Neuroscientist: Dancefloors Are Public Health Assets
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- Bala Subramaniam, a Harvard Medical School professor of anesthesiology, describes being drawn into Émile Durkheim's "collective effervescence" at a Nick Jonas concert, where thousands of strangers swayed to the same rhythm and individual concerns dissolved into communal intensity.
- Subramaniam's research on the Shambavi Mahamudra Kriya meditation practice found it reduces activity in the brain's default mode network (DMN), the circuit responsible for self-referential thinking, planning, and daydreaming — and he draws parallels to ego dissolution in astronauts, big-wave surfers, and skydivers.
- Former US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that loneliness carries health risks comparable to smoking, a comparison Subramaniam uses to frame the erosion of collective experiences as a public health crisis.
- The nightlife industry's refrain "Phones killed the dancefloor" captures how digital distraction and the threat of viral ridicule prevent the loss of self that collective effervescence requires.
- Sadhguru, the yogi who taught Subramaniam to meditate, appeared on stage at Romania's 470,000-capacity Untold electronic music festival to advocate for greater collective consciousness — echoing Swami Satchidananda's 1969 address at the Woodstock opening ceremony.
- Synchronized dancing research cited in the piece suggests that shared movement with "out-group members" — people of different age groups — increases real-life cooperation, distinguishing concerts from sports events or religious gatherings where rhythm unites partisans.
- Subramaniam argues concert venues and dancefloors should be reclassified as public health assets on par with libraries and museums, deserving policy protection rather than hedonistic dismissal.
Why it matters: If loneliness carries health risks comparable to smoking, as former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned, then concert venues and dancefloors warrant the same policy treatment as libraries and museums — public health infrastructure worth protecting, not hedonistic spaces to dismiss.
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