Dervishes "get high” by dancing

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 7

Dervishes "get high” by dancing

(By

RALPH JOSEPH)

KONYA, (Turkey). They whirled and whirled and whirled in an hour-long rite, to the accompaniment of a low chanting music on reed and drum, their long white robes spreading outward like inverted tops. The oldest must have been in his eighties, if not more. He was soon out of breath and rested. The youngest could not have been more than 10 years old. He whirled on to the end, with a thin film of sweat on his brow and a serious thoughtful expression on his face.

These were not performers. They were the Dancing Dervishes of Turkey, or the Mevlevi, who are acquiring world fame with a 700-year-old dance which they claim puts them into a metaphysical ecstasy. For several years restricted mainly to Konya, the heart of Turkey, the Dervishes have recently completed their first tour of Europe and North America and are scheduled to start another shortly. “Union of God” Their performance in Konya was connected with the 700th death anniversary of the founder of their order, Melvana Jelaluddin Rumi, a renowned sufi of Moslem mystic, who discovered that by whirling for a prolonged period, he could put himself into a state of j intoxication which he called a “union of the spirit with God.”

Scientists today tend to explain the phenomenon with theories that the whirling motion produces biochemicals in the body which , have the same effect as drugs like hashish, and point ( out that people can “get' high” on other forms of extreme physical effort, such as sports. The Mevlevi have no ex-; planation of the body pro- . cesses involved. They say that the daricing motion does not always lead to the state of ecstasy, but that once the intoxication has been achieved, its effect can last for hours after the rite, or even several days. Whatever the biophysical “how,” they prefer to speak only of the metaphysical “why”. A source close to the Dervishes agreed that the term “getting high” could be used to describe the ecstasy, “if you wish to use these modern terms.” Search for alternative Inevitably, the Mevlevis have attracted considerable attention among the “hip generation” in the West who are currently found travelling in droves in the Middle East, not merely in search of drugs (as the “straights” believe), but

often in a quite serious probe of oriental mysticism. Sociologists have explained this as a search for an escape or “alternative” to the strains of modern life. Significantly, the Mevlevi cult originated in another era of strain and turmoil, when the Mongol hordes from central Asia were pillaging and ripping apart long-established civilisations. Many people turned to mysticism for solace, including Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. Each dervish order had its own method of achieving the state of ecstasy, many of these being akin to Zen Buddhism, requiring an “emptying” of the mind of all thought or uncleanliness. The Mevlevis say their state is achieved by an opposite method, that of “filling” the mind and body with “divine love”.

The story goes that the Mevlana, who had already tried several dervish pathways, was one day watching a goldsmith plying his trade in the bazaar of Konya. As the goldsmith’s hammer struck a rhythmic beat, the Mevlana suddenly began dancing in a slow whirling motion. After a while he found himself in a strange state of intoxication. He later developed the dance into a rite, with

chanting music on reed and drum.

After his death, the rite caught on rapidly, and the Mevlevi order of dervishes spread throughout the Turkish empire. Up to the beginning of this century, whirling dervishes were found by European travellers even in such places as Morocco, then part of the Ottoman Turkish empire. With the rise of Ataturk in Turkey, the Whirling Dervishes were suppressed with other religious orders, and their centres or monasteries were closed. This was part of Ataturk’s campaign to secularise the Turks. The Mevlevis however practised their rite in secret.

Since 1953, the Turkish government has allowed them to practise openly again, but only from December 7 to 17, the last date being the Mevlana’s death anniversary. The Government’s purpose is of course to encourage tourism. The Mevlevi’s rite has the potential of catching on fast among the “hip generation”, observers believe, and has apparently already won several followers in New York and San Francisco. For the hip people, it is bound to be tried as yet another means of mind expansion.