The Magic of Rain Dances

All over the globe for thousands of years, ancient people performed rain dances. With no successes this practice would die out. Apparently it worked. I was curious: what is it about the rain dance, the singing and dancing that helps it to rain? Music was a tool that was used in ancient times for many practical purposes, such as making rain for drinking and crops. We have long forgotten the practical value of sound and music.

With my detective coat on and magnifying glasses in hand I went on a venture to discover how does a rain dance work?

Can we affect weather today? Traffic and industrial exhaust decreases on weekends, resulting in an increase of rain by 20% on weekends. Poor weather conditions have been blamed on the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). We definitely have the technology to understand how to make it rain. So this goal is obtainable.

What do we know about the basics of rain? All air contains water, but near the ground it is usually an invisible gas called water vapor. When warm air rises, it expands and cools. Cool air can’t hold as much water vapor as warm air, so some of the vapor condenses onto tiny pieces of dust in the air and forms droplets around dust particles. When billions of these droplets accumulate they become a visible cloud. Hmmm, if one is fishing for rain, a cloud is like a fish in the ocean of the sky. 

As clouds and their water droplets accumulate, the droplets bind together and form even bigger drops. When the drops get too heavy, they fall because of gravity. Bigger and denser clouds allow the shaman to wring the precious water droplets out of the cloud.

How did ancient shamans squeeze water droplets out of the cloud? One helpful thing would be to make the air rise. A fire in the middle of the rain dance might be instrumental, making hot air rise. Long ceremonies of dance and song would also create heat.

The water droplet is sticking to a dust particle until it gets too heavy or it is shaken and falls free. Ancient people knew sound waves blended with all physical things, including their environment. Water droplets were vibrated with singing, drumming and dancing. This helped the water droplet overcome cohesion and release from the cloud.

Ancient stories suggest that there were better times for rain dances. They noticed how at different times it felt different. It feels different at dawn than at noon. It feels different in July than it does on a snowy Christmas morning. Ancient people noticed what it felt like right before it rained. They matched this feeling to create good conditions for rain. Ancient people noticed that it felt more like it might rain prior to a full moon when “watery” forces are strongest. This would be an excellent time for a rain dance.

Different groups experimented with types of dances, rhythms, pitches and vowel sounds that were the most effective in creating rain the fastest. Which musical vibration shook the water droplets the most? Even the color of what they wore as clothes or on their faces would subtly add to the vibrational stew. Rain dances were certainly not a superstition activity of primitive people. Rain dancing was a practical art that was perfected over of thousands of years by people who observed nature and used the energy of music to enhance their lives.