I believe that drumming, like any sort of activity, can lead to some kind of meditation and a sensation of well being.

When playing drums, if I succeed in living in the now, playing for myself (not for others) and reaching deep inside of me to taste the pleasure of allowing a big part of myself (the creative, energetic and groovy drummer in me!) to live at that moment, then that's meditation.

When I get frustrated and I feel the perfectionnist in me coming back, then I'm getting far away from the real reason I play drums : enjoying myself... And that means that I'm not really myself at that moment.

When I play and thinking "Wow, my kit sounds really good and I'm playing great", I'm close to some sort of meditation... Plus, drumming is a lot like boxing (or other physical sports) because it allows me to free some aggressiveness that would maybe get stucked inside of me.

The way to inner peace is to practice those activities that make part of ourselves live. If drumming brings a feeling of proudness, joy, liberty and well being, that's as good as meditation to me.

Hello from a newbie (to drumming and the forum).

I recently went to a drum clinic given by Alan White, and during one of his demonstration solos he closed his eyes and you could tell he was just sort of *gone*.  The solo (awesome!) went on for several minutes.  When he finally ended, he opened his eyes, looked rather surprised, and said, "Oh, sorry.  I kind of went away for a couple of minutesand forgot you all were here!"
 
As a beginning drummer, I have to concentrate too hard on what I'm doing to space out, but I look forward to the day when it works for me!

I've found myself 'zoning out' to some extent while practicing repetitve patterns.  It's quite relaxing.

But during gigs I tend to be extra alert.  There's a lot of eye contact to be had on stage.  We also use hand signals to cue parts of the song form, cuts, codas, exits, etc.

you CAN meditate with drums, and achieve a therapeutic effect. My friend has a shop that'd just opened providing drum circle sessions and therapeutic drumming.

you may wish to check out their website http://www.liladrums.com