Unlike prayers, mantras are not necessarily based on meanings of words, but on the energy inherent in a sound. It is that energy, and not the meaning of the sound, that mantras draw their power. Ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Hebrew, and Aramaic are believed to be energy-based languages. The Hebrew mystics, like the Vedic gurus, thought of the spoken word as alive and as “a unit of energy charged with power,” according to William Barclay’s commentary on the Gospel of John. It is thought that the vibrations of the sound of each word in the mantra evoke certain specific vibrations and energies within us, much like the vibration of a tuning fork making other tuning forks of the same frequency vibrate in unison