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Sacred Entrainment: Rhythms of Interconnectedness – J.K. Norris
CIIS EWP 2012 Symposium; Cultural Integration Fellowship, SF, CA

Much of my research is based around the notion that we can interconnect with the sacred through sound, framed as Sacred Entrainment. Entrainment is the phenomenon whereby one rhythm synchronizes to another rhythm. It was first named by Christiaan Huygens, a physicist and clock maker in the 1600's, who noticed that the pendulums on different clocks hanging on the same wall would synchronize their movements to each other, even if their initial internal motions were different. Entrainment is often researched in the fields of mathematics, physics, psychology, anthropology, and musicology. Findings suggest that entrainment might relate phenomenologically to the experience of "interconnectedness" or "belonging" — comparatively, what we also strive for in spiritual practice. In other words, the experience of interconnectedness can be related to the experience of sacredness. Perhaps what keeps us from being able to let go of or surrender to any particular rhythm is also what keeps us from being able to surrender to and embody the sacred. Rhythm comes from a Greek term meaning "to flow." Sacred Entrainment is the practice of surrendering – with devotion – to the embodied experience of interconnected flow.

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