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I was listening to NPR this morning and there was a story about a study where they studied the effect of synchronized dancing in relation to people’s tolerance for pain. I found the following article about the study: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-10-28-dancing-raises-pain-threshold%E2%80%99 ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-10-28-dancing-raises-pain-threshold%E2%80%99 I’m ending up quoting half the article but here are the relevant bits:
Quote:The team had 264 young people take part in the study in Brazil. In groups, they did either high or low exertion dancing that was either synchronised or unsynchronised. Before and after the activity, the team measured the teenagers’ feelings of closeness to each other and their pain thresholds.
The findings confirmed that synchronised activity encouraged bonding more than unsynchronised activity. It also led to higher pain thresholds. More energetic activity had a similar effect – it raised pain thresholds and made groups feel closer.
‘Both synchronisation and exertion had independent effects on these measures, so moving energetically or moving in synchrony can both make you feel closer to others when you are dancing’ explained Tarr, ‘But combining high energy and synchrony had the greatest effects – which might explain why people love to Flashmob!’
The person they interviewed on NPR mentioned that they used blood pressure arm cuffs to measure physical discomfort. It made me wonder whether creating tribes centered around dogma/doctrine has a similar effect. A synchronized physical activity (dancing), synchronized belief (dogma). Could correlated belief help a tribe cope with emotional pains?
The story on NPR also mentioned that the people dancing were each taught certain dance steps. The participants wore headphones and the people running the experiment got participants to either sync up or be desynchronized by playing different music in the headphones. No one knew what music someone else was hearing, they only responded to the music they were hearing.
This reminded me of the talk by Wilford W. Andersen,
The Music of the GospelQuote:The old man then looked at him and said, “Do you dance?” As the young doctor pondered the strange question, it occurred to him that perhaps his patient was a tribal medicine man who, according to ancient tribal customs, sought to heal the sick through song and dance rather than through prescribing medication.
“No,” said the doctor, “I don’t dance. Do you dance?” The old man nodded yes. Then the doctor asked, “Could you teach me to dance?”
The old man’s response has for many years caused me much reflection. “I can teach you to dance,” he said, “but you have to hear the music.”
It got me thinking this morning about the value of stage 3 faith and the importance for all of us to feel a sense of community and bonding so that we can better withstand the trials life throws at all of us.
As for dancing… I’ve always been and will forever be a wallflower.
🙂 Very interesting nibbler Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Very cool Nibbler. I agree that there are clear benefits to being and feeling in “sync” with your tribe.
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