Meditation sounds
In meditation a sound becomes an anchor your attention returns to: a fading bell, a long bowl, a low drone. If you want to sit with silence, the timer rings only at the start and end. The evidence for meditation practice itself is moderate; a separate effect of the sounds has not been shown. Each card shows its level of evidence.
Bells, bowls and gongs
Long resonances you follow from the strike to silence; sound baths are here too.
All in the Atlas (10)Drones and tones
A bed of sound that doesn't change or changes very slowly; a steady ground for attention.
Nature and touch
Desert wind or soft sounds heard up close: for sitting with your eyes open.
Slow beats
Binaural and frame drum; the binaural ones need stereo headphones. The evidence is limited, as the card says.
Journeys
- Toward SilenceA twelve-part practice series in two acts. In the first six parts the same bowl sounds less often at each step, and at the last step no interval bell remains. The second act tries out forms of silence: sitting without bells, the sounds of the place you are in, a bell's fading, open attention, a slow walk and the return to the day. Nothing is locked; there's no need to move on before a step feels easy, and sitting longer is not a measure of success. The bell only marks time.
- Traditional / experimental practice: StillnessA five-stage listening route at your own pace, 15 stops: water, breath, timbre, echo and distance. Each stop shows its evidence level; most new sounds are sound design with no claim.
- Traditional / experimental practice: MakamsTwelve Turkish makams in 53-comma tuning, with an algorithmic ney seyir. Their effect on mood is a historical account, not a scientific claim.
- Traditional / experimental practice: Chakra JourneySeven symbolic stops from root to crown, 15 stops in 45 minutes; tones from Hans Cousto's cosmic octave approach. A spiritual interpretation, not a scientific claim.
- Traditional / experimental practice: Solfeggio PathThe nine pure tones of the Solfeggio list, low to high, with eight short listening stops between. For curiosity and listening practice, at a low volume.
Reading and tools
Evidence
This page has no evidence level of its own; each sound's level is on its card. A summary of the related claims:
Meditation, anxiety and stress
Meditation programs probably lead to a small reduction on some anxiety measures.
What don't we know? This evidence mostly comes from structured 8-week programs; whether listening to a sound session alone has the same effect is unknown.
Findings and sourcesBroadband noise and masking
Continuous noise probably makes surrounding sounds less noticeable.
What don't we know? It is not clear that masking translates into protected sleep: in a 25-person lab study, adding pink noise to intermittent environmental noise worsened sleep structure further, and earplugs worked better.
Findings and sources
How evidence levels are assigned: Evidence methodology