“Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum‑swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right, is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.” Kybalion
Everything in the universe, from the tyniest subatomic patricel to the greatest stars vibrates with a rhythm. Everything emerges from rhythm and rhythm shapes matter. Rhythm is life's heartbeat. Everything that has a shape in matter has a vibration, hence heartbeat. In each our hearts we have a dynamic and perfect pulse, that connects us with the unity of the universe, in which each single thing is in relation to eachother. The beat of the drum brings us together as a single heartbeat with all life forms. The sonic drum beat, detracts all resonance, that is in disharmony with human nature and loads back harmony and balance.
The sound of the drum represents the basic rhythm patterns of nature. The ebb and flows, kunar cycles, changing seasons and countless life cycles. Rhythm is a universal vibrational language.
To be a human is to move within various states of moods, emotions and excitements. We have very little control over these rhythmic mood swings. After acycle of excitement an opposite emotion follows, such as depression, maybe you noticed. The drum beats embrace all human emotions and have a greater influence on emotions created by sound in comparison to other musical instruments. The drum beat can satisfy all emotions of any kind. It reconciles, encourages, soothes, leads to a state of rapture. Rapture, is described as a trance captured through divining, pleasure or poetical involvment. This is a trance state, in to which the mind entered with intention. For a person to be able to reach a certain level of pleasure, he or she has to have swung to the other extreme of that emotion. "Those whom feel pleasure ardently, suffer ardently. But, there's no need to atone the certain amount of pleasure we experienced, because the positive is always in dominance to the negative. Pleasure in itself is a rhythmic swingin." The drum here acts as a vessel of drawing the focus and therefore enhances a poersons capacity to focus on his/her inner voice. Ectasy or rapture is a frequency that exists in each of us. A session with a drum is enabling a person to experience a frequency with ease like to tune into a certain radio frequency.
If we approach the scienctific explaination: the nervous system is constantly working while regulating itself. If it's not able to regulate, trauma occurs. We experience attention deficit. The auditory sensory system is our most vulnerable area towards outer stimuli. Sound is directly stimulating the brain without an obsticle. In our wolrd today we are sourrounded by too many auditory stimuli outside our control. The drum beat prevents other sensory stimuli from entering our system by creating powerful repetitive neuronic ignitions. These repetitive powerful and plain sound frequencies create an affect, that doesn't occur during the brain's functioning at an awake conscious state. The cerebral cortex and an electrical rhythmic flow is activated. This leads to a state of balance in both hemispheres.
The left hemisphere of the brain is rational and productive. It functions in subjects like mathematics, science and language. It acts according to previous learned lessons. The right hemisphere is responsible for visual senses. Art, musical and creative abilities, intuition and talent are sitting here. It is the place of the subconscious.
If both hemispheres start to function in harmony, an inner guide steps in and consciousness flows easily. A synchronized flow, becomes the natural movement for the active consciousness. The person begins easily to understand his/her purposes and doesn't waste his/her energy. It allows intuition to to lead the body and gains clarity within movement. Actions easily synchronize with the person and the universe. The left hemisphere enables us to see the surface of things; the right hemisphere sees with awakened insight. When both hemispheres are synchronized in harmony, this energy enables one to access the flow of knowledge directly and awakens the higher mind.
A beat consisting of 180 strokes a minute, creates a Alpha wave cycle in the brain. A person has naturally four state of minds: Beta, Alpha, Tetha and Delta. When the mind is in Beta state the person is quiet awake. In this state of mind we think, talk, make decisions , solve problems, make olans, take actions. In summary, Beta is the state we'remostly at in our daily lives. Sometimes the mind switches to a different frequency during the day. For example, if we close our eyes and relax our brain enters the Alpha frequency. In this state of mind, the conscious control over the mind decreases, our creativity increases. The Alpha and Tetha states of mind, are suiteable to learn and memorize a large amount of information with speed and ease and these are states, where the mind is at it's highest performance in learning and remembering. It is an awake but relaxed state. Alpha, is related to meditation, light trance and holistic states of minds. Tehta: It is a deep subconscious activity and a state of trance. The Alpha rhythm is the resonance frequency, that our planet is emmitting through it's electromagnetic field. All life is bound to this primal frequency. In case the brain is initiated to both of these frequencies, it gets in touch with the collective consciousness. The sonic drum beat is a tool, that helps and accelerates to enter this state.
Scientific experiments have shown, that even with a short drum beat session the activity of Alpha brain wave activity doubles itself and that the level of stress drops.
Recourses for more detailed information:
· Altered States During Shamanic Drumming:A Phenomenological Study
Anette Kjellgren & Anders Eriksson
· The Shamanic Drum / A Guide to Sacred Drumming
Michael Drake
· Medicinal Drumming: An Ancient and Modern Day Healing Approach
Sal Núñez
· Poject of Being / PharmaSono
Meriç Fıratlı
· Shamanism
Mircea Eliade
· Shamanic Healing
Michael Harner
· The Art of True Healing / Physiotherapy & Initiation
Dr. F. Israel Regardie
· Kybalion/ A Study of The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece
Three Initiates