Sufism and spinning

I read an article this week about whirling dervishes and Sufi. There are a couple of parts that I really like. The whole article can be found here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/04/21/findrelig.DTL

I am not Sufi. But I have spent a lot of time in my life spinning, going around in circles, whirling, turning, whatever you want to call it. It is the way I typically dance to the Grateful Dead. I am out of practice now, but at the peak of my involvement I could spin for up to 45 minutes at a time.

I don't use any particular method or placement of my hands or feet the way the Sufis do, but there are similarities in what I have experienced and what the woman who wrote this article experiences.

( A lot of crazy hippie blather about twirling, spirituality, nostalgia, self-expression, blah blah blah )

Picture

A picture to go with the previous entry: Heather and me in my '66 VW bus in the parking lot at a Dead show in Oakland in 1993.