Dancing with the Shadow Self: The transformative power of techno

As Carl Jung describes mankind’s unknown and hidden self as the Shadow. This Shadow is at play in the music of dark techno. People around the world gravitate to the mysterious deep bass tones, syncopation with atmospheric and undulating polyrhythms in Dark Techno. Hidden emotions emerge in dance, movements that allow somatic release. Depths of past experiences, which are held in the body, release through movement and sound vibrations.

Binding our awareness to the four on the floor time signature, the beating and rhythms of man and nature put together. Creating safe spaces and trust bonds for each other strengthens our real-world emotional ties. Acting in accordance with a non-violent approach, people can often let emotional issues arise for them while they dance, knowing that however jagged or frenetic their movements may be, that it is ok, to dance the dance with oneself. This permissiveness within a social context allows people to engage on a level they choose within the community, and this active freedom for self-expression supported by others IS a foundational and healing element of those people who listen to that music.

It is vital to consider any healing through dance is NOT an isolated event, separately felt by each individual. The opposite is in fact true, that people come together to create communities which reflect their specific musical interests. Then, they work hard to stay in touch with people who have similar tastes, and outlooks on music and its enjoyment. In this way the healing is a shared one that is accessible to all and shaped by social engagement on any level.

It is no small coincidence to me that the punk and industrial close knit friendships and communities come FROM a culture of struggle, and attaining personal freedom of expression. Also true is that the electronica noise communities, locally like the S.P.A.Z. (Semi-Permanent Autonomous Zone) collective in San Francisco (https://www.spaz.org/), an offshoot of the national, and international communities as well, are extremely welcoming to new listeners. Overall, it is generally agreed that these folks are some of the nicest people in any scene. This is brought up because even within genres like hard techno, there are sub genres for the faster and harder music within that style.

The contrast between the hard grinding charged sounds of music next to the kindness and generosity of the people - is a true example of how much will change when individuals confront their shadow and dance with it, integrating a deeper awareness of themselves in context with the world around them.

The Shadow in Music - Music's Power: Resonant frequencies in the bass and mids are utilized in percussive polyrhythms and harmonic patterns. Waves of sound, and energy, transmitted into lighting arrays often accompany the music when dancing out so one could say the lighting combined with sound is what stimulates the system, and gets a whole body moving. Dance has been utilized as a form of somatic therapy for as long as it has been practiced, and longer if you consider most celebratory traditional dances have an element of cathartic energy release.

Specific patterns, tonal ranges, rhythms and sound bytes, all have a particular signature and effect in the physical body. I realize, for example, that by swinging my arms wildly at times when I dance, that I enjoy a freedom of spirit, and my thoughts become lighter in what I can only regard as a healing exercise. The movement itself brings the clarity of thought to me.

Moving in time to rhythms faster than the natural BPM of the heart gets a person’s blood moving. Extension of arms and legs in rhythmic movements addresses circulation, and promotes health in that way. However, subtly, fired off in the consciousness OR intuitively are patterns of movements to the music, and these have imperceptible changes in the body.

These movements create a flow of energy around the body. Now after seeing, hearing, and feeling the music consciously, there is also an unconscious appreciation as well. When some people dance, the dance carries them away - with others, almost imperceptible gesticulations or bobbing heads is the expression of movement.

Whatever the movements are, even if there are no visual movements, sound, being a vibration, moves through matter regardless, and those energy changes may be felt as a lightness in the step, a buoyancy. Or maybe the next time there is a life stress, fight or flight reactivity doesn’t come into play so quickly. What the effects are of unconscious connection to the music is rarely understood in the moment, or even after. Music is a source of great mystery, and in that, is like the subconscious itself. Musicians make their own dance with their ID, the subconscious body we all carry regardless of our own awareness of it.

When we sublimate certain desires and behaviors they become repressed, and without proper intention can have a behavioral effect on us, regressing us into past patterns of action or thought. When provided a space to enact feelings like, rage, anger, fear, regret - all coming across in the pantomime of energetic dance, we integrate and understand those emotions in a way that is formative. And it is informative to the self-awareness of each person.

Doing this can not only release ingrained trauma responses, but elevate the mood and the psychological benefits of feeling better are generally agreed upon by most people, so a safe assertion is that by listening and dancing to music that makes us feel better, we are engaging in a healthy cycle of titration of the old stuck somatic energy, and allowing the movements to free us up for more complete and aware engagement, whether internally or externally.

Industrial and Darker Forms of Music - Raw, Chaotic Sounds: Often industrial, urban, and machine sounds are part of the music, and with whatever effect the artist intends, there is also an unintended side effect of the music mirroring states of stress, and tension. This is done through sound such as: grinding, throbbing, screeching, ascending, crackling, to just to name a few various sounds. As distinctive as a radio’s squelch, the attenuation of specific producers leaves an indelible print on the music itself. Design, quality manufacturing and equipment, are all factors in addition to acoustics. By having the impetus to dance, one can release the agony of mistakes that were made in the past, and move gracefully into a future of more poise and confidence, having literally “shaken off their blues”.

There is a bowing effect, when the feelings inside have a sound outside that makes you feel like moving, there is a profound benefit to releasing stagnant energy. It is somewhat magnetic, somewhat magical, because energy and essence moving in time to music is cathartic, and helps us move past times that have been a challenge.

Releasing the mechanisms of control in our own psyche through dance, letting go of a worldview long enough to open up and perceive life a little differently than before. Dance is a game of balance, as we have heard it said “Dancing is falling over repeatedly but catching yourself each time” This freeing up of the conscious mind of having to direct movement, can free the person to allow some perception of sensations without judging or critically observing through conscious inquiry. The more one lets go of the need to direct and control the motions of the dance itself, the more cathartic the emotional release.

Embracing Shadow Self through Music - Consorting with the Shadow: When we meet ourselves in the darkness of the dance, we are hyperconscious - easily able to discern beat patterns, and isolate arms and limbs in a flagellation dance of whiplash wild energy. The frenetic forms of motion are spectacular to observe, when you feel free to dance how you want to, with no rigid choreography or partner pairings, it is exhilarating.

When we are without words, the thoughts have not coalesced into words. When we do not have the language used to describe one’s connection to the subconscious, dance becomes the vocabulary of expression, and a language in itself.

When emotions and feelings are too nebulous to form a thought there is a pre-verbal state, dance can work out emotions and feelings BEFORE they bridge the nebulous feelings into something a mind can process as conscious thought.

Integrating awareness is a vague conceptualization of the mysterious and deep somatic process that the mind and body undergo during this process. The hardness of the music can remove conscious thought. Finding it hard to think, the body goes into parasympathetic ‘sensing’ mode, or rather, relaxing into the hindbrain and just allowing one’s body to move in rhythmic sonic frenzy or in moderation depending on one's mood.

Integration Process via Sound and Movement - Dancing with the Shadow: When we dance we align ourselves within a long human tradition of letting go of a sense of control, and allowing mystery to take shape in our lives. This humbling feat, again, interpreted through dance, is a challenge to appreciate without the ego getting in the way.

Consciousness seeks to claim authority of everything in a person’s self-awareness. However, to allow for the unknowable deep dark waters of the ID to co-exist within oneself, that is the true challenge of living holistically that many people miss holding the balance of. In the dance, giving of oneself to their intuitive self-expression of movement, IS the only thing connecting us to that shadow self, we are working to bridge a synaptic gap that will not be fired through conscious action, only though release, release of control, and letting the music flow over you like a wave.

And just as with the ocean, there are many kinds of waves, and here likening dark and hard techno as a way of saying, go to the pacific ocean and enjoy getting pummeled in the sonic surf.

Healing in All Areas of the Self - Holistic Healing: With music, and harder sounds - one could surmise the healing power of the sound waves moving through a body, and being impactful not only consciously but subconsciously as well. Translate that into movement and you have a perfect synergetic circle of motion, sound (and light) vibrations, and moving energy through one’s body. The effect is NO conscious thought needs to be given to the process, in fact, the less is better. Just moving, without rhyme or reason, can be as equally healing as moving in orchestrated precise pop locking, for example. Dance in any and all forms is thought to be therapeutic, not merely by western therapists, but also in many cultures around the world. They value and hold dance as a sacred act, often considered to be a direct connection to something greater than the self, some might articulate it as universal consciousness, other people who identify as animists, would say dance is an expression of all life, and in merely living, we are dancing through the world of matter and creation. They would say breath is life, and to breathe rhythmically with body movement is to synchronize and harmonize with the patterns in nature and the world around us. In this way many people, even atheists, believe in the holistic healing potential even without any connotation to specific belief and spiritual/faith systems.

The holy trinity of mind, body, spirit is considered to be integrating in the methods described at the beginning of this article, titrating, and pendulating. At Azarakh, the notion is held that any dancing movement, without forethought, is a conduit to connect oneself directly to the divine, and acts as an intentional form of prayer, where the act and not the content or words determine the value of the experience. We believe that when a person loses themselves in dance, that their state of mind, during and after the experience, brought together by the ritual of movement, is providing the individual healing experience.

Self-healing has an effect of releasing stagnant energy from old traumas, those energetic forms get released back into the atmosphere. In the past, connecting to process this was considered part of most traditional cultures, either in spiritual ceremony, or celebratory dance. People of all cultures have evolved to dance it out, at any time of the day, or night.

Being a genuine person means understanding yourself on a deeper level. I hope this conversational article has been food for thought, for you and our readers, to continue in that dance upon the pathways of life, embodying love everlasting.

~ Aryana Farsai

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