I watched some videos on Santeria today. They portrayed animal sacrifices and dancing, but what most grabbed my attention (or whatever it is that lurks below my attention) were the drums.
African drumbeats were played as part of the performances/rituals, and as background music during the videos. There was something primal about them, transferred even through magnetic tape, and I can understand how they can lull someone into a different state of consciousness. I don't think this has to do with Magical Mystery powers as much as the way sounds affect our brains, but it's still very powerful.
Whenever you see a ritual like this on television or in documentaries it's always someone brown, someone in a village on the outskirts of civilization, as if it's a lesser thing, something on a simple people would take part in. You see them swaying to the rhythm, maybe speaking in tongues and stomping their feet while they spin a circle. Maybe we click our tongues and secretly think, yeah, they really are uncivilized. But I'd like to see what would happen if an Old White Man in a suit and carrying a briefcase would do if he sat down in the circle, if he really listened to the sounds and let them seep into this brain. I think he might loosen his tie and let the spirit take hold of him too.
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