This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

Those who know me well, know of my love for Rumi.  And those who have worked with me have, more likely than not, been given this beautiful poem to read. The wisdom in Rumi’s words captures something that holds up across centuries ringing true to this day.  Rumi’s profound understanding of the human experience has helped people from all cultures and backgrounds navigate life with greater comfort and ease. He has left behind gifts we are still uncovering even now.

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī was a Persian scholar who lived in Konya, central Turkey, in the the13th century. He was a professor and a Sufi mystic whose gentle, reflective teachings gained attention and, over time, a large number of followers.   This community eventually became the Melveli order of Sufis - the order that ultimately became known as the famous Whirling Dervishes.

But, in spite of confusion fed in part by misinformation on the web, Rumi didn’t found the Whirling Dervishes. Rather, the Melveli Dervishes (or darveshes) were established in his honor after his death in 1273.  According to Rumi’s son, Sultan Veled, the inspiration for the Whirling Dervishes came from Rumi’s experience of grief over his beloved teacher, friend, and mentor, the wandering mystic Shams-i Tabrīzī.

The dancing Rumi’s grief inspired is the signature of the Melveli Sufis with the whirling- or turning- part of the dance, the Sema, making them famous. But the dance is far more than mere spinning- it is deeply symbolic, poetic, and healing.  The wisdom of Rumi, the Dervishes, and their dancing has a lot to teach us. That’s where this Sacred Saturday’s exploration takes us.

For most of the eight hundred years since the dancing emerged, the Sema was believed by historians and scholars alike to be a symbolic practice; a theology being acted out. The robe a shroud, the cap a tombstone, the upward tilted hand open to receiving grace from the heavens, the downward tilted hand offering that grace to the earth, and the spin a metaphor for the divine union between the two. Generations of practitioners and observers understood that the symbolism was powerful teaching.

And this is true. The symbolism is meaningful and impactful entirely on its own terms. To stand in a courtyard in Konya and watch a dervish step out of his black cloak is to feel something move through you that has nothing to do with science.

But there is something else happening as the Dervishes dance that, until now, was not well understood.

In the last twenty years, modern neuroscience has begun examining what is actually happening in a Dervish's body during the Sema. These findings reveal a layer of healing that goes beyond the powerful symbolism of the dance.

The vestibular system — the apparatus inside the inner ear that tracks balance and orientation — is wired directly into the cerebellum, brainstem, and limbic system. Sustained spinning taps directly into these parts of the brain, the parts that connect powerfully to somatic (bodily) experience and run beneath conscious awareness.

The sustained rhythmic movement of the Sema induces theta brainwave states (4–8 Hz) — the state associated with creativity, emotional integration, and a particular kind of consciousness that sits just below the waking mind. This is the brain state cultivated in deep meditation, certain forms of hypnosis, and trauma-integration therapy.

Spinning, like other ecstatic movement practices, also suppresses the default mode network — the self-referential circuit that runs your inner monologue and your sense of "small self." When the Dervish describes leaving that small self behind, they are not being metaphorical. They are describing a measurable change in brain network activity that has now been observed in imaging studies of similar practices.

Scholars long thought the Sema was symbolic. We now understand it is also vestibular, neurological, and somatic. Rumi and the Mevlevis Rumi discovered a doorway. Eight hundred years later, brain imaging has caught up to help us understand their experience.

You will not become a Dervish in three minutes. And the goal is not to appropriate a deeply held, deeply sacred, religious and mystical practice.  But we can honor and benefit from a small piece of what Rumi gave his followers.

Try the slow turn:

Stand in a clear space. Lift your hands holding them up in a position that feels comfortable and natural. Begin to turn slowly - counter-clockwise.  Pick a soft point in the room and let your gaze rest there as you come around, then release it as you turn through. Don't fix your eyes. Let them go soft.

Two minutes. Then stop. Stand still. Breathe.

There may be a quiet hum inside your inner ear, you may feel a settling in your body, you might find that the room continues to move for a moment after you have stopped - that is the vestibular system and your brain responding to the spinning in the same way Rumi discovered more than 800 years ago.  While a lot has changed since then, the body has changed surprisingly little- what was healing then is still healing now. So we can add to our quiver one more profound gift from the mystical and amazing Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī.

The Whirling Dervishes are the followers of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī.  Rumi’s dancing in response to his grief over the loss of his friend Shams-i Tabrīzī inspired the sacred Sema ritual for which the Dervishes have become famous. For nearly eight hundred years, every element of the sema — the cap, the robe, the hands, the spin — has carried profound symbolic meaning, and that meaning is real and powerful on its own terms. What modern neuroscience has now added is a measurable second layer: vestibular activation, theta brainwave induction, default-mode-network suppression. The body Rumi was healing is the same body modern science is now learning to read- the practices from 800 years ago still apply now.