Hey I found this wonderful post in the other Shamanism Tribe. It was written by a Native American woman in Hawaii:

"There are many different drumbeats, used for different purposes. Michael Harner's neo-shamanic folks use a very fast drumbeat to take them into trance states. Once in trance, the mind goes into an altered state, open to messages from the Universe, which is what shamanism is. In my culture, Native American, we use many different beats - the one most familiar is a straight 4/4 - that's what we use for PowWow Drumming, to call the Ancestors in, etc. And . . . there's a one beat - a steady duun.duun.duun.duun - quite monotonous and slow. This is used to settle people in ceremony so that they leave the outside world behind. There's the 'heartbeat' - duunDUUN, duunDUUN. duunDUUN., etc. - this beat connects us to Mother Earth and to our Center Point. The rapid three beat, duunduunduun. duunduunduun. duunduunduun is a dance/trance beat, great for enacting the story of a journey and grounding it deep within. And the 3/4, the 2/3 and many others. I usually use a fast 4 or 8 beat for journey work, although I've been known to slow it way down once the client goes into trance. When I journey for myself, I hold an 8, then go to a heartbeat as I am called deeper into other realms. Because I've worked with African and Cuban drummers, trance dance drums, Maori, Aborigine and Siberian 'shaman' as well as the elders from my own tribes, I've seen that many different rhythms evoke many different kinds of elements and journeys."

Hey I'm so excited and ANTICIPATING AND CURIOUS, I can't wait until someone starts TALKING on here! Hello? :)

- jen