Listening to Beating Sounds

Any gentle beat at the pace of the heart is subconsciously associated with comfort, warmth and safety. It has a relaxing hypnotic effect. It is a sound we associate with lack of threats, thus it is ideal as a promoter of spiritual experience,usually of a very benign gentle nature. Drumming, [as an example of a beating sound], when studied scientifically, is shown to have an effect on brain waves. They induce a hypnagogic state. But a number of sounds of a prolonged but regular rhythmic low throbbing or beating noise, can do the same. Examples include the ticking of a clock the drum drum drum of a train at constant speed on rails of equal length.

the use of a rattle, maraca or similar
the beat of a metronome
the beat of clapsticks
the low throb of an engine
the drip drip drip of water
listening to your heartbeat using a biofeedback machine
beeping machines – for example the machines in hospitals
listening to rhymed verse
trance music

A single monotonous beat has a suppressing effect on the intellect,
there is both nothing to Learn and nothing to Reason about,
so as long as we don’t try to read Plato’s Timaeus whilst we attempt this,
the mind can relax too.