Recently I read The Eye of the Reindeer by Eva
Winter. One of the many themes woven
through the work is a search for a sacred Sami drum. The drum was believed to have been hidden by
an old Shaman to protect it from being taken away and destroyed by
missionaries. The fictional story touches
on a number of issues in relation to sacred beliefs and practices of indigenous
people and the drum’s role in healing.
It also brought to mind another book I had read years ago, The Healing Drum: African Wisdom Teaching by Yaya Diallo
and Mitchell Hall which is the story of
Diallo’s early life in Mali.
Although The Eye of the Reindeer is set in the early twentieth century there
are echoes of attitudes still held today. Some are behind comments I have received
during the time I have been involved in West African-style drumming and dance,
rare though they may be. One I have used
as the title of this blog, ‘Are you gunna be banging them drums again?’.[i] Others are evident in the times the police have
been called to shut us down when we have performed at functions because of noise
complaints from the locals.
Comments like these reduce
percussion rhythm and drum music to ‘noise’.[ii] I’m
not sure if other bands or orchestras would suffer from the same fate. Would kit drumming be more acceptable? Judging by one of the current advertisements
on TV, I guess not. So is there some
sort of cultural elitism at work, or is there something about percussion and
drumming which challenges us on another level?
By cultural elitism I mean a mindframe
which determines what is considered to be ‘ proper music’ and what is not, what
is ‘real religion’ and what is not, what is ‘proper behaviour’ and what is not
and to take it further, what is ‘proper’ art, performance, writing and what is
not when compared to cultures not our own.
Whether cultural elitism is at work or not I wonder if our rejection is also driven by something more; something to do with fear of ‘other’, the unfamiliar, an unwillingness to be
open to what we don’t understand, haven’t learned, and perhaps unable to
control, so we are unable to respond to it.
When performance, ritual, writing,
art, and meditation ‘work’ they draw us in. When we engage fully with the work
or event we are lifted out of ourselves and have a sense of becoming one with
it. We are happy to be drawn along the
evolving journey. Even performers and
artists can feel themselves being drawn along for the ride when a work ‘works’
and takes on a life of its own. It is no
longer ‘us’, ‘them’, and the work. The
work and us exist together somewhere in the middle, in ‘the space between’.
Neuro-scientists suggest we go
somewhere else in our brains. It is our
brains which allow or inhibit and our brains are constrained by our experiences
and knowledge. So if we are familiar with the style or content of the
ritual/performance/artwork our brains are quite happy to engage and do not fear
the outcome. However, if we are
unfamiliar it is often much harder to let go and follow the flow. In some circumstances this reluctance keeps
us safe but at other times it can stop us being part of situations that could
be a lot of fun and give us something special in return.
Scientists are also researching
the potential benefit that rhythm, music, meditation, ritual and artistic
practice have on our wellbeing[iii]:
something that practitioners have
believed and experienced forever. In The Healing Drum, Diallo and Hall
write, ‘In the Minianka villages of Fienso and Zangasso, the musicians were
healers, the healers musicians. The word
musician itself implies the role of healer.
From the Minianka perspective, it is inconceivable that the
responsibilities for making music and restoring health should be separate, as
they are in the west.
In the Miniankan view and practice of music, harmony is the central
concept...interaction of parts in a whole.
The encompassing whole...is the Minianka cosmos...visible and
invisible. The entire Mianianka village social structure and
culture seek to sustain the lives of the people in harmony with one another,
the Creator, the ancestors, the spirits of the bush, and nature....This is the
cosmos in which Minianka musicians play their instruments and heal.’
I would extend this potential to
all artistic and spiritual practice. So
do we fear that by being part of particular forms of art and music our own
‘selves’ and beliefs may be challenged and we will be ‘corrupted’?
What also interests me is that we
so-called ‘educated elite’ do not believe what we are told by traditional
practitioners, or think we experience, until it has been pinpointed, tested and
enough evidence found to validate it, and even then only by a percentage
probability. Yet research is also
showing in relation to the placebo effect, that if we believe something will
work it is possible to be halfway there, if not all the way. So if we let go our disbelief and engage, our
brains may well readjust and allow healing to take place, even if, as Chanda
& Levitin suggest, there may be multiple, including social, factors at
work.
The other enticing concept is
reflected in Dan Seigel’s and Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington’s[iv]
writing on the mind and consciousness. Seigel
views the mind as the seat of consciousness, which he positions beyond our
physical selves.[v] It is a self-organising system which links,
integrates and ‘regulates energy and information flow within and among
us’. Eddington’s seat of consciousness
seems to be an undetermined place and system through which the world interacts
and transmits messages, and is continuous with our conscious and/or subconscious
mind. Both position this system
somewhere in a type of ‘space between’.
It sounds to me a bit like concepts of a ‘cosmic god’ and similar theological explorations of the nature of 'god'. Lipton, on the other hand, extends the 'mind' and consciousness to cell membranes which react to the environment (energy, 'spirit') and are responsible for controlling cell function, including changes to DNA. [vi]
Be that as it may, there are
parallels to the potential for art, including drumming and ritual, to take us,
our brains or our minds, to a similar place. What I am hedging around here is a concept of
‘spirituality’, and the potential link between art and spirituality. It does not mean that if we engage in art practice
we will lose our particular religious or spiritual bent, if that is what we are
afraid of. It is more likely that our
beliefs and experiences will influence our response to the work and our use of
the medium. It is also possible that our
unconscious and subconscious selves go to all sorts of places we cannot control
anyway, especially if it is through these ‘selves’ that we communicate with the
rest of the material and immaterial world and cosmos.
When we open ourselves to, and are challenged by, the variety of art forms available to us, including from cultures not our own, and unfamiliar modes of expression, we can partake at any level we wish as well as enjoy the spiritual and healing benefits which historically have been part of them.
c. Annette Maie, 2017
[i]
In my and our audiences’ defence, positive responses like, ‘that was
fantastic’, do outweigh the negative.
[ii]
Anyone who has learned African-style drumming is aware that there are many
layers of rhythm in each piece, all with high and low sounds, traditionally
with voice and other instruments, so creating melodies which speak to each
other in an integrated whole.
[iii]
Among the exponentially expanding writing on these topics are: Anastasi &
Newberg, ‘A Preliminary Study of the Acute Effects of Religious Ritual on
Anxiety’; Bensimon et al. ‘Drumming Through Trauma...’, Chanda & Levitin,
‘The Neurochemistry of Music’; Cossins,
‘A Brain for Rhythm’; Davidson &
Lutz, ‘Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation’; Doidge, The
Brain’s Way of Healing; Chapter 8;
Halpern, ‘Brain Entrainment’; Harvey,
‘Healing Rhythm’ in Mindfood; Maxfield, ‘Brainwave Entrainment to
External Rhythmic Stimuli...’; Moss et.
al., ‘Effects of an 8-Week Meditation Program on Mood and Anxiety in Patients
with Memory Loss’ and the work of Andrew Newberg.
[iv]
Seigel is a professor of psychiatry and Eddington was an astronomer, physicist,
mathematician and philosopher.
[v] https://qz.com/866352/scientists-say-your-mind-isnt-confined-to-your-brain-or-even-your-body/
[vi] Bruce H. Lipton, The Biology of Belief
[vi] Bruce H. Lipton, The Biology of Belief
