In this article, the efficiency of mantras and their energetic potential as incarnations of ideas, are verified by turning to the results of scientific research on the psychological and neuro-physiological effects of mantra practice. The positivist notion of ‘idea’ generally presupposes a distinction between a mental concept and its material referent. The notion of ‘mantra’, a putative Indian alternative to ‘idea’, is based on altogether different premises. In this article, I will shed a light on the often-overlooked presuppositions of the prevailing positivist notion of ‘idea’, drawing from Indian mantra practice. Other than ‘idea’, mantra combines mental notion and physical expression, thereby precluding unhealthy forms of dualism which might damage reflection on ideas, their nature and way of generation. In the case of mantra, ‘idea’ (its mental aspect) is anything but passive. Rather, it is a source of vital energy, a generating paradigm that manifests itself as a visible world, comparable to how information produces virtual reality in a computer. Importantly, mantras are incarnate or embodied ideas, ideas which are integrally one with their practice and external representation – sound, color, breathing technique or pranayama, and related graphic images or yantra, and sometimes asana.