For those who have some form of vocal chanting practice, chanting is indeed a powerful spiritual practice.  There are many different forms of chanting traditions and practices such as the yogic chanting traditions, the Sufi chanting traditions and the various shamanic traditions.  And it seems that there is an awareness of this inherent power with a chanting practice.

Believe it or not, reality, the form and shape of reality can actually be changed through chanting.  Its a bit like magic really!  Except there is actually a science behind it.

When the voice makes a sound, the sound that is created, creates vibrations.  This is not some new age mumbo jumbo I am referring to.  It is hard core science.

Years ago, a scientist by the name of Hans Jenny discovered that by adding sound to a substance - the substance could be silt, or sand, that the act of adding the sound to this substance, the substance itself would magically change form when the sound was switched on.  The sand or silt would go from being a pile of sand and would start moving once the sound had started and move into incredible shapes.  The shapes weren’t ordinary shapes either.  These shapes were beautiful geometric shapes.

Much of Jenny’s research has been captured on video and his work has been captured in photographs in volumes of books.

”Cymatics” was the term given to this new science - the effect of sound on matter.  Recently other scientists have carried the legacy of his work forward, for example, John Reid.

Jenny also observed the effect of the human voice on matter.  Jenny discovered that a round circle with a dot in the middle would be made with an “oh” sound.  Whereas an “ah” sound produces a two triangled star but slightly rounded edges.

So the act of chanting with the voice has an inherent power.  Using the voice through chanting with the vibrational effects that are produced does indeed have the potential to create change and transformation.