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Drumming can be found in almost every culture on the planet. It is the fundamental rhythm of life. The growing drumming movement in this country suggests that people are beginning to reclaim and reconnect with themselves as they drum. The drum is emerging as the transformational tool of our time. And because the drumbeat is a universal, vibrational language which communes with the Earth and all Her creatures, the drum has come to symbolize our Unity as Earth-family citizens.
A 'Non-linear Non-rational' Experience
Modern (non-indigenous) society's loss of its rituals has caused psychic fragmentation--literally, the state of being disconnected from our deeper selves. The result is a sort of soul starvation--a deep, non-specific hunger which we've tried desperately (and unsuccessfully) to feed with food, drugs, sex, alcohol, shopping, gambling, work. Many healers believe that this psychic fragmentation is at the root of stress.
We now know that stress is a cause of 98% of all disease.
The most accessible tool for reconnecting with ourselves may be the drum, a gift from the indigenous world. Recent biofeedback studies show that drumming along with our own heartbeats for brief periods can alter brain wave patterns and "meditate" us, dramatically reducing stress.
Scientific Explorations of the Healing Drum
A recent study by Barry Quinn, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist specializing in neurobiofeedback therapy (NBT) for stress management, indicates that drumming works on even the highest-stress clients. Dr. Quinn operates a neurobiofeedback clinic called the MindSpa Place in Colorado Springs, CO, and for nearly nine years has been working with how a variety of techniques affect the brain waves.
One of Dr. Quinn's patients, a Viet Nam veteran who had long suffered from high stress, hyper-vigilance and chronic sleep problems, regularly produced almost no Alpha in his brain wave patterns. (Alpha is a mental relaxation state missing in nearly 40% of the population.) During a single, 30-minute session of slow, gentle drumming, this patient nearly doubled his Alpha brain waves.
No other technique used (including a sound and light machine) in a series of 15 stress reduction sessions had been able to produce any Alpha in this client. Until drumming, in fact, no technique used in the nine years of Dr. Quinn's research had been able to bring a significant return of this relaxation brain wave in any client. He calls the effect of brief drumming sessions "by far the most amazing results I've encountered thus far in my work."
Music therapist Barry Bernstein, whose use of the drum with Alzheimer's patients and in corporate settings has been widely publicized, believes strongly that drumming is "the healthiest, most accessible and fastest way to reconnect with ourselves." Bernstein's Kansas City-based company, Healthy Sounds, offers a variety of programs for schools, care centers, and corporations, all using the drum as a tool.
Early in the year 2001 a press release was issued from Meadville Medical Center reporting that shamanic drumming was recorded to boost cancer-killing cells. Newswire: A ground-breaking study to be published in the January 2001 issue of Alternative Therapies linked a specific type of group drum playing, known as Composite drumming, with an increase in Natural Killer (NK) cell activity, one of the mechanisms through which the body combats cancer and viral illnesses.
Led by Barry Bittman, MD, CEO of Meadville Medical Center's Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, PA, the research team tested a variety of different group drumming protocols and non-drumming control groups made up of healthy adults. In their findings, titled Composite Effects of group Drumming Music Therapy on Modulation of Neuroendocrine-Immune Parameters in Normal Subjects, they found that one particular group drumming method correlated with increases in NK cell activity, Lymphokine-Activated Killer (LAK) cell activity and chemical changes that together signal a strengthening of the body's natural immune system. This represents a reversal of the so-called Classic Stress Response, in which stressful activities depress immune function, and suggests that drumming might be a beneficial "stress-buster," analogous to laughter.
The following is a collection of words about the drum and drumming from selected wise ones.
The Sacred Drum from Cheyenne Maloney
Dreaming the Drum
Drums are a dream arisen,
Weaving the tapestry of life.
Drums bear seekers of vision,
Embracing the rainbow of light.
-Cherokee
"The universe, our world, and our ourselves are inseparable energy patterns interconnected by waves of energy. Everything in the known and unknown universe vibrates, resonates, and oscillates with rhythmic motion. Rhythm is the universal heartbeat of life.
The sacred drum is a means of producing light trance states and healing levels of deep relaxation. It is also a means to connect with the farthest points of the energetic grid that designs not only us, but all of life. The sacred drum aligns us with the forces of harmony. Harmony is a universal attribute of the heart consciousness and the drum helps us travel, through the space of the heart. When we use the drum to resonate alignment with harmony we create a possibility that oscillates through the web of life offering connectedness for ourselves and the whole universe.
The potential of the sacred drum is unlimited yet its mystery is simplistic to unveil. There is no need to learn and study its techniques, which are simple and can be taught to anyone in a short time.
Beyond the basics, the drum itself becomes the teacher. As your relationship deepens with your drum, it will teach you experientially and take you to the doorway of direct (Quantum) knowledge.The sacred drum takes us to Spirit, gives us a spirit voice and spirit ears. Wallace Black Elk, Lakota shaman says this of the drum: "When you pray with that drum, when the spirits hear that drum, it echoes. They hear this drum, and they hear your voice loud and clear."
The shamanic drum attunes us with harmony and carries our intention to the farthest reaches of what makes existence. It opens doorways on the web of life where all things are possible for our lives, our world, and beyond.
As your shamanic drum takes you to direct knowledge, you will eventually see the universal grid of the life with your own eyes. You will see our connectedness and know we are one. You will hear the voice of Spirit and know your own way."
As We Drum, We Are One
Feeny Lipscomb is a drummer, writer and entrepreneur who lives in Taos, New Mexico. She is the founder of the All One Tribe Foundation, which disseminates research on the physical, psychological and spiritual benefits of drumming
"The United Nations has declared 1994--2004 the "International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples." Indigenous cultures have always drummed in ritual at births, deaths, weddings, harvests and rites of passage. These cultures, with their natural sense of Earth wisdom and awareness of the sacred in all things, seem always to have understood that human beings are coded for ritual.
What does that mean?
"Dreams are the way the unconscious speaks to the conscious mind. And ritual is the way the conscious mind speaks back." In fact, many indigenous cultures believe there is a deep, pre-verbal part of us that understands only the language of ritual.
Drum Energies A Teaching from Joseph Rael
"Drumming opens up three basic vibrations. Drumming awakens the self. Drumming heightens the ability of perception, and drumming enables the person to see into the deeper realms of the self.
Drumming, by its very nature, creates a lifting energy which moves you very quickly to the next level of consciousness. That lifting quality is directly connected to the dynamic tension of energy struggling to achieve its highest potential. The sound that comes out of that awakened potential is the manifestation of new idea or a new form.
Drumming creates in the psyche of those people who listen to the drum, a sense of abundance, a feeling that there is more than enough in life to sustain life. There is the feeling of strength, of being able to step forth with whatever one want to change, because the power to sustain that change is in the drumming. The drumming sound helps persons listen to themselves as they really are.
From Margaret Moulton
"When a drum comes into your possession begin by consecrating it, Awakening it in ceremony. . . Align it to heaven and earth tune it to the vertical plumb line where Spirit intersects the material plane creating the world we know Your drum is a teacher, an ally, a guide on your path. Awaken it. It will find your heartbeat and guide you again and again on your journey home."
A Drum Teaching from Brooke Medicine Eagle
"The drum: The roundness of the drum represents the circle of All That Is, especially all that is upon the Earth. The drum is feminine, and always named to reflect this gender. It is vital to dedicate your drum to something that is important to you (world or inner peace, the children, purity of the water, the healing of separation, etc.), so that each beat upon her sings out that vibrational message, no matter what song or rhythm you play.
Each time you pick up your drum to play, begin with four gentle beats in each of the quadrants of the drum, remembering the Four Directions and the circle of life. Beating a simple heartbeat rhythm is an excellent way to ground and center yourself, to calm and relax yourself and your children. Hearing and dancing to this beat also helps us complete the formation of our nervous system: all things earthly are based in vibration and rhythm, and too often we do not participate in this dance of life. My invitation is for you to join in that dance and in the symphony of the resonating circle of life."
