I've been to India a few times and I've gone to Hindu temples, but I'd never heard of kirtan until a few weeks ago when I did an article for Body & Soul.

I spoke with Shanell Vaughn who organised the local event and she explained that it is a call-and-response form of chanting divine names.

"It is a Sanskrit-based mantra practice that has its roots in an Indian tradition called Bhakti yoga," she said.

Ms Vaughn explained kirtan as a sort of singing meditation. She said participants didn't have to be great singers but only to be willing to take part.

It sounded interesting and since I'm really no good at meditating by staring into a flame, I thought I'd try it out. Also, I love to sing.

Organisers of the event brought in American devotional singer David 'Durga Das' Newman and his wife Mira who performs alongside him on stage. In their genre they are very well known and have a number of top selling CDs.

It was held at Spirit House, in Devonshire, and the room was packed (about 60 people).

There was a very relaxed and joyous atmosphere, as many of us knew each other.

We were the artsy crowd, those interested in alternative therapies and experiences that will bring us more in touch with our individual and collective souls. Having been to India I thought I had a good idea of what this would be like. I've been in small village areas and heard incessant chanting.

I love music. Not all music, but what I love, I love and I can feel it, the vibration of it. I had never really thought about loving chanting.

I don't know what they're saying, but I had always felt that it possessed vibration and I could often feel that vibration, just walking about my daily business in a village. So I entered Spirit House, greeted the organisers, chatted with friends, tried to sort out how my husband would take the pictures.

That all done, we sat, like everyone else, on the cushions on the floor. We were handed a sheet of paper with 38 Sanskrit chants. Most of them were only a line or two, so it was conceivable that we would get through the lot. At least it was to me.

David and Mira started with the second chant on the list. David explained that it was a chant about opening up.

It would help us to open up. He was the leader and Mira lead us all as the respondents.

Listening to them we were able to pronounce the unfamiliar words and be guided in tempo. Gung Ganapataye Namo Namah.

We sang this until we didn't even have to look at the words anymore. We knew them. It was such a flow but the night was just starting.

Next we sang a chant to put us in balance our feminine energies balanced with our masculine energies. Jay Siya Rama Siya Ram, Sita Rama Rama Ram Sita Rama Rama Ram.

Rama and Sita are a famous Hindu couple in the holy book the Ramayana, Rama is the man and Sita the woman.

David said that chanting Rama activates the masculine energy and chanting Sita activates the feminine.

I enjoyed the singing but was unaware of my energies balancing out. In fact I just felt like I was singing campfire songs.

The entire night felt like a trip back to my teenage years, those Wednesday nights at Living Water, on Pitts Bay Road. That's where hundreds of teens in my day attended Young Life.

At Young Life we sang songs in rounds, in call and response and in some beautiful harmonies. All to unplugged guitar music.

Many of the songs were from the 1960s, although we were in the 1970s. Then the leaders talked to us about finding God in our lives. Most of us went for the socialising aspect and others of us for the music, maybe a few were interested in hearing about God. I so enjoyed singing those Wednesday nights that I went to Young Life summer camp in Colorado for the full effect.

There we expanded our repertoire of songs and we sang them around a real campfire every night. We'd clap our hands and sway. And by the time we reached the Hare Krishna chant at Spirit House, that's exactly what was happening. I felt some part of me fall away and open up to being freer.

It's difficult to explain, but through the chanting and in particular through the building up of the tempo, with my mind concentrating on nothing but keeping the beat and singing the right words, I no longer had to concentrate on keeping the beat and singing the right words, both just came, both were there.

It was an uplifting and completely energising feeling.

Many people got up and clapped and swayed from side-to-side, they were beaming.

A man next to me sang the whole way through, instead of only waiting for the respondents' part.

It all looked very flower powerish or at least how I imagine the flower powerers to have been. It was reminiscent of my Colorado camp days.

Despite my enjoyment I was disappointed. I had expected an experience of chanting with a guru in India.

Others echoed my sentiment and said they felt it was a Western version of kirtan, but whatever the case, it invigorated me such that when I reached home at about 10.30 p.m. I couldn't stop singing.

I went online and stayed up until 3 a.m. singing my heart out and even at that hour I didn't want to go to bed, but told myself I had to.