I’ve studied Afro-Cuban percussion for 28 years now and I can tell you from experience there are some bata rhythms that definitely make the listener enter into a heavy trance state. Haitian vodun drumming is especially designed for generating trance and out of body experiences in its entirety. If you can find an old recording of Haitian voodoo drums give it a listen using good headphones with your eyes closed, and after about twenty minutes you will enter an altered state.
It would be great if you could link to a recording that you think could induce this state, given that you’re an expert in this field! If I’m left to search on my own I’m not sure I’ll find the correct recording.
if you have perfection in a product, the only evolution possible is for it to become less perfect.
People being people the best are not content with always doing the same thing, so they will experiment and move away, following other influences. The drumming may become great in other ways but not great in the way of inducing trance states the way it once way.
Just my theory on why it might be that an old recording is better for inducing trance than a newer one might be.
Your point is technically correct, but it seems a bit preposterous to say that the old drumming music was flawless perfection in introducing these sort of effects, to the point where any change would by definition be a determent. How would you know that? How would anybody know that?
yeah, I wouldn't know, but if the old recordings seem better for inducing trance and the newer not I offer an explanation why that could be without the newer generation of Haitian voodoo drummers necessarily having to be worse drummers.
In my experience with trying to meditate to rhythms it takes fifteen minutes to half an hour before you really notice a significant difference to meditation without it.
Also, "should" is not really the right word to use here - I would go with "might".
What I mean with that is that this isn't like a pill whose are chemicals will do its on their own after consumption, with or without thinking about them. It's an effect that is produced through a sensory interaction with the brain. As a result, how one consciously attends to that interaction has a huge impact on the effectiveness.
There was an interesting section in Michael Pollan's book "How to Change Your Mind" about combining breathwork with drumming. It seems with the right setup that you can induce certain altered states of consciousness that are pretty equivalent to certain psychedelics.
I'm definitely interested in seeing what can be done to without the aid of drugs. As someone who had some bad trips that gave me 6 months of anxiety, a non drug induced altered state sounds preferable.
That being said, even something as seemingly benign as meditation can lead to intensely challenging experiences in certain situations. But overall, not relying on drugs seems generally safer.
I'm considering trying LSD soon for its therapeutic potential and am concerned about anxiety as an input and output of tripping, as it were. Would you be open to sharing your experience with me? Sorry if that's out of line.
Like most psychedelics, LSD gives you back what you put into it. It, especially, though, is not an on/off switch like most of reddit's crowd would have you believe.
I have had generalized anxiety, and some other acute anxiety issues for about 30 years now. I experimented with LSD among many other psychedelics through my 20's and 30's.
For LSD, to avoid a bad trip, you need a good road map. I would advise some counseling to identify your personal problems with an impartial third party, beforehand. Naming your issues will help you to identify if you are spiraling into them. Second, take it in a comfortable setting, surrounded by things that are important to you. Music helps immensely, but focus on something without too much of a political/social/religious message, just in case. Having a trip sitter who has experience with psychedelics cannot be stressed enough. Having someone clear headed to keep you focused on your good feelings is really helpful.
Also, if you are concerned about an anxiety response before taking it, you will experience anxiety. Your mind is a wonderful tool, in that, it is almost constantly making your experience self-fulfilling prophecies.
The only other note I would add is, if you do experience anxiety, or a bad trip, take notes. Generally, the things you experience are based on your life's "pinch points" and are the things that are bothering you deep down.
For me, I experienced severe anxiety spirals regarding whether or not my friends were really my friends, and whether or not I was a good spouse and parent. When I finally started writing down my spirals, and evaluating them for themes later, I realized that I was trying to tell myself to be less distracted, less selfish, more giving, more caring, and more present for the people around me. Oh, and to do the damned dishes every now and again.
I took too much and didn't have the relevant experience.
If you take a low dose and follow harm reduction practices you should be fine. Just make sure you do your research ahead of time, and go in knowing the risks. If you have underlying mental health issues, then be careful, and maybe consider alternatives that don't require drugs.
Personally I think you should consider other things before you go down the road of LSD. Improvisation (in particular), psychotherapy, meditation, dance/sports classes, art are all worth going through first, particularly if you are under 25 (still a fair of brain re-wiring going on up to this age, and further its life long in a limited way).
LSD / Weed can induce severe nasty reactions in people and no one quite knows why. I do find the "you have to be prepared to face the truth" mentality of some people who take drugs to be a bit dangerous. (Note: I experimented with pretty much every drug before so I'm aware of the effects).
I highly recommend The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert.
"The authors discuss the Tibetan Book of the Dead and use the process of death and rebirth presented in it as a metaphor for the experience of ego death or depersonalization that is commonly experienced under the influence of psychedelic drugs. Similar to how the intended function of the Tibetan Book of the Dead is to be used as a guide for death and rebirth, The Psychedelic Experience is meant to be used as a guide on how to properly handle experiences of ego death while undergoing the psychedelic experience
The book discusses the various phases of ego death that can occur on psychedelics and gives specific instructions on how one should regard them and act during each of these different phases. In addition to containing more general advice for the readers on how to use psychedelics, the book also includes selections of writing presented with the intent for them to be read aloud during events where groups of people take psychedelic drugs together".*
The recommendations in the book can be adapted to work with one other individual, someone who has experience with the different possible states that might be encountered through the trip.
Your state of mind, and the surrounding environment are crucial to realizing an optimal experience. If you go into a psychedelic experience with a lot of anxiety over having a "bad trip", it can end up being a self fulfilling influence.
Following the guidance in this book requires a mindful preparation, often spread out over a few weeks. I think this level of intent is helpful in raising up the overall experience.
"This manual is divided into four parts. The first part is introductory. The second is a step-by-step description of a psychedelic experience based directly on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The third part contains practical suggestions on how to prepare for and conduct a psychedelic session.
The fourth part contains instructive passages adapted from the Bardo Thodol, which may be read to the voyager during this session, to facilitate the movement of consciousness."
Here’s an audio recording of the authors reading from the book:
Start low, first dose should probably be not over 100ug, if you have anxiety you should go for more like 75 (maybe 50). After having experience with that state of mind you can go higher. (Wait at least for 2 weeks between doses)
as long as on your first time you start with a low dose, in a safe, familiar setting with people you trust, you'll thoroughly enjoy your experience. I would not recommend smoking weed at all.
I've found there are certain Tool songs (46 & 2, Lateralus) that it's not a good idea to listen to when doing something that requires focus (like riding my motorcycle), they make me get lost and zone out far faster.
On the other hand when trying to calm my mind after a busy day there is nothing better.
>> find an old recording of Haitian voodoo drums give it a listen using good headphones with your eyes closed, and after about twenty minutes you will enter an altered state
I followed your trance recipe to the letter and soon entered a state of mind that on this day was novel to me. It seriously made me happy to be alive and to be human. However, that feeling didn't linger. Now I'm back to my usual miserable self, a blob of cells that all try but mostly they fail to communicate with each other in a way that is pleasant for the vessel, me. I don't think I was in a trance. Perhaps I should have danced.
I'm very intrigued, though, by the idea of rhythm being a protagonist ingredient of "flow". I'm a programmer, musician only by heart, but on Wednesdays instead of instruments I play the rhythmic game of tennis. One time me and my brother, two racket-throwing outwards-acting tennis brats in need of anger management therapy both entered "flow" at the same time and it lasted a good hour and a half. In the middle of our match a large group of youngsters, perhaps thirty individuals, entered the yard and became our audience. They started to discuss our game. They correctly dismissed us as being "not top notch". They chit-chatted. They said this and that. They were merely meters away from us but acted like they were watching TV and that e could not possibly hear them. After the game we both said: were you ever bothered by the ruckus? We concluded that no, we weren't but that we could still paraphrase almost all of the comments we've heard from the audience. But during the game it seemed to us that nothing could get us out of the state of flow. In fact, neither of us understood we were in the flow state until the ruckus began.
This was an out-of-mind, out-of-body and out-of-this-world experience for me that I have not been able to reproduce since. I was untouchable and I loved it.
Regarding music and the mind, the synchronisation/entrainment method of audio driving/sonic driving has been addressed in the book 'Music, Science and the Rhythmic Mind' by Berger and Turow. Research that looks at aligning not just the rate (tempo) of the music to brainwaves, but varieties of rhythm has been done by Jeff Strong, founder of Rhythmic Entrainment Intervention (some of his YouTube videos talk about specifics). Jeff has studies Vodou music AFAIK.
Regarding altering states of mind through meditation, Jeff Tarrent's NeuroMeditation Institute has some interesting work and regarding altering states with psychedelics, the work of Andrew Gallimore's (Alien Insect's) work is also very interesting. Andrew in his YouTube video series talks about how connections in the brain change when exposed to psychedelics - I would be interested to see correlation between the way 'trance' music (without drugs) and 'psychedelics' (drugs:) create these states.
Bit of an aside but various states consciousness has always been front of mind in certain regards with Haitian culture.
Zombie-mania has been in the US for a while now, but in Haiti it, at least in part, originally referred to when you zone out going through rote day-to-day actions without thinking.
Can’t remember where you parked your car? You were a zombie when you did it.
Etymologically it’s interesting as well, to be taken (literally “mounted”) by a lwa or spirit.
It could be more nuanced than that. In zombie-like states it looks like System 1 takes over and you just do basic activities without really being present in them. In the "flow" state you need to actively engage System 2, although at the same time you tend to reduce the amount of external stimuli to focus on the action at hand.
I think it's different in that in a state of flow, you are intensely focused on whatever it is you're doing, and are able to maintain that focus without struggle.
In a "zombie" state, you may not really be focusing on anything at all, least of all what you're doing.
>Can’t remember where you parked your car? You were a zombie when you did it.
Usually that happens when I'm thinking about something else. Also, the visual input walking away from your care is totally different from the scene you see walking towards your car.
The experimental filmmaker Maya Deren made a short film in Haiti about some Vodoun ceremonies (and was an initiate herself). I haven’t seen it since I was around college aged, so I don’t recall what the narration was like (i.e. was it maybe exoticising), but I do remember the footage being great.
Yeah they are both rooted in the music brought by the African diaspora. You will find this all throughout Central and Latin America, although with some variations in rhythms and instruments used.
I feel like with this music it's hard to separate the dance, song, and religious context. Have you experienced trance states in the sense that practioners do with Orishas embodying participants, or do you mean something else by "trance?"
I think it's also interesting you indicate listeners, rather than the drummers getting into that state - my memories of learning bata drumming are largely of going into a hyper-focused state that I wouldn't describe as trancelike, but also very different than the mindset I was in playing something like orchestral music.
Woah woah woah you can’t just offer ketamine to people! Think of the children!
Edit: This comment is intended to contribute to the discussion as well as be in jest. It’s a legitimate issue: if music can have drug-like effects, should some music be classed as a drug and controlled as such?
If you are looking to compare music to drugs you are operating in a space where you need also need to consider if drugs are treated like they should be. You probably should not treat music as drugs are treated because our treatment of drugs is wrong.
It being the case that drug legislation is already a pile of shit and demonstrably not in the advantage of actual people, why would we make other things legislated just as poorly?
Most of the best boards don’t come off factory presses instead they are built by someone with great passion in a small warehouse or garage. These guys are happy just getting by and sharing the stoke with customers they know. Moreover, once you become addicted to surfing that’s all one cares about. True surfers don’t care about the hype around the latest thing, once you buy your board and a wetsuit all you care about is getting that glide. If I didn’t have a family to support I’d make the yearly circuit from Sri Lanka, Peru, etc and just live on the beach for less than $10 a day and would be perfectly satisfied. I feel sorry for my office mates who don’t have any hobbies or escapes and instead are focused on the next bonus or promotion either for their egos or so they can buy more stuff. I just want more time off to travel with my family and surf. After 3 startups and 23 years in tech and many, many 12 hour days I can tell you the whole system is empty. Despite recognition or financial success there’s nothing in the system that brings true long term happiness, but the natural meditation when waiting on the wave or for the next set does.
In the social order of surfers, optimization is living at the waves so the kids can surf with mom and pop. And with grandma and grandpa when there are grandkids. Locals are always the top of every surfing pecking order.
That's great, but from a capitalist standpoint it doesn't seem surprising that a company would struggle when they have a labor intensive product and their customers are largely cash poor. Worse, they set up shop in expensive coastal cities. It's kind of a miracle the companies survived at all. I get that the guy who runs it is passionate and is willing to also be cash poor, but the city has got to be breathing down his neck about the property taxes in a town where half a duplex goes for over a million dollars.
I have ADD and consider myself somewhat successful (top 2% income earner) but always beat myself up for what I could achieve. My career has mostly been a long string of failures with me being extremely “lazy” but with a few home runs which is what I’m known for. I don’t really “work” more than 8 hours a week until I get passionate about something and then I crank on it without break until the kindling has been lit where then I hand it to others for the day to day. ADD has been very hard on my marriage too.
By 2030:
1. Nigeria and/or Kenya's GDP will surpass that of the UK.
2. Global births will rapidly decline in all but the poorest nations. Data will show that "Peak Child" is near and will occur around 2040.
3. 4 day work weeks for salaried employees will be commonplace amongst large corporations.
4. A new search engine disrupting our commonplace search behaviors will be on its way to disrupting Google
5. The average Bachelor of Science degree in the USA will cost >$180,000 at a public university
I love the new look and am curious about if the exoskeleton has crumple points to reduce the kinetic energy imparted to the passengers during a collision.
Yes. I have been lucky enough to attend two Theravada retreats in Thailand. However, the practice of daily meditation and adherence to the 5 precepts (not taking life, not stealing, not engaging in false speech, not engaging in sexual misconduct, not taking intoxicants) plus practicing loving-kindness to all beings is far more life-changing than attending a retreat every once in a while.
Daily meditation especially vipassana and loving-kindness can truly change your life, bring inner peace and can truly in your personal and business relations.
As an entrepreneur, one side-effect of meditation is that it made me really examine what my definition of "success" and "happiness" is. In so doing meditation has taken away much of my ego and the desire to achieve revenue growth or market share goals. I simply don't care about that anymore and now I just want to operate a business that makes great products that people love while that producing enough revenue to support my team. For myself, building and maintaining an awesome and supportive work environment where individuals and life-work balance are valued are my top priorities. Happy lives and families are key. The gain of status and material objects are just transitory with no significance.
Hi FSK,
I'm part of a project to increase loving-kindness in the world through meditation and other techniques; we'd love to hear your thoughts on what practices/mindset/experiences facilitated the change in yourself and your organization.
As a citizen of the United States (a country that cut down nearly all of its old-growth forests) what can I do as an individual to slow down deforestation in the Amazon? What are some real solutions I could enact that would make any difference?
The situation feels hopeless until the Brazilian government makes a sweeping effort to preserve the Amazon and that it's laws are fully enforced.
If you're anything close to average then you can actually work on reducing your family carbon footprint US has 16.3 tons per capita and Brazil has 2.6.
Corruption isn't a wealth preservation tactic. It's an exploitation tactic.
Whether you're strip mining the earth's resources, stripping away the wealth of the nation, subverting the moral/political culture or simply just amassing ill-gotten gains, corruption is the proven method.
Many places have deep histories and convoluted legal practices, which from an outside perspective gets dismissed as corruption, but internally it is considered due process
The idea that rule of law basically doesn't exist and isn't the method of choice in perpetuating a circumstance in "these other corrupt countries" is overly broad and often inaccurate
One of the biggest recipients of that cattle farming is still McDonalds, after 40 years of people protesting them being involved, and them repeatedly saying they were fixing it.
I worked at T-Mobile and did some work on this very subject our studies showed that people are so addicted that unless there is a threat of jail time or drivers license suspension people will not put down their phones.
The deterrence effect of punishment relies on two factors: severity of the punishment when caught and the probability of getting caught. You can only up the former so much before a single stupid mistake ruins your life. But we could increase deterrence a lot by increasing the second factor. Just think about it: You a $5 fine stop you from using your phone? Right now probably not. But if it cost you $5 EVERY TIME you used your phone in the car you'd stop rather quickly.
They're not convinced that it impairs their driving.
Consider that a plurality, if not a majority of the population is convinced that they're efficient at multi-tasking, and specifically that they can perform each task as well as in isolation. But we know that almost nobody multitasks well, period, and absolutely not with equivalent performance.
If I had to hazard a guess: because that option is so extremely negative, that cognitive dissonance protects our brains from seriously entertaining the thought that we could ever be involved in such an accident.
For many, many people in the US, a suspended license means loss of your job, which in turn will lead to loss of all other assets you may tentatively possess, possible dissolution of your family, etc. In terms of personal impact weighted by probability of occurrence, the penalty for loss of license may not be so far off from that of vehicular manslaughter.
Sure. But let’s say the chance of losing your license is a hundred times more likely than that of committing vehicular homicide, and the effective penalty for a homicide is 10 times worse than that for losing your license, you should be 10x more worried about losing your license.
In addition, I believe the effective penalty for vehicular manslaughter is probably ten thousand times worse because of the psychological cost of being responsible for someone's death.
Indeed. Somehow this doesn’t occur to people though when they get behind the wheel of a 3000lb death machine and decide to start looking at their phone. I personally find the prospect terrifying.
It would be interesting to see if painting lurid stripes on the car as a punishment would help. Or require the driver to have warning sign attached in prominent places. Make it as embarrassing as possible.
Can we do this for other driving offenses? Like drivers who don't signal lane changes or drive slowly in the passing lane? I'm all about publicly shaming drivers into doing better.
People drive with suspended licenses all the time. What I'd really like to see upon conviction for distracted driving or drunk driving (similarly dangerous) is criminal forfeiture of the offender's vehicle and a court order prohibiting the offender from owning or possessing an automobile.
> Otherwise fight or flight would be kicking in every time you crossed the street.
That exact thing does happen to me. The drivers in my country are atrocious even if we do not consider the use of phones. Having to cross the street is quite stressful and do not dare to do so without running, even if I am in a another country with more sane drivers.
How does the joke go? You almost get hit by another car and you freak out and are amped up the rest of the trip. But doze off and drive on the shoulder, you just go back to sleep after a few minutes.
My Grandfather was employee #3 at his company and over 35 years of hard work eventually became CEO and helped grow the company until it was listed on the NYSE. He preferred to hire people whom attended state schools and with B averages. Moreover, he thought private colleges and out of state schools were a huge waste of money (even as CEO and worth tens of millions lived in a modest 3 bedroom house and drove a 20 year old car).
He would repeatedly say to me:
"I'd rather hire people whom got B's in school and had a social life than automatons who got A's." and "College is like driving cross-country. You can get there in a pinto or a Mercedes, what you see and learn along the way is up to you!"
> "College is like driving cross-country. You can get there in a pinto or a Mercedes, what you see and learn along the way is up to you!"
Perhaps this is a great analogy in more than he meant. Either car enables you to do great things, but if you're unlucky and get hit by a truck, the merc was the safer option.
> I'd rather hire people whom got B's in school and had a social life than automatons who got A's.
Depending on the school and program, I would say that you don’t necessarily have to be an automaton to get As. Knowing how to do coursework strategically goes a long way in facilitating both getting As and having a social life.
I’m a founder of a specialty outdoor apparel manufacturer. After a brief stint of selling on Amazon we know only sell our gear via retail locations and our site. After achieving first page ranking for the category, we encountered massive problems including repeated page hijacking and low quality knock offs being sold as ours despite brand gating. I hope that discerning shoppers will model the behavior of the author and choose to make purchases of goods they know to be of high quality from manufacturer websites. This being said Amazon is great for product discovery and I hope we can build our brand effectively through legitimate reviews such as Backpacker, Ourdoor magazine, etc. Even though we’ve gone all in on social media our purchase rate from FB and Instagram is awful as our target buyer is wealthy fly fisherman over 50. Any tips on how to generate more online sales away from Amazon that older demographics utilize?
Try newsmax. A lot of products targeting older people do really well on their email lists. And the advertising is cheaper because mainstream brands won't advertise there due to the right wing and almost nutty voice of the publication.
