I moved cautiously through a darkened cellar, letting the small lead weights swing, move and bounce as they pleased. Soon I threw caution to the wind and moved more energetically. The sewed-on weights had a mind of their own, sending electric tingles through my body, with their own specific sensations merging into one! I became entranced - lost all track of time and place. After it was over, I decided I liked the experience. I wanted more. So I did it several more times that year.
And that’s how my 46-year fascination with the "Ball Dance" began. Actually, as far as I know, there is no specific name for this ecstatic piercing and dancing ritual. Since most of the objects historically attached to the body in Hindu rituals are round and "ball-like" (fruits, lemons and limes, coconuts, small metal pots, round metal bells), it was simply a "Ball Dance" in my own mind regardless of what was attached, or how.
As I continued my ecstatic adventures in "Ball Dancing" over the next 30 years, the number and weight of objects attached increased and the time I danced got longer (see ball dance chronology). Each time the experience was different. Several extreme Dances come to mind. In 1963, when I had found others who tried the Dance too, and who could help me with mine. I had 48 half-pound lead weights hooked to my chest and back for four hours of ecstatic bliss. I took a "time trip" and it carried me back to India some centuries ago. In 1979, a physician friend speedily sewed 120 rubber balls on me - from my face to my ankles. This time I went to the center of my body to a warm, loving, pulsating atom-size particle that told me it was my "CORE".