A crowd of people made their way through the narrow street and up the steps into the small Templo Guaracy. Inside they gathered around the perimeter of a low railing that surrounded an open wooden floor. At the far end of the room stood several statues with an assortment of flowers placed around them. Three drums ranging from 4 to 6 feet tall stood on one side of this altar. Three men dressed in white entered and took their positions behind each drum and, after a brief welcome by the Father of the Saints, the leader of the temple, they began to play.
In a few moments about a dozen individuals assembled on the wooden floor and begin to dance to the rhythm of the drums. The resounding Candomble cadence filled the room. Each dancer embodied the pulse and became more distinctive as the ritual progressed, their movements more idiosyncratic until a transformation occurred. Eventually, each individual fell into a trance-like state and personified a spirit evoked through their journey on the sound of the drums.
The ritual described above invoked healing spirits in an Umbanda ceremony that I attended outside Såo Paulo, Brazil. I had the chance to experience the ritual's potency for myself later in the evening. The Father of the Saints invited me and others to enter the area before the altar and dance as the rhythm moved us. Within a short time I felt an inexplicable strong wave of force move outward from the altar as I spun around seemingly from its effect. The woman dancing directly behind me also succumbed to the presence and fell to the floor. We had watched, listened to, and felt the power of sound and its capacity to affect our consciousness.
Sound has for millennia been a locus of the search for enlightenment. From the quiescent lilt of a mountain brook, to the rhythm of a human heart, sound provides a pathway to the deep reaches of our psyche. Sound gives us access to reverie states wherein we find insight, healing, growth, and our highest creativity. Sound -- vibration -- grants us such passage because it accesses the core of our being.
©1997 Carlisle Bergquist
