Sitting in a Place of Connection and Truth

A boy, a drum, and a vision

Several years ago, I was privileged to sit at a powwow with a 12-year-old young man who had an extraordinary, life-changing moment. This young man, whom I will call Chris, was watching my friend Asa sit on the ground in a drumming meditation. Yes, you can sit in the middle of a crowd, gaze into the distant treetops, and fall into a deep, consciousness-shifting moment while playing – and essentially praying with – your drum.

Chris felt so drawn to Asa, and even more to the energy Asa was creating with his drum, that he found the courage to simply sit down and listen. He could hear and feel what Asa, the resonance of the drum, and Asa’s loving, prayerful heart were creating together. The pull of that space was so strong that Chris could do nothing but sit down and take it in.

No words were spoken. Chris, too, looked over the treetops, closed his eyes, and listened to the drum. And he had a vision – the kind of vision people still spend days on the mountain praying for during a traditional vision quest.

In his vision, Chris saw a group of people who seemed familiar, though he did not know them, sitting around a fire. Some were laughing, some were dancing, and most were simply enjoying themselves. Chris felt completely at home, accepted, and part of this group. He felt happy.

Suddenly Chris heard screaming. The people looked around for the source of the noise, then got up and began to move away from the harsh sounds. The space of harmony and connection was broken, and Chris felt sad.

Listening with an open heart

When the drumming ended, Chris told Asa about his experience. Asa shared his sense that perhaps Chris had remembered a connection – maybe a blood connection – with his Native American ancestors. Then Asa sent Chris to talk with me.

This beautiful young man sat on the ground next to my chair in my vending space and told me what he saw, and how he felt in each scene of his vision. I looked deeply into his eyes and felt the truth of his experience. I did not pretend to know what his vision meant, but I knew deep in my bones that he felt happy and joyful when the people around the fire were connected, and sad when they scattered away from the screaming – the dissonant noise that broke the harmony of the laughing and dancing.

As Chris shared his wonder and his many questions, I was guided to explain my humble understanding of how a person can step out of a noisy powwow, in the middle of many people, into a moment of grace – and some of the many ways we can find that consciousness-shifting moment.

Where I am speaking from

My background includes many, many years of study with a master drummer, medicine people, shamans, sound healers, a pioneering past life regression therapist and, of course, my own experiences. I struggle with what to call myself, so I usually say that I sit with the folks who come. We share. I create a space that usually involves sound – the drum, sound healing music, crystal bowls, tuning forks, Tibetan brass bowls, bells, sometimes my voice – and most importantly, prayer (my word, not necessarily yours). I am so privileged to hear people’s stories, many of them powerful and life-changing.

But where does this information come from? What does it mean to have a moment that moves us to tears, and raises questions about our purpose and the path our lives will take? One of my beautiful teachers told me many years ago that Spirit (my word for Source) would laugh at us if we thought we could understand what a person’s vision means, or where it comes from.

I will give you my humble, human words, and you can form your own belief about their truth, based on how you feel as you hear them.

You may feel my words as truth, or you may feel that they do not belong to you at this moment. I invite you to notice which, as you read. That is the truth we must listen to. When I listened to Chris, I felt truth in my bones. He had a life-changing moment, carried by sound and by the energy of connection, harmony and love.

How do we find that moment?

I explained to Chris a little of what I learned from an extraordinary sound healer about brainwaves. We go about our daily lives – working, buying groceries, raising our children – in a brainwave state of about 13–20 hertz. But when we listen to sound that is created with intention, our brainwaves can shift to about 4–7.7 hertz. This is known as the shamanic state of consciousness, or in more scientific terms, the theta state – a place where intuition and insight are much sharper, and our knowing is strong and clear.

Here are some of the ways we can step into that space:

• Sit with a healer who knows how to create sound in a space of love.
• Listen on your own to music that was created with love, and with the intention that its love be felt.
• Listen to someone’s drum, or drum for yourself.
• Pray to hear and feel what is important at this moment in your life.
• Surrender, and allow yourself to feel, hear and know in your bones what your truth is.
• Feel love.

Love is what Chris felt when he sat down next to Asa. Love is what Chris and I both felt when he shared his experience with me. I listened with an open heart and complete acceptance. Love poured between our eyes. It was a moment of truth.