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The Wikipedia page for the Hare Krishna mantra provides some evidence that the mantra provides joy through the singing of certain vowels:

In a 2010 experimental study involving both devotees and non-devotees, singing vowels like "ah" and "eh" was found to be more joyful than singing vowels like "oh" and "uh", possibly due to a facial feedback effect.

They have a reference:

Böttger, D. (2010) To say "Krishna" is to smile - emotion psychology and the neurology of mantra singing. In "The Varieties of Ritual Experience" (ed. Jan Weinhold & Geoffrey Samuel (fr)) in the series "Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual", Volume II: "Body, performance, agency and experience". Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz. Video Summary

I'm unconvinced by the summary of this study.

Does the singing of certain vowels lead to more joyfulness?

Kruga
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RaceYouAnytime
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  • Your personal experience of the mantra isn't something we can confirm or refute. It is your personal experience. You don't cite anyone arguing there is a "scientific benefit". The only claim here we can assess is the 2010 experimental study. Are you willing for the question to be changed to "Is singing some vowels more joyful than others?" – Oddthinking Jul 05 '17 at 06:12
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    @Oddthinking I am willing to change the question as such and believe I have. Is this on-topic for the site? I come from EL&U so I'm well aware that such rules are important. – RaceYouAnytime Jul 05 '17 at 06:24
  • There was definitely research showing that both adopting specific poses AND saying specific things affects one's mindset and emotions. It's not outlandish to assume that specific singing may have some effect. – user5341 Jul 05 '17 at 12:40
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    I'll make an unsubstantiated claim that saying any word with a Close Unrounded Vowel (/i/, /ɨ/, /ɯ/) will cause the speaker to smile - in reference to Böttger, D. (2010) "To say "Krishna" is to smile". See also, the (U.S.A.?) tradition of saying "cheese" to get a smile for a photograph. – Tory Jul 06 '17 at 14:23

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