In 2018 scientists at MIT, USA have discovered that exposing mice to 40 hertz light signals and sound waves remove the plaques in their brain. These plaques are the cause of Alzheimer and other brain diseases which reduce our memories.

When the brain is under deep meditation or concentration, Gamma waves are produced. These waves range anywhere from 25-100 hertz but have an average frequency of 40 hertz. Large number of studies on meditating yogi’s brain has revealed that these waves are produced under deep meditation and concentration. On the other hand deep sleep produces delta and alpha waves which vary from 4-12 hertz.

Alzheimer disease is the disease of brain where clumps of misfolded protein fragments called amyloid-beta produce plaques around synapses - the connecting point between neurons. These plaques stop neurons from communicating thus destroying the memory. Nobody knows how these plaques are formed and world over research is being conducted on how to remove them. As the world’s population is aging more research is being carried out on Alzheimer and other brain diseases which affect mostly the elderly population.

I feel the ancient Indian system of meditation and chanting Sanskrit shlokas and hymns may provide a possible solution for reducing Alzheimer.

Scientists have recently discovered that people who chant Sanskrit shlokas have better memory. Naturally some people speculate that continuous chanting of shlokas requires memorizing them a lot and it helps in memory improvement and consolidation. It is just like memorizing arithmetic tables that all of us old-timers were taught when we were kids. It is also conjectured that people with better memories have less chance of getting Alzheimer and other brain diseases.

However I feel that the nasal and sonorous sound of proper recitation of Sanskrit mantras creates vibrations inside the brain which increases the probability of producing 40 hertz brain waves. Since both auditory and visual cortex (where sound and light signals respectively are processed), are in a certain section of the brain, we still do not know the exact mechanics of how such sound waves create 40 hertz for the whole brain.

Some scientists speculate that hippocampus, which is the memory region of brain is positively affected by this chanting. Hippocampus is the first region of brain affected by plaques. If the plaque reduction in this region can be affected then this cascading effect can be felt in other areas also.

This could also be a possible reason why chanting of “Aum”, which has nasal tone, may have been suggested in our ancient texts as a means of meditation. Besides chanting Sanskrit shlokas also helps in meditation since it focuses the brain on this activity.

Patanjali clearly mentions in his Yoga darshan that repeating this mantra produces knowledge of Universal consciousness and destroys obstacles to that knowledge. Naturally the word mentioned in Yoga Sutras is Pranava (the original word) which could be the “Brahma Nad” (the original primeval sound). Yogis believe that this deep hum which is close to 40 hertz is the Brahma Nad.
 

Excerpt from the book "Exploring the Mind of God" by the author.

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