Sound as Medicine: Healing Mantras in Neuroscience & Ayurveda w/ Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary
Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary’s combined expertise in both modern neurology and the ancient science of health known as Ayurveda has uniquely positioned her as an expert able to pull from the broadest possible base to treat her clients. Dr. Chaudhary was the Director of Wellspring Health in Scripps Memorial Hospital for ten years. She is the author of The Prime and Sound Medicine and has appeared as a medical expert on numerous programs including
The Dr. Oz Show and Home & Family. She is also a neuroscientist and has participated in over twenty clinical research studies. Her research includes groundbreaking work in stem cell therapies for diabetic peripheral neuropathy and drug development for the treatment of ALS. Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary spends her time doing research in Siddha Medicine in Tamil Nadu, India and seeing patients for Integrative Medicine consultations from San Diego, California.
Anandra had the great privilege to have talked with Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary. The interview video below was for our Mantras for Peace: A Wisdom Gathering project.*
Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary shares insights into the power of mantra for regeneration.
Anandra: Yay.
Welcome to our Mantras for Peace gathering talk with Dr. Kulreet.Dr. Kulreet: Thank you for having me.
Anandra: Oh, I'm so excited to get into it with you today. We're gonna geek out.
Dr. Kulreet: We're totally gonna geek out.
Anandra: Among other things, Kulreet is the author of a really interesting book called Sound Medicine. What's your tagline? "How the ancient science of sound can help you heal your body and mind," something like that?
Dr. Kulreet: Yeah, I should know my own tagline. It's like when people ask me my husband's phone number. I'm like, "I don't know, it's in the phone." I know I wrote it like that.
Anandra: I wrote it down, but I can't read my own handwriting anymore because I type too much. So, you're a neurologist and neuroscientist, right?
Dr. Kulreet: Yes, I'm an MD, so I treat patients with neurological conditions, and I've done clinical studies and research in neurological conditions.
Anandra: And Ayurvedic medicine.
Dr. Kulreet: Yes.
Anandra: I'm absolutely fascinated by this topic and so thrilled to have a chance to talk to you. Where do we start? What would you like people to know about sound as medicine?
Dr. Kulreet: I think—and this surprised me because I grew up meditating. I had a deep connection to meditation since the age of nine. For those who have been in cultures or traditions where mantras were introduced early or for those who are artistic and musical, they may not realize there's an entire science behind sound.
This science is as valid as the science behind any of our other healing methodologies. It was well understood by wisdom traditions of the past, but we haven't fully tapped into its potential even in modern medicine.
Anandra: What is its potential?
Dr. Kulreet: I think its potential depends on how open we are to redefining what a human being is.
Anandra: Oh, yes.
Dr. Kulreet: The technology of sound and where it can go hinges on the scientific community embracing a broader understanding of the human being. There’s an exciting new field called biofield science leading this charge. It challenges the old paradigm of medicine, which was helpful but limited to understanding us as purely physical beings.
As we start seeing ourselves and life as fields of energy, like the ancients described, we unlock new possibilities. The deeper we go into our understanding of human experience, the more sound can do—from healing our own bodies to connecting with universal truths.
Anandra: So, it’s the difference between surviving and moving toward thriving?
Dr. Kulreet: Absolutely. The language of biofield science embraces quantum physics while resonating with ancient wisdom. Dr. Beverly Rubik, a pioneer in this field, describes the biofield as nature’s wireless system. Just like wireless communication revolutionized our potential to connect, understanding the biofield opens new possibilities for us.
As we learn to tap into this inner technology through sound, basic struggles like safety, money, and identity fall away. This unleashes creative potential, enabling ordinary people to break through limitations and thrive.
Anandra: That reminds me of research on how sound, voice, long exhales, and group chanting powerfully regulate the nervous system.
Dr. Kulreet: Absolutely, and when the central nervous system is calm, it regulates the whole body.
Anandra: Right. If your nervous system is in social engagement mode rather than fight, flight, freeze, or collapse, you can access higher functions of your capabilities.
Dr. Kulreet: Not just your own, but even those around you. When we come together in groups like a mastermind, we combine human intellect and consciousness in a superfluid state.
These moments are the most delicious in life—not just personal meditation experiences, but when creativity flows in connection with others, whether it’s a coworker, spouse, or child. This is where we see the divinity of life—how creative we truly are.
Anandra: It’s amazing to think about the ancient masters who seemed so superhuman. They were poets, biologists, musicians, and more. Exactly.
Dr. Kulreet: I mean, you're just like, how could all of that fit into one person? But they have a fully functioning human brain. And so every time I get kind of overwhelmed in awe of them, I have to remind myself: we are both human. They learned how to unlock the human brain, and that is our birthright. That is who we are born to become.
Sound, at least from my research and my own experience, is one of the fastest and most widely accessible pathways to cultivating that state.
Anandra: Well, my personal experience, which is not researched rigorously under scientific conditions, but my anecdotal experience as well as that of all the people I know who dive in—especially those who are really honed into the technique in terms of accurate pronunciation of the mantras so that you're actually activating the specific nerve plexuses in the palate, which are intended, as well as the musical abilities of matching pitch and tone and using your vocal instrument to its capacity—once you start honing in on all of those elements, wow. There's no question.
Dr. Kulreet: Yeah.
Anandra: It happens. The sparking of that potential happens inevitably, consistently, reliably, and in a mind-blowing sort of way. I'm so thrilled to hear, to just have your voice and your view confirming all of this, which has been personally my direct experience. It’s very affirming to hear.
Dr. Kulreet: Well, there's one really important part to that too, which has been documented by people looking into the electromagnetic field effect of the heart, like the HeartMath Institute, but it's also a key part of what the ancients wrote about. Yes, there's that technical aspect, which is really important, and that's why certain mantras, because they were so powerful, were only given under specific circumstances. Others, of course, were given to the general public because they did have that precision.
But there's another important part of activating sound, and that's the concept of devotion—or you could say unconditional love or compassion—whatever it takes to open this heart center. That is really the motor for energizing the technical process. If you're doing one or the other, it's not as powerful as when you do both together.
For me, my journey into this was more as a neurologist and neuroscientist, someone who wanted to understand the academics of this, to see how I could bring it out as a healing modality. How can we make this commonplace knowledge?
As I was going through that, my own practice—not just silent meditation, but chanting in a group—I was so shocked. I was a tone-deaf neurologist when I started! Nature’s funniest joke, right? Let’s have a tone-deaf neurologist do this. Why not?
What I was so surprised to find was that even though I didn’t have the technical aspect in the beginning, I developed it. I actually learned how to sing—not on purpose, but as a natural result of being in the practice. There were technical aspects that unfolded because the devotional part became a living space within me. That devotion transformed everything about my practice.
I didn’t even think I was meditating before. That devotion transformed my voice when I was chanting. It started having qualities. I wouldn’t necessarily go sing on stage, but it had qualities musicians recognized as purposeful sound rather than random noise.
Anandra: Oh my god. That’s adorable. Would you be willing to talk about that moment for you? What happened?
Dr. Kulreet: I don’t think it was necessarily a moment. What happened was, when I went to India, I went in full bravado and ego. “Here I am, India,” which is the best way you could possibly enter, right? For anyone who’s like, “Oh, she’s gonna get her ass kicked next.”
Anandra: Yep.
Dr. Kulreet: There was this inflated sense of “I’m going to go there and do something for society.”
Anandra: Kind of a savior idea?
Dr. Kulreet: Not quite a savior idea, but more from a scientific standpoint of “I’m going to go there, discover something important, and give it to humanity,” like I was somehow in charge of the process. But when I got there, I was stripped of every aspect of myself because I was a woman, a Western woman, and, even worse, a Western woman of Indian descent. It doesn’t get worse than that in rural India.
One after the other, I realized what a complete failure I was. I couldn’t accomplish anything with my outer identity—my role as a physician, my background, my education, my accomplishments in America. Nothing worked.
It was a moment of total collapse: “I’m no one here. I’m doing nothing.” When you hit that moment of emptiness, you have to reach deeper. From that was born a new energy—not me as a woman, not as an Indian, not as an American, not as a doctor. It was something without all that, something so much bigger than anything I had accomplished.
It was in that moment of humility, and whatever this energy was, it got things done. It was always at the right place at the right time. The only time things stopped was when my identifications came back up. Being knocked down to my knees opened the space for love, appreciation, gratitude, and wanting to know more about this energy full of grace.
For me, humility opened the gates for devotion. I don’t think this could have happened without failing so massively.
Anandra: Oh my god.
Dr. Kulreet: Trying to do something I was so devoted to but totally unable to accomplish turned everything around. It said, “Okay, connect to something so much bigger than what you know yourself to be.”
Anandra: Wow. Thank you so much for being so transparent and sharing that story. It says a lot that you’re willing to lay it all out like that.
Dr. Kulreet: It's already out there. That's the other thing I realized—all the stuff about ourselves that we buy from ourselves, the world sees anyway. We're usually the last ones to see it. So when we embrace it with compassion, and this was what was so nice about that experience—the devotion that developed, that heart-centeredness that developed—they also developed for me. I could look back at all the aspects of myself I was holding on to so tightly. With compassion, I could go, "I understand how I got there." But that also gave me the clarity to see how my mantra meditation had been chipping away at that for so long and how years of meditating had prepared me for this moment—for the eggshell to finally burst open in the heart and say, "Come on."
Anandra: Here we go.
Dr. Kulreet: Let’s drop all this and be that thing that connects all of us. For me, that was through decades of practicing mantra meditation. But then, in the study of sound, I mean—that’s the art of it. It was during the study of sound, while writing the book, that so many crazy experiences came with it. I’ve never written a book that had so many wild experiences attached to it. It pulled me out of everything I thought I was up to that point.
Anandra: That’s beautiful and inspiring. It reminds me, with deep fondness, of the energy and expression of devotion. In all my time in India, it shines for me as the highest cultural value.
Dr. Kulreet: Yes, it’s a unique land. You can succeed there using other ways, but it’s hard to stay true to yourself and untouched by corruption without Bhakti and mantra. I would say there are only two things in India that truly work: God and money. You either align with pure money power corruption, or you connect with that cosmic energy that shines like a flashlight through the maze, allowing you to navigate it spontaneously. The beauty of the Bhakti tradition is that it heavily embraces the power of sound.
Anandra: Either Bhakti or Bakshish, right?
Dr. Kulreet: That’s great! That should be a bumper sticker.
Anandra: It probably already is.
Dr. Kulreet: We’re not the first to talk about this.
Anandra: As we’re wrapping up, it feels like this could be a conversation we’d have regularly, discovering new things each time. Especially as you continue your work and research. But as we close today, I wanted to ask you a couple of quick questions.
If you could wave a magic wand and normalize one thing that isn’t normal today, what would it be?
Dr. Kulreet: I think it would be for all parents to honor the hearts of children. If, as a culture, we started very young at honoring the gifts already present in children—their heart-centeredness and unconditional love—and created a space where they could deepen in that state, then all other discoveries, whether in sound or anything else, would happen naturally.
The hardest journey for most adults is overcoming the traumas that close their hearts. Could you imagine an entire society where children were never taught to close down? From that place, they would approach the world.
Anandra: Beautiful.
And lastly, if you could empower everyone with one tool, what would it be?
Dr. Kulreet: It’s so easy. Someone once asked me if I had to give up everything, what’s the one thing I would hold on to? It would be the knowledge of mantra. To me, mantra and my spiritual teacher are inseparable. Through that tradition, I went deeper into understanding mantra.
The knowledge of mantra may sound odd—someone might expect me to say my husband or my son—but that knowledge helped me truly see who they were. Without it, I wouldn’t have the lenses to perceive the beauty of their infinity. Otherwise, they’re just these small people I share a life with. Through mantras, I see their infinite beauty and feel gratitude for them choosing to share their lives with me.
Anandra: Wow, I love how you articulate that. I’m right there with you—hence this project and everything. Thank you for sharing your time and wisdom.
Dr. Kulreet: Thank you for having me and for doing this work.
Anandra: It’s truly a pleasure and honor. Even if it touches one person, I’m happy.
Dr. Kulreet: That’s enough. If you can help even one person on a deep level, that’s a life well-lived.
Anandra & Dr. Kulreet: Thank you.
Learn more about Sheela's awesome work at: www.drkulreetchaudhary.com
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Mantras for Peace: A Wisdom Gathering Online
Many of the world’s indigenous wisdom cultures acknowledge that the unseen sound of prayers keep the delicate fabric of life in harmony.
Learn about ancient and innovative subtle activism practices from thought leaders, teachers, and artists from 6 continents in Mantras for Peace: A Wisdom Gathering Online
šš½ From labels to listening
š¤ From divisiveness to deescalation
š¤ From extremism to empathy
š From disassociation to deep connection
Featuring radically inspiring and thought-provoking conversations with global thought leaders dedicated to a vibrant future through ancient and innovative subtle activism practices, Mantras for Peace: Wisdom Gathering is an all-volunteer project dedicated to empowering people with peacemaking skills. (Originally aired 2019 & 2021)
Hosted by Anandra George, a pioneer in the transformational personal practice of sound and mantra and founder of the Heart of Sound.
45 profound, provocative, inspiring conversations with a diverse panel of global thought leaders.
Together, let's explore ancient and innovative subtle activism practices for a vibrant future!
Featuring radically inspiring and thought-provoking conversations with
- Neuroscience Educator Dr. Sarah Peyton
- Trauma Informed NVC Facilitator Meenadchi
- Biologist Bruce Lipton, Arhuaco
- Medicine Keeper Biskungwi Marquez
- Futurist Christine Mason
- Sanskrit Scholar Dr. Katy Jane
- Tantra Expert Devi Ward Erickson
- Marketing Queen Mari Smith
- Devotional Musician Punnu Singh Wasu
- Voice Expert Chloe Goodchild
- Yoga Philosophy Teacher Bhavani Maki
- Artist Activist Zena El Khalil
- Sound Medicine Expert Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary
- Peace Activist Michelle Button
- Mantra Researcher Gemma Perry
- Musician Gina SalÄ
- Wellness Entrepreneur Ayana Dake
- Devotional Singer Radhamadhav Das
- Non-Violent Communication Trainer Jori Manske
- Yoga Misfit Dana Trixie Flynn
- Musician Sheela Bringi and More...
