The Science Behind the Law of Attraction Magazine August Issue 2017 | Page 61

The Science Behind Sound Heal ing
Dr. Herbert Benson, professor, author, cardiologist, and founder of Harvard?s Mind/ Body Medical Institute, studied how
sound healing, specifically mantric chanting, can help induce the Relaxation Response. The Relaxation Response is
defined as an individual?s ability to prompt their body to release chemicals and brain signals that cause muscles to
relax, respiration to slow, and blood pressure to drop.
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The Relaxation Response can reduce symptoms of IBS and counteract the physiological changes of stress and the fight
or flight response, including muscle tension, headache, upset stomach, racing heartbeat, and shallow breathing.
Dr. Ranjie Singh, a neuroscientist, writer, businessman, and global educator, found that chanting specific mantras
releases the hormone melatonin, and this in turn offers many benefits, including tumor shrinkage and enhanced sleep.
Chanting has been found to oxygenate the brain, reduce heart rate, improve blood pressure, and calm brainwave
activity. It can even cause the left and right hemispheres of the brain synchronize.
Jonathan Goldman, American author, musician, and teacher in the fields of harmonics and sound healing, says:
Dr. Alfred Tomatis has utilized the sounds of Gregorian Monks to stimulate the ears, brain and nervous systems of clients.
His work is very important with regard to the scientific and medical uses of sound and chant. He found that certain sounds
that are particularly high in vocal harmonics will stimulate and charge the cortex of the brain and the nervous system.
Some years ago, there was a very popular recording of Gregorian chanting that occurred just when this research was being
made public. I know that many other types of chanting from different traditions have very similar effects. These are just a
few of the hard physical phenomenon of mantric chanting that
have been observed. There certainly are others, as well.
Another study performed in 2006 looked at the effects of
transcendental meditation (TM), a form of meditation
whereby the practitioner continuously repeats a mantra or
chants, and concluded that TM can improve blood pressure
and cardiac autonomic nervous system tone and decrease
risk of coronary heart disease.
A series of experiments conducted by neuro-electric therapy
engineer Dr. Margaret Patterson and Dr. Ifor Capel revealed
how alpha brainwaves boosted the production of serotonin.
Dr. Capel explained:
As far as we can tell, each brain center generates impulses at
a specific frequency based on the predominant
neurotransmitter it secretes. In other words, the brain?s internal communication system? its language, if you like? is
based on frequency? Presumably, when we send in waves of electrical energy at, say, 10 Hz, certai