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The Science Behind OmState: Ancient Mantra, Modern Frequency
This August, Vibes AI releases OmState, an album built around a single measurable rhythm: forty hertz. Three of its four tracks carry mantras with distinct histories and distinct intentions. The fourth is a restorative frequency piece designed to extend that state into daily life. This post looks at the research behind each layer of the album, and is as precise as possible about what the evidence shows, what remains traditional wisdom awaiting further study, and where the two meet.
The 40Hz Foundation
The throughline of OmState is gamma frequency entrainment at forty hertz. Researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, led by Li-Huei Tsai, found that gamma oscillations are disrupted in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease before plaque formation or cognitive decline become apparent, and that optogenetically driving neurons at forty hertz specifically, and not at other frequencies, reduced amyloid-beta levels (Iaccarino et al., 2016). This work was extended into a fully non-invasive light and sound protocol, now known as Gamma Entrainment Using Sensory stimulation, or GENUS. A subsequent study using combined light and sound stimulation in mouse models found reductions in both amyloid and tau pathology, along with improvements in cognitive performance (Martorell et al., 2019). Human trials of GENUS are ongoing, and early feasibility and pilot studies have shown that daily forty hertz sensory stimulation is safe, well tolerated, and capable of inducing measurable gamma entrainment across multiple brain regions in people with mild Alzheimer's dementia.
This is the layer that runs underneath every track on OmState, giving the traditions carried by the mantras a second, independently measurable mechanism operating alongside them.
Vibration, Nitric Oxide, and the Vagal Pathway
A separate body of research connects vibration and vocalization to the release of nitric oxide, a signaling molecule involved in vasodilation and circulation. Weitzberg and Lundberg (2002) found that humming produces a dramatic increase in nasal nitric oxide relative to quiet exhalation, a finding widely cited in subsequent work on vocal toning and breath practices. Clinical work by John Beaulieu on tuning fork therapy has similarly proposed that vibration applied directly to bone and connective tissue prompts nitric oxide release, supporting relaxation and circulation at a cellular level (Beaulieu, 2013). A 2024 randomized study extended this line of inquiry into a clinical setting, finding that Bhramari pranayama combined with Om chanting supported post-operative wound healing through the nitric oxide pathway (Shetty et al., 2024).
Taken together, this research offers a physiological account of why sustained tones, whether chanted, hummed, or received through headphones, can shift the body toward a parasympathetic, rest and digest state rather than a sympathetic, braced state.
Om: The Foundational Track
Om carries what is likely the most extensively researched mantra in the clinical literature. A randomized controlled trial by Anjana, Archana, and Mukkadan (2022) found that a combined protocol of Om chanting and yoga nidra improved blood pressure and lipid profile in patients with hypertension. This sits alongside a wider set of studies on Om chanting and related breath practices showing measurable shifts in heart rate variability, sleep quality, and markers of autonomic nervous system balance. On the OmState track, this chant is layered directly over the forty hertz gamma bed, so the listener is receiving two independently studied inputs simultaneously: the vocal, vagal pathway associated with chanting, and the neural entrainment pathway associated with GENUS research.
Brainwave BioMantra: Carrying the Gayatri Mantra
Brainwave BioMantra carries the Gayatri mantra, drawn from the Rig Veda and in continuous use for more than three thousand years. Traditionally, it is understood as a request for illumination of the intellect. It is important to be precise here. The Gayatri mantra itself has not, to date, been the subject of the same volume of randomized clinical research as Om chanting. What can be said with more confidence is that the track's forty hertz foundation draws on the same GENUS research described above, and that the broader literature on focused mantra meditation and gamma band activity, including studies on experienced meditators showing increased gamma synchrony during sustained concentration practices, supports the general principle that structured, repeated sound can shift measurable brain activity toward states associated with attention and clarity. Where the research is established, we cite it directly. Where a practice draws primarily on centuries of contemplative tradition, we name that distinction clearly rather than overstating the evidence.
Shanti: The Compassion Research Behind Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
The third mantra on OmState, Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu, translates roughly as a wish that all beings everywhere be happy and free. Unlike Gayatri, this category of practice, loving kindness and compassion meditation, has a substantial and specific evidence base. In a landmark longitudinal field experiment, Kok et al. (2013) found that participants who practiced loving kindness meditation showed increases in positive emotion that were moderated by baseline vagal tone, and that the practice itself produced measurable increases in vagal tone over time, a physiological marker linked to social connection, emotional regulation, and cardiovascular health. This research gives the Shanti track a direct physiological correlate for what the mantra has asked practitioners to cultivate for centuries: an outward turning of attention that appears to register in the body as safety rather than threat.
Flow State: The Neuroscience of Absorption
The fourth track, Flow State, departs from mantra structure entirely. It is built to support the neurological state most closely associated with full task absorption. Arne Dietrich's transient hypofrontality hypothesis proposes that flow states are characterized by a temporary reduction in activity in regions of the prefrontal cortex responsible for self-monitoring and meta-cognitive evaluation, allowing well-practiced, automatic processing to proceed without interference (Dietrich, 2004). This model has since been used to explain flow-like states observed in athletes, musicians, and other skilled performers during peak performance. Flow State layers the same forty hertz gamma entrainment used throughout the album, without a chant or a specific devotional intention, positioning it as the track designed to carry the nervous system regulation built in the first three tracks into sustained, focused action.
A Note on Method
Across this album and this post, our aim is to keep two categories distinct: the specific claims supported by peer-reviewed, published research, and the broader contemplative traditions that inform the mantras themselves. Both matter. Neither substitutes for the other. Where a claim has a citation attached, that citation reflects the current published literature to the best of our review. Where a practice is thousands of years old and has not yet been the subject of equivalent clinical study, we say so plainly.
Science is not the magic. It is the permission slip to trust what your body has intuitively known forever.
References
Anjana, K., Archana, R., & Mukkadan, J. K. (2022). Effect of om chanting and yoga nidra on blood pressure and lipid profile in hypertension: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, 13(4), 100657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaim.2022.100657
Beaulieu, J. (2013). Human tuning: Sound healing with tuning forks. BioSonic Enterprises.
Dietrich, A. (2004). Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of flow. Consciousness and Cognition, 13(4), 746-761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2004.07.002
Iaccarino, H. F., Singer, A. C., Martorell, A. J., Rudenko, A., Gao, F., Gillingham, T. Z., Mathys, H., Seo, J., Kritskiy, O., Abdurrob, F., Adaikkan, C., Canter, R. G., Rueda, R., Brown, E. N., Boyden, E. S., & Tsai, L. H. (2016). Gamma frequency entrainment attenuates amyloid load and modifies microglia. Nature, 540(7632), 230-235. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20587
Kok, B. E., Coffey, K. A., Cohn, M. A., Catalino, L. I., Vacharkulksemsuk, T., Algoe, S. B., Brantley, M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). How positive emotions build physical health: Perceived positive social connections account for the upward spiral between positive emotions and vagal tone. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1123-1132. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612470827
Martorell, A. J., Paulson, A. L., Suk, H. J., Abdurrob, F., Drummond, G. T., Guan, W., Young, J. Z., Kim, D. N., Kritskiy, O., Barker, S. J., Mangena, V., Prince, S. M., Brown, E. N., Chung, K., Boyden, E. S., Singer, A. C., & Tsai, L. H. (2019). Multi-sensory gamma stimulation ameliorates Alzheimer's-associated pathology and improves cognition. Cell, 177(2), 256-271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.02.014
Shetty, S. P., Patil, A. V., Khodnapur, J. P., Kotennavar, M., Jaju, P., Savanth, M., Ghanteppagol, V., Ballal, N., Gb, D., & Doddannavar, S. (2024). The impact of Bhramari pranayama and Om chanting on post-operative wound healing: A focus on the nitric oxide pathway. Cureus, 16(11), e73511. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.73511
Weitzberg, E., & Lundberg, J. O. N. (2002). Humming greatly increases nasal nitric oxide. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 166(2), 144-145.
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