Just wanted to say a few words about Drum Circles.
I have been involved in Drum Circles for about 10 years now,
and found them quite rewarding.
I live in an an area with two Indian reservations, so a lot
of the folks in the circles here are either Indians or
heavily influenced by the Native American perspective,
but a Drum Circle can be any flavor or mixture of flavors
that you like: Native American, New Age, Asian, whatever.
We use a mixture of drumming and chanting; and we tend
to describe the experience as "moving meditation".
The communal nature of drumming and chanting sets up
pleasant physical and psychological vibrations.
Advantages of a drum circle include:
* It is Simple
You don't have to follow some guru and his/her teachings
to do simple, heartfelt drumming and chanting.
As the singer Van Morrison said "No Guru, No Method, No Teacher"
But you CAN learn from drumming traditions and find out
why certain practices have worked for those traditions.
* The chanting "tunes" are easier to sing than some of the
horribly complicated Christian hymns, though many
of the drummers go to Christian churches.
* You don't have to be a wannabe or give yourself a
Native American or Asian or New Age alternate name in order to
feel part of a group, though some people do;
and I respect their hunger to belong to a group, rather than be isolated.
* It is dirt cheap. The circles use donations more than charging fees.
I own used drums. I've got drum beaters that
Native Americans gave me, which are just sticks with leather
on 'em. Plain driftwood sticks work too.
* You can do it at home as meditation, I do sometimes.
http://drumcircles.net/circlelist.html
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