The group of Moken that I visited in South Asia naturally practice Tribal Therapy. They combine all their traditions into one living system. As we will see, the sea gypsies live close to nature and are born embedded into the wilderness. Their homes are on the sandy beach, yet at the entrance of the subtropical forest. They get exercise in this wilderness by just instinctively looking for food: whether paddling around and gathering seafood or hunting and gathering forest foods. They spontaneously create art needed for their own survival such as bamboo palm homes and wooden boats. These people live in a social cohesive unit in constant contact with each other. Once a year there is a tribal gathering and traditional celebration. During this celebration they feast on seafood and make lots of rhythmic drumming. They trance, sing, and dance. And they have a shamanic belief system in which they communicate with their ancestral spirits. So they essentially have a life of sociaization, wilderness, music, art, dance, trance etc.
In a study of the African pigmies we see the same patterns. The Bambuti also have a natural cohesive system of behavior that is adaptive. As we will see in future chapters, the Bambuti also have a natural cohesive system of behavior and the same patterns of lifestyle. First the group needed to find a new camp because they were depleting their staple mushroom food supply that they find in the forest everyday. But this nomadic pattern is an instinct and they clearly enjoy the relocation of the camp. After an hour of long hike in the Congo forest they came to a new camp sight near a river, their new water supply. The men set a clearing where the forest was not too dense. Here they set up their new camp. They later went together to hike in the forest and hunt and gather food in various groups and in sessions of physical therapy. They then went on to eat their natural foods, whether it was meat or whole mushrooms. Throughout all of this they were in close contact and continually communicating with each other and communicating in a natural form of talk therapy. At some point they created some of the things they needed and they painted their faces in an instinctual form of art therapy. In the evening they made music and danced in a form of music and dance therapy. We also viewed a form of religion in which they communicated with the spirit of the forest in a social communal ritual. To practice Tribal Therapy in our postmodern culture the first step is to be a nomad. The idea is very simple. In beginning a journey back to mind body health the first step is to move. Moving is an ancient intelligent adaptation. We can feel the joy of travel and connecting to our nomadic instinct by hiking on a backpacking and camping trip in the form of Wilderness Therapy. Go on vacation with friends to a natural setting whether it is on the beach or in the mountains. Set up a camp. Bring tents, sleeping bags, everything that you can take with you to make yourself as comfortable as possible. Go on a hike together. Get to know the plants. Experience walking as a form of psychotherapy and eat natural foods together around a warm fire. Listen to music and/or make music that you enjoy, paint your faces and dance. As you continue this ancient tradition of dancing, music making, perform a respectful sacred ritual according to your belief system.
At the end of this experience of clean air breathing, exercise, friendship, and keeping our roots firmly planted in our past we can return to society with a renewed sense of health and therefore intelligence and capability. Only when we are healthy can we effectively progress. Only when we are in good physical shape can man leave the earth and commence our traveling where no man has gone before, learning what no man has learned before, creating what no man has created before, experiencing what no man has experienced before. We can continue to grow if we continue to nourish our roots.
So far the closest thing I have seen to Tribal therapy has been at Drum Circles with friends in Colorado, a Sweat Lodge ceremony in central France, a permanent Rainbow community living in the desert on the banks of the Dead Sea in Israel, and Free Festivals that I have read about in various parts of England. I will explain these various concepts. A group of friends and I had been camping out and holding drum circles for years now. I'm not sure how we were influenced. My two brothers are musicians. I think it may have had something to do with my brothers going to their first Grateful Dead concert. Grateful Dead concerts are Tribal. Huge caravans of Dead Heads follow the band all over the U.S., and they came to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania one year, which was the closest city they were going to tour. My two brothers joined the Dead Heads, quit high school, ran away from home and followed them to the next city. I think it was in Ohio when they realized that this was crazy and they turned back. I was in college at the time and I later heard this story. Each time I would return home from college I noticed my brothers seemed to be constantly refined their drumming and their musical ability in general. They were embracing counter-culture and turning more and more into hippies. Honestly, marijuana seemed to be a big part of what was happening to them, and frankly it was a good change. They had higher spirits. Before there seemed to be unconscious, competitive social Darwinism among our friends and after their embrace of counter-culture there was conscious peace. Before they unconsciously shook hands, after they consciously hugged each other.
Anyway, the more they were influenced, the more they refined the drum circles. On weekends we would meet, camp out near the secret Native American cave and the flowing river, get buzzed, and then we began to trance out on the drums. We would dance under the stars, rejoicing in our freedom. We were together as a group, making a sacrament, making music, and dancing.
Years later we grew apart as most families do in highly mobile industrial society. Yet I carried my understanding of tribalism and its health value with me. I was living in Paris with my French girlfriend. It was the summer and the evenings were long, and it was clear that dancing days were here again. My girlfriend's mother invited us to a Native American sweat lodge ceremony in the Lakota tradition. It was some sort of weekend retreat thingy. Apparently, Europeans have been taking part in a new age movement of reviving the Native American rituals, and we were going to see the local French version. So we were to drive out of Paris into the countryside. We jumped in a small French car and headed out of the bustling city. Slowly the dense labyrinth of urban Paris turned into suburbs and then into green forests and small medieval villages. Finally we turned onto a quiet dirt road. We then pulled into a nice large classical French estate with a large connected property including a little valley. In the valley there was a Native American Tepee and another more rounded tent like structure, which was the sweat lodge. We jumped out and found the local French New-Agers already in the sweat lodge in the middle of a ritual. The Sweat lodge tent had smoke rising up near it. As I got closer I could see a small fire with stones piled directly into the ash and the campfire itself. We were told that we could join the ceremony without a problem. We undressed very fast and went into the inipi (sweat lodge). The three of us then piled into the dark interior of the sweat lodge tent and joined the group who were sitting in a ring with our backs against the tent wall. There was a small hole in the middle of the tent where hot rocks were piled. The canvas tent door was closed and we were completely in the dark. The experienced participants were singing and chanting traditional Native American songs in their original languages, as someone was drumming along. I just listened and then someone outside opened the flap door and brought in more hot rocks. Then someone poured hot water directly on the rocks. I heard a sizzle and could feel the steam as the water evaporated. Again, another rock was thrown in. It was like a tropical summer day. Steam was thickening the air. We began to sweat profusely and I was having a hard time breathing in the hot air. Someone opened up the flap door again and each time I caught glimpses of savage Europeans sitting across from me with drenched hair, singing wild eyed in a trance like state. I couldn't help thinking that these savage, French people had recent ancestors, who not too long ago were Gaul, Saxon, or Celtic. In fact, I discovered later that the Celts had sweat lodges as a part of their traditions. These ancestors were here on this very land performing very similar Druid rituals that connected to the spirit of the wilderness in the same way. The sauna like atmosphere was tolerable for only a couple more minutes until we all piled out of the tent into the crisp countryside air. It was a lot like getting out of a sauna or having a good cry. I definitely felt cleansed. So we went into the house. Eventually, the participants finished their ritual and joined us for lunch upstairs. We had a classic French lunch with lots of fresh vegetables. When lunch was finished we went outside into the sunshine. There were lots of trails and country roads around so my girlfriend and I decided to go for a small hike into the countryside.
We passed a hidden tepee with a pole and colorful flags on it. I was told that inside someone was doing a Vision Quest. Traditionally, Vision Quests were rites of passage rituals, a spiritual search undertaken by a Native American in order to learn by means of a trance or vision of a guardian spirit usually in the form of a personal totem animal. The outcome of the Vision Quest is considered so important that the Native American changes his or her name to whatever spirit he sees during his quest. For example someone born with the name River may see a cloud in his vision and then from that point on he will be called Cloud.
Eventually my girlfriend and I turned around and we headed back. Again there was a combination of tribal traditions. We ate healthy natural foods together in a group. We then joined in on the singing and drumming. We went for walks into the woods and spoke to the spirits.
In the coming chapters, in order to clearly understand Tribal Therapy we will divide up Tribal therapy into its separate components and analyze them independently. We will take a full survey of all the components making up the system of Tribal behavior. We will begin with Wilderness Therapy because this is the background in which all Tribal behavior takes place. We will then analyze the foundational social behavior of tribes. We will call it what psychologist call encounter group therapy. Next, we will review the most basic of human functions, which is nomadic movement in order to attain food. Once the food is caught we eat it. Often in many traditional cultures, after the appetites are satisfied the tribal group joins in music and dance and so we will appropriately analyze Music and Dance therapy respectively, in this order. We will then take a look at Art therapy. Creating one's own art happens throughout the day, and in many cultures, it is a part of the religious ceremony. Cultures sometimes paint their own faces and bodies, or make temporary art for ceremonial use and so the analyzing of Art Therapy will be done after Music and Dance Therapy. Lastly, many cultures intertwine their music and dance with religious traditions. We will lastly take a look Logo therapy or translated from the Latin into English as Meaning Therapy.