It is 11am on Saturday and in a converted church on London’s Golborne Road, there is a feeling of ecstasy in the air. Sixty-two people of various ages (including a middle-aged West Indian man in a purple shirt, some Spanish students, and many mid-career professional women) sit cross-legged on mats, singing their latest reverberant om. But this is not a Buddhist meeting. Not a religious meeting. We just completed a 90 minute yoga class with a call and response style chant called kirtan.
The class is led by Manizeh Rimer, a Pakistani-born, Swiss-raised former tech investment banker, now a Jivamukti yoga teacher and kirtan leader with a feverish audience. Today, she wears her dark hair half-up, bright blue Adidas Originals by Wales Bonner sweatpants (Grace Wales Bonner is a regular attendee), and a white T-shirt emblazoned with the words “open your heart wide.”
Love Supreme ProjectsFounded by Rimer in 2022, it attracts star singers and fashion designers with a range of 35 to 40 weekly classes. Of these, Rimer’s Jivamukti session on Saturday has become the most popular, with waiting lists of more than 40 people per session and a similar number joining online to participate remotely. Singing, according to Rimer, “helps you get to what’s in your heart and release it and clear away the cobwebs.” As Marie-Louise Sciò, CEO of Pellicano Hotels, attests: “It works. “It has changed my life.”
The Love Supreme Projects headquarters, once Stella McCartney’s design studio, is as elegant as its founder: all polished concrete and tall windows. “There is an incredible energy going around the room. It really makes you feel connected,” says Melissa Morris, founder of leather goods brand Métier and a Saturday morning regular. Most of it comes from the hypnotic quality of Rimer’s voice and the strains of her ragamala harmonium, echoed by jazz musician Ben Hazleton, who plays double bass alongside her.
Mindfulness and breath awareness represent key pillars of an estimated $8 billion global meditation market. But chanting offers a quick route to calm and self-awareness, and is removing any associations you may once have had with the Hare Krishnas outside Tottenham Court Road station. “When sitting meditation is really difficult, repeating something over and over forces the mind to calm down,” Rimer says. “The singing does the work for you.”
Rimer began singing when he was working 22 hours a day and suffering from incipient exhaustion. “I’m not religious. You are welcome. But I was looking for spirituality,” he says. Looking for something to help him manage life – “with all its ups and downs” – he attended the Jivamukti Center in New York. Here, in addition to yoga, Rimer was introduced to kirtan through Sharon Gannon and David Life, the center’s founders, who were influential in bringing the chant to a Western audience. At age 28, Rimer quit her job and retrained as a yoga teacher. In 2005, she founded Jivamukti Yoga London and then moved abroad. Since 2012, he has studied to lead kirtans under the tutelage of Grammy-nominated singer Jai Uttal. But only as a result of the pandemic did demand for its class skyrocket.
Back on Golborne Road, Rimer’s voice is warm and clear, backed by the soft tones of the harmonium. Chant a simple mantra for 15 minutes at the beginning and end of class, depending on what’s coming up that day. One could be “Bolo Ram,” a Sanskrit phrase that means to sing (bun) to the master of the universe (RAM). The patterns are easy to follow: as we sing, they rise and fall in volume and intensity. Some people are out of tune. But, interestingly, this is not annoying. Instead, the combined voices are uplifting.
Five Step Singing Guide by Manizeh Rimer
1. Play any of the following mantra songs: “Krishna Krishna” by Alice Coltrane; “Hara Hara Hara Mahadev” by Jai Uttal; “Ong Namo” by Snatam Kaur; “Ma Durga” by Krishna Das; “The Angel’s Prayer” feat. Manorama et al.
2. Listen with your eyes closed, preferably with a good pair of headphones.
3. When you are ready, start repeating the mantras along with the song.
4. Don’t be critical about how you sound!
5. Chant these mantras anywhere, whenever they start coming to your mind. Let them out through your voice. Feel how your heart opens.
I never expected to be a singer. I’m a good singer but a terrible follower. About a decade ago, however, I checked into a pink-painted ashram in Goa, where I was ordered, reluctantly, to join several hundred others for a two-hour kirtan. I found a seat near the door of the hall from which the scent of the lotus flower hung. But after just 10 minutes, my discomfort evaporated. As our voices merged, we became part of a larger organism. As we chanted, I felt pulled out of my individual self, into something more fundamental, more universal. It was euphoric. Cathartic. Like when the music reaches its peak in a nightclub.
As Dr. Andrew Newberg, professor and director of research at the Marcus Institute for Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital, explains, the power of singing is that while it can stimulate “calm and happiness” in the practitioner, it can also cause “a feeling of excitement.” and ecstasy.” This is due to its ability to simultaneously work on the sympathetic fight or flight aspect of the nervous system and, at the same time, promote the parasympathetic.
Other health benefits of singing include decreased anxiety and more focused attention. Studies have shown that it can reduce blood pressure and inflammation, and promote restorative delta brain waves usually associated with deep sleep (Rimer tells me that Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien is fascinated by the sound frequencies of their singing).
Kirtan, which has a musical element in the chanting of mantras, has roots dating back to India around the 6th century. But chanting comes in many forms, including Gregorian, Buddhist (where mantras are usually chanted monotonously), and those sung by Native Americans and indigenous Australians. “When you sing in a group, there is a sense of unity,” says Nicole Vignola, neuroscientist and author of Rewire: Break the cycle, shift your thoughts, and create lasting change. “They are all breathing together, expressing the same sounds; you can feel part of a lineage of people who have sung those same sounds for centuries.” Faith need not enter into it. “We all thirst to feel part of something bigger,” adds Nikki Slade who, in addition to her regular spots at London’s Triyoga, has brought singing to people at Deutsche Bank, M&C Saatchi, The Priory and Wandsworth Prison. . “Singing provides a space to find connection without a specific religion.”
Beyond Love Supreme Projects and triyogayou can sing in the spaces of London Mantra Hall either OmNom; In New York, go to Souk Studio. Or join the approximately 4,000 people heading to Buddha Field Festival in the Blackdown Hills, near Taunton. Alternatively, join Slade or Jai Uttal singing on Spotify (Rimer will launch his own digital library next year). Tara Swart, a neuroscientist and senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, tells me she does it in the shower, which makes it time-efficient, private, and effective.
I go to class when I can, sometimes using it as a circuit breaker. Sometimes I sing in my car when I’m stuck in traffic. As Morris says: “I’m busy, I can’t sit on a rock all day. The way Manizeh teaches, you can incorporate it into your daily life.” Rimer adds: “You don’t need equipment. “It’s not expensive.” (At Love Supreme Projects, there is a free weekly kirtan for the community, and Rimer offers reduced rates to those who qualify.) “Once singing becomes a soundtrack in your life, you can dial in whenever you need to.”