The rhythmic repetition of spiritual words or phrases, either sung or spoken, finds its place in many different cultural practices. Chanting is often rooted in ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, Hebrew, or Latin, and practised in different parts of the world for various reasons, such as strengthening the community, healing sickness, or overcoming psychological issues.
Aboriginal cultures of Australia have the concept of a ‘songline’ where chanting provides a connection back to the ancestors, marking the routes created by localised creator-beings where information about geographical, cultural, or mythological information can be obtained. In Sufism, chanting is used in ‘remembrance of God’, where the sound and vibrations purify the heart and soul, bringing the body into alignment with oneness. Practitioners of early Hinduism developed ‘mantras’ (chants sung in Sanskrit), which, similarly to the Sufi chanting, provide an opportunity to unify the embodied physicality of the self with the disembodied energy of sound and engage the mind in the spiritual practice.
These are just a few examples of this practice in different parts of the world, but it seems quite clear that chanting has become so prevalent because it has such a strong ability to provide a container for the more mystical kinds of experiences. Perhaps we can explore things a bit deeper to understand where chanting can provide a specific context for psychedelics. Is there a relationship between the types of plants or fungi used in ritualistic psychedelic settings and the way in which different cultures engage with chanting?
Within the Mazetec tradition in Mexico, chanting is an important part of the ritualistic consumption of psilocybin mushrooms, with the fungi having something of an interrelational role. They invoke creativity, where chants are derived from experiences with the mushrooms themselves and composed in the language of the gods, and they also provide a container for the mushroom to influence the healing process and speak through the female folk healer (Curandera). The most well-known Curandera is Maria Sabina, who unintentionally popularised the consumption of mushrooms in the West, where her rituals (known as veladas) gained a lot of outside interest.
The chanting within these rituals provides a vehicle for language to relate to reality and allow the person under the influence of the mushrooms to manifest their own creativity. These rituals provide a context for the members of the Mazatec community to reveal themselves, where they can articulate feelings and experience social release within the context of a communal understanding of existence. The chanting often begins with a low, subdued humming tone, having a limited range, and often being free form as well as maintaining some structure. The auditory part of the veladas plays a central role in facilitating the sonic landscape and connecting the participant with the divine to promote healing.
In Shipibo ayahuasca traditions, healing or medicine chants known as icaros are used by the shaman to facilitate and influence the participants depending on what their ailment is. Through the chanting which might be sung in a mixture of Quechua, Spanish, and indigenous languages, the shaman is able to guide the participant and access the parts of them which require healing – interestingly, these chants aren’t composed but are rather learnt from engaging with the spirit world and may be passed down from a previous lineage of shamans. These medicine songs often involve singing, whistling, or playing instruments such as a flute, as well as being accompanied by a rattle known as a chakapa, which is used to calm the participants in the ayahuasca ceremony, as well as cleanse the energy around them. These chants have some rhythmic regularity, and the range is limited to just one octave, with a focus on the healing objective rather than any sense of virtuosity.
This is an important distinction between music, which might be more about the virtuosity and enjoyment of it, and sound in this context being used to facilitate the healing process. Chanting can provide this facilitation not just through triggering psychological processes via rhythm, repetition, or enhanced focus, but also through the deep connection or belief systems related to the sounds being chanted. The belief systems and cultural connections are undoubtedly important, but can we explore things in more detail to see what’s actually going on inside our brains during experiences of chanting?
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