Converstations with Dr. Duckworth: On Chanting

Krishna Das will be appearing at the Ethical Society on Tuesday, as noted in the previous post. As Dr. Duckworth is advocating for his patients to consider attendance, it seems a good time to check in with him on his feeling towards chanting.

How did you become introduced to chanting?
Well, I first heard about it as a teenager, hearing Catholic monks doing Gregorian chants. But my spiritual journey included time spent with an acquaintance, a friend, Dick Alpert, who went to India and came back Ram Dass. I commenced studies with him 1969 and it was he who taught me how chanting worked as a form of meditation.

What was the appeal to you at that time? The most profound elements of it?
Internal quietude. It was almost instantaneous. You begin working with the sounds, the mantra, and it's just a peaceful feeling. And it was from the first times I did it. Studying in Kototama, I began learning that this was tapping into the "ah" dimension. So many chants are in that "ah" sound: krishna, rama rama. Those vibrations lift the spirit.

Have you heard that said by others?
I've never discussed it, as we are here, but as a shared experience, absolutely. From my travels in the '60s and '70s, I became very open to a Hindu-type of chanting, and dervish dancing, from the Islamic traditions.

For people who have not taken part in a collective chanting experience, what might keep them from going the first time? And I suppose the flipside to that: what would attract them?
To the first, I'd say anyone who's afraid of what's outside their own world, would feel that. Those who would feel that it might deflect from their own spiritual practices; there are a lot of so-called Christians who fear that this would be serving some other God. I have a friend who has practiced yoga for years, in classes, but is afraid to do yoga outside, for fear someone would see her doing yoga. I had a patient yesterday, who has been involved in yoga for years and is relatively-recently remarried. I've met her husband, who is salt-of-the-earth, a great guy. And she asked if she should take him to Krishna Das' evening session and I said, "no. He would freak out and go running down the street." People who are not strong in their own spiritual practices, or those who are not comfortable with their own practices, or those whose spiritual practices don't provide them with that sense of peace... then, yeah, those people would not be attracted to this. But those who've had a sense of euphoria from listening to, say, gospel singers... they should go. Those who've listened to Southern Baptists singing songs to God should go. Anyone who enjoys hearing the sounds of voices should partake in and experience chanting.

With the shape of the evening, how would you anticipate the evening going?
One part of me says to really try to do something that I've tried to achieve my whole adult life, which is to not have anticipation. Having said that, the longest chant I've been involved with happened many years ago, when several hundred of us gathered in a park in Boulder, CO, and chanted songs to Shiva, from sunset to sunrise. It was summertime, so a shorter night, but still about 10-hours of chanting and it was collectively extraordinary and euphoric. I expect this evening would be about three hours. I'd expect that people who don't achieve that sense of euphoria to be bored, to be looking around. Those who synchronize with the activity of the evening will have their blood pressure lowered and their sense of peacefulness increased. And they'll leave with a smile on their face.