DRUM JOURNEYS

by Jungle Svonni

There are many ways to enter a trance state. In this one we focus on drumming, the historically most common way to enter trance here in Sápmi.

The idea is that a repetitive and fast beat over time will lead you into a trance state. However, it´s quite unusual with people that manage to enter a really deep trance during drum journeys. Especially during the first intent. Usually, the experience is more like a meditation. Most drum journeys I been attending have been quite short 10-20 minutes and the participants entered different degrees of mediative states, with or without experiencing a clear journey. 10 minutes is a really short time though, 20 minutes allows more people to enter a deeper state. 

Close to New York I once met a guy with mixed natitive and non native heritage, that made drum journeys lasting 3 hours. He said that that´s the time it takes to enter a really deep trance by drumming, similar to the effect of a good cup of Ayahuasca. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to attend one of his ceremonies. Unfortunate, because he´s the only one I know that can drum for 3 hours. It´s quite difficult to drum more than 20 minutes and really difficult to drum more than 30 minutes.

But the ability to enter trance through drumming is very different from person to person. Once I had a client that really started to enter a different state just after a few beats. Well that was a very special case, but a few lucky ones really have a talent for entering trance easy, through drumming. 

In Mongolia, the shamans I met were just drumming a few minutes, sometimes maybe just one minute before going completely into trance. However, there it was only the shaman that was drumming that entered trance, not the other people present. Much like in the old days in the Amazon where it used to be common that only the shaman drank ayahuasca and entered trance, to heal the clients.

Elin made this very neat “Drum Journal” to write your drum journey experiences in. Get it in PDF or physical product.

Also read:

Shamanism – An introduction

THE SAMI SHAMAN DRUM – AN INTRODUCTION