Whispering Wyrd

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how sound has helped me heal. At almost a year off benzos now, my nervous system is still relearning how to be at peace. And what surprises me, maybe more than anything else, is that one of the most powerful tools I’ve found for recovery isn’t modern or medical. And it certainly isn’t pharmaceutical.

It’s sound. Simple, human sound. Breath shaped into rhythm. A chant, a whisper, and/or a repeated phrase.

And the more I study early cultures like Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Norse, (because those are my ancestors) the more I realize this wasn’t an accident. Sound was one of their oldest forms of healing. It wasn’t called “therapy” or “mindfulness,” but it was something very close. I’ve started thinking of these practices as spiritual technology, the kind our ancestors built long before pills and prescriptions existed.

What I Mean by “Spiritual Technology”

When ancient cultures needed calm, grounding, safety, or clarity, they turned to practices built on;

• vibration
• breath
• rhythm
• intention
• spoken word
• connection to something larger

These weren’t superstitions. They were finely tuned tools for emotional regulation, discovered, refined, and passed down over generations.

The Anglo-Saxons used galdor (galdr), rhythmic chants and spoken invocations that steadied the breath and brought the mind back from fear. The Norse would “call the hugr home,” gathering scattered thoughts by using repeated sound. And in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, which I also practice, nianfo (“Namo Amituofo”) works in the same way. It brings my attention out of the panic spiral and into something bigger, steadier, and kinder. Of course, galdor or galdr was also used for magical purposes whereas nianfo was/is not, they both can soothe the spirit and bring calm.

Different cultures, same wisdom.

Why Sound Works

You don’t have to believe anything mystical for this to work or make sense. The human nervous system responds directly to slow exhalation and chest vibration. It also responds to predictable rhythms, repetitive sound, and a soothing cadence.

Chanting sends a message to the body that words alone can’t deliver. It tells your nervous system that you’re safe now, you don’t have to be ready to fight right now. This is extremely important because it helps break the self-feeding loop of fear/dread/fight-or-flight.

Sound bypasses the overthinking part of the brain and goes straight to the places where fear lives.

A Personal Reflection

I was on a very high dose of benzos for more than twenty years. Eight pills a day. It numbed everything. It stopped the nightmares from PTSD, yes, but also numbed joy, clarity, connection, and even life itself. No one taught me healthier ways to cope. No one gave me tools. They just gave me pills.

Now, almost a year off benzos, I’m slowly rebuilding my nervous system using practices that humans used for thousands of years before modern medicine existed.

It turns out those “primitive” tools like breath, chant, and spoken rhythm are some of the most powerful technologies we’ve ever created.

May the old wisdom steady your breath, and may every sound that leaves your lips lead you gently back toward peace.

~Buck