Showing posts with label Psychedelic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psychedelic. Show all posts
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Mushrooms are a form of intelligence unlike anything we know of on this Planet. The mycelium network helps communication or transmission of information between trees, the soil and all who ingest these miraculous mushrooms that envelope the entire planet. Many who have ingested the Psilocybin Mushrooms have reported experiencing clairaudience or telepathy of some kind, clairvoyance and other abilities that are usually considered superhuman or mystical in nature as they are not easily understood within the scientific and rational paradigm that governs most of our intellectual understanding of the Universe.







We've all seen the 'Amanita Muscaria' toad stool mushrooms while growing up in cartoons, comic books, artwork etc., mostly associated with the so called mythical creatures of ancient folklore such as Elves and Fairies. I remember wearing a woolen sweater with the Amanita Muscaria stitched on it when I was very young. The white spots on the red caps all seemed very familiar even then in a strange and magnetic way.


Some interesting videos on Mushrooms and the Mycelium Network !










After dabbling with Cannabis and psychedelics such as LSD and MDMA, I came across Mushrooms first in tons of visionary artwork on the Internet. Mushrooms always made me curious to look deeper into the magical world of fungi and the benefits of using these to attain spiritual insight into ourselves and the world we live in. My first experience with Mushrooms was in Kodaikanal where the Psilocybin Mushrooms grow wild. Some have also reported seeing the Blue Meanies or the Blue Amanita Muscarias growing wild in these parts. However, not very common to find those as compared to stumbling upon the Golden caps mushrooming all across the forest floor in the Nilgiris. 'Nilgiris' literally translates, the 'Blue Mountains' ! :)

The effect was mild compared to my previous psychedelic journeys on other tryptamines, however it was very pure and organic in its feel. It was very grounding and pleasant as I felt more connected with everything around me and at completely at peace. This was an initiation for me into the world of shrooms and was as gentle as it gets. My next adventure on shrooms was unlike anything else I have experienced before. I did about half a dozen of the golden caps if i remember correctly :) ... and then began the roller coaster ride which was like sailing on the edge of lucid dreaming and wakefulness. Going in and out of visions I couldn't make complete sense of ... it was more like watching Mickey Mouse or something in animation with your eyes closed. After a while when I opened my eyes and tried to 'get back to normal' by doing the usual ... streaming music on YouTube while rolling some nice Mango Sativa bud. Couldn't keep my eyes open for too long though ... and as I closed my eyes ... a vision came to me of someone I was supposed to meet in the next couple of hours. However, in the vision I saw this lady say 'Police Police' in her odd russian accent. I wondered why I was seeing her say Police Police ... perhaps I would be cracking a joke or two about her accent to my friends later ... and I let the thought/vision slide not paying much attention to it. Couple of hours later as I was meeting this lady, I had a brief encounter with some plain clothes policemen who jumped us while we were talking somewhere outside, assuming something odd was happening between us since they saw me handing over some cash to her. HAHAHAHA :D Anyway, I got out of the situation without much trouble (they found some Cannabis on me after I gave them permission to search me) since I happen to know some influential people around here and perhaps the shrooms helped me stay calm and composed through the experience. I was shaken up a bit after this experience and kept wondering why I didn't pay attention to the vision I had. Perhaps, it was my first lesson in clairvoyance and knowing that it's possible to know more than what's here and now if one is tranquil and at peace. We become open channels when we are completely and totally silent ... devoid of all that mental chatter that takes away most of our time and energy.

Mushrooms have a way to find you when you're ready like most things in life. There are no accidents and no random occurrences. The shrooms lead us on our path and help us connect with other like minded souls on their journeys as we usher in a new age of light on Earth. We are being given these powerful medicines so we can attain deeper insight into ourselves and become conscious co-creators of the new paradigm. The more I learn about Mushrooms the more mesmerised I feel about them and the possibilities they hold in changing humanity from our destructive ways by healing and nurturing us. Recently while I was watching Dr. Klinghardt's video about EMF radiation and its effects on Human health ... I came across something he mentions about eating Mushrooms that grow around these towers or radiated areas. These mushrooms build our immunity against harmful effects of radiation. I was amazed at the timing of the message reaching me ... :) while cooking some delicious Oyster Mushrooms ! I've been using Oyster and Shiitake mushrooms lately and they're so so yummy, if you haven't tried cooking them as yet, you must ! There are still some more shrooms I'd love to try like Lion's Mane, Chaga, Reishi ... all of these are known to have healing benefits with prominent antiviral properties ! More reason for us to move to Shrooms for food and for our vision quests. I believe we are being given these medicines in these times so we can build our immunity against all attacks of any kind whether its radiation sickness or a viral surge. Mushrooms are here to heal us and awaken us to our true nature by enhancing our connection with everything around us, making us more sensitive and more responsible gardeners of our home, Gaia.



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Jim Morrison the front man for the psychedelic rock outfit 'The Doors' had a deep mystical understanding of death which sprung from his first encounter with death as a child when he saw a truck full of Indians lying scattered along the highway ... bleeding to death ! His fascination with death reflected in his poetry and can be seen in 'HWY - The American Pastoral', a project he started in 1969.

Morrison financed the venture and formed his own production company in order to maintain complete control of the project. Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill assisted with the project.

Morrison played the main character, a hitchhiker turned killer/car thief. Morrison asked his friend, composer/pianist Fred Myrow, to select the soundtrack for the film.


Jim Morrison : The Indian & The Coyote


Like the man himself, HWY: An American Pastoral is complex and mysterious. He hits the road like Kerouac, wandering, searching for meaning.

Following is an excerpt from a HWY review by John Kolak ...

In comparative literature we are taught that nothing exists by itself, but only in comparison to something else. So the first clue as the movie opens is that Jim is in the desert, but we are shown a waterfall. So, desert represents death, water represents life, and the waterfall, the fountains of life. When we first see Jim, he is immersed in water, a symbol of the womb, and his emergence from the water represents birth. Tribal music here, contrasted to civilized music later, suggests the birth of a shaman.

We then see images of Jim basking in the joy of life, and then he undertakes a journey. One of the common complaints about the film are these long passages of shots of Jim's journey. There has been some comment that this is just Jim's working in the milieu of his time where these long passages were typical of art house cinema of the time. But it is more than that. The version of "2001 - A Space Odyssey" that was commonly shown was a shortened version. The first version released contained long, boring shots of the space ship traveling through space. Kubrick's intent was to illustrate the immensity of space and how long it takes to engage in space travel.

In "HWY," the lengthiness of the journey is also deliberate, but it serves multiple and different functions. The first clue is to get you to understand that this story is about a journey, so Jim had to make the journey passages long enough to make sure you got the point. Any shorter, and it would have looked like just another scene. More specifically, in artistic terms, it is about the hero's journey. Since the days of the story of Prometheus breaking on through to the other side to steal fire from the gods and bring it back to earth to benefit mankind, the genre of the hero's journey has always been about crossing the threshold to the divine and bringing back something for mankind. This is what Jim does when he breaks on through and brings his music and poetry back for our benefit.


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After two consecutive banging seasons starting 2007, Shanti Jatra Full Moon Festival 2009 returns with the biggest surprise in the Asian subcontinent for all psychedelic+trance+dance funatics converging from all across the world in the mystical mountains of Nepal to create a surreal ... magical experience ! This years line up looks simply FANTASTIC !

*Shanti Jatra* gets bigger this year as we extend the duration of the festival by a day. Its now going to be 3 nights and 4 days.
* With the resounding success of two editions of Shanti Jatra, we bring to you the next installment in October 2009, which is set to be bigger and bursting with more energy, color and the spirit of fraternity hood.
* Installation of 2 Stages - Main Stage and Alternative/Chill Stage with different projects. Installations of varied workshops, screening of movies and documentaries, environmental workshop and art displays.
* Live instrumental music will be a highlight of the alternative stage apart from other activities to be held.
* Shanti Jatra will also be a host of exclusive merchandise, souvenirs, psychedelic gear etc at different stalls to take home as memorabilia.



" Shanti Jatra Full Moon Festival - 3,4,5,6 October 2009 "


The Line Up so far ...


3D LIVE (3D live acts will have music on 5.1 surround)

- Agent-17 (Spiral Trax, Sweden)
- Andromeda (Dream Vision Media, Portugal)
- Chromosome (Dream Vision Media, Portugal)
- S-Range (Liquid Records, Sweden)

LIVE

- Space Tribe (Space Tribe, Australia)
- Neuromotor (Mechanik Records, France)
- Tryambaka (Spectral Records, Portugal)
- Para Halu (PsyLife Music, Hungary)
- Drone Bixie (Parvati Records, Denmark)
- Jahbo (Parvati Records, Denmark)
- Procs (Manic Dragon, Sweden)
- Braindrop (Omveda Records, India)
..... and more to be added

DJ's

- Dj Insanix (Mechanik Records, U.S.A
- Wicked Sound System (Freakuencies Productions, India)
- Cosmic Tandav (Rudraksh Records, Dubai)
- Janux (Sound Species, India)
- K.T (Counter Culture, India)
- Audio Psykosis (H.S.S Records, India)
- Dj Psycobaba (Moonsun Records, India)
- Dj Jafar (Qatar)
- Dj Nitin (Beyond Logic Records, India)
- Sundrop (India)

Chill Stage / Alternative Stage

- Yidam (Bengaliens, India)
- Jussi (Gaje, Finland)
- TBO (Gaje, Finland)
- Master Kumbkaran (Delhi)
..... and more to be added

LET THE SHANTI SPREAD WITH THE SOUND .... Let Music do the talking ....


(((Awakening Consciousness)))


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Every year thousands of revelers get together dancing through the snaking roads of Mumbai on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the son of Shiva & Parvati. DJ Asad ( Free Atmah ) has heralded this yearly event since it's inception in 1999. DJ Whosane also joined in soon and with a little help from friends " Dance Ganesha " has become the unifying force for people from all walks of life dancing in synchronous to the psychedelic beat !

Music has always been the primary form of celebration and devotion through time immemorial. Every year, the DJ's Asad and DJ Whosane!, compose and mix tracks specially created for this event. The theme behind the compilations is that the music should not influence the mind but instead create a silence within each individual, facilitating a positive connection with the universe. It should preserve the sanctity and purity of the event and the Ganesh festival.



The music combines the ancient Indian sounds and rhythms with modern electronic fusion music that transcend all artificial boundaries, unifying the crowd with its spirit. Dj Asad believes that dance is a collective expression of music, where the dancer disappears and only the dance remains.

The music is without popular Hindi film lyrics, and breaks away from today's over-commercialized Bollywood and pop genre. It cuts across all barriers of age, religion, caste, gender, language and socio-economic status. People are unified by the innate spirit of music, which gives them the opportunity to collectively revel on the streets of Mumbai. The event happens only once a year, but the experience lasts forever.

This year 25000 people were present in the 3000 meter Trance Dance parade. Check out a video to the Dance Ganesha which happened on September 14th, 2008 here . The track in the background is this fantastic trance version of " Deva o Deva Ganapati Deva .. " I heard it for the 1st time and I loved it !
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Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953 in Columbus, Ohio) is an artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art (or visionary art) that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. Alex Grey is a Vajrayana practitioner. His oeuvre spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting. Grey is a member of the Integral Institute. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, aka CoSM, a non-profit institution supporting Visionary Culture in New York City.

Alex Grey does make use of low dozes of Psychedelics such as LSD to get into a meditative visionary state from where the magic flows effortlessly ! In his own words, " Myron Stolaroff recommended really low doses of acid as a catalyst for deepening meditational experiences, and this practice may have merit for painting in my focused way. I have some friends who take a substance and then set down to draw. One of the most fun art-things to do while under the influence is to draw large spirals. I start drawing the outside circle and wind my way in. By the time you reach the center, your mind has been flushed, drawn down the purifying art toilet to the other side of the universe "

Alex Grey's CoSM ( Chapel Of Sacred Mirrors )


As you might have noticed Alex uses the Eye a lot in his artwork. When asked about the significance of the disembodied eye Alex said, " We have all heard that the eye is a window to the soul. This is true. The open eye is a symbol of awareness or consciousness. If it is repeated endlessly, you have a symbol of infinite awareness. One lady who had a near death experience saw my painting, Dying, with the figure dissolving into a field of spirallically interconnected eyes and said that she too, had gone down a tunnel of eyes. When you are in the visionary world, anything can grow an eye, from the sky to the stones at your feet. This symbolizes the re-cognition of our presence by the greater field of presence, which is nature and cosmos, inner and outer space... "

Alex's Word on Psychedelics

Sometimes if Allyson (Alex's Wife) or I are working on a painting and there are problems with it, marijuana can give us a new perspective on our work. We don't get stoned that often though. The visionary tsunami of LSD is my favorite choice in terms of an immersive experience of significant duration, with potential to access all levels of Hell or Heaven. Other people have other preferences.

Quite frankly, many of my images come to me unbidden at odd times having nothing to do with intake of exogenous entheogens. But since DMT is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter, there are always bio-chemical correlations to vision states, that is, as long as you are trapped in a skin bag. I think the pineal gland, the ol' melatonin pumping third eye, is the brains illicit drug factory. Big brother arrest yourself for your own naughty visionary neurons. It's the stuff dreams are made of...

Alex Grey on Aliens and other inter-dimensional entities

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in our puny philosophies..." My thoughts on those buggers don't count, if you've experienced them in one form or another, and I have, then you accept that they are part of the inner mind scape. Of course, some astral neighborhoods you avoid if you possibly can, because there are some malevolent jerky kind of spooks that just love to mess with your head.

Of course, "the other" is a weird delusion of Samsara, the dualistic world we take for reality. My worldview comes more out of a sense of Oneness, Infinite Oneness. The astral creepy crawlers are just part of the One. They do their job, they reflect our minds scary creativity.


Alex was asked, Why do you think that many people in Western society have such a hard time incorporating the visionary state and direct experience of God into their lifestyles?

Alex : BECAUSE GOD AND THE INNER VISIONARY WORLD IS NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO EXIST! GOD CAN'T BE SEEN AND VERIFIED WITH A TELESCOPE, AN OSCILLOSCOPE, OR A MICROSCOPE...CAN'T BE BOUGHT AND BROUGHT HOME FROM IKEA...SO IT DOESN'T EXIST, IT DOESN'T EXIST "OUT THERE"...BUT IT CAN BE KNOWN, IT CAN BE KNOWN, AND THE MILLENNIA OF MYSTICS PROVES THAT!

People can smell a threatening worldview from pretty far away. Mystics don't have an easy time of it, so folks try to avoid the mystics life, even though it does hold the promise of ultimate liberation.

Alex Grey At The World Psychedelic Forum


Alex Grey's Movie Torrents

ART Mind The Healing Power Of Sacred Art
Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM)


Credit : Alex Grey . Net


Related Posts:


Alex Grey Paints Obama's Portrait

Freddy Silva's Stairways To Heaven Practical Magic Of Sacred Spaces
The Awakening : All Is One ; One Is All
The Pineal Gland / All Seeing Eye Crop Circle
Entheogen : Awakening The Divine Within
Rick Strassman's DMT The Spirit Molecule

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Genre : Psychedelic
Quality : 256 kbps
Size : 127 mb
Duration : 1 hour 16 minutes 49 seconds
Tools used : Traktor Dj Studio 3.2 / Acer Aspire / Goldwave to convert from wav to mp3

1. Life Style & Audio X - Future Shock Part 2
2. Alien Vs The Cat - The Race (Orbital Vibes Remix)
3. Astrix - Solaris (GMS Rmx)
4. Crystal Sound - Shmatrix
5. System Nipel Vs Electro Sun - We can Fly
6. PTX - Travel Adventure
7. Electric Universe - Mind of God
8. Black Cadillac - Showtime
9. Safi Connection - Monster DNA remix
10. Safi Connection - Deep Space
11. ESP - The Mind's Eye




In a cosmos [:)] full of countless planetary systems brimming with life and infinite number of possibilities to what could be, we explore the far reaches of space outside and within as we are messengers of light ! We bring together the cosmos as one through deep space exploration ! :)





((( We are 1, We are Infinite)))
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24th December, 2007 ! We landed at the Dabolim Airport around 3 pm and headed off straight to Moira, Taryn's original home ! My in laws and their 3 dogs live in this old Portuguese bungalow they call Tristar ! Mama is usually busy in the kitchen or watching TV, in particular TBATB ! If not, you'd find her on the phone talking to her best friend, Aunty Anna for hours together ! Sure she'll "What Rubbish ?" it as exaggeration ! Dada is busy dealing with the nuances of the English language and shooting off to the Bar as and when required !The lush green background gives Tristar a very earthy village feel ! Time moves slow in Moira. You tend to get lost in the sounds of nature out there in the woods ! Fury, Smokie & Snow White, the 3 dogs at Tristar add on to the wilderness feel with their evident presence ! Fury Rodrigues is in charge here, no questions asked ! While Snow White has a persistent appetite for anything sweet, Smokie is constantly battling egos with Fury or doing his trot, prodding you to take him out for a walk !


The Christmas midnight mass at the Chapel was good ! The sandwiches, patties & the coffee were more than welcome post the sermons, short acts depicting virtuous living and high octave singing from the village ladies ! We woke up the next morning had an authentic Moira breakfast comprising of eggs, sausages, butter, cheese, the home delivered village bread and some left over Sorpotel which Taryn was primarily on while we were in Goa. I think this was the day after Christmas, please excuse my inability to recall timelines in Goa.


South Anjuna was as usual busy with party boppers moving in and out shuttling between various hangouts in and around Anjuna ! Shiva Valley, Curlies, 9 Bar, Prim Rose, Hilltop, Banyan Tree and Westend saw some big parties this season. The Psychedelic Goa Trance vibe was buzzing all around Anjuna !!! We caught some parties at Curlies and 9 Bar the first few days and then Shiva Valley happened on the 30th and then again on the 31st ! These guys at Shiva Valley got together some monster sound from Mapusa and some killer DJ's ... I think they were Karan, Sanjay Grover, Nigel ... The sound was nice and PHAT ! Dec 30th, 2006 Dolce Vita was one of the best times I've ever had in Goa ...


The grumpy old aunties at their Chai stalls were busy recycling tea leaves and threatening to hack anyone who steps on their mats inspite of repeated warnings. To be in their space means to keep them in business. Fair enough i guess, but the music does kinda get to the locals. Some get infuriated, some happily move along trying to get into the same effortless ecstasy they see everyone around in. The people started pouring in post midnight and the scene went from boom to supernova in a matter of minutes ! Twisted night time tunes from the likes of Kindzadza and Psykovsky thumped our audible consciousness till the first rays of the sun brought in some Full On Morning Magic ! The drunk vagabonds, the mentally flustered and the exhausted had long left for their cozy beds, now the colors began to show in my pristine Californian intervention !


The 1st of January, 2008 was beautiful and the Farmer's breakfast at Alcove ( Next to 9 Bar ) couldn't have tasted any better ! Vagator / Ozra were way less crowded a handful of old timers and some psychedelic happy people ! Some casual shopping from a bunch of well accented and persistent Indian hawker girls fetched us some nice bargains. The sea was nice and salty bringing in the occasional big wave throwing us off balance. A good hour in the water and the pangs of hunger got to us ! We satiated ourselves with some decent Prawn curry rice and crispy fried Kingfish washed down with some Banana Shake !


Our Goan getaway was a full on experience to recharge ourselves to face another eventful year whole heartedly ! All we are left with now are some good memories of the time we had and an uprising within to get back to Goa !

! Soglem Borem Ha ( Pronounced Sog-Ley Baw-Ray HA ~ HAHAHAHA ) :)

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Native Instruments Traktor DJ Studio 3.2
P3 Celeron, 128 mb ram, 40 gb hdd, 1.13 Ghz


Genre: Psychedelic
Size : 131 mb
Duration : 58:39
Quality : 320 kbps Stereo

Track List:

Eskimo Vs Cycle Sphere Vs Sirius isness - Hello Moto
Astrix - Adventure Mode
Astrix - Techno Widows ( GMS Remix )
Astrix - Massive Activity
Space Buddha - Silent Galaxy
Melicia Vs DNA - Magic Stick
Eskimo - My Blue Goa
Altom - People are strange
ITP - Lose your illusion Part 1
Ziki Vs System Nipel Vs Ananda Shake - Magic World





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The word Psychedelic was coined by Humphrey Osmond (Jul 1, 1917 - Feb 6, 2004) back in 1957, from the Greek words for "soul," ψυχή (psyche) and "manifest," δήλος (delos). In easier terms, Psychedelic means mind manifesting. The term was coined as a noun used as alternative terminology to describe hallucinogen drugs in context with Psychedelic Psychotherapy. Psychedelic states are an array of experiences elicited by sensory deprivation as well as by Psychedelic substances. Such experiences include hallucinations, changes of perception, synesthesia, altered states of awareness, mystical states, and occasionally states resembling psychosis.


" To fathom hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of Psychedelic "

- 1956 in a letter to Aldous Huxley


Related Posts :

Albert Hofmann : Father of LSD
Terence McKenna : Stoned Ape Theory
Goa is a state of mind

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Here in Goa, close to 3 weeks since i let me gypsy heart find familiar ground in new territory. 45 kilometres from North Goa, here in Colva sweating it out for the winter. Once winter is here, there will be no looking back ! All the hard earned money shall be invested in the pursuit of enlightenment. What could be a better way to find yourself, yet again, through the trance~dance phenomena ?

Life cruising through the by-lanes in Anjuna and Vagator with the chill in the air piercing through the heavily beaten ear drums ( Thank you Lord for all the Magic we cherish )... I could go around in circles forever, yet find something new each time. The sound of an Enfield revving it's way towards you now is a flash of energy: The flying hippy... he is gone ...

Everyone seems to come to Goa to break free from the routine they are caught in, however there are some who stay back, because they've realized that the city life and the concrete was not how it was intended to be. We as humans have made that choice and we live by our choices till the very day we succumb to the inevitable ( Unless you wanna go the Huxley way ;) ) There is so much in abundance yet it looks like it's all diminishing. It's the view from a city high rise that shouts out loud in claustrophobic disbelief.

Fresh Air is what we need ! (Let the greens flourish)

The heavenly abode of God and other uplifted lives, the Himalayas, they hold an experience for all who dare to go that distance. Within the conscious state and in complete awareness (i could do with some psychedelic interference of the 3rd kind ;), the extremes shall teach what nothing could ever do! Through, persistence, you shall find !

Time to get back ON !
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After my trance dance workshop at the beginning of “The Gathering of the Tribes” in Frankfurt this year over Easter, Roberdo asked me to write an article on trance dance for chaishop.com. Thinking about this for a long time, I decided eventually to try writing purely from my own perspective. Trance is difficult to write about. It is a very controversial subject. Trance states are non-rational; it is hard to be rational about them. So here are some of my thoughts about states of no-thought.

We all have a deep longing and need for ecstatic experience. We spend a great deal of our lives thinking, planning, talking, reading – being rational. Even when we take time off, we tend to fill it with activities where our brain waves are predominantly within the rational, thinking beta frequency range. The brain is like a complex muscle. While it needs to be exercised, it also needs and craves various forms of rest – but sleep alone is not enough.

During sleep, our brain wave frequencies fluctuate between deep sleep (delta) and dreaming (theta) with the associated periods of REM (rapid eye movement). This is a natural, unconscious process, vital to our survival. Studies have shown that even short-term deprivation of REM sleep seriously affects health. Whilst awake, we consciously determine our states of mind by what we do. We mostly limit ourselves, through the conditioning of competitive society, to the beta frequencies. We need a break, time out from concentration and rationality – we need to experience states of trance or ecstasy in our waking lives, as a balance to all that thinking.

There are many ways of inducing conscious trance states which slow the brain wave frequencies from the predominant beta, down to the relaxed, intuitive alpha, or even the theta frequencies which are associated with dreaming and deep trance. Meditation, chanting mantras, guided imagery, hypnosis, holotropic breathwork and tantric sex are some of the ways humans have developed over the ages, but perhaps the oldest of all is trance dance.

In many primitive societies, ecstatic dance rituals were of great importance and were practised extensively. I am sure that many of these ancient traditions have been lost but some are still with us today. The San or Bushmen of southern Africa still dance themselves regularly into ecstasy. The Masai of Kenya, the Bwiti of Gabon, the Gnawa of Morocco and the Sangomas (traditional healers) of South Africa all practice ritualistic trance dance. However, the practice is certainly not confined to Africa. Australian Aborigines, Sufis, Druids, Siberian shamans, the native peoples of North and South America all practise(d) some form of ecstatic or trance-inducing dance. Even in modern Europe, old trance dance traditions still survive. Among them are the Tarantella or spider dance of southern Italy, Spanish Flamenco and the Cornish floral dance with its Celtic roots.




A deep-seated longing for ecstasy, for a break in the tedium of day-to-day survival, has, I believe, led many of the younger generation in modern, industrial society back to trance dance. It is surely no coincidence that the drug most associated with the dance culture is known as ecstasy. Electronic dance music also reflects this association through the Goa or psychedelic trance genres. Twenty years ago hardly anyone had heard of house parties, even in Chicago where they first started. In that short space of time, a dance culture has developed and spread all over the world with its raves, techno or Goa parties. Using modern technology, young people are recreating a space in their lives for trance and ecstasy, with or without drugs.

It seems to me, that in this age of virtually unlimited information and communication, the experience of our ancestors, possibly dating from the stone-age, is re-awakening in us and urging us to dance ourselves into trance. It is not only in the dance culture that we find a renewal of interest in trance dance. There are many people who have written about it, some of whom are Felicitas Goodman, Gabrielle Roth and Frank Natale. There are loads of web sites about ecstatic dance, mainly in the U.S.A., with information and events of all kinds.

So what is trance dance? How can it lead to ecstasy and what is it good for? Here I am going to describe only my own personal experiences and observations.

When I am in a state of trance, I call it being in the flow. I don’t think about how to do anything or what I may be doing. I am the action. So, if I am dancing, I am the dance. It is hard to express. I might also say: it dances me. Thoughts, feelings and sensations come and go; they flicker through my mind and body like the lights that accompany me in the dance. My boundaries dissolve and I lose my sense of self – a drop of water falling into the ocean, becoming part of everything. “I” am no longer there; my tiny, separate self melts into the infinite, all-embracing “WE”. Time becomes elastic to the point of timelessness. This is sometimes blissful, even ecstatic; sometimes meditative and tranquil. Dancing is my meditation, my gateway to an altered state of consciousness which I need just as much as I need to think and function as an individual in society.

There are many shades of trance experience, varying from light to very deep. I can fall into a light trance whilst doing the washing-up – watching my hands as they work away, seemingly by themselves. It is a great way of making tedious jobs fun but trance dancing, for me, is the best fun of all. Far more than fun, it is deeply healing and rejuvenating. It strengthens my self-esteem while increasing my capacity for empathy. Regularly dancing myself into a state of ecstatic trance greatly reduces my tendencies to be irritable and depressed.



I am not young. I was born in 1949; so, as I write this in 2007, I am nearly sixty. Never too old to dance, I’m gonna bop till I drop. The younger generations of ravers and party-people in the dance scene richly deserve my thanks. They have made it possible for me to enjoy my passion for trance dance to an extent which was not thinkable before the arrival of electronic dance music, at least not in Berlin where I live. There aren’t many shamans practising ancient trance rituals here and it is a long way to the Kalahari where the remnants of the San still live and dance. The rock concerts and the discos I went to in the 1960s, 70s and 80s were not the ideal venues for trance dance. The music was not appropriate and the social constraints were far greater than at a rave.

Here in Berlin, I can go dancing every weekend to music which I have grown to love with people who are generally younger than my oldest son. These people always seem very welcoming towards me despite my deeply lined face. They are often amused to see me partying with my daughter who is 22. Unfortunately though, I am becoming more and more worried about these beautiful, young people.

It seems to me that the consumption of drugs has continually increased and broadened since the early 1990s when I went to my first techno party. Drugs have always been associated with the dance scene. Here we find another similarity with ancient, shamanic trance rituals where substances such as cannabis, psilocybin, peyote, ayahuasca, datura, iboga and Amanita muscaria are regularly used to help open the doors of perception and induce altered states of consciousness. The shamans, however, regarded these plants with great respect, to be taken sparingly and only mixed when they were known to be complementary, such as cocoa and psilocybin. But these days, in addition to higher dosages and far too frequent use, people think nothing of mixing all kinds of drugs at raves: for example, cocaine and/or speed with alcohol. High dosages of these antagonistic drugs taken together can produce a very dangerous cocktail. Apparently, many party people want to get “out of it” every weekend rather than “into the flow”.

By practising techniques which are simple to learn, it is possible to dance ourselves into trance with little, or no help from drugs at all. These techniques include de-focussing of thought and vision, careful, rhythmic hyperventilation combined with movement (used by both Sufis and San Bushmen in trance rituals) and grounding in the here-and-now. Together with the sensory over-load of appropriate music at high volume, light shows and the accepting club ambience, this can be a powerful and far more healthy cocktail for trance.

When many people dance together in trance, they experience a sense of community. This shared activity, which is a celebration of life, strengthens the bond of our shared humanity. The awareness of being part of a single, all-pervading consciousness helps us to empathise more deeply with one another – to be more accepting not only of others, but also of ourselves.

Fulfilling that longing for the ecstatic, transforming experience, trance dancing is remembering; like coming home to a wonderland where we all belong – one infinite, shared consciousness.

Rob Bennett in Berlin August 2007

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