Reiki 3

THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MASTERFUL DRUMMERS
WHO FACILITATE SYNCHRONIZED DRUMMING GATHERINGS:
A TRANSCENDENTAL PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY
by
Susan Harris Baron
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty
of the California Institute of Integral Studies
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology
California Institute of Integral Studies
San Francisco, CA
2015
UMI Number: 3712076
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CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
I certify that I have read THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MASTERFUL
DRUMMERS WHO FACILITATE SYNCHRONIZED DRUMMING
GATHERINGS by Susan Harris Baron, and that in my opinion this work meets
the criteria for approving a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology at the
California Institute of Integral Studies.
Mera Atlis, Ph.D., Chair

Program Chair and Professor, Clinical Psychology
Ronald S. Valle, Ph.D.

Argosy University
© 2015 Susan Harris Baron
Susan Harris Baron
California Institute of Integral Studies, 2015
Mera Atlis, PhD, Committee Chair
THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MASTERFUL DRUMMERS

WHO FACILITATE SYNCHRONIZED DRUMMING GATHERINGS
ABSTRACT
Although neuroscience, music therapy, dance and movement therapies,
developmental and social psychology, and anthropology offer a growing body of
evidence on the benefits of drumming as a support for healing and transformation,
as of this writing, there is little published research within clinical psychology on
the phenomenological experience of group drumming, particularly regarding the
experience of the drumming facilitator. This study extends the literature by
examining the lived experience of 9 Masterful Drummers of diverse cultural and
ethnic backgrounds who facilitate gatherings of people playing synchronized
rhythms on drums and other percussion instruments. These highly experienced,
informally and formally trained musicians of the drum (and other percussion
instruments) are acknowledged as such in their communities of practice. This
study used a Transcendental Phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994) as the primary
method, supplemented by Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity (Finlay, 2005)
and Focusing (Gendlin, 1978, 1978/2007) to frame and conduct the interviews.
These methodologies were also supported by approaches rooted in the feminine
such as voice-centered relational research, thought, and practice (DeVault &
Gross, 2007; Gilligan, Brown, & Rogers, 1990; Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg, &
Bertsch, 2003; Mauthner & Doucet, 1998; Olesen, 2005). Six textural themes
iv
were identified: the importance of sensory awareness and bodily receptivity, the
“space between the beats” as a portal to the Numinous, experiences of embodied
empathy and empathic presence, entrainment as an alternative state, the role of
facilitating as a Masterful Drummer (e.g., preparation, role, intention), and
practices for containing drumming participants’ experiences. The underlying
philosophies and worldview of the 9 Masterful Drummers were the focus of the
structural component and appeared to be essential to the core of the lived
experiences for all study participants. In addition, the psychotherapeutic
implications of their phenomenological experience are discussed in light of the
potential parallels between the therapeutic container and the facilitated
synchronized drumming group. This research brings an expanded vision of how
the drum might be integrated into individual, couple, family, and group
psychotherapy sessions as a means of connecting therapist and client and building
trust.
v
DEDICATION
To the Drum and its call to all beings.
To those individuals who have played the drum, to those who have longed to play
the drum, and to those who have been forbidden to touch the drum.
May the cries from your body and soul now
be expressed through the drums,
be heard through the drums.
be felt through the drums.
and be witnessed through the drums!
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With open arms I embrace all of you who have walked with me on this
path, accompanying me to thresholds that lay before me. And to each of you who
have waited with compassion, love, kindness, and in trust for my return, I thank
you with love, gratitude, and appreciation for your gifts of wisdom and life
teachings.
With tremendous appreciation to my participants for the blessings and
gifts of their open hearts and the deeply personal and sacred truths of their
experience. In alphabetical order: Afia Walking Tree, April Lea Go Forth,
Arthur Hull, Billy Cauley Jr, Barbara Borden, Carolyn Brandy, Glen Velez,
Kokomon Clottey, and Sahar Pinkham.
With appreciation for my committee members, Mera Atlis and Ron Valle,
for their knowledge, skills, guidance, and support, and the hours spent reading my
study. With special thanks to my Chair, Mera Atlis, for her warmth, enthusiasm,
scholarship and intellectual rigor, and desire to make our work together a most
pleasurable experience.
Thank you to the faculty of the PsyD Program for offering your
knowledge and skills, and making our classroom experiences stimulating and
challenging. A special thank you to Trevor Evans Young, at the core of the PsyD
Program at CIIS, for his guidance and knowledge of the way things have to be
done, and for his patience, warmth, and encouragement over the years. To Sandra
Doyle in the Business Office, and Lisa Sowunmi, Assistant to the Registrar, a big
thank you for your patience and help in smoothing the wrinkles along the way.
vii
A very special thank you to Anna Fitzpatrick Doherty, a brilliant editor
and consultant, whom I recognize as a great teacher and wise woman.
With deep appreciation for my supervisors Janice Teece, Barbara Berman,
Lori Goldrich, Debra White, and Russell Schreiber. Thank you for your guidance
and support, and for so generously sharing your knowledge, wisdom, and skills.
A special thank you to the Van Camp Foundation for its support.
In the early stages of dissertation research, I was struck by the endless
accounts of the power of the drum to bring people together in community. I have
since discovered the breadth of my own community and understand that it has
always been there for me, sometimes with a stronger presence, and other times
not as visible. There is not enough room here to name every individual who has
blessed me with kindness and encouragement over the years. May the love and
gratitude in my heart and soul touch each one of you as you have touched me.
To Tina Stromsted, a very special thank you for teaching me that wisdom
may be found in many places, oftentimes in the dark dwellings, such as one’s own
body, and from this embodied place begins one’s return to wholeness. My deepest
appreciation to you for the ongoing encouragement to recognize and acknowledge
my own light.
In honor of Marion Woodman, for the wisdom you have shared through
your books, intensives, workshops, and DVD's. I thank you for introducing me to
the meaning of, and the value in, becoming rooted in one's body.
With special thanks to my family. To my brother, Peter, who has long
been an inspiration to me, and a bountiful well of encouragement, and to my
viii
sister, Margaret, for the sharing around her own dissertation process, and her
heartfelt reassurance on the eve of my oral defense. To Andrea, my sister-in-law,
for her encouragement throughout. An extra special shout out goes to Breana, my
dear spirited niece, whose passion for following her own dream has been most
contagious and inspirational. And to my Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Martin for their
love and encouragement, and reminders that as long as we are here in our bodies,
we can pursue our dreams.
To my cats, Raja and Pacha, and in loving memory of Shanti, for staying
up with me through the countless nights of writing into the early dawn purring...
and howling at the full moon!
In memory of those individuals who passed on during the time of my
dissertation research, whose scholarly work inspired me deeply: Layne Redmond,
Catherine Bell, Angeles Arrien, Maya Angelou, and Clark Moustakas.
With gratitude to my ancestors, whose presence will not go unsung. In
loving memory of my mother, Bella, whose passing changed the course of my life
and opened portals that led me to explore the realms of spirituality, psychology,
philosophy, and world religions. In memory of my father, Sol, who was a
creative, successful contractor and carpenter, and a talented violinist and artist. To
all my grandparents and great aunts and uncles who emigrated to this country,
making perilous journeys which provided opportunities for their descendants. In
memory of Grandma Frieda, for her wisdom and strength, and the gift of her
unconditional love. In memory of my Great Aunt Esther, whose bright blue eyes
always lit up when she saw my face.
ix
A special thank you for your enthusiasm about my research and for
keeping me tuned up along the way: Lai Fu Cai, Peter Linfoot, Barbara Newlon,
Ifeoma Ikenze, Melissa Maus, Susan Wilson, Pali Cooper, and Barbara Chapman.
To my friends with appreciation for your presence and creative insights,
for sharing your dreams, for the times when you have helped shepherd me
through the rocky periods, for reminding me that I needed to take a dinner break,
for the wonderful meals that you prepared for me, and for the times when we
danced in celebration of joyous occasions: Noemi Molina, Theresa Padden,
Maureen Goss, Lee Ling van den Daele, Judy Cohen, Alli Shapiro, the Dennisons
(Kathy, Michael, Tess, Larkin, and in loving memory of Alena), Phyllis Stowell,
Cynthia Hein, Karen Sherman, Cammy Michel, Monica Wynn, Santana Da Luz,
Masaaki Shibano, Edwina Campbell, Theresa Ward, Aeeshah Clottey, Denise
Renye, Karen Lodrick, Laura Williams, and Mary Graham.
A special bow of gratitude and appreciation to my friends who stepped in
to bridge the gaps during the most challenging of times: Anne Donnelly and Steve
Cokinos, Kalani Goins and John Eckels, Judy Webb, Johanna and Tom Baruch,
Diane Gunderson and Brad Yamauchi, Patricia Hutchison and Rosa Flores, Tara
Kean and Barry Widener, Debra Davis, Bobbie Davis, Cathy Van Camp and
Mark Kline, Suzanne Badenhoop and Guy Lampard, Sher Winston and Bruce
Hicks, Leland van den Daele, and Gayle Palfi.
To my community: each of you is extraordinary and I could not have done
this without you!
x
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract .................................................................................................................. iv!
Dedication .............................................................................................................. vi!
Acknowledgements............................................................................................... vii!
List of Tables .........................................................................................................xv!
List of Figures ...................................................................................................... xvi!
Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................1!
Historical Context of This Study .................................................................1!
Professional and Social Context of This Study............................................5!
Description of Research Method .................................................................6!
Chapter 2: Review of the Literature.........................................................................7!
Rationale for Inclusive Approach to the Literature .....................................8!
Definition of Terms....................................................................................11!
Alternative States of Consciousness ..............................................11!
Rhythm...........................................................................................12!
Entrainment....................................................................................16!
Basic Definition of Ritual ..............................................................17!
Western Understandings of Ritual .................................................20!
Containing Function of Rhythm: Jung’s Concept of Temenos .....28!
Introduction to Shamans and Shamanic Practice.......................................29!
Synchronistic and Mindful Drumming ......................................................36!
Studies Investigating Group Drumming and Its Therapeutic

Potential .....................................................................................................38!
Mood, Affect, and Emotion Regulation.........................................41!
xi
Drumming as a Culturally Appropriate Intervention.....................43!
Community Building and Social Engagement...............................44!
Nonverbal Communication and Emotional Expressivity ..............47!
Treatment of Addiction and Substance Abuse...............................50!
Treatment of Trauma and PTSD....................................................53!
Purpose of This Study....................................................................55!
Chapter 3: Methods................................................................................................56!
Methodology ..............................................................................................56!
Methodology of Transcendental Phenomenology .........................58!
Methodology of Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity ............62!
Methodology of Focusing ..............................................................65!
Procedures..................................................................................................67!
Participants: Terminology, Inclusion and Exclusion, and

Recruitment....................................................................................67!
Preinterview Protocol.....................................................................69!
Interview Questions .......................................................................70!
Interview Process ...........................................................................72!
Transcription and Transcript Verification .....................................74!
Research Ethics..............................................................................75!
Reflexivity, Assumptions, Bracketing, and Epoche ..................................76!
Validity ......................................................................................................79!
Data Analysis .............................................................................................81!
Chapter 4: Results ..................................................................................................83!
Description of Research Participants .........................................................83!
Challenge in Giving Language to the Experience .....................................90!
Cultural Appropriation, Sexism, and Racism ............................................93!
xii
Cultural Appropriation...................................................................93!
Sexism............................................................................................94!
Racism............................................................................................97!
Textural Themes ........................................................................................98!
Sensory Awareness–Bodily Receptivity........................................99!
Body Metaphor. ...............................................................100!
Hands. ..............................................................................102!
Hearing.............................................................................106!
Space Between the Beats—Portal to the Numinous ....................107!
Embodied Empathy—Empathic Presence ...................................111!
Entrainment as an Alternative State.............................................120!
Being a Masterful Drummer ........................................................128!
Preparation for the Group. ...............................................128!
Self-Preparation. ..............................................................135!
Role of Facilitator. ...........................................................137!
Intention for Others..........................................................140!
Intention for Self. .............................................................142!
Changing the Rhythm. .....................................................142!
Containing the Experience for Everyone—Temenos ..................145!
Relationship to Rhythm and Drum. .................................146!
Circle as a Container for Community. .............................154!
Opening and Closing the Gathering.................................156!
Chapter 5: Discussion ..........................................................................................159!
Summary of Results.................................................................................159!
Conducting a Multicultural Study............................................................162!
xiii
Review of Selected Methodology............................................................165!
Thematic Content of This Study and Scholarly Literature ......................167!
Structural Composite—Underlying Philosophy ......................................175!
Return to the Research Question..............................................................177!
Implications for Clinical Practice ............................................................178!
Limitations and Delimitations..................................................................184!
Directions for Future Research ................................................................187!
Conclusion ...............................................................................................191!
References............................................................................................................194!
Appendix A: Review of Empirical Literature Associated With Group

Drumming (Literature Review Suppelemental Tables).......................................213!
Appendix B: Recruitment Letter..........................................................................248!
Appendix C: Letter Included With Participant Packet ........................................250!
Appendix D: Biodemographic Questionnaire......................................................251!
Appendix E: Interview Questions........................................................................254!
Appendix F: Consent Form..................................................................................256!
Appendix G: Confidentiality Agreement for Transcription Services .................259!
Appendix H: Confidentiality Statement...............................................................261!
Appendix I: Bill of Rights for Participants in Psychological Research...............262!
Appendix J: Thank You Letter to Participants ....................................................263!
Appendix K: Results of Biodemographics: Participants’ Academic

Education .............................................................................................................264!
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Participant Demographic Information (N = 9) ........................................84!
Table 2: Participants’ Experience and Training with Drum (as of December

31, 2013) ................................................................................................................85!
Table 3: Participants’ Formal Training and Informal Learning as Drummer........86!
Table 4: Resources for Therapists Seeking to Connect to Embodied

Awareness and Wisdom.......................................................................................182!
Table A1: Literature Category 1: Mood, Affect, and Emotional Regulation ......214!
Table A2: Literature Category 2: Drumming as a Culturally Appropriate

Intervention ..........................................................................................................223!
Table A3: Literature Category 3: Community Building and Social

Engagement..........................................................................................................226!
Table A4: Literature Category 4: Nonverbal Communication and

Emotional Expressivity........................................................................................235!
Table A5: Literature Category 5: Treatment of Addiction and Substance

Abuse ...................................................................................................................243!
Table K1: Participants’ Degrees, Certifications, and Coursework ......................264!
xv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Aspects of the three selected methodologies are each rooted in

Intuition and Listening...........................................................................................57!
Figure 2. Finlay’s (2005) three stages of reflexivity..............................................64!
Figure 3. Themes of the present study mapped to Valle and Mohs’s (1998)
transpersonal–transcendent aspects of experience...............................................166!
xvi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
As of this writing, to my knowledge, no research can be found in clinical
psychology on the phenomenological experience of group drumming. According
to Botella (2008), “psychology has been extended to a growing range of fields of
human experience, many of them quite epistemologically complex and
symbolically mediated” (p. 309); however, there has been some investigation of
drumming as a therapeutic instrument of healing and emotional expressivity
outside of evidence-based research (e.g., Achterberg, 1985; Berg, 2003; Clottey,
2003; Eliade, 1951/2004; Narby & Huxley, 2001/2004; Redmond, 1997; Meade,
as cited in Seal, 2000; Somé, 1999; Walsh, 1990). Botella (2008) theorizes:
“Maybe because of this general preference for complex human meaning-making
processes with a linguistic and abstract foundation, an experience so
fundamentally sensorimotor and nonverbal as drumming has not received much
attention so far” (p. 309).
Historical Context of This Study
The drum has been deeply rooted in many cultures for millennia as an
instrument in sacred rituals and ceremonies to foster alternative states of
consciousness, to nurture the imaginal realm, to restore physiological and
emotional homeostasis and health, to develop social bonding and build
community, and as a method of rhythmic communication and unification by
military troops and tribal warriors during times of crisis and war (e.g., Achterberg,
1985; Berg, 2003; Clottey, 2003; Dunbar, Kastakis, MacDonald, & Barra, 2012;
Eliade, 1951/2004; Gaynor, 2002; Levitin, 2006; Maxfield, 1990; M. S. Miller,
1
1999; Narby & Huxley, 2001/2004; Nettl, 2000; Phillips-Silver, 2009; Redmond,
1997; Sacks, 2006, 2007; Somé, 1999; Walsh, 1990). In the earliest of times when
religions were goddess-based (Redmond, 1997) and until the fall of the Roman
Empire, the frame drum was considered a sacred instrument that was played by
women whose bodies were considered sacred because they were able to give birth
(p. 1). Following that era, drums and percussion—still deemed sacred—were
played by men, until the rise of the Pythagorean and Orphic doctrines in the
Western world diminished the force of those instruments. As a consequence of
outgrowths of societal fears and prejudices by dominant groups, the oppressed
individuals and groups who played the drum were labeled “barbaric” and
“primitive” (Gioia, 2006, p. 162).
A pervasive misconception held within the Western world for many
centuries was that the drum was “disruptive to group cohesion and hierarchical
control” (Gioia, 2006, p. 162). However, in recent decades, neuroscience research
has found an organizational effect on the brain when playing rhythmic patterns on
the drum, for both the drummer and the listener (e.g., Davis-Craig, 2009;
Friedman, 2000; Gioia, 2006; Grahn & Brett, 2007; Iyer, 2002; Kellaris & Kent,
1992; Madison, 2006; Merker, Madison, & Eckerdal, 2009; Redmond, 1997). For
synchronized group drumming, the phenomenon of entrainment creates a unifying
and cohesive effect on participants (e.g., Davis-Craig, 2009; Friedman, 2000;
Gioia, 2006; Iyer, 2002; Kaplan, 1999; Kellaris & Kent, 1992; Madison, 2006;
Merker, Madison, & Eckerdal, 2009; Redmond, 1997; Sacks, 2007; Stevens,
2003, 2005, 2012). The physical act of drumming, according to evolutionary
2
psychologists Dunbar, Kaskatis, MacDonald, and Barra (2012), increases
thresholds for pain tolerance as well as positive emotional states (pp. 697–698).
The positive effects of drumming are also reflected in the dominant
group’s removal of traditional music (including drumming) and spirit dance from
the mainstream culture in order to disempower and disorganize a nondominant
group, such as African slaves, Native American Indians, and Aboriginal peoples
of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (e.g., Jonas, 1992; Kirmayer, Simpson, &
Cargo, 2003; Krippner, 2002), or women (Redmond, 1997). The suppression of
traditional music and dance impacted the role of shamans or medicine persons,
and created a tribal dependence on hegemonic powers such as colonial
administrators and missionaries (Krippner, 2002). Qualitative studies of
Aboriginal peoples, according to Kirmayer, Simpson, and Cargo (2003),
“implicate the collective exposure…to forced assimilation policies as prime
causes of poor health and social outcomes” (p. 18).
One of the myriad consequences of cultural oppression from the
hegemony and institutions of slavery in the northern and southern Americas was
the prohibition of native drumming and dance (Jonas, 1992, p. 162). Though slave
owners had little understanding of the religious and social significance of the
drum and dancing within those societies, they knew that the drums were a method
of communication and the African style of dancing was a reminder of their slaves’
life of freedom in Africa (p. 165). Layne Redmond, a Master Drummer and
published author of When the Drummers Were Women (1997), related that women
throughout time have been discouraged and prevented from playing the drum
3
(personal communication, October 8, 2009). Redmond (1997) asserts that history
has revealed that the frame drum was used by women as a ritual instrument in the
caves of Old Europe, and argues that a crucial turning point in the
disempowerment of women in Western culture came about when they were
prohibited from drumming (p. 2). Paulo Freire, author of the seminal book,
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968/2008), proclaims that the cultural invasion and
inhibition of the expression of a people is destructive to creativity and is always
an act of violence (p. 152). Having lost their rituals and creative expression of art
and music, in time the oppressed group will adorn the values and cultural beliefs
of their oppressors (p. 153).
Traditional healers worldwide have relied upon rhythm as a primary agent
in their rituals, ceremonies, and practices for healing—essentially for
transforming and sustaining community (e.g., Clottey, 2003; Eliade, 1951/2004;
Gioia, 2006, p. 157; Goodman, 1990; Idler, 2013, p. 332; Kirmayer et al., 2003;
Lounsberry, 2001; M. S. Miller, 1999; Nettl, 2000; Redmond, 1997; Sandner,
1997; Meade, as cited in Seal, 2000; Somé, 1993, 1999). For example, African
slaves were from many different cultures and parts of Africa; as a result, the
sacred drumming and dance so central to their cultures became a fusion of
different cultures and was reduced to a form of entertainment for the slave
owners. When left alone to dance among themselves, the slaves were permitted to
play instruments such as fiddles, banjos, and tambourines (Jonas, 1992, p. 165).
Within the many traditions of African cultures, rhythm is not considered
entertainment, but rather a way to access and stay in connection with one’s
4
authentic self (Somé, 1999, p. 270). When one is out of balance and not in
rhythm, consequences can be emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety
(Clottey, 2003; Somé, 1999). In the Western world, in contrast, the concept of
harmony was heralded as “a palliative force and as a metaphor for organic and
social interventions—and almost always at the expense of rhythm” (Gioia, 2006,
p. 157).
Professional and Social Context of This Study
Currently in the West, the drum has been integrated into the work of some
expressive arts therapists (Sassen, 2012), music therapists (Camilleri, 2002; Clair,
Bernstein, & Johnson, 1995; Hoeft & Kern, 2007; Kaser, 1991; McClary, 2007;
Stevens, 2003, 2012; Watson, 2002), social workers (Stevens, 2003, 2012), and
counselors (Stone, 2005) as a support and means of containment during crisis and
trauma (Bensimon, Amir, & Wolf, 2008; Stevens, 2012), and as a tool to develop
therapeutic alliance (Bensimon et al., 2008; Kaser, 1991; Stevens, 2012; Stone,
2005; Watson, 2002). Additionally, the latter disciplines have extended the use of
the drum into groups and to the larger population to help build and strengthen
community during such times as crisis, war, and in the aftermath of naturally
occurring environmental devastation (e.g., hurricanes and earthquakes).
Experiences of interrelatedness and healing through playing the drum have been
observed with participants who have suffered with mood disorders, dementia and
Alzheimer’s, and related trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
(e.g., Bensimon et al., 2008; Bittman, Dickson, & Coddington, 2009; Clair et al.,
5
1995; Ho, Tsao, Bloch, & Zeltzer, 2011; Watson, 2002; Winkelman, 2003; see
Table A4 for details).
Description of Research Method
This qualitative study, foundationally a transcendental phenomenological
inquiry (Moustakas, 1994), is an exploration of the phenomenological experience
of drumming facilitators in order to develop a preliminary understanding of the
phenomenon of facilitating group drumming. The research question was, “What is
the lived experience of Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized
drumming gatherings?” Semistructured interviews of nine participants were
conducted using Transcendental Phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994) informed by
the methods of Focusing (Gendlin, 1978, 1978/2007) and Participant–Researcher
Intersubjectivity (Finlay, 2005). Analysis followed Transcendental
Phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994). These methods were carefully chosen to
support a deepening into the embodied voice of the participants, to enliven and
illuminate the lived experience of facilitating drumming gatherings where all
individuals are playing synchronized rhythms, so as to capture a robust,
descriptive portrayal of the essences of those experiences. Upon establishing a
rich description, the lived experiences of the participants were interpreted through
contemporary, Western psychological language (e.g., container, temenos,
empathy, embodied empathy, transcendent function, transference, and
countertransference) with the objective of investigating the potential of group
drumming in a therapeutic setting.
6
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
As mentioned above, there is no clinical psychology research on the
phenomenological experience of group drumming as of this writing. There is one
study on group drumming as a clinical methodology appropriate for working with
Latino youth experiencing anxiety (Núñez, 2006); however, the drumming was
not synchronized, and the methodology was mixed-method. There are
phenomenological studies of the positive effects of listening to music in a group
(e.g., Kumler, 2006, 2008/2012). This available clinical literature is not directly
relevant for this study investigating the lived experience of Masterful Drummers
who facilitate gatherings where participants play synchronized rhythms on the
drum. So, in addition to discussing available clinical research, in this chapter I
also bring relevant literature from anthropology; traditional and Indigenous
wisdoms; therapies such as music, expressive arts, and somatically oriented work;
and other practices and therapies. Significant research has been done in these
other therapeutic fields, and the results are relevant here even though the
methodologies do not meet the evidence-based practice of psychology standard,
known as EBPP (Goodheart, 2006, p. 39). This choice is supported by emerging
thought in psychology, research methods rooted in the feminine, and scholars of
ritual and theology (e.g., Bell, 1992/2009, 1997/2009, 2007; Berg, 2003; P. A.
Brown, 2012; DeVault & Gross, 2007; Forcehimes et al., 2011; Friedman, 2000,
2001; Kirmayer et al., 2003; Kumler, 2006, 2008/2012; Lounsberry, 2001;
Maxfield, 1994; Sered, 2008; Yardley, 2008).
7
Rationale for Inclusive Approach to the Literature
Although these additional areas of literature are not validated by scientific
research—that is, not EBPP (Goodheart, 2006, p. 39)—the American
Psychological Association (APA) is moving toward a recognition and integration
of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into clinical psychology
practices. For example, the cover article of the APA journal, Monitor On
Psychology in April 2013 is titled “Alternative Techniques: Incorporating
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Into Psychology Practice” (Barnett &
Shale, April 2013, pp. 48–56). According to Barnett and Shale (2013),
complementary medicine and alternative medicines are two distinct forms of
treatment: complementary medicine is used as a supplement to conventional
medicine whereas alternative medicine is preferred in lieu of conventional
medicine (p. 50).
In the 2013 Monitor article on CAM, Loyola University authors Jeffrey
Barnett, PsyD, ABPP, and Allison Shale, MS, describe the 14 most popular CAM
treatments by clinical psychologists, studies on the efficacy of those modalities,
and the ethical concerns raised by their use. They emphasize that certain
modalities are more easily studied because they are simpler to operationalize and
measure (p. 55). In contrast, CAM modalities that are rooted in spirituality and
religiosity are more difficult to conceptualize and measure, and so are not easily
studied. Barnett and Shale state, “It is important to remember, though, that a lack
of studies does not mean that a particular modality is not useful” (p. 55).
8
Providing another perspective on the potential of non-EBPP modalities,
P. A. Brown’s (2012) study suggests that EBPP is not always successful nor is it
always the preferred method of treatment. According to Brown:
The closely studied, evidence-based mainstream therapies do not always

show efficacy or internal validity, let alone the ability to approach external
validity or effectiveness in clinical, heterogeneous populations like those
at mental health clinics. Despite the frequent reporting—in the extant
scholarly, peer-reviewed literature, treatment guidelines, policy
statements, and grant funding— of these so-called frontline therapies,
mainstream treatments do not seem to be of the highest quality, but rather
represent only the most commonly researched therapies. (p. 2)
Alternative methods of healing are being used for the general U.S.
population. For example, Susan Sered (2008), who has written extensively on
ritual and taxonomies of ritual mixing, observed that contemporary U.S. healing
resources consist of four distinct domains: biomedicine, CAM, folk healing, and
religious healing. These are not pure or isolated categories, but rather a mixing
and integration of healing modalities. Sered notes that most U.S. residents deploy
various combinations with a traditional trajectory, which she groups as follows.
People start with (a) remedies known within the family; move to (b) conventional
medicine (formerly known as allopathic) beginning with family doctors and CAM
(materialistic approaches such as acupuncture); then move to (c) spiritual
practices such as Reiki healing; and failing those, (d) religious healing (p. 238).
The dominant conventional system marginalizes and “exoticizes” groups who
choose alternative methods while simultaneously declaring that scientific proof
holds more power (p. 238).
Further support for the present study’s inclusive approach of presenting
research and literature on CAM and non-EBPP sources arises from scholars
9
working with Native Americans. For example, William Hartmann and Joseph
Gone (2012), from the University of Michigan, studied a Midwestern urban
“American Indian” community’s struggle to incorporate native ways of healing
into their community mental health and substance abuse treatment services.
Exigencies from the community due to members “facing severe mental health
disparities rooted in a complex history of cultural oppression” (p. 542) provide a
powerful impetus for the Urban Indian Health Organization (UIHO). In a study
(Forcehimes et al., 2011) of substance abuse and its prevention among the youth
in the American Indian communities of New Mexico, a major theme identified by
181 tribal members as a path to substance abuse prevention is the reintegration
into their lives of cultural and traditional practices such as drumming and dancing
(p. 369). Kirmayer et al. (2003) communicate that among the Aboriginal peoples
of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand the recovery and restoration of traditions
has been fundamentally healing (p. 16), emphasizing the need for the mental
heath care agencies to broaden perspectives to engage and empower the
Aboriginal community (p. 21). Hartmann and Gone (2012) refer to studies from
Chandler and Lalonde (1998) and LaFramboise, Trimble, and Mohatt (1990),
both of which found that for many Native Americans, engaging in traditional
healing brings relief from distress (p. 542) and “strengthens ethnocultural identity,
community support systems, and political empowerment, all of which have been
identified as pathways to resilience for indigenous populations” (p. 543).
The fourth area of support for the inclusion of non-EBPP sources in this
literature review is found in research approaches rooted in the value of the
10
feminine (Yardley, 2008), which state that it is beneficial to a qualitative study to
consider previous studies and literature reviews available in other disciplines. By
reviewing established findings in other fields, the researcher can avoid “re-
discovering” (p. 247) knowledge.
Definition of Terms
In this section, I define five key terms used in this study. As
understandings, misunderstandings, and assumptions about ritual arise naturally
when group drumming experiences are discussed, I give more attention to the
discussion of ritual as it has been understood in Western contexts.
Alternative States of Consciousness
Alternative healing practices, including group drumming, are often
mentioned along with the concept of what are variously referred to as altered
states of consciousness (ASC), alternative states of consciousness, trance, and
techniques of ecstasy (Eliade, 1951/2004, p. 5). For instance, Jungian analysts
Donald Sandner and John Beebe (1982/1995) emphasize the significance of an
alternative state of consciousness in the client as “a passageway through which all
positive transformation of personality must proceed” (p. 297). In this present
work, the word alternative replaces the word altered in order to highlight these
states as being readily available to humans rather than artificially created or
unconscious.
Alternative states of consciousness, including meditative and trance states,
can be reached via rhythmic drumming (e.g., Achterberg, 1987, p. 118; Bittman et
al., 2001; Bittman, Bruhn, Lim, et al., 2003; Bittman, Bruhn, Stevens, et al., 2003;
11
Blackett & Payne, 2005; C. Campbell, 2002; Clottey, 2003; Doak, 2006; Eliade,
1951/2004; Gioia, 2006; Goodman, 1990; Jones & Krippner, 2012; Krippner,
2002; Kumler, 2006, 2008/2012; Maxfield, 1990; M. S. Miller, 1999; Nicholson,
1987; Núñez, 2006; Redmond, 1997; Rock, Abbot, Childargushi, & Kiehne,
2008; Rouget, 1985; Vitebsky, 1995/2008; Walsh, 1990; Walter & Fridman,
2004a, 2004b). These may be the same states that shamans experience during out-
of-body experiences and shamanic journeying (Achterberg, 1987, p. 118; Clottey,
2003; Doak, 2006; Goodman, 1990; Jones & Krippner, 2012; Krippner, 2002;
Maxfield, 1990; M. S. Miller, 1999; Walsh, 1990).
Rhythm
A discussion of research on the drum and transformative experiences
associated with the playing of the drum brings attention to the phenomenon of
rhythm. Rhythm can be described as “the division of time through distinguishable
order and patterns of events, objects, symbols, or signs” (Hardy & LaGasse, 2013,
p. 2). Rhythm is almost synonymous with the drum—to discuss the drum is to
discuss rhythm. The link between rhythm, movement, and entrainment is
pervasive in human experience. Botella (2008) made a study of those who
researched the elements of music and found that the intrinsic nature of rhythmic
movements is such that they will essentially synchronize whenever they occur (p.
310). Neuroscientists Valorie Salimpoor and Robert Zatorre (2013) define music
as “a sequence of tones arranged over time” (p. 64). Ethnomusicologist and
musicologist, Bruno Nettl (2000, as quoted in Patel, 2006) wrote, “in every
culture, there is some form of music with a regular beat, a periodic pulse that
12
affords temporal coordination between performer and elicits a synchronized
motor response from the listener” (p. 100).
Rhythm in humans and nature is instinctual. According to Marie-Louise
von Franz (1978), a world-renowned analyst, author, and mentee of Carl Jung,
“Rhythm is a basic aspect of most forms of energy, and rhythm implies time”
(p. 86). Humans are the embodiment of rhythms. In music and dance, we express
the rhythmicity of our whole structure (p. 87). Discussing rhythm in the context of
performance art and film production, Way and Frampton (2009) summarize
cinematographer Robert Bresson’s insight: “Rhythms can penetrate, flood the
senses and give shape to feelings” (p. 197). All languages have particular rhythms
and intonations used to communicate messages and express feelings—the human
world is composed of rhythms. According to Storr (1993): “Rhythm is rooted in
the body in a way that does not apply so strongly to melody and harmony.
Breathing, walking, the heartbeat and sexual intercourse are all rhythmical aspects
of our physical being” (p. 34). Dogantan-Dack (2006) refers to the “bodily base of
rhythm perception” (p. 456), and Iyer (2002) discusses the connection between
embodied cognition and rhythm (p. 395).
Rhythm has been identified as having a very important organizational
function of music (Stone, 2005; Thaut, Kenyon, Schauer, & McIntosh, 1999).
Yehudi Menuhin, the great violinist and composer, expressed his sense of music
and the human experience of rhythm, melody and harmony: “Music creates order
out of chaos; for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent; melody imposes
continuity upon the disjointed; and harmony imposes continuity upon the
13
incongruous” (as quoted in Storr, 1993, p. 33). Grinde, a Nordic music therapist
and researcher, claims that the global appreciation for rhythm stems from its
organizing function in the brain (as cited in Botella, 2008, p. 311). Christina
Fragasso-Kolakouskus Campbell (2002), psychologist, educator, dancer, and
published author posited: “It could be that stress and trauma reduce the vibration
in the body and thus the body becomes chaotic. Rhythm is important in healing
because it helps create order out of chaos” (p. 37).
Neurophysiological and neuropsychological studies have found that the
human brain is programmed for rhythm, entrainment, synchrony, and groove
(e.g., Bittman et al., 2001; Bittman, Bruhn, Lim, et al., 2003; Gaynor, 2002; Iyer,
2002; Kokal, Engel, Kirschner, & Keysers, 2011; Madison, 2006; Madison,
Gouyon, Ullén, & Hörnstrom, 2011; Merker et al., 2009; Sacks, 2006, 2007). The
earliest rhythm that humans experience begins as a fetus in the womb where the
mother’s blood is pulsing through her blood vessels (Redmond, 1997, p. 170).
The importance of rhythm is reflected in the consequences of its absence. Humans
are programmed for rhythm, pulse, and entrainment synchronicity (e.g., Iyer,
2002; Janata & Grafton, 2003; Kirschner & Tomasello, 2009; Madison, 2006;
Merker et al., 2009; Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2009). The neurophysiological
effects of active participation in rhythmic music making (e.g., drumming) and
performance (e.g., dancing) may play a particularly significant role in communal
bonding in humans (Dunbar et al., 2012, p. 698; Sacks, 2007, p. 229). It is
essential that we as humans have relationship to our inner rhythms and instincts.
14
Western culture has privileged the mellifluous over rhythm and
percussion. To the exclusion of percussive rhythms, the tenor of the Western
culture over many centuries has been that celestial sounds and harmony of notes
and chords are pleasurable and considered to maintain social integration. Iyer
(2002), a musicologist who produced a study that focused on micro-rhythmic
techniques in African American music, argues that “tonal-music grammars and
most musics [sic] of the world cannot be ascribed to relative levels of musical
sophistication or complexity” (p. 388) but rather that “the disparities have more to
do with the status of the body and physical movement in music making.”
Historically, hegemony is privileged over the oppressed and marginalized
populations (e.g., Freire, 1968/2008; Iyer, 2002; Redmond, 1997). See Western
Understandings of Ritual for further discussion.
In recent times, a new ethos has been constellating carrying with it a
growing appreciation and understanding of the interrelatedness of rhythms to
mental and physiological health (Gaynor, 2002; Levitin, 2006; Sacks, 2006).
Illness and disease are caused by disharmony (Clottey, 2003; Somé, 1999), and
repetitive synchronistic rhythms engage the phenomenon of entrainment,
restoring physiologic and emotional resonance in the body and mind. Through
this process, rhythms evoke elevated levels of joy, feelings of relief, and reduction
of stress (Dunbar et al., 2012; Sacks, 2007, p. 229) that may lead to
transformation and social change that can permeate society (e.g., Bensimon et al.,
2008; Bittman et al., 2009; Blackett & Payne, 2005; Faulkner, Wood, Ivery, &
Donovan, 2012; Núñez, 2006; Sacks, 2007, p. 229; Sassen, 2012).
15
Entrainment
The concept of entrainment dates back to the 17th century. The Law of
Entrainment is attributed to Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens and his
observation in 1665 of “two pendulum clocks ‘falling into synchrony’ when hung
on the same wall” (Spoor & Swift, 2000, p. 588). Today, this effect is described
as the “mutual phase locking of two oscillators” (Kaplan, 1999, p. 16). From a
biological stance, entrainment is a state whereby brainwaves and other organic
rhythms of the body attune to external rhythms (e.g., Bittman et al., 2001;
Bittman, Bruhn, Stevens, et al., 2003). Iyer (2002), a musician, composer, and
musicologist, states that the phenomenon of entrainment “clearly involves regular
bodily movement as a kind of sympathetic reaction to regular rhythmic sound”
(p. 392). According to Iyer (2002), “echoic memory covers the immediate
timescale of rhythmic activity….We entrain to a pulse based on the echoic storage
of the previous pulse and some matched internal oscillator periodicity” (p. 396).
In the later 20th century, neuroscience observed the effects of visual rhythmic
patterns, later extending the research to auditory rhythmic patterns. Studies
revealed that prolonged orientation to either visual or auditory rhythms increased
the alpha and theta brainwaves associated with deep states of relaxation or
meditation (Gioia, 2006). Merging this historical understanding of pendulum
synchronization with current neurological understandings, what is entrainment?
Redmond (1997) describes entrainment as the “ability of one rhythm to draw
another into harmonic resonance” (p. 174). It is also understood to be “the
16
propensity of rhythms emanating from different sources to match each other’s
frequencies” (Gioia, 2006, p. 163).
Groove, a psychological phenomenon intimately related to entrainment, is
“a quality of music that makes people tap their feet, rock their head, and get up
and dance” (Madison, 2006, p. 201). It “engages the locomotor channel of the
listener’s sensorimotor system giving rise to entrainment” (Iyer, 2002, p. 398).
Madison, Gouyon, Ullén, and Hörnström (2011) assert that groove is the function
of rhythmic music that facilitates entrainment and synchronization, independent
of the genre of music. Redundant rhythmical patterning that facilitates
synchronization also contributes to the experience of groove (p. 1579). The
phenomenon of groove is finding its place as a perceptually prominent feature of
music (p. 1591).
Basic Definition of Ritual
Historically, among traditional societies, drums and percussion
instruments were a major organizing force and presence. They played an integral
role in community and were intricately connected with important events, rites of
passage, and transformative societal changes. Drums were believed to carry
inherent powers of medicine and healing, and in many cultures, they semaphored
special events (Gioia, 2006; Nandisvara, 1987). Idler (2013) notes that a key
feature of ritual is performance, which frequently includes music or rhythm
(p. 332). Percussive instruments are a fundamental part of rituals and ceremonies
of Indigenous peoples in West Ghana (Clottey, 2003), Burkina Faso (Somé,
1999), and South Africa (Berg, 2003). According to Clottey (2003), the drum
17
holds a prominent place for the Ga of West Ghana in ritual and celebration: the
drum provides “an atmosphere of safety and confidentiality” (p. 68) and
“transmits messages from the people to their ancestors” (p. 67). In South Africa
(Berg, 2003), the majority of individuals come to community, specifically to the
traditional healers, to receive healing through traditional rituals that include
drumming and dancing (p. 194). Maxfield (1994) observed that within each
culture, there are signature patterns of rhythms integrated into ritual and ceremony
(p. 158).
Many rituals incorporate rhythm, and the drum is a sacred instrument of
ritual (e.g., Berg, 2003; Clottey, 2003; Cowan, 1996, p. 31; Doak, 2006; Eliade,
1951/2004; Gioia, 2006; Goodman, 1990; Halifax, 1987; Harner & Doore, 1987,
p. 13; Hewson, 1998; Idler, 2013, Jones & Krippner, 2012; Krippner, 2002;
Maxfield, 1994; M. S. Miller, 1999; Nandisvara, 1987, p. 227; Redmond, 1997;
Rouget, 1985; Vitebsky, 1995/2008, p. 52; Walsh, 1990; Walter & Fridman,
2004a, 2004b; Winkelman, 2003, 2004). Venerable Dr. E. Nardisvara Nayake
Thero (Nardisvara, 1987), is a professor, author, and Theravadan Buddhist leader
in India who lived for a period of time with the Aboriginal community in
Australia, who concludes, “Probably there is no culture in the world where the
drum is not utilized for religious purposes” (p. 227). The act of facilitated group
drumming inevitably contains some elements of ritual (Clottey, 2003).
Ritual is an event—a praxis or doing—imagined into form by human
beings; in the most meaningful of gestures, it occurs in place and time. The act of
ritual is expressed through bodily movement and gesture; with (or without) voice,
18
rhythm, or music; and in community or individually, with the intention to invoke,
evoke, and communicate with the spirits, gods and goddesses, ancestors and
nature, or other human beings (e.g., Achterberg, 1987; Bell, 1992/2009,
1997/2009; Hammon-Tooke, 1937, as cited in Berg, 2003; Hewson, 1998; Eliade,
1951/2004; Goodman, 1990, p. 55; Grimes, 2013; Idler, 2013; Richardson, 2012;
Turner, 1969/1991). A liminal space is created and held within a temenos (the
sacred vessel or container) that is manifested in the ritual acts; the liminal space
within the temenos is the portal to the Unknown where potential for
transformation calls to the ritual subjects (Turner, 1969/1991). The function of
ritual is to accompany the ritual subject to a threshold. From this place, the acts of
the ritual hold the tension as the individual at once departs from society, the
Known—and liberated, she leaps into a liminal realm. The Unknown presents
from this liminal place whereby an ensuing action sparks or catalyzes
transformation, with a subsequent return in time to the place where the participant
began, along with expectation and hope by the ritualized one to be welcomed
back and witnessed in a new way both internally and externally within community
(van Gennep, 1960, as cited in Grimes, 2013; Idler, 2013, p. 332). In the
following sections, I discuss relevant aspects of ritual based on the work of
renowned scholars in anthropology, theology and religion, and psychology and
psychoanalysis, and from those who carry the traditional Indigenous wisdoms.
Rituals are intrinsic to most cultures on the planet (Richardson, 2012,
p. 68), without them there can be no religious ceremonies (Goodman, 1990,
p. 55), and they are a creative response to the problem of human relationship
19
among humans, gods, goddesses, and Nature, and a means to create a state of
health (Achterberg, 1987, p. 112; Hammon-Tooke, 1937, as cited in Berg, 2003,
p. 199; Hewson, 1998; Goodman, 1990). Anthropologist Felicitas Goodman
(1990) describes ritual as “the rainbow bridge over which we can call on the
Spirits and the Spirits cross over from their world into ours” (p. 55). In general,
Indigenous rituals are enacted in a cultural setting to foster connection and
community, bring recognition to a special life occasion or achievement,
appropriate a challenge or task to be overcome, and to invoke “the Creator or the
spirit of life to infuse the group with wisdom and love” (Richardson, 2012, p. 69).
Malidoma Somé (1999), a medicine man of the Dagara Indigenous people of
Burkina Faso, shares his perspective of the phenomenology of ritual as
gathering with others in order to feel Spirit’s call, to express

spontaneously and publicly whatever emotion needs to be expressed, to
create, in concert with others, an unrehearsed and deeply moving response
to Spirit, and to feel the presence of the community, including the
ancestors, throughout the experience. (p. 143)
In Australia, the Aboriginal society will play the drum for a multitude of events.
For example, to drive away negative energies and heal the community, and in
times of great celebration “to invite beneficent supernormal powers” (Nandisvara,
1987, p. 227). In South Africa, many people seek healing in community rituals
that include the drum and dance (Berg, 2003, p. 194). This aspect of ritual as
human relationship management is particularly relevant to the study of drumming
and its therapeutic implications.
Western Understandings of Ritual
Ritual has long held importance in Indigenous and anthropological
contexts; Western understandings of ritual are moving toward recognition of its
20
meaning for humanity. Catherine Bell (1992/2009, 1997/2009, 2007), who was a
preeminent scholar of ritual and religion, asserted that within contemporary times,
ritual is seen as a ubiquitous or “panhuman” phenomenon (Bell, 1997/2009, p.
259). She gathered the work of many Western healers in support of this point.
Douglas (as cited in Bell, 1997/2009) maintains that ritual is above all else a form
of nonverbal and symbolic communication that “always reproduces the real social
relations among human beings” (p. 44). Leach (as cited in Bell, 1997/2009)
describes ritual activity as a means of transforming categories while sustaining the
integrity of the “category and system as a whole” (p. 44) and emphasizes that
liminal states, or threshold times, evoked through ritual activity mediated the old
and new within the social order. Ritual is a means to create and restore social
equilibrium, and to continually redefine and revitalize community (Driver, as
cited in Bell, 1997/2009, p. 264; Turner, as cited in Bell, 1997/2009, p. 39;
J. Campbell, 1973).
Astrid Berg (2003), a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, has worked
extensively on the therapeutic value of the container created through ritual. She
has sought to communicate cross-culturally the deep significance of ritual and
ancestor reverence in South Africa and the commonalities with various concepts
in psychoanalytical psychology, specifically to the work of Vera Bührmann,
Alfred Bion, and Carl Jung (p. 194). Bührmann (as cited in Berg, 2003) was
influenced by Bion’s object relations theories on early psychic processes, and
envisioned a parallel connection between the containment and linking that occurs
between mother and infant, and to the Xhosa ritual called intlombe, where rituals
21
of drumming and dance become the link to mind and body, to the unconscious
and conscious (p. 195). Berg regarded the internal containment, linking, and the
external in the ritual of intlombe as a special form of group psychotherapy.
Similar to misunderstandings of the drum, ritual has historically been
viewed negatively in the West (Bell, 1997/2009, p. xi; Idler, 2013). Recent
scholars recognize the key value of ritual, but inherited biases about ritual still
affect Western culture (Grimes, 2010, 2013). Therefore, it is useful to briefly
consider the evolution of Western ideas of ritual. This study will draw from the
writings of Catherine Bell, who is considered one of the world’s leading experts
in ritual theory and practice, and Roger Grimes, also considered a leading expert
on ritual studies.
According to Bell (1992/2009), “The notion of ritual first emerged as a
formal term of analysis in the 19th century to identify what was believed to be a
universal category of human experience” (p. 14). Jonathan Z. Smith (as cited in
Bell, 1997/2009), an historian of religion and researcher of a wide range of
subjects that includes ritual theory, researched the social primacy of ritual and
proposed that social behavior in part is shaped by unconscious forces with buried
levels of meaning (pp. 11–13). James George Frazer’s theory of religion (1911, as
cited in Bell, 1997/2009) was grounded more in psychological roots for tribal
people than Smith’s societal approach, and framed ritual as an attempt to
illuminate and justify the confusing psychological experiences associated with
dreams and nature. Not long after, Freud’s theories seemed to mirror Smith’s
22
understandings (i.e., repression, the unconscious, and psychoanalysis) of ritual as
an interpretative approach to hidden levels of meaning (p. 13).
Freud compared the obsessive activities of neurotic individuals to the
religious rituals, ceremonies, prayers, and invocations as reverence and devotion
to one’s deities. “For Freud, the neurotic’s innumerable round of little ceremonies,
all of which must be done just so, as well as the anxiety and guilt that accompany
these acts, imply a similarity between the causes of religion and the causes of
obsessional neuroses” (Bell, 1997/2009, p. 13). Jungian analyst Tina Stromsted
shared, “In the sense of Freud, ritual is seen as a way of containing that which felt
uncontainable” (personal communication, October 16, 2012). An in-depth
examination of Freudian theory is beyond the scope of this dissertation study.
Volney Gay (1976a, 1976b), known in the field of religious and
psychological studies, interprets Freud’s theory of ritual behavior not as the
outcome of repression, but rather as “a product of the non pathological, often
beneficial, mechanism of suppression” (Bell, 1997/2009, p. 15). In re-examining
Freud’s theory, Gay proposes reconsidering ritual as a support for the ego to
suppress id impulses and potentiate adaptation and healthy maturation.
A contemporary of Freud, van Gennep was a French ethnographer and
folklorist best known for his book Rites of Passage (1909). He described ritual as
“the means for changing and reconstituting groups in an orderly and sanctioned
manner that maintains the integrity of the system” (as cited in Bell, 1997/2009,
p. 37). Turner’s Ritual theory of the liminal space (Turner, 1989, as cited in
Grimes, 2013; Idler, 2013, p. 332; Turner, 1969/1991) is particularly relevant to
23
this study of group drumming because it is in the liminal space that
transformation occurs and communitas is created. Van Gennep (1909) named the
threshold stage of ritual as the liminal phase where one finds oneself after leaving
the preliminal or preritual state yet not having fully transitioned to the new
identity or status—where the ritual subject arrives after the ritual has been
completed (Turner, 1969/1991, p. 95). Van Gennep’s work highly influenced
Victor Turner, Otto Rank, Joseph Campbell, and Carl Jung (Bell, 1997/2009, p.
101). J. Campbell’s (1973) hero’s journey also includes a liminal stage.
Joseph Campbell (1973), renowned mythologist, author, and lecturer,
argued that historically within Indigenous societies, the purpose and effect of
rituals has been to guide men, women, and children across the arduous thresholds
of transformation whereby change occurs in both conscious and unconscious
patterns (p. 10). He drew on Carl Jung’s Symbols of Transformation (1967),
which describes the integration of the conscious and unconscious as the
individuation process (p. 301). Jung’s (1967) process of individuation
incorporates the initial phase of ritual, a separation from the mother or the original
status (preliminal), into the liminal space, before transitioning to the mature
individuated self (postliminal; p. 294).
Joseph Campbell (1973) developed four functions for myth and ritual: a
metaphysical or mystical function, that inspires a sense of awe and reverence; a
cosmological function that provides a lucid image of the cosmos; a sociological
function, as a means to assimilate and sustain individuals within community; and
a psychological function to shepherd the individual’s internal development (p.
24
16). The present study focuses on the sociological and psychological—that is,
community and individual development. Rhythm and community share several
key elements: both are instinctive, both require mutual listening, and both connect
people (Storr, 1993, as cited in Sacks, 2006). McMillan (1976, as cited in
McMillan & Chavis, 1986) describes community as “a feeling that members have
of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a
shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be
together” (p. 9).
Writing in the 1960s, British cultural anthropologist Victor Turner
(1969/1991) contributed to and expanded theory of the liminal space and
understanding of community. He described the liminal phase as a transitional
state, or the betwixt and between where the ritual subject “passes through a
cultural realm that has few or none of the attributes of the coming state” (p. 95).
From this liminal realm, communitas emerges into consciousness: while
community has embedded within it a hierarchical structure, communitas emerges
from ritual activity and is a society that has sacred components and in which all
humanity is equal (p. 96). During the short-lived period of communitas (Idler,
2013), participants experience an alternative state of consciousness and a sense of
transcendence (p. 332).
At that time, Turner (1969/1991) emphasized that science had come far—
and ritual has remained important. He argued that renowned thinkers of the 20th
century (e.g., Freud; Levi-Strauss, a French social anthropologist) hold the stance
that religious phenomena are an outcome of psychological or sociological
25
sources, “denying to them any preterhuman origin” (p. 4). Nonetheless, the
majority of psychoanalysts and anthropologists of the 20th century have not
dismissed the extraordinary impact of religious beliefs and traditions “for both the
maintenance and radical transformation of human social and psychical structures”
(p. 4).
Since the 1960s, interest in exploring the value and meaning of ritual has
risen significantly among various disciplines, including awareness of its potential
applications in healing and transformation (Grimes, 2010, 2013; Idler, 2013;
Turner, 1969/1991). In discussion of this progressive shift in attitude toward ritual
and religious practices, Victor Turner (1969/1991) wrote
With development of clinical depth-psychology, on the one hand, and of

professional anthropological field work, on the other hand, many
products…called “the imaginative and emotional nature” [i.e., ritual] have
come to be regarded with respect and attention and investigated with
scientific rigor. (p. 3)
Sam Gill (2007), author and professor of religious and Native American studies,
contends that ritual is rarely included in academic curricula or psychology outside
of those specialized in the topic (p. 46). Grimes (2010, 2013) concludes that ritual
studies is a new subdiscipline and that academic sources and theories are lacking.
One example of more contemporary interest in ritual can be found in the
work of Katherine Hagedorn (2006), a renowned religious theologian who
discusses the potential benefit of ritual—through its music—even for those who
do not embrace the religion in which the ritual is based. She suggests, “Music,
like ecstatic religious experience, can be both transcendent and ephemeral, and
can provide listeners with a spiritual connection. Unlike ecstatic religious
experience, however, listening to music does not require active participation in a
26
religious community” (p. 489). Secular individuals who listen to music and
rhythms that have been removed from religious traditions do have access to
spiritual connection and trance states. The experience itself is not in any sense
beyond reach if one is not a member of the religious tradition associated with the
music: “Music from these originally ecstatic religious traditions may serve a
transcendent function, even in its newly disembodied and secularized form”
(p. 489). Individuals who experience the alternative states of consciousness may
choose to delve into the mystical teachings, although those who make the decision
not to deepen into the knowledge of the tradition may continue through deep
listening to experience spiritual connection (p. 489). More recent writing on this
topic is lacking; Grimes (2010) also notes the relative lack of sources on ritual
theory and ritual criticism because of its interdisciplinary and intercultural
qualities.
Reflecting the trend toward the value of ritual, Idler’s chapter in the The
APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality (2013) summarizes
neuropsychological findings on ritual, citing Boyer (2001) who suggests that
humans are “wired to practice ritual” (p. 342). Contemporary psychological
studies of ritual practices (McGuire & Tiger, 2009, as cited in Idler, 2013) have
been interested in the cognitive elements of ritual rather than the emotional:
rituals increase focus and attention (Boyer, 2001, as cited in Idler, 2013) suggests
that rituals also provide a cognitive and emotional “source of solace” (p. 344), a
role in community and the collective, and a sense of being protected.
27
Containing Function of Rhythm: Jung’s Concept of Temenos
Numerous cultures and societies worldwide have played the drum to
create a temenos, or container, for ritual and celebration. Somé (1999) states that
in his culture, “the container in ritual language is an activity that is meant to keep
the energy focused” (p. 236) and it is precisely the rhythmic drumming and
chanting that contain the village and community (p. 236). Berg (2003) observed,
“The containing function of the ritual through its physical structure is thus further
enhanced by the auditory and bodily component of the rhythmical beat” (p. 201).
In this section, I discuss temenos starting with ancient Western thought, moving
to modern Western psychology, and then to the Jungian and depth perspectives.
Temenos (Jobes, 1962) in Greek antiquity refers to a “consecrated land; a
sacred enclosure, as that around a temple” (p. 1543). Sacred (2011) is “that which
is considered worthy of respect or devotion, venerable; inspiring awe or
reverence” (p. 1541). Celtic spirituality (Madden, 2003) holds the concept of a
thin place, or “a place where you can pass easily back and forth between the
material and spiritual worlds. A temenos becomes a ‘thin place’ by walling out
those forces that would interfere with the connection between the visible and
invisible” (p. 274).
These understandings of temenos resonate closely with the psychology
term private mind. Donner (2012) describes private mind as “an experience of
something safe and secure between the psychologist and the client that supports
an essential freedom for the client and the psychologist to speak freely to each
other about [the client’s] personal and private thoughts” (p. 8). Within such a
28
private mind or temenos, structures such as boundaries, confidentiality, and
privilege can become tangible and potent as an efficacious support for the
essential freedom and sense of safety that enrich the process of meaning-making
for the client (Donner, 2012; Sharp, 1991, “Temenos”).
In Jungian psychology, temenos is a sacred container for soul work and
the transformation of the psyche; it provides fertile ground for human beings to
come together in community to be with what is present at the moment. In this
sacred contained space, anxiety and fear begin to dissipate, anger and conflict
move toward forgiveness and resolution, and joy and connection emerge in the
field. Ineffable and essential, temenos is conceptualized as the safe or protected
place away from diversions beyond the therapeutic walls (Madden, 2003, p. 274;
Woodman, 1985, p. 40). Jung felt that mandalas were a kind of temenos, and
described them as “a means of protecting the centre of the personality from being
drawn out and being influenced from outside” (as cited in Sharp, 1991,
“Temenos”). Within a Jungian analysis, the concept of the sacred vessel is named
“the temenos of the analysis” (Woodman, 1985, p. 47).
Introduction to Shamans and Shamanic Practice
Among populations in the United States and other Western societies, there
is an association made between drumming and shamanism. The majority of the
studies of shamans and shamanic practices and rituals began in the 19th century
(e.g., Eliade, 1951/2004; Krippner, 2002; Walter & Fridman, 2004a). The drum is
deeply rooted in the healing practices of many shaman-based societies and
cultures. In such practices, the drum is a sacred instrument of ritual that is vital in
29
bringing about alternative states of consciousness (e.g., Achterberg, 1987; Doak,
2006; Eliade, 1951/2004; Goodman, 1990; Halifax, 1987; Jones & Krippner,
2012; Krippner, 2002; Winkelman, 1990, 1992, as cited in Krippner, 2004; M. S.
Miller, 1999; Walsh, 1990; Walter & Fridman, 2004a, 2004b). In order to discuss
contemporary drumming circles, synchronized drumming, and Mindful
Drumming, it is useful to briefly address shamanism to distinguish it from the
three former practices.
The word shaman originates from the Tungus-speaking people of Siberia,
and describes “a communal leader chosen and trained to work for the community
by engaging with significant other-than-human persons” (Harvey, 2003, p. 1).
Renowned religious historian, Mircea Eliade, in his seminal work Shamanism
(1951/2004), declared the central aspect of the shaman as “someone who enters
ecstasy to interact with the spirit world on behalf of the community” (p. 5). The
shaman holds a specific role and responsibility in the community as the one who
enters an alternative state of consciousness, and through that state then enters the
animal and spirit realms to do the healing for the entire community; the
monotonous rhythms of the drum transport the shaman to those worlds
(Achterberg, 1987; Eliade, 1951/2004, Goodman, 1990; Jones & Krippner, 2012;
Krippner, 2002, M. S. Miller, 1999; Walsh, 1990; Walter & Fridman, 2004a). As
explained by Master Drummer Kokomon Clottey, who is an elder member of the
Ga-Adagbe tribe of Ghana,
A shaman is an individual who possesses high intuitive information and can

enter into ancestral dimension as well as higher spiritual realms. In every
Indigenous culture, shamans are the healers, midwifes, etc. According to
cultural anthropologist, shamanism is practiced in Asia. However, it is
30
practiced all over the globe under different names. (personal
communication, December 1, 2012)
A number of scholars (e.g., Doniger, 2004; Eliade, 1951/2004;
Winkelman, 1990, 1992, as cited in Winkelman, 2004) have worked to define
shamanic “universals.” Wendy Doniger (2004), author of the foreward to Eliade
(1951/2004), suggests that the term universal be replaced with the more accurate
term “widely pervasive patterns” (p. xii). Eliade had acknowledged throughout his
book, Shamanism (1951/2004), that many of the characteristics of shamans and
rituals apply to many—but not all—cultures and traditions. For the purposes of
this dissertation, the phrase “widely pervasive patterns” will be used in place of
“universal.” The widely pervasive patterns (Winkelman, 2004) of shamanism are
as follows:
• an experience in an altered state of consciousness known as soul

journey or soul flight;
• training through deliberately induced altered states of
consciousness, particularly vision quests;
• an initiatory experience involving death and rebirth;
• the use of chanting, music, drumming, and dancing;
• the ritual involvement of the entire community;
• therapeutic processes focused on soul loss and recovery;
• the belief that disease is caused by attacks by spirits and sorcerers,
and the intrusion of foreign entities;
• abilities of divination, diagnosis, and prophecy;
• charismatic leadership;
• malevolent acts, or sorcery;
• and various relationships to animals, including control of animals,
transformation into animals, and hunting magic. (p. 188)
The soul flight model is a phrase used by Stanley Krippner (2002) to
describe the phenomenon of the soul of the shaman leaving the physical body
during particular alternative states of consciousness catalyzed by monotonous
drumming and dancing, and the ascent or descent to other realms with an
31
intention or purpose. Aspects of soul flight may be undertaken to connect with
Spirits, to perform soul retrieval for an individual in psychological distress, or to
heal conflicts within the community. Aspects of soul flight of particular interest to
this study are the alternative states of consciousness induced by drumming, music,
dancing, and chanting; the involvement of the entire community; and the
therapeutic processes focused on soul loss and soul retrieval.
The terms soul loss and soul retrieval are not widely used in conventional
psychotherapy, but have been mentioned in many healing practices in
anthropology. Kalsched (2013), a Jungian analyst, describes soul loss as resulting
from trauma that leads to the collapse between two worlds: the inner and outer
(p. 50). Eliade (1951/2004) equates soul loss with disease or illness (p. 8).
Achterberg (1987) reinforces the importance of the concept of soul loss by stating
that it can annihilate all meaning from life (p. 105). Ingerman (2007) describes
soul loss as a form of dissociation after any kind of sexual abuse, physical, or
emotional trauma, when “a part of our soul flees the body in order to survive the
experience” (para. 6). She defines soul as “our essence, life force, the part of our
vitality that keeps us alive and thriving” (para. 6). In the shamanic sense, when a
piece of the soul leaves the body, it does not come back on it’s own—it “goes to a
territory in what shamans call non ordinary reality where it waits until someone
intervenes in the spiritual realms and facilitates its return” (para. 10).
Volumes of literature exist on the subject of shamans (Achterberg, 1987).
Not all scholars find the widely pervasive patterns of shamanic practices (Walter
& Fridman, 2004a), as described above, adequate to understand traditional
32
shamans. Voices of dissent argue that variations can be found between the many
cultures where there are persons called shamans (e.g., Achterberg, 1987; Harvey,
2003; Jones & Krippner, 2012; Krippner, 2002; Sandner, 1979/1991, 1997;
Walsh, 1990), such as the determining characteristics of alternative states of
consciousness and the soul flight model. Nonetheless, contemporary Western
biases regarding shamanism may affect perceptions of group drumming. A
negative stereotype of shamans, established in early anthropological publications
(e.g., Hamayon, 2004; Devereux, 1956, 1961, and Linton, 1956, both as cited in
Throop & Dornan, 2004, p. 212), pathologized shamans based on a more
traditional interpretation of their perceived psychological states. In fact, shamans
have not generally been valued in Western history. According to Piers Vitebsky
(1995/2008), “they were frequently persecuted throughout history, dismissed in
the 1960s as ‘insipid’ figments of anthropologist’s imagination” (p. 10). These
historical judgments linger in Western cultural memory. In counterpoint to
Vitebsky’s historical perspective that judgments linger, Krippner (2002) asserts
that “contemporary social scientists rarely pathologize shamans and when they
describe them as wounded healers and fantasy prone, these admirations are often
combined with admiration, respect, or indifference” (p. 966). In this debate, I
agree with Krippner that it depends on who is speaking (from what field,
background, age, etc.), what their worldview is, and which particular shamanic
tradition, group, or individual is being discussed. For readers of the present study,
it is useful to be aware that inherited cultural bias may influence how the results
are perceived.
33
Some scholars began to argue against the pathologizing of shamans in the
1960s. In 1964, in argument against the stand that shamans are severely neurotic
or psychotic, a psychological assessment using the Rorschach inkblot was
administered to 71 Apache men (Boyer, Klopfer, Brawer, & Kawai, as cited in
Krippner, 2004). Of the men who participated in the study, 12 were shamans, 7
were pseudoshaman or those “who claimed to possess special powers but who
had not been accorded the status of shaman by their community” (p. 206), and the
rest were in the category of nonshamanic group. The analysis indicated that the
shamans “showed a high degree of reality testing potential as did members of the
non-shamanic group” (p. 206) and overall “were healthier than their co-members”
(p. 206) whereas the pseudoshamans were “more variable and demonstrated
‘impoverished personalities’” (p. 206).
Several anthropologists have also worked to refute the stereotyping of
shamans (Halifax, 1987; Hoppál, 1987, 2010; Vitebsky, 1995/2008). Joan Halifax
(1987), medical anthropologist and Harvard faculty member, said shamans
explore the difficult areas of the human psyche in order to bring healing to the
community (p. 216). Siberian anthropologist Mihály Hoppál (1987) said, “recent
investigations and the reevaluation of earlier data have proved that most shamans
emerge from among the healthiest members of the community” (p. 83).
The role of the shaman has been incorporated into Jungian analytical
psychology: the shaman is perceived as an archetype, a symbolic image, which is
universally recognizable (Sandner & Wong, 1997). An archetype is a constant
part of the human psyche, manifested more in some persons or places than others
34
but always there and ready for use. Jung saw this pattern as a projection of
individuation (i.e., the inner psychic process of development), and accepted
shamanism as a part of the ancestry of analytical psychology (p. 4). In analytical
psychology, the journey made by shamans into other realms is conceptualized as
the collective and personal unconscious where the psyche has access to symbolic
images such as archetypal figures (e.g., the hero, the trickster, the Great Mother,
and others). Jungian analysts Sandner and Wong conclude, “These figures are
seen in dreams and visions and form the individual counterpart to the mythic
world of shamanism” (p. 5). Active Imagination (Sandner, 1997) is a process or
method developed by Jung that creates a temenos, or sacred container, whereby
an individual may enter into the realm of the unconscious and have a subjective
experience of the dynamics of shamanism.
The key distinction of drumming for shamanic ritual is its monotonous
drumming intended to support the shaman’s soul work (C. Campbell, 2002)–the
shaman always holds an intention during the journey into the other worlds or
realms of consciousness. According to Colman (1997), “No shaman lacks this
intent in a journey; intent, I believe, is what separates this tradition from other
kinds of altered consciousness” (p. 130). According to Rouget (1985), the most
important difference between the shamanic journey into other worlds or realms of
consciousness and that of other altered states of consciousness is that “in every
case the shaman is the musicant [he who dances and sings] of his own entry into
trance” (p. 126). The shaman goes into trance not by listening to others who sing
35
or drum for him, but on the contrary, by singing and drumming himself.
Synchronistic and Mindful Drumming are quite different.
Synchronistic and Mindful Drumming
In contrast to the shaman whose practice is to drum alone to do the work
for the community, the drumming practices known as Synchronistic and Mindful
Drumming are a collaborative process whereby all participants drum together to
facilitate the growth and healing of the group (Clottey, 2003; Stevens, 2003, 2005,
2012). Mindful Drumming is a practice whereby individuals come together with
the intention to create a sacred space, a temenos, and to create connection and a
sense of community to potentiate transformation and healing (Clottey, 2003). This
type of drumming uses “the powerful healing energy of repetitive drumming
practices used in ritual by Indigenous peoples” (p. 34). Kokomon Clottey, an
Indigenous man of the wisdom traditions of West Ghana, Master Drummer, and
founder of the Mindful Drumming practice, describes the role of a Mindful
Drumming facilitator as essential in providing rhythms that are easy for everyone
to play (personal communication, December 1, 2012). It is important to
emphasize that all of the participants are considered equally empowered in the
work of creating a safe container for the ritual of opening to authentic dialogue
and “unleashing the human spirit” (Clottey, 2003). The facilitator is neither a
leader nor a teacher:
[The facilitator] reads cognitive as well as emotional states and the

essence of the group and seeks appropriate rhythms for everyone to play.
The rhythms must be simple. The goal is never to demonstrate mastery
over any one. The most important goal is to make sure everyone is
available and present on all levels in order for the community to attain and
36
arrive at oneness of body, mind, and spirit. (personal communication,
November 29, 2012)
The facilitator and participants, using an outward focus and soft eyes, play
diverse polyrhythms, bringing their full attention and presence to the sound and
rhythm created by each other’s drumming—to stay present with awareness to
members of the gathering (Clottey, personal communication, May 4, 2008).
Participants may enter alternative states of consciousness and undergo
transformative experiences. “Mindful Drumming creates a rhythmic space that
brings individuals together collectively to journey to a higher or altered state of
consciousness” (Clottey, 2003, p. 158). It is a practice “that connects us with the
pulse that unites us in mind, body and spirit” (p. 126). Mindful Drumming is a
means of creating community.
Synchronistic Drumming is similar to Mindful Drumming. It is a
community experience of playing the drums where the facilitator and participants
play the same rhythms and tempos. The facilitator has permission to shift the
rhythms and tempos at various periods of time, and the person in the role of
facilitator can at any time hand that role to another participant of her choice
(Stevens, 2003, 2005). The role of the facilitator of Mindful or Synchronistic
Drumming is essentially identical. Christine Stevens (2005, 2012) is the founder
of Upbeat Drum Circles and a representative for the Remo group drumming
program (HealthRHYTHMS); their work is evidence-based and draws on the
work of neuroscientist Barry Bittman and associates (e.g., Bittman et al., 2001;
Bittman, Bruhn, Lim, et al., 2003; Bittman, Bruhn, Stevens, et al., 2003). Stevens
is an author, a licensed music therapist and social worker, and drum circle
37
facilitator. She has traveled internationally to train facilitators who share the goal
of building cohesive and sustainable drumming communities (Stevens, 2005,
2012). From her perspective, the role of the drum circle facilitator is two-fold: to
build community among the drum circle participants via the phenomenon of
entrainment and, in the process, to unearth the group’s musical potential. Because
rhythm is inherent and innate, Stevens (2003) clarifies that the facilitator is a
support for the group, not a teacher (p. 29).
Studies Investigating Group Drumming and Its Therapeutic Potential
Research from neuropsychology and neuroscience has found that rhythm
assists in organizing the human brain, and even more astonishing—that the
rhythm networks within the human brain are extensive (e.g., Janata & Grafton,
2003; Patel, 2006; Parsons & Thaut, 2001). Rhythm is intertwined with the basal
ganglia and cerebellum, associated with motor activity and responses (Patel,
2006; Grahn, 2004, as cited in Patel, 2006; Grahn & Brett, 2007, as cited in
Phillips-Silver 2009; Sacks, 2006, p. 2528; Strick, as cited in University of
Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, 2010;), which has implications for
health and for the healing of conditions such as dyslexia and Parkinson’s disease
(McIntosh et al., 1997, and Overy, 2003, both as cited in Phillips-Silver, 2009, p.
309; Sacks, 2006, p. 2528). For example, the motor power of rhythm has a
positive impact on reorganizing timing and gait in Parkinson’s patients (Sacks,
2006, p. 2928).
Drumming has been shown to have a significantly positive impact on the
immune system (e.g., Bittman et al., 2001; Bittman, Bruhn, Lim, et al., 2003;
38
Bittman, Snyder, et al., 2004; Gaynor, 2002). One study showed a significant
change in the immune system after group drumming, reflecting an increase in the
activity of components of white blood cells called NK cells (natural killer cells)
and LAK cells (lymphokine-activated killer cells) (Bittman et al., 2001, p. 43). NK
cells “interact with various components of the immune system and….increasing
evidence indicates that NK cells can also prevent and limit adaptive (auto)
immune responses” (Lünemann, Lünemann, & Münz, 2009, p. 352, abstr.). LAK
cells can “be used to treat patients with solid malignant tumors” (LAK cells,
2013, p. 429). Group drumming may also reduce and reverse “specific
neuroendocrine and neuroimmune patterns of modulation associated with the
classic stress response” (Bittman et al., 2001, p. 45). Another author studied the
effects of drumming and the rhythmic stimulation used to induce trance states,
monitoring participants’ brainwaves with EEG, and observed changes in
endorphin levels of adrenalin, noradrenalin, and cortisol (Goodman, 1990).
Given these measurable physical and immune system benefits, the
therapeutic potential of group drumming has been a subject of growing interest to
neuroscientists, counseling psychologists, and music therapists—and, I would

1
argue, clinical psychology should also take notice. The review of 26 studies
1
While there are no research articles on this topic from clinical psychologists (as of this
writing), my conversations with individual psychologists indicate that interest is
significant and growing.
39
from multiple disciplines conducted between 1989 and 2012 identified a number
of patterns. Appendix A contains detailed tables summarizing the studies
reviewed for each subsection here. The majority of these studies utilize the
expressive arts. Although the researchers were mostly music therapists who
looked at multicultural, at-risk populations, with rather small sample sizes, most
of these studies suggested that drumming had the following effects:
• improvement in mood, emotion, and affect regulation;
• culturally appropriate intervention;
• offered a space for community building and social engagement;
• increase in social interactions and, possibly, social skills;
• opportunity for nonverbal communication and increased emotional
expressivity;
• aid in building of a therapeutic alliance;
• potential for reduction in bullying and violence;
• organizing brain function as indicated by improvements in focus,
concentration, and memory leading to better learning outcomes;
• increase of a sense of containment and safety;
• improvements in anger regulation and management;
• growth in self-esteem, assertiveness, boundary-setting, and the overall
sense of well-being;
• support for its use in treatment of trauma, PTSD, and addiction;
• opportunity to explore and develop alternative states of consciousness;
and
40
• potential physical and immune system benefits.
Mood, Affect, and Emotion Regulation
Significant findings regarding mood, emotion, and affect regulation have
been demonstrated in several studies. Drumming groups have been shown to have
a therapeutic effect on the socioemotional behaviors of at-risk children and
adolescents (Bittman et al., 2009; Camilleri, 2002; Ho et al., 2011; Núñez, 2006;
Sassen, 2012; Meade, as cited in Seal, 2000; Snow & D’Amico, 2010; Stone,
2005). Studies of group drumming from evolutionary psychologists (e.g., Dunbar
et al., 2012) have shown that the physical act of drumming helps with pain
management by increasing pain thresholds as well as positive affect (p. 8). A
group study using improvisation and synchronized drumming with adult male
sexual offenders (Watson, 2002) and a case study using a structured drumming
protocol with an individual with pedophilia (Kaser, 1991) suggested that
drumming could be helpful in regulating frustration and impulse control and may
support some improvements in self-esteem (Kaser, 1991; Watson, 2002). These
findings are consistent with studies from music therapy researchers, music
therapists, and musicologists who noted that drumming positively impacts mood
regulation and enhancement, depression, and trauma (Cevasco, Kennedy, &
Generally, 2005; Doak, 2006; Kaser, 1991; Slotoroff, 1994; Watson, 2002).
Music therapists and researchers (Bensimon et al., 2008; Doak, 2006;
Hoeft & Kern, 2007), and evolutionary psychologists (Dunbar et al., 2012) have
studied the impact of rhythm and percussion music on mood regulation,
depression, and trauma. One study found that listening to recorded percussion
41
music can evoke a range of emotions and have a significant effect on the listener’s
state of mind (Hoeft & Kern, 2007). For some participants, when hearing
particular excerpts of recorded percussion music, anger and frustration were
aroused, suggesting that listening to recordings of percussion instruments and
making room in the session for the arousal of all emotions (difficult or pleasant)
may be significant in illuminating what activates personal triggers as well as the
mechanisms for coping (Hoeft & Kern, 2007, p. 143). Similar effects were found
for individuals listening to live percussion music (Dunbar et al., 2012). Some
researchers suggested that, among patients with mental disorders, music has a
functional–receptive use in the regulation of emotional activation processes that is
quantifiable (Gebhardt & von Georgi, 2007, p. 436).
Overall, research has supported that music in general and rhythmic
drumming in particular impact mood, affect, and emotional regulation as well as
physiological systems such as the immune system and cardiovascular systems
(e.g., Bittman, et al., 2001; Bittman, Bruhn, Stevens, et al., 2003; Castillo-Pérez,
Gomez-Pérez, Velasco, Pérez-Campos, & Mayoral, 2010; Iyer, 2000; Kaplan,
1999; Laukka & Gabrielsson, 2000; Leman, 2008). For example, Maxfield’s
(1994) study on rhythmic drumming found that, when drumming patterns and
particular rhythms played in rituals and ceremonies of Indigenous peoples were
sustained for at least 13-15 minutes, they induced temporary changes in brain
waves whereby the participants experience theta and alpha waves causing
neurophysiological effects (p. 161). Similar states of relaxation and feelings of
general well-being have been noted in individuals who have been long-term
42
meditators. These findings suggested that rhythmic drumming outside of ritual
might lead to the same shifts in brain waves into the theta and alpha states,
inducing relaxation, feelings of well-being, visual and somatic imagery, and
reveries (Maxfield, 1994, p. 162).
Drumming as a Culturally Appropriate Intervention
Several studies of multicultural and Indigenous peoples found that
drumming is a culturally appropriate intervention and a useful adjunct approach in
substance abuse and addiction treatment (Dickerson, Robichaud, Teruya,
Nagaran, & Hser, 2012; Faulkner et al., 2012), with at-risk youth and adults
(Camilleri, 2002; Ho et al., 2009; Núñez, 2006), and improving brain organization
and learning outcomes in grade-school aged youth (Courey, Balogh, Paik, &
Siker, 2012; Faulkner et al., 2012; San Francisco State University, 2012).
Drumming groups provide a safeguard from isolation, and the prejudices against
racial, cultural, and religious diversity (Bittman et al., 2009; Camilleri, 2002,
p. 262; Ho et al., 2011, p. 11; Sassen, 2012, p. 234).
Some of the research also points to a need for culturally healing traditions
to be reintroduced to Indigenous societies (e.g., Forcehimes et al., 2011;
Hartmann & Gone, 2012; Kirmayer et al., 2003; McCormick, 2000). For example,
in a study of group drumming and Latino youth, participants expressed a sense of
community and cultural interrelatedness (Núñez, 2006, p. 119). A later
investigation of group drumming in this population by Ho, Tsao, Bloch, and
Zeltzer (2011) found that Latino youth tend to internalize social and emotional
problems, which oftentimes make it challenging for caregivers, teachers, and
43
counselors to identify their difficulties (p. 9). As a widely pervasive activity,
group drumming led by school counselors supported and built upon the
collectivistic characteristics of many cultures, and may have supported
development of an alliance between counselors and students. Based on these
findings, the researchers suggest that group drumming is a sustainable
intervention with potentials for reducing socioemotional stressors and fostering
positive youth development (Ho et al., 2011).
Community Building and Social Engagement
When drums and percussion are played among groups of participants,
there is a communal experience of entrainment, interrelatedness, bonding,
cohesiveness, connection, community-building, and wholeness (Bensimon et al.,
2008; Blackett & Payne, 2005; Camilleri, 2002; Clair et al., 1995; Kumler, 2006,
2008/2012; Núñez, 2006; Snow & D’Amico, 2010; Stone, 2005; Watson, 2002;
Winkelman, 2003; see Appendix A, Table A3 for details). There is evidence for a
reduction in isolation and bullying in the school programs where drumming
protocols are integrated with counseling and school curricula (Camilleri, 2002;
Ho et al., 2011; Sassen, 2012; Slotoroff, 1994). Studies from music therapists and
nonprofit organizations where drumming groups have been an integral part of the
support have shown a sense of safety and trust (Bensimon et al., 2008; Camilleri,
2002). Several studies support the social value of drumming for music therapists
working with addictions (Watson, 2002), at-risk youth (Ho et al., 2011 Faulkner
et al., 2012; Núñez, 2006) and with populations with diminished cognitive
capacity (Clair et al., 1995).
44
Consistent with Kitwood’s (1999) research of the theory of personhood
approach, Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First, some music therapy
researchers (Sherratt, Thornton, & Hatton, 2004), argue that integrating live music
versus recorded music into therapy with persons with dementia and Alzheimer
may serve a therapeutic function of reducing problem behaviors, and in addition,
may yield a larger sense of well-being due to the added dimension of social
interaction (Clair et al., 1995). Live rhythmic drumming, rather than talk therapy,
demands less of the cognitive functions of persons with dementia and
Alzheimer’s and has implications for focusing the mind in the present and aiding
memory, concentration, and other mental processes (Sherratt et al., 2004). Stone
(2005), founder of the Denver-based organization Multifamily Therapy Group
with Drumming, in collaboration with the Family Court in Denver, provided
clinical therapy sessions and drumming circles to troubled and at-risk youth and
their families over an 8-week period. Drumming offered containment for ongoing
dialogue around difficult issues such as self-esteem, isolation, and racial
prejudices. The model proved to be a creative and productive way to build
community among the teens and families (Stone, 2005, p. 73). These findings are
consistent with other earlier and later studies (e.g., Davis-Craig, 2009; Friedman,
2000; Iyer, 2002; Kaplan, 1999; Kellaris & Kent, 1992; Madison, 2006; Merker et
al., 2009; Redmond, 1997; Sacks, 2007; Stevens, 2003, 2005, 2012).
Music can be seen as primordial and as such, among humans it has a
collective and communal function of unifying and creating connection (Storr,
1993, as cited in Sacks, 2006, p. 2528). It is, thus, not surprising that drumming
45
has a positive effect on the development of a therapeutic alliance, also founded on
safety and trust (Bensimon et al., 2008; Kaser, 1991; M. S. Miller, 1999; Stone,
2005; Watson, 2002). In a study led by music therapy researchers (Bensimon et
al., 2008), Israeli soldiers with PTSD participated in a music therapist-facilitated
group drumming experience. After the sessions, the participants noted some
reduction in PTSD symptoms that also included the increased sense of openness,
togetherness, belonging, sharing, closeness, connectedness, and intimacy. Many
of the participants reported a sense of safety and a reduced sense of intimidation
around accessing traumatic memories. The drumming experience facilitated an
outlet for rage, and over time supported the participants in regaining a sense of
self-control (p. 34). Bensimon, Amir, and Wolf (2008) also observed that soldiers
who suffer with combat stress reaction and PTSD tend to experience loneliness
and isolation from society (p. 35). The experience of group drumming, where
there was a mutual witnessing among participants, provided a container that
enabled access to traumatic memories and a portal for participants to express their
feelings of rage through the sound and rhythm of the drums. Playing the drums
was a nonverbal experience that opened into a means of emotional expressivity
and provided a sense of “we-ness” (p. 35), versus speaking, which allows for only
one voice at a time. The use of the body in playing the drum seemed to enable
bodily affect—what the researchers observed, and the participants experienced,
was a synchronous bodily effect functioning as a catalyst for the release of rage,
and ultimately giving a sense of relief and relaxation (p. 36). The participants
shared that playing the drums together assisted in the sense of bonding because
46
they were not limited by language or vocabulary. The researchers suggest that
integrating drumming into music therapy as a detour around linguistic mediation
might function as a sensory approach to access and express traumatic memories in
a way that is nonintimidating (Bensimon et al., 2008, p. 36).
Nonverbal Communication and Emotional Expressivity
The literature regarding drumming intervention shows the positive value
of the nonverbal communication and emotional expressivity accessed through the
drum (see Appendix A, Table A4 for details). These findings are supported by the
understanding of music therapy as a potent modality as well as a safe place, a
temenos, to express what is oftentimes experienced as inexpressible (McClary,
2007, p. 155). The music therapist seeks to draw on the nonverbal and generally
unintimidating nature of music (p. 155) that provides a scaffold for reflection on
those thoughts and feelings that are aroused (Saarikallio & Erkkila, 2007, p. 100).
Drumming is a nonverbal activity that evokes a sense of interrelatedness
and community (Bensimon et al., 2008; Bittman et al., 2009; Camilleri, 2002; Ho
et al., 2011; Hoeft & Kern, 2007; Kaser, 1991; Kumler, 2006, 2008/2012;
Saarkillio & Erkkila, 2007; Slotoroff, 1994; Stevens, 2000, 2003, 2012; Watson,
2002; Winkelman, 2003), emotional expression (Bensimon et al., 2008; Bittman
et al., 2009; Camilleri, 2002; Ho et al., 2011; Hoeft & Kern, 2007; Slotoroff,
1994; Stevens, 2000, 2003, 2012; Watson, 2002), and enhanced interest in social
interaction in addiction recovery (Watson, 2002) and among dementia and
Alzheimer’s patients (Clair et al., 1995; Sherratt et al., 2004).
47
A study of at-risk Latino youth (Ho et al., 2011) attributes the nonverbal
experience of drumming to the improvements in academic performance and
socialemotional behavior, and commends group drumming as a culturally
appropriate means of developing alliance between counselors and students. A
seminal study of 52 inner-city adolescents in a court-referred residential treatment
program (Bittman et al., 2009) embodied a “replicable creative musical protocol”
(p. 8) that included group drumming to elicit nonverbal and verbal emotional
expression. A battery of psychometric assessments (e.g., Reynolds Adolescent
Depression Scale, 2nd edition; Adolescent Anger Rating Scale) showed
statistically significant improvements in areas of schoolwork, depression,
anhedonia, and anger (p. 8).
A number of Jungian analysts (e.g., Celi, 1989; Woodman, 1980) and
psychologists (e.g., Kumler, 2006, 2008/2012) have noted the interaction of the
nonverbal aspect and emotional expression. Jungian analyst Marion Woodman
(1980), in a discussion of the medium of music and creative movement as a
transformational process, stated that
words are inadequate to express intense passion even when language

assumes its most symbolic form….Music transports her [the analysand]
into a nonpersonal dimension, a world that speaks directly to her heart,
instead of her head, a world where she can experience wholeness and
harmony. (p. 113)
Jungian analyst Salvatore Celi (1989) presented his in-depth study of a 9-year-old
boy who experienced dissociative states and the integration of rhythmic
drumming into the psychoanalytical sessions: Celi played a conga drum alongside
the boy who played a trapset [drum set]. Celi wrote, “Rhythmic experiences
can…be employed to recreate organization and form when the elements are
48
missing in typical dissociated states common to neurosis and psychosis” (p. 102).
Celi suggests that the integration of psychoanalytical approaches and the use of
rhythm through playing the drum is an organizing factor and therapeutic tool for
such states of confusion (p. 102).
The nonverbal communication from drummer to listener is a key
therapeutic quality. Over twenty years ago, music therapist and researcher
Vaughan Kaser (1993) observed that many individuals experience music as a
form of both nonverbal communication and emotional expressivity for those
feelings that they otherwise could not express verbally (p. 16). He noted that
music enables the ability to “process feelings sufficiently in order to address a
variety of issues, shift to deeper levels of self-disclosure, form a therapeutic
alliance, and display concomitant progress in interpersonal behaviors, reality
orientation, and memory” (p. 23).
Iyer (2002), a musicologist, describes how, as
musical behavior is nonlinguistic in nature, music tends to challenge

dominant linguistic paradigms, which reduce all cognition to rational
thought processes.…With its emotional and associative qualities and its
connection to dance and ritual, music seems to provide a counterexample
to such theories of mind [i.e., those that depend on words]. (p. 387)
Drumming is also unavoidably an emotional expression. Iyer (2002)
argues that the elements of intensity and timing available to a drummer have the
capacity to convey “a great deal of emotion” (p. 397). There appears to be an
interconnection between rhythm, feeling, and movement (Phillips-Silver, 2009, p.
309). Laukka and Gabrielsson (2000) state, “Music is widely acknowledged as an
effective means of emotional communication” (p. 181). The results of their study
49
of emotional expression using purely percussive, nonmelodic instruments showed
that percussion alone did convey “the intended [emotional] expressions” (p. 187).
The experience of nonverbal emotional expression can be transformative.
Clinical psychologist Kurt Kumler (2006, 2008/2012) explored the
phenomenological experience of musical transformation in four participants who
shared a love of music and had significant formal musical training. The results
elucidate the experience of being transformed through music, including the notion
that the genesis of personal meaning is “co-constituted by the music and the
listener” (Kumler, 2006, p. viii); the personal transformation is experienced as
embodied, “manifesting through feeling and visions” (p. 95); and “most pervasive
and significant is the feeling of connectedness” (p. 95).
Treatment of Addiction and Substance Abuse
Contemplative writings on addictions from Carl Jung (e.g., letters as
quoted in Alcoholics Anonymous, 2013; Carl Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous
[video], 2007), Marion Woodman (1982, 1985; Crumley & Reid, 2009), Clarissa
Pinkola-Estés (1992), and Donald Kalsched (1996/2003) all point to a deeper
spiritual longing for a sense of wholeness and community that gets concretized
and projected onto mind-altering substances such as alcohol, drugs, food, and
sexual encounters. Jung, in his closing remarks in a letter to Bill Wilson, reflected
on the fact that the Latin word for alcohol is spiritus, “the same word for the
highest religious experience” (as quoted by Alcoholics Anonymous, 2013, last
para.). Clarissa Pinkola-Estés (1992), Jungian analyst and author, asserts that
addiction is “anything that depletes life while making it ‘appear’ better” (p. 486).
50
Noting the scarcity of initiation ceremonies in Western societies, Jungian
analyst Luigi Zoja (as cited in Addenbrooke, 2012), past president of CIPA
(Centro Italiano di Psicologia Analitica) and IAAP (International Association of
Analytical Psychology), approaches the resurrection of drug use among
adolescents as “a collective need for initiation into adulthood” (p. 4)—an attempt
to fill the raging existential void that has manifested (p. 4). I find Zoja’s
psychoanalytical perspective of the drug addict’s transitional phases to be a harsh
contrast to van Gennep’s (1909/1960) ritual theory of liminal space, Turner’s
(1969/1991) betwixt and between transitional state, and J. Campbell’s (1973)
hero’s journey (see Chapter 2: Basic Definitions of Ritual). Zoja asserts that in the
use of drugs, transitional phases of initiation are dangerously reversed (as cited in
Addenbrooke, 2012). There is no temenos in place, and “the loss of containment
is the hallmark of addiction” (Sam Naifeh, 1995, as cited in Addenbrooke, 2012,
para. 15). Rather than transitioning through the death of former self into a liminal
realm of transformation, and ultimately a rebirth, the drug user or addict
immediately accesses unknown aspects of self, or the unconscious, prior to
symbolic death (Zoja, as cited in Addenbrooke, 2012, para. 11).
Jungian perspectives help illustrate why drumming may be particularly
helpful with recovery. Carl Jung, in his letter to AA cofounder Bill Wilson,
emphasized the human need for a spiritual connection (Jung’s Letters Volume 2:
1951–1961, 1976, as quoted in Carl Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Drug
Seeking Behavior, 2007; see also Alcoholics Anonymous, 2013). Jung saw the
alcohol addiction as a thirst for wholeness—“a misguided concretistic projection
51
of the need for spiritual experience into the mind-altering ‘spirits’ of alcohol”
(Kalsched, 1996/2003, p. 172). Turning to Jung’s perspective on addiction (Jung,
1976, as cited in Addenbrooke, 2012), drugs impact the psyche by temporarily
creating a sense of wholeness as they “blur the boundaries in the inner
world...[and] the fragmented worlds become merged” (p. 3). Therefore when the
substance or “high” wears off, the outcome for the drug user and addict is not
rebirth, but rather a death of the false sense of connection, as well as isolation,
hangover, and withdrawal (p. 4). Marion Woodman (1982, 1985) is a renowned
Jungian analyst and published author who has written extensively on the subject
of anorexia nervosa and bulimia, addiction, and movement and dreams. In her
analytical experience she has witnessed that addicts often have a tendency to
concretize images of spirit and alternative states of consciousness and do not seem
to have much capacity to hold those images symbolically or metaphorically. An
addiction is a result of disconnection from one’s instinctual self—when spirit is
no longer found in nature or the church, it becomes concretized in alcohol, drugs,
or food (Crumley & Reid, 2009; Woodman, 1982, 1985).
In terms of managing drug addictions, collected findings (see Appendix A,
Table A5 for details) show that group drumming induces relaxation and produces
natural pleasurable experiences, enhances awareness of preconscious dynamics,
creates a sense of containment and order out of chaos, and releases emotional
trauma and supports reintegration of self (Blackett & Payne, 2005; Cevasco et al.,
2005; Dahlberg, 2010; M. S. Miller, 1999; Winkelman, 2003). Therapeutic effects
of drumming described by the participants included a sense of interrelatedness,
52
bonding, and community building (Blackett & Payne, 2005; Winkelman, 2003).
In addition, the culturally appropriate nature of drumming intervention for
Indigenous peoples has been shown to be a successful adjunct in substance
addiction programs (e.g., Dickerson et al., 2012). These positive outcomes
supporting sobriety may arise from any or all of the 14 themes identified in the
literature and discussed below. Additional literature also supports these findings
on the value of drumming for recovery work (e.g., Dahlberg, 2010; Forcehimes et
al., 2011; Kirmayer et al., 2003; McCormick, 2000).
Treatment of Trauma and PTSD
The containing function, or temenos, in the therapeutic session evokes a
sense of safety and intensifies the creative freedom to explore one’s difficult
issues (Donner, 2012; Sharp, 1991). In studies where the rhythmic activity of
drumming has been utilized as an intervention, it has been shown to evoke and
enhance the experience of containment and sense of safety (Bensimon et al.,
2008; M. S. Miller, 1999; Slotoroff, 1994; Stevens, 2003, 2012; Stone, 2005; see
Appendix A, Tables A3–A5) In a study of addictions and the effects of shamanic
drumming (M. S. Miller, 1999), participants reported a feeling of safety,
relaxation, and freedom to deal with aspects of recovery. In a study of sexual
abuse and trauma, Slotoroff (1994) integrated improvisational drumming with
CBT sessions. She suggests that drumming with participants may create a
container of safety for the development of assertiveness, anger regulation and
management, and boundary setting (pp. 115–116).
53
In treatment of trauma survivors and those suffering from PTSD, studies
from music therapists and nonprofit organizations where drumming groups have
been an integral part of the support have shown a reduction in PTSD symptoms; a
sense of trust, safety and bonding among participants; and community
development (Bensimon et al., 2008; Camilleri, 2002; J. Kornfield, personal
communication, San Francisco, CA, April 11, 2008; Meade, as cited in Seal,
2000). Results of a group study using improvisation and synchronized drumming
with adult male sexual offenders, and a case study using a structured drumming
protocol with an individual with pedophilia, both suggested positive results in
regulating frustration and impulse control, and a noted improvement in self-
esteem (Kaser, 1991; Watson, 2002).
Knowledgeable healers have turned to group drumming in their work with
traumatized populations. Christine Stevens (2000, 2003, 2012) travels to areas of
crisis and trauma with the intention of building community and promoting
healing. Stevens has introduced synchronized group drumming to survivors and
their families of the Colombine school shooting and 9/11 tragedies, and has
traveled with Remo drums to Iraq during wartime, building community between
members of combating tribes (personal communication, January 26, 2008).
Renowned meditation teacher and author, Jack Kornfield (personal
communication, Coming Home Project Conference, San Francisco, CA, April 11,
2008), related his experience of a week-long intensive that he cofacilitated with
Michael Meade in which group drumming played a central role. Situated in
Mendocino California in 2007, the event involved young men who had recently
54
served prison terms and who were struggling with personal trauma and PTSD. At
the conclusion of the event, all of the participants shared a personal experience of
transformation and healing that had transpired during the week. At the Coming
Home Project Conference, Kornfield (Communication, San Francisco, April 11,
2008) shared this salient message: “The process of transforming trauma must
include the body and modalities such as drumming, movement, storytelling and
EMDR.”
Purpose of This Study
The drum is drawing an increasing number of researchers, especially
within the disciplines of neuroscience and neuropsychology. However, work to
date has focused on benefits and therapeutic potential to participants. Drawing on
the solid groundwork in those areas, this study asks, “What is the lived experience
of Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming gatherings?”, as
there is little data available on the phenomenological experience of the facilitator.
As this information becomes available to the clinical psychologist, it is my hope
that it will further the possibility of integrating drumming into psychotherapeutic
sessions in a most meaningful way.
55
CHAPTER 3: METHODS
To my knowledge, this is the first study regarding the experience of
Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming gatherings and
rituals. Not having their voice limits our understanding of the impact of the drum
and its healing value. This study, therefore, poses the following question, “What
is the lived experience of Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized
drumming gatherings?” Drummers and percussionists use their bodies to
communicate and dialogue with others. Accordingly, I sought methods of inquiry
and portrayals of data that would allow me to stay more attuned with the
drummers, particularly in the context of being more grounded in the landscape of
one’s body.
Methodology
In the process of researching and examining qualitative methods and
methodologies that are relevant to this study, I selected those with which I feel a
resonance in language as well as in the larger worldview. Foundationally, this is a
Transcendental Phenomenological (Moustakas, 1994) study. To frame how the
interviews were conducted, I used Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity
(Finlay, 2005) to support empathic reaching-out and connecting to the
participants, and Focusing (Gendlin, 1978/2007) to enhance my own bodily felt-
sense, stay conscious in my body, and be aware of the sensations beneath the
feelings during the interviews (see Methodology of Participant–Researcher
Intersubjectivity and Methodology of Focusing below). These three
methodologies meet the requirements and standards of my graduate program and
56
within sectors of the broader field of psychology. As illustrated in Figure 1,
aspects of the three methodologies deemed appropriate for this study are each
rooted in intuition and listening as follows: key concepts or principles, and
essential qualities (Moustakas, 1994, p. 32); embodied palpable presence
(Gendlin, 1978/2007, p. ix); and embodied empathy (Finlay, 2005). Additionally,
each
Intuition and Listening
Moustakas Gendlin
(1994) (1978/2007)
“key concepts or “embodied
principles” and palpable presence”
“essential qualities” (p. ix)
(p. 32)
Finlay (2005)
“reflexive
embodied
empathy” (p. 271)
Figure 1. Aspects of the three selected methodologies are each rooted in Intuition
and Listening. Author’s image.
57
of these methods makes room for that which “presents itself” (Moustakas, 1994,
p. 32; Finlay, 2005, 2006; Gendlin, 1978/2007, pp. 145–146). With common
threads intertwining, the selected methods reflect the concepts of intuition, self-
reflection, reflexivity, Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity, embodied
empathy, and bodily felt sense.
Methodology of Transcendental Phenomenology
Moustakas’s theory of a transcendental or psychological
phenomenological approach (1994, as cited by Creswell, 2007) is “focused less
on the interpretations of the researcher and more on a description of the
experiences of the participants” (p. 59). Transcendental Phenomenological
inquiry, the foundational method for this study, is appropriate for developing a
descriptive portrayal of the lived experience of the participants. Moustakas’s
(1994) approach is based on Husserl’s phenomenology, which is transcendental in
that “it adheres to what can be discovered through reflection on subjective acts
and their objective correlates” (p. 45). The significance rests on subjectivity and
illumination of the essences of experience (p. 45) in the sense that if we as
researchers are able to loosen our hold on our conscious experience, then the veil
that prevents us from seeing what is before us can potentially be more permeable
(p. 91). Moustakas’s (1994) approach gives researchers significant latitude to
garner all aspects of the participant’s experience—the composite of elements and
concepts carries the potential to express the essence of phenomena (p. 33).
Transcendental Phenomenology uses seven somewhat interwoven steps, as
follows:
58
• Epoche (be open to the unknown),
• Phenomenological Reduction (dwell in the texture of the
phenomenon),
• Horizonalization (include all aspects of the essence of the phenomenon
equally),
• Imaginative Variation (glean structural themes from textural
descriptions),
• Intersubjectivity (empathic coexistence between participant and
researcher),
• Invariant Horizon (the essence and nature of the phenomenon), and
• Textural Composite and Structural Composite (an integrated statement
of the meanings and essences of the experience).
Each step is described in more detail below (Moustakas, 1994).
Moustakas’s (1994) approach begins with the process of Epoche, in which
the researcher is asked to allow openness to the Unknown and previously
unperceived. Through dedication and determination in the practice of setting aside
one’s biases and assumptions, one can begin to be deeply and fully curious: to
look at the phenomena, letting oneself be suffused with innumerable perspectives.
Depraz (1999) describes Epoche as a “gesture of suspension with regard to the
habitual course of one’s thoughts, brought about by an interruption of their
continuous flow” (p. 99). Although one can bracket a particular mental activity, it
continues to exist in one’s mind; however, without attempting to turn away from
it or deny it’s existence, the thought remains suspended without carrying a charge,
59
or in the sense of Depraz (1999), “lacking any real efficacy, without validity”
(p. 99). The practice of self-reflection and assessment of one’s biases, prejudices,
and fears challenges the researcher to leave those defenses behind making further
space for the broader horizons of the participant’s landscape. In the words of
Moustakas (1994), “Epoche offers a resource, a process for potential renewal (p.
90).
Transcendental Phenomenological Reduction (Moustakas, 1994) is a
process of dwelling in the textures and design of the phenomena, while spiraling
round and round the participant to build a full description of the essential nature
of the phenomenon (p. 34). This step supports the development of meaning units
that follows.
Horizonalization (Moustakas, 1994), another process of
Phenomenological Reduction, refers to how each phenomenon carries equal value
and all are included as aspects of the nature and essence of the phenomenon
(p. 95). The concept holds that “we can never exhaust completely our experience
of things” (p. 95). Horizonalization is a process of taking in, with a feeling of
wonder, each and every experience shared by the participant. In the sense of
William James, “To understand a thing rightly we need to…have acquaintance
with the whole range of its variations” (1902/1982, as cited by Wertz et al., 2011,
p. 22). The process of discarding what is irrelevant to the research question, or
beyond the focus of the study, occurs later.
Imaginative Variation (Moustakas, 1994) is releasing the world as one has
known it—and holding anything and everything to be possible. Intuition is
60
conceived as imaginative, moving toward essences and meanings (p. 98). Husserl
(as cited in Moustakas, 1994) called this pure essence “The Eidos” (p. 98).
Imaginative Variation facilitates the gleaning of structural themes from the
textural descriptions (p. 99). The structures underlie the textural descriptions and
emerge in the consciousness of the researcher through allowing the imagination to
open. There is an ongoing relationship between texture and structure. Whereas the
textural refers to what is experienced, the structures refer to the how of the
phenomena. Structural descriptions involve “conscious acts of thinking and
judging, imagining, and recollecting” (p. 79) and are the phenomena of “time,
space, relationship to self, to others, bodily concerns, causal or intentional
structures” (p. 181). This step involves interacting with the phenomenon using
diverse ways of knowing, such as meditation, expressive arts, dreams, movement,
or drumming.
Intersubjectivity (Moustakas, 1994) is the recognition and experience of
coexistence between participant–researcher that dissolves “the illusion of
solipsism” (p. 37), with empathy as the key to reaching this state of consciousness
(p. 37). This step supports all of the other steps.
Invariant Horizons or Invariant Constituents (Moustakas, 1994) are the
“unique qualities of an experience” (p. 128) made up via the textural meanings.
These are Horizons, or the experience of things that both enter and recede from
our conscious awareness. Horizons are unlimited and what is recovered by the
mind is the essence and nature of that phenomenon (p. 95); Invariant Horizons are
61
the “unique characteristics” (p. 128), described as the essence and nature of the
phenomenon.
The Textural Composite and the Structural Composite (Moustakas, 1994)
refer to the final step in his phenomenological model, the creation of the
composite textural and the composite structural descriptions (p. 144) as a
statement of the meanings and essences of the experience (p. 100). This end-stage
affords the researcher the opportunity to present a portrayal of the lived
experience in all its richness.
The Thematic Portrayals (Moustakas, 1994) method of data analysis is
“interested in the development of descriptions of the essences of these
experiences” (Moustakas, 1994, as cited in Creswell, 2007, p. 58). It is not
concerned with explanations or analyses (p. 58). Moustakas’s (1994) data analysis
process for Thematic Portrayals begins with developing Invariant Horizons, and
then through phenomenological refection and imaginative variation, thematic
portrayals are created.
Methodology of Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity
Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity (Finlay, 2005) is one of two
methodologies (the second is Focusing; Gendlin, 1978/2007) that were used as a
frame for conducting the interviews. According to Finlay (2005), there is a
phenomenon of Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity, or what she has termed
reflexive embodied empathy: empathy arises through an intersubjective
relationship that exists because of a bodily commonality, and in turn it is empathy
that enables understanding of other and self-understanding. Theoretically, the
62
researcher holds the potential space for “reciprocal transformation” (p. 288)
within the intersubjective field. It is in this place that researcher and participant
affect each other, as well as contain the capacity to express empathy for one other
(Finlay, 2005, p. 288).
This process “involves engaging, reflexively, with the embodied
intersubjective relationship researchers have with the participants” (Finlay, 2005,
p. 271; see also Finlay, 2006, p. 20). As illustrated by Figure 2, there are three
interpenetrating layers of reflexivity:
• Bodily empathy (connecting-of) demonstrates how people can tune
into another’s bodily way of being using their own embodied
reactions;
• Embodied self-awareness (acting-into) focuses on empathy as
imaginative self-transposal and calls attention to the way existences
(beings) are intertwined in a dynamic of doubling and mirroring; and
• Embodied intersubjectivity (merging-with) is where self-
understanding and other-understanding unite in mutual transformation
(Finlay, 2005).
The first layer of reflexivity known as bodily empathy or connecting-of includes
awareness of expressive bodily movements and gestures that are indicative of
feelings (Finlay, 2006, p. 23). Other movements of the body to be included in this
category are, for example, facial expressions, demeanor, and tone of voice. In
grasping the lived experience, connecting-of through bodily empathy opens the
63
Body empathy Body
(researcher) (participant)
Bodily Empathy
connecting-of
Body Body
Embodied Self-Awareness
acting-into
Body Self-
empathy awareness
Embodied Intersubjectivity
merging-with
Figure 2. Finlay’s (2005) three stages of reflexivity. Author’s image.
researcher to the possibility of touching on the participant’s subjectivity because
the witnessing of a gesture helps to understand the feeling, as they are one in the
same (p. 23).
The second layer of reflexivity required of the researcher is embodied self-
awareness or acting-into, meaning to reflect on one’s own responses, including
64
bodily reactions (Finlay, 2006, p. 25). Features of the concept of bodily felt sense
(Gendlin 1978/2007) are reflected in describing the process of connecting with
one’s bodily experience, the tension that arises in the process and the release of
tension in the body as the feelings and deeper meanings of the experience become
illuminated (Finlay, 2006, p. 25).
The third level of reflexivity, and “most fruitful” (Finlay, 2006, p. 26) is
embodied intersubjectivity or merging-with. The researcher listens and witnesses
the participant’s sense of embodiment and from this intersubjective attunement,
the researcher has a sense in her own body of mirroring something of the
participant’s experience, or an “intersubjective corporeal commonality.” Finlay
emphasizes that reflexive embodied empathy is “a progressive, iterative
attunement” (p. 27), which can catalyze both empathy and understanding between
participant and researcher (p. 27).
Methodology of Focusing
“Focusing moves toward inward, drawing on information from the deeper,

wiser self (‘the body’).”
–Ferguson (1980/2007, p. xvii)
In order to be present with another, as Participant–Researcher
Intersubjectivity requires, one must first be present with oneself, rooted and aware
of one’s own body. To that end, the methodology of Focusing (Gendlin,
1978/2007) was also used to frame the interviews. Finlay (2006) describes what
the researcher should do for intersubjectivity, while Gendlin (1978/2007) explains
how to attune to one’s own “bodily orienting sense” (p. vii) of knowing. From
that bodily place, Gendlin elucidates how to make way for a “deeper bodily felt
sense [to] come in relation to any specific situation” (p. viii).
65
Focusing (Gendlin, 1978/2007) is part of a wider philosophy holding that
mind and body are not separate and that this inhabited body harbors myriad
pathways to meanings, each available to be felt and sensed (p. 11). In the sense of
Gendlin, the term the body refers to “the total brain–mind environment as we
sense it” (Ferguson, 1980/2007, p. xv). The phenomena called “felt sense” was
incorporated into the interview process of this study as a support for myself and
the participants to access their body felt sense of experience leading to meaning
and possibilities of verbalization. Gendlin (1999) argues that it is possible to track
a bodily somatic process that is present prior to emergence of verbalization
(p. 234). He believes that “the unconscious is the body” (Gendlin, 1978/2007, p.
vii) and that through this process of Focusing, researchers and participants can
access sensations in the body that lay beneath the feelings, opening a veritable
wellspring for potential transformation. In the words of Ferguson (1980/2007),
“Focusing is mysterious in its capacity to summon buried wisdom, holistic in its
respect for the ‘felt sense’ of the problem” (p. xvi).
The Focusing process (Gendlin, 1978/2007) includes bringing awareness
to the breath as a vital channel to slowing oneself down to drop into this felt
sense. It is here in this pregnant pause, the place of stillness within the participant,
that both the participant and interviewer may witness the nonverbal reactions and
a “groping for words” (p. 145). At the birth of verbal expression for that presence
of something meaningful (i.e., a bodily felt sense of something of importance), it
is natural for discomfort to accompany the process of release. The interviewer is
listening for the silent spaces and pauses—a sign that the participant’s process is
66
deepening. The slowing down in vocalization is the point where the unconscious
process is becoming illuminated, that is, nondeliberative processes become
conscious. A good listener (i.e., the interviewer) is both a welcome presence and a
catalyst for the participant’s process. To guide the movement, the interviewer
becomes active in responding and referring only to the feelings of the participant
in the moment (Gendlin, 1978/2007, p. 146).
Procedures
In this section I describe how methodologies described above were applied
in this study to investigate the question “What is the lived experience of Masterful
Drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming gatherings?”
Participants: Terminology, Inclusion and Exclusion, and Recruitment
For the purposes of this study, a Master Drummer is a highly experienced
and trained individual who has been acknowledged as having formal drumming
mastery in her or his communities of practice. The term Masterful Drummer was
chosen very carefully, and refers to highly experienced drummers who (a) have
mastery, or advanced skills, in playing particular types of drums and percussion
instruments, and who (b) have had formal training by another Master Drummer
from their cultural community in various rhythms and rituals associated with that
tradition. Highly experienced refers to informally and formally trained musicians
of the drum and other percussion instruments who have a mastery, or advanced
skills, in playing the drum. The distinction between Master Drummer and
Masterful Drummer is important, as the training that the Masterful Drummers
interviewed here have received may have been informal and not necessarily for
67
the purpose of advancement to the level of Master Drummer, nor have they
necessarily been recognized by their communities as Master Drummers.
A drumming gathering is a group of individuals who have the intention of
playing drums together. The individual ability and skills in playing the drum may
vary: ability may range on a continuum from nonexperienced and beginner; to
advanced, highly skilled, or masterful; and up to Master Drummer level (referring
to those acknowledged as such in their community of practice).
Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were as follows. Individuals were
excluded from the study if they
1. had not reached the age of 18 years of age by 2013;
2. had less than 15 years drumming experience; or
3. had less than 10 years experience facilitating drumming gatherings.
Individuals considered in this study were
1. adults (18 years of age or more);
2. with 15 or more years drumming experience;
3. with 10 or more years facilitating drumming gatherings (that have
particular intentions, e.g., synchronized and Mindful Drumming
gatherings, or drumming gatherings for ritual, healing, therapeutic
purposes, and community building);
4. who were currently living in the United States or visiting the United
States at the time the interviews are scheduled (due to the nature of the
selected methods, all interviews will be conducted live and in-person);
and
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5. who were acknowledged as Masterful Drummers by their communities
of practice.
A sample of self-selected individuals was recruited using several methods.
I contacted drummers known through the following:
• Public programs, workshops, and concerts performed by Masterful
Drummers in performance venues including CIIS, Esalen, Omega
Institute, Attitudinal Healing Connection of Oakland, Rudramandir,
Saybrook University, Sonoma State University, Sofia University,
Spirit Rock, and Rhythm Village;
• Referrals from colleagues and musicians;
• Contact with researchers and authors who are cited in the study for
referrals; and
• Snowball recruiting.
Volunteers were contacted by telephone, email, letter, or all three, with a goal of
recruiting 7-9 participants (a copy of my recruitment letter is in Appendix B).
Nine Masterful Drummers agreed to participate in this study.
Preinterview Protocol
Prior to each interview, I contacted the prospective participant in writing
(Appendix C) and shared the biodemographic questionnaire (Appendix D) for
them to complete. I also invited them to bring a drum, letting them know that we
could begin our time together with an invocation or drumming meditation to
create a temenos (i.e., a sacred, contained space). I reminded the participant that
the intention was to have a ritual space that carried meaning for them individually.
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Van Manen (1990) poses that a qualitative researcher’s most fitting way to
“enter the lifeworld of the persons whose experiences are relevant study material
for his or her research project” (p. 69) is to participate in that lifeworld. Following
this approach, all interviews were conducted in a natural setting. Prior to our in-
person meeting, I contacted all participants and offered them an invitation to
name an interview location of their choice. Prior to entering each participant’s
environment, my own preparation consisted of meditation and prayer to quiet my
mind and bring a fuller presence to my task of interviewing.
Interview Questions
I interviewed the nine participants in person using semistructured
interview methods guided by voice-centered relational methods (e.g., DeVault &
Gross, 2007; Gilligan et al., 1990; Gilligan et al., 2003; Mauthner & Doucet,
1998; Olesen, 2005). An important aspect of qualitative research is the mutual
influence of the participants and the researcher (Finlay, 2005; DeVault & Gross,
as cited by Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007; Yardley, as cited by Smith & Osborn,
2008). The influence of an interactive researcher provides the benefit of a
relational atmosphere; an in-depth interview facilitated by open-ended questions
enables participants to feel at ease, inviting them, in their own words, to disclose
subjective experiences and provide interpretations of reality (Reinharz, as cited in
Maddison, 2007; Smith & Osborn, 2008; Yardley, 2008). When a connection has
been made between the researcher and participants, there is a potential field for
cloaked insights and meanings to be unveiled (Yardley, as cited by Smith &
Osborn, 2008, p. 236). In contrast, structured interviews have the potential to
70
create an atmosphere of constraints, which may prove disempowering for
participants (Maddison, 2007; Yardley, 2008).
The locus of inquiry was directed around the central question: “What is
the lived experience of Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized
drumming gatherings?” Locke, Spirduso, and Silverman (1993) noted, “Most
qualitative research (though not all) is naturalistic in that the researcher enters the
world of the participant as it exists and obtains data without any deliberate
intervention designed to alter the setting” (p. 100). Moustakas (as cited in
Creswell, 2007, p. 110) refers to two central questions; I developed the interview
questions (see Appendix E) based on these general guiding questions:
• What statements describe these experiences?
• What themes emerge from these experiences?
• What are the contexts of and thoughts about the experiences?
• What is the overall essence of the experience?
According to Moustakas (1994), broad questions may be prepared in
advance that emphasize language and timing, in the event that during the inquiry,
a participant has not shared an experience in a qualitative way. The researcher’s
questions are developed in a way that will support the full emergence of a
phenomenon and “facilitate the obtaining of rich, vital, substantive descriptions”
(p. 116). I invested significant thought into Moustakas’s guidance, and developed
the specific interview questions listed in Appendix E.
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Interview Process
To understand the lived experience of Masterful Drummers who facilitate
synchronized drumming gatherings, I began all interviews by asking the
prospective participant if she or he would like to open the interview session in a
way that felt meaningful. Following the participant’s decision to accept or
decline, a few minutes of time were spent in a way that created a safe, sacred
container for the interview questions to follow. This initial rapport-building was
followed by my asking open-ended questions to guide the interview process (see
above and Appendix E).
Due to the nature of the phenomenological method and subject of inquiry,
the number of questions asked of each participant varied. The length of each
interview also varied from 60 minutes to 210 minutes and was dependent on two
variables: ease in describing their phenomenological and spiritual or embodied
experience, and the amount of material that emerged as each participant entered
into a self-reflective state. I used the semistructured interview as a basis and guide
for opening the conversation with an intention to create an environment of
warmth, comfort, and safety. My intention for the interview process was to listen
deeply and with curiosity to each participant.
The interviews were recorded on a digital recorder in MP3 format and
later transferred to the transcriber through the Internet. All of the participants gave
permission to use their names in this dissertation study and to allow me to retain
the original data files if I choose to enter into future research on this topic (a copy
of the Consent Form can be found in Appendix F). A biodemographic
72
questionnaire was presented to each participant (Appendix D) to ensure an
accurate description of my sample in this final discussion of the dissertation
research.
During the interviews, I focused on the grounding concepts of listening
deeply from an embodied empathic stance to the lived experience of the
participants. Aspects of the tools of Focusing, a phenomenological orientation,
were integrated into the interview process as pathways to exploring deeper ways
of knowing, sensing, and exploring embodied essences and wisdom (Gendlin,
1978/2007). Both Gendlin (1978/2007) and Finlay (2005, 2006) include the body
in their approaches. Focusing, in the sense of Gendlin (1978/2007), “is based on
the fact that feelings and troubles are not just concepts or ideas: they are bodily”
(p. 146). This transformative process involves deeply focusing into one’s body to
attune to a felt sense as a means to “receive the body’s answers” (Wagner, 2006,
p. 48). The metamorphosis requires tender care, as misty impressions and
intuitions unfold into new meaning; it can be compared to the freeing insight of
the creative process (Ferguson, 1980/2007, p. xviii). Finlay (2005) explores
“reflexive embodied empathy” (p. 271), or Participant–Researcher
Intersubjectivity, presenting arguments for the presence of the body in
phenomenological research. Finlay (2006) states that the body is “strangely
absent” (p. 19) from that research, but significantly present in the theories of
Merleau-Ponty and Sartre (as cited in Finlay, 2006, p. 19), who made much ado
about the body as our connection to the world (p. 19). Peter Levine (1997), a
prolific researcher and published author on healing trauma, wrote: “When
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working with the physiology, the first thing to recognize is that the felt sense is
closely related to awareness.…Awareness means experiencing what is present
without trying to change or interpret it” (p. 81). The levels of meaning rendered in
gesticulations are often threatened by the focus on “decontextualized words”
(Finlay, 2006, p. 20) common to many methods. What is at risk in the
phenomenological method is “a primordial experience” (Depraz, 1999, p. 108): a
visceral, embodied adventure (Depraz, 1999).
Transcription and Transcript Verification
In preparation for the data analysis portion of this study, after each
interview was collected, the digital recording in MP3 format was transmitted to a
preauthorized transcriber via a secure Dropbox folder. The transcriber, who had
been apprised of the confidential nature of this study, signed an agreement of
confidentiality (see Appendix G) prior to receiving the first transcript. Each
interview was transcribed and returned to me via a password-protected and
secured email from the transcription company. Upon receiving each transcript, I
verified the data by reading the entire text, searching for any typos or inaudible
words or phrases and making all the corrections I was able to on my own.
Following that process, I placed the interview transcript with a copy of the
MP3 in a Dropbox folder I had set up for each participant. Each participant then
received an email from me with notification of the placement. I included an
invitation to read the transcript for verification and to make adjustments as
deemed appropriate. I explained that the analysis portion of the study would be
based on their verified and edited version of their transcript. Lastly, each
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participant was asked to return the transcript via email or postal mail within a few
weeks. Upon request of two of the participants, I used general postal service and
mailed a hardcopy of the transcript along with a CD of the MP3 and a stamped,
addressed envelope to be used for the return of the transcript. Five participants
chose to review the transcribed data, while four declined to make changes at the
time of the interview (i.e., they felt “complete” with the interview experience).
Research Ethics
Appendices F (Consent Form), H (Confidentiality Statement), and I (Bill
of Rights for Participants in Psychological Research) were in place to address
ethical concerns. Research was conducted according to the ethical principles for
research involving human participants (American Psychological Association,
2010). Participants completed a form indicating their consent to participate in a
digitally recorded interview that was transcribed by a professional transcriber.
They were informed that other professionals would read the interview transcripts
and that excerpts would appear with their names in published form in the final
study (see Appendix F).
I continued to reflect on issues of appropriation and privilege prior to the
interview inquiries and during the process, and maintained transparency with the
interviewees as to what purpose the transcripts represent in this study of their
lived experience and the clinical applications that may be fostered. In bringing
awareness to concerns around exploitation and taking of the essences of the lived
experience from participants, it was critical that I open into self-reflection and
reflexivity and hold the following questions for myself: “What is it that I am
75
wanting from them at this time?” and “Am I feeling a desire or interest in taking
something from them that with careful reflection on my part and theirs would
reveal itself to be not appropriate?”
Each interviewee received a copy of the transcript and will receive a copy
of the study to use as they desire for their needs and wishes. It is my hope that
embedded in this study are potentials for syncreticism and synergy; that for each
of the participants, their experience will prove personally beneficial; and that it
will be a creative and meaningful process.
The ethical model developed by Mauthner and Doucet (1998) contains
underlying foundational principles for participant rights: virtue, ethics of skills,
and based on ethics of care to do no harm and to protect confidentiality (p. 254).
Embedded in voice-centered relational methods (Gilligan et al., 1990; Gilligan et
al., 2003; Mauthner & Doucet, 1998) are these principles intertwined with
empathy that create a safe container necessary for the participants to unearth and
bring forth their unheard and unknown voices into the interview.
Reflexivity, Assumptions, Bracketing, and Epoche
My practice on the path of the researcher over the last few years has been
to engage the process of epoche, which according to Moustakas (1994) means, “to
refrain from judgment, to abstain from or stay away from the everyday, ordinary
way of perceiving things” (p. 33). Husserl (1962, as cited in von Eckartsberg,
1998) describes epoche as the process of setting aside one’s assumptions and
notions about a subject under consideration and then to “bracket” them (write
about them) (p. 5). The process of illuminating my biases prior to entering into an
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intersubjective space was a path to reducing the potential for contaminating the
experiences of the participants with my assumptions and beliefs. It was my goal to
recognize my biases and through that awareness, to prevent them from
influencing my focus with my participants (Creswell, 1998). From this place of
awareness, it was my responsibility to rely “on intuition, imagination, and
universal structures to obtain a picture of the experience” (p. 52). That said, it is
now my intention to share the biases that I bracketed.
I integrated reverie into the process of epoche to support my approach to
this task of bracketing. I recorded the thoughts and images that arose and spent
time engaging in self-inquiry and reflection. I now describe some of my
assumptions and biases. I assumed that the Masterful Drummers who would
participate in my study all have a spiritual practice of some sort. I had often
imagined that each participant engages in rituals and is familiar with the
transcendent journey and initiation process. I have carried this belief as I
deepened my research of the drum as a sacred instrument of ritual throughout
time. I assumed that all of my participants would have a sense of ease in accessing
and articulating their experiences. I imagined them as having very lively
personalities, or conversely, very serious somber presences.
I have had a long professional career as a licensed massage therapist. Over
many years, I developed a deep sensitivity and awareness of embodied feelings,
memories, and trauma. I also developed a curiosity about the disconnection and
dissociation from body and others. I believe that rhythmic drumming is a way
back into one’s body. Drumming has helped me in this way as well as supporting
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a deeper level of listening to others during a drumming gathering. Since my early
childhood, I carried a longing to play the drum. My parents would not allow me to
play the drums because they believed that drumming was something boys and
men did—it was not a feminine instrument. This was a pervasive attitude on Long
Island in the 1960s. I assumed that the women whom I would interview have had
similar obstacles to overcome in order to have been able to play the drums.
Over the past nine years, I have participated in synchronized drumming
gatherings on many occasions, and those experiences have been enriching and
meaningful. I have had casual conversations with drum facilitators over the years.
What people reported in those informal conversations about facilitating drum
circles inspired me to do this study. My intention was to continue to deepen into
this challenging state of awareness and to take what I think I know and set that
aside, and come to the interview with an open heart and a beginner’s mind—an
empty mind. This position assisted me in being present to what the participants
said in the interviews when they know what the intention is, the purpose of the
study, and what it is grounded in. I sensed the containment that epoche fosters and
how this would assist me throughout the interview process, so that what had been
said casually over coffee did not contaminate how I looked at the data.
The process of exploring methodologies appropriate to portray the
experience of the Masterful Drummer who facilitates the drumming gatherings
was extensive and not without my own presumptions and biases. Like the hawk
who drops a feather as she flies because it no longer supports her in flight, I had to
release what I did not need and welcome the challenges that were in the waiting.
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Through the process of listening deeply so that I could find my way to the
appropriate methodologies and methods that would illuminate the experience of
my participants, I developed a deep respect for the feminist research
methodologies, especially because of their support for giving voice to that which
has been suppressed. Although The Listening Guide (2003) by Carol Gilligan and
her associates, Spencer, Weinberg, and Bertsch is not part of the formal method in
this study, their process of listening has been an inspiration for me and those ways
of attuning to others during an interview were with me as I sat with my
participants. These and whatever other changes were needed in the writing along
the way do not diminish me, nor do they diminish the process.
Each of the three methods that I used in the study were chosen because of
the way the steps in them resonate for me and the way I imagined my participants
are in their world of embodied rhythms and music. These choices I made based on
how well I thought and felt each method would support the participants in
bringing out their experiences: I feel that the methods of Focusing (Gendlin,
1978/2007), Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity (Finlay, 2005), and
Transcendent Phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994) helped me and each of the
participants locate senses, feelings, empathy, and insights in our bodies, making
room for creativity to emerge during the interviews, and thus giving voice to their
experiences.
Validity
Two stages of verification were used for the transcripts. I verified each
transcript myself, as described above, and then invited each participant to
79
participate in their own verification process. Creswell (1998) describes member
checking as “taking data [emphasis added], analysis, interpretations, and
conclusions back to the participants so that they can judge the accuracy and
credibility of the account” (p. 203). Interestingly, in Creswell’s second edition
(2007), he includes this same statement (p. 208) and then retracts the suggestion
of sharing “transcripts or the raw data” (p. 209) and instead recommends sharing
only “preliminary analyses consisting of description or themes” (p. 209). In his
concluding paragraph for the section, he focuses on making validity method
choices based on the interest of time and cost to the researcher. For the purpose of
this study, and drawing on the ethics of voice-centered relational approaches
(DeVault & Gross, 2007; Gilligan et al., 1990; Gilligan et al., 2003; Janesick,
2000; Olesen, 2005), sharing the transcripts enriched the results and respected
each participant’s voice and perspective.
Each participant received a Thank You Letter (see Appendix J) along with
their copy of the transcribed interview. The format and content of the Thank You
Letter has been designed by Moustakas (1994, p. 179). Each participant was given
ample time (approximately 10-14 days) to review and check the transcript to
make any changes as well as to delete any statements. This stage of involvement
(Moustakas, 1994) offered the participant the opportunity to include any
experience that had not been included in the initial interview, and upon having
additional time to reflect, to add what they may now realize is important (p. 179).
This opportunity for participants to review the transcript is not an inclusion or
exclusion criterion, and some indeed preferred not to look at their transcript. This
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step was included to support participants who might feel concerned about being
heard and understood, as well as to help address the cross-cultural communication
issues that can arise in a diverse group.
Data Analysis
The focus of this study was directed at creating a bridge between the lived
experience and implicit, embodied ways of knowing that are present amidst
Masterful Drummers and psychologists. It was my intention, in listening to each
of the participants, to usher forth their contrapuntal voices from the depths where
they have been silenced and into the fertile landscape of the research study. From
the lens of Thematic Portrayals (Moustakas, 1994) using one of the key concepts
(intuition) and the process of Transcendental–Phenomenological Reduction, a
descriptive portrayal of each participant was developed. Through this analysis, I
brought to awareness, highlighted, and gathered the vibrant and resonant aspects
of the lived experiences of the participants; it was not my intention to attempt to
analyze the participants themselves.
There were four phases of data analysis, as follows.
In Phase 1 I relied on my ability to listen deeply and set my self aside. On
the first reading of each transcript. I followed Moustakas’s (1994) process of
horizonalizing the data, where every expression and statement relevant or
significant to the experience under investigation in the research topic and question
was regarded as having equal value.
In Phase 2, for the second reading of the transcript, I recorded all the
relevant statements, listing each nonrepetitive and nonoverlapping statement,
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which are known as the Invariant Horizons or meaning units of the experience
(Moustakas, 1994, p. 122). In other words, they stand out and are distinct features
of the experience (p. 128).
In Phase 3, I clustered the Invariant Horizons, or meaning units, into
common themes (Moustakas, 1994). I then selected the participants’ own words
to describe their categories and themes. I re-examined the meaning units, and
removed all statements that were irrelevant, overlapping, or repetitive. This
process of clustering, followed by labeling and reducing, was repeated until I
reached six themes (my target was 7-10 themes, but the process yielded 6).
The fourth and final phase of the data analysis resulted in a composite
structural description (Moustakas, 1994) of how the phenomenon was
experienced. The next chapter presents the results of this data analysis process.
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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
“Drums heal me so many times. That’s why I do it. It’s the place I feel the
most present in my life, no matter what.”
–Afia Walking Tree (interview)
“When enough people move together in a common pulse with a common

purpose, an amazing force takes over-a power that can renew, inspire, teach,
create and heal.”
–Anna Halprin (Planetary Dance, 2014, “Main Event”)
This chapter presents the results of the study. It begins with a description
of participants, followed by a discussion of the challenges of putting words to
lived experiences where words have not been used before. Following that is a
discussion of cultural appropriation, sexism, and racism as formed by the lived
experience of several participants. The chapter closes with the six textural themes
that emerged from the participant interviews. The themes are interwoven,
because—as the participants express eloquently—rhythm is pervasive,
omnipresent, and boundless. In each theme section, quotations from the
participants offer a taste of their phenomenological experience, building through
the themes so that the essence of the experience becomes tangible in various
forms for the reader.
Description of Research Participants
As shown in Tables 1 through 3, participants included nine adults from
multicultural and multiethnic backgrounds. There were four females between the
ages of 46 and 68, and five males between the ages of 53 and 68. At the time of
the interviews, the majority of the participants (n = 8) resided in Northern
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Table 1:
Participant Demographic Information (N = 9)
Role with Drum Gathering

Name Gender Age Ethnic Origin Self-Identified Named by Others
Kokomon M 64 African: Ghanaian Master Drummer, Master Drummer, Facilitator
Mindful Drumming Facilitator Drumming Facilitator, Teacher,
Healer and Sacred Drummer
Barbara F 68 European: Eastern and Russia Teacher, Facilitator, Drummer Drummer, Educator, Performer
Afia F 46 African, Jamaican Drum Amazon, Facilitator, Channel, Drum Priestess,
Clear Channel Ritual Performer, Facilitator
84
Billy M 63 Ethiopian, Seminole, Drummer, Teacher, Facilitator Drummer, Teacher
Blackfoot
Glen M 62 Hispanic Frame Drummer, Teacher, Guide Frame Drummer
a
April F 58 Native/American Indian: Drum Keeper and Singer at a Director, Sponsor, Drum Keeper
ani yv wi’ ya women’s drum group [Thoz Womenz]
Carolyn F 67 Black American, European, Cultural Worker, Drummer Maestra Drummer, Master Drummer
Native American/Cherokee
Sahar M 53 Caucasian Teacher, Leader, Facilitator “They see me through their own eyes”
Arthur M 67 Caucasian Drumming Facilitator = Teacher, Facilitator
Rhythmical Evangelist
Note. Author’s table. Participants are listed in the chronological order of the interviews.
a
As stated by April, “It is not culturally practiced to assume a title or lead role, though it is held.”
Table 2:
Participants’ Experience and Training with Drum (as of December 31, 2013)
Age
considered Years
Age Years self a Age first experience
Name Age began experience drummer facilitated as facilitator
Kokomon 64 8 55 20 45 19
1
Barbara 68 0 58 12, 55, 60 40s 28
Afia 46 22 23 22 23 23
2 3
Billy 63 4-5 48 N/A 30 33
Glen 62 6 56 8 35 27
4
April 58 36 20+ 45 43 15
Carolyn 67 22 45 22 26 41
Sahar 53 19 34 19 27 26
5-
5
Arthur 67 7 60+ 6 18 49
Note. Author’s table. Participants are listed in chronological order that the interviews
were given.
1
Barbara entered “12” in biodemographic questionnaire; however, after reflecting on this
during her interview, she stated, “I felt this more deeply at 55 and 60 years of age.”
2
In Billy’s words, this number reflects his “professional on stage experience.”
3
Billy wrote, “I am an instrument through which sound flows. I’m but a humble channel
of life itself.”
4
In April’s words, “20-plus years, singing with a drum.”
5
In Arthur’s words, “My mom said that I was drumming in her third trimester. So, I
didn’t make a choice. It wasn’t about the drum anyway. And it still isn’t about the drum,
even though it seems that way. And the drum is the tool. But to me, it was about rhythms.
And…it didn’t matter.”
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Table 3:
Participants’ Formal Training and Informal Learning as Drummer
Name Formal training as drummer Informal learning as drummer
Kokomon Between 1958-65, studied with (Kofi Ghanaba), a Master Self-study (40+ years) of rhythm and wind, vibration,
Drummer in Kokomon’s tribe in Ghana, West Africa. listening, “A Course In Miracles,” and….
Barbara Private lessons (16+ years, during ages 10-35), elementary “All of life is about rhythm. I learned from other
school orchestra, junior high band and dance band, high drummers. All the world is a drum. I played on pots and
school concert band, marching band, stage band (jazz), pans, glasses. I listened to faucets dripping, the crackling
college concert band, and jazz band. of heaters…to nature and cities. All can be music.”
Afia Too extensive to list in detail. Studied with various Playing the drum: alone with music 2-3 hours/week, on
86
masters for total of 7.5+ years. the beach 2-3 hours/day for 3+ years; at drum circles for
countless hours; and channeling (from oracle) rhythms and
songs.
Billy Training with Master Drummer, Master Percussionist, and “I am basically a self-taught musician with untold hours of
at a formal school of music. self-study, practice, and experimentation in the
applications of sound and vibration.”
Glen Formal training from 6–30 years of age. “Listening.”
April Too extensive to list in detail. Trained with established “Every session is informal learning with our group.”
Native Elder and peers, mentored 2 years before coming to
drum. Elder supervision of mother drum for 1 year. Hand
drum ceremony with elder in 1992.
Name Formal training as drummer Informal learning as drummer
Carolyn Too extensive to list in detail. Studied Cuban drumming “My drumming is a way of life, a philosophy and
with Master Drummers (18+ years). spirituality.”
Sahar Studied Tabla drum: 4 years with classes twice weekly. “For 23 years following my formal instruction, I have
Study of conga: “on and off, over an 8 year period.” continued my practice and the development of my craft.”
Arthur Extensive training (30+ years) with 20+ Master “World training with Master Drummers = all my life.”
Drummers. Too extensive to list in detail.
Note. Author’s table. Participants are listed in the order they were interviewed.
87
California, and the other in New Jersey. All participants requested and consented
for their real and full names to be used in the study. All participants met criteria
for being Masterful Drummers with substantial formal and informal drumming
experience. As participants’ academic experience and credentials were largely (if
not entirely) irrelevant to the topic of this study, the results of the Biodemographic
Questionnaire on this topic are relegated to Appendix K.
Kokomon Clottey is a 64-year-old married man from Africa whose
ethnicity is rooted in the Ga tribe of Ghana. Kokomon works full-time as the
Executive Director of the Attitudinal Healing Connection of Oakland, and as a
Facilitator of ongoing monthly Mindful Drumming Meditation Gatherings.
Kokomon has been drumming for 55 years and facilitating Mindful Drumming
gatherings for 19 years.
Barbara Borden is a 68-year-old partnered woman with a multiethnic
background she has identified as Eastern European and Russian. She makes her
livelihood as a self-employed full-time drummer and educator. Barbara has been
playing the drum for 58 years and facilitating drumming gatherings for 28 years.
Afia Walking Tree is a 46-year-old partnered woman who identifies her
ethnic background as African and Jamaican. Creating her livelihood as a full-time
percussionist and educator, Afia is a permaculture gardener and landscape
designer as well. She has been playing the drums for 24 years and has been
leading drumming gatherings for 23 years.
Billy Cauley, Jr. is a 63-year-old divorced man with multiethnic roots. He
identifies as Ethiopian, Seminole, and Blackfoot. Billy makes his livelihood as a
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self-employed, part-time expressive arts therapist. He has been playing the drums
for 50 years and has led various forms of drumming gatherings for 33 years.
Glen Velez is a 62-year-old married man who identifies as Hispanic.
Glen’s livelihood is as a self-employed, full-time musician and teacher. He has
been playing the drums for 56 years and has been facilitating drumming
April Lea Go Forth is a 58-year-old woman who identifies her ethnicity as
Native American Indian (ani yv wi’ ya) of the United Cherokee Ani-Yun-Wiya
Nation. April makes her livelihood as a part-time Executive Director of RISE,
which is an educational 501(c)(3) for Native students. In April’s words, she “has
been singing with a drum” for more than 20 years and “leading drumming
gatherings” for 17 years. (She emphasized that she “sings at the drum” and that
the “songs are the prayers.”)
Carolyn Brandy is a 67-year-old single woman with a multiethnic
background she identifies as Black American, Native American from the
Cherokee Nation, and European. She creates her livelihood as a self-employed,
full-time musician and teacher. Carolyn has been playing the drum for 45 years
and facilitating drumming gatherings for 41 years.
Sahar Pinkham is a 53-year-old married man who identifies as Caucasian.
Self-employed, Sahar generates his livelihood as a full-time counselor and
musician. He has been playing the drums for 34 years and facilitating drumming
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Arthur Hull is a 67-year-old partnered man who identifies as Caucasian.
He makes his livelihood as a self-employed, full-time “Head Elf” of Village
Music CirclesTM (VMC). Arthur has been playing drums for 61 years, and shared
that he has been involved in rhythm since his mother’s third trimester of her
pregnancy with him, and has been facilitating drumming gatherings for 49 years.
Challenge in Giving Language to the Experience
One of the issues around giving language to their experiences arises from
participant concern that their drumming practice will be misunderstood because
other types of group drumming, such as “thunder drumming,” “trance
drumming,” and “drum circles” are more widely known. Seven of the nine
participants (Kokomon, Barbara, Afia, Glen, April, Carolyn, Arthur)
spontaneously talked about how their work is not one of those. For example, April
clarified the difference between “altered state” (when one is in control) and “a
sense of oneness in a trance state” (when one is out of control):
If you were in an altered state that took you away from the positive or the
ability to interact with a need beside you or a child coming in and smiling
at them to make them feel well…anything that would be altered that
would not allow you to continue in your service role would not be positive
to me….I wouldn’t say “trance” because of that connotation that comes
with it. So that’s not a terminology I would use.
Seven of the nine Masterful Drummers wanted to emphasize that their
synchronized drumming gatherings were different because they began from and
focused on connection (Kokomon, Barbara, Afia, Billy, Arthur) and intimacy
(Glen, Carolyn).
Four participants also spoke about the challenge in giving language to
their phenomenological experience (Kokomon, Billy, April, Arthur). Regarding
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his difficulty speaking about his embodied experience of facilitating, Kokomon
said:
It’s really not easy. It is not easy because we are dealing with different
levels of awareness and different levels of experience, and especially it’s
not easy because in the West, especially in the U.S., there is this notion
that everybody should carry themselves by their own bootstraps. So…the
function of synchronized drumming in a communal way—it’s a foreign
idea. It’s a foreign concept that somebody come to the drumming and all
their professional, including personal life, they have been taught and told
to pull themselves by their own bootstraps. Now they come to this thing
called mindful drumming and you are talking about synchronized
drumming whereby to synchronize their own being with everybody else.
That is very revolutionary for a lot of people. So that is what makes it
difficult….
It is difficult sometimes to communicate this to our group for a lot of
reasons. Because…it’s not an intellectual theory or…there are not a lot of
people who have really experienced [trance]…there have been a lot of
times people say…and also I discover...that sometimes [regarding] the
concept of trance, people become afraid. Some people have asked me,
suppose they go into trance and they never come back? [Laughter]…
Sometimes it [my experience] is unspeakable. It’s unspeakable for a
couple of reasons. [Kokomon speaks to alternative states as a reason for
challenges in using language to describe his experience]…that is also why
it took me 20…30 years to talk about this. It is very difficult to explain
these things with the type of language that we have.
Arthur offered a metaphorical image to describe the challenges of bringing words
to some of his experiences:
You can’t really describe the ghost, okay…using words to try to describe a
ghost is like throwing flour. So you get the shape of what it is. You don’t
get to see it, but the flour is on top of the surface of it. So you get the
shape. You get that sense. That’s one aspect of it. Throwing flour on a
ghost is everything that I’ve been saying to you. Okay. Cause I can’t say
what is it.
I asked Billy about an experience of transformation he was speaking
about, and how he understood that experience in connection with the drum. In
addressing challenges in bringing an experience he wanted to share into spoken
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language, Billy shared about a “sense of intuition” and that the drum “becomes an
actual, physical expression.” He followed this by saying:
It’s a sense of what’s taking place, for me. I keep going back to this
word—intuition. I guess that’s the only word I can explain it as. Yet I’ve
heard that in other cultures [they may]…have specific words for certain
experiences that don’t translate into English. They have described what
that is. It’s a calling of something high. It’s an opening to something
bigger than the little human self. It’s the removal of my own specific
intention, the need to be seen, the need to be known, even the need to be
heard. And feeling out what wants to take place in this instant of life. And
to me that’s very intuitive. It almost has no words.…
Music has always been a spiritual experience for me. So in the course
of, even your interview, it’s been interesting for me to try to explain that
connection when spirit in itself defies explanation. I think that’s why my
life was drawn to playing music and playing the drums. It has always been
an expression of something so authentic in me that has no words, that
comes from a vibratory sense of feeling, emotion, visualization,
attunement, exploration, and love, for the lack of a better word.
Challenges in language also were rooted in cultural differences. In
response to a question about ritual, April said:
I didn’t think for a moment that you had any intent of offending…I felt
that it was more a lack of meaning of the term ritual at a cultural level.
But ritual is something that you do as a routine, as almost a demand, an
expectation, that you go through in a way that’s fairly confined and there’s
an expectation to it. So with a goal or an outcome, a ritual…so you can
make a ritual of almost anything. You can make a ritual brushing your
teeth, a ritual of going to Church, a ritual of shooting up…
When asked to elucidate, April shared that there may be a form of entering into
initiation and transformation that does not apply to the meaning of ritual in her
culture:
I’m just saying…ritual with the drum is not something that I would accept.
A ceremony is at a spiritual level that is beyond the need of the person and
it involves a community.
It calls upon things outside of ourselves and is not held or conformed
by what someone’s rules are or a protocol or demands or expectations. So
I don’t accept a ritual with the drum, in the same way that I move away
from religion, which I’m…there’s value and need for religion but it, in my
mind, is…human being’s way of bringing God down to our level and
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setting up rules that set us apart from others so that we may perceive
ourselves as being better. And our spirituality is in tune with our God,
Creator, and accepts all things because each one is equal in value and
meaning for that person, as opposed to a religion where it’s “my way
because it’s the best way.” So that’s what I was trying to convey in a little
space. [Laughter]
Language is powerful. If we don’t select our words carefully, we really
are not communicating well. And yet, just as you point out, if we don’t
communicate, we don’t learn how it’s different for someone else. Because
left always means left whether it’s this left [shows left hand] or out back
because we moved on. But we have to know which left you’re speaking
about. So the words are very meaningful and if you select them carefully,
then you’re better able to communicate. And then when the problems
come up where we didn’t communicate well, it’s not about if we select our
words carefully. It’s not about disagreeing. It’s about understanding and
the communication. So I try to think carefully of what I’m going to say
because I don’t want it to be miscommunication. I want it to be a deeper
understanding.
Cultural Appropriation, Sexism, and Racism
This multicultural group spoke eloquently about their experiences of
cultural appropriation, sexism, and racism. As these experiences were intertwined
with their lives as Masterful Drummers, and wove throughout the interviews, they
are honored with a separate section here.
Cultural Appropriation
April shared about her experience of cultural appropriation, and how
outsiders misinterpret the role of Native drummers:
As you get closer to Native Drum. I don’t know how….I think that
drummers and bands play the drums. I think I hear them say that. But you
don’t often hear Native Drums played. You hear them sung. So even most
singers will not refer to themselves as drummers. You are singers. “I
wanna be a drummer.” Well, go find a snare, honey. We are singers
because you don’t just drum at the drum. You must open your mouth and
let those prayers come. It’s a cycle. It’s a water cycle. And you have to let
those prayers flow. So if you’re drumming, you’re singing, and your role
is a singer. That drum’s medicine is there with or without you.
Arthur shared his experience of rhythm and cultural appropriation:
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We’re actually rebuilding rhythmaculture. In some cultures that had
rhythmaculture but now only using the rhythmaculture for entertainment
for the tourists. And it’s now modern day society and they’ve lost that
connection with their own rhythmaculture.
We are reinventing it. We are using, with deepest respect, the cultures
from Africa and Malaysia…Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Russia, and even
European cultures, where the Inquisition wiped out most of the culturally
specific rhythmacultures in that land. It’s still regenerating. And it’s going
to be different. It’s not going to be the same. It’s not going to be African.
It’s not going to be Indonesian. And, but we’ve got all of that. America is
the mixing bowl. And we’ve got all of that here and you’re looking at the
relationship. You’re watching it happen here in the United States. And it’s
starting to actually appear.
Sexism
All four women in the study (Barbara, Afia, April, Carolyn) had
something to say about sexism and the drum, and its impact in their lives. For
example, Carolyn’s group has drumming participants from all over the United
States:
And I brought a lot of people out from the East Coast…almost every
single woman says, you know, that they were vilified and told they
couldn’t, shouldn’t play. And we’re…ignored or….When things happen to
them, you know, they’re not supposed to play. In every culture. I don’t
know why that, how that happened or why that started…
Carolyn shared about awareness of sexism around the drum, which she first was
exposed to when she first connected with her Cuban teacher, who introduced the
sacred drum, Bata, to the Unites States. She said:
People were telling him not to teach me. It was kind of like a taboo kind of
thing…I started getting that message pretty early on but, I just, I kept
playing anyway.…[The Bata] is a religious drum that originally came
from Nigeria, from the Yoruba people. Women were forbidden to play or
touch or be in the same room with it if we had our period or anything.
Carolyn shared about the drum and historical sexism and racism in the United
States:
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The drum is a very big instrument…I think, too, that’s why [the United
States] doesn’t want women, they don’t want Black Africans to have it
here in this country. They took the drum away. They don’t want women to
have it, you know.
She also spoke on a more global level about how women are relegated to play a
“social drum”:
Every single culture on the planet has drums. As far as I can tell almost
every culture has outlawed that to women. There’s a power around it that
somehow women have been separated from each other, even, because of
it….No women in the world play the Fundamento [ritual or ceremonial
drum]. We play Avelincula. We play the social drum.
Carolyn founded a women’s drum camp, Born to Drum, to empower
women in gathering as community and women drummers empowered because of
the drum:
And mostly I did it because…all these women, there’s so many

women…There’s women like me, you know, they’ve been playing 40, 50
years and alas, you know [famous drummers are mostly male].…There’s a
lot of really great drummers out here, who are really great, who…nobody
knows about that are women….
I originally [founded the drum camp] because I know a lot of these
women who drum…I love them. We have a community and so, I wanted
us to be able to get together….And that’s why I started Born To Drum.
Born To Drum—you know what I mean? Because we’ve been ignored.
And some of these women are incredible. I mean, unbelievable drummers.
Unbelievable. Just amazing, you know. And they’re from every culture—
Native Americans, Japan…. All the women we’ve had—Congo, Lis, from
Ghana, from Zimbabwe, from Venezuela, from all over the world. Japan.
So there’s a story there…But folks aren’t too interested.
The evening before our interview, Carolyn had attended a performance by
a Rwandan women’s drumming group that was on tour promoting a documentary
made about their story: Sweet Dreams (R. Fruchtman & L. Fruchtman, 2012) .
She had come with t-shirts from her Born to Drum group and hoped to speak to
and connect with the Rwandan women. When she spoke during the question
period, the male host brushed her off and told her to give the shirts afterward, but
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afterward, the women were sequestered in a room behind the group of Westerners
who had sponsored the movie, and did not talk to anyone from the audience.
Carolyn felt this incident was reflective of a bias against women drummers and
women of color:
Yeah, it was really strange last night. They certainly were not interested in
having anyone connect to those women….I felt really embarrassed
afterwards. But, even when I went back today to try to connect with them,
they didn’t want to let me in. It wasn’t them, the women—it was the
people around the women. Why? Why? I don’t understand it….So I think
it just was an opportunity missed. That’s all. It’s also indicative of kind of
the lack of esteem that we’ve gotten and respect. We’ve been mostly
ignored.
April shared that it was her father who encouraged her to break the
tradition and become a woman who would carry a drum (a “keeper of the drum”).
She said,
So my father’s the one who gifted [me] the drum and there was quite a bit
of gender discontent with women carrying drums when I did start. And he
said, “You didn’t listen to them then [referring to April’s other independent
life choices]. Why are you going to listen to them now?” [Laughter]
Arthur shared about sexism and labels:
The kind of things that we do to our children to make us grow up and also
suppress that natural rhythmical spirit that comes out in song, in
movement, okay, and expression…. It’s the natural spirit that lives within
all of us. It just comes from being who we are, fresh Buddhists into the
world, but where we see life without labels…..
Then we put on labels and we put on socialization and we put on, “I’m
sorry, girls aren’t allowed to do that. You’re supposed to be seen not
heard.”…In my case being Mormon in Utah, “No—put down that needle.
You don’t darn socks with your sisters and you don’t wash the dishes. You
go out and mow the lawn,” you know. Sexism, racism, ageism, all those
other kinds were taught. Nobody teaches people how to hate, how to be
prejudiced against other people and colors. Nobody. Nobody just
automatically does that. Everyone learns it…And we also unlearn the free
expression of spirit.
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Racism
I asked each of the participants if there was anything they would like to
add to the interview that I had not asked. Afia shared about her personal
experience of having been eclipsed by racism and sexism because she is an
African woman who carries a drum. She said,
I’m a woman of African descent so my experience is that we get looked at

in a particular way, being imaged as another thing. Part of being the
channel also has to do with my African-ness. If I was a white woman
doing the same thing, it would have a different effect on everybody.…
Race is a funny thing in this culture. This is international. I’ve been all
over the world. It’s not just America, it’s everywhere.
There’s a lot of racism involved with drumming that’s almost not
acknowledged. There is this way that people have assumed over the past,
“African people—they’re good at a few things….be[ing] embodied…they
know how to do that. They can dance, they can sing, they can drum—but
let’s not listen to anything they have to say because that’s not really that
important.”
It’s probably the reason I haven’t written my book yet. I mean the
book’s written, but it’s probably the reason I haven’t put it out there yet—
is because, “Oh yeah. Black people they….” It’s an internalized racism.
Afia spoke eloquently about her feeling of connection to the prehistoric
African mothers of the human race. She spoke to the dreams, their imagination,
their wondering about other mothers around the world. Afia expressed her sadness
around the lack of reverence for the wisdom traditions that she carries, because in
her words, “Where we are at [today] is really a dream of those African mommas.”
Afia described how frequently people who come to her have profound
experiences, and unfortunately there is a “disconnect” from one event to the
next—a separation. The participants appear to forget what they experienced in the
previous gathering. She shared about how the work she does with others is
“sacred medicine” but somehow it is not viewed as such:
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That’s what racism does—it creates amnesia. It sort of creates a
separation….It’s complex. So when I’m talking about racism, I’m not just
talking…today’s subtle stuff. I’m talking about what’s underneath…
The drum is changing that…I know it is because that was what they
told me. Spirits, the “they.” The ancestors, the “they.” The galaxy.
Carolyn shared about racism and suppression of African wisdom
teachings:
There’s a lot of racism in this country, you know. They don’t let us really
know about other cultures, like the profundities [wisdom and cultural
teachings]. And so this is one area, anything that has to do with African
Americans or Africans. They don’t want us to know their [African]
technology. They have tremendous technologies—and the drum is one of
them.
Kokomon shared that he developed the practice of mindful drumming to
address challenges of issues around gender and race. For him, the shared
drumming experience has no gender and no race:
At the Attitudinal Healing Connection 24 years ago we were offering

workshops because Aeeshah [Kokomon’s wife] and I truly believed that
the concept of race, which is a social construction, is a deep spiritual
misunderstanding. We started offering workshops that we think maybe we
have some story or something to share with people so at least everybody
can begin to think about it that this really doesn’t make sense.
And not all the time, but sometimes when we do our work people
come and say, “Hey, your people kill our people and they brought our
people and enslaved us.” Oh my gosh!
So Aeeshah—one night she was so frustrated, she said, “We need a
technology that can bring people together to create community so we can
move beyond this blame and shame.” And I told her, “I know about a
technology.” She asked, “What is it?” I said, “mindful drumming.” She
said, “What is it?” I said, “synchronized rhythms.” Where people come
together in synchronized rhythms, that [moving beyond blame and shame]
is what happens.
Textural Themes
The interview analysis yielded 26 units of meaning that were aggregated
into 6 final themes. I considered naming the themes out of the participants’
language, but found that the language varied as it is a multicultural study. So, I
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chose to name the themes using psychological and academic terms such as
“embodied,” “empathic presence,” and “entrainment.” The themes have been
ordered from the specific, grounded in the body, toward the broader or more
conceptual (e.g., the container). This was the order offered by the participants
themselves—for these Masterful Drummers, the experiences began in the body
and unfolded into a group experience. The six final themes are as follows:
• Sensory Awareness—Bodily Receptivity
• Space Between the Beats—Portal to the Numinous
• Embodied Empathy—Empathic Presence
• Entrainment as an Alternative State
• Being a Masterful Drummer
• Containing the Experience for Everyone—Temenos
Sensory Awareness–Bodily Receptivity
All participants touched on many aspects of their bodily felt sense of
masterful drumming. Kokomon’s experience of heart, brain, and mind reflects
how these different aspects are interconnected:
When that rest happens, something happens to the entire body…All of a

sudden the heart begins to beat much slower than before. Why is that?
Because there’s a correlation between the mind and the brain in a way
that, when our senses are sending messages to the brain, and the brain is
recording it at set pace with some of it sending “That’s fear…this is fear
oh more fear ooh more more fear. Oh!” That message is going to the heart
and the heart is troubled. So the heart is beating and beating. When the
mind is not sending this message, it’s not just to the heart but to the rest of
the body…that there is nothing going on. Literally when the mind comes
to that rest, there is nothing going on. Immediately, everybody also goes to
a rest mode. That’s when healing occurs….
When the mind come to a rest and the heart come to a rest our nervous
system also come to a rest. The flow of blood…everything begins to move
at a restful pace. Healing has happened.
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Results for this theme are organized under three subthemes: Body Metaphor,
Hands, and Hearing.
Body Metaphor.
All of the participants used metaphor to describe a bodily experience, that
is, a somatic experience. The alternative state of awareness opened through
synchronized drumming also lends itself to experiences of embodied empathy,
collective consciousness, and community For example, Kokomon said:
Something happens, it’s a sensuous feeling….Sensuous feeling meaning,

it’s very delicious like chocolate [laughter]. And sometimes as humans
this is something I hear the ancient people say, the sweetness of the
pudding is in the eating. In other words, you can’t explain to somebody
who has no idea what ice cream tastes like. “Oh, it’s so delicious.” What
does that mean? It’s really meaningless until—oh my God—something is
happening. And the thing is that when people are having that sensuous
experience, it’s a feeling. It’s not a cognitive rationale that, “Oh, I am
thinking I am enjoying this.” No. It tastes delicious. You don’t care what
anybody says….
Kokomon shared specifically about his bodily experience of synchronicity and
how it affects his sensory experience:
It’s a place of joining….When we are drumming together in a mindful

drumming session…and everyone drumming is able to synchronize what
they are doing, we come to one rhythmic pulse and that rhythmic pulse
opens up a portal…within me. I feel a door open.
So many things happen when we come to that place….There is some
sense of my portals truly truly opening….There is some sense of clarity
for me of opening of my portals—and when I say portals, I am talking
about my senses.…I see things that maybe somebody may not see or that
are unique to me. “Oh wow, this is very interesting!” or “Oh, a whole
different smell!”…or “I smell that I have a visitor.” When I say visitor, I
mean an angel or… some spirit is visiting me. I could smell their essence,
and so forth.
And then sometimes by the end I feel this sense of my belly full of
rhythm. Literally. I’m feeling in my belly. I have just blown up [full]. I’m
feeling it, and…it feels like pressure but not uncomfortable pressure. I’m
feeling like I just ate a bowl of soup of rhythm [laughter]. And what
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happened is that I feel very grounded. Power sometimes is described in so
many different ways…in this case I feel grounded, I feel very powerful.
Arthur shared his bodily metaphor for being in the group for a transition:
We just listen to each other, like a flock of seagulls who are losing air and
needing a new …. Oh! There it is. And they find the new direction of air
and away we go again! And the whole flock just goes, “Whooooaaaa!”
We dip down and we dip back up. And we….Ah, away we go. Those
transition points are the magic in the music.
Similarly, Glen shared about the “feeling of riding a wave”:
There is a feeling of wave that you’re starting to ride on. That connection
with that wave means that you have to do less and less. You’re going past
the process of dealing with all of this conflicting energy and you’re using
your skills at maneuvering so that everyone comes to the same place with
the pulse and then we start to ride this wave together. That’s what it is all
about because riding those waves is what happens when you’re playing
with another musician and you really connect and then you’re doing less
and less. And more and more happens, but you’re doing less and less. It’s
not only with group, but with other musicians. Anytime you’re playing
music or anytime you’re getting involved with pulse, that’s this feeling of
wave.
Afia described her feeling of spaciousness:
Yeah, it’s a field of love that I’m putting out there, that I feel inside
myself. It’s this sense of faith or hope or something that’s beyond me that
comes through me in that moment because sometimes, right before, I’m
not feeling that great either. But it doesn’t matter. My personal emotions
don’t really matter in those moments, between a millisecond. It just…it
doesn’t shut off. It becomes the transformation.…
It’s like my body goes on this wave, where it’s like, “Oh! You’re
down right now. Well let’s use this energy to bring us into balance.”
Spacious. I feel spacious. I feel like I’m a spaceship, you know. My drum
activates and…I become an instrument for her to do the work. I’m just
here. And so whatever is to be said, spoken, done…I become that. It’s like
we become this one entity. And I feel like a drum. I feel that
way…physically.
Barbara shared embodied experiences of feeling, connecting her
experience of drumming as “regenerative”:
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I feel all of that [a feeling, a listening connection in the room, with the
other drummers]. That’s what’s so beautiful for me, and fulfilling. And it
actually does fill me up. It’s food for my soul to feel all of that.
I feel like my highest and most expanded being-ness in this world, on
this plane as a spirit as well as a human being, is fulfilled when I can be in
that situation where everybody is opened up to the experience—whether
it’s an audience receiving the drumming, or drummers that you’re
drumming with that are just totally open and you see them keep opening
and opening and we all keep opening together.
Kokomon and Carolyn discussed their bodily felt sense of joy. Carolyn
said, “Oh, it just gives me joy, ecstasy. Ecstasy. The loss of self, ego to the whole,
you know. I think we’re all wanting that.” Kokomon described:
Right in the center of my heart…I feel my heart wanting to just burst!

Burst with joy. Burst with the sense of trust and happiness that is
connected with everyone that is drumming because we have come to that
place I sometimes call equilibrium. I call it equilibrium because it is the
joining of my entire being beginning from my heart…emanating all over
in my entire being….When I feel I have such feeling also what happen
then is that my cognitive faculties come to a place of rest…
simultaneously as my heart is opened and filled with this joy…I
experience deep peace, immense joy. I fall in love with all the people that
come to drum.
The ancients want to teach us that our function in this life is joy. It’s
happiness. Which is very very interesting.…That’s the first thing that
happens when we put our hands on the drum even if we don’t drum. We
start to play with it. Our hearts immediately open up. What happens then
is the drumming opens that possibility.…The door of experiencing our
true function, which is peace and happiness. We cannot be happy when we
are sad. We are either sad or we are happy…we are happy.
Hands.
All of the participants spoke about their bodily experience in their hands.
Kokomon described how he experiences the forces of wind and rhythm in his
hands while going through transformational experiences as facilitator:
There are two forces that all of this is based on. The first is rhythm, the
force of rhythm. And I say force for scientific reason….Rhythm is a force,
and it comes in different colors and shapes….The second force is
wind….These two forces sometimes function independently…But
sometimes they function together….
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I share with people that sometimes it is not even necessary for people
to even touch the drum. As long as our hands are synchronized then what
happens is that [Kokomon and I move our hands together in synchronized
patterns over the drum]. Do you feel the wind? Do you feel the wind?
You activate these two forces by synchronizing everybody’s hands,
pushing the wind and feeling the wind….When I am facilitating mindful
drumming, I am sensing, feeling these two forces. One is my hand in the
rhythm, and two is feeling the wind that I am also activating.…I’m
looking and sensing and observing everybody’s hands and we are all
doing the same thing…. What happens is that after there minutes, we all
enter into that space of equilibrium. [See Entrainment as an Alternative
State for more of Kokomon’s words on this topic.]
Afia shared how she experiences healing in her hands:
Light. Like a feather. I don’t feel. I’m not efforting. Nowadays I am

having problems with my hands. They hurt a lot from pruning [Afia’s
permaculture work]….I pick up the drum and I start drumming. My hands
start to warm up. My thing starts to click in and that feeling, that numb
feeling that comes in the mornings from the repetitive thing is gone. It’s
like a sure thing. It’s like a sure thing. Drums heal me so many times.
Sahar shared about his hands when in a place of stillness:
When I’m in unity with the group, when I’m in stillness, my hands never
hurt. My hands never hurt. It’s uhm…. And I’m just reflecting on the truth
of that. It feels to me as though when there is that unity, the playing,
everything happening on a kind of effortless level. And in the
effortlessness is a great relaxation of my hands. And no self-importance,
no self-awareness of, “What am I doing? Can I do it differently? I want to
be heard. I’m not loud enough.” Huh! None of that’s there. And there’s
energy in that when I free that energy up to be—whoo!—no self-
awareness but in that stillness with others…oh!
For Barbara, relaxation and knowing one’s drum well, “knowing the sweet
spots of your drum,” are key for caring for her hands. She teaches about
“economy of motion” which enables the hands “to be as easily movable, as close
to the drum and ready to do whatever they need to do.” Barbara has several
reasons for positioning her hands close to the drum: “I find when I stay lower, I
can get around a lot faster…every once in a while, I’ll feel them doing something
and…it tickles me, you know.…I’m not thinking of my hands at all when I play.”
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She also spoke about how her hands transmit energy and the importance of inner
reflection as she plays:
I feel the drum head, I feel the drum and I like to, even when I am playing
the drum hard, I like to continue to feel that I’m caressing the drum rather
than hitting the drum or beating the drum or striking the drum. Thich Nhat
Hanh has a beautiful thing. He says, “I don’t strike the bell. I invite the
sound from the bell.” And that’s how I like to play—I like to invite the
sound from my drum….
2
As was shown in the film, Keeper of the Beat, I went to the former
Yugoslavia during the Bosnian war and this recording of my drumming
scared the people that were listening to it there because it sounded like
bombs and rockets to them…And so I examined…my hand drumming at
that time, everything I was doing. Because I realized that probably I had
this violence or some kind of energy that was not inviting the sound but
that was willing something to happen, rather than allowing the sound to
come through.…It’s a very circular story about hands…the more I relax,
the easier it is and the more flowing and beautiful it sounds.
Carolyn described her experience of her hands moving of themselves,
which is a result of years of training and of learning to not think:
Well over the years, my hands, my hands will play all by themselves.
Because I have something else playing through me….The less that I am
thinking about what I’m playing, the better I play...I just can let my hands
play….And Ekum…an ancestor, plays. It’s not me really playing
anymore. And that’s for the ecstatic…Something else…takes over by way
of a lot of training. And really, it’s kind of like ritual in a way, isn’t it? By
way of having done it this so many times over and over and over and over
and over. The hands….If I went to a drum and my hands could just start
playing.…This is because I’ve trained them, you know…
Her hands are moving on their own to the extent that she can have a conversation
at the same time—this is what allows her healing songs:
There’s a rhythm that we sing with [Drumming Sound]. And I could play
this all day long and talking on a phone still play it. I’m not playing it. It’s
just…the hands are playing it, you know. Somewhere I guess…in my
brain it’s being played, you know. [Singing voice while drumming] “Did
you see jo-jo-go-go-did-you-see-jo-jo.” I could play that all day long and
not make a mistake and have a conversation with you just by….See what
2
This film was a documentary about Barbara Borden (D. L. Brown & Borden,
2012).
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I’m saying? It’s not really the front of the brain that’s actively involved in
doing that. It’s something else that’s doing it….I can’t be thinking about
what my hands are doing when I’m trying to sing.
Glen described how he experiences an intimate connection between his
hands, voice, and the center of his body:
The extremities are related to center of the body. This is the way I’m kind
of formulating this in talking about it. So the extremities are related to
the…extremities meaning the hands related to the middle part of the body.
And the whole idea about drumming in a very generalized sense, I want to
get my lower body involved, so the lower body, the energy from the lower
body I want to get infused into the hands. So how do I do that or how do I
encourage that? Through the voice because the voice is the link up with a
lot of different parts. The voice can do that. So we do the vocalizations so
that we relearn that the hands, which are the extremities, which are the
smaller muscles and they have this capability of going very quick.
Glen had to learn to let his hands follow and be guided by his voice and center:
That is a big, big issue for someone starting to learn about drumming. The
voice can connect up with this and then you start to reorient yourself to
realize, “My hands have to follow these other parts of my body. They have
to follow my voice and follow the stepping”….It’s a retraining because
initially you think, “Oh the hands that’s where the action is.” But it’s
really getting the energy from the lower body and through the voice and
then bring…in having the hands be retrained to follow…It’s not leading,
they’re following because I’m doing the inner vocalizations and I’m
connecting up with that and connecting up with the stuff that’s going on in
my body.…That I find is the most effective way for them to be. It’s like
they’re children that need to be guided.
Glen noted how repetition and training influences his experiences of his hands:
Totally. Absolutely…because the other part of the whole trip is repetition.

For them to be trained to do what they can do…it’s like the other parts of
your body will ask of them a lot if the training is there. And then when the
training is there from the repetition, then they can actualize a lot of what’s
being asked. But they have to be trained. The training comes from the
repetition and finding, having some kind of guidance about knowing how
do I work on getting this phrase more clear or how do I work on getting
more speed but…speed connecting to the pulse? Then when the different
parts of your self ask the hands to do these things, they’re capable of it.
That’s an ongoing process that I’ve still working on that now as much as I
was when…20 years ago ’cause there’s always more that you
can…potential is always there for more.
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Glen described his embodied experience as “a process of discovery” with varying
emotional and feeling qualities (see Space Between the Beats—Portal to the
Numinous).
Billy shared that his hands contain their own intuitive sense of the rhythm:
If I’m trying to specifically articulate a rhythm then I’m really focused on

what my hands are doing and where I’m hitting the drum. But then
automatically, another process begins to engage where.…I’m not in my
hand…my thoughts are not in my hands. My mind is in the sound. And
my hands are intuitively moving on the drum to where the sound can be
produced that I’m feeling in and sensing. And the…hands are just part of
the journey.
Hearing.
All nine participants talked about hearing on a deeper body level. For
example, Afia shared her embodied experience of listening and hearing:
Listening outside of myself is more what it is….I’m listening…I’m

3
hearing Nana Buruku. I’m hearing Ajuba [her spirit guides]. But I’m not
hearing her like a human telling me things. It’s a sensory hearing of
“Okay, what’s happening now. What needs to happen.” It’s like I’m a
changeling, you know. I activate change through my being. I don’t even
have to touch the drum….But it’s an uncomfortable feeling to be talking
about. That’s in my insides, you know. Not uncomfortable like, “Oh no, I
don’t want to talk about this. Don’t tape this.” But uncomfortable in that
it’s a felt experience. It’s physical. It’s embodied.
For April, listening and hearing is very different in the circle versus her
being outside of the circle and not singing at the drum:
I don’t believe when I sit in the circle that I hear with my ears. I feel it.
When I’m out of the circle, that’s when I hear. So when you step back— I
can hear with my ears. But when I’m in that circle and singing the song, I
feel it. I don’t, I don’t hear it.
3
Afia described her spirit guide Nana Buruku: “Her basic tenant is justice for all
women and children. She carries so much in that. She’s like the childless mother
of everyone. Very fierce—she’s highly revered and feared.”
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And so I tell the singers, “when you’re sitting here everything you do,
we see but it’s magnified for every ten feet back from the drum.” And it
just is. So just moving my leg, ten feet back, everyone focuses that that leg
just moved. And all I did was move my leg.
Carolyn discussed her embodied experience of listening:
To be able to play and listen at the same time is a really big skill. It’s not
so easy when you’re beginning….You know if I’m learning a rhythm, I
can’t always hear what else going on or I’ll throw me off. But that is all
part of…getting out of the past-future thinking mind, and being in the
present, really truly being in the present and being…hearing what’s
happening in the present, you hear that drop of water from the faucet, you
know….Or you hear something. You know you’re listening. You’re active
listening. Active, that’s what I call active listening.
Billy shared about “hearing,” which he describes as somatic and intuitive:
I hear a lot of stuff. Sometimes I can intuitively hear entire songs. I hear
certain instruments playing different lines. I hear different rhythms,
different singing. And sometimes I’ve tried to tune in to that and sing that
simultaneously myself. Many times because I’m playing the drums, I try
to articulate that in a rhythmic drum sense to where I give the voice to the
drum and let the drum speak for me or say what I can’t say.
April talked about her experience of eyes or vision when singing at the
drum:
So when I’m singing I really don’t have control of my eyes…They’re led

by neuro-linguistic programming, if you’re into that, you can read me
really well in that one! So neuro-linguistic programming—where you look
is where the direction in your mind where you’re getting that memory. So
now, next time clearly when I sit at the drum—you’ve plagued me with
this.
Space Between the Beats—Portal to the Numinous
The phrase “space between beats” first entered my awareness during a
frame drumming and sound healing workshop I attended that was taught by Glen
Velez, who was also a participant in this research study. Glen referred to “the
space between the pulse” (or “the space between the beats”) as a place to explore
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as he encouraged us to slow our tempo (personal communication, San Francisco,
November 1, 2008).
When I asked the participants in this study about their experience of the
space between the beats, all of them were animated and connected—even when
the term was new to them. Seven participants communicated a pleasurable
experience of the space between the pulse (Kokomon, Barbara, Afia, Billy, Glen,
Carolyn, Arthur). For example, Afia described her experience of being “between
worlds”:
Mmmm, I LIKE that place between the beats. When you use the word
“between the beats,” I think of being in between worlds, almost, which is a
space that I feel I occupy and I think people occupy when they drum. It’s
an ability to go in between the spaces of our…what I consider really
regimented, Western world.
Afia went on to describe “living between beats”:
In Africa, people live between the beats. They do. Everything is rhythmic.
I feel like that’s…there’s a difference, you know. I mean I’m not saying
we’re not rhythmic [in the West], I’m just…it’s a different rhythm. But
there’s this walking in between the beats and living in between the beats,
that is so sensual. Sensual to me has the word essential in it.
Afia concluded by sharing about the place of creativity, listening, and silence:
I feel like that’s really the most important place to be—is in between the
beats, because that’s where all the creativity and…that’s where the seed
gets watered and grows. That’s where I feel the listening can happen.
Though sometimes that’s also where the silence is.
Billy, like Afia, began describing his experience of the space between the
beats with an expression of pleasure, “Mmmm…,” as well as an acknowledgment
of familiarity:
That space. Silence is a rhythm….I’ve always incorporated silence in my

work in meditation because that’s just as important as the sound. And
sometimes even more profound that when all that group drumming stops,
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that the group can unify also in being absolutely still and quiet. So, for me,
that silence is more important than what’s being played because it’s the
space in between the articulation….What I’m playing has a lot more
intensity because of what I’m not playing.
For Billy, that space between the beats is a place where one connects with
intuition and the soul:
That’s the soul speaking.… that which is absolutely perfect and pure, that
intuitive hit that we get in that moment. It is so important because if we’re
paying attention to that, there’s no need to transition into the next
[beat]….It’s the first [beat], the silence, the first, the silence, the first, the
silence, the first…keeps launching back to that intuitive feeling of where
to articulate it, what feeling needs to be articulated in that.
Billy shared about the impact of keeping that place of silence available:
For me, if the silence is glossed over the ego starts to express. Then it
becomes what I want to do as opposed to what wants to be done, what is
being done, what is really taking place, what’s in the moment. Which is
also, sometimes, the human condition.
Billy concluded by saying that, in bringing his awareness to the space between the
beats, he has an experience of staying in the present and not losing “the ability to
be absolutely, completely in love and saturated with the now.”
Glen described his journey into the space between the beats as feeling like
“a process of discovery” where he is “discovering the way.” He said:
We use the word feeling in drumming a lot…we say, “The groove feels
this way.”…if I am in this area of the pulse, then the feeling that that
has…is characterized by a lot of excitement or a lot of forward motion or a
lot of vibration. Whereas when I’m in this other area, there’s a certain
calmness that happens and all the spaces have different qualities so you
are exploring those qualities.
Glen also talked about the space between the beats as an embodied experience:
I think that the body memory is storing a lot of that stuff and then when
you’re playing [the drum]…you’re revisiting these places and your body
memory is triggered, “Oh yeah, I remember that place.”…It’s not an
intellectual process but it is a body memory process.
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In that space, Glen shared that the emotional states that emerge may vary:
Probably they all have an emotional quality, a feeling quality, a body

quality connection—all the different aspects of who you are. There’s some
connection there in these different zones. In learning about this expansive
quality to the experience of reality, of what you’re experiencing. It’s
like…if you turn it another way, it looks very different even though it’s
the same zone.
Glen shared that he experiences the spaces between the pulse as both new and
different, and yet they may also be felt as familiar, as “a revisiting”:
It could be learning about a nuance of a place you’ve been before. It could

be a new place…all of those things are possible…and they happen a lot.
They’re just part of the experience of drumming. It happens every time.
Glen concluded his experience of the space between the beats:
It’s like a very wide vista. It’s like this thing of when you experience
drumming and you experience the space in between the pulses, you realize
that instead of there being a limit to that, it’s just the opposite. That’s the
paradoxical nature of it. It’s like the inner space keeps getting wider and
wider….You’re delving inside something that you think you’re inside but it
keeps on expanding as you become more and more aware.
Barbara described the space between the beats (using the term pulse) as an
embodied experience, which she draws on through drumming and walking:
Whenever we walk, we’re in the pulse. We don’t walk erratically. The space
and the steps are equal, equidistant. In walking meditation, part of being
present is to be with the foot as it moves from one step to the other so
you’re with the space between when the foot actually hits the ground. That
is a really great way to approach drumming and music—to be with the
space as you make the sound and to be with the sound as you move to the
space.
She also talked about it as breath and digestion:
Ahh…It’s like taking in a breath. It’s like…it’s really…lovely places I feel

into. I’m just trying to find the words to explain it. When that space is
rushed or not given as full space, what happens to the music is it starts
getting faster and faster and more chaotic. That’s how I feel in my life
sometimes if I’m not taking space….It’s one beat after another so that you
can’t appreciate AND DEFINE EACH EXPERIENCE.
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The space allows you to appreciate each sound, each beat that you
play, each note that you play….The space is, gives you the chance to
really digest and appreciate and sit in the sound, or be in the sound.
Barbara emphasized the balance between beats and space:
When you play a lot of notes fast, “brrrrrrrrrrr.” It’s like, “Alright, well,
where’s the space?” Well, there are little tiny spaces in there. But when the
spaces are placed as carefully as the sounds are placed, that’s when really
beautiful music happens. So you can’t neglect either one. You can’t neglect
the sound and you can’t neglect the space.
Carolyn shared about her experience of the space between the beats:
I once wrote a song that said, “You can go back home if you listen to the
space between the drops of rain.” And that’s what that is. The space
between the beats, that’s that silent space. That’s where our spirit is. Spirit
lives there….I always tell my students, “It’s harder to play spaces than it
is to play notes. It’s harder to feel all the spaces than it is playing the
notes.”...
It’s a pregnant space. It’s full. It’s not…it’s like I’m talking about this
space here. It’s not empty. It’s filled with other spirits we can’t see….It’s a
magical thing. It’s much easier to play a note—play, put something in
there—than to have a space. It’s easier to sit with people talking than just
to sit with them in silence. It’s like, the space is full of unspoken…magic.
There’s emotion there….Space…is filled with emotion, you know.
Arthur described his experience of the space between the beats as follows:
When that happens and…we all decide we’re done with this rhythm, and we
let the rhythm just fade…together we fade to silence. And then there’s that
silence. And the silence is as important as the music. And then there’s the
ocean right next to us.…Yeah. And the crackle of the fire. And all of a
sudden, you’re seeing the rhythm of the fire.
Embodied Empathy—Empathic Presence
Barbara described embodied empathic presence using the words “see,”
“hear,” “feel,” and the term “locked in.” For example, she said:
Well, actually I can see it in their bodies and their faces and their eyes. I
can hear it in the drumming. I can feel it when we all land together in the
same place and precisely at the same time on every beat. And it keeps
happening. This just doesn’t happen for two beats, or two measures. It just
keeps happening continuously. So there’s a feeling of being totally locked
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in with each other and totally free at the same time. That is heaven to me.
Freedom [laughter].
So when I feel, when I hear that people are locked in and when I see
the expression of their bodies and their faces and hear it in the music…you
can hear in the music when someone’s happy, ecstatic, elated; and you can
hear in the music when someone is more contracted and thinking about
what they’re doing and worrying about how they look and worrying about
if the other musicians like them, if anybody that’s listening likes them, you
can feel that. You can see and feel if the musicians are tense. You can feel
if they’re relaxed.
Barbara’s empathic experience is about exchange of energy:
I still want to create amongst the musicians and the audience that feeling of
and reach and gather together everybody who is present as I’m drumming.
That is the beauty of music and drumming—when you open up to the music
and to the people you’re playing with, automatically— they all come with
you. So it becomes a very circular exchange energy of and, when the band
is together not only in the music but in your interaction with each other and
your heart and your soul, and you’re really there to help each person in the
band fly, the audience will react the same way, because they’ll feel like
they’re flying. And then when they feel like they’re flying, you feel like
you’re flying higher.
Barbara also talked about how drumming is regenerative:
Regenerate—is the word I like. My batteries all get charged and I try to pass
that experience on to people so they can plug into that as well. There’s
nothing really that does it for me like drumming, as far as the energy that I
feel and enter in to. It can happen when I’m drumming alone, but also the
more people you have drumming, I think the more energized everybody can
be if they’re in that right attitude…It’s really the connection for me that is
rejuvenating…regenerating and rejuvenating. If I’m connected to my center
and my drum, it rejuvenates me, it regenerates me. If I’m connected to the
people that are drumming, we all can get rejuvenated and regenerated. And
the energy just keeps expanding inside each person and the group as a
whole. It’s great.
While exploring Barbara’s experience of circle in relationship, she
described what happens when she opens to the music and the energy—and to all
those she is playing with: “automatically—they all come with you…It becomes a
very circular exchange of energy…when the band is together…and in your
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interaction with each other and [in] your heart and your soul.” For Barbara,
“feeling” is an embodied experience that has an expansive aspect:
My body is not my body anymore. It becomes the body of everybody. It

becomes…a field. There’s a field created. It’s a very strong field and it is a
very strong feeling, and everybody feels it and is in it.
Barbara has an embodied experience of the pulse: “It just lives everywhere
now, even if I’m not moving, I’m moving….everything just feels like it’s moving
so beautifully….My heartbeat…It’s just divine at this point. It’s just like sailing
or flying through space—timeless.”
Afia described her experience of communal oneness and her relationship
to the drum:
That oneness.…The drum is so powerful that it can do that. Where no

matter where we are on the planet, we can come together. That’s pretty
magical. That has nothing to do with me. But it does have to do with my
ability to kind of root myself down and ask people to root themselves
down, too…Into spirit that’s down there, underneath, way down, as far as
the roots can grow, into the earth, anchoring into the rock, finding the
source of water there, because it’s in there. Once we’re anchored, all of us
are anchored there. That’s amazing….The alchemy happens….I trust the
drums, I trust the ancestors and I trust the clear channel inside. That is the
bottom line. That’s it. And I trust…I just trust that that’s…I don’t even
know if I trust me. But I trust that.
I feel like I’m a vessel. Like my body expands whatever it is. 2,000
seats in the auditorium, I am not just sitting in my vessel, but I become
that vessel. So then, that whole room’s a drum. I’m connected to everyone.
That’s the most, that’s the only way I can describe that physical
experience.
I become completely present to what’s going on in the room and
respond to it. And it responds to me, you know. And I get happy. I get
energetically liberated, revitalized.
As I’m facilitating, I can feel, “Okay! You need to…” Now we can
begin…with laying down and resting. So I walk in a room and if it feels
like everybody needs to lay down, that’s where we’re at. I don’t go,
“Umm…”
Or I walk in and it’s like everybody looks stiff, we need to roll around
on the ground or we need to do some exercise or do something where…
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When asked about how she responds when her embodied experience tells her
someone is not present, Afia said:
That gesture that gets them in the room if they’re not…in the room in their
body. Sometimes, though, I get the off experience, you know, and it
comes sometimes where someone’s in the room and they don’t want to be
in the room or they don’t want to be in their bodies. They don’t want to do
anything. They just want to….
I let them be, whatever. Just, okay. That’s fine. You can be whatever,
you know. But here, the parameters…this what we’re doing [laughter]. So
yeah, I can be flexible in that way.
While she finds the emotional experiences of others transparent in the drumming
circle, Afia feels she can shield the participants from her own emotionality:
My experience is that whatever people are experiencing, it’s coming out in

the drum, especially if you’re not an experienced player, right.
Emotionally it comes out in the drum. But for me, because I channel the
emotion, people can never tell if, “Yeah, you’re having a bad day today,”
you know. They wouldn’t know because I’m not just having my
emotional, personal experience.
Afia’s embodied empathy also includes the eyes:
It’s from the eye in that…I am very aware of micro expressions. I can tell
what’s going on, even when someone’s telling it is not. That’s something I
actually utilize. That’s eyes, right, because I am seeing people’s micro
expressions from across the room. I’m looking at their bodies, so I use that
as a way to read what’s going on. Aurically, sometimes I can sense. But
it…I’ve never been a seer of anything, of spirits. For instance, some
people can see spirits. They don’t show up quite like that for me. I can tell
you…. I think someone just walked in here. Do you feel that? You didn’t
hear that, did you? You know, so I can hear things, I can feel things…
Kokomon explained his own feeling of connectedness:
My heart opens up. I start to feel extreme joy…the door is open…I have
this feeling of connectedness that the time has come for us to change the
rhythm to a much larger rhythm or to a much simpler rhythm.
He then talked about the creation of community through drumming:
Every time…three or more people come together…every time they lock in

a place where nobody is left behind, nobody is ahead…if that is repeated
for more than three minutes the community is created.
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First the community is created by synchronizing the rhythms. That is
what I call Mindful Drumming. You want to play the same rhythm…It
doesn’t matter how simple or complicated the rhythm is, once it is
synchronized…to the degree that it is locked in place….
When you are drumming with other people and you cannot hear your
drum, community is created….The metaphor is that, “You can’t hear your
own voice. You hear your neighbor’s voice.”…Their pain becomes your
pain—That is community….We communicate through drumming…to
open our hearts and to fall in love with one another, sensually, in the
sacred sense, in the truest sense of the word….Our hands are meeting in
the same plane and beating together. So I cannot hear my rhythm, my
drum. You can hear my drum and I can hear your drum….Now we have
created community. We have fallen in love with each other even though
we don’t know each other’s names.…there is this union of community that
is created. Every time we drum, people don’t want to leave.
He also described the experience of synchronization:
That place of oneness when everybody comes together…meaning all the

rhythms are together, synchronized. And…everybody’s brain takes a
break….I sense right away. I can hear it. I can feel it….I feel my whole
being become one with everybody…I feel it consciously in my mind, I
feel it in my heart….And it creates sense of peace and a sense of joy
within me. And that is the indicator for me as a facilitator that we have
arrived….
When [bringing the rhythms and people together] happens, it’s an
extreme ecstasy for me. That wow, this is truly, truly beautiful. And so we
usually do this for a whole hour. So you can see that every three, four, five
minutes this happens.
When I asked Kokomon how he experiences the knowing that it is time to
change the rhythm, he replied: “It happens through intuition. It’s an automatic
response…the heart opens up.” He then shared his embodied empathic experience
that leads him to change the rhythm (see also Being a Masterful Drummer:
Changing the Rhythm):
Friday night people have a long week, or the very day they are drumming,
[they bring whatever] challenges they are facing. So in the first seven
minutes or so, I feel a sense of urgency from the group where…some
people in the group…the moment I introduce the rhythm, they want it to
end immediately….I get that sense or that communication…when I
introduce the rhythm [and] immediately the tempo…keeps speeding up….
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So then…a lot of times I do…go along with everybody else to a
point—and then we have to change. It’s a must that we must change…to a
different rhythm…to remind people why we are here [to create
community]…to remind people that they have a new family…they are
meeting new friends. And we all have to let go of our…our personal
assumptions…and come from a communal…reasoning of oneness….
When I get that message [that it is time to remind them to experience
community], immediately I change the rhythm…sometimes I make a very
strong message or communicate [through the drum] to the group that we
are going to go into a different kind of format of rhythmic force to bring
all of us together….I have to change to a rhythmic pulse or some type of
rhythm that everybody can relate to.
For Kokomon, one person’s difficulty can inspire him to change the rhythm:
Sometimes it [introducing a new rhythm] is a challenge in the sense

that…some people feel embarrassed. I have seen this without them telling
me…. [It] is a sense of feeling that…somebody feeling that they cannot do
what we are doing….So…I have a sense of conflict when that happens
within me….So the conflict that happens within the group immediately
registers in my heart and my being and so then…so that becomes the
indicator for me to change…to bring…to change from conflict to some
type of balance…balance of group oneness. Yes. So then I have to change
the rhythm….
That feeling that I feel, I also feel it connected with everyone by the
simple rationale or reason that we are all aligned in rhythm together.
Sahar talked about embodied empathy and stillness:
And to the extent that we hold that and let go into that [intention of
aligning with all the people in the group], that’s the extent that the locking
in can become a still, placid lake of consciousness, just all of us. And
there’s no me and you. There’s just that stillness. And in that…. And that
can happen in minutes, it depends on the group….And in that place of that
placid lake, one has an awareness of when someone else is having a
thought. Because the lake ripples. You may not know where the ripple
started but because we’re experiencing the stillness, aha. It shifts. And that
shift, shifts the tempo. It shifts going from the sound of all of us as one
drum striking at once, whether it’s one drummer or a hundred, when we’re
in that, it sounds like one drum magnified in volume by the number of
people. And so from that place, that still, placid lake, that’s where I like to
get to as much as they are able, as we are able, and then go from there.
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Sahar shared that whether he is aware of his physical body in the place of stillness
is dependent on the interpersonal dynamic among the drumming participants in
his gatherings. He further described embodied empathic presence in that state:
It’s, it’s an exquisitely sweet stillness and the boundaries that we call our
bodies blur, disappear that there’s no sense of edge of consciousness, edge
of being. And what’s so phenomenal is that in that stillness, I’m aware of
when someone else in the circle drops into that, when they—whoo!—drop
into that, letting go of thought and drop into that, my spaciousness
expands.…My stillness deepens. The sweetness of it becomes sweeter.
For Sahar, empathic presence guides his awareness of when a participant
is not “energetically” present in the group:
My experience is that we are all in there [together in the group] wanting

the same thing….And so we get to a certain place of stillness, some ripples
let’s say, alright. And we’re all about there and then someone goes off. Of
course! And thoughts of whatever it might be and then I’ll have an
awareness. I say, “Okay, come on back.” And we go back to square one
again. Breathe deeply. Cause you can sense if someone’s not breathing
deeply. You could see it show up in their shoulders. Ah, they’re not
relaxed. Okay, so breathe deeply again…So it’s a very maternal approach
to it—that aspect. Very maternal, holding space for that to happen. And
with that warmth and holding of space, the invitation, “Come on back.”…
It is, again, having a certain degree of stillness and recognizing the ripple
in that…[Feeling it physically] as though the boundaries of my body kinda
show up a little bit more again….And…even starting a circle, having an
awareness, “Okay, this person here is looking really stressed out tonight.
This person is a very aggressive.” So from the get-go, having a sense of
those people who might be the ones to pop out.
Arthur talked about empathic presence and transformations that occur
through cycles of connection and reconnection:
It gives you an opportunity to release your tensions and your emotions and
stop thinking and worrying about this and about that for a few minutes a
day. And you get to connect with other people in the moment. And when
you’re connecting with other people in that moment, that moment’s gone
and you have to reconnect over and over and over again. And all of a
sudden, they stop being the president or the rich guy or the poor guy or the
man or the woman and the genders and those things that separate us aren’t
there anymore. And there’s just spirit. Here we are. And so by the nature
of doing drum circle facilitation, you’re doing community-building.
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Arthur described following his intuitive embodied experience: “I have no idea
[what I just did or what just happened] because I knew without knowing. I was at
this spot, this place…right here. That’s work. That’s where I facilitated from.”
When the group can be self-organized, as he hopes to teach them to be, Arthur
shared:
So what is the feeling? Fulfillment…a whole ten minutes I can sit and play
and just be part of this body—living, breathing, conscious, entity—made up
of all these different parts of itself. Uncovering, recovering and discovering
the childish innocent rhythmical spirit we all were born naturally with. [See
the theme of Containing the Experience for Everyone—Temenos for more
of Arthur’s words on the topic.]
Arthur described his experience of having a listening “radar” that tells him
what is happening behind him in the circle, where he cannot see. He stated, “It’s
about circuitry. It’s about the deep listening, the circuitry….Radar is the internal
stuff.” He noted that one mastery of drumming comes from “technical ability,”
and another “that comes from something else, comes from caring and listening.”
Carolyn expressed her sense of empathic presence as follows:
This is very interesting because when I’m in the circle with my

students…or anybody, really. I can tell when they’ve, when they’re
thinking about something else [drumming sounds]. You can see, you can
hear it in the music [drumming sounds]. You can tell…I can tell when they
my students are finally starting to hear it because the music changes
[drumming sounds]. The quality of it. It would change because they’re
either learning rhythm and they’re just playing the rhythm. They’re just
playing it….But it sounds…it has a different emotional feeling and sound,
when they are hearing it and playing it than when they’re just playing it.
And I can tell when they drift….If somebody in the circle has a
little mishap, it will go right around the circle [laughter]. Say they have a
little note that’s just a little bit off, the next person will do it too and then
down, roll away around up. It’s uncanny…I hear it happening.
I can just feel, I can feel their attention. Or nonattention…I can feel
their presence…[when they are having an emotional experience] I can feel
that. I can feel that. I can see it and I can hear it really, in the music. I can
hear it in the music….People have a lot of…emotional…especially in the
beginning stages.
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Glen highlighted that listening is “multifaceted” and that for him when he
is drumming with others, the experience of listening through time is resident in
his the body, not solely through the physical ear:
We really are listening with our whole body….It’s very nonconcrete…

you’re not listening only now but you’re listening from the past and you’re
listening to the future because you are building something. You’re
building something when you share the knowledge and that where they’re
going…is part of the listening. And where you have come from and how
you’ve been working on the activity that you’re doing now is part of your
listening now. That’s one aspect of it.
Glen spoke of the different facets of listening he experiences:
Another aspect is that when you listen with your body, different sections
of your body are participating and all the different ways that you listen are
activated…
You can listen with the lower part of your body. You can listen with
your mind, with your brain. You can listen with your…just the sound
aspect of it. But since it’s a vibratory experience, there’s always different
ways that you’re listening.
Glen emphasized the role of vocalizations in opening up to listening:
That is another aspect of why the vocalizations are important. The space
that the intellect comes in, we say, “Well that sounds interesting,” or
“That’s a low sound, that’s a high...” All the descriptive things that can
come in, they get superseded when you’re just saying “taka-taka-doom,
taka-taka-doom, taka-taka-doom.” That fills up that space and so then that
allows for this other kind of listening to start to take place which supersedes
this thought processes, which are going a lot of different directions.
Glen reflected on the experience of listening with the body:
But we’re doing that so that we can start to listen with the body and listen
with the emotional…emotional self and get involved with…well you can
listen with past because you can connect with how you felt when you were
12 or how you felt when you’re 10.
Glen spoke of his own experience of listening through time:
Because a lot of things that come up, like when you’re doing the voice,
when you’re teaching voice, it’s very emotional immediately when you start
to use the voice because you’re connecting with all these connections that
you have throughout your life about what it means to sing.
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Glen referred to his experience of embodied listening as a variety of “altered
states” (see Entrainment as an Alternative State), by which he means that
drumming opens one to “ordinary” and “nonordinary” feelings:
It’s more about triggering different feelings in terms of the different parts of
the body…it runs the gamut in terms of sensation, the many different kinds
of sensation. Some of that is the body responding to being stimulated a lot.
Some of it is the body ready for that kind of trip that it’s going to be taken
on.
This embodied empathy opens him to an enhanced sense of the other: “I can
really feel the weakness in somebody’s feeling about pulse or the fear of that
pulse.”
4
In responding to a question about “honor beat,” April also talked about
experiences of connectedness through body and instinctual awareness:
When you sing a song, the lead singer, which may not be the drum keeper,
the lead singer puts the first beat down and everyone [April made a gesture
using arms to show movement with sticks on drum]…how do you do this? I
don’t know. Everyone when you put that down you hear what that tempo’s
going to be, with one stick. So that first beat goes down and everyone’s
stick instantly goes down with it. Now how did that happen? How does that
happen? But it does. My stick goes down first and all of yours are at the
same time. You don’t hear “CLONK-CLONK.” Do you? You hear
everyone’s. But mine’s first! And we all know that. How does that happen?
Entrainment as an Alternative State
All nine participants described experiences of what neurobiology terms
“entrainment” (Molinari, Leggio, De Martin, Cerasa, & Thaut, 2003). They used
phrases such as “locked in” (Kokomon, Barbara, Billy, Sahar), “groove” (Billy),
4
April says,
[Honor beats] set the tempo of a song. They usually happen in the second half.
And they are the time when the dancers, if you’re singing powwow songs, know
to lift their fans, their eagle feathers—women dancers would give honor to the
earth and be looking down. It is a signal to those dancers for that time of
honoring in that song.
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“kickin’ it” (April), “we can come together” (Afia), and “when we all land”
(Barbara). In the process of synchronizing the rhythms a sense of community is
created.
For example, Barbara noted that she has the participants begin with a
pulse (also understood as a “beat”), that offers the function of quickly aligning all
the individuals in the group with the pulse and to each other. For her, the pulse is
the container for the alternative state:
The pulse is, the action of a second hand on a clock. You have the same
amount of space between each beat. So when you make a sound on the
drum and leave the same amount of space between the next sound and the
next sound and the next sound, you’re creating a pulse. It’s very steady,
it’s very known to us on levels that our brain, our conscious mind isn’t
even aware of. It’s primal knowledge to the body, from being in the womb
and feeling the mother’s heartbeat and hearing…I’ve learned to, by
listening and what people have written about, that in utero babies hear the
blood rushing more than the heartbeat. You more feel that heartbeat.
So we all have that pulse, dialed in. We are born with it. The whole
world operates on a pulse. The whole universe operates. Everything. I
mean if you think about it, it’s amazing how it all works, even as poorly as
it seems to work sometimes. All the systems just in our bodies, how
synchronized they are. [See also Space Between the Beats—Portal to the
Numinous.]
For Glen, variation in alternative states occurs continuously, and drumming opens
access to them very quickly compared to other means:
Well it’s interesting because I don’t really have a vocabulary for the
altered states. There are many different ones but they’re all different kinds
of altered states. I know that much in terms of how you would describe it.
I also think that altered states are something that we’re constantly involved
with. A lot of things are triggering altered states. The drumming has very,
very…what it has that’s unusual is the quickness of the entry. As soon as
you start playing, as soon as you vocalize, you start to feel this change
happen.
All nine participants described an experience of connection and
interconnection. When asked about the relationship between entrainment and
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containment, Sahar replied that drumming with others is “an opportunity for
massive entrainment.”
No matter the size of the group, no matter who’s here, age, skill level—
ah!—does not matter. That entrainment’s available right now. That
experience of the mom and her baby where their hearts are beating in
unison, that kind of intimacy is available with people you’ve never met,
with people you’re in conflict with.
Billy said, “When the group comes together, it’s almost as if it becomes an
obvious knowing for everyone.” April reflected on her experience: “I believe
when everyone is on that song, that that is it….Not feeling brought down or held
down by anything physical.” She emphasized that this feeling was something out
of the ordinary:
[In those moments] I don’t want to make any change because it’s so
fabulous….Some rhythm that you just keep going…To me that’s an altered
state because it’s away from the logical, mental, physical average daily
movement….I’ve felt when we are all in it together and you just, you feel
like you’re all one somehow. But…you have control.
Afia described her experience of “becoming one”:
We become one, you know. The drum does that. And then I, you know, of
course want to live here all the time and I go, “Oh gosh. I finished that
experience and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah. I now remember myself.’” Because
that moment so big, I can’t walk there all the time. But, you know, it’s a
big experience to be so ancient.
I’m aware of the sacredness of that space inside my body. I’m aware
that this is…that I’m carrying genetic strain of some particular thing that
you almost can’t be taught, you know…Be a messenger you know. It’s
like a messenger.
April shared about the richness of that alignment and connection, regardless of
whether the drumming participants are thinking about the technical aspects of the
experience:
It’s just very rich…you’re all connected to the same thing at that same
moment. And then there are those magic times when you know you’re in
sync. Every stick is just hitting at the right…and you feel it and it’s
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like…best thing I can do is thumbs up. It’s like a thumbs up. Did you hear
it? Do you hear it? Do you feel it? And you try to keep it through the whole
song and sometimes you do! Sometimes you’re all on it right at that same
song. You just feel it…like you’ve just transcended the whole drum circle.
That’s pretty incredible. I like that.
Kokomon talked about how he experiences entrainment as a state of oneness
where differences are “missing”:
Every time all the rhythms come into a synchronistic state like this…we
enter into trance…into that state of Nirvana. That state of equilibrium…a
state where there are...no pain...there are no worries…no fears…is just
love and light and joy….it took me some time first to really recognize
what I am describing to you: What it feels like. What it feels like to not be
afraid.
I like to use the phrase, “we take a jump,” because it’s analogous to
trance. I call it a space of equilibrium. And the explanation is…there is
sense of oneness that is out of this world. And that is a perfect scientific
way to use that equilibrium, the concept of gender is missing…the concept
of race is missing.
All nine participants emphasized the expansive, transcendent aspect of
their experience of interconnection. April clarified that she experiences
entrainment as a transcendent state:
It’s a lifting. Yes. It’s a lifting from the body. I don’t feel it physically. I
feel it spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally. It’s just an….You
definitely are not sitting in that place. You’re definitely elevated from that.
It’s way cool.
Barbara described how this experience of transcendence is available to everyone
drumming, not just the facilitator:
And it just escalates into the best of all worlds, an ecstatic experience for
everyone concerned, and very healing, and very expansive—very, very
expansive for the body, mind and spirit—for each individual body and for
the body of people that experienced that together.
That’s the other element of drumming or music—it keeps you totally
present with each sound and each space. But you’re SO present that it’s
almost like you’re not there saying, “Oh, I’m so present.” You’re not
doing that. But the feeling of it is that you’re just with everything that’s
happening as we were talking about with the groups of people drumming
and the audiences. When it’s all happening, when you’re in the flow and
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the spaces are where they should be and the sounds and the intention and
energy are aligned then the music just flows through you moving on its
own accord. It goes through you, and it goes out of you, and it comes into
you and it’s like this web of life that you’re not weaving, yet there you are
in the midst of it, moving around [laughter], and moving your arms and
legs or whatever’s happening. So… it’s very transcendent in that way….
This is really fun [laughter].
All participants described an uplifting energy of entrainment. Barbara has
long noticed that drumming offers a way for her to feel less “contracted”:
One thing I realized when I was very young and I would be upset or in a not
so great mood, I’d go sit down at my drum kit and within minutes I would
feel so much better and more alive. And so, that more contracted state,
would be long gone and I was on to a much happier place and much more
engaged place.
Kokomon also shared about the collective experience and uplifting
energy:
Collectively there should be at least 99% of rhythmic patterns that

collectively brought all of us together to move us into that realm that I am
talking about again and again and again. So it is like having a sexual
orgasm…again and again and again on a communal group level. And I feel
that. I feel that. So at the end when we finish drumming and I have had this
experience for a whole hour, it takes…my whole being sometimes I feel so
much fire from my heart emanating all over my being.
Kokomon described being “high” with joy, beginning with challenges of
language:
Sometimes [my experience] is unspeakable. It’s unspeakable for a couple of

reasons…it’s also a kind of high. High…by that I mean like you are actually
drunk… sometimes I’m drunk with joy. And when that happen I’m not
hungry. I can’t eat and I am full of energy [laughter]. And I want to dance
and I want to share this anyone that come in contact with me and it is quite a
miracle that the more I share it the more I get high. The higher I get. And
I’m talking about this idea of being high because…you don’t need to even
drink water. You don’t need to…I don’t need to do anything. And I’m full
of this grace and this peace and this love and this joy.
That sense of uplifted energy can last several hours for Kokomon:
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Some days depending on how high I am feeling with this energy, it takes
about three or four hours till I can come down. It is very very interesting.
[Long pause.] I cannot sleep! [Laughter] It is truly truly amazing.
Sometimes when we drum I tell people when we leave here they should go
straight home. So that they can really really harvest what has happened.
Because when we finished the drumming a lot begins to happen for all.
Carolyn talked about how drummers who arrive tired often leave “wide awake”:
And we’re always looking to be in that space, you know, where we make
beautiful music and something else happens. There’s joy in the room. It’s
music, you know. It’s beautiful music…It’s joyful…Sometimes [somebody
arrives feeling] like, “Oh god, I’m so tired, exhausted. Aahhh.”…And by
the end of the class, everybody’s like [cheering voice] “Aaahhh!!” You
know, happy and they go home, you know. They’re wide awake, you know.
I really believe that’s what it is. It brings you to the present where
everything is possible in the present moment, you know.
Barbara described her experience as “flying”:
[Our rhythm and pulse] could be fast [she drums an example], or slow
[drumming]. But…when I feel that, then whatever rhythms I play, that’s
where the flying comes in. So the grounding is the pulse….
And the flying is all the rhythms that are organized around that pulse.
Because to fly, does not mean letting go of the pulse. When you let go of
the pulse, you fly for a minute and then crash and burn like a kite that
spins out. But when you stay connected to the pulse and have all your
rhythms aligned with the pulse, which is I believe what health is—when
all our body rhythms are aligned and energy is moving beautifully through
them like a graceful dance. And it’s the same with drumming when all the
rhythms are aligned to the pulse and the music is flowing beautifully
through without any stops and starts and jagged edges. It’s heaven—
Heaven on earth to me.
Three participants (Kokomon, Barbara, Afia) named a sense of grounding
as being important to entrainment. Barbara feels grounded in the pulse of the
drum, as a baby is grounded in the heartbeat of the mother:
When I say grounded, it’s the feeling. I’m just feeling very attached to that
pulse it’s like what I imagine being in the womb felt like…Feeling like the
pulse is in me and it keeps me moving and still at the same time. So when I
feel that pulse, the stronger I feel the pulse, that continuous just “dum, dum,
dum, dum, dum” [drumming], whatever tempo.
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For three participants (Kokomon, Afia, Carolyn) connection to other-than-
human entities is a vital aspect of the alternative state. Kokomon described being
“host to spirit”:
I feel I have entered that space of host to love or host to spirit, and it’s a
very secure feeling that there is some higher force that is in charge. Not
Kokomon. So I can let go of my madness and your fears to the drums. I
always say that and I say it for a reason:…people come here and the worries
they come here with, which I’m not interested in because that is their life,
but they leave their worries and fears with the drum—knowing that they are
host to love and they are host to spirit….And that grounded…that space,
that is the feeling that I feel and the message that I get that I am host to
spirit…
This spirit is grounded in Kokomon’s bodily senses:
I feel all my portals open. And I feel surrounded by angels. Spirits.…angels

and ancestors. And I know this because I smell...there is a smell. A scent…a
fragrance of…a sweet fragrance comes to me and my body is going through
this…giving birth. Coming from my heart my whole being is flowing with
love and happiness and joy.
Kokomon then elaborated on his experience of collectively “making a jump” and
meeting the Great Ancestors:
When I come to that place of synchronicity meaning I am happy and I can

feel that fire of joy in the room with everybody else… I feel that we
collectively make a jump. When I say, “make a jump” meaning we
collectively as a group go into this place of ecstasy. By that I mean…we
go into trance and it is this place that I describe and tell people that…that
is the place we meet the Great Ancestors.
That is the place we can ask for whatever we want. And my experience
is that when we enter into that realm of oneness…of joy and ecstasy and
all that stuff…that is where to ask [for what we want] because that is the
place…that is the room that we meet…the Great Masters.
This is possible because at this place…I don’t feel a conflict of fear
and joy at the same time. By that I mean that I’m not worried that “Oh, I
don’t have food to eat,” or “I don’t have shelter” or some other of my
human needs…personally. That [fear] is dissipated, and so that there is a
clear consciousness by which I can ask the Great Masters what is it that I
want to manifest in this physical plane. So every month at least once a
month I go into this trance state by the virtue that I am facilitating and
helping people, working with people so that we can move into doing this.
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For Carolyn, drumming evokes a state in which people can connect with
other-than-human-beings:
The drumming…in Cuba, they understand it. They manipulate it. It’s an
alchemy. Why? So they can communicate with the ancestors, so that we
can communicate with these conscious beings that we call the ocean.
They, for us, are conscious, living, intelligent beings. The space….There’s
a conscious, intelligent being that we live with—And through ritual and
ceremony, we’re able to unlock. And in drumming, we can unlock that
key and they can help us. They help us in this dimension.
All participants described how drumming helps them access a nonordinary
place. Glen experiences a sense of going somewhere he would not normally go:
Probably the biggest qualities of it [the altered state drumming opens up]
that are obvious or nonordinary, the nonordinary feeling, you know, that
you’re going some place that is not a place that you normally navigating and
the places that you go. [See Embodied Empathy—Empathic Presence.]
Afia illustrated that drumming changes the room and everything in it:
When the drum gets picked up, there is a transition that happens. Like even
when I went in the room just now, I drummed, you know. The room
changed. I changed. Everything changed. Nothing was the same, none of it.
It’s a different dropping in. It’s like I drop into this other level of me…no
matter how dissonant or how disconnected we think we are, when we’re on
the drum it can all come together.
Carolyn’s own experience of this state inspired her to become a priest:
I’ve been possessed in ceremony…That doesn’t keep me from playing the

drums. But oftentimes, when I’m playing drums, I can feel them [spirits].
…I can feel that spirit. And I have, for a long time, even before I even really
knew about the religion. It’s just something that changes, you know, in the
air and the light and color. It just is a different…I don’t know how to
explain it but it is just has a different…the room is not, no longer exactly the
room [laughter]….I don’t know how to explain it. You can see the in-
between stuff, you know. So, that was one reason why I had to become a
priest, too, because they were so close to me. And by virtue of me playing
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5
drums for so long….I’m a priest of Obatala. My Orisha is Obatala. I’ve
been a priest for…going on 14 years.
Being a Masterful Drummer
Two distinct questions about facilitating were asked in the interviews
regarding the participants’ intention for self and group. They used a variety of
phrases, including “to be a support for others in really shining in their gifts”
(Sahar), “creating joy” (Kokomon, Barbara), “to activate joy” (Kokomon),
“creating community” (Kokomon), “creating equilibrium” (Kokomon), “sharing
happiness” (Kokomon, Barbara), and “to be of service to our community” (April,
Carolyn). Arthur shared, “It’s about the heart. It’s about listening. And it’s about
rapport. It’s about relationship. It’s about facilitating self-facilitainment. And it’s
about serving that community’s needs….It’s about freeing the human spirit,”
while Glen stated, “It’s a very dynamic kind of thing but the initial spirit is of
support.” Results for this theme are organized under six subthemes: Preparation
for the Group, Self-Preparation, Role of Facilitator, Intention for Others, Intention
for Self, and Changing the Rhythm.
Preparation for the Group.
I asked all participants if there is a way that they ask the group to prepare.
Barbara described how she quickly creates alignment: “Sometimes I have people
stand up and enter the pulse with their bodies by clapping or moving their feet
5
Carolyn described an Orisha as follows:
Orisha are supra powers of the world in a way. I mean they’re the ocean and the
rivers and the wind and the cyclone and the thunder and the lightning and all the
natural forces of our planet are what Orisha is. The rocks, you know. All the
natural…really what the true forces are. The true powers of our universe.
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together…that really helps you to feel the pulse that’s already there in your body
when you walk it.”
None of the participants ask workshop attendees to do advance
preparation. Billy feels that many individuals have never had exposure to
contemplative practices or to playing drums, and so he does not ask them to
prepare in advance. Glen feels that choosing to show up is preparation, and in
addition, that a natural preparation occurs in the process of choosing to take a
workshop.
In his preparation for the group, Glen is inspired by the South Indian
drumming tradition where there is a frequent use of “drum language,” which for
him are vocalizations used with rhythm, an ancient mother tongue.
If you utilize the voice, you’re going to connect in with memory, you’re
going to connect in with breathing, you’re going to connect in with
focusing the mind. So…from the very beginning, I get people to do the
drum language and use that as a way to get into the drumming.
Billy presents “three unbreakable rules” to his drumming participants. His
first rule addresses fear: “There’s nothing you can do wrong. And I have just
watched the miracle of saying that in a group…you can feel the space open
up…there’s an exhalation that takes place.” The second rule silences the judge of
others: “That part of you that judges others for their experience so
critically….Just put that away right now….Give him a break.” The third rule
concerns:
that part of ourselves that critically judges ourself and we say, “Oh, I can’t
do this…I’m no good.” That part…really stifles and cuts off our ability to
learn, our ability to explore something new, our ability to actually make
changes in our life. I say, “Give that gal a break inside.” I’ve had people
actually share with me that they have never turned that aspect of
themselves off, ever, until they had met me in these drumming workshops.
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And they’ve really learned…they were able to stop that judgmental
mindset and just now began to really see how volatile and self-detrimental
that was.
Billy’s participants can find these rules transformative: “Some of them have
profound changes.”
Three participants (Afia, April, Arthur) talked about judgment, moving
past judgment, and a nonjudgmental environment being key in preparation for the
group. For example, Afia remarked on moving past the judgment:
I do have synchronized rhythms and, like I said, sometimes I have people

just start with a heartbeat. Sometimes, especially with the children, I just
have them play for 30 seconds, whatever they want. However it sounds,
let’s just get past, “It has to sound this way.”…And the playing sounds like
a chaotic zoo. I love it. They love it. Everybody’s smiling. We’re all now
warmed up and will go for 10, you know, it just depends. If it’s really
sounding like or feeling like, “Oh yeah, some more,” I’m looking at bodies
and some more energy needs to come out before we can even focus, we go
as long as we need. And then, I have everybody breathe and there’s quiet.
And feel inside your body.
April shared about nonjudgment and safe environment:
It’s…unless I’m in an instructive mode. In which case, I would be very

conscious not to look at the person in a strong way. But take in how
they’re drumming, their singing, how they’re sitting, breathing so that as
we move through the song I could give them suggestions when it’s time,
which wouldn’t be directly to them. That would be harsh and incorrect.
The instruction comes if you talk generally. We finish the song and I
would say, “You know when I hold my stick like this, I don’t get that
bouncing that goes in my hand so I have more control. Anyone ever feel
that stick bounce-up on those honor beats?” Then the person who may
have a problem, “Yes!” or, “Well, yeah, I used to have that too.”
And so you do it in a very guiding way. At that time my eyes are
controlled so that I’m picking up the peripheral but not focusing on the
person to cause their spirit hurt….I believe it must be [a safe environment
for all] and with our drum it has to be. And it needs to be if it’s going to be
healing.
So when we do anything at the drum….look you need…so someone
missed whatever, a beat, a note, a pitch, if I just glance over, ten feet back
it is just like, “Woosh” [gesture with hand], spotlight on that person. So
within our drum, if you miss something, you can smile to yourself but we
don’t accept any of that, “Oh!” [grimace expression]—none of that. You
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just, you just move on because there’s no perfection in our world anyway.
When stick goes down is when it comes through and then it comes back
out. That’s the cycle [through the song]…Which is prayer.
Arthur described a theme of leading without correcting:
There’s lots of different ways of fixing something without pointing your

finger at somebody and saying, “You’re playing too loud,” or “You’re
playing so many notes and syncopated notes to show us how good you are
that you’re showing us how bad you and you’re all the people around you
out of rhythm and this whole section’s falling apart. You’re a bad person.”
No. Remember there are no mistakes.
For Arthur, “leading” is judgmental:
If you went in there and shook your hands so that you made a stop cut and
somebody kept on playing and you give them a bad look, you’re telling
everybody in the circle, “That’s your fault…you’re supposed to perform
it….When I do that and you don’t do that, I’m gonna make a judgment at
you….So you don’t do that.” You don’t let that person think there was even
a mistake. You go, “Thank you!” And then you move on. Okay.
In working with groups, Kokomon holds his participants accountable. He
has rules regarding not talking, going to the bathroom before the drumming starts,
and staying with the rhythm the group is drumming. He noted, “Sometimes
people come and they want to challenge me. I say, ‘Hey, these are the rules’ and
‘This is how I see it,’ and ‘Take it or leave it—you don’t want to do it, nobody’s
going to hold you.” If synchronized, mindful drumming isn’t what people want,
he asks them to find their group drumming elsewhere.
Afia said that, although she requires no logistical preparation for drum
classes with children and adults, her group organization is dependent on the focus
of the gathering. She engages in formal preparation for ceremonies, university
classes, and large groups.
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April explained that in her tradition there are protocols particular to the
various kinds of drum groups, for example, instructional settings or talking
circles. For a talking circle, she described a protocol of shared understanding:
With the drum group…no one sits down at the drum but that we have the
understanding that there are no conflicts, no unresolved issues, no words
that should be said left unspoken, no feelings, hurts, needs, prayers that we
don’t address at the drum.
Cleansing with sage was also part of the preparation:
We smudge so that we cleanse our minds and talk. [I] probably spoke with
you that we believe God really loves sage because there is so much. Our
Creator has so much all over this planet so we lift that sage and as it carries
all the things that we need to lift off of ourselves.
The smudging helps those in the drum groups to be open to the present moment:
It’s that time where you can really move into a state of meditation and let
the day go behind you. And with that, you then can come to the drum
where you let any of the conflicts, the needs, any of the things that are
going to stop that connection with the drum for prayer, that you speak
those…at any point any of us sitting at our drum have the right to ask each
another any questions or to speak anything that we need, and it stays there
as in a safe family way. So that when we put our sticks on the drum and
receive those prayers and sing those songs and put that back out, it’s
unfettered. It’s clean. It’s a prayer. Our songs are prayers. When that’s
done and we are all in agreement we put the tobacco down, which is
giving back, before we receive those songs. Then we’re ready to sing or
kick it, as they say [laughter].
April also spoke to the fundamental meaning of the protocols in terms of
the well-being of community. In April’s experience, many people make up rules
for participating that are a barrier. Her own approach is more inclusive:
If you’re in an addiction, people say, “You can’t come to the drum

drinking. Okay, you can’t come to the drum high. You can’t come if you
are still smoking.” They have all these rules. “You can’t come to the drum
if you get an F grade.”
[But] if the drum is healing, you have to get there. If you’ve got to
heal before you get there, the drum’s not healing…Someone in their
European concept has gotten into wrong thinking….
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You don’t just instantly become a new person because you sang some
drum songs. You probably didn’t come to the drum with the right heart.
But by understanding the protocol and knowing that there’s this time when
we all are going to speak and get some conflicts out, that’s where healing
begins. And then when we’re prepared, we put the tobacco down, which is
our gift, and then we receive those songs. [See Containing the Experience
for Everyone-Temenos: Relationship to Rhythm and Drum.]
In contrast to the open encouragement of dialog in a talking circle, April felt that a
singing group should be protected from individual conflict:
There wouldn’t be disruption at all if she were sitting with us because she
would either be guesting on our drum or she’d be a member of our drum. If
she were guesting, we would have gone through some investigation or…
openness with her…so if they don’t know and they say, “Oh can I …?” thus
and such, then generally it’s the drum keeper’s job to then step out of the
circle and give them some instruction about, “Here’s how you approach our
drum and here’s some things if you really wanted to be singing with them,
here’s the process that you would go through.”
April described how she might prepare an outsider:
What I could have done was go over and say, “Is there a problem between
us?” And I would do that except at a drum [healing circle]. I…that’s really
powerful to say, “Is there a problem between us?” Even when people have a
problem with you, they’ll always say, “Oh no. No, everything’s fine.”
….But at a [healing circle] drum, that’s…it’s none of your business if they
have a problem. That’s their drum family. You don’t bring your family
issues over to my family. Individually you can meet and do that.
Afia discussed how she does not specifically plan her preparation for the
group but does follow the guidance she receives while sitting quietly:
So it’s never planned. It’s never just this planned, “This is my agenda.” In
fact, I don’t have an agenda. Right? I just go into wherever I’m at and that
becomes the agenda. I might think through and sit with the channel before
and go…and it’ll come to me, some thoughts or some ideas or some big
concepts.
Afia’s practice is rooted in African wisdom traditions. She is attuned to the
ancestral beings and elemental beings (nature spirits):
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I don’t traditionally [meditate], like I said, I’m not part of a Buddhist group
6
or I’m not part of an Orisha house…I’m just me…But I do have Nana
Buruku. She’s the one that is directing traffic [laughter].
Sahar talked about how he begins with a guided meditation:
What I ask of people is, to relax, to breathe deep, to listen, and to listen on
every level…as soon as we sit together, I’ll start with a guided mediation—
invite people to relax, to be peace, to feel their breathing slow and then to
keep that as their focus throughout as best as possible, [Inhale] allowing
their breathing to be deep.….When they are relaxed…then they’re open to
creativity, the flow of creativity.
Sahar includes these steps as a preventative measure against physical harm to
participants:
If they do that, oxygen goes to all parts of their body. If they do that, when
they do that, their body is relaxed, their fingers and arms and shoulders are
relaxed, allowing for blood flow and oxygen to get to their fingers. They’re
less likely to hurt themselves when they’re breathing deeply because you
want to have flexibility in your hands.
Sahar strongly advocates a drumming check-in:
And that’s the first part of the evening—to recognize that how rapidly a
drum check-in can get to what’s really going on in us. Where words may
just stay in a linear realm. Whereas the drumming gets right to it. What’s
in your body? What emotions are you feeling? Boom! Drumming can only
be done in the present. Words can be talked about, the past and the
future….
And then to have two people who are in conflict to sit with one drum
between them, no words are spoken. Although they can vocalize and
scream in melodic, in whatever all they want but nothing that has a
definition or an association. No words. And one person just bears witness
while the other drums whatever is in them, as long as it takes. The other
person listens, feels, and just present for. When they’re done, the next
person, and back and forth this goes. And it is such an effective means to
get to the heart of the matter. Where we can talk about it in this past
situations and there’s blame and we can throw out words that we know are
red flags for the other person and then another word that has no red flag
for the person speaking it, but the person listening it does, and oh my god!
It can be so confusing….With the drumming, just like with the check-ins,
you just get to what is. You just get to your feelings. And in a very short
time, that conflict goes to a place of empathy, compassion, of really
6
Orishas are spirit guides. See earlier footnote for Carolyn’s definition.
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getting the other person at a visceral level. And to come to a place of a
deeper understanding than words can ever bring, ever facilitate.
For Sahar, preparation involves a “spectrum” of significant events:
In terms of getting this end of the spectrum, the technical, [I say] “If ever
there’s a question, please ask it. If we’re going too fast, please ask us to
slow down.” So…I said, “We’re all on the same page because this dynamic
I’m talking about, this place of really unity is about all of us, technically, at
this end of the spectrum, being able to get how our bodies move in that
same way.” That’s number one. Let’s get that down if it means slowing
down, really refocusing here on someone then, yes.
Self-Preparation.
Asked if they prepare themselves in any way prior to facilitating or
teaching a workshop or drumming gathering, participants’ answers ranged from
no routine self-preparation (Afia) to three hours of careful setting of energy and
attention (Kokomon). For example, Glen’s preparation centers around an ongoing
reflective question: “How can I share what I’m doing…more powerfully?”
Kokomon shared, “I work on myself to make sure I do not let my ego get
in the way of making sure that people come to this drumming.” He outlined how
he reminds himself to “come to the drumming as a facilitator with innocence…the
innocence of a child,” explaining, “for me…I’m here to play with
everybody….with the innocence of spirit and mind….It’s not the time and place
to show off.” He described how, for three or four hours before a drum gathering,
he limits his consumption of food and drink, and avoids television and news. In
this way, he makes sure his body is energetic, he doesn’t need to interrupt the
drumming for his own bathroom breaks, and his mind can move away from
negative thoughts. He spends those hours drumming, and reflected, “It’s a sense
of joy for me because I prepare myself before the drumming.”
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Afia has no formal preparation except to bring herself to the room:
I don’t even have to touch the drum. I can feel that something inside of me
that creates shifts in people. They change when they’re around me….But I
notice that it’s an energetic thing. I’m not actively engaged in ceremony at
my space in the traditional sense of the word….It doesn’t have anything
necessarily to do with me doing some spiritual thing before I get to the gig
or before I do the thing. It’s really not. It’s something that just turns on. It’s
a switch [laughter]. I wish I had a better word.
She was adamant that her life is her preparation:
I’m saying all this to say, “There’s like, you know, I’m not like some
magician where I don’t have to prepare.” That’s not what I’m trying to say.
More what I’m saying is, whatever I am living into takes me, is the
preparation.
Similarly, April shared that for her, self-preparation and carrying a drum is a way
of life:
It’s almost on a daily basis that when you carry a drum, you have a
responsibility of the songs, the medicine, the prayers. And you will actually
have people calling you to do things when they know that you carry your
drum, because of the responsibility that you have. So each morning when
you get up…you prepare yourself. Yes. As…we all should, anyway, in
thankfulness for the life that we’re given and our God, Creator, Christ, our
Lord, Spirit being, Grandmother, Grandfather, however we see that Higher
Power. Or just ALL. So it’s a preparation that you wake with. And hopefully
you become stronger if you go along the path, that you stay more in
preparation through the day. By the time the evening comes you’re able to
look back and find some reward of your walk in that day. But with the
drum, unless you put that drum away, which might be in agreement with the
drum, you must always be prepared for things. So when you travel you
carry gifts, you carry food items, you might carry blankets—the things that
would take care of other people. And that’s the preparation that you would
always have.
Sahar prepares himself in stillness:
I’ll sit for a few minutes and just hold this group, this event, in my
imagination. And then open to possibility…of what I can share with them.
And so creative ideas will come and I’ll write them down…as to a potential
flow, a potential agenda, for that event.
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Role of Facilitator.
Arthur shared about his role as facilitator being both a deliberate
construction and an act of service:
It’s good to have a clown. It’s good to have a character. It’s good to bring
your spirit in there and have some charisma and present yourself, you
know, to entertain the individuals who don’t know that they’re connected
to these people yet.
It’s about the heart. And it’s about the listening. And it’s about
rapport. It’s about relationship. It’s about facilitating self-facilitainment.
And it’s about serving that community’s needs.
He also talked about the responsibility of the facilitator:
You’ve got a certain responsibility to read the group and to deliver the
message the group needs to hear at that time to move forward. And at the
same time, there’s always going to be those stories [of what individuals
experience]—the little German lady. And it’s more than just a job
description. It’s a mission. And when there’s mission involved, all of a
sudden it’s not about you.
And the leader is not a leader. He’s a facilitator. So the word
“facilitation” is crucial, “to make easy.” And that is the dictionary
definition of what it’s about. Now if you’re there to make it easy, then you
must really love what you’re doing. And hopefully you’re there to share
your spirit with other people so that they can share their spirit with each
other. And you want to be a part of that as a player. And so, it all comes
back to get them to orchestration. And they won’t need you. And you can
sit down and play….
7
People call me the Father of the Drum Circle, Facilitator Drum Circle
Movement. No, no. I’m more like a midwife. That’s my job—is to go into
the community and find those potentials, the rightness and help birth that
community. That’s my job.
In a reflection of his strong feelings about the role of the facilitator, Arthur
coined his own term for the role:
You can be the facilitainor because you need that tool in your kit. But if you
make it all about facilitainment rather than facilitation, then you’re standing
in the middle of the circle and you’re not building community. You’re
entertaining. What to use when and why and listening, deep listening. And
7
Barbara and Carolyn referred to Arthur’s leadership role in the field, and Billy’s careful
delineation of the differences between his work and Arthur’s also supports this
presentation.
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always questioning, why am I in the middle of circle? Oh! It ain’t broke. I
better leave. I just fixed it. Why am I here now? What to do, when, and
why.
Arthur expanded on the dangers of analytical leading from the head—how
“masterful” can get in the way—and how he encourages leading from the back:
That’s what you’re looking at when you see a facilitator facilitate, you’re
looking at the tip of the iceberg….You see the “what to do” but you don’t
see the “when to do” and “why.” And so they walk in the middle of the
circle and, “Oh! I got ahhh….I can do a clave here and an upbeat here. And
I’m gonna make people do this and do that.” And it just doesn’t work.
Because they’re not following the people who are following them. They’re
not meeting them where they are. They’re not listening to them. They’re
facilitating from these things in the back of the head where they saw some
person twiddle their fingers meant continue to play. They don’t know why
their sculpting out a song. They don’t even know if it’s a song that they’re
sculpting. So some of the best facilitators, some of the worst drummers.
For Kokomon, one of his responsibilities as a facilitator is to offer rhythms
that the group is able to follow:
In Mindful Drumming when we are [changing rhythms] I am very careful

about…not to have a train wreck…that is, half of the people or almost
everybody is feeling lost because it is too complicated or they hear a
conflict in time signatures.…I make it very clear.
Carolyn explained differences in her role depending upon the
circumstances. She shared about one ritual where she needed to be present:
I’m responsible for giving a response to a certain call or I’m responsible for
changing a rhythm in a certain time because of the song, I have to be
really…present. That’s why men cannot get possessed when they play that
drum. They’re responsible. You have to be not just present, but you have to
be present and thinking.
In a healing ritual, where songs are prayer, something different is required of
her—a letting go. Carolyn talked about how drumming evokes emotional states of
participants:
A lot of emotions come up when people play music together….And

especially in the drumming, because you’re manipulating right-left, right-
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left, right-left, which, it creates…chemicals in the brain, you know. It’s
creating and they talk about the neuro pathways are being created. So
emotions come up and you can see that sometimes people will break down
or they’ll say, they’ll talk about it. It happens a lot in the beginning classes,
you know….Sometimes singing will because, you know, they’ve been told
they can’t sing or, you know, stuff like that. Negative stuff.
Barbara shared how her role as facilitator involves sharing joy and strong
emotions:
I feel that my job on the planet is to share big love and joy with people.
Through drumming, I can do that and it’s okay. People don’t get scared. We
don’t have to do a lot of processing [laughter]. There’s no breaking up
[laughter]. Because it’s just there to be shared with whoever is there or isn’t
there.
Arthur shared about what he does to “fix things” when the group becomes
less connected, which begins by stopping everyone together:
And then you play with those people. You do call-and-response. You get
them back in the groove. You’re having a lot of fun. And away we go. And
then later on, you can go to the person who’s causing it and asking them to
play less notes or play anything they don’t already know or whatever it is
that you need to do to help them understand that they’re good enough and
we need their help. Rather than, “You don’t have to have to show us how
good you are all the time. In fact, you’re really good, I’m gonna showcase
you later. I want you to solo. But don’t show all the time for us. Give us
space. Do me favor, give me short blasts of grace and beauty.”
In his role as facilitator, Arthur shared a philosophy of “teaching without
teaching,” explaining, “What you’re doing is facilitating self-facilitation, letting
them [participants] understand the different elements of how a drum circle
works.” He described waiting for the majority to see the need to change
something about the drumming:
There are certain aspects of what music making is that you’ve given them
through those experiences that you’ve facilitated into the group. A
protocol that we do in the training. And you get them to the point where
they’re making their own music and you’re actually the facilitator you
wanted to be. At first you were a dictator. You’re dictating body language.
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When a transition point comes, I stay out of it and let them get really
worried…it’s a chaos that’s climbing up and things are about to fall over
and it’s all almost, [if] there’s a hundred people and I wait until 70
people’s heads are up going, “Oh my god! What’s happening? Oh no!”…
And you go in there and you mark the pulse. And you make it simple.
Simple is so important. And they get the pulse back together….Even
though it looks like you’re done, “All those people that still haven’t got it,
they’re still watching me.” And [I make] that gesture—open hands—
means “it’s up to you.”…So, it’s the gestalt of when the magic happens.
And the transition point calls me in. And I’m going, “How can I serve the
group at this point?”…And every time I do that, it trains them a little bit
about, oh! What can they do to help move beyond it.
Intention for Others.
All of the participants spoke eloquently about their intentions for their
participants; as Sahar shared, intention is “the main piece” that holds the container
during drumming. Kokomon shared, “We drum to open our hearts, and when we
open our hearts the whole idea is to bring Equilibrium.” He explained,
Mindful drumming, that is where we begin. The intention is set from the
very beginning that we are going to our happy home, happy house, happy
country. And so how do we get there? Through synchronized rhythms.
…In the beginning, [I explain] that we are going to synchronize the
rhythms and the way we do that is to get out of your head and watch my
hands and please let this all swing together.
Afia shared about her intention for others, which involves supporting each
individual:
My intention, usually, is to make sure everybody has their intention…so

that we can go on this journey together and that the journey can bring us
what we are intending….When I’m up there, drumming is the last thing on
my mind. I just…yes, we’re going to drum I’m casting for everybody to
have an experience. That is going to go inside of them. I’m not defining
what the inside looks like, but that energy will soften and warm up the
heart space so that we can continue to experience more intimacy in our
lives.…
My goal is to get everybody in the room [laughter]. And you know,
when I say “in the room” I mean not that they’re not already in the room
but, you know, sometimes we’re not in the room!
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When sharing her experience of racism and drumming, Afia also named the
intention of using her drumming work to heal and correct the presence of racism
(see Cultural Appropriation, Sexism, and Racism).
Barbara’s intention centers around teaching that the pulse is internal—in
the body—and that all people have rhythm yet they may be lacking in relationship
with the pulse:
People come to me and say, “I have no rhythm.” And I’ve said, “No, you
have rhythm. You walk, you don’t trip. You’re doing fine. You just don’t
know where that even lives in you.” My learning and my teaching was and
is to show people how to feel that pulse.
Arthur shared his intention for others, to begin where they are and help
them go deep:
I meet them where they’re at. I read the group and I try to be the
chameleon that meets their needs. And the objective is to create that safe
space where they feel they can openly share their true spirit. And it
manifests itself in the music. And by the end, you can get to the deep stuff.
You can go to that place. And every once in a while, you can get lucky
enough to go to that place in the middle of a fifth grade school assembly.
It’s a mission….
It’s rediscovering, uncovering the rhythmical spirit that you had as a
child and helping everybody do that in some way.
Carolyn differentiated between intentions she holds for whenever she
drums, and for healing, ritual, and her classes. For example, she talked about “a
certain kind of space” that is “outside of mind”:
The thinking mind stops…and you become fully in the present. That’s
always what I am hoping for….I try to get people there, like, when I teach
congas, my intention is to get them playing and singing…because when
they get in that space, there’s a healing that happens. And they all, they love
it. That’s what keeps them coming back. Because when that happens, it’s
joyful. You can feel it, you can….Everybody starts to smile. Something else
happens in that room.
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Intention for Self.
Three participants (Arthur, Billy, Carolyn) specifically named an intention
that they hold for self. Carolyn said her intention for self is to “really stay focused
and try to practice to learn.” Additionally, she shared:
I think I’m always trying to get in a space, in a certain kind of space,

whenever I drum. Because it’s those times when you get in that space that’s
what keeps you wanting to do it in a way. And the space is really…it’s
outside of mind. [Laughter]
During hands-on healing, Carolyn strives “to connect deeply to what’s
going out in the room to facilitate that healing.” She explained that her intention
for ritual “is to go into that other dimension…to unlock that other dimension so
that we’re not trapped in our monkey mind. That’s my intention to get fully in the
present moment.” Billy’s intention for himself is simple but hard to attain:
I never try to create anything new, anything different. I just really try to
serve the purpose of being uniquely myself in the musical experience. And
it took me many years to try to share that with others in a group because
what I would have…really wasn’t sharing with them was my experience. I
was trying to help usher that out of them, that exact same thing, allow that
to take place in them, for themselves. And it would. It would. And maybe
that was the healing that would take place. Many of them had never been in
that place before in their lives. It’s a good place to be. [Laughter]
Arthur’s intention for himself relates to his intention for the group: “Facilitate
self-facilitation, okay. It’s all about learning how to make your job as a drum
circle facilitator obsolete by the end of the program.”
Changing the Rhythm.
Three participants (Afia, Carolyn, Kokomon) talked about changing the
rhythm of the group as part of their facilitation. Although Carolyn’s work
involves drumming and singing, the rhythm is part of the language and part of the
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message. She described “changing the rhythms” and the need to have a large
repertoire of rhythms:
The drummers have to be able to follow the singer…because every single

song has a specific rhythm. So that means they’re constantly changing
rhythms and tempos and….It’s very difficult. And the repertoire is huge.
Can you imagine that every song has a specific rhythm and there’s
thousands and thousands of songs? [Laughter] You have to know it. It’s a
language. So it’s not just the language in the song, the singing of the
words, but the rhythm, the drumming is a language, as well.
She then specifically described how in her tradition, the drumming facilitator is a
shaman who guides the language of the drumming to send specific messages to
the Orishas (spirits).
A really good what we call an Agpon, the Shaman, understands the

language so they’re not just singing….They have to understand what it is
they’re telling the Orisha, what they’re telling them. And so the drum
follows that language as well. The drum has to answer in kind…
Carolyn also shared how sometimes the drumming rhythm and the singing must
match:
Some of the songs are exactly played on the drums….So the drum is
playing exactly what the singer is singing. Because in Africa, originally,
the drums spoke. They spoke everything—the poetry, of what we call
Ariki, the old stories of the first people, the first humans that were on the
planet—their stories of them. And the drums told those stories. So they’re
playing exactly what the singer’s singing.
Both Afia and Kokomon select a rhythm to have a specific effect for the
group. Afia shared:
I sometimes have a teaching that particularly relates to what someone is

asking me to bring, you know. If there’s a grief workshop, for instance, and
I’m doing a grief ceremony, I’m going to bring rhythms that help to move
that. And I’m going to play with it in a particular way with people. They
say, “Oh we want something…we have these….” A lot of the time in a
university setting when we’re talking, everybody’s going to school and
everybody in the room’s going to be a leader, or everybody’s going to be
some skilled person, they’re going to get their degree and have a stamp of
approval by the university, I start with Lamba. Because Lamba is about
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being griots, and griots are keepers of traditions in Guinea on that. So I
have traditional rhythms from Africa that I bring into the mix.
Kokomon described his embodied empathic experiences that lead him to change
the rhythms (see Embodied Empathy—Empathic Presence). Although he tells his
participants to drum together, that doesn’t always happen—especially in the
beginning of the session:
If it [synchronized drumming] doesn’t work it becomes a train wreck….So

I see something happening at the very beginning of the drumming…the
very first 15 minutes. I see a crash…because people are just like, “I’m
here, I just came by myself, and I’m not going to pay attention to anybody.
I’m just looking at Kokomon’s hands.” There is more than just looking at
Kokomon’s hands—you also have to coordinate your hands with
Kokomon’s hands, and everybody’s hands.
But after 15 minutes they are like, “Oh, okay.” Without me needing to
say, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are going like this.” So the way I solve
that [train wreck] is changing rhythms. And challenging them. That’s how
we dissipate that energy, and they have a communal experience.
Two of his intentions for the group in Mindful Drumming are to create
community and reach equilibrium. Kokomon believes that awareness and
presence are key factors in achieving these states. Therefore, he changes the
rhythm if people “become complacent” or “so uncomfortable with it.” He stated:
So the same also happens when I change the rhythm and everybody has to
do it. We all have to do that and that happens for a different reason and that
reason has to do with: We cannot become complacent. In other words, that
we are so comfortable that “Okay, this is it.” No.
Finally, he emphasized how different rhythms work with different people, and with
different emotional states or needs.
We also have to recognize that we all come with different fears. All of us
when we come to drum…we come with different needs. And I even tell
people “I don’t want to hear why you come to drum.” But as we drum and
change different rhythm…so one rhythm will work for you…will work for
your need and why you came. But it will not work for Marianna or for John
because John came because his wife is leaving him and that’s why he came.
And so we need a different rhythm to work with him so that he can work on
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why he is here. Or a combination of a rhythm that will work for you and a
new rhythm will work for him.
Containing the Experience for Everyone—Temenos
This broadest theme, intertwined with all of the others, concerns how
these Masterful Drummers contain the experience for the entire group. All
described how they deliberately create a safe container for their participants—a
sacred space for potential transformation or temenos (Madden, 2003, p. 274;
Woodman, 1985, p. 40). For example, April’s attention is always on holding the
container when singing at the drum:
If it’s songs teaching new people, then my eyes drift off the drum not
directly on the new singer but to the side where I can get a peripheral to
see what their needs might be….
There’s always something in addition to singing of the songs, even
when I’m paying attention to the song. If it’s a crossing song, I’m thinking
of the family and being prayerful of their adjustment to the one, the loved
one who’s gone on. Then it takes you into, “What is going on after life?
And how are they doing and what might they need? Do we take care of
this?” It’s always very full, very full. I don’t know that anyone that I’ve
ever spoken with just sings the song. There’s always something else that
comes with it.
Glen’s containing and holding for his participants concerns connecting to the
energies and the spiritual energy—the “power of the group”:
There are energies in the group that really contribute to the stability or the
potential of the power of the group. That’s a big part of it…connecting
with that. You can feel all this stuff going on, and even when there’s a lot
of anxiety or something, there’s usually some very strong energies…that
will go hand in hand with you in supporting guiding in a different way….
The preparation that you do to be there and so that you can trust that
your intuition will guide in a certain way…it feels like you are placed
there for a reason and the reason is, that you can be a good support in that
situation. Then all the work that you’ve done is, you’re letting that support
you and it definitely comes through.
It’s all…about spiritual energy, ultimately. It’s about spiritual energy
and all that means. I mean it’s a huge, huge, I’ll just say…a huge area to
get into. It’s that the…spirit of support is…what I’m really interested [in]
or really feel that’s important. And then…there’s people in the group that
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will help you in that process. So part of the…skill is to draw those people
living with you and then we’ll draw everybody with us. That’s why
it’s…just finding those people and then sharing the guidance with them.
Within this theme of temenos, three subthemes emerged: Relationship to
Rhythm and Drum, Circle as a Container for Community, and Opening and
Closing the Gathering.
Relationship to Rhythm and Drum.
All participants acknowledged that each of the different rhythms for
particular events and ceremonies (e.g., for communication, medicine, and
forgiveness) is experienced differently. Barbara shared that her relationship to the
drum and rhythm started very early:
I was led to the drum. The drum called to me loud and clear as it has for
most of my life. It wasn’t a choice because I was always hearing rhythms
everywhere. When I was five years old, my mom took me to Sears Roebuck
to shop with her, which I didn’t enjoy a lot. But when she was doing
something, I wandered around and saw a toy drum on a low shelf that I
could reach [laughter]. I was only five. I sat down and started playing the
drum and I just told her, “I have to have this drum.” I don’t know if she was
listening to me or not at first, but I insisted on having the drum. And she got
it for me. That was the first actual drum I had. It didn’t last long, however.
Then it was on to pots and pans for a while.
Glen’s relationship to the drum also began very young and has always been strong.
Glen shared how he was attracted to the drum at a very young age: “I was always
interested in the drums. I always was attracted to drumming….I started at about
eight…tak[ing] lessons on the drum set with my uncle….I just was always very
motivated and very interested in it.” He grew up drumming with his hands, but
discovered his deep love for the frame drum at age 28, through a South Indian
drumming teacher.
As soon as I saw [him play that way], I said, “Let’s study that. I’m real
interested.”…That was a seminal moment because from then until now, I’ve
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been focused on [the frame drum]. It was like that I always loved drumming
of whatever kind it was, but until that point, I didn’t know how intensely I
would be drawn to one particular aspect of it.
Billy’s relationship to the drum is based in love and connection to a
“higher source”:
I’ve always loved playing music and there is a love that builds within me
that wants to come out that I seem to have been given the talent to express it
to the degree that others have felt that. And I’m still into doing that because
I work with groups and we’re exploring chanting, which devotional
chanting, the basis of it is our expression of our love to a higher source,
removing any need for a claim or self-expression, but kind of letting God
play through us to play to hear for himself. He is playing us to listen to
himself playing. And that, for me, has taken a lot of selflessness in my own
personal life. And it has allowed me to play far beyond my abilities. It’s
allowed me to tap into an innate talent and to my amazement, it has moved
others. I didn’t seek to move other people playing music. Some artists may
have, sought for fame, you know, or however they would define that. “I’m
going to be this great artist. People are going to buy my records.” I was
never interested in that. Because I’ve done most of my playing alone. I
don’t practice. I play. I have this sense that even if no one is listening,
creation itself is hearing what’s taking place. And I’m engaged in that
because I’m here. And there’s been very, very funny things [laughter] that
have happened in that.
Carolyn described her “calling”:
It’s my calling. It’s my destiny. In Cuba, the priest told me that as long as I
had a drum in front of me that everything was going to be fine, not to worry
about anything in life. Cause a drum…has taken care of me. I’m grateful…I
stop worrying [laughter].…That’s the point. I stop worrying.
She sees the drum as connecting people:
The drum has a powerful message in the community because rhythm is

what holds our universe together….To me, to be a drummer is to be…I
have to be of service because to me what the drum means is community. It’s
communal. The drum calls people to it. It creates community. It’s
charismatic and it has a magnetic pull. And it’s not just in this culture but in
every culture. Drum is medicine….Drum communicates….
April emphasized that the drum is not a toy:
We don’t play with the drum. In the same way, “Can I play with your
stethoscope? Can I play with your electrocardiogram? Can I play with your
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drugs?” Those are things that are used in a specific way. We sing at the
drum—we don’t play….Your role is to sing the prayers. You’re a singer.
And we don’t play. We sing. [Laughter]
April explained that there is value in all rhythm, including those experienced as
dissonant or inharmonious:
That discord or negative rhythm I believe is there, probably to remind us to

start seeking something a little better. So in everything, in communication,
in being by ourselves, in singing, being at the drum, everything is in a
constant motion and rhythm. And we know that from our world. And just
our bodies…all of those things.
Arthur shared his view of the drum as a tool, with the focus on the rhythm:
The drum is the tool for expression, the tool for finding…the natural spirit
that you owned as a child and that was pounded out of you as you were
forced to become a-dult. D-U-L-T….There’s so many uh, different ways
this can be applied by so many different people for so many different
reasons. It is a malleable tool that cannot harm. It can…it just makes the
world a better place. One person at a time, one beat at a time….Nothing led
me to play the drum...My mom said that I was drumming in her third
trimester. So, I didn’t make a choice. It wasn’t about the drum anyway. And
it still isn’t about the drum, even though it seems that way. And that is…the
drum is the tool. But to me, it was about rhythms.
Three participants (Arthur, Billy, Kokomon) stressed the universal human
access to rhythm. Describing his childhood, Arthur shared: “It’s about rhythm. It
wasn’t about the drums.” In relating his experience of holding the group, he stated
that rhythm is something that we as human beings are born with, and offered an
example of what it looks like to have that openness of children:
Fulfillment…a whole ten minutes I can sit and play and just be part of this
body—living, breathing, conscious, entity—made up of all these different
parts of itself. Uncovering, recovering and discovering the childish innocent
rhythmical spirit we all were born naturally with.
In describing his lived experience of rhythm, Arthur shared a story from one of
his students and his response to a question that the student asked of him:
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“At the end of the program, it was raining. And I had the umbrella out.
And all of a sudden, I heard the raindrops on my umbrella play a song.
And I was really amused by that. But then I realized I was hopping over
the puddles and that there was a rhythm in that and the conversation
between the two people in front of me as they were running to their car,
they were old friends and they had their rhythm. And then there was the
windshield wipers on the car as I was driving home. And I….And the
bumps, the familiar bumps in the road that I knew were that there and I
was totally unconscious about all the time, that I knew that they were
there. Now they were there. And I could feel the rhythm of the road and I
got to the house and I was in this rhythm trance and I opened up the door.
Instead of walking in, I listened to the rhythm of the house and my kids
and the wife cooking and…I took a shower.”
And then, you know, he kept on going on and on about every
experience he had. He was very much aware of the rhythm…
He goes, “Is that what happens to you after every training?”
And I told him, from the very beginning of our conversation
remember, my answer was, “That’s what happens to me every minute of
my life.”
Billy has also experienced rhythm as all-pervasive, particularly in nature:
In playing to nature….Well I’ve sat out in the woods and I’ve tried to play
the breeze going through the trees and play the rhythm with that. And then
suddenly right in incorporated with your rhythm on what I am playing, there
will be a bird that is calling in the rhythm of what’s taking place. That has
been a very fascinating experience. And a variety of other things. So it’s
been trying to harmonize with all of life through music.
Kokomon’s relationship to the drum is similarly based in the universality of
rhythm:
A lot of times I refuse to talk about this [philosophy] because it creates

fear. Drumming is more than just drumming…When we talk about the
idea of rhythm and sound, they are twin realities. They are spirits… both
of them in their own right. That’s who we are.
It is because of these two spirits that you may have heard some people
say we are humans having spiritual experience. We are Spiritual beings
having a human experience…Sometimes they say Rhythm is a spirit by
itself….Patterns are another way to call Rhythms. Patterns are rhythm.
And so there are all kinds of patterns. And this concept of patterns, if you
truly understand how it works… is that our life is rhythmic. And the kind
of rituals we do every day becomes patterns. And sometimes when we
break it, something happens that we don’t know why we are having a
difficulty… because we have broken a rhythmic pattern. [Laughter]
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Three participants (April, Carolyn, Sahar) described the healing potential
of drum and rhythm. For Carolyn and others she has known, the drum “unlocks” a
healing dimension:
The potency of the drum as a medicinal instrument…can’t be

overestimated…it’s just really kind of incomprehensible. I’ve seen
amazing things. People healing each other in trance. People telling each
other, “You’re sick. You have to go to the doctor. You have cancer…the
doctor will tell you no but you, you have to have an x-ray.” When they
have the x-ray, they find out they have cancer. So lots of miracles happen
through the conduit of that language…
There are other dimensions in this room besides the one that we can
see each other and we’re hearing each other….There’s more going on than
we know, than we can comprehend….The veil is very thin if you are open
to that awareness…if you are open to it…that drum is a conduit. It’s a key
in a lock. The drum unlocks…[the drum] has the power inside of that
collective consciousness to unlock that veil…and bring it [that power] into
this dimension…so we can see it, hear it, talk to it, and be healed by it.
Sahar recognizes rhythm as medicine:
I’m in a circle and someone’s friend died. Oh, all right, well there’s a
rhythm for that. Rhythms are medicine. Rhythms have the capacity to
support people in expressing a way that is of, as a medicinal way to allow
that to come through from perhaps a stuck, repressed place. To be
expressed. Whoo! To allow healing. To allow life into them and through
them again. And I recognize how each rhythm is medicine and what kind of
medicine it is. So how that medicine can be applied in that moment….It
might be also…that we want to use rockin’ rhythm. The medicine of rock
and roll, you know, because right now people are feeling a certain way.
Sahar’s sense of the healing potential extends beyond the physical into the
interpersonal realm: “[something that] so heartens me...is drumming as a tool for
conflict resolution.” April shared a story about how her group can reach a state of
connection through rhythm, and how that state of connection has ripple effects of
healing in the world around them:
And the really cool one is when you’re in a rhythm of communication that
works like a song, where you’re singing and you’re looking across at those
people who are singing with you, and you go, “Yeah,” without saying it
because you’re singing the song. But, “Yeah, I did see that,” and you just
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know what they’re thinking and saying. And then the song’s done. “I
agree!” And so you’re, “Yes! That’s where we’re gonna do this or gonna
do that,” or “Yes, I saw that person, let’s call them over,” or “Let’s give
that little girl….”
All of us will just say, “Yeah. Let’s give that little girl a CD.” Because
we saw her…she was looking at these….And we gave her the CD and she
comes over and she’s, “Oh, I wish I could…” and she’s starts talking
about being a girl and how her brothers are dancers and she was always
put down, you know. She couldn’t do….
Everyone just at the same moment, saw it on all of our faces. That’s
rhythm that came across that arena, of that little spirit who hooked up with
our rhythm and wow! How do you do that? I don’t know. It’s really
magic. It’s really magic.
But it’s so common…and that’s what the drum is about. It’s hooking
up, hooking up with those kinds of things. And that’s the healing, not just
physically or mentally, psychologically, metabolic. It’s totally. There’s
just a total healing that can come from that and pulls people in from all
directions. Heartbeat of mother earth, it’s that first beat you know.
Everyone has that and it draws people from everywhere.
April and Kokomon both emphasized movement and rhythm. April added
about the movement of each rhythm:
In singing a song, the rhythm of that song in the moment could not be
duplicated in the next moment nor could it for a ceremony or a birthday
party or a guest who came, that there are rhythms that move every exacting
moment, every second, nano second. It’s a constant rhythm. When we link
up and we try to ride it for a while then it’s really good [laughter].
Hopefully, we don’t want to hang on the ones that are not moving so well.
Kokomon talked about the importance of the drum to him as a means of “moving”
people:
From a spiritual perspective or from wherever you want to call it, that it
become a human application so to speak that every where you go everyone
agree that this instrument can be the vehicle that can take us from Point A to
Point B. That is my findings. That then became important to me because it
validated what my people have been saying all along that I did not
understand or I think is hocus-pocus. That actually it is a scientific reason
why the drum is the right instrument because you asked that question.
Kokomon gave two examples of what “moving from Point A to Point B” might be
for those who are drumming:
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When we are locked into…pain and resentment, it comes from the past.
Something somebody did to you is in the past. And it is difficult to let
go…So when we get into the rhythm we can use it as a healing modality
for forgiveness. What sets in is amnesia. That’s how the healing takes
place. Rhythm is not interested in tomorrow or interested in yesterday.
Rhythm is what we are doing. Right now. And we bring all our
consciousness to it…Amnesia immediately sets in. Like, oohhh…it never
happened. That it never happened. Haaaaaa…[exhale] we can move
forward.
Rhythm is the best medicine for doing forgiveness work. Isn’t that
beautiful? That community of Mindful Drumming format [Kokomon is
referring to a particular format that he has designed called “Mindful
Drumming Meditation”]. That forgiveness can happen on a larger scale.
It’s really beautiful isn’t it?
He also described the movement as the change from active mind to still mind:
When we sit down to meditate it takes some time to quiet the mind because
all kinds of things are still dancing in the brain. The mind is like a monkey.
You can’t shut it down. That is its nature. Rhythm shuts it down in three
minutes. And how and why is that?
He then described why or how Mindful Drumming calms the mind:
When you are playing the same rhythm…for example, you and some
friends are playing the same rhythm…the very first minute, the mind will be
questioning, “Where are we going with this? When are we going to change
it?” What is going on…how to process the information that is coming. How
to process…meaning, “this is the rhythm: Bom Bom Bom.” The mind is
asking: “Are we going to change to Bom Bom?” No. We are doing Bom
Bom Bom. The mind says, “Ahhhhh….” The mind literally throws its hands
up, and says: “We have recorded Bom Bom Bom. Give us new information.”
No new information is coming. You are going to get Bom Bom Bom. At that
moment everything stops. Everything meaning: Reasoning, rationale,
cognitive, business. All that comes to a standstill. That’s when the rest
happens. Healing has happened. We have made a jump. When I say a jump
all kinds of stuff begin to happen.
Three participants (Afia, Carolyn, Glen) find purpose in connections to
history of the drum. Glen shared that discovering the ancient lineage of the frame
drum in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and cultures of the Middle East gave him a sense
of connection and purpose:
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Most of those drummers were part of very old lineages from their cultures,
the Egyptian-Arabic drummers and the Middle Eastern drummers, of
various places: Central Asia, South India, all those connections.…When I
discovered that, I realized that’s really what I’m connected with—those
ancient drummers. It gave me, really, a lot of sense of purpose to realize
I’ve rediscovered, I’m rediscovering something that has been interrupted.
The story line has been interrupted in Western culture, and I’m bringing it
to…back to the surface, for the public now.
So that…gives a lot of motivation, lot of feeling of this mission of
doing that—bringing that back—and also this connection with the
community of drummers from back then. Because when you look at the
visual representations, they’re doing exactly what I’m doing. They’re
holding the drums the same way. They’re playing with other musicians—
harp players, and flute players, etcetera. They’re also playing in groups.
All this connects with what I’m doing now because it makes me feel as
though, “Oh, I’m just a continuation of something that’s from then.”
Afia described how the ancient ways of being with rhythm and the drum
inform and add to how she holds her teaching:
I talk about the ancient through the drum, what the drum has brought to us,
the ancient pathway, how the drum has been held by women—the African
women, how they…were most crucial in the development of the rhythms
we now call traditional rhythms. They played it in the mortar and the
pestle when they were preparing their food for their families, for the
village. They would beat these “dididididi-dup, dididididi, didi, didi,
didididi…. [drumming sound effects].” And there would be three or four
people pounding away at that rice, because one person doing a whole
mortar full of grain or palm nuts would take days. So three people were
doing it and creating a pattern that syncopated with [snapping fingers] fast.
And some of these particular things that they were…preparing have
different consistencies.…When they would hull the rice, they would put it
in a basket and they would throw the basket up in the air with a particular
rhythm that would then get the hulls off the basket and keep the rice in
it…[sound effects], right. And you’re standing there watching that….This
is the birth place, the mommas. Nursing the babies—I watched them. They
carry the baby on their back and then they hit the baby [clapping hands] in
rhythm to get them to come out alive. Mommas, this is ancient. So I teach
this part everywhere I go, so that people who come to me are walking
away with something that’s other than just a rhythm, other than just some
cool thing you learned….They’re walking away with a piece of the ancient
back intact. Because I don’t think we’re separated from the ancient—we
are separated from it, but it’s there. But we need to be intact. We need to
back inside….That’s…part of the way I hold this thing.
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For Carolyn, the drum’s connection to community and to human history
sets it apart from other instruments:
A drummer is more than…playing a drum is different from playing other

instruments, to me. You know, cause you don’t get many violin players that
sit in a circle and just play with each other….The drum is accompanied by
other drums…and the drum really has a powerful message in community.
And it always has…Rhythm is what holds our whole universe together…
The drum is beyond comprehension…and it’s older than our language. So
to me, to be a drummer is not just playing an instrument….I have to be of
service….To me what the drum means it’s community. It’s communal. It’s
an instrument that you can sit up here all day long and play by
yourself…but it’s not the same as when you’re playing with other
drummers.
Circle as a Container for Community.
One of the most commonly shared themes is that of the “circle.” All
participants said that when they gather as a group, the circle is the most natural
form in which to sit. Participants used phrases such as “feminine” (Barbara), “a
feeling of equality rather than hierarchy” (Barbara), “It’s all a circle” (April),
“sense of community” (Sahar), and “no hierarchical positioning” (Arthur).
Barbara described her use of the circle as follows:
We bow to the center of the circle. We’re always in a circle when I teach.
And I love to perform in a circle but it’s not nice for the audience to feel
left out [laughter]. So I always do a semicircle WHEN performing with a
group of drummers. We sit in a circle and we stand up…and bow to the
center.
Barbara shared that for her the significance of gathering in a circle has a primary
function in that it “connects people…it brings people together.” In amplifying her
experience, she stated that all individuals are able to see each other and then
described a deeper meaning in holding this format:
If you’re sitting in rows upon rows, sometimes you can’t see through
people, and people can’t see through people to see you from the other side.
And the circle sets up a feeling of equality, rather than hierarchy. There’s
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not one person up on the stage and a bunch of people down [below]
listening to them.…It’s a very feminine form, very feminine principle form.
It’s been used all through time…The drum is round…the circle really lends
itself to a feeling of equality. There’s no one person that’s standing out.
Sahar described how the circle lets all the drummers see each others
hands:
And when you’re in a circle, peripheral vision will allow us to see all the
drums and all the hands. How beautiful is that. You can see every single
one in the circle at the same time….Each person and the leader facilitator
sits as one of these people as well. All parts are equal. You can see when
you’re sitting in a circle, you can see all of the drums in the circle. You
can see all of the hands and all of the people. So what better way to align
with rhythmically, to align with the other hands and to align with sonically
than through sitting in a circle? Immediately [fingers clicking] people get
it. They get that sense of community, of tribe, of belonging, of love, of fun
where they’re little kids, you know. Our inner children just start come out
and going [exaggerated voice] “Wow! This so fun!”
April talked about the circle and how it informs one’s orientation in life:
I’ve always been taught that you sit in a circle, and you will remember
this—that you pass in a clockwise direction, because we look ahead to our
life and we see our sun rise on the horizon on the East and it sets
apparently sets, but you know, we are just going in that circle, to the West.
And that’s a clockwise direction. Unless you’re on Ceremony and your
hearts to the fire, and then you go counter clockwise. But in that positive,
forward direction, not going backwards in our life, you go clockwise. And
we move that way around the drum.
And once you smudge and you sit at the drum…once you have your
drum family [group] together, in the same way that we’re having dinner
together, we might lock the door but we don’t just let anyone come
walking through the door and cross through our family and bump our
babies and you know, touch our family members. With our drum, we
don’t either. And I’ve always been taught that—that you don’t let people
cross through your drum circle. Why anyone would want to do that, I
don’t know. Well, except they don’t know or they’re mean-spirited.
But we always would go out of our way to say, “Hello,” to people
around us and we share gifts from our drum.
For Carolyn, the circle helps open people’s minds:
I don’t teach in a line with me in front of the line. I always teach in a circle.
And just even by virtue…of making a circle, we are already opening the
door to…energy. Because it’s a circle and not a line [laughter]. There’s a lot
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of…alchemy, you know…the laws of the universe, really. Everything is in a
circle. Everything [laughter]. So, it works!
Billy shared how the circle has been held as a sacred space for community
gathering:
And every time we would have these circles, I would always set up an altar
in the middle of the room and I would ask people to bring loose, sacred
objects and different things like that, that they might find or they might have
with them. You know, it’s your personal concept….We’re all here together.
It’s a community thing. It’s a community sacred ritual. And so over the
years, they kept bringing the same object and putting it on the altar and
stuff.
Afia talked about holding the container through the circle of the drum and
through grounding to the earth:
You know the drum is a container, right? It’s that circle. It’s that container
that holds. It’s a vessel. So energetically, I feel, yeah! That I can lift, I can
hold so much of whatever…I can hold it with people. There’s a way when
I’m holding the space, like my arms are so big….So that’s what I’m
holding, I think—is that bigger picture of how the heck are we going to
transition our species? And isn’t it part of my responsibility too? Help
hold that container.
Sometimes…I get people to root themselves from their feet down into
the earth and get connected into spirit that’s down there, underneath, way
down, as far as the roots can grow, into the earth, anchoring into the rock,
finding the source of water there, because it’s in there.
Opening and Closing the Gathering.
The last element of the container involves specific ways of opening or
closing the drumming gathering. Although some may find an overlap with Being
a Masterful Drummer: Preparation for the Group above, the specific ways that
these participants opened and closed the gatherings are distinct from the idea of
asking for advance preparation, and address how to create the special environment
they seek. All participants described protocols that help them create, shape, and
release the container for the group. In her circle of drummers (or semicircle if
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there is an audience), Barbara begins with all drummers bowing to the center of
the circle. Then:
I’ll say some welcoming words, whatever comes to mind and heart. And
then we each bow to everybody until we’ve looked in everybody’s eyes and
really arrive with each other….It’s a simple, simple ritual to do but it really
brings people together quickly and opens and contains the circle beautifully.
Kokomon’s gatherings occur on Friday evenings, when many people are finishing
a long work week, and his opening choices reflect his care for his participants:
In the beginning of our drumming I ask people if they are tired they can just
rest their hands on their drum. And this last month…a lot of people had that
option. And they shared with us in the end their experience without
drumming resting their hands on the drum…they had an experience of how
the rhythms were coming through the drum and what it feels like and so and
so forth.
Sahar asks his participants to check in by drumming their feelings, rather than
speaking:
The way I’ll start the evening is to invite people to, rather than speak their
check-in, speak, “Oh, this is what I’m feeling. This is what I did today. This
is…conflict” or whatever the events of the day were, just drum for a
moment. Each person, one at a time, no matter their level of play and to let
go of technique. This isn’t about getting technique. In fact, just letting go of
everything you know so you can just allow your emotions to—whoo!—
play, express what you’re feeling. And what’s remarkable is people get to
see, get to hear, that no matter what their level of play, it’s profound. When
they allow themselves to express their emotions into their drum, what we
hear is life, is aliveness, is what we go to performances for—is to
vicariously have an experience of our own life. And no matter their
technical ability, it’s there.
Arthur shared his ground rules for opening a group:
What we do in drum call is follow some protocols, read the group, establish
rapport…the essence of what it is this is about—sharing your rhythmical
spirit...there are some rules. It’s about respect and listening and support and
stuff like that. But the rules aren’t written on a wall.
For Arthur physically, opening a group includes that he ground himself in the
venue:
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When you’re doing this kind of deep, deep work, you can get lost in it very
easily. Okay. And so, what you want to do is make sure that you set up an
anchor for yourself—a corner of the room…a particular drum, something.
And you go, “Okay. Listen, if I get lost, I’m going to come back here. And
I’m going to find all of me here.”
April shared the difference between how she opens and closes when
singing at the drum:
We are absolutely singing the prayers and it’s for every person to take what
they need from that. We may introduce the song ahead, “This song is a
prayer,” and we may say what the language means. But we don’t finish with
the song and say, “That was a prayer and this is what it means.” That’s very
different.
Her goal as a drum keeper and a member of a drum group is to be in service to the
community. She described her relationship to the use of protocols:
I see [protocols] as critical in terms of using the drum for healing, or

counseling, or therapy. By following those sorts of protocols, it makes
perfect sense. And when you recognize that the drum is the heartbeat of
Mother Earth, and in every culture all around the world, that drumbeat,
that basic rhythm is drawing people, then you have a means by which for
them to heal. So drum makes sense.
Kokomon and Afia both include time for a closing sharing after the
drumming. Kokomon shared, “We spend some time for people to talk about what
happened. So, let’s say, we spend another 30 minutes to talk.” Afia reflected:
And at the end, I always, 90% of the time, close the circle with everybody
together holding hands and [sharing] one word or one experience that they
are leaving with or something that they feel have been transformed in their
own lives in this moment. How are you feeling in your body right now?
That’s always a telling. Joyful, enlivened, enriched, strong, peaceful, part
of something.
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CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION
“It is the experience of our embodiment that gives us the experience of

being alive…. Each and everyone of us shares in the process of
embodiment.”
–Stanley Keleman (1999, p. 4)
This chapter opens with a summary of the results, followed by a reflection
on the multicultural nature of the study, and a retrospective regarding the
appropriateness of the selected methodology. Next, a discussion of the challenge
of giving language to this particular experience sets the stage for a final
consideration of the research question. I then explore the findings in light of
existing literature, before presenting the limitations, clinical implications,
recommendations for future research, and concluding remarks.
Summary of Results
Six themes emerged in this study, as follows:
• Sensory Awareness—Bodily Receptivity
• Space Between the Beats—Portal to the Numinous
• Embodied Empathy—Empathic Presence
• Entrainment as an Alternative State
• Being a Masterful Drummer
• Containing the Experience for Everyone—Temenos
These themes reflect how the drum is the larger container for the experience, the
drumming flows from the direct movement of the body, and the body is the vessel
for the lived experiences. The six themes are briefly summarized as follows.
The theme of Sensory Awareness—Bodily Receptivity contains
descriptions of the bodily felt sense of the nine Masterful Drummers. The
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participants located the body as the vessel for their experience—the ground for
their lived experience—and so this theme is listed first. Drumming is a bodily
experience—all unfolds from body. The participant’s journey begins with body.
The body is a container of experience that includes a range of emotional states, as
well as a sense of stillness. Some of the Masterful Drummers described an
intimate relationship to or with their hands, while others have an experience of
their hands as having a wisdom and intuitive sense of their own. This theme
includes three subthemes: bodily metaphorical expression; an intimate
relationship with one’s hands, or hands having their own innate wisdom; and
hearing (including the experience of listening beyond the capacity of the ear
itself).
The Space Between the Beats—Portal to the Numinous flows from the
Masterful Drummer’s bodily experience. This space is described as a “place”
where there may be an experience of stillness, pleasure, presence, or going
beyond the boundaries of the body to transcend space and time to a place of
unconditional love and spiritual sacred understanding. Participants described a
sense of alternative states, as well as movement into something larger than
themselves.
The theme of Embodied Empathy—Empathic Presence contains the
experience of transcending the boundaries (using words such as expansiveness) of
one’s body to experience a connectedness with others, emotionally and spiritually.
Participants described their shared sense of the other drummers and the group
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experience of stillness and peace, their experience of listening beyond the ears
alone provides rich empathic connection to others.
In Entrainment as an Alternative State, participants described an uplifting
energy during synchronized drumming–an experience of connection and
interconnection, a sense of transcending the boundaries of one’s physical body to
experience “ becoming one” with the group spiritually, psychologically, and
emotionally. Two participants described a sense of flying while simultaneously
feeling grounded in bodily senses. All shared a strong sense of joy or love in this
state.
The theme of Being a Masterful Drummer contains specific ways these
nine Masterful Drummers address their role as facilitator so as to create the
experience that each of them individually offers to the participants of their
drumming gatherings. They hold significant intention for self and group using
phrases such as “to be a support,” “creating equilibrium,” “sharing happiness,”
“joy,” and “to be of service.” Self-preparation is very important, either through
specific practices or through one’s entire lifestyle. Group preparation focused on
encouraging participants to step into the moment and out of their judging mind.
The specific role the nine Masterful Drummers see themselves holding as
facilitator covered being in service to others, the importance of offering easy
rhythms to the group, and “sharing joy and strong emotions.” Three of the
participants described a conscious attention to not take on the position that the
facilitator must “fix things.” The act of changing the rhythm is revealed to hold a
purposeful decision driven by specifics such as, but not limited to, spiritual
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practice, bringing the group back to the room (presence), and empathic sense of
the emotional states and needs of the group.
The theme Containing the Experience for Everyone—Temenos contains
the practices Masterful Drummers use to create a safe container for their
participants. Five (Kokomon, Barbara, Billy, Glen, Arthur) were called to begin
drumming at an early age (4-10 years) and for all but one (Carolyn), drumming
was around them growing up. All nine emphasized rhythm and drum as
“everything”—a foundation of human experience. All use the circle as the shape
for their group, because it allows the best connection among them, without
hierarchy. The circle enhanced their efforts to build community. Each has their
own specific ways to open and close a drumming gathering, aimed at creating a
safe space and helping participants process the experience.
Conducting a Multicultural Study
According to the field of multicultural counseling (Arredondo & Glauner,
1992, as cited in Arredondo & Rice, 2004),
More culture-specific practices or alternative approaches to treatment may

better demonstrate respect for a client’s worldview and culture. Rituals
allow for spiritual and religious expression and also acknowledge
individuals’ history and reminders of that history in contemporary life.
Brought into a counseling session or as part of a community-based
experience, rituals and other practices serve to validate salient dimensions
of an individual’s identity contributing to cultural self-efficacy. (p. 84)
This perspective is supported by the Guidelines on Multicultural Education,
Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists
(American Psychological Association, 2002). Discussing these guidelines,
Arredondo and Rice (2004) explain that the orientations, practices, and services of
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the providers “must be adapted to particular contexts in order to be relevant and
useful for different client constituencies” (p. 84). Honoring and respecting
multicultural populations in the therapy room in this way directly impacts
empowerment, a developmental process, that “refers to a sense of personal power,
confidence, and positive self-esteem” (Arredondo, 1996, as cited in Arredondo &
Rice, 2004, p. 85).
The use of the drum for ritual and ceremony has been restricted in many
cultures to males (Gioia, 2006, p. 162; Redmond, 1997), and as the results of the
present study show, this is not just a historical problem. Eight of the Masterful
Drummers in this study commented on gender restrictions as they had observed or
experienced them. In We Do It This Way (Go Forth & Maxwell-Powell, 2014), 21
women singers (at the drum) share their experiences, and all mention this bias
against women drummers. Wilfred Buck of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation
eloquently sums this issue up on the back cover:
There are lots of people out there, our own people who think women
should not be at the drum. So I tell them, maybe you should go to the
welfare line and tell women they shouldn’t be there, and maybe you
should go to the streets and tell the women they shouldn’t be there, or
maybe you should go to the prisons and tell the women they shouldn’t be
there, or maybe go to the women’s shelters and tell the women they
shouldn’t be there either. I think I would rather have women at the drum
than any of those places, and if that is what they need who are we to tell
them anything?
Three of the participants (Kokomon, Afia, Carolyn) also commented on
their experience of racism. In support of these findings are studies from Freire
(1968/2008), Iyer (2002), Krippner (2002), and Redmond (1997) who refer to the
longtime historical hegemony over the oppressed and marginalized populations.
In addition, Iyer (2002), a musicologist, attributes the Western bias for
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mellifluous music over rhythm and percussion to “the status of the body and
physical movement in music making” (p. 388).
In designing this study, I was very aware of these issues of sexism, racism,
and cultural appropriation that surround drumming in a Western context.
Therefore, I chose feminist research methods to support and integrate into my
interview process (e.g., DeVault & Gross, 2007; Gilligan et al., 1990; Gilligan et
al., 2003; Maddison, 2007; Mauthner & Doucet, 1998; Olesen, 2005; Yardley,
2008). I found them very helpful in ensuring respect, listening, awareness of
appropriation, and transparency. Intentionally holding the feminist research
approach to the interviews rendered an invaluable understanding and perspective
for me, as to how to be in the presence of each unique participant.
In addressing the issues of sexism, racism, and cultural appropriation, two
participants (Kokomon, April) shared that they offer synchronized drumming and
culturally healing traditions as a support for at-risk youth. In support of their work
are several studies of youth from multicultural and Indigenous backgrounds
showing that drumming can be a culturally appropriate intervention for at-risk
youth and adults (Camilleri, 2002; Faulkner et al., 2012; Ho et al., 2009; Núñez,
2006; Stone, 2005), and a safeguard for the youth from isolation and prejudices
against racial, cultural, and religious diversity (Bittman et al., 2009; Camilleri,
2002, p. 262; Ho et al., 2011, p. 11; Sassen, 2012, p. 234). Additional studies of
at-risk youth and adults support the need to reintroduce these traditions to
Indigenous societies where Westernization has separated people from their
traditions (e.g., Forcehimes et al., 2011; Hartmann & Gone, 2012; Kirmayer et al.,
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2003; McCormick, 2000). So, for clinicians working with diverse or at-risk
populations, drumming may help create and support safety in the group, as well as
providing a means of processing experiences of racism and prejudice.
Review of Selected Methodology
Valle and Mohs (1998) describe the results of phenomenological research
as follows:
The purpose of any empirical phenomenological research project is to

articulate the underlying lived structure of any meaningful experience on
the level of conceptual awareness. In this way, understanding for its own
sake is the purpose of phenomenological research. The results of such an
investigation usually take the form of basic constituents (essential
elements) that collectively represent the structure or essence of the
experience for that study. They are the notes that compose the melody of
the experience being investigated. (p. 98)
In synchrony with this study, these essential elements that represent the structure
or essence of the experience are the beats that make up the rhythms of the lived
experience of the nine Masterful Drummers; given the diverse participant group,
representing their “melodies” required a somewhat longer results chapter. Valle
and Mohs (1998) also surveyed empirical phenomenological studies and found 11
emergent transpersonal–transcendental aspects. As shown in Figure 3, these
aspects could be mapped directly to the six themes of the present study,
suggesting that the methodology chosen for this study was indeed appropriate and
useful in investigating the lived experience of these nine Masterful Drummers.
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Themes of the Present Study
1. Sensory Awareness–Bodily Receptivity
2. Space Between the Beats–Portal to the Numinous
3. Embodied Empathy–Empathic Presence
4. Entrainment as an Alternative State
5. Being a Masterful Drummer
6. Containing the Experience for Everyone–Temenos
Transpersonal-transcendent elements Themes from the

from Valle and Mohs (1998) present study
An instrument, vehicle, or container for the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
experience
Intense emotional or passionate states, pleasant 1, 3, 4, 5, 6
or painful
Being in the present moment, often with an 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
acute awareness of one's authentic nature
Transcending space and time 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Expansion of boundaries with a sense of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
connectedness or oneness, often with the
absence of fear
A stillness or peace, often accompanied by a 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
sense of surrender
A sense of knowing, often as sudden insights 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
and with a heightened sense of spiritual
understanding
Unconditional love 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Feeling grateful, blessed, or graced 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Ineffability [too great to be expressed in words] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Self-transformation 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Figure 3. Themes of the present study mapped to Valle and Mohs’s (1998)
transpersonal–transcendent aspects of experience. Author’s image.
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Thematic Content of This Study and Scholarly Literature
In discussion of transcendent and transpersonal experiences, Valle and
Mohs (1998) describe the “prereflective level of awareness” (p. 98) as
“prelanguaged, foundational, bodily knowing that exists ‘as lived’ before or prior
to any cognitive manifestation of this purely felt-sense” (p. 98). Duphily (2014)
describes the challenges for her participants in using verbal expression or
language to share deeply personal and spiritual experiences (p. 171). The results
of the present study are consistent with Valle and Mohs’s (1998) description of a
prelanguage, prereflective awareness, in that all nine participants talked about the
challenge of giving language to their experience. Participants tended to respond to
an interview question by expressing some level of frustration at the lack of words
to capture the experiences they wanted to share. For these nine Masterful
Drummers, the use of metaphor appeared to be effective in taking in hand the
challenges of describing something that has not previously been put to words.
Metaphors that are associated with food and body were used to describe
pleasurable experiences.
Both psychologists and scholars investigating ritual practices acknowledge
the prevalence and value of metaphor. For example, Grimes (2010), a renowned
scholar of ritual, states: “A metaphor…does not merely point or refer to some
abstract idea. A metaphor embodies what it means” (p. 147). He emphasized that
metaphors are not solely verbal; they may also be cosmic and somatic, merging
into “both a worldview and a somatic experience” (pp. 147–148). Grimes
postulates the body as “a bearer of meaning…not merely a tool for obtaining
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knowledge or communicating; it is knowledge and communication…culture and
body are not opposites. Bodies are enculturated. Cultures are embodied” (p. 148).
In an article on the use of metaphor by therapists, Rasmussen (2000) states, “One
thing we know for certain about the use of metaphor in psychotherapy is that in
every session both client and therapist will use metaphors” (p. 355). It is not
surprising, therefore, that these nine Masterful Drummers used metaphor and
bodily gestures to express their experience.
Although using language to describe experiences was at times challenging
for the participants, all were aware of embodied feelings they were able to access
through drumming. For example, similar to findings of music therapy researchers,
musicologists, music psychologists, and evolutionary psychologists (Cevasco et
al., 2005; Doak, 2006; Dunbar et al., 2012; Hoeft & Kern, 2007; Kaser, 1991;
Miranda & Gaudreau, 2011; Morinville, Miranda, & Guadreau, 2013; Slotoroff,
1994; Watson, 2002), Masterful Drummers of this study spoke about embodied
joy, happiness, and ecstasy associated with drumming. Such descriptions of
embodied emotional experiences and the emergence of the theme of Sensory
Awareness—Bodily Receptivity are consistent with studies of drumming and
emotional expression (Bensimon et al., 2008; Bittman et al., 2009; Camilleri,
2002; Ho et al., 2011; Hoeft & Kern, 2007; Iyer, 2002; Slotoroff, 1994; Stevens,
2000, 2003, 2012; Watson, 2002). Drumming can provide safe, nonintimidating
access to what may be experienced as inexpressible thoughts and feelings that are
aroused (Bensimon et al., 2008; McClary, 2007; M. S. Miller, 1999; Saarikallio &
Erkkila, 2007; Slotoroff, 1994). For example, on one study of the use of the drum
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among veterans of war with PTSD (Bensimon et al., 2008), a nonverbal
experience of drumming became a tool for emotional expressivity, and for some,
a synchronous bodily effect functioned as a catalyst for emotional release and a
transformative experience of relief and relaxation. The researchers suggested that
the use of the body in drumming seemed to enable bodily affect and a sensory
approach to access and express traumatic memories in a nonintimating way
(Bensimon et al., 2008, p. 36).
This sensory awareness and receptivity in the body is entirely nonverbal,
similar to the unconscious needs a client can bring into psychotherapy. Studies
have shown drumming to be useful in expressing what cannot be said with words
(Celi, 1989; Kaser, 1993). Jungian analyst Celi wrote, “Rhythmic experiences
can…be employed to recreate organization and form when the elements are
missing in typical dissociated states common to neurosis and psychosis” (p. 102).
Kumler (2006, 2008/2012), a clinical psychologist, found similar results with
shared music, rather than drumming in particular.
The second theme that emerged in this study was the Space Between the
Beats—Portal to the Numinous, the place where the unknown comes into
consciousness, and where one experiences the numinous. John O’Donohue
(1998), a renowned scholar and writer of Celtic wisdom wrote in his poem “True
Listening is Worship”: “One of the great thresholds in reality is the threshold
between sound and silence” (p. 70). For psychologists, the space between the
beats can be understood as where the transcendent function enters between
therapist and the patient (Kalsched, 2013, pp. 9, 57–58). From a psychoanalytic
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perspective, this space relates to intersubjectivity—the analytic third, or “the
jointly created unconscious life of the analytic pair” (Ogden, 2004, p. 167).
Chodorow (1999), a renowned Jungian Analyst, psychologist, and leading dance
therapist, suggests that “the aim of the transcendent function is to realize the
original potential of the psyche” (p. 240). Hagedorn (2006), a well-known
religious theologian, suggests that deep listening to music and rhythm “may serve
a transcendent function” (p. 489) that may open one to experiences of spiritual
connections and trance states. Anthropologists, psychologists, neurologists, and
ethnologists (e.g., Achterberg, 1987; Doak, 2006; Dunbar et al., 2012; Eliade,
1951/2004; Goodman, 1990; Halifax, 1987; Jones & Krippner, 2012; Krippner,
2002, 2004; M. S. Miller, 1999; Sacks, 2007, p. 229; Walsh, 1990; Walter &
Fridman, 2004a, 2004b; Winkelman, 2003, 2004) have demonstrated that
rhythmic drumming can help to induce meditative states, trance states, and
alternative states of consciousness. These findings support the experience of all
nine participants who emphasize synchronized drumming as vital in bringing
about alternative states of consciousness.
Some researchers suggest that the alternative state offered by drumming is
potentially transformative and may lead to social change (e.g., Bensimon et al.,
2008; Bittman et al., 2009; Blackett & Payne, 2005; Faulkner et al., 2012; Núñez,
2006; Sacks, 2007, p. 229; Sassen, 2012). All nine participants spoke about
synchronized drumming as a means of healing the world, and use drumming to
help bring people in conflict together. This effect of drumming-as-healing may
arise from what most participants of this study emphasized—humans are naturally
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programmed for rhythm, pulse, and entrainment. This finding is consistent with
studies by neuroscientists, musicologists, and music therapists (e.g., Iyer, 2002;
Janata & Grafton, 2003; Kirschner & Tomasello, 2009; Madison, 2006; Merker et
al., 2009; Miles et al., 2009; Storr, 1993, as cited in Sacks, 2006).
Four participants experience Entrainment as an Alternative State as a place
of connection to spirits or other-than-human entities (Kokomon, Afia, Billy,
Carolyn). Consistent with reports by anthropologists and others (Berg, 2003;
Hammon-Tooke, 1937, as cited in Berg, 2003; Goodman, 1990; Nandisvara,
1987; Richardson, 2012; Somé, 1999), nine participants emphasized that it
connects them to everything—to God or Goddesses or Spirit or the Universe.
Similar to one anthropological study that observed an invocation of “the Creator
or the spirit of life to infuse the group with wisdom and love” (Richardson, 2012,
p. 69), everyone also described an uplifting energy during Entrainment as an
Alternative State and an experience of a sense of joy and love. All nine
participants shared about their experiences of emotional (and spiritual) connection
with others, and feelings of oneness. Music therapists, psychologists,
anthropologists, and neurologists (Bensimon et al., 2008; Bittman et al., 2009;
Blackett & Payne, 2005; Camilleri, 2002; Clair et al., 1995; Ho et al., 2011; Hoeft
& Kern, 2007; Kaser, 1991; Kumler, 2006, 2008/2012; Núñez, 2006; Saarkillio &
Erkkila, 2009; Slotoroff, 1994; Snow & D’Amico, 2010; Stevens, 2000, 2003,
2012; Stone, 2005; Watson, 2002; Winkelman, 2003) found that in synchronized
drumming groups among various populations, participants reported a sense of
interrelatedness, bonding, cohesiveness, connection, community building,
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communal experiences of entrainment, and wholeness.
All Masterful Drummers in this study spoke of the experience of listening
with the body, beyond the ear. They described behaviors such as active listening,
nonjudgmental communication, and unconditional acceptance—all key skills for
clinicians. Sletvold (2011, 2012, 2014), a licensed clinical psychologist and
Supervising Analyst at the Norwegian Character Analytic Institute, and author of
The Embodied Analyst: From Freud and Reich to Relationality (2014), stresses
the importance of the body in therapy:
In order to truly understand the client's inner world the therapist has to be
willing to be open to their bodily self and to experience the feelings and
sensations that surface in relation to the other person; it is in that
embodied domain that essential clues to the patient's subjectivity can be
found. (Ryan, 2014, para. 1)
Sletvold (2012) further critiques reliance on words alone:
Analytic training, as well as psychotherapy training generally, has tended

to privilege the exchange of words. It is my belief that applying embodied
practices as they are found in the dramatic arts, dance, music, and various
schools of bodywork could do much to enhance the training experience of
clinicians, fostering in my opinion, greater countertransference awareness
of body sensations and movement. (p. 410)
These nine Masterful Drummers used an embodied place of awareness to
actively listen and empathically connect with others—the beauty of this embodied
presence offers the gift of empathically connecting with others. Empathy is a
necessary condition for understanding others, empathy and empathic connection
are foundational to the therapeutic process (Horvath & Bedi, 2002). “Empathy
between the therapist and the client may constitute in itself an explanation for the
process of change in psychotherapy” (Coutinho, Silva, & Decety, 2014, p. 542).
Alma and Smaling (2006), in a formative study on empathy and imagination in
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health care and health studies, present empathy as “the ability of placing oneself
imaginatively in another’s experiential world while feeling into her or his
experiences (points of view, thoughts, ideas, cognitions, desires, intentions to act,
and, especially, motivations, feelings and emotions)” (p. 204). Recent work on the
role and effect of mirror neurons supports this understanding of empathy as an
embodied process. In describing a conference on Mirror Neurons, Embodied
Empathy, and the Boundaries of the Self held in January 2014, Jane Ryan
summarized the work of Jean Knox, Vittorio Gallese, and Jon Sletvold as follows:
It is now widely accepted that a capacity for profoundly and empathically

sharing another's self-states is essential for therapeutic change. However,
what is less fully conceptualized is the role of the body in this state of
understanding the other's experience….
Empathy, it will be suggested, is not just the introjection of the other's
self-state but the digesting and conceptualizing of the visceral experience.
This requires a new vocabulary in a new era of therapeutic theory that
fully embraces the authority of the body. (para. 1, 4)
Participants in the present study described many such moments of “feeling into”
the experience of other drummers in the group, through their own bodily and
embodied experience.
All nine participants had an underlying structure that aligns with studies of
ritual (Turner, 1969/1991, van Gennep, 1960, as cited in Grimes, 2013; Idler,
2013). Turner (1969/1991) found that the liminal space of ritual helps people
access a state of connection (communitas) where transformation occurs, and then
they must be welcomed back to the normal state with an acknowledgment that
they are changed. Minor, Moody, Tadlock-Marlo, Pender, and Person (2013)
found that music played together supports connection and willingness to reach out
to others. As ritual scholars have outlined, these nine Masterful Drummers open
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the gathering, establish a certain way of being in the space, enter an alternative
state (liminal space), and close in a way that helps people return—changed—to
the world (van Gennep, 1960, as cited in Grimes, 2013; Idler, 2013, p. 332). This
structure closely resembles the flow of a therapy session or process group. Like
therapists, these Masterful Drummers are very aware of their sacred responsibility
to make a safe and healing experience for their participants.
The participants’ descriptions of how and why they consciously create and
hold a safe container are supported by a Jungian understanding of the role and
value of temenos (Madden, 2003; Sharp, 1991; Stromsted, 2007, 2015; Stromsted
& Seiff, 2015; Woodman, 1985). All participants emphasized the intrinsic role of
the drum in community, in alignment with studies that include the drum’s
intricate connection with significant events and transformative societal changes
(Berg, 2003; Gioia, 2006; Nandisvara, 1987; Somé, 1999). This theme of
Containing the Experience for Everyone—Temenos is also consistent with Berg’s
(2003) findings that the drum is believed to carry inherent powers of medicine
and healing.
The importance of safety and trust was emphasized by all participants.
Several studies support the positive effect of drumming on the development of the
therapeutic alliance (Bensimon et al., 2008; Kaser, 1991; M. S. Miller, 1999;
Stone, 2005; Watson, 2002), and as a means to create a temenos and enhance the
experience of containment (Bensimon et al., 2008; M. S. Miller, 1999; Slotoroff,
1994; Stevens, 2003, 2012; Stone, 2005). In addition, the relationship to the drum
itself described by participants is of therapeutic relevance. This is supported by
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Simoens and Tervaniemi (2013) who observed musicians and reported profound
beneficial effects associated with the presence of an intimate relationship to one’s
instrument.
Structural Composite—Underlying Philosophy
As the discussion above reflects, the Masterful Drummers in this study
describe overlapping and pervasive themes. This section presents the structural
composite, which Moustakas (1994) describes as “a way of understanding how
the coresearchers as a group experience what they experience” (p. 142). Here I am
reminded of the words of T. S. Eliot (1943):
We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. (p. 59)
The process of data analysis began with the participants’ words, sifted into
meaning units, aggregated into themes, with the “how” of the experience slowly
coming to light through the lens of the “what,” until the structural composite
emerged and the participants’ phenomenological experience was understood
again, in a new way.
These nine Masterful Drummers all spoke in their own way about rhythm
as the most basic human experience, starting from the pulse in the mother’s veins
that is heard in the womb, to the mother’s heartbeat that is felt in the womb. As
women’s drumming historian and Masterful Frame Drummer, Layne Redmond
expressed, “Rhythm is the mother tongue” (personal communication, 2009). For
these Masterful Drummers, it’s a language that has reached human beings since
the beginning of time.
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All nine drummers relied on a philosophy that underlay their way of being
in the world, the work that they do, and how they understand their role as a
facilitator. Each participant used their own terminology and had their own
philosophy: Native American culture, Buddhist practice, Cuban religious
philosophy, African wisdom traditions, Eastern and Southern Indian wisdom
traditions, The Course In Miracles, Twin Elements of Rhythm and Wind, and
neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Whether the term the participant used was
“spiritual,” “sacred,” “tradition,” “culture,” “philosophy,” “religion,” or
“practice,” each relied on this as the container for the synchronized drumming
gatherings.
Each spoke about how alternative states are choices available to us as
human beings. These states can be learned through various methods—among
them, synchronized drumming gatherings—and there is value in how they allow
people to have a foot in both worlds.
All nine described the phenomena of listening. For them, listening
becomes something beyond the usual moment-to-moment, day-to-day basis.
Listening is rather described as a sense that stretches beyond hearing with the
physical ear. The experience of listening encompasses what one senses with
hands, ears, eyes, and body, and something far more profound—something
ineffable. Listening is experienced in body—it is an embodied experience and it
informs the Masterful Drummer during alternative states of awareness. This type
of deep listening might be understood as an overarching experience of empathic
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presence and embodied sensory experience. It takes them into present moment,
presence, and a place where the thinking mind stops.
In describing their relationship to the drum, all nine Masterful Drummers
either hinted at, alluded to, or bluntly stated that “drumming is everything,”
“rhythm is everything,” and “listening is everything.” Through relationship to the
drum, these nine Masterful Drummers have a sense of being connected to
everything. The way they understand and hold this relationship is the temenos, or
sacred container, for their work in the world.
Return to the Research Question
The research question for this study was, “What is the lived experience of
Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming gatherings?” This
question is best answered through an integration of the six themes, as follows.
From the immediate bodily experience, the Masterful Drummer moves
still inward to a place of stillness where listening opens into empathic connection
with others, forming still deeper connections that transcend the physicality of the
body, continuing to open and still offering the realm of alternative states of
consciousness. All the while, in the mundane realm, containing all of this are the
intentions and preparations of the Masterful Drummer facilitator that create a
temenos for all the drummers in the group.
Underlying all this is a worldview in which rhythm is the most basic
human experience, listening is embodied, and alternative states are available
through embodied listening and empathic presence. Drumming encompasses
everything, and through drumming one can feel one’s connection to everyone and
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everything. A deep philosophy frames the Masterful Drummer’s sacred role and
creates the container for drumming gatherings.
Implications for Clinical Practice
One potential clinical application of this research is to understand how the
drum can be brought into a therapeutic setting to enhance the therapeutic alliance.
For psychologists situated in corporate and business environments, synchronized
drumming may help to open fruitful dialogue and communication among
employees and management. In times of crisis and conflict within local and
international communities, organizing synchronized drumming gatherings to
catalyze bonding and interrelatedness may be an area of interest for first-line
emergency teams. There are many possible applications to be considered where
the need for enhanced communication, bonding, and interrelatedness exists.
The data presented in Chapter 4, and particularly the themes of Being a
Masterful Drummer, and Containing the Experience for Everyone—Temenos, are
striking in that these Masterful Drummers experience their role much like a
clinical psychologist. Clinical psychologists and Masterful Drummers both
intentionally set the frame or container for their work. Romaioli and Contarello
(2012), who performed a study of therapists and how they understand their
clients, found that therapists do in fact construct a framework of understanding of
their clients based on a priori knowledge:
Psychotherapists face many problems which are often reorganized in the

knowledge activities of their clients but also by the explicit and implicit
theories they adopt as observers (Salvini 2004; Slife and Williams 1995).
Therapists are active participants in the information they select regarding
the focus of psychotherapy, interpreted according to preexisting fields of
knowledge, which act as a frame of reference (Slife et al. 2001). Rather
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than attempting to obtain a neutral stance, the therapist acknowledges the
role played by his or her subjectivity in the formation, evolution, and
working through the therapeutic issues (Shahar 2004). (p. 93)
Thus, the structural composite regarding foundational perspectives or
philosophies—the temenos or container for each of these nine participants as
facilitators of synchronized drumming gatherings—is relevant to the work of
clinical psychologists. Participants of this study discussed creating and
maintaining a safe container, listening actively, helping participants process their
experience during a session and re-enter their normal lives, respecting and
teaching boundaries, and so on. In this section, I consider the clinical implications
of the findings for therapists and psychologists.
All nine participants emphasized the value of ritual or described how their
drumming gatherings are framed as rituals. Ritual has historically been viewed
negatively in the West (Bell, 1997/2009; Idler, 2013), and while recent scholars
recognize the deep significance of ritual, inherited biases about ritual continue to
impact Western culture (Grimes, 1990, 2010, 2013). The present study’s findings
suggest that synchronized drumming gatherings may be an effective way to offer
ritual in a U.S. context, which is supported by studies of ritual and the use of the
drum as a sacred instrument (e.g., Berg, 2003; Cowan, 1996, p. 31; Doak, 2006;
Eliade, 1951/2004; Gioia, 2006; Goodman, 1990; Halifax, 1987; Harner & Doore,
1987, p. 13; Idler, 2013, Krippner, 2002; Maxfield, 1994; M. S. Miller, 1999;
Nandisvara, 1987, p. 227; Redmond, 1997; Rouget, 1985; Vitebsky, 1995/2008,
p. 52; Walsh, 1990; Walter & Fridman, 2004a, 2004b; Winkelman, 2003). I
believe, and the findings of the present study suggest, that synchronized
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drumming can be a powerful, healing ritual for therapists to share with their
clients.
First and foremost, the current study elucidates the importance of bringing
the body more into the therapy session (with or without the drum). The results
strongly suggest that empathy is located in the body; therefore, therapists need to
be in their own bodies in order to be most effective. My own clinical experience
and the results of the present study align fully with the work of Tina Stromsted
(2007, 2015; Stromsted & Seiff, 2015), who emphasizes that a therapist must be
connected to self so that she can connect with other people; otherwise the other
can become an object. “Wounding occurs in the context of relationships, and it is
within relationships that healing most effectively takes place” (Stromsted, 2007,
p. 205). If the therapist’s body is awake there can be a resonance with oneness.
“As the work unfolds, through my example as a witness, I demonstrate a
containing sense of presence. The focus I bring, together with the group’s quiet
attention, contributes to creating a safe and protected space for the [participants’]
movers” (p. 215). The body instrument is more alive, enabling the therapist to
connect and tune into—and tune up the “songs in the body” (the knowing that
arises from the body itself). Stromsted explains, “I listen for the tone and volume
of [the mover’s] voice…for the images and metaphors…What kind of music does
her voice suggest and how is it related to the content of the story she is telling
me?” (p. 207). The therapist’s body is her instrument. “Her task is to be present to
her own experience as she witnesses…She must recognize and contain whatever
elements of countertransference or projective identification may arise, working
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with these elements to bring further clarity to the therapy” (p. 204). When her
instrument is tuned and attuned—she is present and her body may be in a state of
fluidity. In comparison, when not in tune her body may be tense, contracted, and
dense. For example, when triggered by her own wounds or her past, it can be
more challenging for her to resonate with the other’s experience. People are often
used to particular ways of thinking that are reflected in the body. Feelings are held
in the musculature of the body—when tense and contracted, empathy is difficult
to achieve and it can be harder to hold the space of oneness (Stromsted, 2007,
2015; Stromsted & Seiff, 2015).
In holding the container for clients, it is imperative for therapists to each
find a means of settling into their bodies before sessions, or even periodically
throughout the day (Stromsted, 2007). Drumming as practiced by the participants
in the present study is one of many potential means of finding embodiment. Many
people, including myself, have found value in the methods shown in Table 4.
These approaches “hold that psyche and soma are inseparable, and must be
worked on together to come to consciousness—to the positive feminine in our
bodies and the positive masculine in our creative pursuits” (Marion Woodman
Foundation, 2014b, para. 3). They are focused on bringing deep personal
awareness, as “Sensitivity, emotional honesty, intuition, and a sense of trust in
one’s own felt-experience are the foundation of therapeutic work” (Stromsted,
2007, p. 207). Simple awareness practices such as yoga, qi gong, tai chi, or
walking meditation may be other avenues to try.
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The field of clinical psychology may benefit from integrating
synchronized drumming into therapeutic sessions, as it fosters empathy and
empathic presence. In their recommendations for health care workers, Alma and
Smaling (2006) state:
We live in a very complex world. Multiculturalism, migration,

globalization, the rapidity of social change, fragmentation, ICT etc. make
it necessary that not only professionals must develop and train their
empathic competence. We think, given the complexity of contemporary
societies, empathic understanding should be explicitly developed and
trained by every one [emphasis added]. As for us, empathic competence
should belong to the objectives of basic educational programs, all over the
world. (p. 210)
Table 4:
Resources for Therapists Seeking to Connect to Embodied Awareness and
Wisdom
Technique Description Founder Resources
BodySoul “Working with dreams and imagery Marion (Marion Woodman

Rhythms together with body and voice” Woodman Foundation, 2014a;
(Marion Woodman Foundation, Sharp, 1993;
2014a, para. 1) Woodman, 1985)
Authentic “The conscious experience of Mary (Chodorow, 1999;

Movement physical movement produces Starks Pallaro, 1997, 2007;
changes in both the psyche and Whitehouse Stromsted, 2008–
soma” (Frieder, 2007, p. 39) 2014)
Soul’s “An approach that has within it Tina (Stromsted, 2007,

Body aspects of Authentic Movement, Stromsted 2015; Stromsted &
Dreamdancing, and BodySoul Seiff, 2015)
Rhythms” (T. Stromsted, personal
communication, October 21, 2014)
Movement “A structured sequence of Anna (Halprin, 1995;

Ritual movements that increases Halprin Tamalpa Institute,
awareness of movement, range of 2011)
motion, flexibility, and serves as a
foundation for creative movement
explorations” (Tamalpa Institute,
2011, para. 7)
Note. Author’s table.
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The present study suggests that synchronized drumming may help to teach and
nurture empathic connection between the facilitator and the participating
drummer(s), which may be useful in clinical settings. In addition, data suggest
that synchronized drumming may help to establish a therapeutic alliance across
cultural or other socioeconomic differences.
Synchronized drumming shared by clinician and client is likely to help
bring the body more into the session, and to help the therapist listen with the
entire body. It may also help to establish a safe container and connection where
therapist and patient do not share a similar background or life context, as the
heartbeat is a universal rhythm. Not every clinician or client has a musical ability,
but everyone has access to drumming through their own heartbeat. With or
without access to drums, hands can be used to tap on the floor, a table, the body—
the possibilities are numerous. A therapist as facilitator can begin by using hands
to tap on tables, or chairs, or use the body beginning with clapping or tapping on
one’s lap. Choose a simple rhythm such as the heartbeat rhythm. Vocalize the
beats together and then include tapping or clapping with vocalization of the
rhythm. Consider the vocalization of a simple statement and simultaneously
tapping it together. Alternately, therapists might consider having frame drums
available in the office, with padded drumming sticks. The drum could be used at
the start of a session, or it could be handed to the client after an appropriate
conversation.
In the article “Race, Racism, and Law Enforcement,” (October 2014
Monitor on Psychology), APA Executive Director for the Public Interest, Dr.
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Gwendolyn Puryear Keita (2014) calls to psychologists to come forth and speak
about the work they are doing to implement programs within communities and
law enforcement, and invites them to share their insights and practical solutions.
In terms of the present study, her article supports the issues addressed in Cultural
Appropriation, Sexism, and Racism: Racism. Keita supplies a link to a page for an
APA blog (Psychology Benefits Society, n.d.) and has emphasized an immediate
goal “to explore and highlight efforts that increase our understanding and create
meaningful change” (p. 55). She maintains that it is essential to include law
enforcement in the conversation. In the humanitarian endeavors to understand
problems of racism and develop solutions, it may be useful for psychologists to
collaborate and dialogue with community members, board members of current
community programs, and with local law enforcement, to develop facilitated
synchronized drumming gatherings as deemed appropriate by each community.
Limitations and Delimitations
Limitations include the small sample size (nine participants) due to
restrictions imposed by availability of participants meeting the inclusion criteria
as well as distance and geographic locations of participants. The demographics of
the sample, although somewhat diverse, also suffer that limitation. Another
challenge existed in that language had to be imposed upon the participants who
were asked to describe somatic, nonverbal experiences and to move their
experiences into consciousness and form using voice and words.
In addition to these general limitations, four specific issues arose during
the implementation of the study. First, regarding the Biodemographic
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Questionnaire (Appendix B) during the early stages of working with the selected
participants, this form raised issues around formal education—all nine
participants commented that they did not feel the questions were relevant to their
experience, to the quality of the how they played, and to the work that they do in
community. This experience may have been offensive and may have undermined
interview rapport (and therefore potentially impacted the quality of the data
collected for some participants). Second, the choice to name Native American as
an ethnicity on the Biodemographic Questionnaire or ask how they self-identified,
was inadvertently omitted during reformatting, which I did not discover before the
forms had been returned by all participants. No participant expressed any
disturbance; however, those who did self-identify as Native American added it on
the line “Other____.” A third limitation that I believe impacted this study is my
strong desire to create a safe container for the participants during the interview
process. I did not want to be disrespectful in any way nor interrupt the participant
during a sharing of meaningful experiences. There were also times during the
interview process when I experienced a sense of overwhelm around the sacred
that was shared with me by all nine Masterful Drummers. I was carrying a feeling
of uneasiness about asking “a forbidden question,” which may be attributed to my
lack of experience with an interview process. Therefore, there were a number of
unasked questions. In particular, I did not interrupt their descriptions and sharing
of sacred moments to ask for more granular, phenomenological data. These
choices may have resulted in inconsistent data collection across participants,
which may have affected the reliability of the study. A future researcher interested
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in that topic might, with participant consent, ask such questions as, “What did you
feel in your body in that moment?” It remains unclear whether the participants
would have been comfortable answering questions that in the moment; for me, it
did not feel appropriate to ask. I felt strongly about my intuitive sense and a desire
to be thoughtful, compassionate, and kind—as well as a potent concern that I not
be intrusive when walking on what I recognized as “sacred ground.” While this
hesitance may have limited the data collected, I believe I was very successful in
building rapport and collecting very heartfelt responses. Finally, I did not have the
interview questions on hand during April’s interview. I traveled out of town for
our meeting, as did she. By the time I realized the interview questions were not
with me, there was no time to retrieve them. I asked questions from memory and
allowed myself to be drawn into what April so generously offered. Therefore, the
flow in April’s interview is different from the other eight participants; however,
the content stands as rich and meaningful.
In terms of delimitations, I did not investigate the group experience or the
individual member’s experience of being in the drumming gathering, but rather I
explored the facilitator’s personal experience. Although I find a shamanic
approach and out-of-body drumming very interesting, I most specifically intended
to focus on a Masterful Drummer as the facilitator of a group who carries the
intention of developing community and making connections among and between
group members.
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Directions for Future Research
The findings presented in this study provide a rich mine of data to direct
future investigation of facilitated synchronized drumming within the field of
clinical psychology. One theme that emerged for the nine Masterful Drummers is
Sensory Awareness—Bodily Receptivity. It is possible that one cannot speak
about the drum without inferring “body.” The nine Masterful Drummers in this
study used the words “sacred” and “pervasive,” and the phrases “rhythm is
everything,” “the drum is everything,” and “listening is everything.” Grimes
(2010), in discussion of body and metaphor, states:
The human body is a primary source of metaphors for imagining one’s

whole world….Because the body is so primary, most cultures regard it as
sacred. The body is a specifically marked off preserve, a repository of
ultimate value. The human body does not merely front for or point to the
sacred; it is sacred, a locus of revelation and hierophany. (p. 148)
Renowned for developing Formative Psychology, a somatic therapy approach,
Stanley Keleman (1999) asserts, “Metaphor is bodily based. It is experiential”
(1999, p. vii). From a perspective of both body and drum as sacred, pervasive, and
mysterious, future research of Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized
drumming gatherings could expand on the role of body.
Future research could expand on the role of rhythm and synchronized
drumming in group dynamics and creating personal connections. The furthering
of connection through rhythm and entrainment described in the present study is at
once an innovative and ancient traditional approach to creating a temenos—a safe
container for the work of clinical psychology.
As described above, issues arose around the Biodemographic
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Questionnaire (see Limitations and Delimitations). Future researchers working
with diverse participants may wish to consider what data they ask for with regard
to education and ethnicity, and how they ask. Cultural sensitivity is essential to
how the research is conducted, not just what is contained in questionnaires (e.g.,
participants talking about racism, sexism, and cultural appropriation).
This study recognizes the challenges in multicultural settings where the
facilitator is white and participants are from diverse backgrounds and are people
of color. Future studies would be useful on the experience of people of color or
those of diverse ethnic origins in a drumming gathering and their response to a
white facilitator, to outline respectful ways for a white facilitator to approach
drumming with participants of color. Afia, for example, talked about how in her
experience Africans have been presented as drummers and yet they are not
listened to. Several experts in the field of multicultural and feminist studies have
emphasized the need for education around how researchers conduct interviews
with diverse ethnic groups (e.g., DeVault & Gross, 2007; Gilligan et al., 1990;
Gilligan et al., 2003; Maddison, 2007; Mauthner & Doucet, 1998; Olesen, 2005;
Yardley, 2008). Additionally, future research would be helpful to understand the
impact of Westerners separating individuals from their traditions (e.g.,
Forcehimes et al., 2011; Hartmann & Gone, 2012; Kirmayer et al., 2003;
McCormick, 2000).
The findings of the present study also suggest that integrating
synchronized drumming into group therapy sessions may foster community and
group connection. Phenomenological research on this topic would be valuable.
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During the interview process, two participants (Sahar, Billy) described the
use of drumming with couples in high-conflict situations. Future research might
explore the use of synchronized drumming as support for couples counseling
where there is high conflict. It would be interesting to investigate how sustainable
the experiences of connecting and opening to communication are, during and after
the synchronized drumming session. Also, what are the possibilities of
synchronized drumming for supporting couples in conflict for whom meaningful
communication seems impossible?
Finally, four participants (Barbara, Billy, Glen, Carolyn) mentioned their
experiences of viewing the dancer as they drummed, which raises the question:
What is the lived experience of the drummer viewing the dancer? This topic
might be of interest to therapists as new studies in neuroscience have been
exploring experiences of mirroring, being mirrored, and witnessing (e.g.,
Ammaniti & Gallese, 2014; Knox, 2011; Schore, 2003, 2011; Sletvold, 2011,
2012, 2014; Wilkinson, 2010). Additionally, a recent study using a
psychoanalytical perspective (Molina, 2014) explores listening in the therapy
session using the metaphor of Bomba, the Puerto Rican native dance, where the
drummer follows the movements of the dancer. Researching the
phenomenological experience of the drummers as they anticipate the dancers’
movements and gestures might also offer a new level of understanding of the
embodied experience and the field in the therapy session.
The listening processes I used in the participant interviews in this present
study were largely supported by Gendlin’s (2007) core pathway of awareness to
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one’s bodily felt sense and Finlay’s (2005, 2006) approach to exploring embodied
essences through reflexive embodied empathy. Just as listening, embodied
empathy, and empathic presence are key channels for these nine Masterful
Drummers in developing a structure for their work, the participant interviews
were interwoven with the same structural threads. As neuroscience continues to
explore the relationship between body, mind, and healing, these embodied
approaches, listening, and presence may be useful for psychologists in the therapy
session and as a consideration as a research methodology. In particular, it may be
valuable for clinicians to investigate what participants described as “hearing
beyond the ears.”
A recent study by Simoens and Tervaniemi (2013) addresses the
phenomenon of the musician–instrument relationship and the emotional benefits
to the musician both personally and as a performer. Other scholarly works support
the findings of the participants and the theme Containing the Experience for
Everyone—Temenos: Relationship to Drum. For example, Nijs, Lesaffre, and
Leman (2013, as quoted in Simoens & Tervaniemi, 2013) declare: “Feeling united
with the musical instrument has even been proposed as a necessary condition for a
flexible and spontaneous expression of artistic ideas” (p. 171). Simoens and
Tervaniemi (2013) refer to the field of embodied music cognition and emphasize
the attention to “the role of the human body in relation to all musical activities”
(p. 171). Within that field, as in this present study, the presence of body is
recognized—and for those researchers the body is considered as “the natural
mediator between the musician’s mind and the physical environment that contains
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musical energy” (Leman, 2008, as cited in Simoens & Tervaniemi, 2013, p. 171).
In forthcoming research on the experience of facilitators of synchronized
drumming gatherings, it might be useful to collaborate with researchers in the
field of embodied music cognition as well as with psychologists who work
directly with musicians and performance musicians.
Conclusion
“The sound of the drum brings us consolation because it brings us back to

that time when we were at one with the mother’s heartbeat. That was a time
of complete belonging.”
–John O’Donohue (1998, p. 70)
In reflecting on the powerful themes and structural composite that resulted
from this study, I realized that the sense of being connected to everything—the
spiritual state described by these participants—is what religion tries to do. The
opposite of this matrix of connection is isolation and loneliness, all too common
in today’s Western experience. As the diversity of terms and practices among
these nine participants demonstrates, there are many individual ways of mapping
these experiences so that the best possibilities for the sense of the sacred can be
made accessible for that particular person. From a personal perspective, what I
experienced in my journey through adolescence and early adulthood reflects a
similar longing for connectivity. It began in childhood with a clarion call to
music, specifically to the instruments of drum and flute, neither of which, for
various reasons, was I allowed to play. The music brought me into relationship
with individuals who companioned me in journeys into alternative states through
music, dance, and meditation. Simultaneously, I spent many hours in libraries
exploring books on various philosophies, religion, psychology, and spirituality,
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and attended teachings from the contemporary gurus of the times. The difference
for me from what the nine Masterful Drummers have presented, is that in the
early stages of my lifetime there was no container for the experiences, no wisdom
traditions to hold me. Now, more than four decades later, these alternative states
of connection are accessible to me through my meditative practices, through
music, rhythm, and dance, and embodied experiences of listening.
For me personally, the dissertation writing process has been an initiation
into the profession of psychology. The descent into the research of the drum and
its presence as a therapeutic process has forever changed the way I understand life
on this Earth.
It has been a gift and sheer delight to be able to interview this diverse
group of individuals and be given the privilege to listen with them into their rich
and radiant lives. The multicultural philosophies, spiritual, and sacred practices
that are the foundations of all that they give to community have touched me
deeply. The wisdom and insight that they have shared are precisely what I believe
needs to be integrated into the field of clinical psychology as we are living on a
continent that is multicultural and for so many, the therapy room of a psychologist
is a consideration (an avenue of consideration to traverse) when in need of soul
healing.
It is my true hope that the powerful vehicle offered by synchronized
drumming gatherings can be taken up by therapists and shared with Westerners
seeking meaning and connection in their lives.
The potency of the drum as a medicinal instrument is…it can’t be

overestimated…it’s just really kind of incomprehensible…. If you are open
192
to it…. drum is a conduit. It’s a key in a lock…[the drum] has the power
inside of that collective consciousness to unlock that veil…so we can see it,
hear it, talk to it, and be healed by it. (Carolyn)
Rhythms are medicine. Rhythms have the capacity to support people in

expressing a way that is of, as a medicinal way to allow that to come
through from perhaps a stuck, repressed place. To be expressed. Whoo! To
allow healing. To allow life into them and through them again. (Sahar)
It’s so common…and that’s what the drum is about…the healing, not just
physically or mentally, psychologically, metabolic. There’s just a total
healing.…Heartbeat of mother earth, it’s that first beat you know. Everyone
has that and it draws people from everywhere. (April)
193
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APPENDIX A:
REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL LITERATURE ASSOCIATED WITH GROUP
DRUMMING (LITERATURE REVIEW SUPPELEMENTAL TABLES)
This appendix presents five tables in which I summarize available
psychology research on drumming as an intervention. I derived five categories
from my review of 26 studies, the majority of which utilized expressive arts, from
their main findings. Each table represents one category and lists the participants,
type of drum, method, and relevant results. The five categories are:
• Mood, emotion, and affect regulation
• Drumming as a Culturally Appropriate Intervention
• Community building and social engagement
• Nonverbal communication and emotional expressivity
• Addiction and substance abuse
213
Table A1:
Literature Category 1: Mood, Affect, and Emotional Regulation
Type of
Study Participants Drum Methods Results
Faulkner, (N = 60) At-risk 6th N/A Mixed Methods. Evaluation study using Combining the therapeutic potential of
Wood, and 7th grade students, pre/post interventions included informal musical expression with basic cognitive–
Ivery, & average age 12. (n = discussions with staff and participants, behavioral therapy can be used
Donovan 40%) Aboriginal observation, participant and teacher successfully to deliver a range of social
(2012) descent. All had questionnaires, and school and attendance learning outcomes, including emotional
behavioral history with and behavioral incident records (p. 31). control, improved relationships, and
one or more risk Participants recruited into 1 of 3 increased self-esteem (p. 31).
factors and no prior intervention groups (DRUMBEAT Limitations: Type of drums omitted.
experience playing the program group) (n = 10 each) or into 1 of
Further research to assess sustainability
214
drum. Majority had 3 control groups (n = 10 each). Pre- and
and “vulnerability to external factors” (p.
limited exposure to post-intervention data collection: self-
31).
music education. esteem, school attendance, antisocial
behavior, and levels of cooperation and
collaboration (p. 31).
Sassen At-risk 7-9 year-olds. Hand drums Qualitative, experiential, expressive arts: Drumming increases empathy: drumming
(2012) (unspecified) within classroom, integrated poetry groups along with expressive arts reduced
writing and drumming groups as a means occurrences of bullying and violence in
to explore the concept of empowered children.
belonging within classroom (p. 233). Limitations: Number of participants,.
duration of study, and frequency of
interventions omitted.
Type of
Dunbar, (N = 32) in 1 experiment group Samba Quantitative: 4 experiments Active performance of drumming generates
Kaskatis, and 2 control groups. drums: snare on pain threshold using a endorphin release that concurrently
MacDonald, Experiment group (Samba and bass. between-subjects pre/post- heightens pain threshold and positive (but
& Barra Drumming Circle) (n = 12): activity design, where the not negative) affect (p. 8).
(2012) 4 males, 8 females; age range activity was drumming, When performance of music was allowed to
= 30-56, mean age = 44.2 years; singing, dancing, or listening. flow without interruption, results were
average 4.25 years drumming One group was a within- significantly heightened.
experience. subjects design that explored
“The role of music may be to provide
effect of listening as opposed
Control group 1 (n = 9 music rhythm and beat so as to entrain synchrony,
to performing, and whether
shop employees, all musicians): something that may well be dependent on
musical tempo (rhythmically
5 males, 3 females; age range the mirror neuron system” (p. 11).
215
strong vs. weak) makes a
19-41, mean age = 31.1 years, Research suggests that the effects may
difference (p. 5).
Control group 2 (n = 11, video serve a significant role in bonding in large
group, all Masters students): 8 social groups (p. 11).
males, 3 females; age range =
20-32, mean age = 24.6 years.
All groups met weekly.
Type of
Bittman, (N = 52) At-risk, N/A Qualitative. Randomized Seminal study utilizing replicable creative musical
Dickson, & inner city controlled crossover study. expression as a catalyst for nonverbal and verbal
Coddington adolescents residing Dependent variable measures disclosure.
(2009) in a court-referred included 5 scales Statistically significant improvement in several parameters,
residential administered by counselors: including: school/work role performance, total depression,
treatment program; the Child and Adolescent anhedonia/negative affect, negative self-evaluation (self-
age range = 12-18, Functional Assessment Scale esteem), and instrumental anger.
mean age 14.5 (CAFAS), the Adolescent
Sustainable impact 6 weeks past completion of protocol in
years. Ethnicity = Psychopathology Scale
the following areas: school/work role performance,
African-American, (APS), the Adolescent Anger
anhedonia/negative affect, instrumental anger, anger, and
Asian, Caucasian, Rating Scale (AARS), the
interpersonal problems, behavior toward others, and total
and Puerto Rican. Reynolds Adolescent
216
anger .
Depression Scale, 2nd Edition
(RADS 2), and the Limitations: Follow-up period did not extend past 6
Adolescent Visual-Analog weeks. Inability to blind the counselors administering the 5
Recreational Music Making assessment scales.
Assessment (A-VARMMA).
Type of
Ho, Tsao, (N = 54), 5th grade, Drums Qualitative/Experiential and A school-based group drumming program,
Bloch, & low-income, at-risk, chosen to Quantitative: Interventions using integrated with activities from group counseling,
Zelter socioeconomically reflect counseling skills and group improved social and emotional behavior in low-
(2011) disadvantaged youth. cultural drumming (led by school counselors). income children (p. 9).
Ethnicity primarily diversity Observations including Teacher’s Study suggests that “group drumming combined
Latino. Duration: Report Form (TRF). Focus was on with group counseling may be used effectively to
40-45-minute weekly development of social and emotional mitigate internalizing problems in a low-income,
sessions, after lunch skills. Sessions began with entire predominantly Latino, population” (p. 9).
on school day, for group playing a repetitive rhythm
Limitations: specifics of ethnicity were omitted.
12 weeks. pattern to release stress, energize, and
create a sense of community (p. 4).
217
Bensimon, (N = 6) Israeli Darbuka, Qualitative: Experiential, music Some reduction in PTSD symptoms observed
Amir, & soldiers; age range: tabla, therapy group work plus individual including “a non-intimidating access to traumatic
Wolf 20-23, all diagnosed Indian drum, psychotherapy. Data: digital cameras memories, facilitating an outlet for rage and
(2008) as suffering from floor drum, filmed the sessions; at end of each regaining a sense of self-control” (p. 34).
combat- or terror- djembes, and session, a scripted self-report of the Participants reported that drumming was an
related PTSD (p. 34). other therapist–researcher; after last efficient instrument for coping with feelings of
Study began with melodic, session, all interviewed (1-1.5 hrs.), loneliness, harsh traumatic memories, outbursts
9 participants; after harmonic and open-ended, in-depth (p. 34). of anger, and loss of control (p. 47).
4 weekly meetings, wind Traumatic associations: drumbeats reminded one
3 participants instruments of the soldiers of the explosions, another soldier
dropped out (p. 36). (p. 37). experienced associations to the military (p. 39).
Type of
Hoeft & (N = 208) Under– N/A Quantitative: Pre/post questionnaire Listening to recorded percussion music had
Kern graduate students to evaluate current mood, levels of significant effect on all participants’ mood,
(2007) from 3 music-related relaxation, energy, and levels of relaxation, energy, and focus (p. 138).
classes, in Ontario, focus/concentration. Researchers Participants identified concentration/focus
Canada. (n = 184) played three 30-second selections of (n = 25%), calm (n = 45%), and energy
qualified for data recorded percussion from the CD, (n = 28%) (p. 138). Overall, 31.2% accurate
analysis, (n = 24) “RhythmTonics,” (composer/ identification of the composer’s intended
disqualified due to producer: Greg Ellis) (p. 136). meaning that was embedded in the recorded
invalid responses to percussion music (p. 139).
questions (p. 137). Results of study showed 14% reliability.
(n = 169) age range:
Limitations: gender not identified in
18-24 years; (n = 11)
demographic questionnaire.
25-34 years; and (n =
218
4) > 35 years (p.
137). Participation
was voluntary and
anonymous (p. 137).
Saarkallio (N = 8) Finnish N/A Qualitative: Constructivist grounded Demonstrates the significant capability of music
& Erkkila adolescent females, theory (Charmaz, 2003a, 2003b, as for fostering mood regulation and self-regulation
(2007) in 2 groups: (n = 4) cited on p. 91). Semi-structured and (p. 105).
active music makers, in-depth group interviews, and The nonverbal nature of music provides “a
age =14 years; (n = 4) follow-up forms (p. 90). framework for reflecting on thoughts and
those who like to feelings that are aroused” (Saarikallio & Erkkila,
listen to music. 2007, p. 100).
Type of
Gebhardt (N = 348) N/A Mixed methods: Empirical study. Music is used to reduce negative emotional and
& von Participants in 2 Inventory for Assessment of affective states in several clinical groups (p.
Georgi groups: (n = 55) Activation and Arousal Modulation 437). Patients with mental disorders use music to
(2007) patients with through Music (IAAM) (p. 420), modulate emotional activation (p. 436).
addictive, Relaxation (RX), Cognitive Problem These patients display decreased positive
schizophrenic, Solving (CP), Reduction of Negative stimulation by use of music compared to healthy
affective, neurotic, Activation (RA), Fun Seeking (FS), probands (principally the younger group).
and personality and Arousal Modulation (AM). Data
Healthy young persons use music mostly for
disorders, mean age compared using ONEWAY analysis
positive stimulation, and older patients with
46 + 14 years, in with healthy control participants.
mental disorders exhibited impairments in this
Dept. of Psychiatry
ability (p. 437).
and Psychotherapy,
U. of Marburg, Patients with mental disorders use more music
219
Germany; (n = 187) for reduction of negative activation (RA),
healthy control relaxation (RX), and cognitive problem solving
students, mean age 21 (CP). In contrast, healthy young persons tend to
+ 3 years; (n = 106) used music to increase stimulation.
healthy control Participants with personality disorders showed a
adults, mean age reduced positive stimulation. Participants with
43 + 6 years. affective disorders demonstrate a lack of
reduction of negative activation (RA).
Participants with addictive disorders, and those
with schizophrenic disorders show all parameters
high. (p. 420).
Type of
Doak (N = 20) College 10-minute Mixed methods: Quantitative, and Significant effect on anxiety and mood
(2006) students; all right- recording of Qualitative Experiential. Data disturbance with significant reduction in anxiety
handed, non- Shamanic analyzed quantitatively: pre/post tests for some individuals (who have never heard
musicians; male and drumming (using Profile of Mood States), shamanic drumming) when listening to a 10-
female; age range (single-head, ANOVA, Pearson correlation tests, minute recording of shamanic drumming.
= 19-23, median age round frame paired sample t-tests. Effects analyzed For some of the participants, visual images were
= 21 years. Ethnicity: hand drum) by State Trait Anxiety Index (STAI). self-generated in response to the sound of
(n = 4) African Independent variable used was a drumming and fMRI results showed increased
American, (n = 16) recording of shamanic drumming activity in occipital lobe, the center for visual
Caucasian. None with produced at Foundation for Shamanic processing (p. 147).
prior shamanic Studies (Harner, 1997). Rapid
Limitations: Small sample used for fMRI.
drumming drumming of 4-4.5 beats/second.
Qualitative results found no significant effect on
experience. (n = 3) Selection of 3 participants who
220
states of consciousness. Participants reported
selected for fMRI experienced changes in anxiety and
desire to retain mental alertness and focused on
screening. mood to undergo functional magnetic
analyzing the experience, or ignoring the
resonance (fMRI) brain scan. One
drumming. State of consciousness questionnaire
participant who had little response to
did not prove reliable as instructions and
shamanic drumming selected to serve
questions seemed unclear to participants.
as control group.
Following the experience, there was no data
clarification of responses by participants.
Whereas in traditional shamanic rituals where
rhythmic body movements and dancing often
accompany the drumming, there was little
movement during this study (p. 163).
Type of
Slotoroff (N = 2) Participants; Two large Qualitative: Experiential. Use of the drum along with the study protocol
(1994) (n = 1) adult, middle- drums (13” x Improvisational approach to music may be an effective tool in working with
aged female; (n = 1) 9” and 13½” therapy, integrating drumming with assertiveness and anger management with
adolescent male, age: x 14½”). cognitive–behavioral techniques individuals who have been abused as well as
11 years. Both (CBT). Goals: to develop those who have not been abused (p. 116).
Sturdy drums
suffered physical, assertiveness and anger management;
were selected Technique provided insight into patients’
emotional trauma; to increase awareness of personal
to withstand boundary issues. Drumming create a container of
adolescent male also coping styles; and to explore other
being hit safety and support (pp. 115-116).
suffered sexual coping methods (p. 112). Both music
forcefully Limitations: The study was performed in a
abuse. therapist and the patient played the
with sticks short-term psychiatric setting which is not the
drums, and at various intervals, the
(p. 112). preferred length of time for treatment of trauma.
music therapist would increase
volume and tempo. Participants told Technique was used just once or twice with each
221
to say “stop” to music therapist if they patient, and has not been used with adult men.
sensed emotional discomfort such as Only two cases are presented in the article,
agitation, anger, or fear; the music although the technique had been used with many
therapist would immediately honor all patients in the short-term psychiatric center. The
commands to stop playing. technique continued after the study had been
completed. The label “middle-age” was not
defined for the adult female patient.
Type of
Kaser (N = 1) Incarcerated Drum set Qualitative: Single case study by Drumming was a form of nonverbal
(1991) White male, age = 25 music therapist. communication and emotional expressivity.
years, in a specialized Didactic treatment: 17months. Audio- Drumming may be used as an adjunct in music
treatment program for taped recordings of musical therapy to process and regulate feelings,
sex offenders in a interactions provided feedback of decrease controlling behavior, increase in self-
forensic hospital. patient behavior. esteem, and develop a therapeutic alliance (p.
Diagnosis of 15).
Pedophilia with Axis
II DX: Antisocial
Personality Disorder
with features of
Narcissistic
Personality Disorder
222
(p. 11)
Celi (N = 1), male, with Trap set Case study: Rhythmic drumming Rhythm created organization and form. Rhythm
(1989) dissociative states, (Participant), integrated into psychoanalytic may be used as an adjunct in psychoanalytic
age = 9 years. Conga sessions. sessions as a therapeutic tool for dissociation and
(Therapist) confusion (p. 43).

Table A2:
Literature Category 2: Drumming as a Culturally Appropriate Intervention
Type of
Courey, (N = 67) 3rd grade Hands, Mixed Methods, Experiential. Two Brain Organization and Learning Outcomes:
Balogh, students, in a fingers. groups: General education End-of-program test results showed drumming
Paik, & multi-cultural, mathematics program, and academic students received 50% higher scores on a fractions
Siker mixed music program where students test. Final test scores of academic music group
(2012a, socioeconomic received music instruction to engage were 40% higher than general math education
2012b) public school them in learning basic fraction group (2012b). Using music notation, rhythmic
setting. Duration: concepts, with emphasis on different clapping, drumming, and chanting may support
45 minutes, ways of educating students in math children in learning difficult fraction concepts
2x/week for 6 that are symbolic, not linguistic- (2012a).
weeks (2012b, p. dependent. (2012b, p. 251).
223
Limitations: exact age ranges not provided.
251)
Dickerson, (N = 18) Native Traditional Qualitative: UCLA study of Drum- Participants indicated Drum-Assisted Therapy for
Robichaud, Americans/ drum Assisted Recovery Therapy for Native Americans could be beneficial.
Teruya, Alaska Natives. Native Americans (DARTNA) Four overarching conceptual themes emerged
Nagaran, & Conducted at provided by cultural/drumming across the focus groups: “(1) benefits of
Hser (2012) UCLA, 3-hr teacher and substance abuse drumming; (2) importance of a culture-based
treatment session, counselor using 3 focus groups: (n = focus; (3) addressing gender roles in drumming
2x weekly for 12 6) substance abuse disorders (with n = activities, and; (4) providing a foundation of
weeks. 2 female); (n = 8) treatment providers common Native American/Alaska Natives
(with n = 5 female); and (n = 4) traditions” (p. 505).
community advisory board (with n =
Researchers recommend using traditional healing
2 female) (p. 505). Transcripts were
and drumming styles for substance abuse treatment
coded by 3 coauthors and analyzed
with this population (p. 505).
using ATLAS.ti software (p. 507).
Type of
Faulkner, (N = 60) At-risk 6th N/A Mixed Methods. Evaluation study using Drumming is a culturally appropriate method
Wood, and 7th grade pre/post interventions included informal of treatment with Aboriginal individuals.
Ivery, & students, average discussions with staff and participants, Combining the therapeutic potential of musical
Donovan age 12. (n = 40%) observation, participant and teacher expression with basic cognitive–behavioral
(2012) Aboriginal descent. questionnaires, and school and attendance therapy can be used successfully to deliver a
All had behavioral and behavioral incident records (p. 31). range of social learning outcomes, including
history with one or Participants recruited into 1 of 3 emotional control, improved relationships and
more risk factors and intervention groups (DRUMBEAT increased self-esteem (p. 31).
no prior experience program group) (n = 10 each) or into 1 of 3 Limitations: Type of drums omitted.
playing the drum. control groups (n = 10 each). Pre- and
Further research to assess sustainability and
Majority had limited post-intervention data collection: self-
“vulnerability to external factors” (p. 31).
exposure to music esteem, school attendance, antisocial
224
education. behavior, and levels of cooperation and
collaboration (p. 31).
Ho, Tsao, (N = 54), 5th grade, Drums Qualitative/Experiential and Quantitative: Culturally appropriate: “group drumming
Bloch, & low-income, at-risk, and Interventions using counseling skills and combined with group counseling may be used
Zelter socioeconomically rhythms group drumming (led by school effectively to mitigate internalizing problems
(2011) disadvantaged youth. chosen to counselors). Observations including in a low-income, predominantly Latino,
Ethnicity primarily reflect Teacher’s Report Form (TRF). Focus was population” (p. 9).
Latino. Duration: cultural on development of social and emotional A school-based group drumming program,
40-45-minute diversity skills. Sessions began with entire group integrated with activities from group
weekly sessions, playing a repetitive rhythm pattern to counseling, improved social and emotional
after lunch on school release stress, energize, and create a sense behavior in low-income children (p. 9).
day, for 12 weeks. of community (p. 4).
Limitations: specifics of ethnicity were
omitted.
Type of
Núñez (N = 5) Adolescent, Carribean Quantitative/Experiential and An increased sense of confidence, self-
(2006) Latino males, first and Qualitative: Duration of study: 18- esteem, community, and social/peer
generation born in USA, African: consecutive weekly meetings. connectedness.
in SF county, age range congas, Psychometric tests administered by Verbal reports of parents and participants
= 10-14 years. All djembes, licensed clinical psychologist in implied that the youth experienced a sense of
diagnosed by referral ashikos. group format: S-Anxiety form of cultural relatedness to the drumming
clinicians and met criteria Spielberger’s (1973) State Trait treatment (p. 111).
for diagnosis of Anxiety Scale. Revised Children’s
Generalized Anxiety Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds &
Disorder or Anxiety Richmond, 2000) administered 6
Disorder Not Otherwise times. Qualitative data consisted of 3
Specified. All had Medi- questions and gathered by licensed
Cal (California state- psychologist. Parents provided verbal
225
funded insurance for low- reports and participants provided
income individuals). impressions of drumming experience.
Camilleri At-risk elementary-age Qualitative: Experiential, drum Rhythmic drumming provides a unifying
(2002) school children from the circles. Weekly sessions. Focus was force that encourages tolerance, helps
Reach Charter School in on development of confidence and overcome cultural, racial, and religious
Manhattan. Post 9/11. group unity through adaptation of differences (p. 262), challenge students to
drum exercises into music therapy. work together regardless of differences to
For example: giving voice to achieve a specific goal (p. 263), and
emotions through drumming, and diminishes violence (p. 264). Benefits may
discussion of group dynamics that extend to community at large (p. 264).
occurred during drumming sessions Limitations: number of participants
(p. 264). omitted.
Table A3:
Literature Category 3: Community Building and Social Engagement
Type of
Faulkner, (N = 60) At-risk 6th N/A Mixed Methods. Evaluation study Drumming is a culturally appropriate method of
Wood, and 7th grade using pre/post interventions included treatment with Aboriginal individuals.
Ivery, & students, average informal discussions with staff and Combining the therapeutic potential of musical
Donovan age 12. (n = 40%) participants, observation, participant expression with basic cognitive–behavioral therapy
(2012) Aboriginal descent. and teacher questionnaires, and school can be used successfully to deliver a range of
All had behavioral and attendance and behavioral social learning outcomes, including emotional
history with one or incident records (p. 31). Participants control, improved relationships and increased self-
more risk factors recruited into 1 of 3 intervention esteem (p. 31).
and no prior groups (DRUMBEAT program group)
Limitations: Type of drums omitted.
experience playing (n = 10 each) or into 1 of 3 control
the drum. Majority groups (n = 10 each). Pre- and post- Further research to assess sustainability and
226
had limited intervention data collection: self- “vulnerability to external factors” (p. 31).
exposure to music esteem, school attendance, antisocial
education. behavior, and levels of cooperation
and collaboration (p. 31).
Type of
Snow & (N = 10) At-risk Djembe Qualitative Experiential, drum circles. Videotapes reflect themes such as overall increase in
D’Amico 11th grade (each Two facilitators: the principal group participation and cohesiveness, positive peer
(2010) students, many participant researcher (an experienced music interactions, less hesitancy, and increased
from troubled supplied therapy clinician and researcher), and assertiveness. Majority of participants reported
homes, in a small with a a private music instructor and improvements in self-esteem; 50% expressed
private alternative drum) professional percussionist. No grades improvements around anger, stress, motivation, and
high school in a were given, and attendance was self-confidence.
large Canadian expected. Data: Questionnaires were Females: All contributed to group cohesion and
city. Entire school administered at completion of final positive peer interactions, strived to play in sync with
population = 20-40 session (disclosure of names the group, followed the structure given by the co-
students. Age range optional), videotapes of 6 sessions, facilitators (p. 31). Males: Inconsistency in attention
= 16-17 years; written observations by educational and performance from week to week. Gains were not
(n = 6) males, psychology researchers who had prior sustained week to week (p. 31).
227
experience observing music therapy
(n = 4) females; Limitations: Study cannot be replicated. Inconsistency
groups. Coding of themes by 2nd
Length of project: in number of participants (variously N = 10 and N = 9).
researcher with same background.
1 hour/week for Names of questionnaires were omitted; unclear
Teaching model with traditional drum
12 weeks, during whether questionnaires were standard or developed for
circle elements, utilizing a hands-on
school day. the study by the researcher. Researcher had a lack of
learning-by-doing of basic drumming
ease and comfort with the participants, as she had no
skills, that immediately engages
prior experience with this population and its
students in a group learning process
challenges, (i.e., ineffective in maintaining control of a
that encourages initiative-taking,
class); second facilitator was at ease and in control of
expression of individual creativity,
the group. Researcher advised prior consideration
leadership skills, and provides
around including individuals with severe ADD or
successful experiences for all
ADHD; at times during the course of the study, one of
members. Reflection upon
the participants who had severe ADD/ADHD became
experiences was important part of
disruptive and expressed hostility toward participants.
process.
Type of
Ho, Tsao, (N = 54), 5th grade, Drums and Qualitative/Experiential and Quantitative: A school-based group drumming program,
Bloch, & low-income, at-risk, rhythms Interventions using counseling skills and integrated with activities from group
Zelter socioeconomically chosen to group drumming (led by school counseling, improved social and emotional
(2011) disadvantaged youth. reflect counselors). Observations including behavior in low-income children (p. 9).
Ethnicity primarily cultural Teacher’s Report Form (TRF). Focus was Study suggests that “group drumming
Latino. Duration: 40- diversity on development of social and emotional combined with group counseling may be
45-minute weekly skills.. Sessions began with entire group used effectively to mitigate internalizing
sessions, after lunch playing a repetitive rhythm pattern to problems in a low-income, predominantly
on school day, for 12 release stress, energize, and create a sense Latino, population” (p. 9).
weeks. of community (p. 4).
omitted.
228
Bensimon, (N = 6) Israeli Darbuka, Qualitative: Experiential, music therapy Group drumming created feelings of
Amir, & soldiers; age range: tabla, group work plus individual psychotherapy. openness, togetherness, sharing, closeness,
Wolf 20-23, all diagnosed Indian drum, Data: digital cameras filmed the sessions; connectedness and intimacy; and
(2008) as suffering from floor drum, at end of each session, a scripted self- spontaneous circle group drumming
combat- or terror- djembes, and report of the therapist–researcher; after last promoted group interaction and
related PTSD (p. 34). other session, all interviewed (1-1.5 hrs.), open- cohesiveness (p. 38). Drumming created a
Study began with 9 melodic, ended, in-depth (p. 34). container of safety and support to support
participants; after 4 harmonic and bonding and emotional expressivity.
weekly meetings, 3 wind Drumming aids in development of
participants dropped instruments therapeutic alliance.
out (p. 36). (p. 37).
Type of
Kumler (N = 4) Adults over N/A Qualitative: Phenomenological Connectedness and sense of community:
(2006, age 18; (n = 2) hermeneutical inquiry. Participants gave a Participants’ reported following
2008/ Caucasian male, written protocol of experience of listening experiences: “being transformed by musical
2012) (n = 1) Indian- to a particular piece of music. Next, in- experience”; “being sound”; “embodying
American male, depth interviews of listening to musical music’s will”; “connectedness” (with others
(n = 1) Caucasian piece and of the experience of and sense of community) through musical
female. Selection conversations conducted between transformational experience; and “fore-
criteria: significant researcher and participant. Reflexive having” (a sense of latent knowledge of
formal musical awareness offered by researcher during having already known something new) (pp.
training or sense that dialogue. Transcripts generated units of 89–90).
music holds meaning in form of Situated Structure
Limitations: Kumler (2006) had a small
meaningful (organized in narrative form) and then
sample of participants.
experience; General Structure (general themes) (p. 58).
229
individuals were The research question was vague and
known or suggested. lacked clarity about the experience that he
wanted to pinpoint/highlight; study limited
collaboration between participants and
researcher (Kumler, 2006 p. 99); embedded
presumption that only lyrical instrumental
music would offer a transformative
experience (p. 100); and participant
selection was limited to musicians (p. 101).
Type of
Núñez (N = 5) Adolescent, Carribean Quantitative/Experiential and Qualitative: Increased sense of confidence, self-esteem,
(2006) Latino males, first and African: Duration of study: 18- consecutive weekly community, and social/peer connectedness.
generation born in congas, meetings. Psychometric tests administered Verbal reports of parents and participants
USA, in SF county, djembes, by licensed clinical psychologist in group implied that the youth experienced a sense
age range = 10-14 ashikos. format: S-Anxiety form of Spielberger’s of cultural relatedness to the drumming
years. All diagnosed (1973) State Trait Anxiety Scale. Revised treatment (p. 111), inductive trance
by referral clinicians Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale experience, initial discomfort to the hands
and met criteria for (Reynolds & Richmond, 2000) as the result of drumming, and a decrease in
diagnosis of administered 6 times. Qualitative data distress, but no significant alleviation in
Generalized Anxiety consisted of 3 questions and gathered by symptoms (p. 112).
Disorder or Anxiety licensed psychologist. Parents provided
Disorder Not verbal reports and participants provided
Otherwise Specified. impressions of drumming experience.
230
All had Medi-Cal
(California State
Gov’t-funded
medical insurance for
low-income
individuals).
Type of
Stone (N = 29) At-risk Hand drums Qualitative. Experiential: LCSW facilitated Drumming creates a safe transitional space.
(2005) adolescents in (unspecified), group drumming, 8 weekly sessions. Drums became a transitional object that
residential adolescent using African Participants given a drum to use outside connected youth to other youth, adults, and
treatment facility. Latin the group. After last session, participants community (p. 83). Drumming supported
Demographic rhythms. asked to extend the weekly program. The dialogue around issues of self-esteem,
estimates: (n = 65%) group expanded to their family members isolation, and racial prejudices. Drumming
African-American, including children (p. 75). Those who aids in developing therapeutic alliance.
(n = 25%) Latino, completed the program could keep their Benefits of drumming extended to
(n = 10%) Caucasian drums. community at large, focusing on leadership.
(p. 81). Limitations: No formal demographics
(p.80).
Camilleri At-risk elementary- Qualitative: Experiential, drum circles. Drum circles within the school classrooms
231
(2002) age school children Weekly sessions. Focus was on helped create community and those benefits
from the Reach development of confidence and group may extend to the community at large (p.
Charter School in unity through adaptation of drum exercises 264). Rhythmic drumming provides a
Manhattan. Post 9/11. into music therapy. For example: giving unifying force that encourages tolerance;
voice to emotions through drumming, and helps overcome cultural, racial, and
discussion of group dynamics that occurred religious differences (p. 262); challenge
during drumming sessions (p. 264). students to work together regardless of
differences to achieve a specific goal (p.
263); and diminishes violence (p. 264).
Limitations: number of participants
omitted.
Type of
Watson (N = 30) Multi-ethnic: Qualitative. Experiential. Provided an opportunity for release of emotions/catharsis, and
(2002) residential adult Drums and Rhythm-based music therapy noted increases in the following 9 areas: social interaction,
male sexual various drumming and improvisation building intimacy skills, ability to listen to other participants,
offenders with handheld model designed for residential relaxation and stress management and anger coping skills,
various rhythm adult male sexual offenders (p. tolerance of others, ability to regulate emotions, ability for
paraphilias, instruments 105). Sessions conducted by turn-taking, direction following, and impulse control (p. 110).
civilly committed (i.e., egg Board Certified Music Findings of increased motivation, a sense of group unity and
due to continued shakers and Therapist. feeling of belonging, increased unity in rhythmic playing, and
risk of paddle Duration: 1 hr session/week matched playing to other group members (in tempo,
recidivism, at the drums) for 1 year. dynamics, timbre, rhythm, and style of music) (p. 110).
Arizona
Community Protocol: 3 sections Group provided platform for participants to express fears,
Protection and (beginning, intermediate, and such as opinions of non-participating peers, fear of rejection
232
Treatment Center advanced, each with same by music therapist and group members, and performance
(ACPTC). basic format): (a) a anxiety (p. 110).
Ethnicities warm/up/focusing activity (to Drumming aids in developing therapeutic alliance.
included African- increase awareness of others, Observations by music therapist noted increased relaxation in
American, establish group identity, and participants as suggested by body posture and relaxed muscle
Hispanic, Native begin entrainment); (b) free tone, increased social interactions, and “light-hearted
American, and improvisational drumming conversations (p. 109).
Caucasian. n = 3 including percussion
Cognitively impaired participants noted relaxed effects that
left study due to (unstructured with only basic
included “decreased headaches, decreased muscle tension, and
intolerances: guidelines); and (c) closing
having fun” (p. 109).
(n = 1) due to task (refocusing on breathe
and body awareness) (p. 108). This population, when in traditional groups (such as cognitive
auditory stimuli, distortion groups, relapse prevention, and victim empathy),
(n = 2) due to
frequently report headaches and tension.
large groups.
Limitations: Age range omitted.
Type of
M. S. (N = 12) Chemically CD of Qualitative: Phenomenological and Results suggest further exploration of the shamanic
Miller dependent males at a Shamanic Experiential. Participants were journey as an adjunct to mainstream substance abuse
(1999) residential treatment drumming psychologically cleared by their treatments (p. 109). Participants responded in
center, in Northern counselors, and disqualified for positive manner to shamanic drumming experience
California, the New medical conditions such as heart (p. 109).
Bridge Foundation. arrhythmia, and epileptic seizures, Drumming aids in developing therapeutic alliance.
Ethnic backgrounds: or if excessively startled by certain
Drumming journey experience led to deeper personal
(n = 6) Caucasian, sounds. This was a two-part study.
insights into their addictions that are key elements
(n = 5) African- MMPI-2 and MLH were
toward recovery such as “remaining sincere in all
American, and administered in first phase of study.
personal interactions,” and “choosing supportive
(n = 1) Euro-Asian. MMPI-2 assess the participants as
friends outside of the old drug scene,” “recovery
Age range = 25-46 far as if they would be cooperative
233
must be self-motivated” (p. 109), and having an
years. (n = 4) and willing to share intimate details.
open-mindedness around diversity (p. 112).
addicted to The second phase was a drumming
methamphetamine, journey following Harner’s (1990) Participants reported learning about personal issues
(n = 4) addicted to protocol for shamanic journey. including control issues, self-care (desire to integrate
crack-cocaine, (n = 4) Researcher gave instructions to meditation into their lives), self-esteem issues, and
addicted to heroine. participants who then listened to a “it is possible to experience happiness” (p. 83).
All participated in a 15-minute CD of shamanic Participants described experiences of safety and
drum journey drumming. Participants were relaxation
experience. interviewed immediately following Limitations: No follow-up interviews to assess
drumming experience. sustainability of experience and insight.
Type of
Clair, (N = 40) Elders. Age N/A Qualitative. Assessments to evaluate Increases in imitation of progressively complex
Bernstein, range = 67-92 years, potential changes over time in: areas patterns and social engagement.
& Johnson with either Dementia of overall rhythm participation, Limitations: omitted the numbers of elders per type
(1995) of Alzheimer type or imitation of progressively more of dementia.
late stage complex rhythm patterns, and
undifferentiated. entrained playing (p. 113). The
focus was on whether certain drums
were more likely to stimulate
engagement, and whether
participants could imitate modeled
drum strokes.
Note. Authors’ table.
234
Table A4:
Literature Category 4: Nonverbal Communication and Emotional Expressivity
Type of
Bittman, (N = 52) At-risk, Type of Qualitative. Randomized Seminal study utilizing replicable creative musical
Dickson, & inner city drums not controlled crossover study. expression as a catalyst for nonverbal and verbal
Coddington adolescents disclosed. Dependent variable measures disclosure.
(2009) residing in a court- included 5 scales Statistically significant improvement in several parameters,
referred residential administered by counselors: including: school/work role performance, total depression,
treatment program; the Child and Adolescent anhedonia/negative affect, negative self-evaluation (self-
age range = 12-18, Functional Assessment Scale esteem), and instrumental anger.
mean age 14.5 (CAFAS), the Adolescent
Sustainable impact 6 weeks past completion of protocol in
years. Ethnicity = Psychopathology Scale
the following areas: school/work role performance,
235
African-American, (APS), the Adolescent Anger
anhedonia/negative affect, instrumental anger, anger, and
Asian, Caucasian, Rating Scale (AARS), the
interpersonal problems, behavior toward others, and total
and Puerto Rican. Reynolds Adolescent
anger.
Depression Scale, 2nd Edition
(RADS 2), and the Limitations: Follow-up period did not extend past
Adolescent Visual-Analog 6 weeks. Inability to blind the counselors administering the
Recreational Music Making 5 assessment scales.
Assessment (A-VARMMA).
Type of
Ho, Tsao, (N = 54), 5th grade, Drums and Qualitative/Experiential and A school-based group drumming program,
Bloch, & low-income, at-risk, rhythms Quantitative. Interventions using integrated with activities from group
Zelter socioeconomically chosen to counseling skills and group counseling, improved social and emotional
(2011) disadvantaged youth. reflect cultural drumming (led by school counselors). behavior in low-income children (p. 9).
Ethnicity primarily diversity Observations including Teacher’s Nonverbal aspect of drumming supported
Latino. Duration: Report Form (TRF). Focus was on management of stress and elevating energy
40-45-minute weekly development of social and emotional levels.
sessions, after lunch on skills.. Sessions began with entire
school day, for 12 group playing a repetitive rhythm
omitted.
weeks. pattern to release stress, energize, and
create a sense of community (p. 4).
Bensimon, (N = 6) Israeli soldiers; Darbuka, Qualitative: Experiential, music As nonverbal activity, drumming held less
236
Amir, & age range: 20-23, all tabla, Indian therapy group work plus individual stigma than talk therapy.
Wolf (2008) diagnosed as suffering drum, floor psychotherapy. Data: digital cameras
from combat- or terror- drum, filmed the sessions; at end of each
related PTSD (p. 34). djembes, and session, a scripted self-report of the
Study began with other melodic, therapist–researcher; after last
9 participants; after harmonic and session, all interviewed (1-1.5 hrs.),
4 weekly meetings, wind open-ended, in-depth (p. 34).
3 participants dropped instruments
out (p. 36). (p. 37).
Type of
Hoeft & (N = 208) Under– N/A Quantitative: pre/post questionnaire to Listening to recorded percussion and
Kern (2007) graduate students from evaluate current mood, levels of drumming as a nonverbal activity had
3 music-related relaxation, energy, and significant effect on all participants’ mood,
classes, in Ontario, focus/concentration. Researchers levels of relaxation, energy, and focus
Canada. (n = 184) played three 30-second selections of (p. 138).
qualified for data recorded percussion from the CD, Participants identified concentration/focus
analysis, (n = 24) “RhythmTonics,” (composer/ (n = 25%), calm (n = 45%), and energy
disqualified due to producer: Greg Ellis) (p. 136). (n = 28%) (p. 138). Overall, 31.2% accurate
invalid responses to identification of the composer’s intended
questions (p. 137). meaning that was embedded in the recorded
(n = 169) age range: percussion music (p. 139).
18-24 years; (n = 11)
Results of study showed 14% reliability.
25-34 years; and
237
(n = 4) > 35 years Limitations: gender not identified in
(p. 137). Participation demographic questionnaire.
was voluntary and
anonymous (p. 137).
Saarkallio & (N = 8) Finnish N/A Qualitative: Constructivist Grounded Demonstrates the significant capability of
Erkkila adolescent females, in theory (Charmaz, 2003a, 2003b, as music for fostering mood regulation and
(2007) 2 groups: (n = 4) cited on p. 91). Semi-structured and self-regulation (p. 105).
active music makers, in-depth group interviews, and The nonverbal nature of music provides “a
age =14 years; (n = 4) follow-up forms (p. 90). framework for reflecting on thoughts and
those who like to listen feelings that are aroused” (Saarikallio &
to music. Erkkila, 2007, p. 100).
Type of
Kumler (N = 4) Adults over N/A Qualitative: Phenomenological The nonverbal experience of listening to music afforded
(2006, age 18; (n = 2) hermeneutical inquiry. the following participants’ experiences: “being
2008/2012) Caucasian male, Participants gave a written transformed by musical experience”; “being sound”;
(n = 1) Indian- protocol of experience of “embodying music’s will”; “connectedness” (with others
American male, listening to a particular piece of and sense of community) through musical
(n = 1) Caucasian music. Next, in-depth interviews transformational experience; and “fore-having” (a sense
female. Selection of listening to musical piece and of latent knowledge of having already known something
criteria: significant of the experience of new) (pp. 89-90).
formal musical conversations conducted Limitations: (Kumler, 2006): small sample of
training or sense between researcher and participants. The research question was vague and lacked
that music holds participant. Reflexive awareness clarity about the experience that he wanted to
meaningful offered by researcher during pinpoint/highlight; study limited collaboration between
experience; dialogue. Transcripts generated participants and researcher (Kumler, 2006 p. 99);
238
individuals were units of meaning in form of embedded presumption that only lyrical instrumental
known or Situated Structure (organized in music would offer a transformative experience (p. 100);
suggested. narrative form) and then General and participant selection was limited to musicians (p.
Structure (general themes) (p. 101).
58).
Type of
Winkelman Adolescents and Winkelman’s discussion of Group drumming participants benefitted from
(2003) adults observations made by 2 physiological, psychological, and social stimulation (p.
substance abuse counselors, 647). Seaman reported a sense of connectedness for
Mikenas and Seaman. participants (both adolescents and adults), and that the
recovery processes were enhanced for the participants in
the drumming groups that had been specialized for their
needs (p. 648).
Mikenas reported enhanced nonverbal and verbal
communication skills, enhanced sensorimotor
coordination and integration, bodily awareness and
attention span, anxiety reduction, greater group
participation, relationship building, and that group
drumming “allows spontaneous experiences of leadership
239
skills” (p. 648).
Camilleri At-risk elementary- Qualitative: Experiential, drum Rhythmic drumming as a nonverbal activity provides a
(2002) age school children circles. Weekly sessions. Focus unifying force that encourages tolerance, helps overcome
from the Reach was on development of cultural, racial, and religious differences (p. 262),
Charter School in confidence and group unity challenge students to work together regardless of
Manhattan. Post through adaptation of drum differences to achieve a specific goal (p. 263), and
9/11. exercises into music therapy. For diminishes violence (p. 264).
example: giving voice to Benefits may extend to community at large (p. 264).
emotions through drumming,
Limitations: number of participants omitted.
and discussion of group
dynamics that occurred during
drumming sessions (p. 264).
Type of
Watson (N = 30) residential Multi- Qualitative. Experiential. Provided an opportunity for release of emotions/catharsis,
(2002) adult male sexual ethnic: Rhythm-based music therapy and noted increases in the following 9 areas: social
offenders with Drums drumming and improvisation interaction, building intimacy skills, ability to listen to
various paraphilias, and model designed for residential other participants, relaxation and stress management and
civilly committed various adult male sexual offenders (p. anger coping skills, tolerance of others, ability to regulate
due to continued handheld 105). Sessions conducted by emotions, ability for turn-taking, direction following, and
risk of recidivism, rhythm Board Certified Music Therapist. impulse control (p. 110).
at the Arizona instrume Duration: 1-hour session per Increased motivation for the drumming/improvisation
Community nts (i.e., week for 1 year. group, a sense of group unity and feeling of belonging,
Protection and egg increased unity in rhythmic playing, and matched playing
Protocol consists of the
Treatment Center shakers to other group members (in tempo, dynamics, timbre,
following 3 sections (beginning,
(ACPTC). and rhythm, and style of music) (p. 110).
intermediate, and advanced, each
Ethnicities included paddle
240
with same basic format): (a) Observations by music therapist noted increased
African-American, drums).
warm-up/focusing activity (to relaxation in participants as suggested by body posture
Hispanic, Native
increase awareness of others, and relaxed muscle tone, increased social interactions,
American, and
establish group identity, and and “light-hearted conversations. (p. 109).
Caucasian. n = 3
begin entrainment); (b) free Nonverbal communication supportive for cognitively
left study due to
improvisational drumming impaired participants, for example, in the improvisational
intolerances: (n = 1)
including percussion drumming group participants noted relaxed effects that
due to auditory
(unstructured with only basic included “decreased headaches, decreased muscle tension,
stimuli, (n = 2) due
guidelines); and (c) closing task and having fun” (p. 109).
to large groups.
(refocusing on breathe and body
This population when in traditional groups (such as
awareness) (p. 108).
cognitive distortion groups, relapse prevention, and victim
empathy) frequently report headaches and tension.
Limitations: Age range omitted.
Type of
Clair, (N = 40) Elders. N/A Qualitative. Assessments to evaluate Increases in imitation of progressively complex
Bernstein, Age range = 67- potential changes over time in: areas of patterns and social engagement.
& Johnson 92 years, with overall rhythm participation, imitation of Drums offer a nonverbal communication which is
(1995) either Dementia progressively more complex rhythm less challenging cognitively for individuals with
of Alzheimer patterns, and entrained playing (p. 113). dementia and Alzheimer’s.
type or late The focus was on whether certain drums
Limitations: omitted the numbers of elders per
stage were more likely to stimulate engagement,
type of dementia.
undifferentiated. and whether participants could imitate
modeled drum strokes.
Slotoroff (N = 2) Two large Qualitative: Experiential. Improvisational Use of the drum along with the study protocol may
Participants; drums approach to music therapy, integrating be an effective tool in working with assertiveness
(1994)
(n = 1) adult, (13” x 9” drumming with cognitive–behavioral and anger management with individuals who have
techniques (CBT). Goals: to develop
241
middle-aged and 13½” been abused as well as those who have not been
female; (n = 1) x 14½”). assertiveness and anger management; to abused (p. 116).
adolescent male, increase awareness of personal coping
Sturdy Technique provided insight into patients’ boundary
age: 11 years. styles; and to explore other coping
drums were issues. Drumming create a container of safety and
Both suffered methods (p. 112). Both music therapist and
selected to support (pp. 115-116).
physical, the patient played the drums, and at
withstand Limitations: The study was performed in a short-
emotional various intervals, the music therapist
being hit term psychiatric setting which is not the preferred
trauma; would increase volume and tempo.
forcefully length of time for treatment of trauma. Technique
adolescent male Participants told to say “stop” to music
with sticks was used just once or twice with each patient, and
also suffered therapist if they sensed emotional
(p. 112). has not been used with adult men. Only two cases
sexual abuse. discomfort such as agitation, anger, or fear;
the music therapist would immediately are presented in the article, although the technique
honor all commands to stop playing. had been used with many patients in the short-term
psychiatric center. The technique continued after
the study had been completed. The label “middle-
age” was not defined for the adult female patient.
Type of
Kaser (N = 1) Incarcerated White Drum set Qualitative: Single case study by Drumming was a form of nonverbal
(1991) male, age = 25 years, in a music therapist. communication and emotional
specialized treatment Didactic treatment: 17 months. Audio- expressivity. Drumming may be used as an
program for sex offenders in taped recordings of musical adjunct in music therapy to process and
a forensic hospital. interactions provided feedback of regulate feelings, decrease controlling
Diagnosis of Pedophilia with patient behavior. behavior, increase in self-esteem, and
Axis II DX: Antisocial develop a therapeutic alliance (p. 15).
Personality Disorder with
features of Narcissistic
Personality Disorder (p. 11)
242
Table A5:
Literature Category 5: Treatment of Addiction and Substance Abuse
Type of
Dickerson, (N = 18) Native Traditional Qualitative. UCLA study of Drum-Assisted Participants indicated Drum-Assisted
Robichaud, Americans/ Alaska drum Recovery Therapy for Native Americans Therapy for Native Americans could be
Teruya, Natives. (DARTNA) provided by cultural/drumming beneficial. 4 overarching conceptual
Nagaran, & Conducted at teacher and substance abuse counselor using themes emerged across the focus groups:
Hser (2012) UCLA, 3-hr 3 focus groups: (n = 6) substance abuse “(1) benefits of drumming;
treatment session, disorders (with n = 2 female); (n = 8) treatment (2) importance of a culture-based focus;
2x weekly for 12 providers (with n = 5 female); and (n = 4) (3) addressing gender roles in drumming
weeks. community advisory board (with n = 2 female) activities, and; (4) providing a
(p. 505). Transcripts were coded by 3 foundation of common Native
coauthors and analyzed using ATLAS.ti American/Alaska Natives traditions”
243
software (p. 507). (p. 505). Researchers recommend using
traditional healing and drumming styles
for substance abuse treatment with this
population (p. 505).
Type of
Blackett & (N = 7) Adults, Wide array Mixed Method, Qualitative uncontrolled study. Attendance to drumming sessions
Payne (2005) substance misusers of drums Data: participant self-report change assessment improved, but not attendance to the other
(heroine, crack- used in questionnaire Stages of Change Readiness and aspects of the study (p. 487).
cocaine, and poly- Health Treatment Eagerness Scale Version Eight Drug Potentials exist for the enrichment of
drug use), Rhythms (SOCRATESv8D; W. R. Miller & J. S. treatment programs through drumming
attending a protocol. Tonigan, 1996), an attendance summary of the groups by creating a “culture of
structured day drumming group and the Structured Misuse inclusion”(p. 489), as the participants
services treatment Treatment Programme, and 45-minute perceived themselves as being “an equal
program in West semistructured interviews (conducted by each part of something creative and
Hertfordshire, UK. participant’s keyworker) used to identify purposeful” (p. 487), and, during the
Age range = 24-56 themes in the lived experience of drumming. drumming experiences, they were able to
years.. (n = 6) Analysis was comparative and deductive. transcend the identity of “drug addict”
males, (n = 1) Themes were compared to 10 categories from and “junkies” (p. 487).
244
female. Duration: the wider field of research of drumming (p.
Limitations: Uncontrolled, small
1 hour/week for 478). Standardized protocol used an evidence-
number of participants. None of the
7 weeks. No based drumming intervention (Health
participants made any connection to the
previous drum Rhythms) that includes rhythm games and
drumming sessions and the changes
experience. entrainment exercises. Participants given basic
reflected in their SOCRATESv8D
tuition, invited to play a wide selection of
scores. Before the interviews, all but one
drums, and a blank journal to record
participant had forgotten or lost their
impressions during last 5 minutes of each
journal entries (p. 488).
session. Reliability and validity of identified
themes by 3 raters, with level of agreement
reached (76-84%) (p. 481).
Type of
Cevasco, (N = 20) Adult Drums and Mixed Method: Pre/post-test. Three Participants reported feeling better after
Kennedy, & females in percussion consecutive music therapy interventions music therapy sessions. No significant
Generally outpatient included: were used: movement-to-music activities, difference measured between the 3
(2005) substance abuse djembes, rhythm activities, and competitive games. interventions. Only 50% of participants
program. Age congas, Duration of each activity was 2 weeks. completed all three music therapy
range = 19-42 djun-djuns, Interventions: 1 hour, 2 times per week (p. interventions.
years. Duration: 6- paddle 71). Participants played drums and Results suggest that females with substance
week music drums, percussion during the rhythm activities. abuse problems may prefer or respond more
therapy program. frame Data: Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory, to certain music therapy programming over
Referral by drums, Novaco Anger Inventory Short Form. The others, indicating the need for assessment
behavioral maracas, therapist read the directions and questions prior to treatment (p. 76) that may help to
management resonator for both tests to the participants. Journaling avoid anti-group patterns (p. 79).
agency employed bars, by participants after each session to report
245
Participants complained about daily stress of
by Georgia mellophone, current levels (using Likert scale 1-10) of
rehab process and stress and anxiety related
Department of slit drum, depression, stress, anxiety, and anger (p.
to post-rehab preparation (e.g., finding jobs
Human Resources. tambourines, 71). In all three interventions, therapists
and child care, completing the final stages of
Average length of claves, egg used guitar, keyboard, and autoharp, a CD,
rehab while starting new jobs) (p. 77).
time in program: 3 shakers, and and cassette player for recorded music.
months. triangles Music therapy interventions used popular Limitations: There was little discussion
and classical music. about participants’ experience of rhythm
activities compared to movement to music
and competitive games. No information of
prior experience with percussion and drums.
Type of
Winkelman Adolescents and N/A Winkelman’s discussion of observations Group drumming participants benefitted
(2003) adults made by 2 substance abuse counselors, from physiological, psychological, and social
Mikenas and Seaman. stimulation (p. 647). Seaman reported a
sense of connectedness for participants (both
adolescents and adults), and that the
recovery processes were enhanced for the
participants in the drumming groups that had
been specialized for their needs (p. 648).
Mikenas reported enhanced sensorimotor
coordination and integration, bodily
awareness and attention span, anxiety
reduction, enhanced nonverbal and verbal
communication skills, greater group
246
participation, relationship building, and that
group drumming “allows spontaneous
experiences of leadership skills” (p. 648).
Type of
M. S. (N = 12) Chemically CD of Qualitative: Phenomenological Results suggest further exploration of the shamanic journey
Miller dependent males at a Shamanic and Experiential. Participants as an adjunct to mainstream substance abuse treatments (p.
(1999) residential treatment drumming were psychologically cleared by 109). Participants responded in positive manner to shamanic
center, in Northern their counselors, and disqualified drumming experience (p. 109).No participants reported any
California, the New for medical conditions (heart distress during the experience of, or as a result of the
Bridge Foundation. arrhythmia, epileptic seizures), drumming (p. 84).
Ethnic backgrounds: or if excessively startled by Two major themes: “a feeling of safety and freedom to deal
(n = 6) Caucasian, certain sounds. This was a two- with aspects of recovery” (p. 81) and “a sense of clearing
(n = 5) African- part study. Phase 1: MMPI-2 and something out of their psyche” (p. 81). Participants reported
American, and MLH were administered;. that their drumming journey led to deeper personal insights
(n = 1) Euro-Asian. MMPI-2 assesses the into their addictive states that are key elements toward
Age range = 25-46 participants as far as if they recovery, such as the importance of authenticity and truth as
years. would be cooperative and a requirement to sustaining their sobriety and creating
247
(n = 4) addicted to willing to share intimate details. connections: “remaining sincere in all personal interactions”;
methamphetamine, Phase 2: a drumming journey “choosing supportive friends outside of the old drug scene”;
(n = 4) addicted to following Harner’s (1990) and “recovery must be self-motivated” (p. 109); and having
crack-cocaine, (n = protocol for shamanic journey. open-mindedness around diversity (p. 112).
4) addicted to Researcher gave instructions to
Participants reported learning about personal issues including
heroin. All participants who then listened to
control, self-care (desire to integrate meditation into their
participated in a a 15-minute CD of shamanic
lives), self-esteem, and “it is possible to experience
drum journey drumming, and were inter-
happiness” (p. 83). They described experiences of safety and
experience. viewed immediately following
relaxation. They experienced their drum journeys as
drumming experience.
metaphorical, making meaning of them symbolically.
Limitations: No follow-up interviews to assess sustainability
of experience and insight.

APPENDIX B: RECRUITMENT LETTER
Date _______
Dear _______,
I am a graduate student researcher at California Institute of Integral Studies in the

Psy.D. Program studying Clinical Psychology. I am asking you to participate in a
research study that will help us better understand the experience of Masterful
Drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming gatherings.
I would like to interview you if: a) you identify as a Masterful Drummer who
facilitates drum gatherings; b) you have at least 15 years experience playing the
drum; c) you have at least 10 years experience facilitating drumming gatherings;
and d) you must be at least 18 years of age in 2013. If you meet the 4 criteria, I
would like to interview you, one-on-one, for a single meeting that will last
approximately 60 to 90 minutes in a location of your choice. No prior preparation
on your part is required for this interview.
Through your participation as a coresearcher, I hope to understand the essence of

facilitating a synchronized drumming gathering as it reveals itself in your
experience. I am seeking vivid, accurate, and comprehensive portrayals of what
the experiences of facilitating a synchronized drumming gathering were like for
you: your thoughts, feelings, embodied experience and behaviors. The prepared
interview questions are not intended to evoke difficult experiences, however they
may touch upon sensitive areas for some people. The questions have been
designed so as to reveal personal information that you may or may not have
shared before in this way. Reflecting on these questions may evoke tender
feelings or the experience of vulnerability. You will be free to refuse to answer
any question or to discontinue your participation in the study at any time. The
questions are aimed at illuminating the lived experience of facilitating a
synchronized drumming gathering. If the need should arise, I, Susan Baron, will
be available before, during, or after the interview to talk about your concerns, and
to facilitate referrals to supervisors, consultants, or therapists. I can be reached at
the following email address: [withheld for privacy].
All information you contribute will be held in strict confidence within the limits
of the law (see the attached confidentiality statement). The interview will be audio
recorded and the transcript interview will be kept in a locked cabinet to which
only I, Susan Baron, have access. Access to the recordings will be limited to me,
Susan Baron, and a transcriber, who prior to receiving the recording will sign an
agreement of confidentiality.
At the end of our interview, I may request permission to contact you in the future
if there is a need to clarify any point(s) from our conversation. You also may
contact me to add to, change, or clarify any information from our conversation.
248
Your request to omit from the dissertation particular details that you specify to
this researcher will be honored.
Access to the transcribed interviews will be limited to me, Susan Baron, and
faculty committee chair, Dr. Mera Atlis, and to you as a validity and reliability
check on my analysis of the data. Neither your name, your city, your agency, your
training institute, nor any other identifying information will be included in the
dissertation itself. I will also elicit from you other measures that you might deem
appropriate to further safeguard your confidentiality.
If you participate in the interview but wish not to receive further communication
from me, you will be able to state this preference without negative repercussion.
Data will be kept in a locked cabinet or password-secured computer file, to which
only Susan Baron has access. Data will be destroyed within five years of
collection, unless you indicate your consent for data to be kept for future study.
No direct benefit, either monetary or resulting from the experience itself is offered
or guaranteed. You may, however, find the process interesting and thought-
provoking. The information you provide will benefit the understanding of the
lived experience of Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming
gatherings, as there is little information available in the professional
psychological literature.
If you would like to participate in the interview process, please reply to this note
via email, and I will respond to confirm your interest and to schedule an interview
date, time, and location. If you no longer wish to participate before the interview
takes place or at any time during the process, you may contact me. There will be
no negative repercussions to this decision.
Please review the enclosed Consent Form for further information about
confidentiality and your rights as a research participant.
If you have any questions, you can email me at [withheld for privacy]. Thank you
for your assistance with my dissertation project.
Sincerely,
Susan Baron,
Psy.D. Candidate, Clinical Psychology
California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA
Mailing Address:
Susan Baron
[address withheld for privacy]
249
APPENDIX C: LETTER INCLUDED WITH PARTICIPANT PACKET
!
!
Date __________
Dear __________,
Thank you for your interest in my dissertation research on the lived experiences
of Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming gatherings. I value
the unique contribution that you can make to my study and I am excited about the
possibility of your participation in it. The purpose of this letter is to reiterate some
of the things we have already discussed and to secure your signature on the
consent form that you will find attached.
The research model I am using is a qualitative phenomenological one through

which I am seeking comprehensive depictions or descriptions of your experience.
In this way I hope to illuminate or answer my question: “What is the lived
experience of Masterful Drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming
gatherings?”
Through your participation in this study, I hope to understand the essence of

facilitating a synchronized drumming gathering as it reveals itself in your
experience. I am seeking vivid, accurate, and comprehensive portrayals of what
the experiences of facilitating a synchronized drumming gathering were like for
you: your thoughts, feelings, embodied experience, and behaviors.
I value your participation and thank you for the commitment of time, energy, and
effort. If you have any further questions before signing the consent form or if
there is a problem with the date and time of our meeting, I can be reached by
phone at [withheld for privacy] and by email at [withheld for privacy].
With warm regards,
Susan Baron
250
APPENDIX D: BIODEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE
Biodemographics Profile/ Questionnaire for Participants
Participant # _____________________
Researcher_________________
You may leave blank, any item(s) that you do not wish to answer.
Your age ______
What is your sex or current gender?
[] Female
[] Male
[] Trans (Transman/Transwoman)
[] Genderqueer
[] Other (Please specify) _____________________________________________
Your ethnicity: (Check ALL that apply)
[] African
[] Asian
[] Black American
[] Caucasian
[] European
[] Hawaiian
[] Hispanic
[] Latina/Latino
[] Native American
[] Non-White
[] Pacific Islander
[] Other (Please specify) _______________________________________
251
Your city of residence ____________________________
Education: ________________________________________________________
Your relationship status (Check ALL that apply):
[] Partnered [] Unpartnered [] Married [] Single [] Divorced []
Your profession (Check ALL that apply): ________________________________
Employed: [] Full-time [] Part-time
Is this your calling: [] Yes [] No [] Other__________________________
How many years have you been playing the drums? ________________________
Have old were you when you started drumming? __________________________
Have you had any formal training as a drummer? [] No [] Yes
If so, how long and describe: __________________________________________
Using what kind of drum? ______________________________________
Have you had any informal learning as a drummer? [] No [] Yes
If so, for how long? And describe: ________________________________
Playing what kind of drum(s)? ___________________________________
How old were you when you started to consider yourself a drummer? __________
How old were you when you first led a drumming gathering? ________________
What kind of drum(s) do you use in your work today? ______________________
When you present you drumming experience to others, and when you get ready to
drum, how do you refer to yourself? (e.g., “drumming facilitator”)
__________________________________________________________________
If “drumming facilitator,” Why?________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
252
If no particular way of referring to yourself, why? _________________________
_________________________________________________________________
How do others refer to you in this role? _________________________________
Do you have any other educational background that is relevant to your work as a
masterful drummer?
[] No
[] Yes: Please elaborate: __________________________________

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
How would you define “Masterful Drummer”?

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
253
APPENDIX E: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How many years have you been playing the drum?
For what amount of time have you been facilitating drumming gatherings?
Please share a little about yourself and what led you to play the drum.
Tell me about your role as drumming group facilitator.
Do you have an intention when you are facilitating? Tell me about it.
How do you begin a drumming session?
[Prompt, only if needed: For example, do you offer an invocation, a

prayer, or an intention? What instruction do you give, if any?]
How do participants prepare themselves when they come to the drum? For
instance, are the participants invited to speak at anytime prior to beginning
the drumming?
How do participants generally find their way to your drumming sessions?
What feelings do you notice? How do you know? How do you sense feelings?
How do you include somatic awareness, in other words, the body, in your
experience?
What do you notice in your body while facilitating?
What do you notice in your hands while facilitating?
What is your sense of the participants while facilitating? How do you experience
this?
How do you know this?
What thoughts and intentions are you aware of?
Can you describe the unfolding of a session?
Do you use synchronized rhythms?
How do you decide what rhythm to use to begin?
Do you change the rhythms and tempo at any point? If yes, for what purpose or
reason?
254
How do you choose when to change?
Can you talk about any changes that you experience in yourself while facilitating?
Including any bodily changes and states?
*Check in and inquire with facilitator during interview—as to the personal

experience during the interview process?
Do you need any thing at this time? What do you need?
Have you shared all that is significant with reference to the experience?
255
APPENDIX F: CONSENT FORM
Susan Baron, a clinical psychology doctoral candidate at the California Institute

of Integral Studies in San Francisco, is conducting a study on the lived experience
of masterful drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming gatherings.
Participation involves an audio recorded interview lasting approximately 60 to 90

minutes, in which you will be invited to talk about your personal experience of
facilitating a synchronized drumming gathering. No prior preparation on your part
is required for any part of this interview.
The prepared interview questions may touch sensitive areas for some people;
some discomfort may arise from discussing a situation that might have been both
personally and professionally challenging. Some questions are aimed at
elucidating the possible conflict between professional expectations and the
response of the participants in the synchronized drumming gathering. You will be
free to refuse to answer any question or to end your participation in the study at
any time. Susan Baron will be available before, during, or after the interviewing
process to talk about your concerns, and to facilitate referrals to supervisors,
consultants, or therapists if such a need should arise. Susan Baron can be
contacted at [withheld for privacy].
Unless you specify otherwise, all information you contribute will be held in strict
confidence within the limits of the law (see the attached Confidentiality
Statement). The audio recordings will be immediately transferred from the
recording device to my personal computer, which will be password-protected and
only I will have access. Access to the audio files will be limited to me and a
professional transcriber (who will sign a confidentiality agreement). The audio
files and transcripts will be identified by numbers only. All identifying data will
be deleted when direct quotes are used in the dissertation. The transcripts will be
shared with you, and the committee chair, Dr. Mera Atlis, as a validity and
reliability check on Susan Baron's analysis of the data. Neither your name, your
city, your agency, your training institute, nor any other identifying information
will be included in the dissertation itself. Your request to omit from the
dissertation particular details that you specify to the researcher will be honored.
Susan Baron will also elicit from you other measures that you deem appropriate to
further safeguard your confidentiality. Your interview recording and transcript
will be kept or destroyed according to your preference indicated at the end of this
document.
No direct benefit, either monetary or resulting from the experience itself, is

offered or guaranteed. You may, however, find the process interesting and
thought-provoking. The information you provide will benefit the understanding of
the lived experience of masterful drummers, experiences shared by many
masterful drummers but rarely discussed in professional psychological literature.
256
If you have any concerns or questions regarding your rights as a participant in this
research, or if you feel that you have been placed at risk, you may report them—
anonymously, if you wish—to the Coordinator, Human Research Review
Committee, California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission Street, San
Francisco, CA 94103, telephone [withheld for privacy] or via email to [withheld
for privacy].
I, ___________________________, consent to participate in the study of the

lived experience of masterful drummers who facilitate synchronized drumming
gatherings conducted by Susan Baron of the California Institute of Integral
Studies. I have received a copy of this consent form and the Confidentiality
Statement, and I understand that my confidentiality will be protected within the
limits of the law. Please choose and initial the appropriate response.
________Please keep my participation confidential.
________I prefer that Susan Baron use my real name, as follows:
__________________________________ [Print Name On This Line]
______________________________________________________________
Signature of Participant Date
I agree to have the interview audio recorded.
_______________________________________________________________
If you would like to receive a copy of your transcribed interview and/or a written
summary of the results of the study, please check one or more of the following
statements and provide an address on the specified line below where you would
like the material sent:
__ I would like a copy of my transcribed interview mailed to me.
__ I would like a copy of the written summary of the results of the study mailed to
me.
__ I would like copies of both my transcribed interview and a written summary of

the results of the study mailed to me.
__ I would prefer not to have a copy of my transcribed interview or a written

summary of the results of the study mailed to me. I have not provided my address
on the following line.
257
__________________________________________________________________
Street City Zip
I understand that Susan Baron may wish to use the transcript of my interview in
future articles and publications. (Please choose and initial the appropriate
response.)
________ I prefer to limit my participation to this study only. Please destroy my

interview recording and transcript once the dissertation is published.
________I consent to the use of my transcript in future publications by Susan

Baron, with the understanding that I will be able to read and comment on her
writing before its publication. I consent for Susan to keep my interview recording
and transcript for this purpose.
______________________________________________________________
258
APPENDIX G:
CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT FOR TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES
I, ___________________________, transcriptionist, individually and on behalf of

_________________[name of business or entity if applicable], do hereby agree to
maintain full confidentiality in regards to any and all audiotapes, digital
recordings, and oral or written documentation received from Susan Baron related
to her research study titled “The Lived Experience of Masterful Drummers Who
Facilitate Synchronized Drumming Gatherings: A Transcendental
Phenomenological Study.” Furthermore, I agree:
1. To hold in strictest confidence the identification of any individual that

may be inadvertently revealed during the transcription of audio-taped or
digitally-recorded interviews, or in any associated documents;
2. To not disclose any information received for profit, gain, or otherwise;
3. To not make copies of any audiotapes, digital recordings, videotapes, or
computerized files of the transcribed interview texts, unless specifically
requested to do so by Susan Baron.
4. To store all study-related audiotapes, digital recordings, videotapes and
materials in a safe, secure location as long as they are in my possession;
5. To return all audiotapes, digital recordings, videotapes and study-related
documents to Susan Baron in a complete and timely manner.
6. To delete all electronic files containing study-related documents from my
computer hard drive and any
backup devices.
Please provide the following contact information for the researcher and the
transcriber:
For Transcriber: For Researcher:
Address:________________________ Address:________________________
_______________________________ _______________________________
Telephone:_______________________ Telephone:_______________________
I am aware that I can be held legally liable for any breach of this confidentiality
agreement, and for any harm incurred by individuals if I disclose identifiable
information contained in the audiotapes, digital recordings, videotapes and/or
paper files to which I will have access. I am further aware that if any breach of
confidentiality occurs, I will be fully subject to the laws of the State of California.
259
Transcriber’s name
(printed)________________________________________________________
Transcriber’s
signature_______________________________________________________
Transcriber’s Name of Business and Title (if applicable)

____________________________
Date_______________________________________
260
APPENDIX H: CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
Your privacy with respect to the information you disclose during participation in
this study will be protected within the limits of the law. However, there are
circumstances where a psychologist is required by law to reveal information,
usually for the protection of a research participant or others. A report to the police
department or to the appropriate protective agency is required in the following
cases:
1. if, in the judgment of the psychologist, a research participant becomes

dangerous to himself or herself or others (or her property), and revealing
the information is necessary to prevent the danger;
2. if there is suspected child abuse, in other words if a child under 16 has

been a victim of a crime or neglect;
3. if there is suspected elder abuse, in other words if a woman or man age

60 or older has been victim of a crime or neglect.
If a report is required, the psychologist should discuss its contents and possible
consequences with the research participant.
261
APPENDIX I: BILL OF RIGHTS FOR PARTICIPANTS IN
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
!
You have the right to. . .
• be treated with dignity and respect;
• be given a clear description of the purpose of the study and what is
expected of you as a participant;
• be told of any benefits or risks to you that can be expected from
participating in the study;
• know the research psychologist’s training and experience;
• ask any questions you may have about the study;
• decide to participate or not without any pressure from the researcher or
her assistants;
• have your privacy protected within the limits of the law;
• refuse to answer any question, refuse to participate in any part of the
study, or withdraw from the study at any time without any negative
effects to you;
• be given a description of the overall results of the study upon request;
• discuss any concerns or file a complaint about the study –
anonymously, if you wish—to the Coordinator, Human Research
Review Committee, California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453
Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, telephone [withheld for
privacy] or via email to [withheld for privacy].
262
APPENDIX J: THANK YOU LETTER TO PARTICIPANTS
Date__________________
Dear __________________,
Thank you for meeting with me in an extended interview and sharing your
experiences of facilitating synchronized drumming gatherings. I appreciate your
willingness to share your unique and personal thoughts, feelings, events, and
situations.
I have enclosed a transcript of your interview. Would you please review the
entire document? Be sure to ask yourself if this interview has fully captured your
experiences of facilitating synchronized drumming gatherings. After reviewing
the transcript of the interview, you may realize than an important experience(s)
was neglected. Please feel free to add comments, with the enclosed red pen that
would further elaborate your experience(s), or if you prefer we can arrange to
meet again and audio record your additions or corrections. Please do not edit for
grammatical corrections.
The way you told your story is what is critical.
When you have reviewed the verbatim transcript and have had an opportunity to
make changes and additions, please return the transcript in the stamped, addressed
envelope.
I have greatly valued your participation in the research study and your willingness
to share your experience. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to
call me.
With warm regards,
Susan Baron
263
APPENDIX K: RESULTS OF BIODEMOGRAPHICS:
PARTICIPANTS’ ACADEMIC EDUCATION
Table K1:
Participants’ Degrees, Certifications, and Coursework
__________________________________________________________________
Name Degrees, certifications, and coursework
Kokomon MBA,
BA in theory of music, music composition, and musicianship
Barbara College coursework: major in percussion

(18 credits less than a BA degree)
Afia MA in education (special education)
Billy College coursework: Cleveland Institute of Music, Harvard University,

Oberlin College, Naropa Institute, and Tamalpa Institute
Glen Music conservatory (3 years)
April PhD in education,

MA in education,
BS with 3 teaching credentials
Carolyn BA in music
Sahar Certified hypnotherapist (CHT),

Reiki master,
certified yoga and meditation teacher (SYDA Foundation),
high school degree
Arthur College coursework: drum,

high school degree
Note. Author’s table. Participants are presented in chronological order of the interviews.
264

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THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MASTERFUL DRUMMERS

WHO FACILITATE SYNCHRONIZED DRUMMING GATHERINGS:

A TRANSCENDENTAL PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

Susan Harris Baron

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty

of the California Institute of Integral Studies

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology

California Institute of Integral Studies

All rights reserved

INFORMATION TO ALL USERS

I certify that I have read THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MASTERFUL

DRUMMERS WHO FACILITATE SYNCHRONIZED DRUMMING

the criteria for approving a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology at the

California Institute of Integral Studies.

Mera Atlis, Ph.D., Chair

Ronald S. Valle, Ph.D.

THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MASTERFUL DRUMMERS

Although neuroscience, music therapy, dance and movement therapies,

developmental and social psychology, and anthropology offer a growing body of

evidence on the benefits of drumming as a support for healing and transformation,

as of this writing, there is little published research within clinical psychology on

the phenomenological experience of group drumming, particularly regarding the

experience of the drumming facilitator. This study extends the literature by

examining the lived experience of 9 Masterful Drummers of diverse cultural and

ethnic backgrounds who facilitate gatherings of people playing synchronized

rhythms on drums and other percussion instruments. These highly experienced,

instruments) are acknowledged as such in their communities of practice. This

study used a Transcendental Phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994) as the primary

method, supplemented by Participant–Researcher Intersubjectivity (Finlay, 2005)

These methodologies were also supported by approaches rooted in the feminine

such as voice-centered relational research, thought, and practice (DeVault &

“space between the beats” as a portal to the Numinous, experiences of embodied

empathy and empathic presence, entrainment as an alternative state, the role of

facilitating as a Masterful Drummer (e.g., preparation, role, intention), and

practices for containing drumming participants’ experiences. The underlying

structural component and appeared to be essential to the core of the lived

experiences for all study participants. In addition, the psychotherapeutic

implications of their phenomenological experience are discussed in light of the

potential parallels between the therapeutic container and the facilitated

synchronized drumming group. This research brings an expanded vision of how

psychotherapy sessions as a means of connecting therapist and client and building

To the Drum and its call to all beings.

May the cries from your body and soul now

be expressed through the drums,

be heard through the drums.

be felt through the drums.

and be witnessed through the drums!

With tremendous appreciation to my participants for the blessings and

experience. In alphabetical order: Afia Walking Tree, April Lea Go Forth,

Kokomon Clottey, and Sahar Pinkham.

and consultant, whom I recognize as a great teacher and wise woman.

With deep appreciation for my supervisors Janice Teece, Barbara Berman,

In the early stages of dissertation research, I was struck by the endless

appreciation to you for the ongoing encouragement to recognize and acknowledge

With special thanks to my family. To my brother, Peter, who has long

been an inspiration to me, and a bountiful well of encouragement, and to my

heartfelt reassurance on the eve of my oral defense. To Andrea, my sister-in-law,

we can pursue our dreams.

and howling at the full moon!

In memory of those individuals who passed on during the time of my

dissertation research, whose scholarly work inspired me deeply: Layne Redmond,