This passage from Letting Go is a wonderful illustration of what it’s like to get lost in a dance. David Hawkins perfectly describes the feeling I’ve felt on many occasions; that feeling is primarily why I stuck with swing dancing after I started and why I continue to dance at least once a week. I loved reading this last night and I knew right then that I had to share it with you.
After about a year of working with the mechanism of surrender, he was at a party with someone who kept insisting that he get up and dance. “You know I can’t dance,” he said. “Ah, come on and try it,” she entreated. She persisted and said, “Forget about your feet. Just watch me and do what my body does.” Reluctantly, he agreed, and he kept letting go of his feelings of resistance and anxiety.
On the dance floor he let go completely. In an instant, his inner feelings ascended the scale from apathy to love and, to his amazement, he suddenly began to dance like he had always dreamed of and envied! The realization of “I can do it!” hit him, and he went from love, to joy, and even to ecstasy. His delight radiated to everyone. Friends stopped to watch. From a sate of high joy, he suddenly went into the experience of oneness with his dance partner. He suddenly saw his own Self looking out of her eyes and realized that there was actually only one Self behind all the individual selves. He and she became telepathically connected. He knew her every step a split second before she took it. They were in perfect harmony and danced as though they had practiced and danced together for years. He could hardly contain his joy. The dancing became effortless and began to happen of its own, without any conscious thought on his part. The longer they danced, the more energy he felt.
It was a peak experience that was to change this man’s life. He went home that night and danced some more. Free-style disco dancing had always terrified him more than any other because there was no form to be memorized. It necessitated spontaneity and a free feeling, which is just what he had specifically been unable to experience previously. At home he turned on the disco music and began to dance for hours. He watched himself in the mirror, fascinated by the body’s surrender and the inner feeling of freedom.