibration. There are other seed mantras such as Krim (kreem), Shrim (shreem), Hrim (hreem), Hum (hoom) and many more sometimes assigned to specific body parts, deities or energies, which are in the end the same values expressed in different forms of understanding.

So knowing what we know repeating the same vibration over and over again will stimulate and align our brain waves in a certain way as we are creating a specific energy. Directing the mind to the purpose of the chant is certainly a very important tool for this. By chanting aum repeatedly the mind will relax and grow calm while a repetition of Krim or Ram may fill one with a new found boost of energy.

Chanting full verses becomes then more abstract. How do we direct energy here? And why do we need more complex chants surely seed mantas could do all we need? Alas our brain likes a bit more, like associations, pictures, greater purpose. And often our problems and needs are more complex too.

A word on Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a very old language system and the way it is made up appears to create base vibrations quite readily. Now why that is I can not say. People would like you to belief that Sanskrit was given to humankind thanks to some Rishis that had revelations while in meditation just as some people have you belief that some codes of common decency were magically imprinted on stone tablets. Personally I belief Sanskrit shares much more with many other indigenous languages than with modern languages at least in the way it works energetically (even though Sanskrit is the root seat of many modern languages), just with Sanskrit it’s on a larger scale. Although now only a minor language in India, more known for its uses in ancient texts and classical music, it managed to thrive and its sound base was kept alive throughout the rise of patriarchal oppression in mantra chant. Sanskrit crosses countries too, as it is the sacred language of not only Hindu traditions but also Buddhist and Jain traditions.

Who knows what treasures we could still have if ancient hieroglyphs could be sounded in chant?

In any case in longer chants word meanings as well as rhythm of the chant can manipulate the energy's direction. Now this goes hand in hand with the magic principle of what you call upon will come to you or if we want to use psychology positive re-enforcement and feedback loops. When I said mantra chants are magic I meant it.

The magic of calling what we wish for

Repetition of chant works therefore best if the mind is focused on the meaning of the chant even if we do not understand the individual words. The vibration of the formed sounds creates already the correct energy and the picture we form in our mind directs it’s purpose. Our immediate world is largely created through our thoughts after all change begins at home in our own minds and bodies. By creating positive feedback loops for our brain we change our brain wave pattern. Positive thoughts create positive actions, positive actions from simple things like smiling to lending a hand unasked to taking chances we otherwise would not take, create positive energy towards us and so on. We create a chain reaction in our favour. From tiny little feedback loops to huge ones. Subtle energies that push on other molecules of which we might not feel the ripple effect for month or years to direct hits in the right direction that bring back immediate rewards. And in this fashion we do not just effect ourselves but every energy filed we come in contact with will be effected somewhat, just like electric currents run through the synapses of our brain or an intricate net of domino stones that are being pushed over. It’s the magic or the Karmic principle really, you will reap what you sow, everything has an equal and opposite reaction, what you call will come be ready for the consequences.

So with mantra we can create and stimulate these feedback loops actively, with purpose, by bringing us into that state of mind through focusing on the sound and meaning we create.

The famous Tibetan mantra Om mani padme hum is used in temples and by Buddhists around the world as its words reflect the absolute essence of the Buddhist teachings. It draws the attention inwards while radiating its energy vibrations outwards setting the positive meaning of it free and filling the chanter/chantee with positive vibrations as well as sending them out.

The use of deity names

Many Sanskrit verse chants call upon specific deities. Now one may say why would I as an agnostic, atheist, monotheist choose to call upon some foreign deity when I do not belief in them. Well of cause you may choose not to and there are chants that do not use the names of deities at all, which are the ones I think people find easiest to accept in our multi cultural society and that’s cool. This whole spirituality and religious thing is after all not everyone’s cup of tea or you have your specific cup of tea and would rather not mix it with another flavor. However saying that we should also examine Sanskrit words and even the multi god/goddess religion of India a little more closely before disregarding chants that use the names of gods and goddesses outright.

Humans like to break things down

In our largely patriarchal culture where monotheism has tried to stamp out any divinations to its ideologies the idea of a multitude of deities is a foreign concept to most people. However this monotheism thing is really a new concept, tried on and off before (for example Akhenaten’s attempt towards it in Egypt). The thing is to our subconscious the idea of just one being, one creating force is too to huge to comprehend fully and more importantly relate to, which is something indigenous cultures and matriarchal belief systems intrinsically understood. Trying to have one huge untouchable, unfathomable thing removes us from it. It becomes a concept we can understand on a theoretical and abstract level but we will never be on par with it. This is the hierarchical system of modern religion and even Indian religions fall into this in many aspects these days, where deities are outside ourselves and stand above us unreachable. Thing is religions, spiritualities and science across the world do hint and sometimes outright say that we all are inherently part of the divine whole, are touched by the divine, are connected to the universe, are made up of the same molecules as the rest of the universe and resonate at the same frequency. To quote one of my favourite SiFy shows “We are star-stuff. We are the Universe, made manifest, trying to figure itself out.” So the modern hierarchical system of god/goddess above goddess/god above human which tends to be a pyramidal system (be it with one deity or many or sience as the base) should be really viewed as a flat structure like a spiderweb with the creating force/energy core at the center while everything else is intrinsically connected to it sharing its properties.

Realising that our mind likes to break things down let’s look at some other concepts. Now cognitive psychology might still be a “new” thing but that idea that emotions, positive thoughts, reinforcing positive habits and so on can have an effect on our overall well-being and change our thought patterns and brain waves is actually an old hat. Stimulate the brain in the right way and you create magic, you create change where you thought non was possible. Magic, religion and yoga have used cognitive suggestion and other forms of cognitive psychology long before it became a thing. Splitting the unfathomable into a multitude of deities is in my book one of them.

The idea of an All-Father as a the overall cosmic being of creation sure sits well with patriarchal ideals but it leaves out half its population and often more (most monotheistic views are after all not entirely inclusive of the LGBTQ community). Simplistically why is it, that Saint and Marian worship is so big in Catholicism? After all this overall being of god does it all right? It’s because humans like to relate, humans like to categories and break things down into smaller more digestible bits. We yearn for understanding of ourself and the universe. So people call on a Saint that was known for his/her healing power in order to turn illness from their doorstep, they call to Maria for maternal bliss or because she is one of the few female forms allowed to women kind to relate to. Even in science we break things down into their smallest parts and manipulate them to our liking by using chemical and electric impulses.

In many cultures and religions the idea that we are made in the image of the deities is part of creation myths. And if we look from the scientific side evolution has upgraded us throughout the ages to what we are but we can still trace the steps back and see the baseline reflected in what we have become.

Conceptual ideas of multiple deities as energy patterns

So if we like to break the big picture down in order to understand and see ourselves reflected in it, see us as part of it, it only makes sense that we create a multitude of facets of the overall universal energy. And so we find, in the only main and large scale polytheistic religion that has survived in some form in the patriarchal regime, how the divine is broken down in various aspects from for example the static source energy (Brama), to maintenance/equilibrium energy (Vishnu) to change/force energy (Shiva) with a multitude of others Ganesha as the remover of obstetrical (kinetic energy), Laxshmi as the conveyor of fortune (positive energy flows) and Kali as raw untamed energy (free radical energy). Each and every deity comes with a multitude of Sanskrit names conveying the energetic idea and concepts they stand for through sound.

So when we call out one name or another we may not see it as praying to a personified deity but calling on specific energy forms that we need in our life. Many Sanskrit names of deities or association words are actually synonyms for energetic concepts. So the word shiva is synonym for consciousness and shakti is synonym for energy. Often we find a main source of energy that we feel affinity for, that resonates with us, our personality and how we see ourselves or we call on that what we aspire to or how we wish to appear and want to be seen. By calling on them we derive strength through the associations we have created in our mind. And whether we have grown up in this culture or not the ideas and pictures created through the use of the associated Sanskrit words/sounds still apply. Pictures of riding on lions, deifying monsters and regal serene strength accompany Durga and are called to us when we chant her name and association words.

Deity names as bridges

Lets come back to mantras then. Chanting then works on focusing on the meaning behind a mantra? We chant and focus on peace and create peace? We chant for health and create health? Yes and no. It helps to focus on the basic message a mantra entails and the more imaginative work we put in ourselves (stimulating our own brain through suggestion) the more we get out of it. However these mantras have been chanted in unbroken succession through thousands of years. Some of the vedas (ancient Indian texts) are at least as old as 4000 years and many mantras find their origin there and have most likely been chanted even before. And just like a bridge spanning a river if we maintain the bridge, strengthen its foundations, improve its design over time it will become a lasting structure to connect point A to point B and anyone can use it to travel across the river whether they were part of the building team or not. And so the mantra words carry their energy regardless of whether we know their meaning or not. If I flick a light switch and my living room light turns on I know there are underlying reasons for this as my flicking the switch closes the circuit that allows the electric current to travel to the light bulb but I neither need to think about the process nor understand it for the lightbulb to work and so it is with mantra. The bridge has been build, the electric circuit has been set up and by sounding the mantras one travels the bridge/lets the current flow.

So when we chant to Durga the bridge leading to strength is already build we just walk across it in the wake of the sound waves we create. By sounding Durga’s name and association words one feels stronger and filled with energy just as one become more contemplative and turns inwards when chanting Ohm. These are bridges well travelled and even without understanding anything about engineering we can transverse them. Mantras tab into two very powerful sources as they use cognitive tools as well as base vibrations that will change our brainwave energy according to their associations. By chanting we are then aligned with purpose towards health, compassion, strength good fortune and so on and as we chant and vibrate at the different frequencies we also send that energy out from us effecting the world around us in smaller ways.

Whether you chant alone or in a group, whether you tab into just the vibration or the chants associations as well chanting can be a very powerful tool.

Finishing thought 

Don’t disregard chant too easily it is a great tool to create change in oneself and around oneself. It might still sound like an alien practice and it will feel utterly weird to chant the first few times but give it a go. Between the vibration resonating with us on an intrinsic level and the millennia of word association we’ve got some powerful yuyu here. Whether you subscribe to the underlying teaching from which the mantras derive or not the energetic potency of chant is one we can all tap into and use in our life’s to create well being.

Ohm shanti, shanti, shantii, hare ohm!