Drum Circle at Venice Beach Part 1

Drum Circle at Venice Beach Part 2

Over Memorial Day weekend we had an impromptu get together on the beach for a drum circle. I brought along the insta360 ONE RS 1-inch 360° camera co-engineered with Leica. I also used a Zoom H3-VR 360° ambisonic mic to record the sound. This setup is ideal for capturing a drum circle experience as the physical and sonic dynamics are circular.

I refer to drum circles that I host as Love and Truth Drum Circles as marked by the Nadir logo at the bottom of this 360° recording. Love and truth represent the meditative practice I use in my daily life to flower my potential by nurturing a harmonized and flow state.

The Love and Truth technique explained:

1. Re-center into a balanced state the physical body by bringing awareness to breathing in thru the nose and drawing the air to about 2 inches below the belly button. Fill this cavity well and then exhale in a relaxed, letting go way and repeat.

2. Once the breathing has been set, move your awareness to your head / thoughts and place your attention on observing the present thru the five senses. The emphasis here is that the attention is on reality unobstructed by the thoughts inside the head that may be interpreting it. Develop the quality of focus on the ball of what you are doing not the interjecting interpretive thoughts.

3. As you bring your body and mind into an open, alert and relaxed state, place attention on the heart center and practice unconditional love, compassion, gratitude, peace. These words are pointers to help the mind comprehend the resonant dynamics or feeling to hold with the heart which is another way of saying open. In other words, this practice is an opening of the system from these three aspects. An open heart is a loving heart that not only has magnetic qualities but can also be experienced as the access port thru which intuition or divine intelligence comes. This aspect of the practice is the most esoteric and can not be understood, only experienced. This is what it means or is referred to as “to follow the heart”. When the heart is opened and harmonized with the whole system, it becomes the compass to follow for a life experience that is aligned with your higher self (your true, loving essence). – From Love & Truth – The Art of Living, May 31, 2023.

The drum circle has been a personal favorite of mine to practice the Love & Truth principle for over 30 years now. I have used my life as an experiment to test this practice and teach this technique in many forms (drum circles, flow line drawing, 21-point body calibrating system, etc) with group classes, private sessions, retreats, schools, etc.