An exercise I’ve been doing all day which has been very interesting. Inspired by conversations with Garrett on the subject of Urban Shamanism, and loosely based on my recent work with the City Mammals Coalition.

It’s an exercise in something I’m calling aumzaumscat, or more colloquially, non-lexical vocables in music, or more properly an attempt at inter-species xenoglossy and secular glossolalia.

In other words, you sit around and make animal noises. For over an hour. Hoot and holler. Stamp around. Bang on stuff. Slap your knee. Make exaggerated mouth shapes and weird faces. Yell. Shout. Have brief outbursts and dramatic spoken interludes. Whisper half-remembered prayers to the melodies of popular songs. Fart and burp loudly. Use your body to make any possible noise you can think of and then challenge yourself to move past that. And past that again.

I’m not going bother describing what it’s like. It’s an experience, an experiment. What happens if you let the animal sing? What happens once you get completely outside verbal meaning and stay there for a long time? Can you communicate anything to anyone anywhere? Can you sing with whales? Can you whistle forest songs which will open doors into vast unknown parallel universes? Only one way to find out: act now! Supplies are unlimited!

[Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.]