Some didn't know their own names. The results were dramatic. They ate better, they slept better, and they were more sociable and compliant. For their next study, Dr. Elkes wanted to study the effects of tone and chant. No one else had studied chanting, but people have been chanting for thousands of years.
Every culture has a chant.
So I learned how to work the biofeedback equipment, and we contacted members of a Buddhist sect who were willing to participate. We measured heart rate, skin temperature, forehead muscle tension, palm perspiration. Fifteen people chanted for 15 minutes, and we compared those readings with those of the same people reading an unfamiliar scholarly book. After 15 minutes - no, after 30 seconds of chanting they entered a deeply altered state. Many of them came in very anxious.