Very insightful thoughts about rhythm and drumming. Check this out. Some absolutely wonderful thoughts 🙂

Rhythm is with us all the time, from our mother’s steady heartbeat while we’re still in the womb, to the rhythm and sound of our own breathing when we’re in a still, quiet place. It’s second nature to incorporate these elements into ceremony. Mickey Hart (the former drummer for the Grateful Dead) in the opening sentence of his book, Planet Drum, wrote, “In the beginning, there was the beat.” Rhythm is one of the most basic elements in life.

Nearly anything can be used to create rhythm. You don’t even need an instrument; you can use your own body as the instrument. Clapping your hands, snapping your fingers, or slapping your thighs creates a beat. At some workshops where we incorporate rhythm, people have used upside-down wastebaskets or water bottles as drums, and vitamin bottles or beads in an empty plastic water bottle as rattles. All it takes is a little imagination to create your own rhythm instrument.

More commonly, in sacred ceremony, drums or rattles are used. They may be used throughout the ceremony, to open or close it, or at particular points during the ceremonial process.

Anthropologist and author Michael Harner in Way of the Shaman notes that in the indigenous shamanic cultures he has studied, often the shaman will induce in themselves the altered state of consciousness (which he terms the “shamanic state of consciousness”) through rhythm, usually through drumming or rattling. Typically the rhythm is four to seven beats (or shakes) per second.

Researchers have found that after about 12 minutes of steady drumming, particularly at the rate of four to seven beats per second, an amazing thing happens. Our brain waves begin to synchronize with the drumbeat! Typically, in an awakened state, our brain waves register what is called a beta rhythm, which is an oscillation of 14 to 20 cycles per second. This is the normal waking state, when you’re alert. The next slower cycle is called the alpha rhythm, which is 8 to 13 cycles per second. This is a mild trance state, what you experience when you first awaken from a deep sleep, or that drowsy feeling just before bedtime. Next is the theta rhythm, four to seven cycles per second, experienced during sleep as well as during moderate to deeper trance states.

Conclusion: Drumming at the rate of four to seven beats per second will tend to slow down the brain waves to a theta rhythm—a corresponding four to seven cycles per second—thus putting the participants into an altered state of consciousness that’s characteristic of many meditative and shamanic disciplines!

Many studies have demonstrated the health benefits of drumming, from slowing our brain waves into more meditative states, increasing immune response, and as a very useful tool in managing stress. A recent article in the Orange County Register described how senior citizens at a retirement community have been meeting regularly for drumming circles, and those interviewed described that it made them feel better. Drumming is one of those exceptional ancient tools that has health benefits for those of us in contemporary times.

Drumming also helps unify a group. At a musical festival I attended, I purchased a small drum from a gentleman from Senegal, Africa, which had an elegant carved tree on the side of it. The vendor said it was a peace tree. He described how in his home village in Senegal, participants gather around this tree with their drums, rattles, and other percussion instruments once a week. As people gather gradually, they start playing their instruments. At first there’s a cacophony of sound, like a percussion orchestra tuning its instruments.

He went on to say, “Then, something beautiful and mystical begins to happen. Much like the rhythm of crickets at night, everyone starts to synchronize the beat. Rhythms are playing within and around other rhythms, interweaving themselves all within the larger group rhythm. The master beat mysteriously appears out of the chaos of sound. It’s when we’re synchronized that we’re praying with our drums for peace for ourselves, our families, our community, and for the world.”

And who says there’s only one way to pray?

Farmer, Steven. Sacred Ceremony: How to Create Ceremonies for Healing, Transitions, and Celebrations (pp. 48-49). Hay House. Kindle Edition.