After almost 18 months, we had our Drum Circle yesterday. I have been a bit out of sorts last couple of days, and I almost declined. But then since it was right next to my house, St Stephens Church steps, I picked up my Djembe and went.
When I started to play, it felt like an effort. But when you are sitting with 5-6 other players and the beats start get louder, one just cannot help.
Something strange happened.
Slowly as my own body and mind started to tune into the drum beats, I began to come to the present. And at once, as I was started getting lost in drum beats I slowly, but surely, began to find myself. As I did, something deep inside stared to communicate in the language of the drums and amplify the message. Some very slight murmur of instinct that I have been feeling last few days, but could not catch – or maybe did not want to, like a whiff of a dream, it kept disappearing too quickly. But through the drums I heard it. As my body and mind became silent, as the drum and me became one, as the other drums and my drums synchronised. The message came through. And I almost felt a jolt, involuntarily my eyes opened wide, and I caught my breath. And almost missed a beat. But didn’t.
The drums gifted me an Epiphany, and I suddenly felt immense sense of freedom and a release . As I saw, something I had not been able to see for years. The content was painful, but that was how truth felt like most times. And it did set me free.
Phew !!!
I have been playing the drums for almost 15 years now. But this kind of experience, I had for the first time. I felt I was buzzing after that, and I was sure others could see the colours.
No wonder drums are used in Shamanic Rituals. To set up a journey to altered consciousness. I certainly was experiencing one such state
It has made me wonder, about things. I have had an experience with drums and drumming, but not really the knowledge and so I began to look up.
Drumming dates back to thousands of years ago. Painting on the walls of ancient caves show people with drums. Historians believe that human beings used to beat on objects and bodies or stomped on the ground to produce sounds. I though of monkeys and how they beat their chest. hummm
Medical benefits
Drum therapy is an ancient approach that uses rhythm to promote healing and self-expression. From the shamans of Mongolia to healers of West Africa, therapeutic rhythm techniques have been used for thousands of years to create and maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health. It seems to be there across all cultures. Every ceremony is accompanied by some kind of drum. Transcending religions and geographical boundaries
Current research is now verifying the therapeutic effects of ancient rhythm techniques. Recent research reviews indicate that drumming accelerates physical healing, boosts the immune system and produces feelings of well-being, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. This was true for me. Why do we always have to go to medicines for such things I wondered.
The reason rhythm is such a powerful tool is that it permeates the entire brain. It does the integration of Both the Left and Right. The sound of drumming generates dynamic neuronal connections in all parts of the brain even where there is significant damage or impairment such as in Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
Integration through Synchrony
According to Michael Thaut, director of Colorado State University’s Center for Biomedical Research in Music, “Rhythmic cues can help retrain the brain after a stroke or other neurological impairment, as with Parkinson’s patients…”
The more connections that can be made within the brain, the more integrated our experiences become. In more ways than one. Said differently the less we are connected the less integrated we are.
He also writes, “When the logical left hemisphere and the intuitive right hemisphere start working together and communicating with each other there is a marked and measurable change in the quality of consciousness. Intuition increases. Insights increase. The ability to access unconscious information through symbols and imagery facilitates psychological integration and a reintegration of self. ”
“Life is about rhythm. We vibrate, our hearts are pumping blood, we are a rhythm machine, that’s what we are”. Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band Grateful Dead. He was so taken by the benefits he wanted to know how does drumming impact his brain. This is his experiment. It was quite clear you don’t need substance if the same thing can be achieve without. In addition to a an upper body workshop.My aching arms are a proof.
Spiritual Benefits
Michael Harner, an anthropologist and founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, did pioneering work in studying the effects of drumming in the 1960s and ’70s, outlined in his book, The Way of The Shaman . According to Harner, the beat of the drum, as used to transport native peoples into shamanic states of consciousness, closely approximates the base resonant frequency of the Earth, which can be measured scientifically.
“Music is the harmonization of opposites, the unification of disparate things, and the conciliation of warring elements…Music is the basis of agreement among things in nature and of the best government in the universe. … Pythagoras
So when we start to play the drums, our body and mind , through the drum starts to connect with the Earth. How beautiful is that.
Beautiful and also painful. Braden, a geophysicist and author of such works as Walking Between the Worlds: The Science of Compassion has continuously measured this frequency, which has led to his hypothesis that the Earth is going through great changes, with profound implications for its inhabitants.
Altered states of Consciousness
Rhythmic drumming induces altered states. A recent study by Barry Quinn, Ph.D. demonstrates that even a brief drumming session can double alpha brain wave activity, The brain changes from Beta waves (focused concentration and activity) to Alpha waves (calm and relaxed), producing feelings of euphoria and well-being.
Alpha activity is associated with meditation, shamanic trance, and integrative modes of consciousness
Beating our own Drums is any day better than beating ourselves.
Connections
In a society in which traditional family and community-based systems of support have become increasingly fragmented, Covid notwithstanding, drum circles provide a sense of connectedness with others and interpersonal support. Yesterday on the steps, I was so many people, little children from may cultures. They sat, played, stood watching, some came and danced, some came and spontaneously sang a beautiful African song, and some sang “summer of 69”. We travelled many genres from African kuku, to dandiya, to Punjabi, to sufi folk, and almost everyone moved. It was such a satisfying moving experience.
A community comes together in celebration – and all boundaries are transcended. Perhaps that was why these ritual were initiated.
The Holy Trinity
Years ago when I was in Kenya, and played with some Kikuyu friends, One of the elders told me the story of how a Djembe comes together. It is one my favourite story.
He said, the reason people instantly feel connected with the drum was because while playing the three spirits come together. The spirit of the tree, that make the Body, the Spirit of the animal, whose skin is used for the head and the spirit of the person who is playing.
It made complete sense and every time I play I remember this. The Trinity. And some days I imagine I am transported to the time of the tree and the goat
This, of course also made me think of Shiva and his damaru. In the shape of an hourglass and how it alternated and then integrates the beats. It is said that the sound which the Damaru produces is known as Pranavamand and it represents the “Shabda Brahma” or OM. Theses sounds are fused together by resonance to create one sound, The Nada.
Nada then is at once, The primordial sound of creation and also – Nothing. Nada.
Perhaps this getting in touch and breathing through this reality of the two opposites coming together is why we gravitate toward drums. Maybe the drums are a pathway to getting in tune with our own rhythm.
A Rhythm is the first sound even in our everyday lives. I remember when I was pregnant, and went to the doctor, in the sonography picture I could not make out much. But when she made me hear the heartbeats, mine stopped for a fraction it became real.
It surprises me, when I ask/suggest people to take up drumming, and they say ‘oh but I don’t have rhythm.’
If you have a heart you have a rhythm.
Maybe what it points to perhaps is how we are not in touch with our heart beat. And what my friend Kiran calls, heartsong
Perhaps we are also at some level afraid of that kind of integration. It is so much more convenient to keep things “separate” -divided. So many parallel realities people live. And mange to keep them “separate”.
Altering the internal rhythm is literally in our hands. If we choose integration, that is and not separation. If we started to, perhaps we can come home, finally to us, to our bodies, to each others, to the earth. And then let the Rhythm get you.
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. – Friedrich Nietzsche: