Researchers have found that if a drumbeat frequency of between three and four beats per second is sustained for a least 15 minutes, it will induce significant altered states in most people, even on their first attempt. In altered states of consciousness, one is able to access and direct transpersonal powers for healing and manifesting what is needed to benefit the community. Drumming carries awareness into the archetypal realm of the collective unconscious, the infinite creative matrix of all that we are and have ever been. It is an inward spiritual journey of joy and rapture in which one interacts with the inner world, thereby influencing the outer world. In the shaman's world, all human experience is self-generated.
Experience is shaped from within, since the entire universe exists within human consciousness.
The shaman traverses the inner planes in order to create and change experience and help others do the same. The seventh, or crown, chakra is located at the top of head. This vibratory center is associated with the color violet, full enlightenment, and union with the cosmos. Drumming opens this chakra, thereby facilitating a state of unity consciousness. One's sense of being a separate individual gives way to an experience of union not only with other individuals but with the entire universe.