The essential spirit of dancing

Dancing, when it's great (when it's really great), can be the spiritual experience of what would fall under the rubric of an 'altered state of consciousness'. In anthropological terms, where the study of these states has been most fully described, an altered state occurs either through the ingestion of some form of alterant (stimulants, depressants, psychotropics, narcotics, chemicals of any kind) or through the natural alteration of the state of consciousness from the resting state through either sensory experience or movement or, most likely, both.

In the spiritual rituals of pre-industrial life, where some form of dance was almost universally found, these kinds of alterations were common, although most often most intensely for the shamans themselves (a role that was filled by both men and women depending on the historical context of the society). Still, dancing has been in most places a huge, at least, prehistorical part of the spiritual order. Not so much anymore.

The best music has been secular for quite some time. Jazz, blues, rock'n'roll, etc. The places where you go to see this music performed are not really what you might call holy. Dingy would be an often times more accurate description. The level of expected spiritual experience is low. That's not to say that it's not spiritual to see music. It may just be that you don't categorize it that way. You don't necessarily call this experience spiritual but music takes its effect one way or another.

Music has also long through prehistory and into the historical period been associated, indeed an integral part, with the search for the spirit. And it still holds that place in society, just in a labeled secular way. What I'm scratching at is the fact that this label, although not capable of truly dampening entirely the spiritual nature of the musical experience, can indeed redirect the thinking and therefore some of the mental organizations can get goofy. I would say modern society causes some goofs in the averaged mental organizations of individuals in relation to lots and lots of things. Still, just because the institutional organization of religious life historically got really corrupted in the West doesn't mean that spiritual experience is no longer valid or useful. The discarding of the spiritual with the religious is foolish. Baby and the bath water and all that.

We need to reclaim the spirit. From the evangelists and religionists, from the new age spiritualists, and the economists (who subsitute money in place of that feeling of spirit?), Marxists and Troksyites, from the ward heelers and politicos; reclaim it for ourself. For our own individual experience. Bring that spirit back and let it fill the passageways of the soul, drowning out hatred, evil, and misdeeds.

And then let the music overfill those now love/spirit filled passages. Dance to that music and find new mountainous peaks in the spirit climb of the soul. Reacclimate to the shifted perspective of a spiritual life, and reorient the self in a spiritual, therefore altruistic way. That's, I guess, sort of the idea. Or something.

Schopenhauer, that wild and love addicted philosopher, believed true morality could not exist as long as any self-pride (or, more modernly, ego) was left in the self. Part of getting over this, in his system, was to get past the fact of mortality, and part of way to do this was through other identification. Another part was through the experience of music. I don't think Schop talked about dancing, but I'm getting my stuff on him second hand from Joe Campbell; so, my analysis is a little lacking.

The point was music unlocks the cage of the spirit, and dance lets that spirit ride on the currents of wind through the clouds of the self and mind. It fills the self, allowing consciousness to shine its bright light into ever corner of the brain and soul. And that's a good thing to have happen. I try to dance every day. Lately, I dance a lot every day. It makes me feel the spirit all the way to the edge of my skin, all the way through my self. So, there you have it.