Posted by Jason on: 05.12.2008 /
I took my family to visit the Sustainability Centre yesterday. There was a “green issues” event, I wanted to visit my mother’s grave site and the father of my partner, Hil, wanted to see it to prepare for his own death. While looking at some of the events like solar panels, water filters for recycling, sustainable woodland fencing, woodcraft, etc I happened on a drum therapy* demonstration.
I wandered in about halfway through a treatment and initially thought it was just some fun with drums for kids and adults to enjoy. The drums were beautifully decorated and the tent was laid out with cushions and extra drums which some kids were playing along with. My own children joined in quite quickly with the rhythm while two older women drummed energetically above and around another younger woman who was lying prone in the centre of the tent.
“Odd”, I thought, “perhaps it is just a novel method of relaxation, the woman seems quite relaxed.” After a minute or two of observing and listening to conversation is became apparent that the older women were performing (literally) a “healing” for the younger one. I waited until they had finished and eavesdropped for a while. The “patient” was visibly shaken and felt weak after the “healing”, she expressed surprise on how the drum beats seemed to go right through her. She asked about the power of the drums and how it was used. The drummers apparently were being “guided” on how and where to drum. Upon further enquiry I discovered that this guidance was from the spirit of nature.
I appreciate that environmental issues and natural living will attract people who have a holistic approach to life including alternative ways of living. I do think that it gives the idea of “living green” a bad name when superstition and mysticism is placed alongside environmentally conscious practices. Advocating drum therapy as a means of relaxation, sharing for a group or art is one thing but claiming spiritual guidance is another.
*This site wasn’t the one demonstrating and don’t claim supernatural guidance. I’m linking to it as an example.
Leave a Reply
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
1 05/12/08 7:10 AM | Comment Link |Why not write a polite letter to them expressing how you feel? If you do I’d love to hear how they respond.
Comment by: Mike O
2 05/12/08 9:30 PM | Comment Link |Honest question to which I will not take offense - do you equate this type of mysticism with Christianity, or do you see Christianity with more credibility? Of course, “credibility” may not be the right word to use in this context. But if you were to rank things on some sort of believability scale, would you find Christianity (or any mainstream religion, I guess) more plausible than this?
I’m not muslim, for example, but I find Islam more plausible than drum therapy spirituality. Do you get what I mean? I’m constantly trying to learn how atheists process things.
Comment by: Jason
3 05/12/08 10:37 PM | Comment Link |Helen, I might just do that.
Mike, good question. There are some practices in Christianity that I view with precisely the same disdain as I view this kind of quackery: faith healing, the casting out of demons as a cure, exorcism, that sort of thing. These practices essentially appear as if someone has taken an idea and added a money making spin on to it. It lowers the value of the idea and ridicules those good practices that occur.
If I were to rank this then I would place something like drum therapy, when used in a mystical way rather than a method of relaxation, in a lower rung than mainstream Christianity. This is simply because the efficacy of a cure could be tested and disputed. Like most alternative medicine, if not all of it, the actual cure can be demonstrated to be ineffective and even counter productive when used instead of conventional medicine. As a compliment to conventional medicine it may have some limited value if only for the placebo effect that helps people to achieve a positive state of mind.
Mainstream Christianity is essentially harmless. Most people spend a little time in rituals like prayer and some time visiting their church but nothing else. In most cases the typical Christian acts no differently than the typical atheist. It is only extremists of any faith who really cause harm in their actions. Denying science, controlling politics, resisting social change, that sort of thing.
Having said that I must support Richard Dawkins assertion that mainstream faiths do provide a platform from which extremists are raised. I just don’t see an immediacy of danger or ridicule that I see in the practice of waving someone over someone and pronouncing them “fixed”.
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
4 05/13/08 4:20 AM | Comment Link |Jason wrote:
Actually there is some of that in US Christianity and I don’t like it any more than you do.
If it’s medically substantiated, fine. If not then it’s very cruelty to tell people they’re supposed to feel well now. And to tell them if they still have symptoms it’s because they lack faith in God, the spirit of nature or whoever.
It’s bad enough being ill without having guilt added onto that that it’s your fault for not having enough faith in whoever for whoever to heal you.
Comment by: Mike O
5 05/13/08 7:03 AM | Comment Link |I couldn’t agree more. A few weeks ago a Christian TV channel was doing a fundraiser. I am not a fan of Christian broadcasting for many of the reasons you two cite here. I mean, I do believe in healing, but without the spectacle. Sometimes God heals people. Sometimes they get better by medicine. Sometimes they die. But I hadn’t seen tyis type of program in quite a while and wanted to see what it was like, so I watched it for a while.
I had to turn it off. I couldn’t shake the thought “This CAN’T be what Jesus had in mind!“
Comment by: Jason
6 05/13/08 10:36 AM | Comment Link |It is my understanding that medicine do not heal people. The body heals (repairs) itself. Medicine facilitates that repair or attacks that which injures the body by treating, preventing, or alleviating the symptoms of disease.
The body may be aided in its self repair by a positive outlook which can be created artificially by a placebo. This placebo can be a faith healer, homeopathy, drum therapy or prayer but there is no evidence that anything supernatural occurs. The body is truly a wonderful machine.
To stay healthy or recover quickly you need a good diet, regular exercise and a positive outlook plus medication to combat the diseases or the symptoms of diseases that attack the body.
I wish that there was a supernatural or, even better, a natural repair centre for replacement limbs, nerves and organs. All those blind, deaf or crippled people in the world probably wish that too. Preying on these people must be one of the most despicable practices that human beings get up to. It is just low, akin to robbing old ladies of their pensions.
Comment by: Karen
7 05/13/08 12:52 PM | Comment Link |I share your dislike of this kind of thing, particularly because it seems so often there is a naked profit motive attached.
Last week I accompanied a friend to a theater where she did a short performance as part of an evening production of original works.
We arrived early and I spent some time leafing through some brochures and magazines in the lobby. Most were New Age-style publications, full of advertising for mystical healing, all kinds of alternative therapies, etc.
At one point I burst out laughing and my friend asked why. I told her I was reading an article written by someone who claims to be able to talk to the animals. She replied that don’t certain people have special abilities around animals?
Of course, I said, but this article author claims to actually TALK to the animals, ala Dr. Doolittle. Then I showed her the article where a conversation between the therapist and a Yorkie named Cuddles was actually transcribed verbatim! Shockingly, Cuddles’ explained that her behavior problems were tied to a lack of time and attention from her owner. How novel! A dog finally gets a chance to communicate to the human world and all she can say is the obvious thing that the human wants to hear.
Wouldn’t it be more likely that she would have a burning question along the lines: “Damn, I know I buried that bone in the rose garden last fall, but now I can’t find it! Do you have any clue where it is!!?” or “Do you guys really have to put me out so early to pee? I can hold it another hour or so, you know!”
I can only imagine how many sweet animal lovers are shelling out $$$ for these frauds and con artists to come over and “translate” for their dogs, cats and horses. It’s just blatant nonsense, and yet a heck of a lot of well-educated people will fall for it.
Comment by: Jason
8 05/13/08 2:47 PM | Comment Link |Anyone can talk to an animal. It’s when they answer that you need to start worrying.
Comment by: Mike O
9 05/13/08 10:00 PM | Comment Link |I talk to my dog, but I know she doesn’t understand me. I sometimes say mean and hurtful things like “your butt is SO huge” in a sweet and tender voice, and her tail just wags and wags.
I know - I’m awful. :)