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DRUM THERAPY SINGAPORE©

Calming beats, rhythmic connections 

Module Book 1written and developed by Yuro T.

(www.singaporedrumtherapy.com)

Welcome to Drum Therapy Singapore©.

Many articles have been written about drum therapy and how it helps the participants in physical, social and emotional aspects.

And these claims have been backed by scientific studies and researches mostly done in the west. We at Drum Therapy Singapore believe that these benefits should now come to our region and be part in making quality of life better. Asia is a center of  economic growth. With progress comes added stress for the working individual and lesser time for the parent to bond with the growing children.

We want to help.Drum Therapy Singapore©  is committed to bringing the value of therapeutic drumming and drum circles initially to Singapore and the rest of Asia.Plans to set up the first clinical study to prove its effectiveness to Asian are already in place. And we are confident that in a few years, you will be part of history as you become one of the first to benefit from drum therapy.Led by a qualified and experienced music instructor who is passionate about music and children, Drum Therapy Singapore has regular drum circles with participants ranging from 3 to 79 years old.Everyone reaps the benefits of Drum Therapy.  The preceding article is a compilation of what have been said and written regarding drum therapy. It our hope that you will get to understand and appreciate it better after reading through. But the best way is to take part in one of our

drum circles and feel the tensions released, the emotions cleared and general well-being enhanced.History:From ancient time, group drumming is being used as a tool for wellness and community building.Music is effective because it is a nonverbal form of communication, it is a natural reinforcer, it is immediate in time and provides motivation for practicing nonmusical skills. Most importantly, it is a successful medium because almost everyone responds positively to at least some kind of music.Drum circles are a cultural phenomenon that have been featured in Time Magazine, Discovery and even Natural Beauty and Health. Drum circles are probably one of the most ancient forms of community building known to man.Here, people come together to create an improvised composition that becomes the score for their own lives. The drum circle is a platform for musical expression and it is accessible to anyone regardless of age or ability level. The use of the drum presents for creative expression.Drum circles are happening in many places. People attend these events not to become better percussionists, but to reduce stress, build community, and have fun. It is a recreational activity that engages the mind, body, and spirit. In drum therapy, it’s not about performance, it’s about feeling good about one’s self. In one article, drum therapy was described as fun, relaxing and entrancing, and made for a great feeling of community. In a series of sessions that were part of a study to see if drum therapy helps heart patients, the results observed by Miranda Ritterman from UC Berkeley were encouraging.1There are many uses and benefits of Drum Therapy, among which are for:The elderly and the sickThis method have been proven in many part of the world and have benefitted numerous elderly. It mimics a community and participants instantly feel a sense of belonging. 2Drumming is a complex composite intervention with the potential to modulate specific neuroendocrine and euroimmune parameters in a direction opposite to that expected with the classic stress response.5In a study among Oncology Patients by Christine Stevens, James Gordon, MD of the Mind-Body Center in Washington D.C. was quoted as saying "Oncologists should be open to group drumming if their patients are interested in it. Drumming can put people in a state of relaxation. It was used as a healing technique 1,000 years ago. Why not now?" (MAMM Magazine, July/August, 2001) 6Even the Canadian Cancer Society espouses Drumming as good for cancer patients. And the healing power of drumming for Alzheimer patients was explored in a book by drum facilitator Robert Lawrence Friedman. 8

Adults

Drumming technique for assertiveness and anger management in the short-term psychiatric setting for adult and adolescent survivors of trauma. 9In the April 2010 issue of Science of Mind Magazine entitled "Good Vibrations"  with David DiLullo and Rick Allen (Def Leppard, Raven Drum) by Barbara Stahura where they expressed that drumming “increases heart rate and blood flow. It also synchronizes the hemispheres of the brain, causing brain waves on both sides to entrain, of fall into the same pattern, which can produce effects similar to deep meditation. Entrainment also occurs among members of the drumming group, bringing about a sense of oneness and community.” 10These same experts also mentioned that drumming helps your brain and your health. 11Women also have special interest and emerging expertise in this area. Their important role and perspective is highlighted in an interview published in Drum! Magazines March2010 issue. 12

Children with special needsThere are many Scientific Researches that support that Music Helps Children Mentally. Drumming is a vital part of music and enables the benefits of Music therapy to be reaped in Drum therapy as well. 

Students

There are a lot of article supporting and proving that drumming help the young deal with their substance abuse issues. 13Drugs have been a menace to society and interestingly, it is the adolescents who are easily hooked on drugs that are also particularly interested in drumming. 14Drumming has also been used as complementary Therapy for Addiction. 15Musicians, teachers, and leaders throughout the ages have known and taught that music is a healing art. There is now a significant body of information and research among contemporary musicians, educators & researchers verifying the health and educational benefits of music. For students, the Benefits have been outlined by  Gregory Hochman of Artdrum.com:1. Drumming can help students grow academically and improve students' ability to concentrate and compliment their studies in math, science, language arts, history, physical fitness and the arts.2. According to scientific research, playing music, and hence drumming and playing percussion, increases the development of various regions of the brain,3. Playing drums and rhythms can be an optimal experience and encourages participants of all ages to achieve flow.4. Drumming is a healing art and therefore it can give participants of any age a better sense of well being.

5. Hand drumming (and regular participation in any form of percussion playing) increases the physical stamina of students.6. Drumming increases body awareness & kinesthetic development; drumming helps students develop graceful coordination and self-control.7. Playing rhythms improves listening skills and increases children and teens' ability to focus for extended periods of time.8. Generally, the increasing of rhythmic skills - and the learning of any musical instrument - increases students' confidence.  9. Playing rhythmic music helps students to take notice of the rhythms and beauty in nature and their surroundings.10. Drumming in group formats, such as drum circles, bands and orchestras cultivates an appreciation for teamwork and cooperation.11. Drum circles are great ethnic and cultural bridges; they harmoniously bring diverse people, instruments and musical styles together.12. If parents play or take interest in the musical and learning process of their children, then drumming can be a means to forge meaningful bonds between parents and children.  16Music is right for your children because it provides a healthy, natural and truly invaluable opportunity for individual expression.  It encourages the development of the whole child by enhancing cognitive, social, physical, and emotional skills. OUR OTHER OFFERINGS:Drum circles for team-building in the workplace. These are effective in reducing workplace stress and energizing any meeting.In the west, drum therapy has been embraced and rated effective by top companies including Toyota, Unilever and Oracle. In an article at NY Times, the author mentioned that an $11000 program will effectively save the company in the long run as it lowers employee turnover. In an industry that  spends $30-$60k to find and train a replacement, it’s an investment well worth it. 17In Singapore, we are pioneering Drum Circles to become staples in team building activities in the corporate world.References:

REFERENCES and ARTICLES: 1

Drum Circles: An Ancient Methodology for a Modern World- Remo Belli

How group drumming is being used as a tool for wellness and community building

Music is effective because it is a nonverbal form of communication, it is a natural reinforcer, it is immediate in time and provides motivation for practicing nonmusical skills. Most importantly, it is a successful medium because almost everyone responds positively to at least some kind of music.In drum therapy, it’s not about performance, it’s about feeling better. This benefit comes to those who have not learned how to make their own music.

Drum circles are a cultural phenomenon that have been featured in Time Magazine, Discovery and even Natural Beauty and Health. Drum circles are probably one of the most ancient forms of community building known to man.

Here, people come together to create an improvised composition that becomes the score for their own lives. The drum circle is a platform for musical expression and it is accessible to anyone regardless of age or ability level. The use of the drum presents for creative expression.

Based upon a recent study, the medical community is beginning to embrace this application of music and medicine. Dr. Bittman, CEO of the Meadville Medical Center and his research team discovered that a specific group drumming approach significantly increased the disease fighting activity of circulating white blood cells (Natural Killer cells) that seek out and destroy cancer cells and virally-infected cells. The study included 111 normal subjects, all of whom were non-musicians. Along with conventional medical strategies, Dr. Bittman includes group drumming in all of his disease-based programs at the Mind-Body Wellness Center.

Drum circles are happening in many places. This demonstrates the importance of establishing a rhythmaculture in our Western world. People attend these events not to become better percussionists, but to reduce stress, build community, and have fun. It is a recreational activity that engages the mind, body, and spirit. Arthur Hull, father of the modern day drum circle, developed his unique approach to facilitating drum circles in the 1980s through an observation of the need that extended beyond percussion skill development. According to Arthur, "when we drum together, it changes our relationships and helps us cope with whatever challenges life hands us."

Drum circles may be seen in corporations for teambuilding, hospitals for music therapy, and music stores for community building. At the Remo Percussion Center in North Hollywood, we are exploring the application and value of weekly drum gatherings for social well-being and personal health. A recent survey of sixty participants showed that the most common reason for attending the weekly drum circles was "stress reduction." The fact that people are now making their own music for Believing in the need for music making to maintain health demonstrates a paradigm shift – that musical expression may actually be necessary – more than for entertainment, but for its health promoting value.

We are focused in integrating drumming and wellness to share information, insights, articles and develop user-friendly instruments that can be used in health care settings globally. Our efforts help people integrate drumming as a tool for enhancing their lives, reconnecting with their community, and maintaining their health.

http://www.artdrum.com/ESSAY_DRUM_CIRCLES.HTM

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Drum therapy keeps patients on the (heart)beat Clara-Rae Genser. Apr. 09, 2004 in COMMUNITY FOLKDrum your name, we were ordered, and we did, repeating the beat and the name until ordered to stop. Thus began a four-week study of drum therapy with Miranda Ritterman and her father, Dr. Jeff Ritterman, a cardiologist at Kaiser in Richmond.

It was fun, relaxing and entrancing, and made for a great feeling of community. And that was the goal, according to the Rittermans and to Christine Stevens, who flew up from Los Angeles each week to lead the sessions. From all walks of life, and different backgrounds, by the end of the sessions we knew each other liked each other a lot. Almost everyone was terribly unhappy when the four-week sessions were over.

The sessions were part of a study to see if drum therapy helps heart patients. As Richmond's pioneers in this study, we were invited to attend future sessions for cancer patients, to let them know our assessment of drum therapy.

Miranda Ritterman, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, had read something about drum therapy and talked with her father about it. He was interested, and did his own reading on the subject. "He is a much faster reader than I

am," Miranda Ritterman said, "and it was he who found this program of HealthRhythms, a new division within Remo Inc." Dr. Ritterman's heart patients were invited to take part in the study. Christine Stevens is an international speaker, music therapist and author. She supplied the drums (many of them bongo drums decorated with EKGs) and other heart décor.

Through her company, UpBeat Drum Circles, she offers community drum circles for corporate team-building, diversity training, personal growth, and health and wellness. The major aim is to fight stress, and bring relaxation and calm. One of the things Christine asked of us was to drum how we felt when we were stressed, and then, how we felt when we did not feel stressed. The response was dramatic.

The sessions included more than just drumming. There were "shakers" that looked like small apples, with which we played games in our circle, giggling and laughing. There was a large drum that made sounds likes waves when moved -- it could be a calm and soothing sound like huge waves breaking on a rocky shore. An important person during the study was Margie Ginotti, a registered nurse and adult-care manager. She was at every meeting, and joined in the fun, even leading them when Christine could not. We do not yet know the official findings of the study, but among ourselves those who participated know that drum therapy is a very positive and important addition to the world of therapy. Most of us plan to continue on our own in some way.

http://www.djembedirect.com/drumtherapy-article_1.htm

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Elderly Patients Drum Away the Pain07.24.08Paradise View in New York City does not actually have a view, but the long-term care residence in Upper Manhattan does have a drum circle.

The genesis of the drum circle was about three months ago, when Community Coordinator Paul Padial and Cantor Daniel Pincus were playing drums in Paradise View's dining room, and they attracted the attention of residents. "Everybody started coming out to see what all the noise was, and it turned into a dance floor," Padial says. "We just looked at each other and said, 'This is the coolest thing.'"

Pincus, who is a member of the religious life department at Manhattan Jewish Home Lifecare, the nursing home of which Paradise View is a unit, and Padial organize a drum circle for residents. Meeting for an hour every Thursday, it is a success, say staff and residents alike.

The drum circle is part of Jewish Home Lifecare's bid to change what was a conventional nursing home into a real home for the residents, replete with plenty of activities and choices about when to wake up and what to eat. The benefits of the drum circle are more than just musical: Pardial says it builds community and provides health benefits.

"Part of my job is to build community, and drum circles actually mimic a community," he says. "In a drum circle, every person has a voice. No one person is more important than the other."

The elderly patients who participate can't seem to get enough of making music. One recent drum circle attracted approximately 30 residents, ranging from ages 65 to 102. They sat waiting for drums or other percussion instruments to be handed to them. "I love it," the oldest member of the group, Laure Gaeckle, who turns 103 in February 2009, says. "They started it up, I joined, and I've been drumming ever since."

Gaeckle spends much of her time in bed, and never played the drums before joining the circle. Suffering from poor eyesight and having difficulty with mobility, drumming provides a welcome diversion. "I wish it would go on for another hour," she says. "I don't know if I'll be around to play at 103."

At 85, Ernestine Johnston looks like a trendy Manhattanite, with sunglasses, gold earrings, and a pearl bracelet. While she is not a member of Paradise View, she has been welcomed to the circle. "We just found out about it and we started coming down. It's new to me so it's fun," Johnston says. "It's very energetic. It really does send blood through the veins."

Staffers at Paradise View say they are seeing higher energy levels and a boost in morale since drumming became part of the routine. Music therapists have long used music to connect to people, and especially the elderly.

"Music is so evocative," says Suzanne Sorel, MT-BC, LCAT, NRMT, director of graduate music therapy at Long Island, N.Y.-based Molloy College. "Music can kind of supersede all the emotional difficulty and bring you to an emotional place."

Reaching such a place can be coupled with physical healing, according to some music therapists. "One thing that drumming can do is access an individual's long- and short-term memory, and decrease agitation," according to Jane Creagan, MME, MT-BC, the director of professional programs at the American Music Therapy Association. "Music is sort of a back door that can be used to access parts of the brain that other therapies can't access."

Unlike speech, music is processed in multiple areas of the brain. The limbic system is activated by the emotional response to music, while the elements of music, such as rhythm, pitch, and melody, activate other areas of the brain. Elderly people suffering from the late stages of dementia often show responses to music, including vocal activity, increased eye contact, changes in facial expression, and physical movement.

The residents at Paradise View are high-functioning and suffer less from dementia than the residents in other parts of the Jewish Home Lifecare system. The medical director at the nursing home, Richard Neufeld, MD, says the drum circle could be used with residents who are suffering from dementia. "There is no reason why this drum circle can't be used in other units with higher dementia," he says. "I'm not sure in a demented unit how many would participate, but we should try it out."

Neufeld also says that medical research on the health effects of Paradise View's drum circle have not been tested, but it could "reduce agitation, reduce blood pressure."

Source: Catherine Bilkey/New York Sun

http://www.therapytimes.com/content=0302J84C4896BC8440A040441

5 Education: Music Therapy and LanguageWritten by Myra J. Staum, Ph.D., RMT-BCDirector and Professor of Music TherapyWillamette University, Salem, OregonMusic Therapy is the unique application of music to enhance personal lives by creating positive changes in human behavior. It is an allied health profession utilizing music as a tool to encourage development in social/ emotional, cognitive/learning, and perceptual-motor areas. Music Therapy has a wide variety of functions with the exceptional child, adolescent and adult in medical, institutional and educational settings. Music is effective because it is a nonverbal form of communication, it is a natural reinforcer, it is immediate in time and provides motivation for practicing nonmusical skills. Most importantly, it is a successful medium because almost everyone responds positively to at least some kind of music.The training of a music therapist involves a full curriculum of music classes, along with selected courses in psychology, special education, and anatomy with specific core courses and field experiences in music therapy. Following coursework, students complete a six-month full time clinical internship and a written board certification exam. Registered, board certified professionals must then maintain continuing education credits or retake the exam to remain current in their practice.Music Therapy is particularly useful with autistic children owing in part to the nonverbal, non threatening nature of the medium. Parallel music activities are designed to support the objectives of the child as observed by the therapist or as indicated by a parent, teacher or other professional. A music therapist might observe, for instance, the child's need to socially interact with others. Musical games like passing a ball back and forth to music or playing sticks and cymbals with another person might be used to foster this interaction. Eye contact might be encouraged with imitative clapping games near the eyes or with activities which focus attention on an instrument played near the face. Preferred music may be used contingently for a wide variety of cooperative social behaviors like sitting in a chair or staying with a group of other children in a circle.Music Therapy is particularly effective in the development and remediation of speech. The severe deficit in communication observed among autistic children includes expressive speech which may be nonexistent or impersonal. Speech can range from complete mutism to grunts, cries, explosive

shrieks, guttural sounds, and humming. There may be musically intoned vocalizations with some consonant-vowel combinations, a sophisticated babbling interspersed with vaguely recognizable word-like sounds, or a seemingly foreign sounding jargon. Higher level autistic speech may involve echolalia, delayed echolalia or pronominal reversal, while some children may progress to appropriate phrases, sentences, and longer sentences with non expressive or monotonic speech. Since autistic children are often mainstreamed into music classes in the public schools, a music teacher may experience the rewards of having an autistic child involved in music activities while assisting with language.It has been noted time and again that autistic children evidence unusual sensitivities to music. Some have perfect pitch, while many have been noted to play instruments with exceptional musicality. Music therapists traditionally work with autistic children because of this unusual responsiveness which is adaptable to non-music goals Some children have unusual sensitivities only to certain sounds. One boy, after playing a xylophone bar, would spontaneously sing up the harmonic series from the fundamental pitch. Through careful structuring, syllable sounds were paired with his singing of the harmonics and the boy began incorporating consonant-vowel sounds into his vocal play. Soon simple 2-3 note tunes were played on the xylophone by the therapist who modeled more complex verbalizations, and the child gradually began imitating them.Since autistic children sometimes sing when they may not speak, music therapists and music educators can work systematically on speech through vocal music activities. In the music classroom, songs with simple words, repetitive phrases, and even repetitive nonsense syllables can assist the autistic child's language. Meaningful word phrases and songs presented with visual and tactile cues can facilitate this process even further. One six-year old echolalic child was taught speech by having the therapist/teacher sing simple question/answer phrases set to a familiar melody with full rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment The child held the objects while singing:Do you eat an apple? Yes, yes.Do you eat an apple? Yes, yes.Do you eat an apple? Yes, yes.Yes, yes, yes.andDo you eat a pencil? No, no.Do you eat a pencil? No, no.Do you eat a pencil? No, no.No, no, no.Another autistic child learned noun and action verb phrases . A large doll was manipulated by the therapist/teacher and a song presented:This is a doll.This is a doll.The doll is jumping.The doll is jumping.This is a doll.This is a doll.Later, words were substituted for walking, sitting, sleeping, etc. In these songs, the bold words were faded out gradually by the therapist/teacher. Since each phrase was repeated, the child could use his echolalic imitation to respond accurately. When the music was eliminated completely, the child was able to verbalize the entire sentence in response to the questions, "What is this?" and "What is the doll doing?"Other autistic children have learned entire meaningful responses when both questions and answers were incorporated into a song. The following phrases were sung with one child to the approximate tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and words were faded out gradually in backward progression. While attention to environmental sounds was the primary focus for this child, the song structure assisted her in responding in a full, grammatically correct sentence:Listen, listen, what do you hear? (sound played on tape)I hear an ambulance.(I hear a baby cry.)(I hear my mother calling, etc.)Autistic children have also made enormous strides in eliminating their monotonic speech by singing songs composed to match the rhythm, stress, flow and inflection of the sentence followed by a gradual fading of the musical cues. Parents and teachers alike can assist the child in remembering these prosodic features of speech by prompting the child with the song.

While composing specialized songs is time consuming for the teacher with a classroom full of other children, it should be remembered that the repertoire of elementary songs are generally repetitive in nature. Even in higher level elementary vocal method books, repetition of simple phrases is common. While the words in such books may not seem critical for the autistic child's survival at the moment, simply increasing the capacity to put words together is a vitally important beginning for these children.For those teachers whose time is limited to large groups, almost all singing experiences are invaluable to the autistic child when songs are presented slowly, clearly, and with careful focusing of the child's attention to the ongoing activity. To hear an autistic child leave a class quietly singing a song with all the words is a pleasant occurrence. To hear the same child attempt to use these words in conversation outside of the music class is to have made a very special contribution to the language potential of this child.

http://www.autism.com/edu_music_therapy.asp

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Composite effects of group drumming music therapy on modulation of neuroendocrine-immune parameters in normal subjectsBittman BB, Berk LS, Felten DL, Westengard J, Simonton OC, Pappas J, Ninehouser M, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 7 (1): 38-47 JAN 2001Abstract:

Context Drum circles have been part of healing rituals in many cultures throughout the world since antiquity. Although drum circles are gaining increased interest as a complementary therapeutic strategy in the traditional medical arena, limited scientific data documenting biological benefits associated with percussion activities exist.

Objective To determine the role of group-drumming music therapy as a composite activity with potential for alteration of stress-related hormones and enhancement of specific immunologic measures associated with natural killer cell activity and cell-mediated immunity.

Design A single trial experimental intervention with control groups.

Setting The Mind-Body Wellness Center, an outpatient medical facility in Meadville, Pa.

Participants A total of 111 age- and sex-matched volunteer subjects (55 men and 56 women, with a mean age of 30.4 years) were recruited.

Intervention Six preliminary supervised groups were studied using various control and experimental paradigms designed to separate drumming components for the ultimate determination of a single experimental model, including 2 control groups (resting and listening) as well as 4 group-drumming experimental models (basic, impact, shamanic, and composite). The composite drumming group using a music therapy protocol was selected based on preliminary statistical analysis, which demonstrated immune modulation in a direction opposite to that expected with the classical stress response. The final experimental design included the original composite drumming group plus 50 additional age- and sex-matched volunteer subjects who were randomly assigned to participate in group drumming or control sessions.

Main Outcome Measures Pre- and postintervention measurements of plasma cortisol, plasma dehydroepiandrosterone, plasma dehydroepiandrosterone-to-cortisol ratio, natural killer cell activity, lymphokine-activated killer cell activity, plasma interleukin-2, plasma interferon-gamma, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory II.

Results Group drumming resulted in increased dehydroepiandrosterone-to-cortisol ratios, increased natural killer cell activity, and increased lymphokine-activated killer cell activity without alteration in plasma interleukin 2 or interferon-gamma, or in the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory II.

Conclusions Drumming is a complex composite intervention with the potential to modulate specific neuroendocrine and neuroimmune parameters in a direction opposite to that expected with the classic stress response.

http://www.djembedirect.com/drumtherapy-article_4.htm

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The Beat of Harmony: Drumming with Oncology Patientsby Christine K. Stevens, MSW, M.A., MT-BC Edited by Erin SalezHarmony - a. the unique blending of two separate tones into one pleasing sound.

Beyond the musical definition, harmony also exists in the sense of community created when a group makes music together. On a Saturday morning in Santa Monica, California, two separate groups joined together for an experience that was unique, powerful and impactful. A group of twelve volunteer drummers from the Remo Percussion Center brought the joy and spirit they found in drumming to a group of cancer patients at The Wellness Community. In the joining of the two groups, there was a common chord of health and wellness, achieved through the experience of recreational music making.It began with a basket of fruit shakers in the center of a circle. Out of the quiet anxiety of a group of strangers meeting for the first time, first a chuckle and then some laughter began as one by one, people chose a shaker and started making music. But it went deeper than that. Participants commented on the meaning of letting go and giving themselves permission to not be perfect, lessons important for all of us.Through a series of rhythm activities geared towards putting people at ease with the process of making music, the group became more comfortable and relaxed. In one hour, they were playing their hearts out on the drums, creating moments of expression unrivaled by any words.The session ended with an experience called guided imagery drumming where participants closed their eyes and drummed to a story. As a meditative activity, the drumming created a distraction from the chatter of the critical and worrying mind. After the drum circle, one patient commented that it was the first time she forgot about her cancer. She began to feel good again.In the words of Nikki Fiske, a mother, teacher, cancer patient, and a first time drummer?"It felt so relaxing and freeing to concentrate on the rhythms and be completely in the moment. Without judgment, without pressure? we each drummed to our own internal rhythms, yet we worked together as a group to create a unique and harmonious sound. There was a lot of laughter, sharing and mutual applause. When I left, after two hours of drumming, it was with spirit, heart and courage lifted up!"Drumming also has important biological effects. According to a study (111 normal subjects) performed at the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, PA, one hour of group drumming following a protocol entitled, Group Empowerment Drumming™ was shown to significantly increase circulating white blood cells called natural killer (NK) cells that seek out and destroy cancer and virally infected cells. (Bittman et al. Alternative Therapy, January, 2001).James Gordon, MD of the Mind-Body Center in Washington D.C. states "Oncologists should be open to group drumming if their patients are interested in it. Drumming can put people in a state of relaxation. It was used as a healing technique 1,000 years ago. Why not now?" (MAMM Magazine, July/August, 2001)Remo drum volunteers agreed that they received more from the experience than they gave. Professional drummer Sam Kestenholtz commented, "Seeing and feeling the spirits of the participants being lifted as the group played together was an experience like no other. It was like a room full of strangers became a community of one." http://www.ubdrumcircles.com/article_oncology.html-------------------------------------------------------------8Workshop, Saturday, April 16The power of musicInspirational… powerful… moving. Investigate how the power of music can transform the way you experience your daily life, including practical and useful ways in which music can reduce stress and pain, and how using

music intentionally can improve the brain’s ability to focus attention and improve memory. You will leave this session mentally and musically stimulated, in a good mood, able to better communicate with people, inspired and feeling hopeful about work and life.

Jennifer Buchanan specializes in the benefits of music in health and education. A professional music therapist, singer and educator, Jennifer is known for her warm, compassionate use and knowledge of music that builds people up. Jennifer has witnessed the power of music first-hand developing hundreds of music therapy programs in Alberta through her well-established company JB Music Therapy Inc. and as past president of the Canadian Association of Music Therapy.

Jennifer’s music-centered workshop is specifically designed to educate the audience on using music to promote relaxation at work or at home, attain better focus and improve productivity, assist in finding new inspiration by igniting creative thinking, unlock important memories and develop meaningful relationships through positive social music experiences.

Jennifer will be featured at other times throughout the weekend as well.

http://convio.cancer.ca/site/PageServer?pagename=LWCC_SK_sessions9The Healing Power of the Drum: Book ReviewNew York psychotherapist and drum facilitator Robert Lawrence Friedman, writes in his 2000 soft-cover book, "The Healing Power of the Drum: A Psychotherapist Explores the Healing Power of Rhythm," how individuals through drumming can attain psychological, physiological and spiritual wellbeing. Clocking in at 208 pages, the book is both a personal account and an introductory guide to the subject in which he quotes many leading authorities on their experience drumming in different settings.

"The Healing Power of the Drum" is an easy to read and non-technical book that presents readers with ways they can achieve increased health benefits from the activity of drumming and shows innovative ways to enhance their own wellness. The author explores drumming and drums, such as the djembe and conga, from a multidimensional perspective, explaining the drum's ability to release anger, create joy, alter brain rhythms, induce trance, and create empowerment. The book includes cutting-edge research how Alzheimer patients have been able to stay focused for short periods with a drum in their hands. The book also discusses research into brainwave studies concluding how drumming has positively increased attention span. 

Robert Friedman is currently president of Stress Solutions Inc., providing stress-management seminars to corporate clients and is also affiliated with the St. Barnabas Health Care System in New Jersey.

http://www.x8drums.com/v/blog/2007/04/healing-power-of-drum-book-review.asp

10Slotoroff, C. 1994. Music Therapy Perspectives, Special Issue: Psychiatric music therapy. Vol 12, Issue 2. p. 111-116.AbstractDescribes an improvisational technique that uses drumming and cognitive-behavioral methods to address issues of power in an experiential and symbolic manner. This drumming technique was developed in an inpatient short-term psychiatric setting with adults and adolescents who had a history of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. The author describes the use of this technique with a middle-aged woman and an 11-yr-old boy who had been victims of abuse. Although the insights gained and the increased sense of power and/or self-control during a session will result in lasting, significant behavioral, cognitive, or emotional changes, the authors suggest that seeds of awareness and of possibility may be planted. Additionally, this work may serve to inform and support verbal and nonverbal therapy during and after hospitalization.Notesimprovisational drumming & cognitive behavioral methods in short term psychiatric setting; assertiveness & anger management; middle aged female & 11 yr old male survivors of abuse & traumahttp://www.djembedirect.com/drumtherapy-article_8.htm11

"Good Vibrations"  Interview with David DiLullo (Global Drum Circles) and Rick Allen (Raven Drum and Def Leppard)*****by Barbara Stahura*****

The following interview was published in Science of Mind Magazine, April 2010 Issue. Excerpt reprinted courtesy of Science of Mind Magazine.

Perhaps our innate attraction to rhythm comes from our original exposure in our first home: our mother’s womb. During the nine months we live there, we are bathed in all manner of sounds from our mother’s body, most prominently the beat of her heart. Steady and soothing, the heartbeat’s rhythm surrounds and enfolds us, becoming forever embedded in our psyche and physiology. Even before birth, we are rhythmic beings.

In addition, nature is full of other rhythms--wave beats on the shore, the circle of day into night and back again, lunar cycles, the seasons, and much more--while we might not pay them much conscious attention, they are nevertheless an intrinsic part of us.

Whether a rhythm comes to us from within or without, our instinctive connection with it often moves us to create our own rhythms--and for that, drumming can’t be beat.

Drumming at its most basic doesn’t require much equipment: a hand or a stick and something hollow to pound on. Give a toddler a wooden spoon and a pot, and you’ll see--hear--this in joyful, abandoned action. Yet humans have been drumming with purpose and intention for eons: to make music, to heal one another, to enhance community, to engage with Spirit. When used therapeutically, drumming involves all facets of our being, including the physical, emotional, cognitive, psychological, and spiritual.

Today, serious research is demonstrating how drumming, particularly in drum circles, produces beneficial results such as antiviral and immunologic effects, stress reduction, better movement after a stroke or neurological disorder, and even reduction in addictive urges. It can enhance motor coordination and attention span, reduce anxiety, and help build relationship skills. 

Sustained drumming can create the “high” of aerobic exercise because it increases heart rate and blood flow. It also synchronizes the hemispheres of the brain, causing brain waves on both sides to entrain, of fall into the same pattern, which can produce effects similar to deep meditation. Entrainment also occurs among members of the drumming group, bringing about a sense of oneness and community.

Drummers David DiLullo and Rick Allen know these benefits firsthand. Their drum circles have attracted hundreds of participants. Before turning to drum circles, DiLullo directed dozens of marching percussion programs involving up to 100 participants, including the UCLA Marching Band. In 2004, he became a member of the Center for Spiritual Living in San Jose, California, and a year later took over management of its music programs. 

Fascinated with world drums (drums from many cultures), he soon gathered a “massive collection” of drums and began wondering what to do with all of them. After attending a drum circle led by Jim Greiner, a pioneer of community drumming, he knew. He started a drum circle at the center, where participants use his drums. Now, he also heads Global Drum Circles (golbaldrumcircles.com), the largest drum circle in Silicon Valley, which recently held a drum circle with 230 attendees. All of their events in the last eighteen months have sold out. Endorsed as an educator by two drum companies, he has also worked with the Peninsula Stroke Association in Palo Alto, facilitating therapeutic drum circles for patients recovering from stroke and brain injury.

DiLullo began playing drums at age fourteen and later became a professional. In his teens, drumming was simply fun. Now, he says, “Drumming is the way I connect to Spirit. I’ve never been good at traditional meditation techniques.”

Drum circles can range from totally unfacilitated, where there is no leader and spontaneity reigns, all the way to extremely structured groups directed by an experienced leader. Many circles are also targeted to people who already know how to drum. But DiLullo’s are open to everyone, even people who have never picked up a drum before.

At one of his recent circles, he says that about one-third of the participants had never touched a drum before and another third had never participated in a drum circle. Yet everyone joined in enthusiastically, and they are coming back with their friends.

Most people who come to his drum circles don’t realize the benefits of community drumming, at least at first. They might come out of curiosity or because it looks like fun or to add music-making to their lives. Then, DiLullo explains, “People get hooked. There’s a sense of community that doesn’t happen in a concert, for instance. A violin circle would take months to teach the first song.” He laughs as he imagines this. “But with drumming, it’s instant. You’re making music together in minutes, and everyone realizes they are now drummers.”

Just the physical act of sitting in a circle enhances the sense of unity with one another, which is further enlarged to connection with something higher and more universal when everyone is playing the same rhythm. Sustained drumming, especially in a group, touches a primal, spiritual place in the participants. DiLullo suspects this has something to do with our ancient cellular memories as well as physiological responses that occur far below conscious awareness. He believes the vehicle that carries drummers to an altered state is the vibration, since our bodies vibrate along with the drums and in a way become drums themselves.

Shamans have known of drumming’s transformative powers for millennia, understanding how it can take people to an altered consciousness where they can heal. In his drum circles, “People have shifts in consciousness,” DiLullo explains. “Drumming can be a platform for meditation. And it’s very clear that people are turning to it as an alternative healing method.”

In contemporary society, we live very much in our head and often ignore our bodies’ subtle sensations and messages. But with drumming, says DiLullo, “You’re very much in your body, and it takes you to a place where you can reach your inner-self. Historically, drum circles were used for celebration or rites of passage, and even today it’s as if we’re still gathering around a fire at night,” he explains. “Native American shamans called drumming the ‘canoe’ that would carry your consciousness across the passage [to a spiritual state].”

The ancient practice of drumming for spiritual purposes is beginning a real reemergence today, with a small but enthusiastic base of drum circle leader eager to bring others into the fold. DiLullo has no doubts it will continue to grow, comparing to the emergence of yoga in the West. “With drumming, you can bring music, beat and rhythm into your spiritual practice very easily,” he says.

Like DiLullo, Rick Allen began drumming in his childhood and joined the band Def Leppard on his fifteenth birthday. But when he was twenty-one, an auto accident ripped away his left arm. At first, he thought he wouldn’t be able to do much of anything, let alone drum. But then his brother brought a stereo to his hospital room and played Allen’s favorite bands, like Led Zeppelin and David Bowie. Almost without thinking, he began tapping out the rhythms with his feet. He realized that all his years of drumming had made it almost instinctive for him. As he said much later in an interview with Beliefnet, “All the information was in my head. I just needed to channel it somewhere.”

Before too long, a friend had designed a custom electronic drum kit with pedals for Allen, and he set about learning to play the high hat, kick drum, snare, and tom-tom with his left foot. In 1986, Def Leppard played their first big engagement since the accident at England’s Donington Park, where Allen received a huge welcome back from tens of thousands of fans.

Able to drum again, Allen believed he was fully recovered. But for years he struggled unknowingly to deal with the energetic trauma his psyche had endured from the accident but never released. When he met Lauren Monroe in 2000, the deeper healing began.

A healer from childhood, Monroe has studied with Benedictine monks, tribal healers of Brazil, North America, and New Zealand, and is an initiated minister of Deeksha healing from The Oneness

University in Southern India. She also holds degrees in dance choreography, education, and massage therapy. She had never been a Def Leppard fan but was familiar with Allen’s story.

“I knew how much suffering and how much bravery was a part of his being and life experience,” she says. “When he came to me, I felt a lot of things that guided me to work with him in a very spiritual and energetic way. And I treated this whole person, which includes both of this arms. I don’t think Rick’s ever had a treatment like that before, but it was important to connect with his arm that wasn’t there and also into his heart. It was a beautiful experience, and when he left I felt like I had just worked on some type of spiritual king or something. It was really beautiful.”

Allen was also deeply touched with the intensity of the healing.

“I’d never experienced that kind of massage work before, where you incorporate a physical aspect, but also the energetic work that can sometimes go along with that,” he says. “And that, for me, was just profound.”

They married in 2003, but in 2001, they created the Raven Drum Foundation “to educate and empower individuals and communities in crisis through healing arts programs, drumming events, and collaborative partnerships,” according to the nonprofit foundation’s Web site (ravendrum.org). Monroe understood that drumming has been used in healing ceremonies and rituals for millennia. And, as an experienced drummer himself, Allen understood the power of drumming as an integral part only of Def Leppard’s music, but of music in general.

“It’s so primal. It’s fantastic,” he says. “Any form of drumming, to me, is…this sounds odd, but it really becomes a mindless activity because it you allow yourself to fall into it wholly, you kind of disappear. And time just…oh man, we were just doing that for two hours?”

They began by working with at-risk and incarcerated teens and gang members in the Los Angeles area, conduction drum circles and healing workshops at juvenile detention centers. But in 2005, they turned that program over to a staff member and shifted their focus after Allen traveled to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., to meet wounded military personnel from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He visited the amputee ward and the occupational therapy unit. The experience moved him deeply and inspired him to begin expanding Raven Drum’s work with veterans.

“My own experience with trauma is obviously different from combat trauma, but the way it manifests in the body is very similar,” he explains. “We’re all different; we process it in a completely different way. I just find it really, really easy to connect with people. I don’t even have to say anything. I just walk in, they see my physical form, and immediately they welcome me in a way that is so beautiful. They make me feel like a warrior. And they allow me to share my experience, and then, ultimately, what happens is they share their experiences. There’s this wonderful thing that happens where I’m inspired by them, and they’re inspired by my journey.”

Allen returned to Walter Reed for another visit, and this time Monroe accompanied him.

“After experiencing some of the boys there--and they were boys, very young soldiers--that were wounded, we just saw the need,” she recalls. “We met their moms or the caretakers or their girlfriends or their wives, and we saw that this isn’t going to stop soon. We know we can help; we can do something here. And we came back, and we started working on a plan about how to develop some programs to share.”

In order to give back to the men and women of the U.S. military, Raven Drum Foundation created an innovative healing modality, called the Resiliency Program, which included drum circles. It is designed specifically for current and former military personnel from any war to help them deal not only with combat-related trauma, but also with the everyday stresses, anxieties, and depression that are common in military families during wartime. Teens are included with a self-care program designed specifically for them, and female veterans will soon have their own program.

According to the Raven Drum Web site, new research demonstrates that humans experience traumatic experience of any kind primarily as a bodily impact. In other words, even if we believe we have experienced a trauma “only” mentally or emotionally, it still must come through our body to be

experienced at all. And so our body is affected by it, and stores this experience as a memory, just as it stores all our experiences. After a traumatic event, many people believe that if they do not consciously think about it, or if they “bury” it, the aftereffects simply will fade away. Unfortunately, this is not true. The trauma remains “trapped” in the body and can lead to all sorts of dysfunctional coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse, depression, and worse. It will cause physical, emotional, and spiritual pain that often deepens over time.

“When you have any kind of traumatic syndrome or crisis in your life,” Monroe explains, “you carry very intense emotions that, oftentimes, you don’t even know are there”.

Not surprisingly, their drum circles frequently are witness to displays of emotion. Many of the participants dealing with trauma don’t necessarily know the extent of their hidden negative emotions. But drumming can help bring them to the surface, where they are released. Participants can trace their experience of how they felt before the circle again how they felt afterward. “We hear more often than not that people have less anger or sadness or feelings of depression after experiencing the drum circle. We also witness a lot of tears from people,” says Monroe.

Allen chimes in to say, “Including me. I’m the crier. I love to rain all over the drum kit, you know? But it’s so beautiful, it really is. It’s, again so experiential you can’t necessarily explain it. It’s like you just feel this wave of grace and it does something really profound. You go into the gratitude.”http://www.globaldrumcircles.com/druminterview.cfm

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Drumming helps your brain and your   health When I was a kid, watching Ringo Starr play the drums inspired me to be a drummer. He looked like he was having a blast! At rock concerts, I always watch the drummer, pounding away in multiple rhythms, holding the beat for everyone else. I’m lucky I can carry even one rhythm—which explains why I’m not a rock drummer—but I have attended drum circles where no experience or talent is required. All that’s needed is the desire to make some rhythmic noise in community with others. If you haven’t tried a drum circle, I hope you have the opportunity one day. It’s magical, as drummers David DiLullo and Rick Allen can attest. In addition to having fun, people in their drum circles come for meditation, stress reduction, healing, and transformation.David runs Global Drum Circles in California’s Bay Area, and some of the participants have been people with brain injury or stroke, a few of whom were brought by their neurologists.David says drum circles are helpful for people with various brain injuries because “there’s an exercising of the brain. It takes a lot of coordination between the right and left hemispheres. When your right and left hands are doing something in a synchronized manner, you’re promoting balance between the hemispheres.”In addition, he explains that you’re doing something physical that “takes you out of your analytic brain space. And going beyond that is the healing nature of vibration. Drumming is music therapy. You’re bathing all the cells of your body in this vibration.”He’s led a circle for the Peninsula Stroke Association, of Palo Alto. He reports that even participants who had the use of only one arm did a great job keeping up with the rhythms. One stroke survivor with partial paralysis said drumming in the circle allowed him to forget about his affliction for the first time.Especially for people who have had a stroke or brain injury, being part of a drum circle offers the opportunity to have some fun while building up their confidence again. “Drumming is easy,” says David. “If they can’t dance or play baseball, drumming is a wonderful way to feel active, and they’re part of a group joined in the same activity.”Rick Allen is the drummer for Def Leppard. As the result of an auto accident in the 1980s, he has only one arm. But with a customized drum kit, he learned to use his left foot to take the place of his missing left arm. In 2001, he and his wife, Lauren Monroe, created Raven Drum Foundation “to  serve, educate and empower veterans and people in crisis through the power of the drum.” Their major project now is the Resiliency Program, which is an innovative healing program for veterans, active duty military, and their families.The Raven Drum Web site outlines some of the therapeutic benefits of drumming. On the physical side, these include production of the body’s own pain killers, boosting the immune system, control of chronic pain, and relief of stress and anxiety. In addition, drumming with a group adds the

benefits of creating a sense of connectedness with others and feeling oneself flowing with the natural rhythms of life.Joining in a drum circle can be fun and beneficial for anyone. Yet for people with brain injury, it can offer a unique kind of healing experience not available anywhere else.Today’s journaling exercises:If you’re ready to do some private writing in your journal, choose one or more of these prompts to get started. Try to write for at least five minutes.If you’ve had a brain injury:• My favorite kind of music is _________________  because…• One thing I do to help me feel more connected to other people is…If you’re a family caregiver:• One of my favorite memories connected to music is… (See how much sensory detail you can include. In addition to the music you heard, what did you see, touch, taste, and smell? How did all of your senses contribute to this memory?)http://journalafterbraininjury.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/drumming-helps-your-brain-and-your-health/

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Drums Of IlluminationA Frame Drum Roundtable WithAlessandra Belloni, Judy Piazza, And Miranda RondeauBy Diane Gershuny Originally published in DRUM! Magazine’s March 2010 IssueShrouded in mystery, the frame drum can be traced back to the Paleolithic era, and has been historically used as an ancient technology to alter consciousness in spiritual ritual. Images of women playing the frame drum are pervasive in artifacts of goddess traditions from ancient civilizations in the Near East, India, Greece, Rome, and other parts of the world.Last November, internationally renowned tambourine virtuoso, singer, dancer, actress, and author Alessandra Belloni brought together a group of kindred women frame drummers in a weekend workshop and evening concert at Remo’s Recreational Music Center in North Hollywood to honor the feminine and the healing power of the frame drum.The group included devotional singer/frame drum artist and teacher Miranda Rondeau and Judy Piazza, a multi-instrumentalist, workshop facilitator, recording artist, and educator who teaches the Egyptian riq and has performed on many frame drums from various cultures.We gathered together Belloni, Piazza, and Rondeau to talk about the history of the frame drum, and how they learned from — and broke with — tradition in their own work.DRUM! What inspired you to bring together these specific women artists?BELLONI I had been conceiving of this event for a long time and chose a unique ensemble of women artists who I believed were very different and all had the power to summon feminine power with frame drums, voice, and ritual dance from ancient healing and musical traditions around the world, including southern Italy, Brazil, Asia, and the Middle East. They were all my best students and they each took their own path musically and artistically. I think we created a fiery global percussive journey in honor of the feminine principle, for women and men alike. The workshop participants were taken by the different skills and knowledge each woman had to offer, and the audience really loved the concert as they all danced with us at the end.DRUM! How did each of you take what you learned from Alessandra and apply that to your playing?PIAZZA I met Alessandra early on in my drumming. I took her workshop in Vermont at a camp fair. I was in a transitional point in my life. I had been a musician of many other instruments, and still am, but the drums really shifted things in me. My first teacher and inspiration was Glen Velez, and then to see a woman who had taken this path and was so proficient and passionate about living her gift in the world, really inspired me.BELLONI And that was great to see, too, because Glen Velez was my first student and he inspired me to continue this path.RONDEAU I started playing the frame drum 15 years ago, after I first saw Layne Redmond perform. She gave a slide presentation of women playing the frame drum throughout history, and when I saw that my heart cried out. It was like a homecoming. There was something familiar in seeing women

playing the drums. She was my first teacher, and then someone gave me an article that Alessandra had written. When I read it I was crying because I was resonating with what she was speaking about and I knew that I had to take her workshop. When she plays I feel the room fill up with the energy of women drummers from ancient times.DRUM! What is the connection between women and frame drums?BELLONI The instrument goes back to prehistoric times. They were used mainly by women to honor the goddesses and to heal the community, because they are highly spiritual, very feminine, and are connected to the Moon and the Earth. We believe it was mainly a matriarchal society. The Earth goddess, Cybele, was a very potent goddess from Anatolia [Turkey] who is also worshipped in ancient Greece and Rome. The legend is that she was made from a black meteorite that fell from the stars and is now worshipped as the “Black Madonna.” I was born in Rome where you can see still frescos of Cybele with a frame drum or women holding a round instrument, not necessarily like a tambourine, but with the skin and the frame. The tambourines were very popular in ancient Greece and the women would use them to induce trance in their rites. They are now still used in southern Italy ceremonies honoring the Black Madonna in the tammurriata. I’m really proud of the fact that I was born in southern Italy and the tradition has never died there.DRUM! Each of you plays multiple instruments, but what drew you to the drum specifically?PIAZZA I had a total insatiable curiosity about women and frame drums and how they were connected. The frame drum, in a broader sense, was so totally integral to healing, for men and for women, because of it bringing alive the feminine aspect of our human nature. It’s much more subtle — there’s a fluidity and motion with the drum unlike some of the larger drums. To use the healing aspect of rhythm to connect to the mother, to the Earth, to all the elementals, became very important to me, especially in my work as a music therapist.RONDEAU I got into drum circle drumming at a [Grateful] Dead show, and I was magnetized. But I dance — I didn’t think to drum. It wasn’t until I read Mickey Hart’s book, Drumming At The Edge Of Magic. There’s a section where he talks about the technical side and the spiritual side, and in a way, that gave me permission to play the drum. Inside my head, there was conditioning that said drumming is for men. Later I saw Layne Redmond play, and I knew I was supposed to be playing this instrument. I realized, too, that I had a lot of other conditioned, collective thoughts about women — that they are inferior — and I carried that around. Healing began as I learned about the connection between the drum and the divine feminine. The sound echoes the mother’s heartbeat. Its archetypal shape represents wholeness, unity, and oneness. Like Judy was saying, the drum connects me to the Mother and the Earth and elements that sustain us. This gave me new thought patterns about women. Wendy Griffin, a women studies professor at Cal State Long Beach, created a group called Lipushiau, [who was] the first written, named drummer in history, a high priestess. And our first gig was a women’s conference at the university. All changed my life.DRUM! How are you breaking boundaries in technique and approach?BELLONI I’ve taken the Italian style into other rhythms. Traveling to Brazil was a big part of it. I realized that the technique that is very loud and strong was perfect for Brazilian rhythms, and could be heard over other instruments. I designed a Tam Brush for Pro-Mark that I use together with the tambourine, so it keeps the sound of the drum. In my case, working with Glen [Velez] and other great drummers, like Rick Allen from Def Leppard, I feel like I’m absorbing everything and using it in my music. But mainly my playing style is a Latin American art with Brazilian rhythms.PIAZZA I’ve been a part of the Arab community in Michigan, after moving there 25 years ago before I came to California. I met a master Lebanese oud player and he asked me to play with him. I thought, What are you thinking to ask a white woman to play in a traditional Lebanese situation? He got flustered and said to me, “Music is not of the country, it’s of the heart.” This changed my life and took me another huge step in becoming at peace as a white woman who is insatiably obsessed with the drums. He gave me permission in a way, and had a lot to do with my own shifting and confidence in playing out, and in feeling that I could. I was making beautiful music and people were responding. I remember saying to Glen that I’d only been playing two years, and I had no business teaching. He told me to just share what you know. I play in various settings and styles now, including Andalusian/hip-hop fusion, yoga classes, kirtan or devotional music gatherings, women’s music festivals, solo concerts, retreats, and festivals in and out of the country.RONDEAU I think what I add the most is the vocals. There are not many people that are drumming and singing. My vocal style transcends language, bypasses the intellect, and is devotional and invoking in nature. I like the melodic part of the drum, and because I sing, I like to experiment with where the different tones are in the drum. I’ve explored different ways to hit in two different places to get the tone that I want and from there is where the music is inspired. As far as playing situations, I open up for many consciousness-raising events as well as play for baby and bridal showers to

birthday rituals to funerals and memorials. I also work a lot with different goddess communities, playing for their rituals to create a peaceful, meditative space as well as playing for dance and kundalini yoga classes, and working with kids. I like sharing the frame drum and getting people related to what it is. When I perform I try to make it participatory to initiate people to the possibility of playing.BELLONI Sometimes it can be two things. Unfortunately, because of my style, which is so powerful, it can be inspiring to some and intimidating to others. I really want to turn that around and make it accessible.PIAZZA Like Miranda, I work with children as well. I think all of us have this in common, as far as using the drum to connect and synergize, and with that synergy, we go deeper down the path of rhythm at every level in our being. Children often have never seen drums played in this way. It’s amazing what happens from that: Young people become inspired in their own modes of expression — a seed is planted. Recently I heard from a student that was into head-banging music when I knew him. He reached out to tell me how deeply he had been influenced by our time together in high school.DRUM! Is there a definitive technique involved with playing the frame drum or is it very much individualistic?BELLONI You have to start with the basics, whether it’s southern Italian, Brazilian, Irish, or South Indian, and then take that technique and make it your own.PIAZZA And there has absolutely been a lot of fusing of cultural styles.DRUM! How has the technique evolved through that fusing?BELLONI Glen Velez was the one to make everyone look at that. He took technique from many other countries and made it his own. I think he deserves to be recognized because there’s a credible, feminine energy coming from him that is not macho at all. Even though he was my first student and we played together in a duo for many years, I learned a lot from him as far as technique. If it weren’t for Glen, a lot of people wouldn’t be doing this right now.DRUM! Are there other players carrying on the tradition and breaking new ground?PIAZZA There are more and more people frame drumming, whether they’re carrying on the tradition or making it their own.BELLONI Like Layne Redmond — she was also inspired by Glen and is making it her own.PIAZZA Rowan Storm.BELLONI In Brazil, I know lots of them.PIAZZA And that’s just it, for every one of us who have earned some recognition, there’s hundreds back in the culture that are fantastic and that we’ve been inspired by, that have not received any acknowledgmenthttp://www.drummagazine.com/handdrum/post/drums-of-illumination/

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Complementary Therapy for Addiction: 'Drumming Out Drugs'Winkelman, Michael, American Journal of Public Health; Apr2003, Vol. 93 Issue 4, p647, 5pObjectives. This article examines drumming activities as complementary addiction treatments and discusses their reported effects.Methods. I observed drumming circles for substance abuse (as a participant), interviewed counselors and Internet mailing list participants, initiated a pilot program, and reviewed literature on the effects of drumming.Results. Research reviews indicate that drumming enhances recovery through inducing relaxation and enhancing theta-wave production and brain-wave synchronization. Drumming produces pleasurable experiences, enhanced awareness of preconscious dynamics, release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. Drumming alleviates self-centeredness, isolation, and alienation, creating a sense of connectedness with self and others. Drumming provides a secular approach to accessing a higher power and applying spiritual perspectives.Conclusions. Drumming circles have applications as complementary addiction therapy, particularly for repeated relapse and when other counseling modalities have failed. (Am J Public Health. 2003;93:647-651)Recent publications(n1-n8) reveal that substance abuse rehabilitation programs have incorporated drumming and related community and shamanic activities into substance abuse treatment. Often promoted as "Drumming out Drugs," these programs are incorporated in major rehabilitation

programs, community centers, conference workshops and training programs, and prison systems. Although systematic evaluations of the effectiveness of drumming activities are lacking, experiences of counselors and clients indicate that drumming can play a substantial role in addressing addiction. Evidence suggesting that drumming enhances substance abuse recovery is found in studies on psychophysiological effects of drumming(n9-n13) and the therapeutic applications to addictions recovery of altered states of consciousness,(n14) meditation,(n15-n19) shamanism,(n20-n21) and other shamanic practices.(n22-n24)

METHODS This report is based on information acquired from observations of drumming activities in substance abuse programs; interviews with program directors and counselors about the effects and experiences induced; a pilot program introducing drumming for recovering addicts; and on-line discussions and published material on drumming effects. Because of confidentiality issues, the programs observed did not permit interviews with clients. Clients' perspectives were provided by the directors and counselors involved in the program.

RESULTS The following summarizes research done during 2001 on programs in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Participant observation was carded out in the first 2 locations; interviews and published material were used for descriptions of activities and assessment of their effects at all sites.Mark Seaman and Earth Rhythms of West Reading, Pa Seaman is recovering from addiction; he began drumming as a way to express himself and become part of a community. He was searching for natural altered states of consciousness. His engagement with drums led to a personal transformation and an involvement with the recovery industry through counselors he knew at the Caron Foundation in Wernersville, Pa.(n3) They wanted to expose adolescents in substance abuse treatment to drumming. The counselors said that these shut-down, angry, disenfranchised youth came alive as drumming gave them an avenue of expression. Initially, his programs were closely tied to the therapeutic process. Now, however, they are offered as recreational activity, and use drumming to create healing energy.Activities. Seaman's programs begin with his drumming as people enter the room. They pick up drums and are free to play them as they choose. He then introduces warm-up exercises to make people feel comfortable with the drums, teaching people how to hit the drums without emphasizing anything technical. A vocal element is introduced to engage the group in coordinated chanting/singing activities to get their energy going. He allows people to play spontaneously to lay the groundwork for nonverbal communication and asks participants to show how they feel through playing a rhythm on the drums. Call-and-response activities are used to connect the group. A subsequent activity gives each participant the opportunity to briefly use the dram to express feelings. The group engages in the creation of improvisational music that produces a feeling of great accomplishment and engages a "letting go" process through visualization. Seaman ends his program with an application of the Alcoholics Anonymous' 11th step (meditation), using meditation music and a variety of percussion instruments to reinforce a visualization process to connect with a higher power. "I get people relaxed, give them permission to leave their body and go on a journey. I talk about forgiveness, acceptance and surrender. I work [on] release of guilt from the wreckage that they have produced through their addictions. The visual imagery connects with the inner child, to release baggage, to awaken true potential, to image contact with higher power that covers and embraces them in a space of joy and healing."Effects. The participants enthusiastically receive the drumming. Staff emphasized that the youths particularly need drumming when group dynamics are stressed because of conflict within the group, and when the group's sense of unity and purpose is disrupted by a client's relapse to drugs. Seaman finds that drumming pulls a group together, giving a sense of community and connectedness. The terminal meditation activity induces deep relaxation, eases personal and group tensions, and often leads to strong emotional release. Seaman suggests that drumming produces an altered state of consciousness and an experience of a rush of energy from the vibrations, with physical stimulation producing emotional release. Because addicted people are very self-centered, are disconnected, and feel isolated even around other people, the drumming produces the sense of connectedness that they are desperate for, he says. "All of us need this reconnection to ourselves, to our soul, to a higher power. Drums bring this out. Drums penetrate people at a deeper level. Drumming produces a sense of connectedness and community, integrating body, mind and spirit." Seaman's program is designed to induce a spiritual experience that is upbeat and fun. Meditation, "letting-go," and "rebirthing

experiences" allow people to leave behind the things they don't want (e.g. their addictions) and engage the themes of recovery within the dynamics of group drumming.

Ed Mikenas and the Lynchburg Day Program Ed Mikenas(n6,n25) has a background as a musician, music educator, and substance abuse counselor; he has also taken training from the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. He first discovered the positive effects of drumming for recovery when he worked as a substance abuse counselor at a group home for girls. Mikenas' interest in drumming preceded this program, beginning with a concert for the Partnership for Prevention of Substance Abuse. Currently, his programs are provided in colleges, after-school programs, city programs, and psychology and addiction conferences. The drumming reinforces other programs for both prevention of and recovery from addiction in a community context. Drumming emphasizes self-expression, teaches how to rebuild emotional health, and addresses issues of violence and conflict through expression and integration of emotions, says Mikenas.Activities. Mikenas uses group drumming in substance abuse counseling to activate and reinforce the recovery process. Participation as a group leader or follower induces experiences that can mirror the recovery process-confidence, uncertainty, insecurity in leading, security in following, desire for change, or novelty. Drumming activities allow spontaneous expressions of leadership skills. Mikenas exposes participants to a variety of percussion instruments and helps them learn basic sounds, rhythms, and complex polyrhythmic dances. Sessions begin with warm-ups on bass tones to give safe and easy exercises and to coordinate the group. These are followed by edge tones at greater acceleration and the use of stop and start signals. More complex movements (heel-to-toe, switching hands, slap tones) are then introduced, emphasizing the use of the non-dominant hand. Mikenas uses Afrocentric traditions, particularly Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms and the Afro-Caribbean Yoruba-based religions.(n25) The gods are used as representations of archetypes to help people access their unconscious dynamics and connect their experiences with spirituality and community. Mikenas says that these spiritual experiences connect clients with a "higher power" and reestablish connections with their "natural selves."Effects. Mikenas finds that the activities of drumming produce entertainment, an altered state of consciousness, and an energy that draws people in. Drumming also provides opportunities for coordinating sound and movement to assist in mental, physical, and emotional development processes. The pulse of drumming in a context that combines self-expression helps coordinate activities and solve problems, says Mikenas. Drumming gives an opportunity to learn leadership and discover one's own potentials. The drum's sounds, rhythms, and energy elicit emotional issues and may work as an "eraser" to remove effects of trauma. Mikenas suggests that "with drumming, a group of people go from chaos and noise to an orderly sense of feeling all the same. Drumming helps express and address unhealthy emotional reactions that allow drugs to appear to meet emotional needs." He says drumming entrains the brain and stimulates pleasurable feelings without drugs. "Drumming makes you feel good. When they connect, it makes them glow. It helps people fit in. Drumming teaches nurturing, respect, participation, and personal relationships. Drumming changes speaking, feeling, and acting, and helps you learn to act from the heart." Because group drumming gives participants different roles, individuals have to coordinate their parts. Therefore, they must focus on others. This gives them an experience with working together in a structured way. Mikenas says that a structured positive learning experience in lives that are often chaotic helps participants establish contact with themselves and connect with the collective consciousness. Mikenas considers benefits of drumming to include enhanced sensorimotor coordination and integration, increased bodily awareness and attention span, anxiety reduction, enhanced nonverbal and verbal communication skills, greater group participation and leadership skills and relationship building, and self-skills for self-conscious development and social and emotional learning.(n25)

Myron Eshowsky's Shamanic Counseling Approach Myron Eshowsky was trained as a shamanic counselor by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. His experiences, beginning in the mid-1980s, range from inpatient psychiatric acute care settings to private practice, community mental health centers, and prisons. Eshowsky worked with adults in a community mental health center in Madison, Wis, employing shamanic counseling approaches to apply spiritual perspectives to address psychological, emotional, and spiritual problems.(n1) His success led the drug/alcohol unit of his agency to refer clients with a history of severe addiction and significant mental health issues. He subsequently worked with at-risk youth and gangs at an alternative high school and provided programs for mental health centers, community-based

antiviolence groups, hospitals, health maintenance organizations, public schools, and prisons,(n1,n2,n26,n27)Activities. The shamanic drumming programs provided by Eshowsky include a mix of activities--story telling, journeying, healing work, dancing, spiritual divination, and group ceremonies. He engages adolescents in drumming activities and teaches them to journey on their own; he also often journeys himself to do healing work. Eshowsky uses shamanic journeying(n28) to find out information about clients, their power animals, spiritual intrusions, and soul loss.(n29) These shamanic activities may provide healing (e.g., "soul retrieval") or information subsequently used in ritual therapeutic interactions that involve other family members to provide community support. He uses ceremony and ritual to provide a context for clients to connect with their issues while simultaneously placing them in a global context. He says that this provides healing and a sense of belonging that helps clients define who they are.Effects. Participants report that drumming and shamanic journeying calm them down and help them deal with their high-stress lives. "Drumming helps them to experience a kind of peacefulness and provides a spiritual learning context that allows them to talk about their deeper concerns. It provides an opportunity for being heard that they don't often feel [they have]." Eshowsky reports that participants have a major reduction in crack cocaine and marijuana use as well as a reduction in drug-related violence and contact with the criminal justice system. This also enhances their school participation and performance. Eshowsky's work with shamanic healing is often effective for people in desperate situations, when other counseling modalities have failed; he reports a number of remarkable recoveries.(n1,n2,n26,n27) A particularly successful application has been with youth in street gangs, for whom application of the principles of core shamanism has been useful in providing healing and spiritual justice by addressing issues of despair and powerlessness.

Daniel Smith's Shamanic Approach Daniel Smith(n7) is the former director of the Center for Addictive Behaviors and program director of the Herman Area District Hospital Alcohol and Drug Unit in St. Louis, Mo. After years of use of shamanic drumming techniques and training by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Smith introduced drumming into his work as a licensed clinical social worker in a substance abuse rehabilitation program. He has taught drumming and shamanic techniques as an alternative and complementary therapy for addiction at wellness events, professional trainings, large conferences, and weekend retreats.Activities. Incorporation of core shamanic principles within managed care has created tensions, but Smith says that he has found an uneasy acceptance among the staff of the psychiatric settings through bridging activities such as yoga, breath work, music therapy, mask making, and addressing issues of the inner child and family-of-origin dynamics.(n13), (n15-n19,n30,n31) Smith uses the shamanic approach for clients who repeatedly relapse. For clients who know what they need to do for recovery but cannot achieve sobriety, the concepts of soul retrieval, depossession (e.g. exorcism), extraction, power animal, and spirit retrieval may be applicable.(n20) Smith focuses on "rebirthing," a kind of "spiritual surgery" akin to what Alcoholics Anonymous calls a spiritual awakening. This experience causes the addicted person to undergo a profound change in his or her response to life, says Smith. Music and dance activities are used for both cognitive restructuring and physical exercise. Smith finds that yoga activities produce mental--physical bridging and the integration clients need to detoxify their bodies. He says breath work produces mental--physical integration and takes clients into altered states of consciousness. Mask making and rituals help solidify powers accessed in the nonordinary reality experiences; mask wearing incorporates helping spirits and the changes in personality necessary to create a new sense of self as a recovering person, says Smith. Shamanic techniques are introduced and reinforced through rituals with symbols of flight (birds, feathers) that help prompt visionary experiences reflecting common themes in recovery--symbolically flying from the hells of addiction and soaring through the sky. The technique to which Smith attributes the greatest success in working with chronic recidivists is "shapeshifting," which borrows from techniques of Perkins.(n32) Rituals orient clients and help provide a sense of calm, a sense of inner balance, and connection with a greater power. Stone (rock) divination procedures are used: clients look for answers to their questions through what they see in a rock. This process allows them to connect with the power of the universe, to externalize their own knowledge, and to internalize their answers; it also enhances their sense of empowerment and responsibility, says Smith.Effects. Smith says that drumming and shamanic activities address addiction through reintegrating aspects of the self in rituals for soul retrieval and power animal retrieval. Through these activities, people gain access to traumatic assaults that have driven their abusive relations with drugs. Spirit world journeys provide direct access to these early experiences in a context that reduces barriers to

awareness. Ancestor spirits or other helpful spirit guides and allies encountered in rituals and journeys facilitate the resolution of trauma. These experiences are healing, bringing the restorative powers of nature to clinical settings. Shamanic activities bring people efficiently and directly into immediate encounters with spiritual forces, focusing the client on the whole body and integrating healing at physical and spiritual levels.

Pilot Program at the Phoenix Shanti Group Before conducting the research reported in the previous sections, I presented a shamanic drumming circle based on the principles of core shamanism(n28,n33,n34) to clients of the Phoenix Shanti Group as part of MPH internship activities. These clients were HIV-positive, and most were addicted to crack cocaine, methamphetamine, or opiates. These drumming activities were not part of regular program activities but were offered as a voluntary supplemental activity. The shamanic drumming activities were explained to the group in terms of their potential for inducing relaxation and natural altered states of consciousness that substitute for drug-induced highs. Suggestions for successful participation from the clinical director that were conveyed to the group included explaining the need for consistent attendance to achieve positive results. Additional recommendations included journaling of the session experiences to integrate them and chart the client's development. A few clients attended drumming groups held immediately after mandatory group sessions, but most declined. None of the clients currently in the intensive treatment program at Shanti attended the regular weekend evening sessions offered across more than a year, although some of Shant's prior clients (graduates of the program) did attend. This lack of voluntary participation in supplemental activities suggests that successful introduction of drumming activities in rehabilitation requires that they be incorporated into the mainstream of the program. Clients' interest will likely be strongly affected by the attitudes expressed by regular counselors.Inquiries posted to an on-line drumming Internet mailing list provided additional important information about the use of drumming in rehabilitation and on the relationships between community drumming activities and drug use. One respondent said, "I have found that music, especially drumming, creates that same kind of bonding and interdependent unity without putting chemicals and smoke in my body. I really like being high on community drumming and want to share that." Another noted, "There is no doubt in my mind that the dram circle and other musical initiatives are having a positive effect on the whole community. Drumming prevents children from getting into the drug culture, creating something positive and creative that children can identify with at an early age to build up their confidence and self-esteem. A sense of belonging to a community is the best protection there is. Drum circles give them tools to create a sense of community purpose and groundedness in their lives."In contrast, others commented on widespread drug use in drumming circles. Many drum circles accept (or fail to challenge and exclude) the use of drugs before, during, and after drumming sessions. This tolerance makes existing community drumming circles an uncertain source of support for maintaining sobriety. Successful use of drumming to guide and maintain sobriety probably requires the creation of programs specifically designed for the recovering community.

Physiological Effects of Drumming Drumming produces a variety of physical and psychological effects. A recent popular book on drumming reviews research suggesting the positive effects of drumming in the treatment of a wide range of physical conditions, mental illness, and personality disorders.(n5) Drumming enhances hypnotic susceptibility, increases relaxation, and induces shamanic experiences.(n35) Drumming and other rhythmic auditory stimulation impose a driving pattern on the brain, particularly in the theta and alpha ranges.(n9-n12,n33,n35) The enhanced ?- and a-wave entrainment produced by drumming typifies general physiological effects of altered states of consciousness(n33,n35,n36) and mediation.(n19) ASCs involve a mode of consciousness,(n33) a normal brain response reflected in synchronized brain-wave patterns in the theta (3-6cycles per second [cps]) and alpha (6-8cps) ranges. This response is produced by activation of the limbic brain's serotonergic circuits to the lower brain. These slow-wave discharges produce strongly coherent brain-wave patterns that synchronize the frontal areas of the brain with ascending discharges, integrating nonverbal information from lower brain structures into the frontal cortex and producing insight.(n33)Physiological changes associated with ASC facilitate healing and psychological and physiological well-being through physiological relaxation; facilitating self-regulation of physiological processes; reducing tension, anxiety, and phobic reactions; manipulating psychosomatic effects; accessing unconscious information in visual symbolism and analogical representations; inducing interhemispheric fusion and synchronization; and facilitating cognitive--emotional integration and social bonding and affiliation.(n33)

CONCLUSIONS Drumming produces physiological, psychological, and social stimulation that enhances recovery processes. Drumming induces relaxation and produces natural pleasurable experiences, enhanced awareness of preconscious dynamics, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. Drumming addresses self-centeredness, isolation, and alienation, creating a sense of connectedness with self and others. Drumming provides a secular approach to accessing a higher power and applying spiritual perspectives to the psychological and emotional dynamics of addiction. Drumming circles have important roles as complementary addiction therapy, particularly for repeated relapse and when other counseling modalities have failed.Drumming circles and other shamanic altered state of consciousness activities can address multiple needs of addicted populations.These includes(n8)•Physiological dynamics, inducing the relaxation response and restoring balance in the opioid and serotonergic neurotransmitter systems•Psychodynamic needs for self-awareness and insight, emotional healing, and psychological integration•Spiritual needs for contact with a higher power and spiritual experiences•Social needs for connectedness with others and interpersonal supportDrumming may reduce addiction by providing natural alterations of consciousness.(n8), (n18-n19) Shamanic drumming directly supports the introduction of spiritual factors found significant in recovery from substance abuse.(n21,n37-n39) Because recidivism is widespread, treatment success may mirror the natural recovery rate,(n40) and current methods have little success,(n41) the use of drumming and other altered states of consciousness as complementary therapies with considerable promise is justified.Drumming groups may also aid recovery by enhancing health through their effects on social support and social networks. The health implications of social support have been increasingly recognized.(n42-n43) These forms of support are of considerable significance for well-being in an increasingly atomized society in which traditional family- and community-based systems of support have become seriously eroded. Thus, deliberate enhancement of social support is a potentially significant contributor to physical, emotional, and mental health. The social support available from community drumming circles is one such source. These social effects are not merely palliative but constitute mechanisms for producing psychobiological effects. Central to these effects is an amelioration of the stress response, a significant factor in drug use and recidivism.(n19)The use of drumming as part of substance abuse rehabilitation is far more widespread than the few cases reviewed here might suggest. Incorporation of drumming within Native American treatment programs has been repeatedly mentioned to me. A recent book reviewing the scope of research on the effects of drumming reports on programs in New York and California in which drumming is incorporated into addictions treatment.(n5) The Foundation for Shamanic Studies has several decades of experience in applying shamanic altered state of consciousness in both training and therapy.(n20) They have identified a variety of contexts in which shamanic approaches may be useful in reducing substance abuse.The physiological effects of drumming and the positive effects of group drumming experiences on recovery that are attested to by counselors who have incorporated these activities into substance abuse rehabilitation programs provide a compelling rationale for the utilization and evaluation of this resource. Winkelman(n8) suggests a variety of ways in which the shamanic paradigm and altered states of consciousness can be applied to substance abuse rehabilitation.Human Participant Protection Research was approved by the institutional review board of the Arizona State University and by the Shanti internal review board.

Acknowledgments The research was supported by a National Institute of Drug Abuse postdoctoral fellowship awarded to the investigator through the Arizona Center for Ethnographic Research and Training.I thank the individuals who made this research possible, particularly Scott Reuter and the Phoenix Shanti Group; Mark Seaman of Earth Rhythms, West Reading, Pa; and Ed Mikenas of Urban Wilde, Lynchburg, Va.References (n1.) Eshowsky M. Practicing shamanism in a community health center. Shamanism. 1993;5(4):4-9.(n2.) Eshowsky M. Behind these walls where spirit dwells. Shamanism. 1999;12(1):9-15.

(n3.) Gallagher M. Beating addiction: addicts learn the rhythm of recovery. Professional Counselor. October 1998:31-32.(n4.) Friedman R. Drumming for health. Percussive Notes. April 2001:55-57.(n5.) Friedman R. The Healing Power of the Drum. Reno, Nev: White Cliffs Media; 2000.(n6.) Mikenas, ed. Drums, not drugs. Percussive Notes. April 1999:62-63.(n7.) Smith D. Shamanism and addiction: the mask of therapeutic containment midwife to mental health. Spirit Talk. 2000;11:8-12.(n8.) Winkelman M. Alternative and traditional medicine approaches for substance abuse programs: a shamanic perspective. Int J Drug Policy. 2001;12: 337-351.(n9.) Neher A. Auditory driving observed with scalp electrodes in normal subjects. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1961;13:449-451.(n10.) Neher A. A physiological explanation of unusual behavior in ceremonies involving drums. Hum Biol. 1962;34:151-160.(n11.) Wright P. Rhythmic drumming in contemporary shamanism and its relationship to auditory driving and risk of seizure precipitation in epileptics. Anthropol Consciousness. 1991;2(3-4):7-14.(n12.) Maxfield M. Effects of Rhythmic Drumming on EEG and Subjective Experience [doctoral dissertation]. San Francisco Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; 1990. Cited in: Wright P. Rhythmic drumming in contemporary shamanism and its relationship to auditory driving and risk of seizure precipitation in epileptics. Anthropol Consciousness. 1991;2(3-4):7-14.(n13.) Maurer R, Woodside L, Pekala R. Phenomenological experience in response to monotonous drumming and hypnotizablity. Am J Clin Hypn. 1997;40:2,131-114.(n14.) McPeake JD, Kennedy BP, Gordon SM. Altered states of consciousness therapy--a missing component in alcohol and drug rehabilitation treatment. J Subst Abuse Treat. 1991;8:75-82.(n15.) Alexander C, Robinson P, Rainforth M. Treating and preventing alcohol, nicotine, and drug abuse through transcendental meditation: a review and statistical meta-analysis. Alcohol Treat Q. 1994;11(1/2); 13-87. Reprinted in: O'Connell D, Alexander C, eds. Self-Recovery: Treating Addictions Using Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Ayur-Veda. New York, NY: Haworth Press; 1994. 13-87.(n16.) Gelderloos P, Walton K, Orme-Johnson D, Alexander C. Effectiveness of the transcendental meditation program in preventing and treating substance misuse: a review. Int J Addict. 1991;26:293-325.(n17.) O'Connell D. The use of transcendental meditation in relapse prevention counseling. Alcohol Treat Q. 1991;8(1):53-69.(n18.) O'Connell D, Alexander C, eds. Self-Recovery: Treating Addictions Using Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Ayur-Veda. New York, NY: Haworth Press; 1994.(n19.) Walton K, Levitsky D. A neuroendocrine mechanism for the reduction of drug use and addictions by transcendental meditation. In: O'Connell D, Alexander C, eds. Self-Recovery: Treating Addictions Using Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Ayur-Veda. New York, NY: Haworth Press; 1994:89-117.(n20.) Harner M, Harner S. Core practices in the shamanic treatment of illness. Shamanism. 2000; 13(1-2):19-30.(n21.) Rioux D. Shamanic healing techniques: toward holistic addiction counseling. Alcohol Treat Q. 1996; 14(1):59-69.(n22.) Heggenhougen K. Reaching New Highs: Alternative Therapies for Drug Addicts. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc; 1997.(n23.) Jilek WG. Traditional healing in the prevention and treatment of alcohol and drug abuse. Transcultural Psychiatr Res Rev. 1994;31;219-258.(n24.) Singer M, Borrego M. Indigenous treatment for alcoholism: the case for Puerto Rican spiritism. Med Anthropol. 1984;8:246-272.(n25.) Mikenas E. Drumming on the Edge of Leadership: Hand Drumming and Leadership Skills for the New Millennium. Lynchburg, Va: Urban Wilde; 2000.(n26.) Eshowsky M. Community shamanism: youth, violence, and healing. Shamanism. 1998;1(1):3-9.(n27.) Eshowsky M. Shamanism and madness. Community Shamanism. Winter 1999:14-28.(n28.) Harner M. The Way of the Shaman. 3rd ed. San Francisco, Calif: Harper & Row Inc; 1990.(n29.) Ingerman S. Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self. San Francisco, Calif: HarperSanFrancisco; 1991.(n30.) Johnson L. Creative therapies in the treatment of addictions: the art of transforming shame. Arts Psychother. 1990;17:299-308.(n31.) Soshensky R. Music therapy and addiction. Music Ther Perspect. 2001;19:45-52.(n32.) Perkins J. Shapeshifting. Rochester, Vt: Destiny Books; 1997.

(n33.) Winkelman M. Shamanism: The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and Healing. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey; 2000.(n34.) World wide shamanic web. The Foundation for Shamanic Studies Web page. Available at: www.shamanism.org. Accessed November 12, 2002.(n35.) Mandell A. Toward a psychobiology of transcendence: god in the brain. In: Davidson D, Davidson R, eds. The Psychobiology of Consciousness. New York, NY: Plenum Press; 1980:379-464.(n36.) Winkelman M. Altered states of consciousness and religious behavior. In: Glazier S, ed. Anthropology of Religion: A Handbook of Method and Theory. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press; 1997:393-428.(n37.) Booth J, Martin JE. Spiritual and religious factors in substance use, dependence, and recovery. In: Koenig HG, ed. Handbook of Religion and Mental Health. San Diego, Calif: Academic Press; 1998:175-200.(n38.) Green L, Fullilove M, Fullilove R. Stories of spiritual awakening the nature of spirituality in recovery. J Subst Abuse Treat. 1998;15(4):325-331.(n39.) Miller WR. Researching the spiritual dimensions of alcohol and other drug problems. Addiction. 1998; 93(7):979-990.(n40.) Sobell L, Ellingstad T, Sobell M. Natural recovery from alcohol and drug problems: methodological review of the research and suggestions for future directions. Addiction. 2000;95(5):749-764.(n41.) Amaro H. An expensive policy: the impact of inadequate funding for substance abuse treatment [editorial]. Am J Public Health. 1999;89(5):657-659.(n42.) Pilisuk M, Parks S. The Healing Web: Social Networks and Human Survival. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England; 1986.(n43.) Berkman L, Glass T, Brissette I, Seeman T From social integration to social health: Durkheim in the new millennium. Soc Sci Med. 2000;51(6):843-8

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DRUM THERAPY BENEFITS TO STUDENTS1. Drumming can help students grow academically; it can improve students' ability to concentrate and compliment their studies in math, science, language arts, history, physical fitness and the arts.2. According to scientific research, playing music, and hence drumming and playing percussion, increases the development of various regions of the brain, including the corpus callosum, motor and auditory cortexes. 3. Playing drums and rhythms can be an optimal experience and encourages participants of all ages to achieve flow.4. Drumming is a healing art and therefore it can give participants of any age a better sense of well being.5. Hand drumming (and regular participation in any form of percussion playing) increases the physical stamina of students.6. Drumming increases body awareness & kinesthetic development; drumming helps students develop graceful coordination and self-control.7. Playing rhythms improves listening skills and increases children and teens' ability to focus for extended periods of time.8. In general, the increasing of rhythmic skills - and the learning of any musical instrument - increases students' confidence.  9. Playing rhythmic music helps students to take notice of the rhythms and beauty in nature and their surroundings.10. Drumming in group formats, such as drum circles, bands and orchestras cultivates an appreciation for teamwork and cooperation.11. Drum circles are great ethnic and cultural bridges; they harmoniously bring diverse people, instruments and musical styles together.12. If parents play or take interest in the musical and learning process of their children, then drumming can be a means to forge meaningful bonds between parents and children.http://artdrum.com/TWELVE_WAYS_STUDENTS_BENEFIT_FROM_DRUMMING.HTM

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FORTUNE 500 TUNES INTO BANG-THE-DRUM THERAPY Paul Tharp. New York Post. New York, N.Y.: Dec 5, 2003. pg. 039Corporations are boosting employee productivity and reducing sick days by getting workers to march to the same drummer - literally.A novel program underway at several big firms - including Toyota, Unilever, Raytheon and Oracle - hauls in drums to the office so that workers can take an hour a week to beat on them alongside their bosses and co-workers.Also included in the musical free-for-all are hand bells, maracas and keyboards."The musical experience causes the boundaries to disappear between managers and employees," said the program's inventor, Dr. Barry Bittman, a neurologist and head of the Mind-Body Wellness Center, Meadville, Pa."It becomes a level playing field, so to speak - and it's a safe experience for building trust at the most basic levels."The workplace musical workout has produced startling results, he says. Absenteeism drops sharply because the musical experience relieves stress and boosts the body's immune system, says Bittman.Burn-out was virtually eliminated and job turnover was drastically reduced at several of the locations where the program has been underway.He says Toyota's drumming has had enough success at keeping workers happy and punching the clock on time, it has installed its own dedicated "drum room" at California locations.What makes the program work is that employees are compelled to participate in the once-a-week hourly events for six weeks."Many employees are very negative about doing it and resist. But after they are cajoled into participating, they show remarkable changes."In almost every case, the obstinate, the troublemakers and withdrawn employees were brought into the fold and solidified the whole group."Bittman said the rise of consolidations and mergers in corporate America have added stress to workers, and hampered work skills.The $11,000 program brings in all the musical instruments and a trainer to conduct the workplace ensembles, and leaves behind the drums and a trained in-house person to keep running the show.He cited new studies saying that 85 percent of employees want to change jobs when the economy improves."That's going to be a huge cost of as much as $30,000 to $60,000 to find a replacement employee," he said.