Indie Binn is a drummer and one of my Inner Avatars. Born in the early sixties and raised in a hippie community on a small Pacific Northwest island, Indie’s musical roots were folk-based. Friends and family frequently gathered around a bonfire to sing, accompanied by an acoustic guitar and a piano when the gatherings were inside. As a baby, his parents told him, he repeatedly torso bobbed and slapped his hands, more insistent than other babies. And when he started walking, his feet were forever tapping, and his torso bob increased while his fingers and hands expressed a language all their own. He didn’t speak until he was four, and by then, nearly worn out by his agitation, his parents put drumsticks in his hands, and he quickly converted agitated fidgets into rhythm and style.
At first, he drummed his sticks on his body, the wood rounds used for campfire chairs, but when the community went indoors, Indie fantasized about a drum kit. Not long after that, at age eight, he started hanging with a group of rock musicians who welcomed his stick work, no matter his age.
The cool thing about Avatars is that I can narrow my filter when I select them. For example, I choose to align with Indie when I want to use snare drumming as a portal to the other side of Resistance & Fear. He doesn’t have a lot of hang-ups since his parents provided him with drumsticks instead of therapy. I find it immensely relieving to air drum with him, momentarily released from my weighty attachments to fidget judgment.
I can morph with Indie a flicker at a time, and I’m looking forward to increasing my duration. VR is powerful. For example, when I take a virtual Zipline, my neuro wiring and body immediately react as if it is real-time. Inner VR works the same way, except when I flicker morph with my Avatars, it is a real-time experience in which I’m interrupting and shaking off old holding patterns.
