In the [Sufi] lineage I trained in, the Mevlevi order, there are students of Mevlana Jalaleddin Rumi. The dance of the whirling dervishes symbolizes union with God. The right hand in this dance reaches up to God, to the divine. The left hand reaches out to give. The right hand receives energy. The left hand gives energy, and so we're giving a blessing to the world as we turn.
In the whirling dance, the one who turns reaches to God -- it's as if we're asking God to turn us. We're receiving with the right hand, giving with the left hand, and bringing a blessing to ourselves and to the world. We're like receivers and givers.But we try to disappear when we do this dance. It's not about our personality. We try to empty ourselves. And while we're doing the dance, we're meditating on the name "Allah," or the name "God," just to bring that oneness in, so that we're really wanting to be, in a way, a channel.
Is it a trance state? It's beyond a trance state. We are hyper-alert. We need to know where we are on the earth, especially when we dance in a circle with other people. We need to be very alert to where we are. At the same time, we need to be alert to the gift that we're being given by doing this dance. It's an awakened state, and it looks like a trance state. In a way, it is an altered state. You move into this amazing place of oneness when you're really connecting with that energy, but it's not a trance, because you have to be very awake for it.
