My exploration of this must be somewhat speculative as I am not a trained scientific investigator. I may not be correct in general or detail. These are simply speculations and ruminations at this time and much further cross referencing of available research papers and more physical science needs to be sourced.

Chills is a sensation experienced by many people when listening to music and other events, as described below.

“A cold chill (also known as frisson, or simply thrills or cold chills) is described by David Huron as, “a pleasant tingling feeling, associated with the flexing of hair follicles resulting in goose bumps (technically called piloerection), accompanied by a cold sensation, and sometimes producing a shudder or shiver.” [1] Dimpled skin is often visible due to cold chills especially on the back of the neck or upper spine. [2] Unlike shivering, however, it is not caused by temperature, menopause, or anxiety but rather is an emotionally triggered response when one is deeply affected by things such as music [3], speech [4] or recollection.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chill

So what’s happening in the brain?
“Music is able to create an incredibly pleasurable experience that can be described as “chills”.[36] Blood and Zatorre (2001) used PET to measure changes in cerebral blood flow while participants listened to music that they knew to give them the “chills” or any sort of intensely pleasant emotional response. They found that as these chills increase, many changes in cerebral blood flow are seen in brain regions such as the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, midbrain, and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. Many of these areas appear to be linked to reward and motivation, emotion and arousal and are also activated in other pleasurable situations.[36] Nucleus HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleus_accumbens”accumbens (a part of striatum) is involved in both music related emotions, as well as rhythmic timing.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_neuroscience_of_music

So we can see that chills are a real physiological response that many people experience and that it is connected with the pleasure generating centres of the brain. There are studies indicating that personality types exhibiting “Openness to Experience” are more likely to experience chills to music.

Elsewhere it is stated that the centres affected by chills are the same as those affected by, food ingestion, sex and drugs like cocaine, and other euphoric inducing substances.

The dopamine cycle of the brain has recently found to be involved in chills, the mesolimbic dopamine system.

“…. music can produce a nice increase in dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. Whether that’s a “high”, is another question. They couldn’t really quantify what kind of a signal they were getting from the dopamine, other than that they got a significant change. Drugs like cocaine produce increases in dopamine in the nucleus accumbens of up to 300% of baseline, and drugs like meth can go even higher than that. Was intense pleasure when listening to music in the same category? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel good.”

Jan 31 2011 Published by scicurious under Behavioral Neuro

http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/01/31/this-is-your-brain-on-music/

The anecdotal evidence of my own experience and those of others indicate that the answer to the last question above, “Was intense pleasure when listening to music in the same category?” may be, “Yes, under certain circumstances.” The stimulation of the mesolimbic dopamine system through music induced chills may be the part of the physiological and psychological process of Kundalini awakening. Kundalini effects maybe as powerful as cocaine and crystal meth but with no temporary or permanent physical, psychiatric or psychological damage.

An endogenous DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) like substance has also been proposed as an element of mystical states of consciousness involving euphoria and hallucinations or “visions.” This may also be an element of the Kundalini awakening process through chills induced by music. It seems to go back to endogenous serotonin derivatives.

“N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a potent psychedelic agent found in many plants and animals and is remarkably similar in its molecular structure to the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT).”

“In the healthy human, DMT may be involved in the production of the dream visions that are experienced during rapid-eye-movement sleep (REMS; Callaway, 1988). The periodic nature of REMS suggests that dreaming may be the result of a metabolic cycle involving serotonin, melatonin, and other endogenous tryptophan products that include pinoline (an endogenous SSRI and a weak MAOI) and DMT.”

DMT and Human Consciousness, Zevic Mishor, Dennis J. McKenna, and J. C. Callaway

http://www.zevicmishor.com/wp-content/uploads/DMT-and-Human-Consciousness-Altering-Consciousness_Vol2_Ch5-Mishor.pdf

It is recorded that Kundalini awakening may produce chills, and also euphoria and hallucinations (visions), out of body experiences (OBE) and Near Death Experiences (NDE). This was my experience.
However, the results of Kundalini awakening have been noted to challenge the existing world-view of the one who experiences it to the point that integration of the experience afterwards can be difficult. This is also common in OBE and NDE experiences. (Well, if one’s head is full of horrible shit, this might not be a bad thing.)

Philip Ball quotes studies indicating that the likelihood of the experience of music induced chills is not diminished by repeated experience, but may become more likely the more frequently they are experienced. So this would indicate that the experience of chills can be made more likely, at least, in the people who can experience them, by learning.

Kundalini yoga, Kriya yoga, Tantra yoga methods of Kundalini awakening appear to train the yoga practitioner to induce chills in the spine on demand which the literature claim also ultimately induces altered states of consciousness, euphoria, visions, OBE and NDE experiences, and finally Self-realisation or God-realisation.

The chill response to music affects similar parts of the brain as does sex, food and inspiring thoughts. Thus this response would indicate that music is fundamental to our experience and survival as human beings and why all cultures value music. Tantra is the science of using the pleasure response to awaken the Kundalini and would appear to use the same dopamine using parts of the brain in part or whole. Tantra works with the fundamental pleasure drives associated with species survival.

I think the chills response is somehow linked with Kundalini awakening. But it is just a guess.

Thank you for sharing.

as well as OXTR and its snp http://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Rs53576 come to mind.

What’s worth noting is that eating a bad diet of white sugar and processed salts reverses this phenomena, causing the nerves to start to close up again. When resuming a clean vegan diet without processed foods the nerve reactivates.
There is no need for a simulation device, just follow the instructions in taoist yoga: alchemy and immortality for a permenant result.

This is because pitch-to-frequency relationships are actually totally arbitrary and have changed a lot over the centuries (specifically, named pitches have steadily risen in frequency). A=440 — the modern western standard that results in E being 41.2 — is really a 20th-century thing (and it’s not universal in India, although based on a quick google, it looks like harmoniums are now mostly sold at A=440).

(The possible 25-100Hz range you mention is a HUGE range in terms of pitch space — a little over two octaves, at A=440 — so, yeah, unless the meditative state really measures right around 40Hz for most people, any individuals who care would need to determine their own meditative-frequency so they can look up the pitch closest to it. And to the extent that a close match matters, people practicing at home then might experiment with a specific-frequency source, such as a good electronic tuner connected to speakers or some purpose-made audio/music, rather than a pitched instrument like a harmonium.)

Just a thought on this one — it would be quite interesting to see if shifting the tone changes the meditative experience. You could even do this quantitatively, I’d think. Would be an interesting experiment. Alternatively if gamma patterns differ by person in their frequency, I wonder if different tones might “resonate” better with different people based on their frequency relative to that person’s gamma frequency (if these are indeed typical of a person rather than varying by occurrence or indeed within occurrence)

Anyway, really neat to run across your site, and I’m greatly enjoying it. Feel free to drop me an email if you feel like it. I’m living down in Philly these days.