Living in the moment through drumming

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Rick Allen (foreground, right) of the band Def Leppard and wife Lauren Monroe (foreground, left) of The Raven Drum Foundation conduct a drum circle Sunday at Malibu Bluffs Park. The circle and a VIP drum lesson with Allen afterward raised funds for Raven Drum's Trauma and Resiliency Program that helps returning war veterans with physical, emotional and psychological wounds. Photo by Dana Fineman / TMT

The Raven Drum Foundation leads a drumming circle of healing.

By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times

Under a clear sky transforming from azure to sunset pink, more than 100 people sat in a large circle next to the ocean, some with mallets, some with drumsticks, all with some version of a drum before them, ready to share in a primeval human tradition, a medicinal drum circle.

The Raven Drum Foundation, headed by Malibu residents Rick Allen, the longtime drummer for the iconic rock band, Def Leppard, and his wife, Lauren Monroe, brought their mission of global healing and community unification to Malibu last weekend.

Staged at Malibu Bluffs Park Sunday afternoon, local people gathered to participate in a drum circle led by Allen and Monroe and a blessing by Chumash historian Julie Tumamait-Stenslie.

With proceeds from the event dedicated to Raven Drum’s Trauma and Resiliency Program that helps returning Iraqi veterans with physical, emotional and psychological wounds, Allen and Monroe led the group in a ritual that has characterized human communities since the caveman era.

“You don’t need to know a language to understand the healing vibrations generated by this type of activity,” Tumamait-Stenslie said. “Our drum circles are living peace celebrations. Rick and Lauren have tapped into that spiritual community feeling. We are all related and drum circles unite us in that sense of community.”

Tumamait-Stenslie’s great-grandfather was a Chumash tribal elder and her family has been living along the Southern Californian coast for generations. But she said The Raven Drum Foundation celebrates the spiritual practices of everyone from Jewish rabbis and Buddhist, Hindu and Shinto followers to ancient Chumash beliefs.

Even Southern Baptists?

“Well, maybe not everyone” Tumamait-Stenslie said, laughing. “But if you spend two hours praying for someone, you will find a whole new community. We all have the capacity to lead someone to places of the spirit. But some, like Rick and Lauren, are special leaders.”

After the drum circle, Allen gave a special drum lesson to a group of about two dozen percussion novices, from tattooed surfer dudes to 8-year-old rhythm heads.

“Rick shows us how to use mind and heart to connect with breathing and intention,” Monroe said in introducing the drum lesson to the group sitting before upright conga drums. “Our chakras, or energy centers, are like little computers in our bodies and breathing connects them. It puts you into a meditative place of not thinking.”

Allen began by explaining how we are all, essentially, rhythmic beings.

“Everything we do in life, conscious or unconscious, requires rhythm,” he said. “Our heartbeats. The way our skin renews itself. The way our bodies change with the seasons. We are balanced by masculine and feminine energies.”

Allen then demonstrated the difference between a masculine and a feminine drumbeat, with the masculine playing the bass line and the feminine playing the elaborative, “dancing” pulse or melody line.

“You see, with this type of rhythm, if you take away the masculine, the feminine doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said.

The group erupted in laughter at the unintentional metaphor.

Allen recounted how he was drawn to drumming as a child when he heard a Salvation Army band on the street near his home.

“I immediately went down and stationed myself next to the guy playing the big bass drum,” he said. “I just loved that big, masculine sound.”

Allen was recruited for the rock band Def Leppard while still a teenager. The band’s first album was a smash hit. But a few years later, Allen lost his left arm in an auto accident. The band stuck with him, however, and Allen learned to create a whole rhythm section using specially designed foot pedals and electronic drum pads. Def Leppard continues to tour today.

“Extreme trauma affects you on a cellular level,” Allen said. “Those terrible memories are triggered by different things like sound. So, while some might find it peculiar that something that imitates the sound of trauma (like gunfire) can be healing, you have to release the trauma from that cellular memory. Drumming puts you into that quiet place of awareness where you live in the moment.”

Allen said every religion seeks the same “Zen” of living in that moment.

“Prayer does it,” he said. “It gets you out of the way of yourself.”

As the drummers during Allen’s lesson melted into the rhythms they were producing, the beat became louder, more confident and had greater purpose.

“I think I’m getting into the zone,” one shouted.

“Great,” Allen responded. “Now you’re ready to go on tour!”

More information about The Raven Drum Foundation can be obtained online at www.ravendrumfoundation.org