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Articles on Drumming

"As We Drum, We Are One" by Feeny Lipscomb

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? A writer friend of mine recently shared this profound insight, "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.

Modern 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. Not only heart attacks, strokes, immune system breakdowns, but every disease known--with the exception of two viruses--has been shown to be caused by or exacerbated by stress.

Interestingly, it now appears that that 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.

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 has long suffered from high stress, hypervigilance 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 using a one-sided handdrum and a beater, 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 KansasCity-based company, Healthy Sounds, offers a variety of programs for schools, care centers, and corporations, all using the drum as a tool.

The growing drumming movement in this country suggests that people are beginning to reclaim their rituals 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.

The non-profit All One Tribe Foundation is coordinating a global event for world peace which honors the world's indigenous peoples. Called "Drumming In the Year 2000," the event takes place on December 31st, 1999, when people in cities and villages around the world will drum together as the midnight hour arrives in each time zone.

The event will be covered by satellite and broadcast worldwide. Rituals for healing and for peace will be enacted in many locations. When the year 2000 has arrived in the final time zone, there will be one hour of focused, simultaneous drumming across the globe. "As We Drum, We Are One" will be sung in many languages of the world.

The event's coordination is taking place on a grassroots level, with local groups and individuals organizing in their cities and towns. With internet presence since 1996, the event has been covered widely in the media and has coordinators worldwide. The website describing how to participate is at www.allonetribedrum.com.

The research into the healing effects of this ancient ritual practice is ongoing. For some, the concept that the wisdom of the indigenous world might offer relief from stress, the most pervasive and pernicious result of late 20th-century "progress," is a fitting prospect just now, in the midst of the "International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples."

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.

Healing: to the Beat of an Inner Drummer

By Barry Bittman, MD

"I think I've had enough," he replied in a calm yet somber tone as our heads seemed to drop in unison. "Nothing seems to be working. After 6 surgeries in less than a year, I don't think I'll let them operate again to send chemotherapy directly to my brain." He hadn't said much previously. Tears streamed down his mother's face.

I wasn't about to argue the point just expressed by a young man who turned 22 during our Insights for Living Beyond Cancer retreat. Our group didn't counter either. Cancer survivors and support persons alike, they collectively traveled thousands of miles to join us, yet no one was about to challenge him to go another step. In our hearts, each one of us felt that perhaps we would not have mustered the courage to have gone that far.

Everyone was especially touched by his willingness to share what for most of us is the unthinkable until the time is right and our last ounce of energy is spent. Knowing that such crossroads could appear any time in our future, we respected his melancholy decision to finally give in.

Yet in my heart I hoped something would change. For I sensed more than just a resignation to let nature take its course. His tone echoed the painful agony of failure that somehow seemed inconsistent with his extraordinary will to survive. After all, not only did he triumph over the challenges of several surgeries and months of rehabilitation and physical therapy, he actually learned to walk independently again after facing a seemingly insurmountable bout of paralysis. His dedication and drive must have been furious.

At least he got it off his chest, I thought. Perhaps he opened a door. Rather than guiding him in one direction or another, something inside told me to let him discover his own way. For even in the darkest moments, a flicker hope exists. I knew real magic surfaced several times each day in the group. Sometimes it was just a smile that seemed to break down the boundaries of despair. At others it happened when a couple held hands or expressed feelings of love for each other during a counseling session. Often it surfaced with tears that flowed abundantly in the sorrow of the moment or in the joy of revelation.

That evening it happened in another way.

When that special moment presented itself, a part of me recognized it immediately. It happened during a music making session. All I had to do was turn our drum circle over to him. It was simply meant to be.

For when his hands touched the drum, there was a special beat, an unrelenting expression of celebration and a commanding presence that surprised all of us. It was as if he was the perfect conduit, the ultimate instrument upon which the rhythm of life was destined to flow. His musical expression was so deep* it had survived what no scalpel could ever reach. Everyone immediately saw and heard the Light. With infectious energy, his intense beat kindled our will to survive, to flourish and to express ourselves despite any obstacle that could ever appear in our path. We played with intensity and joy as a sense of camaraderie literally joined us together as one. And we drummed beyond our limits, beyond our fatigue, beyond our limitations.

That night I slept more soundly than I had in months. The following morning I felt renewed as if every ounce of tension had been erased and before me was a fresh slate upon which a new day would be written.

As I gazed upon the sunlight streaking through the canopy of trees that separated us from the mountain, his mother's words began to fill that slate as she spoke excitedly, "Dr. Bittman, did you see my son this morning? He awoke without a complaint and is walking better than he has in months. He seems different!"

And he was* there was a bounce in his step, he was more positive, far more interactive and he wore a smile of certainty that touched and changed all of us. I'll never forget his words that morning when I asked each participant to tell us what they would do with the last 5 minutes of their lives. He was the last to respond. "I will continue to learn," he said in a deliberate tone that resounded with clarity of purpose and a zest for living beyond cancer.

Our tears flowed abundantly. He simply smiled with a knowing that was ever-present. As our ECaP retreat came to a close, and each person parted on an individual healing path, I felt closer to all of them* especially the young drummer who taught me so much about life, courage and the power of music. Yet somehow I wished I knew more about him. My prayer was answered with a note from his mother a few days later. She wrote, "When we got off the plane on Sunday, he announced to his step dad that he is a new person. I guess we both are." A spinal tap performed shortly after the retreat showed for the first time that his new chemotherapy was working.

While one cannot clearly explain the rationale for his improvement, I know something extraordinary happened in our midst. Deep within the essence of who I am, a part of me healed through the beat of this drummer. His rhythm and his smile are forever etched within my being. For whenever extraordinary courage is needed to take a seemingly insurmountable step, I'm confident his rhythm will guide my way* Mind Over Matter!

Great appreciation is extended to Ted Leslie and his mother, Naomi Haugen for sharing a remarkable survival lesson with all of us.

Biofeedback Indicates Drumming Relieves Stress

Drumming has been used for centuries by the world's indigenous peoples, who have always drummed in ceremony at weddings, births, deaths, harvests, and rites of passage. In recent years, major articles describing the healing effects of this ancient practice have appeared in news-papers and magazines such as The New York Times, Yoga Journal, The Wall Street Journal, US News & World Report, and Newsweek.

These and other articles have reported results of studies demonstrating the calming, focusing effect of group drumming sessions upon Alzheimer's patients, emotionally disturbed teens, autistic children, war veterans, and prison and homeless populations. Major corporations such as Motorola, AT&T and Levi Strauss have used drumming with middle management to promote team spirit-building.

The brain's fundamental need for rhythm has long been known in the field of music therapy. Clinical studies demonstrate the stress produced when the brain is deprived of this basic need. The effect of stress upon the human system has now been incontrovertibly established: stress contributes to all disease and is a primary cause of myriad life-threatening illnesses, such as heart attacks, strokes, immune system breakdowns, etc. Many healers believe that stress is a result of psychic fragmentation, literally of being disconnected from our deeper selves.

A new study by Barry Quinn, PhD., a clinical psychologist specializing in neuro-biofeedback for stress management, indicates that drumming for brief periods can actually change a person's brainwave patterns, dramatically reducing stress. Dr. Quinn operates a neuro-biofeedback (NBT) clinic called the MindSpa Place in Colorado Springs, CO, and for over eight years has been working with how a variety of techniques affect the brainwaves. He calls the results of 30 to 40 minutes of drumming on the highest-stress clients "by far the most amazing results I've encountered thus far in my research."

One of Dr. Quinn's patients, a Viet Nam veteran who has long suffered from high stress, hyper-vigilance and chronic sleep problems, regularly produced almost no Alpha in his brainwave patterns. (Alpha is a mental relaxation state missing in nearly 40% of the population.) During a single 30-minute session of slow, gentle drumming using a one-sided All One Tribe® handdrum and a beater, this patient nearly doubled his Alpha brainwaves.

No other technique used (including a light and sound machine and hypnotherapy) 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 eight years of Dr. Quinn's NBT research had been able to bring a significant return of this relaxation brainwave in any client.

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.

The research into the healing effects of this ancient practice are ongoing. A new study in the Biofeedback Department of a University in Texas will be completed in the summer of 1998. For some, the concept that the wisdom of the indigenous world might offer relief from the most pervasive and pernicious result of late twentieth-century "progress" is a fitting prospect just now, in what the United Nations has declared the "International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples."

For more information, contact the All One Tribe® Foundation, P.O. Drawer N, Taos, NM 87571, call 1-800-442-DRUM or visit the website at http://www.allonetribedrum.com.