Today’s guest blogger is our good friend Jonathan Goldman, a writer, musician and teacher. He is an authority on sound healing and a pioneer in the field of harmonics. Jonathan is the author of The Divine Name: The Sound That Can Change the World, The 7 Secrets of Sound Healing, Healing Sound: The Power Of Harmonics (Inner Traditions), Shifting Frequencies (Light Technology) The Lost Chord (Spirit Music) and Tantra Of Sound (Hampton Road), written with his wife Andi.

Jonathan has written numerous articles on the therapeutic and transformational uses of sound and music, which have appeared in many national publications. He has also contributed chapters and interviews to many books and his work has been cited in several books. The McGraw-Hill college text, Music In Our World, has a chapter on Jonathan’s recording of  “Dolphin Dreams“. In DaVinci Decoded, Jonathan’s CD “Chakra Chants” (one of The Shift Doctors’ favorite CDs that we recommend to our students) is listed as the #1 Selection for “Top Ten Spiritual Playlist”.

An Interview with Jonathan Goldman by Vandana Mohata

1) What is the science behind Mantra chanting?

There are a number of different “sciences” behind mantric chanting. Some of these are the “hard” science—physics, psycho-acoustics, etc. Some of these are spiritual sciences such as the different yogic practices that work with sound. I write about many of them in Healing Sounds.

On one level, one can see that mantric chanting, as observed years ago by Dr. Herbert Benson, helps induce the “relaxation” response, causing reduction of heart beat, brain waves and respiration. On another level, as Dr. David Shananoff-Khalsa believes, mantric recitation enables the tongue to stimulate the acupuncture meridians inside the mouth (particularly on the roof), thus enhancing help. Dr. Ranjie Singe found that the chanting of specific mantras caused the release of the hormone melatonin and is investigating the importance of this in the healing process. He has found that there are many benefits including shrinkage of tumors and enhanced sleep because of this. He writes about this in his book Powerful Self Healing Techniques.

It’s also been found that self created sounds such as chanting will cause the left and right hemispheres of the brain to synchronize. Such chanting will also help oxygenate the brain, reduce our heart rate, blood pressure and assist in creating calm brainwave activity. In addition, listening to certain chants has great beneficial effects. Read More→