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BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PRIMAL DANCE

Primal Dance is a system designed to awaken and attune our healing and creative energies, from the molecular level in the deepest of our biological being to the complete transcendence and vice versa. It is not concerned with learning but with remembering and recognizing what belongs to our original, primordial nature. This remembering and recognizing of what naturally belongs to us, is generated through the interaction and development of our consciousness, sensitivity, breathing, expressive movements and chanting. This conscious process is inspired through the use of ethnic, contemporary and transcendental music. Its practice is based on the discovery of the original, archetypical or primal movements, postures, sounds and images, which activate our internal energies, leaving these energies to our conscience disposal. This method, adapted for twenty first century occidentals, allows us with only one daily practice to access deep sources of inspiration and potential, by surging through all of the energy centers and awakening their capacities.

As human beings we have an enormous potential for development and transformation that constitutes our original, primal nature. Normally, only a small percentage of this potential is recognized and updated. But through contact with Life’s Original Source, new opportunities arise to integrate this potential and to develop ourselves and our infinite possibilities.

When we talk about Life’s Original Source, what we consider Primal, we are not stating a biologistic approach. This Primal Source constitutes the Ultimate Reality from which everything emerges and it becomes evident both in the material and biological realms as well as the mental and social ones. In the same way, it is important to mention that unlike other methods which draw heavily on experience, when we make reference to the Primal Source, we are not dealing with retro-romantic approaches, that make it necessary to go back to an ideal past time when we lived in complete union with the wholeness. The Primal Source does not belong to a nostalgically idealized past, but it constitutes our here-and-now original basic nature. It is not something we used to have or a place where we once dwelled but now is lost. It is What we are and fail to recognize, what ancient traditions have called Tao, Sunya, Rigpa, Holy Spirit, etc.

Both, the ancient spiritual traditions as well as the modern Transpersonal and Integral Psychologies (on which Primal Dance is based) state that the whole universe can be understood as a web of three realms or dimensions which are fundamental to existence: gross, subtle and causal (or very subtle), which correspond with our three basic states of consciousness and bodies. There exist two other states of consciousness, the witness and the non-dual but for this analysis we will consider only three.  Without going into details, some people prefer to talk about matter, energy and conscience. This is not a mystic or esoteric point of view. Nowadays, more and more physicists, including Nobel Prize winners like David Bohm, consider conscience as one of the elements that constitute the Universe, if not its essence.

From this perspective, any authentic meditative practice, that is what Primal Dance intends to be, goes beyond any symbols, images, chants or any other cultural elements allowing conscious access to the causal level, to the dimension of pure conscience; the unmanifested. By doing this, a good meditation practice benefits all the other levels: physical, biological, energetic and mental, since they are all manifestations of the unique and fundamental conscience.

The model of Primal Dance states that the most direct way to access the subtle level is by being completely aware of the physical level, that is to say, by grounding ourselves in the here-and-now bodymind level. Once the physical conscience is updated, the subtle level spontaneously starts to open, together with the perception of the chakras and nadis or meridians in all of their different expressions. It proves to be easier to move from this subtle conscience to the causal and then to the non-dual, though the practitioner needs to have perseverance and commitment.

The body / gross level is the dimension where one perceives changes in time and space. This is the dimension of impermanence, of the temporary, and of everything that will someday vanish. It is the level of complex, compound elements and therefore, of what will separate into parts. That is why, this is also the level of anguish, of existential fear.
The causal level, which includes and is manifested at the gross level, is the dimension of the pure, unmanifested Self, the eternal now. It is the level we access when we sleep without dreaming. It is the Primal Source, the place where all elements originate and from which we get the deepest rest, renewal and vitality. This realm is not in any place out of this world. It is the omnipresent ground of all that exists.

The essence of Primal Dance is to give access to this transcendent-immanent dimension through the primal or archetypal movements, postures, images and sounds, the conscious breathing and the encounter with others inside the infinite space and the silence of the meditative attitude. 

When considering that the primal movements, images and sounds could be called archetypal, it is very important to note that this is not applicable when this idea if archetypal is constrained to that which is genetically received, as part of humanity’s collective unconscious.  This pre-personal concept, though fundamental to the understanding of an important part of the unconscious, is not enough to cover the authentically trans-personal dimension, that we call the Primal, as the original source of everything.  Although the access to full realization of this principle can also be based on potentialities and genetically inherited information, it cannot be limited to, nor explained by them.

In every Primal Dance session, there is a moment which might last seconds, minutes or even more, where without any effort or internal fight, our mind suddenly calms down and we feel deliciously thrown into the internal infinite area of silence and quietness. This is meditation in its purest form. Though we might not turn to any religious images or practices in the denominational sense, we respect the personal beliefs of each participant. In this meditation we awaken and harmonize our deepest energies.

Most of our life is absorbed by the needs of the physical and mental levels. When we cannot distinguish between what is important and what is urgent, our mind turns everyday events into worries, anguish, nostalgia and apprehension. The notion of time starts to set its usual trap. The longing for past, or past unresolved pains; the future we either fear or look forward to get in the way and start to create disruptive images and feelings. Compulsively, we start to involve ourselves in what upsets us, without understanding that the best way to solve problems is to stop creating them. The most effective way to do this is to stop and rest in other dimensions of existence.

Some time ago we understood that when an illness is manifested on the physical level, it is the result of a long process that manifests first in the energetic level. We have also understood that it is much more effective to strike a balance in that level instead of later treating a serious illness.
In the same way, we understand that access to the causal level puts us in contact with the most powerful source of healing, energy and creativity imaginable. This we call the Primal Source.

The methods that allow access to this source are the most direct ways to recover our physical, emotional and mental balance.
The work of the Japanese photographer Masary Emoto shows how the frozen water crystals change dramatically when different types of music or prayers are directed toward them. This reinforces the hypothesis that states that Primal Dance acts directly on our molecular level  with a revitalizing and regenerating effect.
Taking into account Rupert Schelldrake’s contributions, we could say that Primal Dance unfolds a morphogenetic field, which stimulates favorable transformation on many levels and aspects of life.