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Chanting (e.g., mantra, sacred text, the name of God/Spirit, etc.) is a commonly used spiritual practice. Like prayer, chanting may be a component of either personal or group practice. Diverse spiritual traditions consider chant a route to spiritual development.

Some examples include chant in African, Hawaiian, Native American, Assyrian and Australian Aboriginal cultures, Gregorian chant, Vedic chant, Quran reading, Islamic Dhikr, Bah chants, various Buddhist chants, various mantras, Jewish cantillation, Epicurean repetition of the Kyriai Doxai, and the chanting of psalms and prayers especially in Roman Catholic (see Gregorian chant or Taiz Community), Eastern Orthodox (see Byzantine chant or Znamenny chant, for examples), Lutheran, and Anglican churches (see Anglican Chant).

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When breeding season begins, Dark Chanting Goshawks engage in lovely courtship displays that involve chanting from the tops of trees, and magnificent aerial displays. The male and female work together to build their nest. They gather sticks to construct a platform nest in the fork of a large forest tree. They line the nest with other materials such as grass or mud, or even rags, stones, or small bird nests.

Despite the worldwide prevalence of chanting and its apparent transformative effects, there is surprisingly little empirical research on its psychosocial impact. Preliminary evidence suggests that chanting practices lead to decreased anxiety and depression, and increased positive mood, focused attention and relaxation [20,21,22]. However, important questions remain. How reliably does chanting induce altered states of consciousness? What are the characteristics of altered states of consciousness induced by chanting? What are the mechanisms underlying these changes? It is unknown whether certain traditions or techniques have different psychological effects, or whether certain individual traits and belief systems enhance the experiential impact of chanting. The goal of this investigation was to examine how different characteristics and beliefs associated with chanting relate to psychological outcomes and altered states of consciousness such as mystical states.

The goal of chanting in many traditions is to promote healing, social connection, and go beyond mundane states of awareness by altering states of consciousness [17,23,24]. There are two broad aspects of chanting that may contribute to promoting these states. Psychological processes could be triggered by (1) the mechanics of chanting, such as rhythm, repetition, focused attention, and synchrony; (2) the deep contemplation of the meaning, intention, or belief systems of the sounds being chanted. These two broad aspects of chanting may contribute to various outcomes of the practice, individually and jointly, as both have been found to have effects on the psyche independently [25].

Despite variability in chanting traditions and associated beliefs, certain characteristics are common across chanting practices. Chanting can be performed silently or vocally, and individually or in a group, but most chanting practices involve the use of a predictable, repetitive rhythm, focused attention and, if practiced in groups, synchrony [36]. Both the unique and shared features of chanting traditions may be relevant to the psychosocial benefits of chanting. For example, silent individual chanting requires a high level of focus and discipline. Conversely, vocal group chanting has the additional features of coordinated vocalization, breath control and interpersonal synchrony which may strengthen social connections and community identity.

Figure 1 depicts the most common characteristics of chanting, illustrating how structural features of music, belief systems, focused attention, and behavioural aspects of chanting converge to induce mystical states.

The current study set out to determine the prevalence and nature of mystical experiences in a wide range of chanting practices. An online survey was used to determine whether specific traits (absorption, altruism, religiosity) are associated with mystical experiences during chanting. The survey also examined whether types of practices (vocal, silent, group, individual) are associated with mystical experiences. Lastly, this study investigated whether mystical experiences differed across chanting practices and traditions.

Altruism was higher among participants reporting mystical experiences. This could be because increased interpersonal skills, particularly when accompanied by rhythmic stimuli, encourages synchronization. For example, children with higher social capacities were found to synchronize better in a dyadic drumming task than children low on social skills [63]. Similarly, high empathy has been linked to rhythmic coordination with people high on trait empathy found to entrain movements quicker to a rhythmic stimulus than those low on trait empathy [64]. Enhanced sensitivity for synchronous aspects of chanting practice is likely to facilitate the experience of altered states by increasing the salience and intensity of repetitive rhythmic stimuli [28].

Ineffability refers to a sense that profound experiences cannot be described in words. Taketina and Hindu traditions had the highest ineffability scores. Both of these are relatively complex chanting practices. Taketina involves intricate rhythms and physical entrainment. Hindu chanting involves detailed and multifaceted ceremonial and ritual elements. These factors (complex rhythms and complex ritualistic elements) demand considerable levels of attention and cognitive effort from chanting participants. This high level of cognitive capture likely reduces the capacity for additional mental processes and may lead to reduced levels of self-referential thought. For example, embodied experiences of engaging in rigid, sequenced, repetitive actions requiring motor control make practices more attention grabbing and memorable than non-ritualized practices [25]. Consequently, participants in these practices likely experience reduced attention toward narratives involving self-experience, which may account for the difficulties describing these experiences.

I attended that celebration the summer between my sophomore and junior year of college in Albuquerque: it was one of the experiences that ultimately led me to Buddhism. By the time I graduated, I had become a serious student of Zen Buddhism, attending silent meditation retreats in the Jemez Mountains at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center and at the Lama Foundation in the mountains north of Taos. Coming out of several days of total silence made me acutely aware of how sacred sound is and how little we value it. As I studied and practiced different Buddhist traditions, I felt simultaneously drawn to and alienated by Buddhist styles of chanting. Not being able to keep up with the fast-paced, monotone Japanese chants made me anxious, even as I studied a book of the words to try to learn them. Conversely, I felt like the English-language chants of Kadampa Buddhism had lost their sacredness when spoken in everyday language. I wanted to learn to chant, and to do it every day, but I lacked a communal structure to help me learn and commit to the practice. I found chanting, like meditation, to be awkward and less profound when I did it on my own. However, from my summer solstice practice and other experiences with a Hindu call-and-response form of chanting, called kirtan, I knew that sound could be a powerful way to connect with the divine. I continued to think about and study the power of sound in Buddhism, a study which ultimately led me to become a dedicated student and practitioner of Buddhist chanting.

Chanting mantras helps to heal the body, protect the mind, and manifest human desires by connecting the person who is chanting with the divine. The ability chanting has to take those engaged in it to the innermost places within themselves is a theme for Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Nhat Hanh has established a number of communities around the world in which monks, nuns, and laypeople practice Buddhism together. In his book Chanting from the Heart, he describes in detail the day-to-day lives and rituals associated with the spiritual pursuit of mindfulness as practiced in his communities. When practitioners chant, they chant from the heart and are not performing for a deity or anyone else. He explains:

Moreover, the desire to connect with the divine, or to deities, lies at the heart of mantra chanting. Buddhist teacher Dagsay Tulku Rinpoche refers to mantra as an act of respectful address and a request for protection to the deities for whom the mantras are being chanted. While chanting without proper intention of heart and mind can make the action less effective and meaningful, the act of chanting can bring one back to a place of pure mind and contact with the divine. In Ritual and Devotion in Buddhism: An Introduction (Windhorse Publications, 1995), Bhikshu Urgyen Sangharakshita, the British founder of the Triratna Buddhist Community, elucidates this idea:

In my own research on lay Buddhist chanting practices in Vietnam, I discovered such a perspective among the educated elite in contemporary Vietnam. Women dominate lay Buddhist chanting practices in Vietnam, and their practices tend to be discounted and devalued and are assumed to achieve nothing, in contrast to the more scholarly practices of men. (In other communities around the world, male and female Buddhist lay practitioners, as well as monks and nuns, ritually chant mantras side by side.)9

Despite being treated as second-class citizens in religious settings, Vietnamese Buddhist women have steadfastly maintained a practice of sound. They have held on to their chanting tradition, despite years of colonization, patriarchy, war, and communism. The persistence of chanting mantra in the face of these challenges speaks volumes about the efficacy of the practice, regardless of whether or not the reciters understand the Chinese texts from which they recite. While this activity might be disparaged by the intellectual elite, clearly the women themselves find it to be a worthwhile experience. Older Vietnamese women who participate in the chanting at the pagodas told scholar Alexander Soucy that the practice gives them peaceful hearts and brings good luck to their families. I believe that connecting with the divine through chanting is an empowering activity for women, nourishing them on many levels and enabling them to gain a semblance of control and power over their lives. 006ab0faaa