Attending a Nick Jonas show with my kids was an invitation to \u2018collective effervescence\u2019. We need these shared experiences now more than ever<\/p>\n
Three years ago, I agreed to accompany my children to a Nick Jonas concert. The appeal of the Jonas Brothers, and in this case only one of them, was unfamiliar territory.<\/p>\n
The concert happened to land on a particularly inconvenient day. As I sprinted out of the hospital, my mind was filled with the \u201cwhat if\u2019s\u201d and \u201cshould haves\u201d about our work that day.<\/p>\n
After lengthy negotiations with my daughter at the merchandise stand, we settled in as Nick Jonas began. I found myself surrounded by thousands of young people all singing the same songs, swaying to the same rhythm, and participating in the same moment.<\/p>\n
At first I felt like an impostor, as if I was attending a party I hadn\u2019t been invited to. However, as the evening progressed, my thoughts of \u201cme\u201d shrank as I was absorbed into the intoxicating collective of the crowd.<\/p>\n
Bizarrely, it was Nick Jonas (now an unlikely permanent fixture on my playlists) who reminded me of an obscure phrase coined by a 19th-century sociologist \u2013 \u00c9mile Durkheim\u2019s \u201ccollective effervescence\u201d. He was describing how individuals who are normally preoccupied with their personal concerns get swept up into a kind of electric, communal intensity.<\/p>\n
For \u201ccollective effervescence\u201d to occur organically, bodies need to be present, in the same space, dancing to the same rhythm. The function, according to Durkheim, is to restore the social bonds and shared beliefs that are eroded by the drudgery of ordinary life.<\/p>\n
Such a state is a rare universal in human culture. Cave drawings displaying communal dancing, often around a fire, are found across centuries and continents.<\/p>\n
As a neuroscientist and practiced meditator, I\u2019m familiar with the literature on ego dissolution. My own research on the Shambavi Mahamudra Kriya, an ancient yogic meditation practice, found that it reduces activity in the \u201cdefault mode network\u201d (DMN), the circuit in the brain that is responsible for planning, daydreaming and self-talking. Meditation is not alone in this; astronauts, big-wave surfers and skydivers all experience their egos melting away during an intense state of flow.<\/p>\n
We need this network. Without it, we couldn\u2019t plan tonight\u2019s dinner. Yet too much self-referential thought wears us out. Neuroimaging suggests that those with depression struggle to switch out of the DMN-heavy, rumination mode.<\/p>\n
We all need a break from ourselves sometimes. Nick Jonas showed me how \u201ccollective effervescence\u201d could be the perfect circuit breaker.<\/p>\n
Synchronized dancing boosts social closeness. Interestingly, some synchrony research suggests that shared dancing with \u201cout-group members\u201d, or those of a different age group, actually increased the chances of real life cooperation.<\/p>\n
Here is where I believe concerts differ subtly from sports events or religious gatherings. Rhythm connects those who support different teams, and believe in different gods.<\/p>\n
In the west, we are crying out for more opportunities to experience this group fizz.<\/p>\n
A common sentiment is shared in the nightlife industry: \u201cPhones killed the dancefloor.\u201d This isn\u2019t surprising. It\u2019s hard to lose yourself in a crowd if you know you may find yourself again, getting ridiculed on a TikTok feed the next morning.<\/p>\n