Russell Buddy Helm

We are rhythmically suggestible because our basic operating system is based on time. Everything we do is based on a clock; the universe or our own. Memory is a function of time. Our intellect depends on a predictable pulse of life to feel safe. Learned behavior is a repetition, a pulse, a groove. Rhythmic signatures can get dislocated in our memory and can become distractions that override our daily need to pay attention to our environment. Using the drum, we can relocate our history into a less debilitating groove. It is a mechanical rhythmic manipulation resulting in an intellectual insight. There are elements to consider before just drumming to feel better. You must be willing to let go; of the tempo firstly, then the beliefs that are connected to your need for speed. Lay it back and watch what your survival mind decides to get rid of; fear, anger, hate, sickness, tension, depression, the list goes on. This house cleaning is based on a safe tempo in a safe groove. Laying back the groove is the greatest challenge for really smart people. Their intellect is tenacious and will not let go of it’s outmoded beliefs and will go down in flames before surrendering it’s point of view. This is where the magic of the drum can persuade the all powerful, self focused intellect to relinquish it’s strangle hold on the rest of the system.

excerpt: “History of the Groove” Russell Buddy Helm ©2015 all rights reserved buddyhelm.com

LSD is acid. They are the same thing. This is a realization that many in the current generation of young adults do not grasp; that LSD and acid are the same entity; and what it really was to the Sixties generation. The opening of consciousness is now taken for granted. Without the mind expanding qualities of LSD this understanding of our own operating system would have taken amuch longer to evolve. This nudge to our intelligence was what brought us into a state of universal awareness. The perspective changed from national to global, then to cosmic. These jumps in thinking needed help. The brains that were activated and capable of handling the new ways of perceiving reality were the ones that created the world we live in today. If you were to ask the innovators from the sixties generations, if they had taken LSD, they might lie and say no, but they also might admit that it was a stimulus to their evolution as a person. LSD was legal for a long time, over ten years. It was being used in psychotherapy and subtle energy research at prestigious academic establishments. It was used by Dr. Lilly in his search for dolphin intelligence interface. It was also used as a political tool. The musical world was transformed by the chemical, creating a huge canvas of colorful alternatives to conventional thinking about basic structures of musical form as well as articulating cultural roadblocks to higher evolution. It was like a crowbar on the sewer lid of our consciousness. It had to be pried open. I am not advocating, because this is a different time and the drugs are different and our consciousness is different. When Ram Das left Princeton and journeyed to India, his guru insisted on taking all of the LSD that Dr. Alpert (Ram Das) had brought with him. The guru showed no change in behavior after the large dose. He had control of his mental functions so the drug did not become the dangerous instigator that it has been labeled as. We are looking for a subtle energy that transforms us, that is a yearning in all humans. The Drum has always been a form that uses this subtle transcendental energy. The side effects are nil.