Summer Rhythm Renewal and Sendoff

The last Summer Rhythm Renewal ever at Saint Francis University in June 2018 was a powerhouse of creative expression, spiritual healing, and community. Gone but not forgotten, the Renewal left an indelible impression on all who were there.

Pathways There

Many participants’ paths to the Renewal came through the event organizer Jim Donovan, who is also a rock star, philosopher and healer of Rusted Root and Sun King Warrior bands fame.

Like many, I reached the Renewal through my connection with Jim, which was made in a health and mindfulness workshop at a larger conference last January. I came away powerfully impressed with Jim’s practice of brain humming, and wrote Music is Sound Healing based on a followup interview.

Focusing mostly on the science of brain humming, the sound healing post left drum circles and music as unfinished business. Jim had lauded the power of musical events as a way to reach and influence the multitudes, and discussed plans for the Sun King Warriors band to become a platform for getting his message out on the healing powers of sound. I just knew I had more to learn from Jim.

Drumming, Humming, Healing, and Connecting

Each day of the event began with a drum circle in the SFU Boileroom building, hung with posters and tapestries on Eastern and New Age religious and spiritual themes as shown in the photo below.

In the first sessions, Jim described the basics of drumming for beginners and gave a brief description of the benefits of using sound for the health of the mind, spirit, body, and community:

• Until recently, modern medicine has forgtten the health benefits of sound that indigenous peoples of many cultures used for millenia.
• Yet our ability to use rhythm and vibration in ways that are good for our bodies, and help us connect with our center is more relevant than ever as stressful modern living causes our bodies to generate dangerously levels of cortisol “fight or flight” hormones.
• The relaxing practice of brain humming sends sound waves to stimulate the Vagus nerve running throughout the body, and (to get technical 🙂 generates beneficial chemicals such as norepinephrine, serotonin, acetylcholine, and adrenaline.
• These applications of sound medicine just take advantage of a built-in feature of our human bodies and nature.

Jim taught us the proper technique to beat patterns with the event’s Djembe drums, which are held between the knees. “Play the beat you hear, but vary the pattern. Randomly strike the side or the center of the drum with your hands. Try not to think about how you’re doing this. By playing different patterns, you are energizing different pathways in the mind. This is great for the memory and for brain health.”

We also learned the rudiments of brain humming as Jim instructed us in touching various areas of the head and body whilst humming different tones: “EEEEEM,” “OOOOM”, “AMMMM”, “UMMMM.” Then he asked new participants to share what they were feeling. Some reported a sense or sleepiness, or feeling a pleasant buzz in the head, as if they were getting high. Jim joked that sometimes he asks participants at substance abuse therapy sessions: “Would  you like to learn how to create a natural euphoria for yourself?”

Finding Flow

Outside of drumming, I spent most of my time in painting and writing workshops, including “Wild Writes Nature Writing” by Kim McElhatten and “Transformative Writing by Matthew Adams.” At one writing workshop I wrote:

“During the drum circle we can barely hear our individual notes over the din of others, but we can always pick out the dominant beat. Pound out your own pattern, and if it feels good, just keep going. If not, just listen for the beat and accompany it with one stroke every few seconds. Then resume your pattern. During the morning exercise for bringing randomness and spontaneity to the playing, Jim said to ‘Try to play without thinking about it’ and that seemed to work for me!

Jim had also talked about flow – that state of complete immersion in an activity during which ego suspends, time flies, and all your skills effortlessly engage. I found flow in the rhythm. What if I could bring that same confidence and exhilaration vividly into writing?”

Later in the Meditative Painting workshop, instructor Sandra Sabene encouraged us to take a walk on the wild side of art. She demonstrated slathering paint over the canvas while declaring “I just don’t care.” The purpose of this exercise is to evoke a pure subconscious artistic creativity. For this, one should have no attachment to the painted outcome, just be in the moment.

Although I could not quite let go like Sandra, I began the painting shown above with minimal structure – just the eyes in the circle and the lines radiating out diagonally from it. After a few of the songs in Sandra’s playlist, I became quite relaxed. I noticed the white circle around the eyes was actually coming out pinkish due to the mixing of colors on the brush; instead of trying to “fix it”, I went with the light pink. It evoked thoughts of strawberry ice cream. Almost spontaneously, I drew seven ice cream cones, and the picture felt complete. Well, you have to understand I’m very much a beginner 🙂

I’d found flow again, this time in painting.

Finding Healing

Others in the audience found healing in the sense of community and sharing present in all renewal workshop activities. One woman and repeat renewer shared: “I’ve always felt like a square peg in a round hole. I’m tired of having to be ‘so fucking nice.’ My first Renewal put me into a defensive crouch, wanting to yell ‘Why are you getting your feelings all over me!’ Then I had an epiphany: We who are dark make the light possible. This is a  rare place where I can participate as myself and still find wholeness. It didn’t happen overnight, but I’d found my tribe.”

Change the World?

On the final day of the Renewal, first timers such as myself experienced the full power of the event as Jim unpacked  more of his thinking on the power of vibration, and participants shared what it means to them during an extended “open mike”  session.

Jim began the last drumming sessions on Sunday by recalling his challenges of standing up and speaking in public, of feeling vulnerable without the protective barrier of drums between himself and an audience. He said “I had to throw myself into the fire and just do it, do it, do it.” He urged us all to: “Do things differently, regularly. Things that are hard for us expand the mind, build new pathways. Use sound to put yourself regularly in the healing condition.”

He continued: “This morning we’ll ramp up into the macro view. Think of what we’re doing in drum circles as a sound formula to deepen our understanding of life, to move energy, to open the body. The vibration we’re in together reminds us that although we appear separate, we share the same energy and are made of the same subatomic stuff. Physics tell us that 99% of our bodies are empty space. We can see each other and can hear each other, but we’re made mostly out of emptiness and energy.

“This ideas has been lost from our culture. There is a lack of understanding of how interconnected we really are. But now we’re shifting our frequency and vibration.”

Jim then led us in a long drumming and chanting session to the mantra Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung, which he translated as: “The Sun, The Moon, the Earth. All of Everything. I am That.” The effect was palpable, leaving us buzzing with a feeling of connectedness and energy to the room.

Finally: “We are all part of one vibration and raising your vibration has an effect. It is one the most important things we can be doing. If I can’t create my own peace I can’t do anything for others. That feeling we all seek that everything is  right in our world is not ‘out there,’ it is ‘in here.’ There’s nothing you can buy, nowhere you can go to get that feeling, but you can find it through sound. Sound is the companion that you were built with. It is the power through which we can communicate and also center our own vibration. And it’s power increases with repeated use.”

Leaving Renewal

Towards the end, there was an open mic sharing session almost too poignant for words. Participant after participant recollected their experiences at this and prior events. A few struggled with tears or broke down because the Renewal has been so important to them; a few had even met their husband or wife-to-be there. So many related their feelings of belonging in this event, of being taken to a higher level of awareness, or of finding a dream they didn’t know they had, All thanked Jim for giving us so much, and for closing down the Renewal with such loving care and transparency when the time came. In many ways, this part of the closing ceremony felt more like a graduation than an ending.

And Jim sent us off with a few final thoughts: “Don’t get the idea your car can fly. What we have created here is an altered state of consciousness on a higher frequency, but not all others are ready for it. This is not the week to quit your job or get a divorce. Give yourself a week to settle down and see if you still feel the same way. Believe and hope that by getting together here we can help to co create a world in which people of all kinds can disagree, like many of us actually do, but still work together to create love and abundance.”

To Be Continued

After the event formally ended with a giant group hug, some drifted off and others lingered to talk on. I made my way to the car without further leave-taking. In parting, I must caveat that I’m (obviously 🙂 not prescient in all things, nor do I have an eidetic memory. I missed things that were going on in other rooms, may have misunderstood much that was going on before my very eyes, and many of the quotes herein are probably poor paraphrases. Yet I hope this post shows how the event touched me too, and gives something back to those of this community that find the link to it on the Renewal participants’ Facebook group.

I’m not great at goodbyes, but I’ll close with what I was able to share during my  own minute on the open mic:

“As a first timer, I found this fantastic! Thank you all so much for accepting and welcoming me into your community. What you and Jim have created here is indescribable. There’s a line from a song that goes: ‘Every new beginning is some other beginning’s end.’ Don’t let this be the end of your awakening and transformation. Go out into the world like stardust, bringing light and love to other events and places. Don’t say ‘goodbye,’ say ‘to be continued.'”

Opportunities to continue abound. I hope to see many of my new Renewal friends next year at the Renewals’ parallel Summer Rhythm Revival event in Western New York, and at other drum circles in our Great Northeast.