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Scientists Find Calm in Sacred Chants From Seven Global Traditions — Hear the Playlist

Caspar Addyman

• 1 min read
Fig. 1. Geographical distribution of the chanting traditions included in the study.

A new study in PNAS by V. Canessa-Pollard and colleagues (2025) shows that chants from seven different spiritual traditions share a universal sound signature of calm. Researchers analysed over 200 recordings from around the world and found the same ingredients repeating across cultures
+ mostly flat, slowly changing pitch
+ continuous vocal tone; simple vowels
+ a natural pace close to one beat per second.
In listening tests, these features consistently made people feel more relaxed, even when chants were digitally re-synthesised or generated from scratch.

Chants came from many trainstions - Buddhist, Hindu, Christian (early and modern), Islamic, Pagan, and Shamanic. To bring the science to life, we’ve created a Spotify playlist featuring examples from each tradition. It’s not a definitive anthology, but a sampler of how cultures across the globe have discovered the same soothing vocal formula.

🪷 Buddhist

  • Ani Choying Drolma – Om Mani Padme Hum
  • Imee Ooi – Medicine Buddha Mantra
    Smooth, continuous mantras with long vowels and minimal pitch shifts.

✝️ Christian (Early / Gregorian)

  • Westminster Cathedral Choir – Kyrie: Orbis Factor
  • Abbaye de Ligugé – Messe XI Kyrie
    Ancient modal lines sung without vibrato, unhurried and flowing.

✝️ Christian (Modern / Taizé)

  • Taizé Community – Ubi Caritas Deus Ibi Est
  • Taizé Community – Veni Sancte Spiritus
    Short refrains, repeated gently, keeping time with the breath.

🕉 Hindu / Vedic

  • Deva Premal – Gayatri Mantra
  • Suresh Wadkar – Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
    Sanskrit mantras anchored by drones, emphasising open vowel sounds.

☪️ Islamic

  • Mishary Rashid Alafasy – Surah Ar-Rahman
    A Qur’anic recitation in a warm lower register, melismatic but never hurried.

🌙 Pagan

  • Reclaiming – We All Come From the Goddess / Hoof and Horn
  • Harmònia – Isis Astarte Diana
    Simple, repetitive circle chants, grounding and ritualistic.

🌿 Shamanic

  • Shipibo Shamans – Icaro for Ayahuasca Ceremony
  • Don Guillermo – Ikaro del Chuchuhuasi
    Amazonian healing songs, organic and breath-paced, with gently undulating contours.

Together these tracks show how globally diverse traditions converge on the same soothing acoustic recipe. Whether you want to relax, reflect, or help a baby drift off, chant seems to offer a universal language of calm. I was sceptical myself but I pressed play and my cynical heart was soothed.