Exploring Psychedelic Trance and Electronic Dance Music in Modern Culture (PDFDrive)

Exploring Psychedelic
Trance and Electronic

Dance Music in Modern
Culture
Emília Simão
Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal
Armando Malheiro da Silva

University of Porto, Portugal
Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães

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Editorial Advisory Board
Célia Maria Martins Soares, Instituto Superior da Maia, Portugal
Heitor Manuel Pereira Pinto da Cunha Alvelos, University of Porto, Portugal
José Manuel Pereira Azevedo, University of Porto, Portugal
José Carlos Lopes de Miranda, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal
Manuel Antunes da Cunha, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal
Maria José Mendes Monteiro Amorim Rios de Magalhães, Portuguese Catholic
University, Portugal
J. Mark Percival, Queen Margaret University, UK
Matthew Worley, University of Reading, UK
Maria Paula de Abreu Ferreira da Silva, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Paula Maria Guerra Tavares, University of Porto, Portugal
Tim Alexander Majchrzak, Muenster University, Germany
Vítor Júlio da Silva e Sá, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal
William Straw, McGill University, Canada
Table of Contents
Foreword.............................................................................................................xiii
; ;
Preface. ................................................................................................................ xv
; ;
Chapter 1 ;
Biogenetic Structural Perspectives on Shamanism and Raves: The Origins of

Collective Ritual Dance.......................................................................................... 1
; ;
Michael James Winkelman, Arizona State University, USA

; ;
Chapter 2 ;
The Roots of Trance: Reflections of Space Rock, Psychedelia, Krautrock, and

Post Punk Live in the 1970s and 1980s................................................................ 38
; ;
Peter Smith, University of Sunderland, UK

; ;
Chapter 3 ;
Transformational Festivals: A New Religious Movement?.................................. 58

; ;
Andrew Johner, Lesley University, USA

; ;
Chapter 4 ;
Psychedelic Trance and Multimedia Neo-Rituals: The Modern Shamanic

Tools?. .................................................................................................................. 87
; ;
Emília Simão, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

; ;
Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

; ;
Chapter 5 ;
Psychedelic Trance on the Web: Exploring Digital Parties at Second Life. ...... 109 ; ;

; ;

; ;
Armando Malheiro da Silva, University of Porto, Portugal

; ;
Chapter 6 ;
Requirements of a Digital Platform for Psytrance Parties.................................. 132 ; ;

;
& Minho University, Portugal ;
Chapter 7 ;
Psytrance Influences on Touchless Interactive Experiences: New Roles for

Performers and Audience within the Electronic Music Scenario....................... 146 ; ;
Paulo César Teles, University of Campinas, Brazil ; ;
Aidan Boyle, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany

; ;
Chapter 8 ;
Exploring Psytrance as Technognosis: A Hypothesis of Participation. ............. 170 ; ;
Psyence Vedava, Independent Researcher, Greece ; ;
Chapter 9 ;
The Paradox of Self in the Imagination of Goa Trance: The Trancer................ 206 ; ;
Sara Constança, Independent Researcher, Portugal

; ;
Chapter 10 ;
The Paradox of Self in the Imagination of Goa Trance: The Dance-Floor........ 234 ; ;

; ;

; ;
Chapter 11 ;
Pushing the Boundaries: Investigating the Musical and Social Aesthetics of

Dark Psytrance.................................................................................................... 260
; ;
Botond Vitos, Independent Researcher, Germany

; ;
Chapter 12 ;
Arcadian Electrickery: Locating “Englishness” in England’s Psytrance

Culture and Sonic Aesthetic............................................................................... 278
; ;
Gemma Farrell, University of Sussex, UK ; ;
Chapter 13 ;
Flying Away: Electronic Dance Music, Dance Culture, Psytrance, and New
Sounds in Portugal.............................................................................................. 307
; ;
Paula Guerra, University of Porto, Portugal

; ;
Compilation of References............................................................................... 337
; ;
About the Contributors.................................................................................... 372

; ;
Index. ................................................................................................................. 376

; ;
Detailed Table of Contents
Foreword.............................................................................................................xiii
; ;
Preface. ................................................................................................................ xv
; ;
Chapter 1 ;
Biogenetic Structural Perspectives on Shamanism and Raves: The Origins of

Collective Ritual Dance.......................................................................................... 1
; ;
Michael James Winkelman, Arizona State University, USA

; ;
The worldwide development of raves and similar collective rituals characterized

by all night communal rituals involving dance, drumming, music, and often the
use of psychedelic substances can be understood as a modern manifestation of
the same biological principles underlying shamanism. The shamanic ritual was a
nighttime ceremony which engaged all of the community in a powerful interaction
with the spirit world as the shaman beat drums or rattled while singing, chanting
and dancing. The common underlying biogenetic structures of shamanism and raves
involve: the social functions of ritual; the effects of dance and music as systems for
social bonding and emotional communication; and the effects on consciousness that
produce alterations of emotions, identity and consciousness and personal healing. ;
Chapter 2 ;
The Roots of Trance: Reflections of Space Rock, Psychedelia, Krautrock, and

Post Punk Live in the 1970s and 1980s................................................................ 38
; ;
Peter Smith, University of Sunderland, UK

; ;
This chapter explores the roots of trance by taking a reflective and historical view of
the influences of 1970s and 1980s music on the development of trance. The author
reflects on concerts which he personally attended, analysing them for music, lyrics, style,
performance, and concepts which formed the roots of trance. This includes performances
from the following genres: space rock, psychedelia, Krautrock, and post punk. The
chapter discusses performances by the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown, The
Edgar Broughton Band, Kraftwerk, Joy Division, and Public Image Limited. In each
case those elements which have contributed to the development of trance are highlighted. ;
Chapter 3 ;
Transformational Festivals: A New Religious Movement?.................................. 58 ; ;
Andrew Johner, Lesley University, USA

; ;
With the growing popularity of psychedelic trance worldwide, as well as a general

resurgence of electronic music in the United States, several new forms of music
festivals are one the rise in North America- among these are transformational festivals.
Transformational festivals in North America are a progeny of psychedelic trance,
Burning Man, and full-moon rave culture. Transformational festivals incorporate
spiritual practices such as yoga, chanting, meditation and ecstatic dance alongside
their primary exhibits of musical and psychedelic entertainment. The festivals
advertise a predominating intention of providing attendees with multiple avenues
of self-development, therapeutic healing, and spiritual transformation. The purpose
of this chapter is to access elements of belonging, identity, religiosity, and elitism
among transformational culture and their transformational festival events. This
chapter will offer comparison to religious revivals, cults, new religious movements,
millenarianism, and cultural revitalization movements. ;
Chapter 4 ;
Psychedelic Trance and Multimedia Neo-Rituals: The Modern Shamanic

Tools?. .................................................................................................................. 87
; ;

; ;

; ;
This chapter examines the relevance of multimedia technologies in Psychedelic

Trance gatherings, exploring its technical, sensory and spiritual convergence.
Technology devices have always been a part of our lives, from the first artefacts of
early humanity to the most sophisticated of our era, where technology has taken
control of some aspects of our lives. In the late twentieth century, a new stage of
history characterized by the transformation of our material culture through mechanisms
of a new technological paradigm started. We live in communion with all kinds of
technologies that complement and extend us in most of our existential aspects, not
only in a technical way but also a personal, emotional and even spiritual level. The
electronic dance music and its relevance in modern cultures can be a reflexion of
this reality, where new technologies and multimedia tools have awakened neo-ritual
practices in Psychedelic Trance gatherings, evoking tribal experiences with shamanic
foundations, and mediated by high-tech guide elements. ;
Chapter 5 ;
Psychedelic Trance on the Web: Exploring Digital Parties at Second Life. ...... 109 ; ;

; ;

; ;
Armando Malheiro da Silva, University of Porto, Portugal

; ;
This chapter proposes an approach about Psychedelic Trance tribe behaviours

and manifestations in digital environments, and cyber ritual dynamics beyond
the virtual parties in Second Life. Many spatial communities are simultaneously
digital communities, and both became complements and extensions of one another.
Psychedelic Trance movements and manifestations have been happening through
all kinds of physical spaces, now also extended to digital spaces. Psytrance neo-
nomads are now techno-nomads, moving to, from, and through the web, redefining
themselves, their practices and their gatherings. In this scenario, Psychedelic Trance
branches emerges everywhere, especially in social networks and three-dimensional
immersive environments like Second Life. This digital migration is not only making
the tribe growing, is also enhancing boundaries and increasing the individual and
collective consciousness of its members. Nevertheless, even if the Trancers became
simultaneously physical and virtual natives, the digital parties do not seems to
replace their outside experiences. ;
Chapter 6 ;
Requirements of a Digital Platform for Psytrance Parties.................................. 132

; ;

;
& Minho University, Portugal ;
Digital platforms that support virtual worlds are becoming more complex and there
is a growing fusion between real life and digital objects. Wireless technologies,
screens’ resolution and colours, 3D technologies, virtual and augmented reality
can change the way a user experiences a virtual environment. This chapter explores
input and output technologies for computing devices and discusses the technological
developments that constitute requirements for the success of non-physical trance
parties or, as some would prefer to call them, virtual trance parties. ;
Chapter 7 ;
Psytrance Influences on Touchless Interactive Experiences: New Roles for

Performers and Audience within the Electronic Music Scenario....................... 146
; ;
Paulo César Teles, University of Campinas, Brazil

; ;
Aidan Boyle, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany

; ;
In the fields of new media, art, and technology, we live and evolve together with
multimedia interactivedigital technology. This symbiosis has made it possible to
develop novel works that dialogue with theexploratory nature of the human being
when confronted with unfamiliar technological equipment. The electronic music
scenario brought us some elements that inspired and provoked us in this quest. The
Psytrance style in particular made us realize that once a minimal simple harmony
was supported by a solid rhythm, the audience could interact and control many of the
sound clusters available, solely with their body movement. In this chapter we report
experimental results and analysis, which point towards an approach for composing
electronic music through the distinct and innovative behaviour of the participants,
turning them into real performers, as well as transforming the role of the DJ/VJ by
engaging them in a two-way dialogue with their audience. ;
Chapter 8 ;
Exploring Psytrance as Technognosis: A Hypothesis of Participation. ............. 170

; ;
Psyence Vedava, Independent Researcher, Greece

; ;
This chapter explores the performative process occurring in the dance-floor/

stage of a psytrance event as ‘technognosis’, a concept that combines media, arts,
performance and technology with the notion of gnosis. Technognosis is proposed
as an overarching concept, able to theorize the whole transpersonal range of the
psytrance experience, including its spiritual dimension, enabled by the induction and
facilitation of alterations in consciousness. The psytrance experience is analyzed it
terms of aesthetic, visionary and mystical experiences understood here as qualities of
gnosis. At the same time, this chapter contends that technognosis affects participation
and invites its multi-media and performative expression, triggering fundamental
changes in ways of human thinking, imagining and operating; potentiating the
adoption of participation as the next paradigm in human existence. In parallel, the
chapter proposes a post-modern approach in researching and analyzing the psytrance
phenomenon as a whole, combining media and performance studies with religious
studies methodological tools. ;
Chapter 9 ;
The Paradox of Self in the Imagination of Goa Trance: The Trancer................ 206
; ;

; ;
This chapter deals with the first part of the investigation in regards to the experience
of self in the Goa Trance dance-floor. The author analyzes the paradox of self in a
phenomenological scope without going to deep into philosophic concepts but deep
enough to give a sufficient basis to understand the arguments of the next chapter
with same title and different subtitle. After dealing with the self, a notion of what is
that we call real is then put forward within a framework from the Portuguese poet
Teixeira de Pascoaes. This will also be in the context of an analyses of the Pythagorean
tetractys in order to understand what can be said that is or is not existence in a
conceptual stand point. This will set forward the necessary basis for understanding
what is happening with the pure trancer in the Goa Trance dance-floor. ;
Chapter 10 ;
The Paradox of Self in the Imagination of Goa Trance: The Dance-Floor........ 234 ; ;

; ;

; ;
This chapter deals with the second part of the investigation concerning the experience
of self in the Goa Trance dance-floor. The authors present and develop the presentation
of Goa Trance parties with a general view and special emphasis on the relationship
between the DJs performance and the participation of the trancers. The genre is
explained wile the connections between all participants on the party or festival are
explored, with regards to Goa Trance. We eventually come to the conclusion that this
genre facilitates a self-conscious analyses and its subsequent non conceptual elevation
towards a self which is shared in a non-egocentric experience. This investigation
proposes that the DJ is not really the shaman figure that people usually assume to
be but in fact this shaman figure has to be a result of the collective efforts that build
the spirit of the dance-floor. In conclusion, we realize that the DJ is the one which
has the responsibility to keep this level of connection. ;
Chapter 11 ;
Pushing the Boundaries: Investigating the Musical and Social Aesthetics of

Dark Psytrance.................................................................................................... 260
; ;
Botond Vitos, Independent Researcher, Germany

; ;
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Melbourne psytrance scene, this

chapter addresses the musical and social aesthetics of the dark psytrance (darkpsy)
electronic dance music subgenre and its furious dance floors. The interviewees of my
research often regard psytrance tracks as the musical transpositions of psychedelic
drug – particularly LSD – experiences. Dark psytrance can be considered the
hard core of psytrance, sending its LSD-infused musical structures into overdrive.
Regarded as the flagship in the evolution of psytrance by fans and considered to be
uncomfortably or even menacingly intensive by others, darkpsy follows the basic
imperative of becoming increasingly faster and adopting more abstract forms of
expression, destabilising rigid boundaries and catapulting the listener into a zone
of the unknown. Such dissolution of meaning is celebrated on dance floors of high
intensity, where psychedelic music and drug become integral parts of a media
ecology that is aimed at the presentation of the unpresentable. ;
Chapter 12 ;
Arcadian Electrickery: Locating “Englishness” in England’s Psytrance

Culture and Sonic Aesthetic............................................................................... 278
; ;
Gemma Farrell, University of Sussex, UK

; ;
Psychedelic Trance (psytrance) is a sub-genre within electronic dance music (EDM)

that is notable for its longevity considering EDM mutates and evolves so rapidly. It
has flourishing scenes worldwide and for many participants it constitutes a lifestyle
and an integral part of their identity. Psytrance has been discussed in terms of its
global and local expressions; this chapter seeks to explore how England as a local
node reinterprets the culture of a global scene. Some key characteristics of English
psytrance are discussed via types of national identity outlined by scholars like
Martin Cloonan and a further attribute specific to English psytrance, a humorous
psychedelic sensibility, is argued for. ;
Chapter 13 ;
Flying Away: Electronic Dance Music, Dance Culture, Psytrance, and New
Sounds in Portugal.............................................................................................. 307
; ;
Paula Guerra, University of Porto, Portugal

; ;
The EDM has been growing since the 1980s with a set of features that work
simultaneously as distinctive features, but also as the basis from which the genre
obtains its legitimacy, from within the contemporary music production field. Starting
from this approach, our main goal is to highlight an important proposition of post-
subcultural studies: although electronic dance music, club culture and psytrance are
globalized, there is no doubt that local appropriations are of the utmost importance.
So our focus in this chapter will be to analyze the emergence and dynamics of
psytrance at a global level and at the Portuguese level, based on the inputs from post-
subcultural studies. By addressing psytrance, we propose to discuss these theories
taking into consideration their potential heuristic nature in view of the interpretation
of these contemporary musical and cultural manifestations, characterized by being
complex, global, and local in nature. ;
Compilation of References............................................................................... 337

; ;
About the Contributors.................................................................................... 372

; ;
Index. ................................................................................................................. 376

; ;
xiii
Foreword
The dilemma of scholarly interest in subcultural activity is always bound to the

resonance that a given subculture may hold on a broader socio-cultural or historical
spectrum. This is rendered more of a challenge the more a subculture is placed (or,
for that matter, places itself) further from the radar of mainstream legibility. Yet as
the time of the grand narratives has now effectively come to an end as pressaged
by Lyotard, it is often in discreet fringe cultural manifestations that one can find
templates, signs and perplexities that may illuminate a reading of contemporaneity:
a contemporaneity where technology and subjectivity converge and potentiate one
another without paradox, where rituals of self-reinvention and communal emancipa-
tion lead us strangely to the evidence of a current hunger for archetypes, an inevi-
tability of their presence, even if of a spectral nature. Shamanism, rebirth, trance,
hallucination, travel, dance, enlightenment: each of these words convey an ancestral
territory of action, experience or vocation - and each of these equally belongs in the
lexicon of Psychedelic Trance, the core subject of the present book.
Psychedelic Trance has perhaps cultivated and enjoyed both a radical, existential
approach to Electronic Dance Music, and a cautious self-sufficiency that has ensured
a semantic and operative distance from mass consumption. These characteristics,
one may argue, have provided particularly favourable circumstances for its scholarly
study, both as a comparatively autonomous ecosystem and as a potential template for
a wider set of cross-disciplinary studies. In a way, Psychedelic Trance becomes the
ideal point of convergence for the study of a series of key contemporary phenomena
that, while remaining profoundly of the now, find their potential decipherment in a
renewed reading of ancestrality. Where modernity saw choices to be made, music
subcultures re-harmonise: there is suddenly no desired (nor experienced) contradic-
tion between automation and expression, no fracture between online and offline,
no separation between mental and geographical traveling, between communion
and introspection, between entertainment and enlightenment. If subculture was the
projection of shared utopia of youth, under scientific scrutiny it has always car-
ried the promise of mythological revelation, of anticipation and inevitability: just
as the eradication of ritual from the social sphere of modernity fosters its endless
xiv
ontological return in various forms (often chaotic, sometimes catastrophic), music

subcultures, particularly those in possession of a more radical lexicon of procedures,
reacquire a purpose of social re-inscription of the individual in face of the collective,
of anthropological placement of the self, of lexical essence.
This is therefore why a book such as the present one is a valuable and timely
scholarly statement: it not only unravels and deciphers a multitude of aspects per-
taining to one of the most fertile territories of dance music, it successfully informs
a range of further territories and disciplines, both historical and forward-looking.
Further to prior sociological and anthropological scrutiny, this book dramatically
expands the scope of analysis, on the evidence that, in face of a seemingly expo-
nential complexity of cultural, historical, philosophical, technological, semiotic and
creative rupture, it is through the multiple, contrasting and complementary weav-
ing of these potential disciplinary contributions that we may unravel an otherwise
impenetrable cognitive coherence.
Heitor Alvelos
Heitor Alvelos, PhD Royal College of Art, 2003 / MFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1992.
Professor of Design and New Media, University of Porto. Course Director for PhD Design,U.Porto/
UPTEC. Vice-President of Scientific Board for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Foundation
for Science and Technology (Portugal). Director (U.Porto) of ID+, Design Research Institute: group
“Media and Perplexity”. Outreach Director (2010-2014) of UTAustin-Portugal program in Digital
Media. Curator of FuturePlaces.org (2008- present). Principal Tutor of Drawing Studio, Royal College
of Art (1999-2001). Advisory Board member, visual essayist and monograph editor for Manobras no
Porto (QREN, 2011-13). Advisory Board member for Digital Communities, Ars Electronica. Concep-
tual sound carrier and designer with Touch Music, musician at Stopestra, co-director of 3-33.me. AV
projects include Autodigest, Antifluffy and Before Surgery.
xv
Preface
The electronic dance music (EDM) has given birth to a new understanding of cer-
tain relations: men and machine, art and technology, ancient rituals and neo-ritual-
ism, ancestral and postmodern shamans, physical and virtual environments, natural
and artificial elements, among other concepts visible in the world of Psychedelic
Trance. This scenario has brought forth certain neo-ritualistic practices grounded
in spirituality, using high tech elements as the guides to imaginary worlds and al-
ternative states of consciousness.
Technology has led to a growing disenchantment with the world. Despite that,
some mystical impulses continue to incorporate those notions of myth into a new
electronic state of enchantment. Created as a mixture of retro-futurism, spirituality,
free thinking and technology, Psychedelic Trance is no longer merely a musical
genre: it’s a state of mind and a way of life shared by a worldwide movement that
goes beyond the physical reality into virtual and transglobal dimensions.
Growing at the same time as it spreads throughout the virtual world, digital
platforms like social networks and online communities are creating new identi-
ties and redefining the concepts of self, tribe, subculture, belonging, inner space,
consciousness, psychedelic, party, trance, experience, immersion, interaction, real,
virtual, among others. It is then clear that the electronic dance music cultures are a
vast universe which can and should be explored, interpreted and explained.
More so, it is now clear that the conventional understanding of the world has been
breached by a complex and dynamic reality, permeable and constantly changing as
it is today. The postmodern man turned himself into a biopsychosocial being that
can no longer be understood in isolation. We have come to realize that cells, men,
machines, society, knowledge and cosmos seem to follow the same principles of
organization and unity. Even with some valuable insights offered by recent scien-
tific publications about this issue, we feel there is a need to go further and combine
approaches from several academic fields to offer an interdisciplinary and holistic
view on the subject.
xvi
Although the scope of this book has as its common thread communication and
technology sciences, its approach towards the social and the human was conducted
with a deliberately intent to bring new contributions to the understanding of these
fields. Assimilating knowledge from several academic views and personal experi-
ences, gathering transdisciplinary contributions from the communication sciences,
multimedia and digital platforms, new information and communication technologies,
anthropology, sociology, psychology, biology, philosophy, religion studies, aesthetics
and art, cultural studies and musicology in a single publication has revealed itself
a tremendous task with powerful results. Academics, researchers, advanced-level
students, developers, artists, producers, trance-listeners, electronic music followers
or just curious readers will find it a useful resource with noteworthy topics about
the most recent psychedelic incursions into the reality of Psychedelic Trance.
This book is organized into thirteen chapters. The authors are academics from
different backgrounds with a professional and personal interest in EDM, music
cultures, music scenes, and specifically in Psychedelic Trance.
The first chapter explores the biogenetic structural perspectives of shamanism,
raves and collective dance rituals, music and psychedelic substances. The author
addresses common themes underlying shamanic rituals and raves, focusing on the
social and emotional bonding, personal healing, and altered states of consciousness
brought by the symbiosis of dance and music. In this approach, the rave parties are
seen as modern manifestations of the same biological principles of shamanism.
The second chapter presents an historical retrospective of the roots of trance in
a musical context considering the influences of some bands from the 1970´s and
1980´s. The author reflects on his own experience and analyzes concepts such as
music, lyrics and others, including a discussion on various genres like Psychedelic
Rock, Electronic or Punk artists as contributing to the development of trance, in the
emergence of Psychedelic Trance.
Noting how Psychedelic Trance events have been growing and taking new names
as psychedelic gatherings or transformational festivals, the third chapter suggests
them as new religious movements presenting a comparison between religious cults
and Psychedelic Trance events. The author discusses elements such as belonging,
identity, spiritual practices, self- development and religiosity among the transfor-
mational culture based on these new forms of musical festivals, taking for example
those happening in North America.
Furthermore, it is clear that EDM is inseparable from the technological factor, not
only in the musical conception but also in all the surrounding that characterize most
of its events. The fourth chapter explores the relevance of multimedia technologies
in Psychedelic Trance gatherings, exploring these mediums as high tech environ-
ments where technology converges with sensitive and spiritual experiences. In it, the
authors advocate that multimedia environments provide visual and auditory effects
xvii
that help the projection of the individual to altered states of consciousness. These
elements are suggested as modern shamanic tools, replacing and complementing
shadows, chants and drums used in ancient tribal dance rituals.
The Psychedelic Trance movement is also a product of the information society,
now anchored more than ever in cyberspace, virtual environments and online com-
munities. This subject is addressed in the fifth chapter, which explores the Psychedelic
Trance tribe’s new digital territories, practices and online behaviors, as well as the
relation between physical and digital communities. The migration to the web has
been transforming this subculture into an enormous global movement from which
more and more gatherings are flowing, including three-dimensional environments
such as Second Life. Based on ethnographical field work, the authors come within
reach of the reality of Psychedelic Trance virtual gatherings and analyze the position
of the virtual Psy parties in relation to the conventional meetings.
Following this frame of thought, the sixth chapter presents the main technologi-
cal requirements of a digital platform for virtual events. Digital platforms provide
fused experiences between offline real life and online digital objects, and in this
chapter the authors present examples of computing devices considered essential for
the highest experience of virtual Psychedelic Trance gatherings.
More so, Electronic music is often used in interactive artistic installations. In
the seventh chapter, the authors present the role of Psychedelic Trance on touchless
interactive experiences. This approach reports experimental results of multimedia
interactive digital experiences with electronic music and human behavior, when
confronted with unfamiliar technological equipments. The project consists of a
geodesic structure where people interact with the sound through their body move-
ments, with Psychedelic Trance music providing specific rhythms and sound that
allow interesting and harmonious results between the audience, captured by sensors
which generate different sounds.
The eighth chapter explores the technognosis concept, which combines media,
arts, performance and technology with the notion of gnosis, contextualized in the
spiritual dimension of Psychedelic Trance parties’ dance-floor. Psychedelic Trance
as a phenomenon is analyzed as the possible enhancer of a new paradigm of human
existence, articulating aesthetic, visionary experiences, multimedia and performance
expression, with religious studies.
The ninth chapter explores the paradox of self through a phenomenological ap-
proach within its philosophic concepts to understand the notions of self, real and
existence on the context of the trancers mind-set. Inspired by the works of poet
Teixeira de Pascoaes and Ancient Greek sage Pythagoras, the author reveals the
trancer not only as a follower of a specific music style but as someone who is in a
deep quest of existence while experiencing Goa Trance on the dance-floor.
xviii
Continuing in the same line, the tenth chapter explores the experience of self in
the Goa Trance dance-floor focusing on the relationship between the DJ´s perfor-
mance and the participation of the trancers on the dance-floor. Based on the musical
sub gender of Psychedelic Trance, it also demonstrates that Goa Trance provides a
non-self-centered experience, where the shamanic presence is not produced by the
DJ individually (despite his responsibility in keeping the whole connection process)
but is otherwise coming from the collective spirit of the dance-floor in which the
DJ is also immersed.
The eleventh chapter does a brief review of the generic musical attributes of
Psychedelic Trance in the global scene of electronic dance, based on latest academic
contributions. The overall aim is to interpret the culture of local psychedelic scene
of England in accordance to the global scene.
The twelfth chapter deals with Dark Psytrance as one of the branches of Psychedelic
Trance and the musical transpositions of psychedelic experiences with LSD, based
on ethnographic fieldwork. It seeks to discuss the musical and social aesthetics of
Dark Psytrance and its manifestation in the Australian electronic dance music scene.
Finally, the thirteenth and last chapter analyzes the emergence and dynamics
of Psychedelic Trance based on the inputs from post-subcultural studies, in order
to analyze the phenomena at a global and Portuguese level. The author discusses
sociological theories, considering various heuristic interpretations of electronic
dance music cultures in which Psychedelic Trance is included.
The technological man and its interaction with the postmodern world are sometimes
inspired and shaped according to the most natural and primitive essence of human
beings, leading to the creation of new forms of reality. The new communication
technologies and the global access to information may have spread the phenomenon
of Psychedelic Trance on a global scale; however, it has also led to the need of an
approach to Psy natives beyond the borders of their physical gatherings. Trancers
became simultaneously cyber-natives and retro-futuristic characters, placed both in
an organic and technological nature. Taking from its neo-tribal context and gather-
ings, this genre has produced a ritualization process where music and dancing bodies
prevail in both natural and artificial atmospheres of spirituality and technologies.
Through psychedelic or transformational festivals, the trancers and their neo-tribes
seem to attempt to rescue some imaginary paradise lost - and simultaneously take
back their connection with nature, the universe and themselves.
xix
The work found in this book attempts to help understand the universe of Psy-
chedelic Trance, its natives, and their belonging to a bug global neo-tribe. United
by a beat, they are one. We are One!
Emília Simão


xx
1
Chapter 1
Biogenetic Structural
Perspectives on
Shamanism and Raves:
The Origins of Collective
Ritual Dance
Michael James Winkelman

Arizona State University, USA
ABSTRACT
The worldwide development of raves and similar collective rituals characterized
by all night communal rituals involving dance, drumming, music, and often the
use of psychedelic substances can be understood as a modern manifestation of
the same biological principles underlying shamanism. The shamanic ritual was a
nighttime ceremony which engaged all of the community in a powerful interaction
with the spirit world as the shaman beat drums or rattled while singing, chanting
and dancing. The common underlying biogenetic structures of shamanism and raves
involve: the social functions of ritual; the effects of dance and music as systems for
social bonding and emotional communication; and the effects on consciousness that
produce alterations of emotions, identity and consciousness and personal healing.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch001
Copyright ©2015, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Biogenetic Structural Perspectives on Shamanism and Raves
INTRODUCTION
In recent decades societies worldwide experienced a rapid growth of phenomena

of raves, trance parties and electronic dance music. Why are youth drawn to an
emotional participation in these practices involving overnight gatherings charac-
terized by drumming, driving music, dancing and other technologies for altering
consciousness such as psychoactive substances?
Rave practices can be seen as a social phenomenon with cultural bases. But St. John
(2004) notes that in spite of the heterogeneity of global rave phenomena, it manifests
considerable homogeneity. A number of investigators (e.g., Hutson, 2000; St. John, 2004;
Tramacchi, 2004; Rill, 2010) have noted that the cross-cultural similarities in raves have
substantial parallels with the ancient practices of shamanism. Ravers also have concep-
tualized their practices as a form of “technoshamanism,” with the DJ functioning as a
“harmonic navigator” who manages the group mood and mind (Hutson, 2000).
In comparing raves with a selected group of shamanistic entheogenic practices,
Tramacchi points to their commonalities, including: ritual preparation; the overnight
character of the practices; the centrality of dance and music; pharmacologically-
induced alterations of consciousness; and the formation of social relations that en-
hance communitas, characterized by intensified group identification. The enhanced
communitas involves a broader trend of ‘retribalization’ of modern society and an
effort to reconnect with the matrix of ritual (Takahashi, 2004).
This effort after a reconnection with ritual reflects a human longing and need
for connection with something basic to our human nature. These aspects of human
nature can be best appreciated by understanding the nature and origins of shaman-
ism. Correspondences of rave practices with the cross-cultural characteristics of
shamanism reflect similar adaptations to something basic to human nature. This
paper proposes an explanation of the appeal of raves and similar practices can be
found in the biogenetic bases of shamanism. Shamanistic practices are character-
ized by all night communal rituals involving dance, drumming, music, and often
the use of psychedelic substances. Interdisciplinary research indicates that all of
these practices have deep evolutionary roots that help to explain why such similar
phenomenon was found in pre-modern cultures around the world.
This paper leaves the description of the new manifestations of these technologies
of consciousness, community and self to other articles here and instead focuses on
providing a biogenetic explanation for the forms and functions of these practices.
This biogenetic approach is comparative, beginning with an examination of the
similarity of the rave practices to shamanic and animal rituals to show how these
post-modern rave phenomena reflect adaptations to ancient biological facets of
human nature. These involve dispositions for activities involving nighttime ritual,
dancing, drumming and musical vocalization.
2
This paper proposes that the attraction of contemporary psychedelic trance par-
ties and raves have biological foundations in the effects of ritual, dance, music and
psychedelics on social relations, consciousness and well-being. These underlying
biogenetic structures of shamanism and raves have bases in: the social functions
of ritual in group integration; the effects of dance and music as systems for social
bonding and emotional communication; and the effects of alterations of conscious-
ness in producing alterations of emotions, identity and consciousness and personal
healing. Modern techniques of inducing “ecstasy” provide tools for enhancing so-
cial bonding, a connection with ancient impulses from deep-seated human needs.
Rituals elicit attachment related opioids, reinforcing community cohesion and
psychobiological synchrony of the group. Key to raves is musical forms that facili-
tate dance and alterations of consciousness (i.e., trance music, techno, drumming
and bass). Furthermore, these musical events are infamous for the use of MDMA
(3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, or colloquially “ecstasy”) as well as
other psychedelics, primarily LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) and psilocybin
mushrooms that alter consciousness. Understanding the biological bases of these
impulses allow us to better appreciate their roles in the post-modern world and why
raves integrate ritual, dance, music and psychedelic drugs in ways similar to ancient
shamanic practices.
SHAMANISM IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Long before the modern comparative research of Eliade (1951/1964), who popular-
ized the term shaman in his now classic Shamanism Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy,
there was widespread recognition of strikingly similarity of spiritual healers in cul-
tures in the pre-modern world and deep in human history and prehistory (Flaherty,
1992; Narby & Huxley, 2004). The shamanic ritual was a nighttime ceremony which
engaged all of the community in a powerful interaction with the spirit world as the
shaman beat drums or rattled while singing, chanting and dancing. The drama of the
shaman enacted struggles with animals, spirits and the forces of nature, producing
a ritual charged with fear, awe, and other powerful emotions. The shaman’s ritual
was typically focused as a curing ceremony, but was also the context within which
the relationship with the cosmos was produced. Eliade noted that shamanic ritual
was the most significant social activity of these societies, a “spectacle unequaled in
the world of daily experience” (1964, p. 511). This performance was the context for
expression of the basic cosmological, ecological and communal relations of society,
as well as spiritual and healing activities. Shamanic rituals were fundamental aspects
of the psychological security of the group; shamans fought spirits and disease and
defended “life, health, fertility, the world of light, against death, diseases, sterility,
3
disaster, and the world of darkness” (Eliade, 1964 p. 509). Following hours of singing,
dancing and drumming, the shaman collapsed exhausted or reclined on the ground
and was covered with blankets. Apparently unconscious, the shaman engaged in a
soul journey or magical flight, entering into the spirit world to communicate with
the spirits and to obtain their cooperation. Eliade characterized the shaman’s altera-
tion of consciousness as ecstasy “a trance during which his soul is believed to leave
his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld” (Eliade 1964, p. 5).
Eliade’s contentions of a cross-cultural distribution of these practices followed an
established trend of using shaman as a comparative term to refer to similar spiritual
healing practices found in foraging and other small-scale societies around the world.
The modern academic use of the word shaman has its origins in contacts of Euro-
peans with peoples in other societies, in particular the groups of Siberia (Flaherty,
1992). The origins of shaman in European languages in typically attributed to bor-
rowing of the Tungusic term šaman, which means “one who shakes”, referring to
the shaman’s agitated dance used to enter into an “ecstatic” state of consciousness
(but see Winkelman, 2010a, Chapter 2 for Indo-European cognates and etymology).
The use of the term shaman for the spiritual practitioners of other cultures was
driven by recognition of a remarkable similarity of the indigenous ritual practices
in many societies worldwide. The validity of the cross-cultural application of the
term shamanism is supported by cross-cultural research (Winkelman, 1992) which
shows worldwide similarities in shamans. These cross-cultural similarities indicate
that there is some biological disposition for these activities and the forms that they
take (Winkelman, 2010a, 2002). The necessity for developing a biological model of
shamanic practices in indicated by: 1) formal cross-cultural research (Winkelman,
1992) that provides empirical evidence of the uniformity of shamanic ritual prac-
tices across cultures; and 2) the homologies of shamanic ritual with ritual activities
of primates, especially the hominids (Winkelman, 2010a, Chapter 6; 2010b&c).
This research shows that cross-culturally, foraging societies had a professional
figure of the shaman, the most prominent figure of the community, and a charismatic
leader who demanded respect and even fear. The shamanic ritual was typically a
nocturnal event which was attended by all of the local community. The ritual ac-
tivity focused on dance, chanting and drumming, typified by the shaman dancing,
drumming and rattling for hours. These activities may also be engaged in by the
community, who may join the shaman in singing and clapping. A central part of
the shamanic ritual is an enactment through the dance of a struggle with the spirits,
often impersonating the typical behaviors of the animal powers that the shaman sum-
moned. The primary ritual activities were healing, providing protecting from spirits
and malevolent shamans; and divination, acquiring information about the causes of
illness and a myriad of other circumstances of relevance to the community—where
to hunt, when to move, the plans of enemies and the location of group members.
4
The pre-modern practices of shamanism also emphasized the shaman’s ability to

enter into an alteration of consciousness caused by the drumming, singing, chanting,
dancing, as well as other practices (e.g., fasting, sexual abstinence, extreme exertion,
painful austerities, dream incubation and psychotropic drugs). Similar practices were
used during the training of the neophyte shaman, who was typically selected based
on the content of the experiences that occurred during these vision quests that were
part of adult formation. During this training period, the shaman initiate typically
underwent an experience of death and rebirth, a wounded healer who now had the
power to heal. This power came from special relations with animals, which gave
the shaman the ability to control animals and even to allegedly transform into an
animal. There were also beliefs the shaman can harm and kill magically, as well as
control weather, to physically fly, and to have immunity to fire (Winkelman, 1992).
The empirically-derived cross-cultural characteristics of shamanism provide a basis
for the inference of such practices in the past. These common patterns of behavior
and belief provide the basis for an ethnological analogy (Winkelman & Baker, 2008,
Winkelman, 2010b) an empirical set of features, practices and structures for infer-
ring its presence in other cultures deep in the human past. This shamanic paradigm
provides an interpretative paradigm that reveals the presence of shamanic activi-
ties at the dawn of culturally modern humans during the Upper/Middle Paleolithic
revolution at least 40,000 years ago (Clottes & Lewis-Williams, 1998; Winkelman,
2002, 2009). Ethnological analogies also provide models for inferring a central role
of shamanic ritual potentials in hominid and human evolution.
Hayden (2003) links the evolution of shamanism to relations among resource
stress, community relations, and intercommunity alliances. Severe droughts several
million years ago exerted important selective influences on hominin populations
for the abilities to forge close emotional bonds that facilitated survival. Emotional
bonds with others help in access to resources through the roles of emotional bond-
ing in facilitating alliances. The adaptiveness of ritual lies in the creation of a sense
of a common group bond and identity that helps to overcome the natural tendency
toward ethnocentrism and maintenance of in-group boundaries that excludes out-
siders. Shamanic rituals helped forge commonality through forging group and the
ritual alteration of consciousness that produced a sense of unity with others. Rosano
(2007, 47) proposed that ritual exercised selective influences on human evolution.
The role of ritual as a selective environmental feature derived from the demand for
the creation of larger and more complex groups based on social integrations that
cross-cut traditional group boundaries. These social integrations were enhanced by
social rituals that reduced innate aggression. Ritual contributed to building social
relationships by inhibiting defensive and aggressive behaviors, thereby enhancing
social-bonding mechanisms (Rosano, 2009).
5
Contemporary raves have also been characterized as providing this kind of social
integration, instilling a unifying energy that seems to binds participants together in
a collective experience: “One thing that makes this experience unique among dance
expressions is the profound sense of connection and unity” (Rill, 2010, p. 145). Rill
emphasizes that the experiences of raves replaces thinking with feeling and the ego-
centric self and the “I” with a sense of “We.” This communal sentiment is supported
by what has been called a common ideology of America raves, expressed as PLUR-
-Peace, Love, Unity, & Respect. While these generalizations have been critiqued,
it is apparent to many rave observers that these ideals contribute to a dissipation of
social distinctions, a dissolution of the interpersonal boundaries typically experienced
because of differences created by gender, class, ethnicity and other social identities
(St. John). This acceptance of these ideals provide a guiding set of principles for
social relations at the raves, uniting people from many different orientations—class,
professional, religious, ethnicity, cultures, gender, sexual orientation, etc., and even
age. This paper proposes that these effects of raves are physiological, specifically
neuropenomenological in the sense that they result from effects of raves activities
that alter neurotransmitter activity and consequently phenomenological experience.
The nature of altered consciousness in raves is a produced by both exogenous sources
of neurotransmitters (psychedelics, marijuana) and behavioral activities (dance) that
stimulate the serotonin, dopamine and endocannabinoid neural circuitry.
The power of raves to integrate disparate people can also be understood in light
of the significance of social ritual in human evolution, social functions and identity
formation. The origins of the psychosocial functions of human ritual are elucidated
by an understanding of the roles of ritual in general in the animal world. This shows
how we retain our animal needs for group integration in overnight dancing and mu-
sical ceremonies. The evolutionary bases of shamanic ritual behaviors are revealed
in the homologous ritual behaviors were share with great apes. Comparisons of
shamanic rituals with the ritual activities of our nearest relatives, the chimpanzees,
we discover the immediate evolutionary roots of shamanic ritual as well as the dif-
ferences in our evolved psychology.
The worldwide distribution of shamanism in the pre-modern world as well as the
persistence of their basic features in shamanistic healers worldwide today reflects a
basis in human’s innate psychology (Winkelman, 2002, 2009, 2010a). These involve
the biogenetic structural principles of vertebrate communication manifested in ritual,
and the extensions of this expressive capacity in the communicative systems of dance
and music. Group ritual is the basis of a communication and social coordination system
that is expanded in the central behavioral elements of shamanic rituals —singing,
chanting, dancing, and imitation of desired goals. These behaviors have biological
origins in the same structures that underlie animal displays and their functions as
systems of group coordination and social communication. These primate enactive
6
and vocal emotive expressive systems and their communicative and integrative func-
tions were expanded in the evolution of shamanism through mimesis, a body-based
system for the expression of intentions. Human rituals involve features lacking in
primate rituals, the ability to communicate through the intentional use of behavior
to convey meaning. Mimesis and its associated suite of communicative capacities
such as music and dance constitute an ancient source of shamanic practices, where
these technologies of dance and music contributed to emotional and cognitive com-
munication and enhanced bonding with others. These communicative systems of
dance and music provide for the expression of ancient aspects of the personal and
social self, as well as providing technologies for the alteration of consciousness,
identity transformation and healing. An examination of the origins and functions of
ritual in general, and the characteristics of chimpanzee ritual in particular, help to
elucidate the biological foundations of ritual and provide a basis for understanding
the compelling nature of similar contemporary activities.
BIOGENETIC STRUCTURAL FOUNDATIONS

OF RITUAL FUNCTIONS
While popular conceptions of ritual often imply some kind of formalized tradi-
tional behavior that is meaningless or mindless, the study of ritualized behavior in
the animal world leads to very different conclusions. The concept of ritual among
non-human species is generally labeled as displays. Rather than some kind of arbi-
trary activity, these ritualized behaviors are integral to the social life of vertebrates,
providing a basic system of social communication and coordination (Laughlin &
d’Aquili, 1974; d’Aquili, Laughlin & McManus, 1979). Animals’ displays have
communication and social signaling functions, using behaviors to signal readiness
for social behaviors. These communications are generally based on the deliberate
use of genetically based behaviors to signal information to other members of the
species. Ritual then is an exaptation which involves the use of prior adaptations
to meet a new adaptive function. In animal displays, these exaptations involve
communication and signaling functions that are based on partial behavioral enact-
ments that express an animal’s intents (i.e., baring the teeth to indicate a threat of
biting). Rituals provide information that allow for coordination of the behaviors of
individuals, and consequently contributes to cooperative behaviors by making an
animal’s internal dispositions available to other members of the group. Animal ritu-
als function to produce cooperative behaviors, synchronizing individual behaviors
into socially coordinated patterns through facilitating the flow of information. In
this sense, ritual is a behavioral communication system that still has relevance for
understanding human interaction.
7
A widespread aspect of animal ritualizations involves drumming in various

forms. Analyses of drumming behaviors across mammalian species (Randall, 2001)
indicate that drumming is more than merely signaling but is also a manifestation of
vigilance, fitness, competitiveness and a readiness to act. Drumming is a widespread
mammalian communication mechanism for conveying information about predators.
Furthermore, drumming functions in interspecies communication as a conspicuous
display, enabling prey animals to communicate to predators that they are aware of
their presence. Drumming is often produced by beating the feet on the ground, a kind
of running in place. These kinds of displays are called conspicuous displays because
they call increased attention to the individual performing them while simultaneously
warning and enhancing survival of kin. Rodent foot drumming is a ritualization of
intentional movements, a readiness for running that displays an excessive fitness.
Drumming indicates to predators one’s fitness and readiness to flee. Drumming
both prepares for action and reduces the need for action, because predators will
then look for less aware prey, reducing the individual’s need for more costly action.
Chimpanzees’ Ritualized Displays
Chimpanzees engage in collective drumming and dancing displays, accompanied

with complex vocalizations that ethnologists call choruses and carnivals. Reynolds
and Reynolds (1965) noted the power of these “chimpanzee carnivals” of group cho-
rusing, calling and drumming that might last all night on moonlight nights, leaving
humans in awe and trembling. These collective vocalization and drumming routines
are widely distributed in chimpanzee behavioral routines (Goodall 1986, p.134, p. 491;
1971) including more elaborate “rain dances” that include beating of branches and
aggressive bipedal charges. This maximal display involving vocalization, drumming,
bipedal displays and charges is a basic mechanism for reintegrating the dispersed
group (De Waal, 1997). The loud vocalizations provide an auditory beacon to call
members of the group while the displays are the mechanism by which the dominant
male solicits submissive recognition by others in order to enter peacefully into the
group. These aggressive displays continue as darkness falls, intimidating predators.
Chimpanzees similarly protect their territory through aggressive displays with fast
drumming produced by jumping and beating on tree buttress at the edges of their
territory (Arcadi, 1996; Arcadi, Robert, and Boesch, 1998).
Such displays provide a variety of functional adaptations (summarized from
Winkelman, 2010a):
• Creating an auditory beacon, facilitating the re-integration of the group at a

common location;
8
• Establishing the group hierarchy, protecting the group through reduction of

physical harm;
• Releasing frustration and tension and producing emotional synchrony within
the group;
• Expressing a group identity, exemplified in the shaping of vocalizations to
mimic alpha males.
Aggressive displays involving bipedal charges and shaking of branches, drumming

and emotional vocalization are widespread among the great apes (Lawick-Goodall,
1968; Geissmann, 2000). This is typified in the gorilla behaviors that incorporate
chest-beating. These homologies across the great apes indicate that similar behaviors
were also characteristic in their common ancestors with the humans, the hominids,
where such behaviors must have also fulfilled similar functions of enhancing group
cohesion and unity (Hauser, 2000; Merkur, 2000). Their structural and behavioral
similarities indicate that these primate vocalizations are the communicative precur-
sors of human singing and musical abilities (Molino, 2000). While chimpanzees
most typically drum by striking the hands and feet against tree buttresses, they may
also use sticks (Arcadi, 1996; Arcadi, Robert & Boesch, 1998). Their hand and foot
drumming provides a system of long distance communication audible at up to one
kilometer. The average inter-beat intervals associated with chimpanzee drumming
range from 3 to 6 beats per second (Arcadi, Roberts & Boesch, 1998); this frequency
matches the typical range of shamanic drumming, as well as corresponds to the
frequency of the brain waves (theta, 3-6 cycles per second) that is characteristic of
the shamanistic alterations of consciousness (Winkelman 2010a).These expressive
activities reflect our ancient and innately disposed tendencies to engage in overnight
collective musical manifestations.
Similarities of Chimpanzee Displays,

Shamanic Ritual and Raves
Basic features of chimpanzee displays have homologies with shamanic ritual and
modern rave phenomena. Among these shared features are:
• A dramatic ritual which integrates the community

• Night-time performances, sometime overnight activities
• Drumming
• Emotional vocalizations and group chorusing
• Alpha male displays
• Bipedal displays—“Dancing”
• Group emotional bonding
9
These kinds of displays constitute a communication system that promotes social

integration and enhances group cohesion and unity. The chimpanzee ritualizations
indicate that humans have genetic dispositions to engage in collective ritual behaviors
with vocalizations, drumming and dancing displays that serve a variety of communica-
tive functions in integrating the social group. This suite of activities of our hominid
past that constituted pre-adaptations for shamanism reflect basic neuropsychological
structures and social psychological functions of hominids. The use of music and
song in shamanic activities reflects an expansion of the pre-adaptations involved
in primate vocalization systems which have structural and behavioral similarities
with human singing and musical abilities, providing information about internal
emotional states (Brown, 2000). These forms of rhythmic-affective semantics that
express fundamental emotions emerged early in hominid evolution in order to facili-
tate group coordination. Ritualized synchronous group vocalizations at the core of
primate and shamanic rituals are an expressive system that communicates emotions
and enhances group integration. These behavioral foundations were expanded in
human evolution in the forms of dance, mimesis, singing and music.
Shamanic rituals practices enhanced integration of the society, using the dramatic
dominance ritual of dance on one hand, and through grooming rituals on the other.
Alliances in primate societies are formed through grooming, generally involving a
careful attention to the hair and skin of another member of the group, picking through
it for parasites, scabs and intrusions, as well as to cleanse wounds. This grooming
begins in the mother-infant care and relationships and is generalized to others in
primate society, especially through appeasing dominant others and forming close
bounding in alliances. Lawick-Goodall noted that chimpanzees learn that groom-
ing has a calming effect on others and use it with the intent to manipulate others.
Subordinate animals seek reassurance from dominant animals through extending
the hand to seek contact with the aggressor or to initiate grooming, which may be
responded with touching, patting, contact with the body, embraces, and kissing.
Grooming reduces the physical and emotional distance between individuals and
inhibits arousal that could trigger aggression. Primates communicate intimacy and
closeness through the touch involved in grooming activities, which is extended
in other forms of body contact such as embraces, cuddling, kissing and cradling.
Chimpanzees may spend years cultivating the friendships that will help them im-
prove their status by strategic alliances that are established and maintained through
mutual grooming,
With grooming we see a significant chimp-human “gap,” with the extensive
physical grooming characteristic of most primates indicating a loss of his functional
activity in humans. But the shamans’ healing practices maintain aspects of groom-
10
ing. Grooming-like activities are manifested in the shaman’s diagnostic activities

where they may prod, rub and massage as they carefully inspect the body. Shamanic
healing practices may include cleaning abscess through a variety of procedures ho-
mologous with grooming activities of primates. Shamanic treatments also involve
physical manipulations of the body, including massage, brushing with feathers,
laying-on-of-hands and similar practices that have been shown to produce relaxation
and enhance functioning of the opioid system in humans (Kunz & Krieger, 2004).
The intensive social grooming fundamental to primate societies has important
of biological, personal, health and social functions. Grooming constitutes a basic
mechanism for eliciting relaxation responses from the parasympathetic division of
the autonomic nervous system. The ability of grooming to reduce stress is generalized
from mother-infant contact and the affiliative relationship that is established through
grooming and subsequently generalized in grooming relations with others. Dunbar
(2004) reviews evidence that grooming releases endorphins that have pharmacologi-
cal effects which enhance commitment to others and increase cooperation. Ritual
interactions in general involve social relations that potentially induce the release of
endogenous opiates (see Frecska & Kulcsar, 1989). The endogenous opioid system
provides neurochemical mediation of social bonding, producing psychobiological
synchrony within a group. The brain areas central to affiliative interactions and
social bonding are also the areas with the highest density of opioid receptors (or-
bital frontal cortex, the temporal lobe, and the amygdala). When cultural symbols
are cross-conditioned with ritual activities through temporal contiguity, the physi-
ological, emotional, and cognitive associations of these cultural symbols acquire the
capacity to evoke endocrine and immunological responses (Wilce, 2003). Shamanic
practices also involve several procedures for socially and ritually eliciting opioid
responses (see Winkelman, 2013). These activities include prolonged rhythmic and
high-intensity exhaustive exercise such as dance, nighttime activities, as well as the
stressful procedures used to induce visions.
Shamanistic healing rituals and modern raves share the practices of using these
collective rituals to enhance social attachments through the evocation of endogenous
opioid mechanisms and, consequently, produce social and psychological synchroni-
zation among members of a group. Descriptions of raves often emphasize grooming
and peace-making features. The physicality of raves is an often-noted feature, one
that includes masses of participants crowding together in what have been called
“puppy piles” in recognition of this frequent canine bonding phenomena among a
litter. The verbal communication is difficult at raves because of sound levels, forc-
ing an enhanced focus on communication through the body, including massage,
touching and hugging, as well as the expressions through dance.
11
The Triune Brain as a Model for Ritual Functions
MacLean’s (1990, 1993) model of the triune brain allows us to conceptualize these
ritual behaviors and relations in terms of specific brain functions. MacLean pro-
posed the brain involves three anatomically distinct yet interconnected systems-- the
R-complex (reptilian brain), paleomammalian (limbic) brain, and neo-mammalian
brain. These provide the basis for behavioral, emotional, and informational func-
tions that MacLean (1993, p. 39) called “protomentation,” “emotiomentation,” and
“ratiomentation,” respectively.
The primary functions of the R-complex involve social communication through
displays and ritualizations, with behavior constituting the medium of social com-
munication. The R-complex integrates the totality of movements and reactions of
the organism to communicate meanings isomorphically in behavior. One of the
basic R-complex mechanisms for species-typical communicative behavior involves
isopraxis, an innate disposition to engage in the same behavior as another member
of your species.
Emotiomentation or emotional mentation provides processes underlying af-
fects and feelings. These paleomammalian brain functions are the basis of a sense
of personal identity and the level of the brain that provides for cooperation among
members of a group. This involves cognitive capacities that underlie prediction
of others’ behavior, a process of “mind reading,” inferring the thoughts of others.
The paleomammalian brain plays a vital role in the basic social personality, using
feelings to guide behaviors through nonverbal, emotional, and analogical informa-
tion processing. MacLean (1990) noted that paleomammalian brain functions also
play a vital role in manifestations of the basic social personality. Freeman (2000b)
indicates the limbic brain activities are primarily responsible for the higher-level
integration of bodily senses, emotions and affect. Interactions across levels of the
brain are mediated through non-verbal communication forms that utilize behavioral
(vocal and bodily), social, affective, and presentational (visual symbolic) informa-
tion to communicate meaning.
Protomentation and emotiomentation are fundamental aspects of human interac-
tion that also reflect forms of communication shared across species. These thought
processes mediated by ancient levels of the brain are the language of ritual. The
protomentation processes of the reptilian brain engage the body, exemplified in
ritual acts. The emotiomentation processes of the paleomammalian brain engage
the emotional influences on thoughts and behavior that are characteristic of sha-
manic healing processes and the powerful attraction of raves. The protomentation
processes of the reptilian brain communicate through the basic actions of the body,
while the limbic brain thinks through processes that provide the emotional influ-
ences on thoughts and behavior.
12
These nonverbal communicative behaviors and processes have not become

obsolete in the evolution of humans, but are still manifested in art, music, theater,
dance, and poetry, reflecting their continued importance in human communication.
Ritual activities moderate feelings of attachment, emotional security, and identity
and the development of a sense of self and personal well-being that is deeply in-
tertwined with “communitas”, a sense of social identity in which empathy with
other humans provides the basis for self and security. The ritual discourse of this
nonverbal communication is primarily about the self and its emotional states in
relationships to others.
The modern brain operates through integration of instinctual protomentation re-
sponses of the reptilian brain, the emotional signals of the paleomammalian brain, and
the symbolic cognitive processes of the neomammalian brain. Relationships across these
communication systems are mediated primarily through nonverbal forms of mentation,
especially the symbolic capacity embodied in behavior. Collective rituals mediated
by the communicative processes of dance and music engage innate social signaling
mechanisms that promote a sense of community and enhance cooperation—physi-
cally, socially, and mentally—in ways that are key to human psychosocial adaptation.
MIMESIS AS AN EXPRESSIVE SYSTEM
The capacities underlying ritual--behavioral enactment--underlie the further hu-

man evolution of expressive capacities in mimesis. Mimesis involves the ability to
intentionally represent through imitation that provided a pre-language expressive
system in early hominins (Donald, 1991, 2006). This symbolic communication is
exemplified in bodily movements, gestures, facial expressions, rhythm, affective
semantics, and melody and manifested in a variety of expressive forms such as play,
drama, social ceremonies and shamanic ritual. Body metaphors express meanings
through the ability to mediate between sensory domains and domains of meaning
through analogical reasoning processes involving the body. Mimesis is a conscious
behavioral production of metaphor through gesture and imitation, an enactment that
involves a mapping of body actions onto an imagined context. The most fundamental
schema for analogical transfer involves the body’s ability to act, an innate neurologi-
cally based body schema that provides a template for all knowing, a common basis
of both somatic and symbolic levels of reality (Newton, 1996; Laughlin, 1997).
Mimesis also enables the entrainment of the body with external rhythms and
underlies the abilities of dance and music which evolved as an interrelated set of
capacities that exploited the full body capacity related to the inherent rhythm of
bipedal movement (Merker, 2000, 2009), the co-evolution of a single neurocognitive
adaptation with multiple expressive capacities
13
Donald (2006). These dramatic expressive manifestations of dance, music and

ritual involve processes of distributed cognition, exploiting the linkages across minds
that provide a wealth of information from memory and experience. These human
expressive capacities far exceed chimpanzee displays, providing an enactive capacity
that permitted greater temporal and spatial complexity to behavior. Donald proposes
that this capacity to represent through enactment allowed for the expression of an
archaic level of culture based on gestures, dance, pantomime and imitation which
shamanism exploited through the communicative capacities of ritual, mime and
dancing and enactments combined with chanting, singing, and imitative vocalization.
The centrality of mimesis in the expressive modalities of raves was noted by Rill
(2010) who found that rave participants describe their experiences as mediated by
subtle forms of communication based in a body language: “It is ‘all about being in
your body and out of your head’ . . . the direct, unmediated bodily experience in
the world. It is a somatic experience that silences the inner language so prevalent
in our waking consciousness, allowing the dancer to live quite literally ‘‘in-the-
moment.’’ (p. 144). Landau (2004) perceptively characterized the heart of the
ecstatic experiences of raves as involving an “ontology of the flesh” and the innate
and subconscious processes of knowing of the body, an immediate experience of
the phenomenal world.
Klein (2003) uses the ideas of Bourdieu (1998) to illustrate the notion of bodily
action as a basis for explaining the compulsions of pop culture, and by extension the
transformative power of raves. These impulses are derived from the body in action
and performativity, the reality generating power produced by a body in movement.
Performativity has a reality generating power derived from the body and habitus.
To Bourdieu the body functions as a receptacle, a storage place for the history of
one’s experiences. These can be used as an instrument for action and the production
of practical knowledge and beliefs through the body as a silent form of performa-
tivity (Butler 1997: 219). Klein (2003) proposes that this performative knowledge
comes from the processes of adaptation and habitualization proposed by Bourdieu
as underlying the processes of socialization by which the body is inscribed through
mimesis. This process by which rules are embodied in context involves a theory of
performativity that Klein (2003) presents as a process of active construction, a new
creation through which mimesis is at the basis of a process of re-construction, an
engagement with the inscription of habitus in the body to reproduce social norms.
Klein notes that the threefold function of mimesis-- imitation, representation and
construction—is the basis for mediation between the impressions one experiences
of the inner and exterior worlds and the construction of reality. This construction
of the ‘inner world’ is a symbolic world which exists as a consequence of action,
the doing of mimesis that produces symbolic constructions of reality. Klein notes
that these mimetic processes are not the empirical world, but an interpretation that
14
involves a new structure of meaning. “[M]imetic identification does not imitate a

given reality on the level of the body but produces a new reality. Mimetic identifi-
cation does not only mean conventionalization in the form of a reproduction of a
structure of norms but describes the performative process of new construction and
contextualization” (Klein 2003, p. 47-48). Klein (2003) places emphasis on the
social dimensions of mimesis and its combination with the aesthetic dimensions,
with mimesis a necessary precondition of the social, and the aesthetic involving the
conditions of construction. It is this bonding of the social and aesthetic dimensions
that enable the power of mimesis, the underlying processes by which the cultural
adaptation is realized in the body. Klein proposes that processes of adaptation in-
volve a mimetic identification which is produced through mimetic embodiment of
internal and external impressions, of the inner and external worlds, the body and
the social. It is this identification that provides the ability to acquire an insight into
reality through sensual representations.
Dance in Human Evolution and Spirituality
Dancing is considered to be the heart of the rave phenomena (St. John); he further
proposes that such dance experiences are keys to the process of formation of new
identities and sense of belonging (also see Landau). In rave culture, the dancing
body is the locus for experimentation and communication. Freeman (1995) char-
acterizes the last half million years of human evolution as involving adaptations
for enhanced social communication, enhancing the representations produced within
our own brain with information signals from other brains. Dopamine, endorphins,
oxytocin, and serotonin are central to the neuromodulatory mechanisms underlying
basic mammalian bonding processes and how such bonding was extended to larger
groups (Freeman, 2000a). Music and dancing are “the biotechnology of group
formation” (Freeman, 2000b, p.129), the quintessential technology that humans
evolved in order to bridge the solipsistic gulf. The rhythmically repeated motions
of dance constitute a basis for cooperation.
Movement and music provide a system of coordination by expression of inten-
tions through observable body actions, a nonverbal communication mechanism for
coordination and bonding within groups. Music contributed to the foundations of
culture with an expressive system that produced a shared group consciousness and
culture. Freeman (2000b, p. 134) notes that the capacities of “musical skills played a
major role in the evolution of the human intellect” and in the development of group
identity beyond the family. Rhythmic dancing, marching, clapping and chanting
became central aspects of socialization processes, providing an engagement of the
body with the motor and somatosensory systems in a way that links the individual
with the group in coordinated community.
15
There is variability in the expression (increased replication) of the genes un-

derlying humans’ dance capacity that helps to identify their broader functions
(Bachner-Melman et al., 2005). Gene polymorphisms of people engaged intensively
with creative dance performance involves: a more effective serotonin uptake and
transporter (SLC6A4); and an arginine vasopressin receptor (AVPR1a, an opioid)
associated with social communication and affiliative behavior in primates. Human
dancing is an extension of vertebrate neurochemical and genetic mechanisms un-
derlying courtship and social behaviors. Bachner-Melman et al found a significant
association of this dance genotype with measures of spirituality and altered states
of consciousness (the Tellegren Absorption Scale), reflecting social communication
and spiritual facets of the dancing phenotype. Dance also has the capacity to alter
consciousness through a variety of mechanisms (such as stimulating the release of
opioids, producing rhythmic stimulation and the brain, and inducing exhaustion and
collapse; see Winkelman, 2013).
Dancing and Mystical Experience
These capacities for dance appear to have emerged as an evolutionary by-product

of some of humanity’s most unique features, bipedalism and long-distance run-
ning, including endurance running (Bramble and Lieberman, 2004, p. 345). This
capacity also apparently contributed to the emergence of spiritual experiences,
naturally derived from the capacity of endurance running, long-distance running,
and ultrarunning to induce alterations of consciousness and mystical experiences
(see Jones, 2005; Noakes, 1991). There are recognized in the “runner’s high,” which
has features typical of mystical experiences (Dietrich, 2003), including:
• positive emotions such as happiness, joy and elation;

• a sense of inner peacefulness and harmony;
• a sense of timelessness and cosmic unity; and
• a connection of oneself with nature and the Universe.
Jones placed ultrarunning high in the context of the extreme activation of the
autonomic nervous system. The processes by which mystical experiences are induced
by running begin with the saturation of the sympathetic-ergotropic system. In addi-
tion to the activation produced in many body systems by the running, the prolonged
activity forces a kind of meditative breathing in the regular methodic inhalation and
exhalation. Physical stress activated by long-distance running provokes the release
of the opioid, adrenaline, and noradrenaline neurotransmitters, and elevated body
temperatures, oxygen depletion, and chemical and neuronal imbalances that can
create unusual state of awareness. Relevant to understanding the special experi-
16
ences produced in raves are these and other physiological mechanisms underlying
the “runner’s high.” In addition to the endogenous opioids released in response to
exercise, there are the endocannabinoids (anandamide), a substance that produces
psychoactive effects similar to the THC of marijuana, including euphoria, a sense of
transcendence, and a sense of contact with the divine (Dietrich & McDaniel, 2004).
Extensive running leads to a saturation of the sympathetic nervous system and a
“spillover” effect that leads to the simultaneous activation of the parasympathetic ner-
vous system and associated structures. This simultaneous activation of what are usually
separate functions and areas of the brain results in a saturation of the brain’s processing
capacities, an overload of both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
that leads to a cessation of normal processing, and comprehension. This cessation of
normal processes produces a sense of ineffability, a disintegration of the self, and the
shut-down of the normal processes of the mind, leading to these special experiences.
Sands and Sands (2009) proposed that the selection for long-distance running
in Homo subsequently selected for a form of spirituality, a “horizontal awareness”
or biophilia that operated through existing neurobiological reward systems. The
“high” associated with long distance running situated our ancestors within a dynamic
environment within which they felt an intimate connection with nature. Thus a side
effect of the acquisition of the capacity for long distance running was a capacity for
dance and a variety of mystical experiences and associated pleasurable sensations
of enhanced opioid and cannabinoid system activation.
Music as Communication and Emotional Modulation
Music is the vocal expansion of mimesis, a vocal dimension that expanded com-
munication beyond the range of sight. Music and similar vocalizations in primates
reflect the outcome of selective pressures for long distance cooperative commu-
nication systems exemplified in rhythmic group chorusing (Merker, 2009). The
evolution of human capacities for music and dance provided a basis for uniquely
human ritual capacities that sharply distinguish us from other hominids (Malloch &
Trevarthen, 2009). The rhythmic modules of the brain coevolved to enhance social
bonding and communication of internal states, an affective semantics that emerged
early in hominid evolution for enhanced group coordination. Music and dance
expanded the intrinsic capacity of ritual for enhancement of social cohesion (Mal-
loch & Trevarthen, 2009) and affiliative intentions (Cross & Morley, 2009). Music
expands the exchange of information through diverse modalities (behavior, facial
and emotional expressions, vocalizations). Music can play role in the modulation
and control of emotions, providing a unique potential for affecting individual and
collective wellbeing through synchronization of emotions, behavior and cognition,
contributing to group catharsis through the expression and release of emotions.
17
Dissanayake (2009) proposed musicality derived from the expressive emotional

modulation of the love bond between mother and infant. The dynamics of vocal
exchange typified in the “motherese” of mother-infant interaction, involving body
movements, facial dynamics, emotional expressions—are the same behaviors that
are found in the affiliative and submissive ritualizations of other primates. This com-
municative rhythmic dynamic between mother and infant has musical and dance-like
components that coordinate their communicative turn taking and the dynamic of
emotional cooperation. This role of rhythmic interactions in facilitating sociality
and communication reflects an adaptive basis of music.
An evolutionary account of music based on bonding explains why music is at
the core of communal ritual worldwide. Music and dancing are central to humans’
group rituals because they facilitate affiliative interactions. Music enhanced the
interactive and communicative dynamics of mother-infant bonding for extension to
larger social groups, extending the dynamics of love to enhance bonding. Music is
“an evolutionary exaptation of social-emotional systems that became the medium
by which our ancestors harmoniously coordinated not only intimate engagements,
but also ambitious group activities . . . ” (Panksepp & Trevarthen, 2009, p. 108).
Music which is at the core of shamanic and rave ceremonies provides mechanisms
which enhances adaptation at individual and group levels. Music involves a rhythm
which produces a synchronization of the group. Brown (2000) noted that music is
one of the most effective mechanisms known for group coordination, providing a
system for coordination of movement, interpersonal entrainment, and the creation
of a sense of group integration and synchronized responses to the environment.
This sense of unity and connectedness produced by music contributes to emotional
bonding within a group as a result of effects on emotions. Music affects emotions,
providing an intrinsic reward system that enhances social functionality. Music en-
hances hormone release (oxytocin), which enhances social bonding, coordinating
and entraining the individual with the group (Panksepp & Trevarthen, 2009). Music
provides a common sense of intentionality and an inclusive sense derived from the
underlying pulse or rhythm.
Crowe (2004) shows that music manifests emergent properties in the expression
of complex feelings that reflect a level of communication which exceeds the expres-
sion of basic emotions. Music coordinates diverse expressive aspects (behavior,
emotions, sound), providing a medium for metaphoric expression and meaning.
“[M]usic can be interpreted as facilitating the formation of conceptual-intentional
complexes across multiple domains of experience, providing a synthetic medium
that can bind together the experiences of disparate situations and concepts” (Cross
& Morley, 2009, p. 70). The coordination of diverse modalities of information
(behavior, visual emotional expressions, emotional vocalizations) through music
18
reflects our symbolic capacity. Music integrates biological, physical, psychologi-

cal, cognitive and social systems in ways that are fundamental to human symbolic
capacities (Cross & Morley, 2009).
DeNora (1999, 2004) shows how music still functions as a cultural resource
that individuals use in a variety of processes of self and identity construction with
specific impacts on emotions, attachments and memories. She notes how music is
central to the process by which many people engage in the construction of the self,
particularly in terms of the self as an aesthetic agent. Music provides models and
templates for the self, especially in terms of providing semiotic elements for anchor-
ing identity. Music is self-consciously used as a tool to facilitate self-interpretation
and the articulation of one’s self-image in ways that provide mechanisms for the
adaptation of various aspects of personal and social emotional life, especially in
social relations.
DeNora’s research reveals the role of music as providing the building material
of self-identity and personality. Music is a tool used in processes of selective en-
hancement of the self through a bricolage in which one can select from a variety
of non-self representations found in music to augment one’s sociocultural givens.
Musical tone and elements provide a ‘container’ for emotions, shaping the quality
of feelings and experiences, contributing to the nature of self-perceptions and the
quality of social experiences and emotions. Music provides the material by which
actors can elaborate themselves and others, constituting a mode of aesthetic agency
that is central in the construction of subjectivity and the production of a self with
specific feelings and identity.
DeNora refers to this as ‘aesthetic reflexivity’, an activity of self creation and
self-maintenance, using music in everyday life to organize social life. She notes the
power of music to order personal life, create meaning, enhance self concept and
change or sustain cognitive and bodily states. The power of music operates through
aestheticization to function as a strategy for identity maintenance, a mechanism for
self-configuration as an agents characterized by specific modalities of feeling. Her
studies show our intrinsic capacities to grasp how particular genres of music can
be used to engage emotional needs and facilitate personal approaches to working
through issues in order to improve emotional well-being. Music has a capacity to
actively organize the self, facilitating the engagement with or dissipation of emo-
tions, modifying one’s mood and energy level, as well as focusing one’s attention
and ability to engage or disengage with others and the world.
Acord & Denora (2008) propose that the concept that aesthetic consciousness
forms “the tacit and often embodied bases of action, cognition, and engagement with
cultural forms” (p. 223). They propose that this aesthetic consciousness is embodied
in popular art forms which provide communicative, expressive and meaning-making
objects and processes that influence and structure human behavior. Their perspective
19
on “action” enhances our understanding of the operation of these forms by provid-

ing a vantage point or perspective on aesthetic experience in the relationship of the
individual to the group through processes of “world building” (Acord & Denora
2008, p. 227). This is produced through the embodied engagement with artistic and
aesthetic materials which provide “tacit models for more discursive forms of action,
notably in a public context when humans are called to be more vocally expressive”
(p. 227). “[I]t is through their access and use that they can be understood to enable
forms of activity. It is through the intersection of a dancers’ movements and the
given choreography that an interpretation of the scene, and the ballet, is aroused”
(Acord & Denora 2008, p. 228). They propose that musical and artistic forms are
able to influence our bodies by providing specific input through structures and
patterns which provide the parameters for the meanings to which bodies appear to
be semiconsciously attached, resulting in the production of specific states of being.
This perspective reflects the standard cultural interpretations of meaning and
art in which the essential qualities found within cultural context and tradition are
enacted in the present moment. But the universality of these forms and structures,
exemplified in dance and music, should give us reason to pause and ask about the
factors underlying the universality of such uses.
Shamanistic Healing
While direct comparisons of raves with forms of shamanic healing appear lack-
ing, Hutson and others have alleged that rave experiences provide spiritual healing
because of what they perceive as their religious and spiritual features, as well as
out-of-body experience and a sense of mental cleansing. Healing is also attributed
to the effects of transcendence of individual identity produced by the alterations
of consciousness, where these states of non-differentiated being and unity release
fears and anxieties, provide inner peace and produce increases in self esteem. Other
noted healing effects of raves are the experiences of personal transformation and
healing conceptualized as psychological growth (St. John). Dance itself can exert
therapeutic effects by aligning the body at physical, mental, and emotional levels
(Hutson). Healing also can be provided by alterations of consciousness in that the
integration of information from the emotional brain structures can plays a role in
emotional integration and release.
Rill (2010) proposes that the activities of raves provide a context in which the
alterations of consciousness provide participants with experiences that reshape their
social identity and the nature of the self and personhood. Rill proposes that it is
the dance which is the medium of this identity expression, the creation of identity
engaged through choosing to express oneself through a selection from the vast range
of styles exhibited in youth culture. St. John notes that the diverse studies of raves
20
demonstrate that “electronic dance music culture contextualizes and fuels identity
formation, intercultural understanding, resistance and belonging” (2004, p. 13).
Dance and style provides a creative context for reshaping of social identity.
Rill proposes that these changes in the experience of self and models of personhood
involve what Damasio (1999) referred to as the proto-self and core consciousness
involving “an awareness of one’s body state in relation to the self” (Rill, p. 149).
The interaction of the body with the world is through what Damasio (1999) calls
the ‘‘proto-self’,” a non-conscious representation of the state of the body. This core
consciousness involves a self awareness based in one’s body, an ‘in the moment’ self
that is derived from immediate experience. These experiences of the somatic self
have a transformative power to reshape the broader experience of self in the world.
Rill proposes that these somatic experiences are mapped into our neural structures
and provide new ways of experiencing the self at the somatic level.
Dance and Music as Therapy
The presence of music and dance in shamanistic healing practices around the world re-
flects their intrinsic healing capacities. This use of music and dance reflects an inherent
expressive dynamic of our species that engages a level of communication that provides
access to a powerful innate healing dynamic. Therapeutic effects of music and dance are
mechanisms through which raves may exert therapeutic effects on participants.
Studies in cultures around the world illustrate that there are diverse therapeutic
functions of dance (Woods, 2009). The physical activities of dance are capable alter-
ing consciousness as well as eliciting other intrinsic therapeutic affects derived from
the production of emotional states which facilitate catharsis and emotional release.
Dance has an intrinsic ability to relieve tension and stress through cycles of exercise
(sympathetic stimulation) and relaxation (parasympathetic collapse phase), as well as
providing an energetic stimulation and revitalization from the effects of rapid movement
of the body. Woods proposes that dance also engages processes similar to hypnotic
induction which provoke a release of ego control which allows for the emergence of
deeper expressive systems of the body. Woods noted the use of dance as a kind of group
therapy in which movement provides an expressive modality for self-actualization.
The alterations of consciousness experience through dance produce different experi-
ences of the self, a personal expression that can liberate repressed emotions. Dance
allows for the use of a nonverbal expressive medium that can facilitate the release of
repressed emotions as well as the expression of unconscious desires. This expression
is exemplified in the phenomena of possession, where participants may act out dis-
sociated and repressed desires that are exhibited and attributed to possessing entities
through the dance performances. These experiences of self contribute to a sense of
personal renewal through emotional catharsis and abreaction (Woods, 2009).
21
Crowe (2004) notes that music has been used as a therapeutic process across
cultures and time. She proposes that the therapeutic effects of music involve its
intrinsic abilities to promote health and wellness through enhancement of natural
balance and harmony in our emotional systems. The therapeutic effects of music
derived from a range of physiological effects on the body and the multiple modali-
ties through which it affects the body, brain, and access to unconscious information.
The impacts of music on the brain begin with the direct auditory nerve connections
into the reticular activating system and continue with effects on the sensory and
neurological systems, the autonomic nervous system, involuntary muscular responses
and reflexes and the glandular systems (Crowe, 2004). Music has physical effects on
lower brain areas that control heart rate and respiration and areas mediating stress,
enabling music to reduce tension and produce relaxation. By eliciting and express-
ing our feeling and desires, music can enhance health by elevation of unconscious
memories and repressed conflicts that create emotional illness. Therapeutic func-
tions of music involve their ability to integrate repressed feelings. In shamanistic
practices, music is used to elicit the patient’s unconscious psychodynamics and to
provide reprogramming through expression of cultural themes.
Music enhances healing by engaging an innate primate capacity to express
emotions through vocalizations. Tone and sound have a number of health effects
through physical vibratory effects on the body, brain waves synchronization and the
coordination of emotions, as well as an intrinsic ability to evoke repressed emotions
and to stimulate expression of emotional states. Music has effects on emotions as
a nonverbal communication system with a power to elicit experiences in others
through eliciting and stimulating biologically determined neural responses with in-
nate healing capacities (Crowe, 2004). Music can elicit the expression of repressed
emotions, elevating them into consciousness where they may be managed by ritual.
There is a primordial connection of music with love; musical compositions
around the world have a primary focus on love as opposed to other emotions (Brandt,
2009). Music has a special connection with the strongest electromagnetic fields of
the body—those produced by the heart (Crowe, 2004). Effects of music include the
modulation of emotional states that enhance and transform emotionality. Panksepp
& Trevarthen (2009) noted music can relieve loneliness and negative emotions of
sadness and loss, as well as enhance positive emotions such as love, happiness,
satisfaction. Crowe reviewed research which illustrates the power of music therapy
to elicit unconditional love, which may be the most beneficial of all healing states.
This activation of the heart through music underlies another effect of music, its
ability to induce empathy, the ability to understand and identify with the experi-
ences of others. This ability of music to produce empathy involves its capacity to
synchronize our experiences through dynamics such as rhythm, tone, melody and
lyrics, which produce a common awareness.
22
Panksepp & Trevarthen (2009) propose that music’s established power to evoke
healing responses reflects its ability to elicit core brain mechanisms, specifically its
capacity to elicit neurochemical responses from the opioid and dopamine systems.
Through effects on the hypothalamus, music also enhances immune system function-
ing, manifested in decreases in cortisol and increases in secretion of immunoglobulin
A. Music can counter stress responses, reducing blood pressure, cardiac rate, and
other ANS stress markers. Crowe proposed that the capacity of musical sounds
to produce resonant patterns in the body through vibratory frequencies give it the
ability to change the resonant patterns of disease, replacing them with an energetic
balance. Music affects energy fields of the body, ranging from the physical structure,
through organs, body tissues, molecules, the brain waves, infusing this hierarchy of
the body, brain, and mind with energetic vibratory patterns that transfer emotional
energies from singer/healer to the patient and community.
ECSTASY: THE INTEGRATIVE MODE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
While the altered consciousness experienced at raves has been attributed to the ef-
fects of psychedelics, and MDMA in particular, these experiences involve something
more general. Not all ravers use drugs, but nonetheless, “[e]veryone is in an altered
state of consciousness, with or without the use of drugs” (Rill, 2010, p. 141; also see
Sylvan, 2005). The non-drug alterations of consciousness of raves reflect the pres-
ence of a variety of other techniques used to alter consciousness. Rhythmic music
and prolonged dancing are central aspects of raves that produce dramatic changes
in both brain activity and experience. The flashing lights reinforce the repetitive
percussion, both providing physiological mechanism for producing an alteration of
consciousness through the well-recognized effects of auditory and visual driving
in inducing changes in brain waves. Auditory and visual driving also can produce
a variety of emotional and physiological experiences, including hallucinations,
epileptic seizures and out-of-body experiences. These known auditory driving ef-
fects would be enhanced by typical features of techno music involving at least three
complementary rhythms tracks (Hutson, 2000); psytrance music is further typified
by beats falling in the three to four cycle per second range, the frequency of theta
brain waves discussed below.
Rill points to general aspects of the alteration of consciousness experienced
in raves as involving a sense of connectedness, an experience of timelessness and
the loss of an ego-centered sense of self. Landau attests to the specific aspects of
this alteration of consciousness in an experience of dissolution of the self/other
boundary. Rill elaborates on other recognized themes of mystical states: “The ‘‘I’’
dissolves and becomes ‘‘we,’ . . . a collective sensual experience . . . aware that
23
they are part of the collective body” (p. 155). These features typical of mystical
experiences can be understood as a product of the elicitation of a basic response of
the brain by rave activities.
There is a near universality of institutionalized alterations of consciousness
(Winkelman, 1992). This reflects a basis in human biology and the fundamental
similarity of brain responses to a variety of activities and agents (Mandell, 1980;
see Winkelman, 2010a, 2013 for review). Fasting and starvation, physical and emo-
tional shock, austerities and trauma, ingestion of a variety of natural substances and
ritual procedures such as drumming, chanting, and dancing all produce alterations
of consciousness through eliciting a common biological response. I have called this
the integrative mode of consciousness based on the effects of the associated of theta
brain wave coherence (Winkelman, 2010a, 2013). This model of the integrative
mode of consciousness originated in the work of Mandell (1980) and has received
support from research on the properties of hypnosis, dissociation, psychedelics and
meditation (see Winkelman, 2010a, 2011 for review).
The common pattern of the integrative mode of consciousness derives from sys-
tematic brain discharges that originate in the serotonergic connections between the
limbic system and brain stem, specifically the hippocampal-septal-reticular raphe
circuits that are manifested in synchronized high voltage slow-wave EEG activity
(especially theta, 3-6 cycles per second). These discharges reflect activation of se-
rotonergic circuitry linking attentional mechanisms in the behavioral brain regions
(reticular formation) with the emotional brain (the hippocampal-septal area); this
produces ascending synchronous discharges from lower brain regions which are
projected into the frontal lobes.
The induction of the integrative mode of consciousness and a range of specific
associated mystical and spiritual experiences are elicited by specific kinds of changes
in the operation of the principal neurotransmitter groups of the brain: serotonin,
dopamine and endocannaboids. The shamanic use of exogenous sources of sacred
plants (e.g., psychedelics) involves primary action on the serotonergic nervous
system, with secondary effects eliciting the dopamine system. Physical activities
of prolonged dance elicit the endocannaboid system. Raves are known for their use
of exogenous sources of all of these neurotransmitters, particularly in the ingestion
of LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and marijuana.
Psychedelics as Psychointegrators
The effects of psychedelics derive from their action on the serotonergic and dopa-
minergic nervous systems. The major classes of indoleamines (tryptamines such
as DMT, LSD, psilocin, and psilocybin) and phenylethylamines such as MDMA
[‘ecstacy’], mescaline and 2C-B exert similar influences on serotonergic neurons
24
and produce similar experiential effects (see Nichols, 2004; Passie et al., 2008). The
effects of these substances on serotonin receptors are responsible for the overall
changes in brain processes, which are reflected in high-voltage brain wave discharges
of a slow wave frequency (typically theta, 3-6 cycles per second).
The primary physiological effects of psychedelics on serotonin involve both the
activation and selective deactivation of the serotonin system, which has multiple
regulatory roles reflected in its special characterization as neuromodulator. Psyche-
delics’ effects result in disinhibition of serotonergic regulation of the thalamus and
limbic areas which function as “gatekeepers” in the basic filtering of information
from the environment and body. A primary effect of this disinhibition of seroto-
nergic neurons is the consequent loss of their inhibitory effects on dopamine and
the mesolimbic structures. This enhances the activity of lower brain structures,
particularly the thalamic areas that gate information ascending from the peripheral
nervous system. Psychointegrators disinhibit the midbrain structures (mesolimbic
temporal lobe), reversing the habitual effect of serotonin in depressing the action
of target neurons in the forebrain. Nichols (2004) concluded psychedelics amplify
incoming stimuli, enhancing the sensitivity of the phylogenetic older brain structures
and the excitability of limbic and cortical structures.
Psychointegrators’ primary effects are reflected in synchronized hyperactivity
in serotonin circuitry across the neuraxis, the main nerve bundle linking the struc-
tural levels of the brain from the brain stem to the frontal cortex. This hyperactivity
manifested in theta (3-6 cycles per second) brain waves produces synchronization
across the levels of the brain and between the frontal hemispheres (Mandell, 1980).
The theta effects begin in the midbrain hippocampal region which activate serotonin
circuitry in the lower levels of the brain (locus corelus and thalamus), which in turn
stimulate the limbic structures and frontal cortex, especially the right hemisphere.
Mandell proposes this is the basis of transcendent states, increasing the ascending
flow of information, improving integration of information exchange between the
two hemispheres and their specialized functions in cognition and affect, producing
interhemispheric coherence and fusion that results in insight.
These typical effects on serotonin receptors provide the basis for a neurophe-
nomenological paradigm of psychointegration, whereby psychedelics and shamanic
activities alter consciousness by producing an enhanced integration of lower brain
processes into the frontal cortex (Winkelman, 2007). These synchronizing effects
in the brain contribute neurological causes of the integrative experiences of con-
nection and oneness produced by these substances, and the rationale for the concept
of psychointegrators. This model of psychointegration is confirmed by research of
Vollenweider & Geyer (2001) who found the principal effects of psychedelics involve
the cortico-striato-thalamocortical loops which reduce the sensory gating systems
of the lower brain structures, leading to a flood of information into higher levels of
25
the brain. The release of the dopamine system caused by the blocking of the sero-
tonin system produces characteristic effects of psychedelics such as unconditioned
pleasurable responses and elicit intrinsic feelings of well-being (Previc, 2009).
The combined stimulatory and inhibitory serotonergic effects of psychointegrators
result in the increase in information from the environment, body and memory; the
enhanced experience and recall of emotions; the stimulation of basic motivations
and cognitive processes; and increases in awareness and internal attention (See
Winkelman, 2007 for review of basic literature).
The strictly neurological basis of these phenomenological experiences—as op-
posed to expectations—is demonstrated by Griffiths et al. (2006) carefully designed
to double blind study with psilocybin. Those receiving psilocybin had significantly
higher measures on all of the scales used to assess mysticism and altered states of
consciousness, including some scales that measured introvertive mysticism, ex-
trovertive mysticism, internal and external unity, sacredness, intuitive knowledge,
transcendence of time and space, and ineffability. Participants reported significant
spiritual and mystical experiences and that these experiences induced persistent effects
on the participants’ attitudes and moods. Two-thirds of the psilocybin group rated
the experience to be among the most meaningful and spiritual experiences of their
entire life, with one-third of the total psilocybin group considering the experience to
be the single most significant spiritual experience of their life. In addition there were
persisting effects noted on the participants’ life for the psilocybin groups, including
an enhanced positive attitude about life and themselves, accompanied by a positive
mood changes and positive altruistic social behaviors. As significant was the lack
of any increases in negative attitudes, moods, or antisocial behaviors. Instead, the
psilocybin participants showed significantly higher levels of peace, harmony, joy,
and intense happiness. These experiences are neurophenomenological in the sense
that they reflect neurological action of the substances in producing these experi-
ences. These findings also suggest that the PLUR ethos of raves is a neurological
effect, a neurophenomenological ethos.
The effects of psychointegrators on the serotonergic system and dopamine relate
to MacLean’s model of the evolution of the brain. Global effects of psychointegrators
on the serotonergic system enhance reptilian and paleomammalian brain activities.
In the reptilian brain they release the activity of the raphe and reticular formations
and thalamic structures of the brain stem area that normally restrict information
received by the higher levels of the brain. In the paleomammalian brain they release
limbic system functions that provide emotional information, a sense of personal
relations and bonding. Psychointegrators produce systemic brain integration through
liberating our ancient animal brains, imposing the reptilian brain’s ritual systems
of communication and the paleomammalian brain’s emotional, social, and personal
nature into the self-conscious processes of the frontal cortex.
26
The integrative mode of consciousness enhances the integration of information

from evolutionarily earlier structures of the brain, in essence enhancing the accessi-
bility of normally unconscious processes by linking information from the pre-verbal
structures of consciousness (R-complex and paleomammalian brain per McLean,
1990) within of the frontal brain. This integration of information from the preverbal
brain structures with the frontal cortex is why alterations of consciousness are often
characterized as providing understanding, enlightenment, a sense of unity and one-
ness with the universe, feelings of connection with others, and personal integration.
Dopamine Effects on Altered Consciousness
A central feature of the chemical alteration of consciousness involves the dopamine

system, which is stimulated by most drugs, including opiates, amphetamines, cocaine,
tetrahydrocannabinol, alcohol and nicotine (Previc, 2009). These and other agents act
through a variety of systems (serotonin, enkephalin, GABA) to increase dopaminergic
activity, producing unconditioned pleasurable responses, as well as sexual behavior
and increased eating. Humans’ attraction (and addiction) to exogenous sources of
dopaminergic stimulants reflects their ability to stimulate the same reward systems
that reinforce fitness enhancing behaviors such as attachment, eating and sex. The
human dopamine system is part of our mammalian heritage where it has effects
on social bonding, beginning with mother-infant bonds and the core functions of
the mammalian brain and its emotional, social and self systems (Previc, 2009). A
central dopaminergic function involves parasympathetic effects dampening physi-
ological arousal, inhibiting negative emotional arousal of fear and anxiety, leading
to a greater sense of internal locus of control. Dopaminergic circuits are also active
during exploration of novelty and reward learning, resulting in prolonged effort for
delayed gratification and pursuit of goal directed responses.
The overall expansion of the dopaminergic system in primates and humans led
to high concentrations in the prefrontal cortex and frontal regions, especially in
sensory processing areas where cross-modal integration occurs. Dopamine’s central
role in the integrative functions of the prefrontal cortex is extended throughout the
brain as the nervous system allows the prefrontal cortex to connect to other corti-
cal regions. These dopamine based capabilities expanded in the divergence of our
hominin ancestors from hominids through selection for polypeptide precursors and
genes involved in opioid regulation (Wang et al. 2005, Rockman et al. 2005). The
positive selection for uniquely human genes enhanced our ability to metabolize plant
toxins, enabling the body to make use of opiates, amphetamines, and other drugs,
including serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
27
Endocannabinoids
The endocannabinoid system is another neuromodulator neurotransmitter with

significant roles in producing alterations of consciousness; one endocannabinoid,
anandamide, produces psychoactive effects similar to marijuana, including euphoria, a
sense of transcendence, and a sense of contact with the divine (Dietrich & McDaniel
2004). Raves are characterized by the use of marijuana, an exogenous source of can-
nabinoids, as well as extensive dancing which also stimulates the endocannabinoid
system. Endocannabinoids function as neuromodulators with central roles in con-
sciousness, mood, memory, pain and appetite, processes of motor learning, synaptic
plasticity and pain suppression. Endocannabinoid systems promote habituation of
the stress response through blockage of excessive glucocorticoids secretion, reducing
aggression through anxiolytic effects that inhibit excessive arousal. The underlying
causes of the positive affect and euphoria produced by dance behavior is revealed
by the research of Dietrich & McDaniel (2004). The endogenous cannabinoids are
released during and following intense prolonged exercise. Running releases sero-
tonin and dopamine and also increasing serum concentrations of endocannabinoids,
contributing to the runner’s high and positive effects on mood (Raichlen, Foster,
Gerdeman, Seillier & Giuffrida, 2012) . The runner’s high is associated with features
typical of mystical experiences such as positive emotions such as happiness, joy
and elation; a sense of inner peacefulness and harmony; a sense of timelessness and
cosmic unity; and a connection of oneself with nature and the Universe (Dietrich,
2003). These effects of cannabinoids and extensive exercise suggest that the human
capacity for spirituality emerged as a by-product of long-distance running.
CONCLUSION
The evolution of human ritual capacities expanded the basic functions of ritual
found across animal species where they provide a communication medium and en-
hancement of social cohesion. Diverse effects of ritual elicit emotional bonding and
reduce the ego-centeredness that inhibits the experience of community connected-
ness, enhancing a sense of belonging with others. These capacities are epitomized
in the effects of uniquely human capacities for performances of dance and music
which provide an enhanced medium for expression of shared meaning and formation
of group identity. The biological attachments that mammals evolved to maintain
proximity between infants and caregivers needed to be expanded to larger groups
in the course of hominid evolution. The innate psychosocial needs of humans for
group emotional coordination increased from extended family and bands to even
larger groups across the course of human physical and social evolution.
28
Today humanity, particularly youth, face the same needs. Indeed with the
decline of family and geographical community as functional units in the con-
temporary world, there is an even more critical need for expansion of oppor-
tunity for social bonding with peers. The neuropsychology of humans and its
development of social identity require a personal emotional life beyond family,
an extension of our basic self that involves an intimate adaptation to the broader
social world. Nighttime ritual gatherings were the primordial hominid process
for meeting these functions, for the production of a personal social identity and a
sense of personhood and belonging in relation to others. In the course of hominin
evolution our capacity for communal rituals evolved as mechanisms for helping
channel the development of social interdependency on others, a coordination
of individual neurological, emotional, psychological and social development in
relation to significant others.
Our personal and social well-being involves emotional attachments which are
based on development and internalization of social identities that are created in
the context of collective ritual engagements. Through shamanic ritual, as well
as raves, the social bonding processes that began in the mammalian attachment
dynamics elicited in caregiver-child relations and bonding experiences have been
extended to the broader society through communal rituals. Communal rituals
intrinsically elicit attachment bonds and related physiological mechanisms that
release endogenous opiates (opioids), producing a sense of connection within the
group. Opioid release stimulates the immune system, producing a sense of euphoria
and belongingness, enhancing coping skills, and enhancing stress tolerance and
environmental adaptation.
Raves of today employ the same basic mechanisms of ancient shamanistic
practices, using a variety of ritual activities that engage physical and behavioral
mechanisms which stimulate the release of opioids and alter consciousness such as:
extensive physical activity such as drumming, dancing and clapping; the emotional
modulation produced by dance and music; and nighttime activities when endog-
enous opioids are naturally highest. Like ancient shamanic rituals, raves produce
emotional entrainment and socialization by associating emotionally charged social
situations and cultural symbols with the heightened physiological responses pro-
duced by ritual drivers such as music and dance. These activities have an ability to
produce alterations of consciousness that contribute to intrinsic healing processes
and social identity formation that humans have found compelling experiences since
early in our evolution.
29
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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Biogenetic Structuralism: An approach that proposes that there are universal

structures which underlie both apparent diversity across cultures as well as simi-
larities. Biogenetic structuralism proposes underlying universal structures that are
biological in nature and mediate experience. The structures mediating the universal
structures of experience are neural networks.
Hominids: Humans and great apes and their common ancestor.
Hominins: Humans and their extinct ancestors and relatives since the divergence
from hominids.
Integrative Mode of Consciousness: A brain response that is characterized by
highly synchronized brain waves, especially theta (3-6 cycles per second) that are
produced by serotonergic discharges in the hippocampal-septal raphe circuitry and
imposed on the frontal cortex.
Mimesis: The ability to intentionally represent through imitation.
Neuropenomenology: Explanations of phenomenal experience that are referenced
to the functional effects within biogenetic structures, especially neural transmission
systems and functional systems of the brain (see Laughlin, McManus, & d’Aquili,
1992).
Psychointegrator: A plant substance which stimulates the integrative mode of
consciousness through action on serotonergic neurotransmission.
36
Ritual: A behavioral enactment which expresses meaning. Stewart & Strathern

(2014) characterize ritual in terms of “formality, regularity, stereotyping, special
uses of language and communicative gestures and sanctions . . . a term for processes
and events that have a particular place in social life.”
Shamanism: A spiritual healing practice that evolved in the hominin line from
expansions on the biogenetic basis of ritual through mimesis, singing, drumming,
dancing and the use of psychointegrators to enhance the integration of consciousness.
37
38
Chapter 2
The Roots of Trance:
Reflections of Space Rock,
Psychedelia, Krautrock, and Post
Punk Live in the 1970s and 1980s
Peter Smith
University of Sunderland, UK
ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the roots of trance by taking a reflective and historical view of
the influences of 1970s and 1980s music on the development of trance. The author
reflects on concerts which he personally attended, analysing them for music, lyrics,
style, performance, and concepts which formed the roots of trance. This includes
performances from the following genres: space rock, psychedelia, Krautrock, and
post punk. The chapter discusses performances by the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd,
Arthur Brown, The Edgar Broughton Band, Kraftwerk, Joy Division, and Public
Image Limited. In each case those elements which have contributed to the develop-
ment of trance are highlighted.
INTRODUCTION
“Hawkwind Sunderland 1972 – My first ever gig as a 13 year old! Took a position at
the front of the stage early so as not to miss anything, the crowd noise crescendoed
as lights dimmed and joss sticks were thrust into my hands from the stage. From the
first thunderous space inspired notes and dialogue I was mesmerised. The sight of
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch002
The Roots of Trance
two beautiful naked ladies twirling directly over me visually slowed to dream pace
by the relentless strobes was my first hypnotic experience and I would imagine the
nearest thing to LSD you could experience. An hour in I remember thinking ‘where
am I and what is happening?’ an out-of-body experience I have strived but never
been able to reproduce. Just two hours that influenced the following 40 odd years
of my life.” (comment on http://vintagerock.wordpress.com/).
This chapter explores the roots of trance through the reflective lens of an aca-
demic who is also a fan of rock music, and of attending rock concerts (Smith, 2013
& 2014). The author reflects upon how each band’s music and performance can be
considered an early influence on trance. In doing so, the analysis draws largely from
personal experiences and recollections, but also from musicology theory (Frith,
1998; Longhurst, 1995; Zepf, 2008), cultural studies (Storey, 1996), texts on and
by the artists, and reviews of the time.
In particular, the focus is upon concerts which the author personally attended.
The analysis reflects on the performance, the songs, the music, the lyrics, and the
audience reaction, illustrating those elements which, it can be argued, form the foun-
dations of trance. Personal reflections are underpinned by reference to the literature
and by returning to the definitions of Rouget (1985) and Pilch (2004). The chapter
draws together those elements and themes from the concerts which demonstrate
how these bands and their music influenced trance.
BACKGROUND
Much has been written about trance and several attempts have been made to define
trance music (Rouget, 1985; Pilch, 2004). Many accounts (e.g. Cole & Hannam, 1997)
attribute the roots of trance to the 1960s and dance parties in the former Portuguese
colony of Goa. However, the reality is much more complex. Peril and Chan (1998)
argue that the depth and dimensionality of the analysis of Cole and Hannam is lim-
ited, and imply that alternative views are needed to capture the richness, depth and
complexity of trance. This chapter attempts to provide new historical perspectives
by exploring alternative musical genres which exhibit some of the characteristics
of trance, and by using performance to contextualise this analysis.
In order to search for evidence of the roots of trance, it is necessary to look
to research on different sub-cultures (Bennett & Peterson, 2004; Muggleton &
Weinzierl, 2005). Becker-Blease (2004) discusses dissociative states, and how
these may be reached through exposure to new age and electronic music. Anderson
and Kavanaugh (2007) discuss rave culture and the different perspectives taken by
cultural studies theorists and those viewing the rave scene through a public health
and risk related lens. They also present a historical perspective which explores
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The Roots of Trance
linkages to drug cultures and makes reference to “PLUR” (Peace, Love, Unity
and Respect). Bennett and Kahn-Harris (2004) analyze particular aspects of youth
culture, including clubbing, while Reynolds (2011) explores race and resistance,
multiculturalism and division in the context of popular music, discussing genres
from hip hop through to alternative rock. Spring (2004) uses participant interviews
and observations to trace the rise and fall of a rave scene in an industrial city. Frith
(1998) argues that music culture is used to “escape” and also to “empower” and as
a vehicle for change. Pilch (2004) discusses the relationship between spirituality
and trance. Many of these themes are seen to emerge from the narrative accounts
of performance contained within this chapter.
METHODOLOGY
It is possible to identify many different genres of music from the 1960s, 1970s and
1980s which influenced trance music. It is also possible to use many different names
to categorise those genres. This chapter uses the following categories: space rock,
psychedelia, Krautrock, and post punk.
This chapter aims to explore the following research question: Do the roots of
trance music lie in the music of the 1970s and 1980s; particularly within the genres
of space rock, psychedelia, Krautrock, and post punk?
Live performance analysis is recognised as one approach to illuminate specific
music events and cultures. Inglis (2007) uses popular music performance as a ve-
hicle for exploring rock music, and argues that the dynamics of live performance,
and the interaction between performer and the audience, can be used to deepen our
understanding of the very nature of rock’n’roll.
The approach taken was this: first the author wrote narrative accounts of the con-
certs, recalling as much detail as possible. He then immersed himself in the literature
relating to the categories above, reading academic papers and reviews from music
papers of the time. He then reread the narrative accounts and used the literature to
deepen the narrative and to triangulate factual detail. Having immersed himself in
the narrative, he left the material, as recommended by Vallack (2010), allowing time
for further reflection. After a short period of quiet reflection, he returned to analyse
the accounts, drawing out themes for each of the categories and integrating these
themes, using an approach based on the schema of Auslander (2005).
The author recognizes the autobiographical nature of this account, and the limitations
of the approach. Medhurst (1999) writes of the danger of the “I was there” approach and
how emotion, and personal connections to events and memories, can dampen critical
analysis. However, Turrini (2013) argues that alternative approaches such as the narra-
tive and oral history (as used by Robb, 2006) are suited to the analysis of rock music.
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REFLECTIONS ON THE CONCERTS
This section presents extracts from the narrative accounts, grouped under the cat-
egories of space rock, psychedelia, Krautrock, and post punk.
Space Rock
Hawkwind Sunderland Locarno 23rd December 1972
“In case of Sonic Attack on your district, follow these rules…If you are making
love, it is imperative to bring all bodies to orgasm simultaneously. Do not waste
time blocking your ears…..Do not waste time seeking a soundproof shelter…….
Try to get as far away from the sonic source as possible…Do not panic…” (Sonic
Attack, Michael Moorcock, 1972).
This concert was the classic Hawkwind line-up with Robert Calvert on vocals;
Dave Brock on guitar and vocals; Nik Turner on sax, flute, and vocals; Lemmy
on bass guitar and vocals; Dik Mik and Del Dettmar on synthesizers and Simon
King on drums. The gig was everything you might imagine: very loud, a tightly
packed ballroom, lots of flashing lights and strobes, Stacia dancing naked, strong
smells of joss sticks and dope, strong bass and rock rhythms, lots of strange
noises, weird space-rock, great psychedelic light show, booming sinister vocals
from Calvert, Lemmy looking cool. Hawkwind were already experimenting
with the power of sound to affect their audience and induce physical changes,
including trance-like experiences. Jerry Gilbert reported in Sounds (Gilbert,
1970) that band member Dikmik was using a ring modulator to emit “strange
electronic force waves” which were having “a profound effect on audiences, not
to mention themselves.”
The Space Ritual show was a complete audio-visual experience, incorporat-
ing concepts pioneered by Barney Bubbles and Robert Calvert which featured
travel through space and time. The concerts featured dancers (Stacia and others), a
lightshow by Liquid Len and poetry recitations by Calvert. On entering the venue,
audience members were given a joss stick and a programme featuring a short sci-fi
story by Bubbles and the lyrics from the show (Clerk, 2006). “The show is over.
The audience turn to leave and put on their coats and go home. No more coats. No
more homes” (Barney Bubbles, 1972). Magazines from the underground press of
the time, such as International Times, were on sale.
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The Roots of Trance
Gong, Hatfield and the North & Tubular Bells

film Newcastle City Hall 25th April 1974
This concert took place in 1974 as part of the Virgin Records Crisis tour, which
featured Gong, Hatfield and the North, and a film of Mike Oldfield performing
Tubular Bells. We went along largely to see the Tubular Bells film, as it was, at the
time, the only chance to see a performance of the album. We enjoyed Gong’s silli-
ness, and loved “Squeezing Sponges over Policemen’s Heads”, from “Camembert
Electrique”. There were lots of woolly tea cosy hats and flying teapots in evidence.
Gong had (and still do have) an entire mythology behind their songs, which creates
a world of flying teapots and pot headed pixies.
The Gong concept is underpinned by its own mythology, which draws from
Buddhism, science fiction, psychedelia and drug use. Briggs (2008) discusses the
way in which Gong, and leader Daevid Allen in particular, connect drugs with
liberation and the power to overthrow society. The Gong mythology (Matthews,
2014c) draws from Allen’s experiences, ideals, values and beliefs. It is quite simple,
probably intentionally, very much the product of the 1960s hippy mind, and in
part almost comical. It draws out the Buddhist themes of the search for self and
personal enlightenment. The mythology is based on a vision which Allen claims to
have experienced in 1966 although it did not appear explicitly in the stories until
the “Radio Gnome Trilogy” albums, which were released between 1973 and 1974.
The story features an earring which receives messages from the Planet Gong
through a pirate radio station Radio Gnome Invisible, and the “great beer yogi”
Banana Ananda who chants “Banana Nirvana Mañana” and drinks Foster’s Lager.
The main character, Zero the Hero, runs into the Pot Head Pixies from Planet Gong.
The green pixies wear propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots. After
taking a potion (i.e. drugs) Zero travels to the Planet Gong, and finds the Angel’s
Egg in the One Invisible Temple of Gong. The Egg has a third eye, which enables
mystical transcendental experiences (Vaughan and Walsh, 1993).
Psychedelia
Pink Floyd Newcastle City Hall 27th January 1972
The first thing I noticed were four large PA speakers set out in the corners of the
City Hall. I’d read in the music papers of their quadrophonic sound system, so I
knew that I was about to experience something quite different to any other concert
I’d been to before. The show was in two sets; I sat and waited. As a 15 year old I
was totally immersed in the music and the event….. Pink Floyd introduced their
new composition “Eclipse (A Piece For Assorted Lunatics)” and played it in full
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The Roots of Trance
during the first half of the concert. “Eclipse” was to develop into “The Dark Side Of
The Moon” in the coming months, and the titles of the tracks changed during that
period. A few of the tracks were apparently played as instrumentals in some of the
earlier concerts. I definitely remember them (Roger Waters I think) introducing it
as “Eclipse” and I also recall the voice “I’ve been mad for f**ing years…” swirling
around the hall; and the clock, the heartbeat and that laugh reverberating around and
around us, switching between the four speakers. None of us knew what to expect of
course; I nearly jumped out of my seat when I heard the laugh come at me from a
speaker behind me at the back of the hall, and at very high volume. Just incredible.
Even then, hearing the piece for the first time, you just knew it was unique.
After a short internal the Floyd returned to play a set of classics; starting with
“One of These Days” from “Meddle” (a favourite of mine at the time) which was
their most recent album at that time. Roger’s echoing bass vibrated through the
hall; to be followed by screaming in “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”. Another
thing that sticks in mind was the elevated lighting rig, which stood at the back of
the stage behind the band. Towards the end of the show the rig swirled up to the
ceiling drowning the hall in myriad coloured lights. Very effective and actually
quite spooky. By today’s standards it would seem pretty basic, but at the time is
was state of the art, and added to the mysterious of Floyd in concert. The second
set closed with the beautiful “Echoes” and the haunting “Set The Controls For The
Heart Of The Sun” with its heartbeat drum beat, and closing with Roger beating a
fire-lit gong. There were elements of trance in several of these pieces, the heartbeat
and the rhythms reverberating around the hall in “Eclipse”, the other-worldliness of
“Echoes” and the deep spiritual drumming which lies behind “Set The Controls”.
The Grateful Dead Newcastle City Hall 11th April 1972
Some gigs take on a whole new level of importance as time goes on. This is one
such gig. When the Grateful Dead came to Newcastle City Hall to play a concert
in 1972, I went along more out of curiosity than as a fan. I knew very little of their
material, and I’d read that they played very long concerts, sometimes going on for
5 or 6 hours. I had a seat in the third row, and went along quite excited to see what
these guys were like. The place was full of hard core hippy types, and there was a
distinct smell of dope in the air. The Dead’s amplifiers were decked out in psychedelic
tie dye colors, and there was a whole lot of gear on the stage. There was no support
act, and the Dead came on pretty promptly at 7.30pm and started their set. The
songs seemed a mix of country rock with long meandering psychedelic west coast
guitar solos. I was seated more or less directly in front of Bob Weir, who sported a
long pony tail which was almost down to his waist. Jerry Garcia was on the other
side of the stage. Sometime between 9pm and 10pm the Dead took a break before
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returning for a second set, which seemed to go on forever. I enjoyed the concert,
but it went on a little too long for me. I also found it heavy going, because I wasn’t
familiar with the material.
Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come in Concert

Sunderland Polytechnic Wearmouth Hall 1973
From the moment I saw Arthur Brown singing “Fire” on Top of the Pops in 1968
wearing a flaming crown on his head, I knew he was something special. I first got
to see Arthur Brown live in 1973 at a gig by his band Kingdom Come in Sunderland
Polytechnic’s Student Union building, Wearmouth Hall. That gig was spectacular,
and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before or since. This was before Alice Cooper
and any other rock theatre, and it was simply sensational.
The stage was set with a massive wooden cross as its centre. Arthur was brought
on stage and tied to the cross in a simulated crucifixion, where he stayed as he sang
the first song. His voice was so strong, deep, loud and operatic in texture. His hair
was very long, and the rest of the band looked pretty menacing, with lots of make
up. After the first song Arthur leapt from the cross and started dancing around the
stage like a madman. At one point in the set they had a section called The Brain,
where one of the band crawled into the audience in a massive brain costume (it
worked much better than it reads…) followed by another member dressed as a
priest. The priest then chased the brain around the hall, eventually capturing it while
Arthur sang something about religion screwing up your brain. Pretty heavy stuff,
but it worked, and blew my mind as a teenager. At the end of the set each member
of the band departed, leaving Arthur alone on stage singing a strange rambling
song, which seemed to be totally improvised. After some time the band came back
on stage, captured Arthur, put him in a white straitjacket and dragged him off; still
singing and screaming.
Edgar Broughton Band in Concert 1970s
Edgar Broughton was uncompromising and fearless. My early memories of Edgar

were gigs in Sunderland, Newcastle and at pop festivals including Reading 1972 and
Buxton 1972. Edgar was usually sporting a snazzy karate suit, and singing tracks
from the early Edgar Broughton Band lps such as “Freedom”, “Evil”, “American
Soldier”, “Apache Drop Out” and, of course, “Out Demons Out”. Edgar wasn’t
frightened of speaking out against the authorities, police, the government and any-
thing he didn’t feel was right. He was (and still is) a big man with a deep booming
voice, often compared to Captain Beefheart.
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Onstage I felt as if he was speaking directly to me, and he had quite a power-
ful, almost frightening personality. I saw him in July 1971 at Sunderland Locarno,
just a few days before an (in)famous gig at Redcar at which Edgar and the band
turned up and played from the back of a lorry after being banned from playing on
the seafront. He encouraged us all to come along to Redcar, to bring our friends
and our cars. Edgar ended up spending the night in Redcar jail, and wrote the song
“(Judge) Called me a liar” about the whole experience. “Out Demons Out” was
the Broughton Band anthem. It was derived from a hippy chant recorded by the
American band The Fugs in the late 1960s. It became a ritual event at every one
of their concerts, with the audience chanting along with the band, in an attempt to
exorcise the demons of the time.
Krautrock
Can Newcastle City Hall 24th January 1974
I went along to this gig out of curiosity as much as anything else. I’d read a lot about
Can in the music press, and heard a few tracks, although I didn’t own any of their
albums. It seemed a cool and trendy sort of gig to go to. By 1974 Can had released
5 albums, and vocalist Damo Suzuki had just left the band. The set was largely
instrumental, heavy on the bass courtesy of Holger Czukay, with lots of free form
improvisation, very avant-garde and quite challenging. The songs were drawn out,
some lasting up to 20 minutes.
Kraftwerk Newcastle Mayfair 5th September 1975
I saw Kraftwerk twice. The first occasion was in 1975 when they were on tour in the
UK in support of their Radio-Activity album. I’d heard Autobahn, which reached
No 11 in the UK charts in 1975, but didn’t know anything else by the band. I found
the gig quite strange. First it took place at Newcastle Mayfair on a Friday night.
Friday night at the Mayfair in the mid 1970s was a heavy metal stronghold, and host
to gigs by the likes of Thin Lizzy, UFO, and Judas Priest. So Kraftwerk were a bit
of an “off the wall” proposition for the venue, to say the least. Most of the heavy
rock fans stayed away and the ballroom was quite empty for the visit by the German
rockers who stood, statue-like at their (then) futurist keyboards at the front of the
stage, making strange robotic moves and playing their electronic rhythms. It was
quite a bizarre affair, and most of the crowd were having a drink and ignoring the
band. The band themselves stood and sang without any emotion, all dressed in the
same slick and dark clothing. We found it fascinating, and we didn’t realise at the
time just how influential this band were going to be. The core line-up for the band
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that I saw on both occasions was Ralf Hütter on vocals, synthesizer, orchestron,
synthanorma-sequenzer, and various strange electronics; Florian Schneider on
vocals, vocoder, votrax, and synthesizer and Karl Bartos on electronic percussion.
Kraftwerk stood on that stage as robotic figures, summoning beats and rhythms
from their futuristic consoles.
Bussy (2004) describes the stage set for the tour: “a starkly minimal presenta-
tion based around four neon signs with the first names of the group on them”: Ralf;
Karl; Wolfgang and Florian. Bussy goes on to explain: “all the cables and plugs
were hidden, giving a clean, bare appearance”. The band were all dressed in sharp
formal suits and stood behind their futuristic keyboard set-ups; playing their strange
minimalist pieces. Bussy (2004) comments how, by “1981 their live performances
had become as clearly and strictly regimented as their electronic lifestyle”.
Post Punk
Joy Division Newcastle City Hall 4th October

1979 (Supporting Buzzcocks)
Joy Division had just released their debut album “Unknown Pleasures” at the time
of this concert, which was part of a nationwide tour as support for punk/pop band
Buzzcocks. I made a point of arriving at the City Hall early to see the support act.
We had seats right down the front, and watched all of Joy Division’s set. Their
music had developed a lot from the basic punk thrash that I had seen at Newcastle
Guildhall a couple of years earlier, and had become a dark, gothic, rhythmic, noise.
The musicality of the songs impressed me and set them apart from their punk and
new wave contemporaries. But most of all, I was transfixed by Ian Curtis, his blank
expression, glaring eyes and crazy, manic epileptic dancing. It was clear that there
was something awkward, different yet brilliant about the guy, which came through
in his dark lyrics which painted stark images of alienation, coupled with his mono-
tonic, snarling vocals and manic, crazed dancing. The performance was intense,
scary, compelling, and unnerving.
Adrian on http://joydivision-neworder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/joy-division-
newcastle-4-oct-1979-flac.html:
“The stage was very dark I recall, and as they began to play, I wondered when the
lights were going to come on properly (they never did!). [According to Peter Hook
(2013) the band were starting to avoid the use of lighting systems, as they believed
that they could be a trigger for the epileptic fits which Ian Curtis was beginning to
suffer from quite regularly during Joy Division performances.] The first thing that
struck me was the power of the drums - I’d never felt such deep bassy drums at a
concert, one’s whole body felt the beat. Ian Curtis was at the front of the stage, what
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seemed like the very edge - he appeared to be on a brink of a cliff…. I don’t think
he did “the dance” until a few tracks into the short set, but when he did, staring into
the audience, it sent shivers down my spine, and I realised that I was witnessing
something extraordinary….It didn’t seem right watching any other band, especially
the poppy Buzzcocks, after what I had just seen.”
Public Image Ltd, Creation for Liberation Benefit Gig,

Manchester Belle Vue, 23rd February 1979
Public Image’s music was as far away from the poppy punk rock of The Sex Pistols
as it could be. They emerged after the Sex Pistols split in 1978, growing out of
Lydon’s dissatisfaction with punk (Reynolds, 2009) and developed a much more
experimental sound, combining the droning, thumping bass of Jah Wobble, with
Lydon’s snarling rant and Keith Levene’s discordant, sharp, cutting guitar sound.
This was Public Image Ltd.’s 5th gig, and their first in the North of England. I’d
been a massive fan of the Sex Pistols, having seen them twice in 1976 and 1977,
so I was looking forward to this concert. I’d bought their first album, and found
it quite strange and rather disconcerting, it was so different to the Sex Pistols. My
wife and I went to the concert which was in the massive, cold depths of the Kings
Hall, which was situated in the Belle Vue fun park in Manchester.
The concert was entitled ‘Creation for Liberation’ and was a benefit gig in aid of
the ‘Race Today Friendly Society’. Also on the bill were Bristol’s The Pop Group
(who were punky/jazzy/art-rock), Merger (a great reggae band), and poets Linton
Kwesi Johnson and John Cooper Clarke. We arrived early to see all the bands. There
was a long, cold, wait before PIL came on stage. When they did, they wandered on
and Lydon famously said to the waiting crowd, “No gimmicks, no theatre, just us.
Take it or leave it”. They then launched into ‘Theme’ and played a set which featured
songs from their first album, and the controversial Pistols songs ‘Belsen Was a Gas’.
The sound was poor and murky and you couldn’t hear Lydon’s vocals very well at
all. John was as scary and engaging as ever, but overall the band’s performance was
a little shaky, and lacking the power and depth that PIL can achieve on a good night.
I was hoping we would get a Pistols hit for the encore (I should have known that
was never going to happen), but they simply played ‘Annalisa’ again. It was great
to see Lydon on stage again, and in a strange way, this was a memorable concert.
It represented everything that PIL was about at the time: challenging, strange, not
quite what you would expect, noisy and discordant.
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ANALYSIS
The narrative accounts of the performance were analysed to identify themes which
help answer the research question: Do the roots of trance music lie in the music
of the 1970s and 1980s; particularly within the genres of space rock, psychedelia,
Krautrock, and post punk?
Space Rock
Greg Shaw, in his article “The Future Will Happen This Year: Space Rock” pub-
lished in Phonograph Record in March 1973, discussed the arrival of “space rock”.
He traced the history of the genre back to 1956 when sci-fi movies were popular
in the USA and Joe Bennett and the Sparkletones sang “me an’ my baby, cruisin’
thru outer space.” Shaw follows the development of space rock through the 1960s,
via the psychedelic rock bands Jefferson Airplane and the Byrds, discusses how
Hawkwind provide “Space for the Masses” using the Space Ritual as an example,
and predicting: “Space-rock is here.” Abrahams (2014) attempts to define space
rock, describing it as “repetitive beats and tribal rhythms” and “chanty vocals with
space, science and spiritual themes” (Matthews, 2014a). Matthews (2014b) also
refers to the influence of LSD and other psychedelic drugs, on the scene.
Reports of early Hawkwind gigs are legendary with members of the audience
apparently being physically sick, which the band put down to a form of trance. Brock
explained “You can force people to go into trances, and tell them what to do; it’s
mass hypnotism” (Gilbert, 1970). Pilch (2004) discusses how ecstatic trance can
be induced neurologically, describing how Newberg (Newberg, D’Aquili & Rause,
2001) observed a concert in a New York Church which combined music with the
recorded howling of wolves and stirred audience members to “stand up and howl along
with the wolves”. It also resonates with Saldanha’s essay “Music is Force” (2009).
An early Hawkwind concert had many elements which would later re-emerge
within trance music, including the use of psychedelic lights to produce a multimedia
audio-visual experience, lyrics of space and time, dance (focussed on dancers Stacia
and others), and repetitive rhythmic music. There was evidence of drug use at their
concerts, of the underground press and alternative culture. The album of the Space
Ritual concert was packaged in a splendid psychedelic sleeve, unfolding into a “vast
panoramic Barney Bubbles spectacular that will turn your bedroom into mission
control module” (Rowley, 1973).
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The Roots of Trance
Hawkwind collaborated with science fiction author Michael Moorcock on several

occasions: “Sonic Attack” was written by Moorcock, and he also worked closely
with the band on their album “Warrior on the Edge of Time”. Similar themes to
those within Hawkwind’s music can be found throughout Moorcock’s works (e.g.
Moorcock, 1969 & 1970).
The influence of Gong on trance is clear and direct. Pilch (2004) draws parallels
between trance, spirituality and alternative religions, themes which run through Gong’s
music, lyrics and mythology. Guitarist Steve Hillage and his partner Miquette Giraudy,
both formerly of Gong, went on to form System 7, a leading ambient dance band.
But there is no denying that the roots of Gong lie also in rock. Mike Howlitt,
Gong’s bass player at the time makes this clear in an interview by Chris Salewicz,
for the NME in 1974, around the time of this concert: “Oh yeah. That’s very much
part of it. Because I, for example, come from a rock background. Steve (Hillage)
the guitarist is very much into rock.....the strong feeling of keeping what was amaz-
ing about rock’n’roll...Jimi Hendrix...the essence of rock’n’roll which is always in
danger of being lost. There’s an essence about it that has to be kept alive and brought
forward....It’s just the essence of life, you know.”
Psychedelia
The music at a Grateful Dead concert featured long, intense guitar-based pieces,
which were calming and yet challenging at the same time, and were rooted in a
culture and a time where their audiences were experimenting with hallucinogenic
drugs and the experiences which music and drugs together could induce. These
cultural elements play an important part in the development of trance (Saldanha,
2009). Shaw (1973) draws linkages between the music of Pink Floyd and the Grate-
ful Dead, citing Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” as an influence on the Dead’s epic
“Dark Star”, which often featured in their live concerts, and extended to a jam which
could go on for more than an hour.
“…being in the Grateful Dead was the perfect spawning ground for all of this. I
was able to see masses and masses of people going into trance! Music is invisible.
You can’t see it. You can’t touch it. You can feel it, you can hear it, but it’s an invis-
ible energy. In some ways it’s like electricity. ….. I was kind of thrust into the world
of the para, of things that are beyond normal consciousness” says Grateful Dead
drummer Mickey Hart speaking to Stuart Henderson of PopMatters (Henderson,
2011). Jerry Garcia speaking in 1972 said of their music “Music has infinite space.
You can go as far into music as you can fill millions of lifetimes. Music is an infinite
cylinder” (George-Watson, 2008).
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Pink Floyd’s music had a transcendental element to it, through the spacey feel
of “Set Your Control for the Heart of the Sun” and “Echoes” and the heartbeat of
“Dark Side”. In an interview with John Harris (2005), Roger Waters explained
that Dark Side of the Moon consisted of several diverse themes: “death, insanity,
wealth, poverty, war, peace and much more besides”. You could place Pink Floyd
in the category of psychedelia or space rock; their music crosses both. Matthews
(2014d) describes Floyd as “reluctant space rockers”, citing the tracks “Astronomy
Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive” as evidence of their belonging to the genre.
The music of Arthur Brown combines elements of space rock, and psychedelia
with theatre. His lyrics include “trance” themes of spirituality, science fiction, drug
influences and adventures into other worlds (Marshall, 2005; Saldanha, 2009).
Edgar Broughton’s “Out Demons Out” was used in an attempt by students to
levitate the Vice Chancellor’s house at University of Keele, using music as “force”
(Saldanha, 2009) and for “empowerment” (Frith, 1998). “I first came across it [The
chant] at the Edgar Broughton Band concert and... the levitation incident. Students
were protesting at the time - about money, I believe - and the concert was all part
of the fuss. I recall being there to hear the music and joining in the chanting. The
“demons” … were the authorities, who were raising the fees.” (Extract from Keele
University website). “I think the original chant of ‘Out Demons Out’ came from
the march to levitate the Pentagon by Hippies /& Yippies in the late 1960s’” (Keele
University website, 1972). The Broughton Band (and Hawkwind) also appeared at
many of the free underground festivals of the time. The rock festivals of the 1960s
and 1970s contributed much to the rave culture and the development of trance. Par-
tridge (2006) argues that “the roots of trance lie deep in the soil of festival culture”.
Krautrock
Einbrodt (2001) asserts that the origins of Krautrock lie in the USA, the music of
the sixties, psychedelia, with bands like The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane,
and the counter-culture which was characterised by drugs, revolution, and music
which featured long improvisations. The Oxford English Dictionary (2013) defines
Krautrock as “An experimental style of rock music associated with German groups
of the 1970s, characterized by improvisation and strong, hypnotic rhythms.” Einbrodt
categorises Krautrock as comprising five sub genres, namely: Cosmic Space Music,
Experimental Mystic, Romantic, Mystic Fantasy and Popular Sequencing Music,
arguing that Tangerine Dream best represent the first sub-genre, Cosmic Space Music,
and that Kraftwerk best represent the final sub-genre, Popular Sequencing Music.
Miles reviewing Can’s “Unlimited Edition for New Musical Express, 11 Sep-
tember 1976 states that it illustrates Can “at their best – characteristic shifting of
highly melodic riffs, mellowed by echo, which tastefully move in and out of focus”
50
The Roots of Trance
and that “this basic Can structure can go in any direction: from New York City
honking free jazz to Moroccan Jilala trance music…..a major group proving that
‘private is public these days’ by releasing their sketchbooks. Unlimited Edition is
Can’s Scribbledehobble.”
The importance of Kraftwerk in the history and development of modern dance
and trance music must not be underestimated (Albiez & Pattie, 2010; Rietveld,
2010). Barr (2013) discusses how “the future of modern music began in Dusseldorf
in 1970, when an avant-garde German band, ‘the Organisation’ re-invented them-
selves as Kraftwerk and set in motion a train of events which introduced a whole new
language into popular culture.” Bussy (2004) discusses how Kraftwerk developed
the form of electronic German music pioneered by Can and Tangerine Dream and
how the “Autobahn” lp in particular was a “perfect statement of the time”, which set
the standard for many years to come, and was “a record that it would take a lot of
bands another few years to catch up with”. There was a simple, rhythmic precision
and mathematical beauty to Kraftwerk’s music which set out an agenda that many,
including other 1970s innovators such as David Bowie, and post-punk bands like
Depeche Mode and the Human League, would follow.
“We have always played in different situations, different countries, different
cultures. And, of course, when we were playing for example in America, there was
always a large part of the audience which was dancing....electronic music is really
a world language...”; Ralf Hutter of Kraftwerk, in an interview with Lester Bangs
(1975).
Post Punk
The influence of post punk music on trance music is both undeniable and obvious. Bands
like Joy Division (and later New Order), and John Lydon’s post Sex Pistols group Public
Image Ltd drew influences from punk, electronic music, David Bowie, and Krautrock to
produce new sounds which would provide the foundations on which modern trance music
has been built. Julian Cope’s band The Teardrop Explodes was even called “Bubblegum
Trance Music” at the time (credited to Dean Johnson, Boston, 1981).
Jon Savage described the music of Joy Division as “a definitive Northern Gothic
statement: guilt-ridden, romantic, claustrophobic” (1994). Oksanen (2007) writes of
“The revival of the Gothic in late modern culture” and how “the subject feels isolated
and alienated and is left with a trance-like dream reality” and that “the works of
Joy Division and Diary of Dreams underline personal emptiness, ambivalence and
dream states.” Church (2006) uses Curtis as a “case study,” discussing how attitudes
about disability can be exploited in popular culture, pointing out that his dancing
during performances “had become a distressing parody of his off-stage seizures...an
accurate impression of the involuntary movements he would make” (Church, 1995).
51
The Roots of Trance
The above analysis identifies many themes in the music and performance of rock
artists from the 1970s and 1980s which, it can be argued, provide evidence for the
roots of trance. The themes emerging from each performance are summarised below.
• Hawkwind: dance, multi-media performance, deep loud pounding rhythms,

alternative cultures and worlds, drug culture.
• Gong: mythology, theatre, spirituality, drug culture.
• Pink Floyd: uplifting music, rhythmic beat, madness, light shows, spectacle.
• Grateful Dead: lengthy improvisations, drug culture, counter culture.
• Arthur Brown: performance art, spectacle, counter culture.
• Edgar Broughton Band: revolution, change, the underground, festival culture.
• Can: lengthy improvisation, rhythm and beats.
• Kraftwerk: robotic, electronica, rhythm and beats, dance.
• Joy Division: darkness, trance-like state in dance, rhythm.
• Public Image Limited: discord, bass rhythm beats.
Synthesising the above produces the following themes: multi-media nature of the
performance, the experimental lyrical content, dance, beats and rhythm, spirituality
and mythology, drug and festival culture, and the search for alternative worlds and
new experiences. Each of themes can also be found within trance.
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
This chapter has covered a small number of bands. There are many other acts from
the period, not covered here, who also influenced trance music and are worthy of
further study. Studies to date on trance have tended to focus on a restricted set of
genres. This chapter has attempted to take the exploration for the roots of trance
a little further by focussing on the genres of space rock, psychedelia, Krautrock,
and post punk, using narrative accounts of rock performance as a vehicle for the
analysis. Other methodological approaches are also needed to explore the richness,
depth and complexity of trance.
This chapter is limited in its approach in that it has considered a snapshot of a
small number of artists, genres and performances. There are other artists, who might
have been included, who also had an influence on trance. Worth of consideration
and study are, for example, the works of Roxy Music and Brian Eno, David Bowie
and the Art Rock genre.
52
The Roots of Trance
CONCLUSION
This chapter has used personal recollections of concerts during the 1970s and 1980s as
a backdrop to highlight the influence that bands of that time had on the development
of trance music. This chapter has explored the following research question: “Do the
roots of trance music lie in the music of the 1970s and 1980s; particularly within
the genres of space rock, psychedelia, Krautrock, and post punk?” and focused on
the genres of space rock, psychedelia, Krautrock, and post punk. The themes which
emerge include the multi-media nature of the performance, the experimental lyrical
content, dance rhythms, spirituality and mythology, drug culture, and the search for
alternative worlds and new experiences. The study helps to illuminate the roots of
trance, but is limited in the genres, acts and performances which were selected. There
is a need for future study to extend the analysis to include other acts and genres.
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The Roots of Trance
Krautrock: A form of electronic music that originated in Germany in the 1970s.

Multi-Media Performance: A performance which includes music, lighting,
dance, theatre, poetry and other forms of art.
Performance Analysis: A methodological approach which uses performance
as the basis of analysis, in order to explore elements of music, lyrics, audience and
the performance itself.
Post Punk: A rock music genre which emerged out of the initial punk rock ex-
plosion of the 1970s. Post punk music tended to extend the musical form from the
thrash and speed of initial punk.
Psychedelic Rock: A style of rock music which draws from the alternative drug
culture of the 1960s and is characterised by improvisation and Eastern influences.
Space Rock: A form of rock music which draws from science fiction in its lyri-
cal content and concept.
57
58
Chapter 3
Transformational
Festivals:
A New Religious Movement?
Andrew Johner
Lesley University, USA
ABSTRACT
With the growing popularity of psychedelic trance worldwide, as well as a general
resurgence of electronic music in the United States, several new forms of music fes-
tivals are one the rise in North America- among these are transformational festivals.
Transformational festivals in North America are a progeny of psychedelic trance,
Burning Man, and full-moon rave culture. Transformational festivals incorporate
spiritual practices such as yoga, chanting, meditation and ecstatic dance alongside
their primary exhibits of musical and psychedelic entertainment. The festivals ad-
vertise a predominating intention of providing attendees with multiple avenues of
self-development, therapeutic healing, and spiritual transformation. The purpose
of this chapter is to access elements of belonging, identity, religiosity, and elitism
among transformational culture and their transformational festival events. This
chapter will offer comparison to religious revivals, cults, new religious movements,
millenarianism, and cultural revitalization movements.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch003
Transformational Festivals
INTRODUCTION
The expansion of psychedelic trance across the world has been consequential not
only for the rise of psytrance’s global tribe, as it has been identified by anthropolo-
gist Graham St. John1, but also for the offspring of several new forms of psytrance
cultures, among these are Transformational Festivals. Internationally, many trans-
formational festivals such as Portugal’s Boom Festival, and Australia’s Rainbow
Serpent Festival, are historically popular psychedelic trance festivals. Yet in 2012,
both events began to identify under the transformational festival moniker—as Boom
is now classified on Wikipedia. In the United States, events with names like Lucidity,
Lighting In a Bottle, Transcendence Festival, YOUtopia, Wunderlust, and Serenity
Gathering, are also being distinguished as Transformational Festivals (Reyes, 2013).
Transformational festivals in the United States share historical ties with local
psytrance communities, and from an international scope are also categorized as
visionary arts festivals along with many other psytrance festival events (Davis,
2014). They share emphasis on ecstatic trance dancing for long periods of time,
spiritual and religious iconography, fractal and geometric psychedelic art, as well
as a millenarianism involving extraterrestrials, apocalypse, and techno-singularities.
Julian Allison, of the New York Times describes the festivals as “the slightly smaller,
psychedelic-art-and-electronic-dance-music-centered, commercialized progeny of
Burning Man (Allison, 2014).” A community is emerging around these events that
some identify as transformational culture—claiming allegiance to the transforma-
tional festival as a movement of cultural revitalization akin to the visionary arts
movement (St John, 2014).
What characterizes a regular music festival from a transformational festival,
or TF, is the presence of seminars, workshops, drum circles, religious ceremonies
appropriated from indigenous traditions, installation art, yoga, and an ethos of
community-building, self-realization, healthy-living, and creative expressionism
(Perry, 2013). At TF events, participants discuss new age, and neo-spiritual ideologies
while maintaining a shared experience of leisure and openness. They dance as a uni-
fied ecstatic mass. They buy, sell and ingest a multiplicity of psychedelic narcotics.
They attend several workshops on tantric sexual healing, mediation, raw-food
dieting, or astrological channeling. Attendees claim to be positively changed by the
experience—hence their transformational label. Many TFs also advertise themselves
as forbearers of a new worldview, with many of their attendees claiming to be a part
of a larger social movement paving the way for a new planetary culture (St John,
2014). Nate Hogan, a long-time participant, infamous within the community for
building natural art installation sanctuaries at TF events, remarked the following
comment in an interview back in 2009:
59
People have labeled it all sorts of things, people call it Neo-Tribal, or Ancient-
Futurism, no one can quite put there [sic] finger on it, we just know it’s pushing the
boundaries of cultural evolution and we know that we’re in that creative process,
and the key is that we are learning what cultural alchemies work well together. If
we bring all these different creative elements together then it creates this surge of
energy that helps elevate everybody to a new level of consciousness. (N. Hogan,
Personal Communication 2009)
As Hogan remarks, the group is in a process of creative cultural landscaping,

seeking new identities for themselves, and possibly new world perspectives. But what
exactly are transformational festivals, and what does the transformational label mean?
Primarily, TF’s are counter-culture events historically inspired by psychedelic drug
use for purposes of leisure entertainment and positive self-transformation through
a process of achieving a state of cultural disorientation. James Orac comments on
the purpose of substances at these events in his episodic article “The Second Psy-
chedelic Revolution,” Orac writes:
Considering the lack of alternatives, it becomes obvious how the transpersonal-

psychedelic experience grants us not only an invaluable perspective from which
to view our relationship with ourselves and with our Society, and with our species
relationship with planet and the rest of the Web-of-Life, but also ultimately with
our relationship with Source, with the Universal Consciousness that has somehow
managed to evolve, ever so briefly, into this packet of wonder that is ourselves, the
first hand experience of which – Life – remains the greatest human mystery, and the
greatest gift of all. (Orac, The Second Psychedelic Revolution 2013)
Transformational festivals facilitate a form of liminality—acting as a modern rite

of passage for participants. Liminality, derived from the Latin word līmen meaning
“a threshold,” is a mode of transit betwixt and between how a person frames their
identity before and after a ritual, or during a process of cultural transition (Turner,
1977). Liminality, as it has been explored by Victor Turner, is the middle stage
of a ritual— a moment of cultural disorientation, ego-loss, and self-mutability. In
our modern western world of cheeseburgers, twitter, and shopping malls, rites of
passage are few and far in-between. While they still exist in some widely practiced
rituals—wedding ceremonies, bar mitzvahs, and Catholic confirmation—they are
not as pronounced as they once were in society. Rites of passage were once a domi-
nant feature of early civilizations, they and defined our individual roles, supplied us
with a sense of identity, marked our transition into adulthood, and gave us a sense
of connection to the natural world (Gennep, 1960). Transformational festivals seek
to resurrect this space of liminal transition for the purpose of reuniting community,
60
inspiring purpose driven creativity, and rekindling a relationship with the natural
world (Perry, 2013). As one participant and writes in his article “How Burning Man
and Festival Culture Change Personal:”
At festivals, we are culturally de-programmed, allowing our hardened snakeskins

of certainty to be ceremoniously shed, leaving us pink and vulnerable, ready to face
the immediate presence of true reality with eyes fully open. (J. Duffy, How Burning
Man and Festival Culture make Change Personal, 2014)
Transformational festivals engineer this liminal space through the facilitation

of a transitory amusement park of ego-dissolving rides centered around as ecstatic
dancing, high-intensity music, and yogic workshops. Festival organizer and Tribal
Convergence founder, Jamaica Steven comments in her interview with transforma-
tional festival webzine Sol Purpose:
These gatherings create a container to allow the exploration of finding our way
into balance and tolerance as OneHumanFamily. There is a potent force that heals
as we collaborate, co-create, offer our service to each other, sit in council, share
wisdom, embrace mutligenerational exchange, honor the earth with ritual – all as
we find our value and purpose within a community. (J. Stevens, Tribal Convergence,
Sol Purpose 2012)
The entire festival is a playground for amplifying extrasensory experience in an

aural world of empathic pleasures. The psychedelic amalgam of music, dancing and
other forms of ecstatic entertainment are a sonic entanglement in visceral chemical
rapture. The TF offers this unadulterated unison of music, magic, and humanness.
Electronic soundscapes designed to take listeners into intensified altered states of
consciousness are amplified over the entire event. Video projections, lasers, and
high-production lighting systems create skewed and magical realities. The multiplex
of out-of-mind, and out-of-body experiences generated through the event’s chemical
and technological expertise allow attendees to explore an experimental and temporary
social hybrid of entertainment, community and spirituality.
Only a few years ago, these events were typified among similar festivals like Burning
Man, Symbiosis, Shambhala, or Electric Forest. The recent addition of the word transfor-
mational to the genre’s label divided events between those intended for weekend leisure
and spiritual gatherings with sacred purpose (Davis, 2013). While the transformational
label has done well to catalogue a specific genre of festival, it brought along with it an
implicit expectation for the events to provide spiritual or transformational experiences
for self-improvement—diminishing expectation for the celebratory zone of free-form
expressionism that was once a primary character of the music festival identity.
61
Transformational Festivals seek to resurrect a whole-earth ecology, a strong

emotional sensibility, and spiritual awareness within it’s thousands of participants
all over the World. For many, the TF serves as a pathway to enlightenment- one
divorced from commitment to any one particular faith or religion. At first glance,
their movement would appear a rebellious liberation from traditional religion with-
out debarking from the transformative power of spiritual practice. However, such
discourse is also iconic of new religious movements.
New Religious Movements, or NRMs, refer to alternative or marginal religious
movements, most commonly designated as cults. NRMs are generally difficult to
distinguish and are often put up against stigmatized imagery of snake-handlers and
Charlie Manson fans. NRM’s are actually quite common in the United States due
to the extreme secularization of culture in the last century. Individuals are seeking
alternative spiritualties, and also alternative spiritual communities with whom to
belong. NRM’s can be defined by a set of commonalities found in similar move-
ments outside the boundaries of traditional religion. Usually, they are an admixture
of new innovations in technology and therapeutic healing. They are often coupled
with economic, political, or counter-cultural enterprise. They seek the sacred as an
iconic and awe-inspiring source of transgression from dominant culture (Appel,
1983). Transformational festivals and the communities which surround them exhibit
several features which are commonly found in other marginal religious movements.
Common features of TF events are heightened degrees of transpersonalism, collec-
tive ecstasis, and utopianism, all of which are also characteristics common to new
religious movements (Enroth, 2005). TF’s attract the atypical membership of an elite
social class of individuals with leisure amounts of economic and temporal wealth
while excluding others soley on the grounds of their social status (Nickles, 2014).
Their charismatic deployment of spiritual information, including millenarian ideolo-
gies coupled with ecstatic visionary experiences closely parallels religious revivals.
They have sought a new combination of yogic, tantric, and shamanic practices to
comprise new methodologies of accessing the sacred. Many participants believe
they are creating a new planetary culture, and through their zealotry, have begun to
disengage their social identities from the dominant world and identifying as other.
Through othering themselves they have begun to see the outside world as poisoned,
and adversarial to the goals of their movement. Their dichotomous worldview and
adversarial banter of the outside world is fueled by a millenarian archetype of plan-
etary transcendence. Interestingly, all this add up to a little more than music festivals
with yoga. While the festivals have apotheosized themselves with the transformational
label—the festivals might just be something more. It is here we must take a closer
look at the identity of the transformational festival between its boast and its bout. Is
the free-form spirituality mounted at the events engaging participants with a new
form of liberated spiritualism—or creating the foundation of a new kind of religion?
62
BACKGROUND
Not long ago, transformational festivals were hidden from mainstream knowledge.
It has only been in the recent year that the media has brought the underground event
into the limelight. In 2011, a film I directed and produced, Electronic Awaken-
ing, was released—documenting the emergence of transformational culture out of
the electronic music community (Electronic Awakening, 2011). Followed by it’s
production, in 2012, an autobiographical web-series entitled The Bloom, began
releasing episodes exploring contemporary TF events from the perspective of the
participants themselves—the series being narrated by the organizer of a popular
TF event in British Columbia (Lueng, 2013). Most notably, in 2014, the New York
Times published “The Progeny of Burning Man: Burning Man Spawns New Age
Festivals,” an article in their September issue spotlighting the new festivals in their
kinship to Burning Man in Nevada (Allison, 2014). In 2014, internet hubs Sol Pur-
pose, Festival Fire, and Keyframe-Entertainment emerged, broadcasting TF event
schedules, locations, and often on-site press coverage. While once an esoteric genre
of weekend leisure—today, anyone with an email account can register on a number
of TF cyber-hubs and receive updates on dozens of upcoming TF gatherings. Hav-
ing only recently emerged into the limelight, few understand this history of where
these events came from, or are aware of their roots in rave and psytrance cultures.
Transformational festivals emerged out of rave culture in the United States in
the early 1990’s when events first began organizing chill-out spaces intended for
relaxation and taking a break from the dance floor. Members of the early electronic
music community claim much of the integration between ritual intention and ec-
static dance began in these areas (C. Hill, Personal Communication, 2006). Many
promoters felt that the chill-out zone offered a place where psychedelic and ecstatic
experiences could be communicated with other event attendees. The chill-out zone
offered a place for peoples psychedelic experiences to be discussed with other par-
ticipants and gain a meaning. With implicit value, the temporary experience of the
rave carried onward beyond the party to have implication as a form of therapeutic
healing leading to individual self-transformation.
Throughout the development of American rave culture in the 1990’s, many
dedicated promoters sought to include more focus on ritualized intention and fa-
cilitating spiritual experiences. As this integrated further, the chill-out zone took
on a more prominent role at the events. As raves expanded into multi-day festival
events, the chill-out zone became a prime area for hosting daytime activities away
from music. These areas were often secondary stages, hosting such activities as
yoga, mediation, contact dance, and theatrical rituals. As the popularity of the zones
increased, speakers were booked to offer workshops on such subjects as astrology,
permaculture, polyamory, and ecstatic living. Festival promoters began advertising
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these zones in the event’s lineup alongside the primary musical acts. Many attendees
were claiming to have a principal attraction to the events for their secondary zones
of intentional self-development. As popularity grew, the transformational label was
added to demarcate which events facilitated such spaces.
In 2010, a Canadian DJ, Jeet Kei Leung, gave a TEDx presentation comparing
the transformational festivals with ancient pagan festivals.2 According to Leung, such
festivals were “Transformational Festivals,” for their incorporation of workshops,
value-setting perimeters, ceremony, and communal celebration.3 His evangelizing
speech on the spiritual progeny of electronic music festivals set off a chain reac-
tion in festival marketing, quickly popularizing the buzzword, “Transformational
Festivals”, among the music festival culture on the west coast of North America.
While Kei’s presentation of transformational festivals was meant to define a
broader range of festival events- the buzzword was quickly territorialized. While
elements of spirituality, yoga, eastern medicine, and shamanism were already taking
a rising precedence in festival identity, dozens of event producers began claiming
the “transformational festival” as a genre of their own, segregated to a particular
community, style format, and “class” of festival.
As Keyframe-Entertainment writes on their website:
All festivals are not created equal. While the EDM industry is in a frenzy over main-
stream festivals, there’s a culture of Transformational Festivals that has been around
for many years. A Transformational Festival is a multi-layered event that espouses a
community-building ethic, and a value system that celebrates life, personal growth,
social responsibility, healthy living, and creative expression.4
Both the event’s producers as well as their attendees were divided over what
could be labeled “transformational” and what could not. Others outright refused the
labeling, arguing that identifying music festivals as transformational was an attempt
to sacralize an experience which was best left open to interpretation. Events such
as Lucidity and Lightning in a Bottle prominently identified as transformational
festivals, while other’s whom Leung had identified, such as Symbiosis, and Goa
Gil, repudiated the label (Davis, 2013).
In a recent article about Symbiosis Festival, organizer Kevin KoChen tackled
the ambiguity of the word:
“Transformation” has recently become a buzzword in the festival scene. While I

can appreciate being considered a transformational event, I have some difficulty
in how transformation is being defined. Transformation is a messy business. Trans-
formation is not eaten with a knife and salad fork. People can’t just ‘show up’ to a
‘transformational festival’ and ‘be transformed’.
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While the word may still be loosely used outside of the United States, here it is
becoming a badge of identity for attendees, and a marketing brand for event pro-
ducers. The rising popularity of events deemed “transformational festivals,” such
as California’s Lightning in a Bottle, Lucidity, and Wanderlust are expressing new
commercial potentials of the “transformative experience” through pharmacological,
sonic, luminescent, and event technology. Offering such experiences at the cost of
an event ticket, transformational festivals are a modern recalibration of Hunter S.
Thompson’s infamous line “buy the ticket, take the ride.”5
Today, the TF offers a whole orchestra of extrasensory, ecstatic, and spiritual
experiences as an amusement park of transformative passages. TFs will often host one
primary section of the festival grounds dedicated to health, wellness, and ceremony
for the purpose of increasing the engagement of participants with the exploration of
new values, belief-systems, and community building. As one participant remarks:
And the music, the art is now emerging as one culture. And where we are able to
be in the rhythms of our dance while seeing multi-layered visual projections while
people are actually creating live art on stage, life painting or digitally manipulated
live paintings. That are actually reinforcing the energy and reflecting it back to the
dancers where it becomes this harmonized flow of art and creation and music is
all seen as what it is. It’s one; it’s all vibrating spectrums of the same creative life
force that is in us. (D. Skonberg, Personal Communication, 2007)
Experiences of these alternate realities are are spread through a large outdoor
landscape incorporating the surrounding nature. Spiritual symbols and sacred ge-
ometry are on display throughout the events. The festivals are generally filled with
playful signage wrought with messages such as “You are loved,” or “We are all
Onesie.” It’s not uncommon to see individuals practicing yoga, or meditating out
in open spaces, sometimes in large groups, or in classes organized by the festival
itself. At different stages during the event, guest speakers are brought in to lecture
on subjects of shamanism, tantra, meditation, and yogic practices. Beyond the
scheduled speakers, subjects of permaculture, sustainability, spirituality, and self-
transformation fill the conversations of festival attendees. At the end of the event,
it’s not uncommon to find many attendees embracing one another, some in tears
of joy, or relieved trauma. Individuals will exclaim to one another how much they
actually feel “completely transformed” by the event, and will converse about vari-
ous iconic or revelatory moments, new found friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, epic
DJ slots, lectures they had heard, or psychedelic visions they may have had. Many
individuals leave claiming a renewed sense of purpose and belonging.
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Of course, this is not the first time spiritual or religious features have emerged in
electronic music, or popular music culture. Robin Sylvan, a PhD in religious studies
set about examining the religious dimensions of popular music subcultures in his
book Traces of the Spirit published in 2002. In a time, Sylvan claimed- religion was
in decline, defaulting on their delivery of ‘the sacred’ to the masses. Sylvan called
out a religious phenomenon creeping up from the underground of music subcultures
which were transforming into ‘cultural religions.’ Sylvan believed, that raves were
serving as new sources of the sacred for the new generation a youth (Sylvan, 2002).
Sylvan writes, “For teenagers and young adults especially, the musical subculture
to which they belong provides as all-encompassing orientation to the world as any
traditional religion (2002).”
Following Sylvan’s publication of Traces of the Spirit, Sylvan’s research became
predominantly involved in electronic dance music. In 2005 he published the book
Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture.
In Trance Formation, Sylvan sets out to investigate the various religious motifs, and
practices among rave culture in the early millennium—pre-transformational festi-
val—in his book he argues that rave culture was seeding the way for a new unifying
spirituality to emerge, one which was universal across all languages, religions, and
nationalities (Sylvan 2005).
In Performing Rites, sociologist Simon Frith argues that popular music is a guid-
ing principal of meaning in culture as a form of ideological expression (Frith, 1998).
From Frith’s perspective, music is a social and spiritual movement, enacting upon,
and reflecting the consciousness of a culture. If music facilitates the construction and
substantiation of identity—why is it not already a religion of sorts? As Sylvan argues
in Traces of the Spirit, it certainly can be for some, depending on how meaning is
constructed from the experience (2002). And if religiosity was to emerge anywhere
in a popular music culture rave culture was certainly a fertile source.
SEVEN CHARACTERISTICS
Historically, music subcultures have been a breeding ground for religiosity and
new spiritualism to arise. The rock music coming of the later 1960’s would not be
complete without it’s psychedelic-spiritualism. Music was as much a part of the
counter-culture movement as the LSD. Event today, we have cults of rock n’ roll,
Elvis fans who idolize the King, and punk-rock Christian churches6. Transformational
festivals exhibit a further maturation in their organization and progression towards
“being religious.” As mentioned earlier in the introduction, TF events display several
characteristics that are iconic of new religious movements. This section intends to
66
examine 7 common features, as previously defined by sociologist Elieen Barker,

while examining the commentary of other literature to offer a comparison between
the characteristics transformational festivals and new religious movements.
According to the work of sociologist Elieen Barker, new religious movements
are typical of 7 specific characterizations (Barker, 1989):
1) new idea combination

2) new location
3) a dichotomous worldview
4) atypical membership
5) charismatic leadership
6) external controversy, and
7) change
While the next portion of this chapter will explore transformational festivals as a
new religious movement up against each one of the 7 points, it should also be made
clear here that transformational festivals are heterogeneous phenomena. Psytrance
aficionado and anthropologist, Graham St John, coined the termed “alternative cul-
tural heterotopia” (or ACH) to define the diverse spectra of spectacle and meanings
among such countercultural events as transformational festivals, visionary arts festi-
vals, and psytrance events (St John, 2001). In comparison to St John’s post-structural
analysis of ConFest, an alternative-lifestyle festival in Australia, transformational
festivals are also widely diverse in participant interpretation of the events. It should
be understood that transformational festivals are quite new and yet ambiguous in
meaning—as St John call’s alternative cultural heterotopia. Some participants just
go for a good-time, others have more stake in the events as profoundly spiritual or
revelatory. This chapter intentionally neglects the first of those two factions in an
attempt to shine a light on the religious dimension of the community. It should not
be interpreted that the following comparison includes all participants and organiz-
ers of transformational festivals. If anything, the information is highly generalized
in order offer a broad view of religiosity among transformational festivals. Also, it
should be noted that the source of the following research is based on my own ethno-
graphic participant-observation in this community between the year 2006 until the
present, and should be construed as my own interpretation and not one supported
by strong empirical data.
During the years of my ethnographic research I attended over 100 events, and
conducting interviews with fifty participants from which I produced the feature film
Electronic Awakening, a documentary exploring the community’s religiosity. During
that time, I believed that I recorded the emergence of the transformational festival
movement on the west coast of the United States. As my interviews, and event at-
67
tendance were spread out over several years, I was able to observe the growth of the
transformational community to almost four times it’s size, as can be exemplified in
the expansion of such events as Lightning in a Bottle, Symbiosis, and Burning Man,
have grown in an equivalent amount to demonstrate this growth.
During all that time, I recorded individual participant’s interpretation of the events,
and how they construct their meaning. I also recorded their personal beliefs regard-
ing the millenarianism surrounding the Mayan Calendar. As the years went by, this
cultic milieu grew tremendously. A cultic milieu, according to Colin Campbell, is a
collection of deviant belief systems, their associated practices, unorthodox science,
alien religion, and deviant medicines that all make up the ethos of a community
(Campbell, 1972). While once ambiguous and undefined, this reservoir of culture
among transformational festivals was soon filled. When I began my research, in
2006, it would not have been possible to catalogue transformational festivals as a
new religious movement—the events were yet ambiguous in identity and intention.
Today, through years of collaboration among participants, artists, and organizers,
the transformational festival has molded a distinguished and legitimized identity
for itself.
New Combination
In the last few years, the transformational festival has become a marketplace of
ideas— a place to try out new spiritual or yogic practices. It offers a social atmosphere
which enables new ways of looking at sexuality, ecology, and humanness. Jonathan
Zapp, a journalist in the TF scene, identified the festivals as magical zones, where
the “alchemical principles are more transformable, reality is in a state of plasticity
(Heley, M., Mignano M., Zap, J., 2013).” As Zapp states, the transformational festival
assemblage of spiritual techniques and technologies, as well as the appropriation of
sacred practices and their dogmas, ecstatic rituals, and ceremonial dancing— have
all proven an effective means of creating community and new cultural convergences
for attendees.
Individuals attending TF events are in a temporary state of creative self-transfor-
mation, one that incorporates varying perspectives of the group at large as opposed
to a singular creed or dogma. Attendees claim to use spirituality to directly inform
the progression of their culture with an open-sourced awareness of the process.
The awareness of their culture-construction is a fundamental ethos shared by many
participants of the TFs. At events, attendees find resolution to old traumas, while
learning new techniques for healthy, ecstatic and spiritual living. They find a sense
of identity and belonging with the greater culture as a unified spiritual movement-
without following a specific religion or god.
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A fine line rests between the extrusion of religion, and the recapitulation of
dogma. Freedom from the confinement of traditional religion serves as an appeal-
ing blanket statement defining a new spiritual view, and is an attractive feature for
curious outsiders interested in attending TF events. Often this formulation process
appears free-form through its allowance of members to feel as though they are free
to pick and choose what practices or teachings work for them. Overtime, however, a
synchronistic combination arises to the surface. The first of Barker’s distinguishable
traits, a new combination, describes elements extracted from a myriad of spiritual
and mystical traditions in order to create a new formulation of concepts (1989).
Within the TF community this is apparent through the appropriation of spiritual
teachings and practices from cultures all over the world- the majority of them bor-
rowed from Eastern religions and indigenous shamanic cultures.
Patrons are primarily concerned with appropriating the spiritual systems of
multiple cultures, extrude them from dogma, and create an expansive tool-kit for
othering, informing, and restructuring the psyche with an overarching goal of orga-
nizing the community into a new social matrix in opposition and exodus from the
dominant world at large. As Bel Litman, a researcher of psytrance culture, offered
the following response in an interview we had in 2008:
I think our new planetary spirituality has moved beyond the need of having a leader
or one particular god. Because of the way information disseminates at the festivals
we are closing the guru era so to speak. We are starting to receive the knowledge
instead from our own personal experiences. And these experiences are processed
through our personal networks at the events and the information gained through the
experience and what it means is directly channeled to us individually and throughout
the rest of the group. Before we needed to look outside to learn how you can expand
this energy, and what energy is in the first place. You had to look outside to learn
how to receive this knowledge and what kind of practices you needed to do. Right
now, the new edge of spirituality enables you to elect your own religion and which
parts you want to open and develop. Our main authority is ourselves. Because we
realize that we can receive this knowledge directly, without dogma…without religion.
(Litman, B. The Future of Trance, Liminal Village Boom Festival 2008)
New Location
The second of Barker’s list, a new location, includes the transposition of Eastern
spiritual practices such as chanting, mediation, and yoga, into the West (1989).
While these practices are yet unfamiliar to the majority of our Western culture,
they bring with them a feeling of newness. The transformational community has
appropriated a wealth of traditions and practices from all over the world- many
69
of them from Eastern traditions. They have appropriated practices from multiple
shamanic cultures, both contemporary and historic. The community incorporates
various traditions from around the world into their events for the purposes of finding
commonalities, providing a diversity of spiritual practices, as well as recapitulating
new DIY methods of attaining transformative experience.
Dichotomous Worldview
Buried below concepts of unity and acceptance, a self-seeking elitism is a primary

character the TF identity on the West Coast.
I am not going to personally solve the problems in say, Africa, yet by affecting my
own self and my own circle, and continuing to expand that circle in a sustainable
way to others creating vitality in their circles, we can see how our collective reality
can truly transform. (J. Stevens, Tribal Convergence, Sol Purpose 2012)
The zealotry of the transformational community towards a self-only revolution

for change builds an ethnocentricity amongst their group. When pressed on this
issue, participants often express a disinterest, or hesitation, in integrating their
community and values into the rest of society. Nor are they interested in advertis-
ing their events to those outside of the community. Long time participants of the
community have often express feeling a gap between themselves and the rest of
the world. Participants feel as though they have been “awakened,” and “evolved.”
They feel that their community has matured beyond the rest of society. The danger
in this lies in fact that it divides the community from the rest of world by viewing
themselves as other. This is also expressed through close-nit social networks with
festival participants in often extreme majorities.
In an article published on the webzine, Reality Sandwich, writer Shunyamurti
claims that the emergent transformational community is signaling a speciation of the
human race (2013). She writes, “The meme of survival of the fittest now reaches to
the farther shore of shamanic magic and nirvanic Self-realization, if we are to leap
the gap between imminent mass die-off and tantric creation of a new world aeon
(Shunyamurti, 2013).” Shunyamurti defined this divergent speciation to happen
for those who had recessed from a deep submission to the dominant world system
and had assimilated into an alternative shamanic lifestyle—the lifestyle promoted
at TF events.
The us and them bifurcation among the TF festival community is considered by
some members to be an elaborate danger, yet many embrace the idea. Many claim
personal empowerment is gained through the co-development of a mythos which
inserts the us and them mentality as a mystical reality. Many Principals believe their
70
emerging community to be ‘the chosen ones,’ selected for rapture into a new para-
digm of cultural complexity, interdimensional melding, or technological singularity.
Many feel this shift is a change in the culture of the planet, with transformational
festival participants leading the way into an aeon of a new society.
It’s the golden oldie of sex drugs and rock and roll- but under the transformational
veneer its not very transformational. Also there is this definition that we are the
good guys out to change the world. It’s a bit of a dangerous claim. Everyone thinks
they are the good guys. There is a lot of not facing the shadow, and it loses the
grounding that happens [at Transformational Festivals]. (J. Zap, The Science of
Transformation, Burning Man 2013)
This exhibits Barker’s third feature, a dichotomous worldview. A dichotomous

worldview is an “us and them” mentality that manifests from within the core of
NRMs. In The Road to Total Freedom (1977), an in-depth analysis of the church of
Scientology, author Roy Wallis writes that NRM’s could be distinguished into two
categories, world-affirming and world-rejecting. According to Wallis, world-affirming
religious movements affirm conventional norms and values and offer a means for
adherents to realize untapped individual potential with minimal distancing from
conventional society. While world-rejecting religious movements are antagonistic to
conventional society and require that adherents distance themselves from mainstream
social life deemed irreparably corrupted and doomed to destruction (Wallis, 1977).
The transformational festival culture is distinguishably world-rejecting. The
movement seeks to reassert conventional forms of social relations, restructure moral
and social obligations to the nuclear family, traditional forms of religion, and the
general framework of dominant society.
Other NRM’s such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Krishna Conciousness move-
ment, belived that they were pure, with infinite access to truth—well others in
society were bad, unconscious, and disconnected from the source of infinite truth.
Their dismissal of conventional society is not without compensation. Replacement
comes in the form of an open-sourced spirituality, ecstatic experience, and a family
allegiance within the transformational community.
Atypical Membership
The forth of Barker’s key features of new religious movements is atypical member-
ship. According to Barker, converts of NRMs do not come from all walks of society.
Membership is specific to one particular demographic: typically the young, middle-
class, well educated, and white (as cited in Enroth, 2005, p. 21). Young adults, without
dependents, are attracted to NRMs because they are the most disillusioned from
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the secularization of religion in America, and the dissolving of our value systems.
This is also character of the specific demographic of the TF community as pointed
out earlier sections of this chapter.
At transformational festivals, attendance is observatory, participation is expe-
riential, and assimilation denotes membership. For these reasons, the attendees of
TF events in this region can be divided into several tiers each demarcated by levels
of integration into the core TF community: 1) Spectators 2) Partisans 3) Principals.
At TFs, elaborate stages are erected to host popular electronic music acts. These
stages, and their musical entertainment, are the main feature of the event. The work-
shops, yoga, speakers, and symposiums on wellness are most often secondary. The
availability of narcotics, incredible musical acts, and celebratory rage shared by TF
attendees, are attractive features for individuals solely seeking a source of weekend
entertainment. For this reason, the TFs attract many attendees with a principal
intention of leisure. These individuals make up the first tier, the Spectators. These
individuals are spectators in attendance for the entertainment, leisure activity, or
more simply, partying.
The second tier, the Partisans, are those who actively participate in event activi-
ties during the TF— activities of leisure as well as activities of self-development.
These individuals seek to participate in the creation of art, workshops, play, and
immersive celebration. The primary intention of Partisans, like that of the Spectators,
is for recreation and leisure. However, Partisans also claim a secondary intention of
self-development, which they seek to achieve through activities offered by the TF.
These individuals may attend many TF events, as well as other electronic music
festivals. They would not claim the TF as their primary lifestyle. Partisans are also
a working-class demographic. Many have regular jobs, scheduled responsibilities
outside of the TF community, and see the festival as a temporary experience as op-
posed to a lifestyle. They will attend one or several TF events in the summer, and
lead a normative, or conventionally mainstream lifestyle outside of the events for
the remainder of the year.
The third tier is the focal category of this chapter- the Principals. Principals make
up what is considered the core transformational festival community. Beyond merely
attending and participating in TF events, these individuals have embodied the values
and expectations of the TF into their day-to-day lives. Beyond mere integration of a
positive set of values, they have also adopted a shared lifestyle, a set of behavioral
norms, and identify as members of the transformational community. Principals
are involved with the overall organization and presentation of TF events. They are
themselves the artists, promoters, DJs, clothing designers, spiritual teachers, yoga
instructors, Reiki healers, narcotics dealers/manufacturers, and urban shaman, among
various other fringe identities that give the TF crowd a distinguishable appearance
against mainstream EDM festivals.
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Another key indicator of the Principal tier is their status of financial wealth. This is
also specific to the west coast of North America and may not reflect transformational
communities in other regions of the world. Belonging to this tier does not weigh on a
particular social-economic background as much as it does on participation in TF events.
It is the cost of participation that creates the socio-economic divide. Identifying with
the Principal tier in this region requires incredible participation in the TF events and
local TF community. Principals will attend TF events often on a monthly, bi-monthly, or
weekly basis. Beyond TFs, these individuals dedicate an immense amount of personal
time to health and wellness. They will attend international yoga retreats, 10-day vipas-
sanna meditations7, ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon, ecstatic dance workshops
in Bali; events which represent tens of thousands of dollars in expenditures as well as
several months vacation time a year if not more. While the festival season is only in
the summer and early Fall in North America, principal members will frequently take
several month long excursions to India or Bali, demonstrating both a financial and
temporal wealth. The sheer amount of time-dedication and cost of keeping up with
the TF lifestyle require a vast amount of time and money. This reason above most
others, keeps the TF community small and status specific. Only a minute portion of
the population in the United States is suited for such a lifestyle.
The transformational festival community in the United States fosters an elite status
due to a socioeconomic inaccessibility. Average ticket prices range from $200 to
$400 for a weekend, with VIP passes costing around $800. Beyond the purchase of a
ticket, the cost of travel to and from the events often doubles the price of admission.
Attendees will travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to each event. Food vendors
range from $13-$20 a meal. Camping equipment is also required. Tents, sleeping
bags, cooking utensils, and other necessities can add an extra expense. And then
there are the costumes. Costumes play a significant role in the social-dynamic of
attendees identifying with core TF community in California. The TF community in
this region predominantly values custom-made products from independent clothing
designers who are themselves members of the TF community. A single outfit will
range anywhere rom $500 to several thousand. As events last several days, entire
wardrobes become a silent requirement for full immersion.
While differences in social class are intentionally obscured at TF events, the under-
lying cost of belonging to the internal community brings the significance of financial
status bubbling to the surface. Totems of wealth, such as the elaborate hand-made
costumes, expensive tribal jewelry, or attendance to semi-private TF events—often
in exotic international locations like Envision in Costa Rica, or Water Women in
Hawaii—express deeper complexities in the economic strata of TF attendees. While
the transformational community pride themselves for holstering an ethos of openness
and inclusivity, TF attendees are internally divided by an invisible stratum of identity
separating average festival attendees from members of the core TF community.
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Charismatic Leaders
The fifth of Barker’s list of characteristics defining NRMs, is the presence of a

charismatic leader, or a charisma among members over group ideologies. TF’s pride
themselves on being removed from dogma, or religious headship. Participants claim
they do not abide by any one particular dogma or a shared core system of beliefs.
As a spokesman for the TF community, Jeet-Kei Leung (2013), narrates in ‘The
Bloom: A Journey Through Transformational Festivals’:
[The transformational Festival] is a new type of spiritual culture completely unin-

terested in charismatic leaders, dogmas, or doctrine. Where ritual does not require
that we surrender our autonomy as critical thinking individuals, but instead arises
as the shared acknowledgement and honoring of our sacred experience together.
While a strict dogma is absent, attractive charisma for boot-strapping new ide-
ologies is not. The TF’s are a hotbed for a new form of viral evangelism due to the
immersive complexity of TF social environment, as well as the accelerated spread
of information within communities through social networking applications. The
traditional role of a charismatic leader up on stage, directing the group, has trans-
formed into a silent one- a ghostly form that exists within the vast datastreams of
communication between the community, at events, as well as on the internet. The
charismatic leader is spread out among a large faction of individuals who consider
themselves to be charged with roles of leadership, evangelizing TF core values, or
emissaries of sacred information. These individuals are self-proclaimed prophets,
self-donned shamans, individual’s claiming contact with extra-terrestrials, or interdi-
mensional intelligences who bestow upon them messages of the changing universe.
In the years prior to the Winter Solstice of 2012, many claimed to have been visited
by the Mayan deity Quetzalcoatl. Several of these individuals claimed they themselves
were a reincarnation of the deity- divinely selected to carryout a transformation of
consciousness throughout the rest of the planet. While these are some of the more
extreme examples, it is more widely often to encounter individuals who feel their role
in the TF community is predestined, empowered with a particular purpose of which
has been revealed to them through supernatural entities, mother nature, or deeper levels
of their own consciousness. The alternative cultural heterotopia of transformational
festivals certainly comes alive in the diversity of interpretations of how the quest cul-
ture of TF participants express their involvement as connected to a spiritual purpose.
Charisma drives transformational festivals much in the same way as religious
revivals. Revivals are considered to be one of the most powerful and authoritative
methods of generating intense spiritual emotions among a large group of people
overtime. At revivals, subjects find themselves in a post-liminal state where they feel
74
an overwhelming sense of relief, gratitude, assurance in life, forgiveness, salvation,

and enlightenment (Davenport, 1917). The same experiential progeny is advertised
by TF organizers; often intertwined with event names such as Gratifly, Kinnection
Campout, Unifier, and Roots in Bliss. Two common features essential to the overall
functionality of both revivals and transformational festivals are periods of high-
excitement and the treatment of the crowd as a psychological unit. The enthusiasm of
the crowd feeds off itself, building towards moments of personal catharsis as group
intensity sets in (Davenport, 1917). While revivals utilize language, loud hymns,
long sermons, and religious mythology to mobilize the crowd, TFs use an arsenal
of psychedelics, video and lighting projections, highly amplified electronic music,
instructive courses in self-development, and yogic techniques- overlaid upon the
foundational goal of personal transformation. Individuals will undergo profound
experiences within the context of the event’s value-implication system, and the added
support of the group itself, in a manner also comparable to religious revivals. Both
events rely upon the creation of a collective experience, one that moves the entire
group into liminality, followed by collective ecstasis and communitas8.
Revivals and transformational festivals both rely upon the derangement of the
nervous system. Moments of euphoria, involuntary dancing, or bouts of uncontrolled
laughter are common at TF’s and revivals. The self-hypnotization of electronic mu-
sic brings people into states of trance and ecstasy while the subjects of a religious
revival do so with hymns, chanting, and powerful sermons. Transformational festi-
vals utilize a hodgepodge of psychedelic substances and incredible sonic and visual
hyperscapes9 religious revivals rely on long periods of high excitement, exhaustion,
and the psychological influence of a charismatic preacher. Under such conditions,
individuals are governed by their feelings. Their rational and critically thinking minds
have been put to the wayside, and intuition and impulse govern their thoughts and
actions (Davenport, 1917). Individuals will find themselves experiencing moments
of uncontrollable joy, wholeness, and spiritual revelation.
The production of visions and hallucination are also common features of both re-
vivals and transformational festivals. Participants of TF events, like religious revivals,
will often claim to have hallucinatory experiences strongly mimicking the visionary
episodes of those around them; also within context of the event, the social movement
of the TF, and its millenarian archetype. At Christian revivals these hallucinatory en-
counters will involve images of Jesus, the Mother Mary, or angels (Davenport, 1917).
Some will have apocalyptic revelations- seeing a future transcendence of the planet
through the rapture or second coming of Christ (1917). At TFs, these experiences
will often involve encounters with alien entities, mother earth, serpents, or the diety
Quetzalcoatl of Mayan mythology. TF participants will have visions of apocalypse- a
future transcendence of the earth involving an extreme cultural shift, the rapture of
the TF community, or a technological singularity (St John, 2012).
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External Controversy
Campbell’s concept of the cultic milieu expresses an opposition to the ways of liv-
ing practiced in dominant society. The cultic milieu is divergent from the norm and
seek to construct alternative values Campbell,1972). Many TF community members
abide by a newly emergent mythology that they are heralding a new consciousness
of mankind—set to one day generate a drastic transformation of society and paving
the way to a utopian future. In the years prior to 2012, many in the culture on the
West Coast linked this prophecy with the ending of the Mayan Calendar on De-
cember 21st, 2012. While the date was already gaining reputation as an apocalyptic
due-date in mainstream culture, the transformational community saw the end-date
as a practical metaphoric deadline for their social transformation.
The emerging mythos of the transformational culture exposes its millenarian
character, the most arguable indicator that a new spiritual movement is on the rise.
Millenarianism denotes a singular group’s belief in a major transformation of society
on the horizon, one which will drastically alter all life beyond familiar recognition.
For most documented millenarian movements, drastic change insinuates either
apocalypse or the awakening into a golden age of society (Trompf, 1990).
The millenarian archetype is quite common in history. For centuries, various
cultures all over the world found themselves caught up in the belief that there were a
dramatic, and unsurpassable transformation of the world looming ahead in the future
(Trompf, 1990). Millenarian movements believe they are a counter-strike against
a ‘cosmic evil’ as noted by Trompf (1990). This was also the belief of many in the
transformational community on the West Coast. Many believed the old world and
the new world were at a head with one another. The old world was one defined by
corporations, governmental institutions, the nuclear family structure, and a capitalist
economy in materialistic greed.
Humanity is on the brink of collapse. Great Mother earth writhes in pain as vam-
piric jaws clench deep upon black earth. A collective led by false justice, blinded
by spending too many years wondering shadows. Afraid to face the sun without
shades pulled low. A synthetic world, sick minds projecting holographic silouttes
separating source from true majestic form. Phallic skyscrapers, concrete jungles,
constrictive neck nooses indicating success; pensive pens playing with out lives in
a distorted parcheesee. Commercial fornication with a biggy side of fries. (E.Cruz,
The Great Knowing, 2010)
Participants of the TF community often view themselves as a source, or option,

for the salvation for the world through their counterstrike. Many view their movement
as part of an underground resistance against a ghostly and evil oppressor; perceiving
76
their culture as a legitimate preparation for a forthcoming revolution. This expresses

the fifth of Barker’s defining characteristics, an external controversy.
The movement’s beliefs, practices, and value systems are counter to those in the
dominant world culture (as cited in Enroth, 2005, p. 22). Barker’s further writes that
most new religious movements place themselves in an adversarial role against major
social institutions. Within the transformational festival community, Principals have
denounced traditional religious, financial, governmental, and educational institu-
tions. Like NRMs, many in the transformational festival community adopt alternative
belief systems counter to the Judeo-Christian mythos that dominates mainstream
society. They will partake in the unconventional behaviors of polyamory, regular
drug use, and nomadic living. They seek to utilize whatever methods necessary to
divorce themselves from conservative behaviors, viewing themselves as an adver-
sary to regular society.
Change
Millenarian movements and doomsday cults both arise because of tension created
within society from increased stress on economic, political, or social upheaval.
Sociologist, Garry Trompf calls this the experience of crisis; facing a monumental
problem from which there may seem to be no escape (1990). Crisis is a massive
change which threatens the livelihoods of those in its wake. Social pathologies be-
gin to transform as impending doom creates a situational psychology10 from which
the belief in a monumental or superhuman force is just around the corner, about to
transform the world, and restore order through magic (Trompf, 7).
Contrariwise to other millenarian movements in history, the transformational
culture is urban, westernized, and technologically sophisticated. They live in major
cities and participate in our global economy. They are networked with one another
through Facebook, Twitter, Ello, and Instagram. For their group, crisis did not
come in the form of an impending doom from imperialistic takeover, world war,
or a severe shortage in food. While no doubt in the years leading up to 2012, the
economic, political, and social stability of the world was in apparent decline, life
in the United States carried on as normal.
The millenarianism of the transformational culture arose through changes in
technology, science, and social communication. More specifically, this happened
through the rising popularity and availability of psychedelics—including their in-
tegration into therapeutic medicine, popular media, and pop culture. At the same
time, new findings in science relating to the brains chemistry, vibrational frequency,
and the body’s nervous system, were changing the TF community’s perception of
spirituality from a metascience into a physiological one. New forms of social gather-
ing such as Burning Man, electronic music events, and the transformational festivals
77
themselves, were altering the way TF members perceived social celebration and the
effect such gatherings had on the establishment of community. New technologies
of entertainment, music, video-projection, and event-production were allowing the
creation of sonic, visual and visceral environments that create and amplify landscapes
of hyper-sensory experiences never before available. The congealed effect of all
this enabled a shared vision of a new society for the transformational culture; one
that was psychedelic, tech-savvy, and driven by ecstatic experience and community
solidarity. Through the experience of a new form of society, attendees were finding
themselves distanced from conventional social forms. Traditional society appeared
obsolete, inefficient and unsustainable when put up against the temporary society
experienced at a transformational festival. Exposure to their weekend-utopia was
coupled with the actualization of a real decline of the global economy, political
upheaval, and threats of the natural world. It was from this self-and-social othering
that their experience of crisis emerged.
In millenarian movements of the past, from the stress of crisis a prophetic vi-
sion arises, often an image of a glorious future, or golden age (Wallace, 1966). This
brings about the last of Barker’s list, change. New religious movements undergo
radical change and often within the span of a single generation, or a single decade;
in some cases a few years (as cited in Enroth, 2005, p. 23). The TF movement has
similarly undergone processes of self-aware culture-modification at an accelerated
and radical pace, often multiple times faster than mainstream religious systems. The
accelerated progression of their culture instigates a feeling of group catharsis, and
an alleged dominance over traditional and slow-changing systems, leaving members
with the collective feeling that they are creating a new-and-improved worldview,
one which is surpassing the dominant consciousness of society.
A dominant feature that exhibits a sacred or self-transforming intention is their
deliberate promotion of self-development values. The values, which attendees call
‘core values,’ are a shared ethos of spirituality and positive personal change. These
core values are advertised on organizer’s websites, promotional flyers, and even on
décor signage posted at the events themselves.
The core values for South Carolina’s 2014 Gratifly festival, listed below, exem-
plify the general tone of their core values:
1. Personal & Collective Transformation: We believe that the power of the col-
lective is force that can insight change on both a personal and collective level
and we aim to harness this energy to support our core values.
2. Empowering & Activating Genius: We believe that all people have an inherit
brilliance. We aim to facilitate a space for that brilliance to shine forth and
be recognized.
78
3. Innovation, Creativity & Artful Living: We believe that all things have room
for improvement and strive to innovate new techniques and technologies to
allow
4. Education & Wisdom Sharing: We believe in the power of story telling and
skill sharing and that everyone has something to offer and empower all beings
to offer their skills and passions.
5. Safety, Guardianship & Stewardship: We believe that all people have a right
to feel safe and that there are ways of being that are in right relation with
ourselves, each other and the environment around us.
6: Accountability & Integrity: We believe that and community accountability and
personal integrity are of the upmost importance and strive to speak and act
in accordance.
7. Community Building & Fostering Resilience: We believe that community is
at the heart of everything that we do and aim to bolster our local community
as well as the global community.
8. Regeneration & Thrivability: We believe not only in the sustainability of
Gratifly, but the ability for it to generative for us, the community and the land
and it to create a thriving ecosystem of community and culture.
9. Honoring the Sacred: We believe that all things are sacred and that it is im-
portant to take moments to honor that. (Gratifly Festival website, 2014)
Each transformational festival honors their own list of specific values created
by the festival founders. It is this list of specific values, and the implied expectation
of value-setting, which sets transformational festivals apart from all other closely
related electronic music festivals. This is not to be confused with the 10 Principals
of Burning Man11, which are considered guidelines for experiencing the event as
opposed to a list of life-directing values. While music festivals are traditionally
free-form and liberated from expectations of self-improvement, the transformational
festival seeks a specific personal progeny.
Through the promotion of their core-values TFs present themselves as ecofriendly,
a remedy to the psychic ills of modern civilization. Reconnecting mind, body, and
spirit become the primary theme of these events. The festivals promote themselves
as a remedy to cultural disenchantment, and also promote kinship and the building
of solidarity among the community of organizers and attendees. Individuals who
attend these events feel as though they are actively participating in the production
of a better culture for all.
Festivals can be a wild time, but for many participants the festival is also a vital
space of cultural invention. Within the environs of the gathering, half sacred and
half imagined, another possible world appears. Despite the variety of festivals and
79
clans, certain values come to the fore: community over consumerism, the power of
the feminine, the wisdom of consciousness exploration, and the ethical call to develop
a hands-on harmony with the earth. (Erik Davis, Tribal Revival 2012)
CONCLUSION
With the rising popularity of commercial festivals in the United States—events like
Coachella, Electric Zoo, and Ultra—distinguishing the TF genre became a signifi-
cant objective for many TF participants in the same region. Many TF organizers
and participants shun being labeled a common music festival. The transformational
label is relatively new, having only existed as a Google-searchable term for less-
than half a decade. In that time, the label has served the emerging TF culture in the
United States by establishing distinct boundaries between themselves and the rest
of the electronic music community.
The transformational community’s mission to set itself apart from mainstream
music festivals plays a significant role in the creation, promotion, and popularity
of their events. It is also a catalyst for a similar way of dressing, behavioral norms,
totems of financial status, a quasi-dogmatic belief-system, and a shared iconogra-
phy of sacred symbols appropriated from various cultures and spiritual traditions
around the world. Through the elaboration of these points of uniqueness, the TF
community creates an identity for itself- one that individual members use to specify
association and membership to the larger TF community. These indicators suggest
their allegiance to a specific group- alongside their core idealisms.
While serving as a launching point for self-transformative processes, often leading
to assimilation into other spiritual traditions, these launch points will often discour-
age participants from disembarking from the initial source of personal change—the
TF events themselves (Garfield, 2013; Korbrin, 2013). Participants will seek to
recreate, and repeat the experience to the extent the initial launch point becomes
no more than an incubator with thick impenetrable glass walls. Nothing goes in
and nothing goes out. The same is true for the early formations of a religion; often
beliefs become borders, identity distinguishes membership, once-liberated behavior
finds a new default setting, and constrictive organization replaces the experimental
with the formulaic.
New religious movements cannot remain ambiguous for long, not if they plan on
succeeding and causing substantial change in the lives of participants and society
around them. While the millenarianism of the community on the West Coast was
strong in the years leading up to December 21st, 2012, (the prophesied due-date
of their vision of complete social transformation) the passing of the date brought
about another significant stage in their evolution as a movement of revitalization.
80
Following the date, the millenarianism began to dissolve. With the date no longer
placing a significant deadline ahead in the future, and with the massive expansion
of both electronic music and transformational festival culture into mainstream
popularity that year, the need for a prophetic vision of a future utopia dissolved from
the group. While the transformational community continues to create and organize
an emerging mythology, the idea of a pending apocalypse is no longer a necessity.
Instead, the transformational culture on the West Coast views itself as a substantial
and stable community, having achieved a full solidification of their lifestyle, core-
value systems, and transnational social network. Their once millenarian vision of
radical society change, technological singularity, apocalypse, has been replaced by
a bold acceptance of the here and now.
We are a community of creative visionaries, social entrepreneurs, and bridge walkers,

united in our core values, and in our passion for developing templates for synergis-
tic collaboration. We are a deep family of trust, with open minds and hearts, who
aim to shift stagnant paradigms which no longer serve into co-creative sustainable
systems. We are people who are Impassioned, Earth Conscious, Globally Aware,
Growth Oriented, Open Minded, Trusting, Compassionate, Generous, Self Directed
Leaders & Agents of Change. (Tribal Convergence Website, 2013)
Our contemporary world is a complex and globalized system dictated by in-

stantaneous international communication, with technological change forging a
new foundation for multi-cultural convergences to arise, laying waste the solitary
nationalism, geographical identities, and ethnocentricity that dominates so many
societies across the globe. Our world is now so complex, and change so accelerated,
that drastic variations of society often go unnoticed for long periods of time. The
changes are first sensed by fringe cultures, those avant-guard groups on the edge
of the mainstream world.
If there is some drastic transformation of society underway, it is those who already
live far out on the periphery who are the first to notice the change and begin altering
how they live their lives (Wallace, 1966). Such individuals will begin to sense severe
distortion of the dominating culture and tend to meet it with religious revitalization.
While transformational festivals are a fun ride for anyone who can afford the cost
of participation, it may not be a practical answer for the revitalization of culture in
the rest of the world. It is however, a possible model of the future; a model of what
new world may arise through our technological modernity in a time of severe crisis.
What new cultures will rise up in the wake of such stresses that force the change
of culture on the planet? From looking at the spiritual moment of transformational
festivals having fully achieved revitalization for their own independent group, one
would only surmise that technology, celebration, and the sacred may play a major
81
role in the change of the dominating culture of the planet. The transformational cul-
ture is not a vehicle for change in the rest of the world as much as it is a window for
perceiving a possible future for the rest of us as we move into a new era of spiritual
and technological modernity.
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transformational-festivals-are-a-symptom-of-dissociation/
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84
Communitas: An intense feeling of group solidarity, equality, and oneness under

the larger body of the community.
Consciousness Industry: A vernacular term used to refer to the commodification
of spirituality and ‘consciousness’ as it is called in New Age, and pseudo-scientific
communities. It is related to spiritual materialism. It refers to the business of utilizing
spirituality as concept marketing or the distribution of products relating directly to
spiritual self-transformation.
Ecstasis: The felling of being in ecstasy; or a state of bliss, beyond the individual
consciousness.
Hyperscapes: A landscape of extrasensory experiences.
Non-Violent Communication: A form of communication developed by Marshall
Rosenberg in the 1960s. It focuses on communicating self-empathy, empathy, and
honest self-expression.
Situational Psychology: Thoughts and behaviors are dictated by external forces
as opposed to internal motivations or traits.
Technival: A festival which utilizes an assemblage of technologies to create
a collective experience; primarily through amplified electronic dance music, pro-
grammed lights, and projected video.
ENDNOTES
1
“Global Tribe” is the name prescribed to the psytrance community by anthro-
pologist Graham St. John in his book Global Tribe: Technology, spirituality
and psytrance. See St. John, G. (2012). Global tribe technology, spirituality
and psytrance. Bristol, Conn.: Equinox.
2
Leung, Jeet Kei. “Transformational Festivals.” Speech, TEDxVancouver,
Vancouver, August 20, 2010.
3
Ibid.
4
Julian, Reyes. “Transformational Festivals.” Keyframe-Entertainment. January
1, 2012. Accessed December 16, 2014. http://keyframe-entertainment.com/
electronic-music/transformational-festivals/.
5
Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to
the Heart of the American Dream. 2nd Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage
Books, 1998.
85
6
See: Lewis, C. (2013, March 26). In Brooklyn, a Punk Church Tries to Redefine
Religious Faith. Retrieved February 21, 2015, from http://www.theatlantic.
com/national/archive/2013/03/in-brooklyn-a-punk-church-tries-to-redefine-
religious-faith/274368/
7
10 Day vipassanna meditation: a ten day residential course in vispassana
mediation, an ancient Indian meditation practice.
8
Communitas; see glossary of terms
9
Hyperscapes; see glossary of terms
10
Situational Psychology; see glossary of terms
11
For more information see: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/
about_burningman/principles.html#.VDHvFF5OxME
86
87
Chapter 4
Psychedelic Trance and
Multimedia Neo-Rituals:
The Modern Shamanic Tools?
Emília Simão

ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relevance of multimedia technologies in Psychedelic
Trance gatherings, exploring its technical, sensory and spiritual convergence.
Technology devices have always been a part of our lives, from the first artefacts of
early humanity to the most sophisticated of our era, where technology has taken
control of some aspects of our lives. In the late twentieth century, a new stage of
history characterized by the transformation of our material culture through mecha-
nisms of a new technological paradigm started. We live in communion with all kinds
of technologies that complement and extend us in most of our existential aspects,
not only in a technical way but also a personal, emotional and even spiritual level.
The electronic dance music and its relevance in modern cultures can be a reflexion
of this reality, where new technologies and multimedia tools have awakened neo-
ritual practices in Psychedelic Trance gatherings, evoking tribal experiences with
shamanic foundations, and mediated by high-tech guide elements.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch004
Psychedelic Trance and Multimedia Neo-Rituals
We are the pirates of the future, and we are the cibertribes of today
taking part of the ancient shaman flight…
We are free people. We are the last warriors. We are in harmony.
We like to have fun. We won’t let this fun ever die
(Boom Book, 2007).
INTRODUCTION
The technological society has been developing new realities, opening new evolution-
ary paths that make up the modern world where new technologies and new forms
of communication assume themselves as the main axioms, which orchestrate these
changes. As a product of technological society, electronic music is heavily intricate
in modern culture, and if in a way it can be seen as a product of this new order of
things, on the other it can also be a driving force in the construction of those new
realities.
In the context of the electronic dance music, the Psychedelic Trance phenomenon
gives rise to gatherings with neo-ritual outlines simultaneously archaic and futuristic,
where new information and communication technologies assume an essential role by
creating and measuring parallel realities. Despite being the central element of that
universe, electronic music has been dividing its role with other elements featured in
the same context also coupled with new aesthetical concepts through multimedia.
All these audio and visual components solely designed and mediated by comput-
ers work as a whole, conceived to revive experiences and sensations by enhancing
one’s intentions in that direction. The multimedia communication as a promoter
of multi-sensory experiences may bolster psychedelic experiences associated with
the assimilation of specific sounds related to this musical style along with static
and dynamic images, designed in line with the rhythmic variations of this music,
so commonly present in Psychedelic Trance parties.
Some artists, mainly Disc Jockeys (DJ’s) and some Video Jockeys (VJ’s), have
assumed themselves metaphorically or not, as modern shamans by guiding the in-
duction of alternative states of consciousness to the participants of these neo-rituals.
Considering shamanism as an archaic technique of ecstasy, could the multimedia
new technologies have been upgraded to modern techniques of ecstasy while cre-
ating imaginary worlds and passages to parallel realities? May the re-creation of
tribalism in the technological age through ritual celebrations in which the worship
of electronic music is promoted and experienced, have sparked a new relationship
between man and machine, art and technology, and past and present shamans?
88
We will try to approach these issues based on literary review, considering essen-
tially ethnographic records collected in direct contact with the world of Psychedelic
Trance, complemented by interviews directed to a panel of experts, consisting of
producers1, artists2 and psychedelic tribe natives.
PSYCHEDELIC NEO-RITUALISM AND THE DJ SHAMAN
The modern technological environment we live in refers us to relations between

individuals and systems, previously isolated, which now became part of a whole
with common purposes, in this great technological infrastructure called the infor-
mation society (Castells, 2009). If the creation of synthesizers came to facilitate
the composition of electronic music as a result of tone synthesis or from mixing
and recycling pre-recorded samples, added to other styles of musical fragments
and derivations, the widespread use of the Internet has come to implement these
practices on an unparalleled scale.
In the beginning seemed like the electronic musical styles came to cause a break
with the past. A new generation of musicians and technicians articulated new ways
of making music hand in hand with a cutting edge position compared to traditional
concepts, with their new micropolyphonies and dense sonic textures (Ginsburg &
Barbosa, 2005). The raw material of electronic music does not necessarily have an
initial or final composition, since it is essentially based on a combination of editable
and available fragments in gigantic bases of mutant sounds, constantly improving.
These kinds of sound databases have an almost self-sustaining existence and are
available on the web, from all to all.
Culture is normally considered the standard of development reflected in a given
social system and it can be understood as being a symbolic system through art and
language. It can also be considered the main form of expression and communication
between individuals and groups. In this general perspective electronic music is the
reflection of a specific culture contributing to its origination by imposing artistic
formats and specific languages, which provide the basis of many of its most com-
mon manifestations.
House and Techno styles were the first great musical movements of the twentieth
century, and responsible for leading the global landscape of electronic dance music
to new heights. However, technological development as a direct force of social and
cultural evolution sent the alternative world of electronic dance music (in the sense
of being less mainstream) to a universal and almost infinite dimension, considering
the multiple manifestations of genres that exist. Quoting only some of the most well
known as House, Acid house, Electro House, Tech House, Techno, Deep Techno,
Techno Minimal, Hard Techno, Drum´n´bass, Dub, Goa Ambient,Psybient, Psychill,
89
Jungle, Electronic Garage, Industrial, Breakbeat, Electro, Trip Hop, Downtempo,

Hardcore, Psytrance, Progressive Trance, Organic Trance, Dark Trance, Goa Trance,
Tribal Trance, Suomisaundi, among many others, we realize the multitude of genres,
subgenres and fusions, constantly changing3.
In a scenario where the ecology of music is constantly reshaped, the digitaliza-
tion of sounds came to allow a dynamic of creation and unprecedented collective
hearing, where electronic dance music came up to create new cultural bonds (Lévy,
1999). Cyber-culture is not only a product but also a producer of this cyber era, it is
also a structure with a fractal character from which music is taking advantage and
where each artist will contribute with their work to the next artist, creating a mega
structure of sound samples that invent and reinvent themselves constantly, which
also can explain the large amount of existing styles.
Rave parties, initially seen as direct disruptions of the social order (Grynszpan,
1999) appear to be allied to the new musical aesthetics that may have initiated the
ritualization of electronic music. They emerged as a symbolic altar that allowed a
new relationship between man and music, where technology has a prominent role.
The concept of rave, from where in part Psychedelic Trance parties appeared, was
initially described as being a subcultural entity of resistance to traditional culture,
and also a producer of information carried out in different ways and intensities
(Wilson & Atkinson, 2005). Initially, these Psy parties as events par excellence of
the psychedelic tribe, were characterized by music and dance events, coinciding
in this aspect with the essential foundations of the rave party and frequented by
small groups essentially divided between elites and travelers. At the moment, the
Psychedelic Trance movement and its aesthetic manifestations occur in different
forms and intensities, and the Psy parties and festivals are gathering thousands of
people worldwide.
This psychedelic tribe became a global tribe (St John, 2012) and Portugal is
one of this movement world´s reference, hosting several internationally renowned
festivals like Boom Festival, Freedom Festival4, Cosmic Gate5, ZNA Gathering6,
among others, without considering the smaller parties occurring very frequently
throughout the country. In the international panorama of psychedelic gatherings,
stands out a lots of renowned festivals such as Universo Paralello7 (Brazil), Ozora8
(Hungary), Antaris9 (Germany), Rainbow Serpent10 (Australia), Earthdance 11
(EUA and others), among many other events. Considered to be an evolution of
Psychedelic Trance festivals and despite having greater visibility in the USA, the
Transformational Festivals are now in the growing phase in other parts of the world,
even though the philosophies that define them are already featured in many large
events, including in Europe.
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In modern cultures, humankind keeps recreating and redefining itself within or-
ganizations, dislocations and permanent reorganizations inserted in a new paradigm
of complexity (Morin, 1999), that came to rekindle a new state of consciousness of
the individual about himself. The simulations of the return to origins through the
reconstruction of magic and ritual environments and the release of the natural self
are manifested effects of this reality. While the reference to archaism may seem
antagonistic of the technological reality, the truth is that both are complementary
in a way that the immediacy of the present and almost uncontrolled proximity of
the future forwards mankind to its origins and oldest ways. These two realities are
clearly present in the parties of the Psy tribe among their vibe, happiness, love,
limits, transgression, ecstasy, healing, spiritual hedonism and others.
These psychedelic neo-rituals are considered above all a place for fun in a festive
perspective, but they are also vehicles for other latitudes, spiritual, metaphysical,
new age concepts, and expansion of consciousness (Carvalho, 2007). Just as in
ancient rituals, the musical perception in Psychedelic Trance parties is materialized
through collective expressive movements (Cross & Morley, 2008). The seemingly
disorganized dance is commonly absorbed by the vibrations emanated from the
dance-floor, where the human body is handled by the virtual power of music as a
driving force of the whole process (Langer, 1983). The communities experience
different states of mind, or consciousness, when aggregated in a given space and
time. The repetition of these situations determines the creation of structured social
practices, as we can find in tribal rituals (Turner, 1969). These and other similar
practices have now been purposely transposed to the post-modern psychedelic neo-
rituals, where electronic music replaces the organic drums, the multimedia replaces
the fire and complements the full moon, and the chemical drugs replaces the natural
psychoactives. Like the tribal rituals, dance-floor dynamics also lead to transgression
rituals, ecstasy and transcendence (Bataille, 1997; St John, 2006; Van Veen 2010).
In addition to a musical trend and state of mind, Psychedelic Trance is for many
individuals a philosophy of life wherein music is no longer just an entertainment
for listening and dancing. Their mystical characteristics rediscovering the ritual
and the connection to the transcendence through the festivals are evident proof of
this reality. The music clearly stands out as one of the binding elements, but these
neo-rituals are also an opportunity for the dissemination of the same type of values
that ruled the lifestyles of certain ancient tribes.
The metaphorical allusion to the tribe’s terminology adjusts many cultural for-
mations of modern culture, and the Psy tribe is a clear social and cultural heritage
of these formations. This need for being and sharing materialized through the for-
mation of groups, whose members share a symbolic identity generating a sort of
neo-tribalism (Maffesoli, 2006) that applies to this context. The Psychedelic Trance
91
tribe has also its basis on the relation between man and technology, whereby are
creating and recreating new identities and cultural spheres, delimiting the territory
of an ever growing global tribe of new nomads (D’Andrea, 2007).
The Psychedelic Trance movement is currently supported by a global tribe of
techno-nomads that has some similarities with the new age culture, and the new
technologies also end up contributing to its statement. In the context of EDMC, it
is possible to identify some cultural dimensions divided into four groups: a cultural
religion of electronic dance music that is expressed by the party as a ritual; subjectivity,
corporeality and phenomenological dance experience regarding ecstasy and Trance;
the dance community and a sense of belonging; and the culture of electronic dance
music as a new spirituality of life (St. John, 2006). The rite involves a significant and
tangible collective experience of the sacred, which does not necessarily have to be
associated with religious dogmas. The sacred and the transcendent realities are not
restricted to religion, despite their religiosity. The ritual dimension of Psy parties
can also be identified by their secret side, the temporality out of chronological social
thread, the initiation process, the territoriality outside the usual social space, the
bonds between participants, and the altered states of consciousness by overcoming
the ego, among other aspects (Mabilon, 2004).
This religiosity and spirituality within these subcultural formations and its ritual
dimension wherein the concepts of music, dance, re-identification, spiritual heal-
ing, space reconfiguration and transcendence are associated, inevitably gave rise
to the techno culture spirituality substance (St. John, 2006), and to the relationship
between man and technology in the construction of identity, otherness and realities.
The peculiar Psychedelic Trance musical genre, as an alternative genre in the
electronic scene, seems to be the one that extends itself to more celebrations that
go beyond the simple party. It promotes the reconstruction of neo-ritual environ-
ments, and is conducive to the awakening of imaginary worlds and altered states
of consciousness. By altered forms of consciousness we can understand a change
in the state of presence and oneness with our surroundings being able to see things
beyond the social and cultural limitations of the ego, through the senses and the mind.
These changes in the states of consciousness are described in all civilizations of
every era, becoming important elements of the history of societies and are essen-
tially changes in the overall pattern of mental functioning that the individual feels
or experiences, in a radically different way from the usual (Tart, 1983), in which the
trance state can be an example. If on one hand, these altered states were associated
with primitive cultures or psychopathology (Freud, 1969), and are related to dimen-
sions of religious and spiritual forum of the human experience (Lukoff & Turner,
1992), on the other, they have also been associated to paranormal experiences (Ross
& Joshi, 1992). In shamanism, they are often dubbed as ecstatic states.
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The power of enchantment offered by these neo-rituals can sometimes enable

the natives with very intense forms of immersion, sometimes referring to states of
quasi-alienation. The rhythmic and melodic features of this genre are conducive to
the engagement and exhilaration that in a greater or lesser degree of this immersion
can open channels for altered states of consciousness. The same can happen with the
psychedelic and visionary images of the remaining aesthetic component that makes
up these neo-rituals (Simão, Magalhães & Silva, 2013). Not pretending to have these
experiences as belonging to the field of pathology or paranormal situations, what is
perceived directly by observing the dance-floor and through the feedback of some
natives, is that some are coated with a sort of mystical and spiritual character of
release, often associated with the consumption of psychoactive substances: Psy-
chedelics affect every aspect of our consciousness and separate our species from
all others below, and gives us access to what we consider the divine above. Maybe
that’s another reason why the psychedelics are so frightening and so inspiring:
They bend stretch and the basic pillars, the structure and defining characteristics,
of our human identity (Strassman, 2001, p. 40).
In some way, the alphabet and its special meaning demystified the magic of the
tribal world (Davis, 2002). By involving the decoding and reprocessing sensory
information the subjectively allows the recreation of an imaginary inner self, free
and devoid of meaning. This reinforces the mystical component of the essentially
instrumental electronic dance music.
The Psychedelic Trance may well conduce to the induction of altered states of
consciousness just by its sound intake, which brings a ritual dimension to the dance
experience and to the participation in the Psy party by the natives itself.
Some artists incorporate their performances as guide elements of these neo-rituals
in a coexistence of electronic beats, music and spirituality. The DJ and Shadu Goa
Gil, one of the gurus and older artists of this musical scene says he feels like a sha-
man in its 24 hours almost nonstop performances. He also believes that humanity
is using music and dance to celebrate the (re)communion with nature and with the
universe through trance music, on his words, redefining the Ancient Tribal Ritual
for the 21th Century. DJ Menog, one of the most renowned Progressive Trance
Portuguese artists affirms to incorporate this shaman designation whenever he holds
the key to provide a trip to the public12. Dancing comes as a response to the stimu-
lus of the music itself, providing the creation of a quadripolar personality shared
amongst DJs, the public, music and dance. Both artists made reference to the trip,
and are perfectly aware that they mediate this trip provided to the public through the
music that responds with and dance. The dance-floor is seen as a place for transi-
tory liberation (Rietveld, 1993) where the DJ´s controls the means of perception
(Takahashi, 2005) and the sound booth ends up working as an altar almost always
glowing represented, physically or metaphorically in Psy parties (See Figure 1).
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Figure 1. Dance Floor and DJ Sound booth: ZNA Gathering, Portugal

(Monkey Mix © 2012, Sara Constança Psytography. Used with permission.)
MULTIMEDIA AS MODERN SHAMANIC TOOLS
Music is a technology of the self, and its properties contribute to the quality of social
experience, self-perception and emotion (DeNora, 1999). It has an enormous power
to evoke emotions and a strong ability to communicate abstract feelings, having
stood out and undeniably stated itself in all societies and eras of human history. In
pre-capitalist cultures, it assumed an existentialist and cosmogonist character. Mu-
sic has been served as a link between the physical and metaphysical planes, visible
from the indigenous tribes of America and Siberia or savages of Africa, to the finest
Asian and European traditions through the most diverse pagan and religious rituals
(Eliade, 2002). Sacred music and tribal music had the original order of reference
to ecstasy, abstraction and meditation, where in some cases the cult of image and
dance emerged as complements. Having as the final product the invisible, the music
is the most subjective of all the forms of art, the one that better meets the abstrac-
tion of feelings and relationships between man and the supernatural. Following
this logic, it is possible to consider there is some affinity between the Psychedelic
Trance and shamanism, if seen in a perspective of creating an experience of trance
and cosmological connections of man with other worlds. In some ancient rituals,
an expansion of the senses was enhanced through the psychoactive components as
a way to trance (Eliade, 2002). The music penetrates and takes possession of the
body and the mind with such intensity that the listener can have similar effects to a
94
psychotropic experience, when combined with the multimedia component and the
intensity of the dance. Multimedia is displayed by information processing devices,
such as computerized and electronic devices and nowadays is often used in all kind
of life performances. The multimedia applications produce simultaneous sensory
stimuli, targeted not only for viewing and hearing but also to stimulate the feeling
of movement (Ribeiro, 2012), thus reconciling music, images and dancing.
Music engages and penetrates through rhythmic invasions and the bass that owns
the body, and the vibration of each sound is felt like a shake, making it extremely
difficult to react in opposition (Racine, 1999). In the current rituals where we can
frame the psychedelic parties and festivals, the consumption of psychoactive drugs
is also common and used to achieve a distortion of the state of consciousness, en-
hancing stimuli and perceptions either for fun or a higher purpose. In this context
it makes sense to include a reference to the existence of the trinomial, drugs, music
and technology, since the music can have a different effect in individuals under the
use of psychoactive substances. However, if there is knowledge and pre-willingness
by the listener, the music itself can have that effect especially if their perceptive
capacities are open and predisposed in that direction. If technology can constrain
human behavior, could it be possible to bring its influence to an even more extreme
level, when chemical substances like MDMA or LSD13 are consumed at these neo-
ritual parties, manufactured by laboratories and used with similar purposes of
alienation as the natural psychoactive substances of shamans? According to Terence
McKenna, the researcher who dedicated his time to the exploration of shamanism
and the activating substances of spiritual transformation, the archaic revival is an
essential feedback as well as the shamanic experience through the psychedelic ex-
perience, a necessary good. This leads us to a mind-machine interface and the role
of technology in mind control by synthetic variety substances (McKenna, 2000).
Its common sense that the festive atmospheres are in general propitious to the use
of drugs, but neither this opinion nor this behavior is assumed by all, and the same
happens in Psy parties. These substances and others similar enhanced empathic
feelings and facilitate the formation of individual and collective identity (Hutson,
1999; Sylvan, 2005). The identity of the tribe is assumed by its natives and vice
versa and the notion of ritual is incorporated in such a way that leads us to believe
in a sort of ritualization of electronic music.
The participation in the neo-ritual is not necessarily a psychotropic experience
but it is almost always a psychonautic experience, in the way that we can experience
the altered state of consciousness without the ingestion of psychoactive chemicals
(Carvalho, 2007).
Technology has the supremacy in these neo-rituals, transformed by night in
a fictional and mimetic world and during the day brought back to their tribal es-
sence. In the philosophical history of the West, the imaginary was often connoted
95
as a source of diversion, appearing as a negative part of the human spirit. After

centuries of absolute dominion of reason and exclusion of the imaginary, today we
experience the return to the worship of past Gods and mythic imagination, going
from one extreme to another: from the absolute exclusion of the imaginary to the
desire of replacing rationality with imagination (McKenna, 2000). The essence of
the primitive dance rituals and the production of altered states of consciousness are
similar to the electronic dance music parties of contemporary society, and the history
of raves could have started thousands of years ago when the first humans lived in
caves and breathed smoke campfires (Ferreira, 2007). The magic didn’t succumbed
to the advent of science, it was simply replaced and enlarged at the same time by
the technology and the powerful aura that modern technologies project, and derives
equally from interventions conceived by magicians and alchemists of earlier times
(Davis, 2002). Technologies replaced the intuitive processes of ancient cultures,
and the role of the ancient shamans is redefined by multimedia devices and shared
by those who handle them. The technological man seems to be re-awakening the
early man. Many centuries ago, there were tribes across the globe that had already
adhered to dance rituals, and they did it with total devoid of technology, according to
the concept we have of them today. If one of the goals of the psychedelic gathering
is still the search for ecstasy or the trance state, as altered forms of consciousness,
and these being essentially forms of human expression, could they reject the pres-
ence of multimedia technologies? Maybe, if we consider that these states and spirit
were already invoked and achieved without the existence of our new technologies.
However, placing the party in the temporal context in which has emerged, it is not
easy to isolate the technologies used to attain them. They are used to consolidate a
whole, especially when the multimedia is essential to create a musical and aesthetic
environment that obeys to certain trends from which it cannot be separated. These
rituals could hardly be possible in its whole without the ubiquity of technology, that
acts subtly but no less manipulative in the perception of the natives of the Psyche-
delic Trance tribe. Despite making music its central element, the Psy parties and
festivals are above all celebrations and rituals of dance. We can dance to the sound
of rudimentary percussion instruments and achieve trance states through the repeti-
tion of sounds and dance, but it’s not possible to dance Psychedelic Trance without
electronic or digital devices. The ritual takes place whenever there is prior intention
to do so, and when the basic elements are assembled to make it happen, either with
fire, multimedia or both, either with a drum, a sampler, or both as well. But the Psy
party as we know it, with all its components, and considering the developmental
signs that have been presented, didn’t have continuity in an abrupt way having been
deprived of technology in all aspects to which this act extends.
96
Our society holds in some cases an almost idolatrous relationship with images,
thanks to the different forms of production and reproduction of its communication,
being the desire of fantasy and dreams what gives consistency to its spotted soul
(Durand, 2001). This view fits in the ambition to exploit the imaginary of Psychedelic
Trance culture simultaneously high-tech, futuristic and archaic (Simão, Magalhães
& Silva, 2013). Gilles Deleuze refuses to assign unreality to the imaginary, but sees
it as a set of exchanges between a real image and a virtual or unreal image (Deleuze,
1992). In the Psychedelic Trance gatherings the boundary between these two realities
turns out to be extremely subjective, since it depends on the state of consciousness
in which the subject is, modified or not. This change may relate specifically to the
use of natural or chemical psychoactive substances, as has been mentioned but which
can also be attributed exclusively to all musical, aesthetic and scenic surroundings
(Carvalho, 2007) present in the true concept of these parties.
The aesthetic component integrates a wide array of artistic events, some linked
from the perspective of a positivist point of view on the representation of the tran-
scendent, not in a religious perspective, but from the point of view of the insinuation
of a spiritual journey through the externalization of forms coming directly the from
unconscious (Simão, Magalhães & Silva, 2013). These manifestations are present in
the images of shamanistic, tribal and alien trends, using lush colors, arbitrary shapes
and strong psychedelic evidences referring to a sort of surrealism of the techno-
logical age. The decor is today mostly aided by a powerful multimedia component,
and is one of the key elements in building parallel realities of remission to altered
states of consciousness. Imbedded in the individual as a complex singularity, the
imaginary is a world of representations that cannot develop through simple free
ideas but which follows certain logics (Durand, 2001), therefore, the surrounding
multimedia following a dynamic orientation by the VJ is in line with the DJ. Both
can be considered as mediators for the imaginary, but there is also the possibility of
directly targeting that role of mediation to the machine, to the technological device.
Believing that there is an association between the guide element of a psychedelic
neo-ritual and an ancestor ritual, there is the possibility of multimedia technologies
act as cybernetic shamans, sending technological mantras, vibrations, moods and
other sensitive emotions to their cyber-tribe (Ferreira, 2007).
While the ancient shamans used chants, drums, fire and shadow combinations,
today’s technicians use new technologies to materialize the imagination. Repetitive
vocal mantras of shamans induce the trance state that can therefore be replaced by
digital mantras artificially emitted. This may mean that technology as a mediator,
as a vehicle, may assume itself as a guide element which has a shamanic aspect on
its own, in the way that it allows the creation of imaginary worlds and alternative
states of consciousness (Simão, Magalhães & Silva, 2013). The shamanic technique
per excellence consists in passing from one cosmic region to another, in which the
97
shaman knows the mystery of the levels of disruption and ensures communica-
tion between different cosmic regions (Eliade, 2002). Despite the validity of these
views may be questionable as a science, according to Mircea Eliade, this type of
communication is possible due the structure of the universe, being the symbolism
in which the communication between different cosmic zones is represented quite
complex, and changed over time. Transposing to our context, in addition to medi-
ating between the conscious and the unconscious area of the subject, multimedia
communication and even digital platforms also turn out to be mediators between
two worlds, the real and the virtual.
Through the multimedia technologies and the correspondent information that
produces and projects, multi-sensory, imaginary and psychedelic experiences
are allowed. Being the shamanism an archaic technique of ecstasy (Eliade,
2002), may the modern techniques of ecstasy be vehicles for a neo-shamanism?
The virtual worlds we imagine and the real world we cannot escape set us in
between the machine and the dream, in a polarity designated as techno mysti-
cism (Davis, 2002). In these neo-rituals, the DJ transmits sound information
that allows him to manipulate the audience, as the intensity of the dance and the
degree of alienation directly associate. The same happens in the case of the VJ
who through optical effects of his visual projections, and alterations of reality
with video mapping technology stimulates the activity of the imagination. As a
technique of the mechanical world which creates simulations, multimedia is a
generator and charging element for creating something new through the ampli-
fication of the connecting channels between two different realities: Even though
it is not the way to ecstasy, transcendence or rupture with the profane condition,
it seems clear that multimedia can provide an asymmetric dualism between
oppositions as spiritual and material, corporeal and incorporeal, and between
the inside and the outside (Ferreira, 2007). These digital technologies expand
the audiovisual, bringing the sound and the picture to synchronized interaction
between music, images and the crowd (See Figure 2 – DJ sound booth and VJ
set.) In technical or artistic way, they are essential elements for the celebration
of Psy tribe´s neo- rituals.
Multimedia is a powerful multi-sensory technology (Minoli & Keinath, 1994)
and indispensable to invoke the imagination, always so present in these post-mod-
ern neo-rituals. This strong multimedia presence is visible through the combination
of static and dynamic means, including graphics, animation, video and music when
combined and manipulated by VJ´s and DJ´s, characterizing most of these Psy
environments (Vaughan, 2014).
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Figure 2. DJ sound booth and video-mapping VJ set: Connection Festival, Spain

(©2014, Susana Guimarães (Goadelic Freaks). Used with permission.)
THE MAN, THE MACHINE, ART AND TECHNOLOGY
The Psychedelic Trance party is one of the symbolic shrines of the cult of electronic
music in this hyper-technological state we are in (Davis, 2002), and as a form of
artistic and aesthetical expression, the music entered an inescapable relationship
with new technologies. The electronic sounds are catalysts of these technical, ar-
tistic and emotional relationships, the machines recreate mental data transforming
them into melodies that will allow the shaping of moods. While mankind seizes
technologies, they also seize mankind more and more each time and in increasingly
intense and integrated forms.
In this context and through the multimedia the data recreated, and being merely
abstract or with multiple meanings, is only limited by the imaginative capacity of the
issuer or the receptive capacity of the public. The electronic dance music is among
modern cultures a result of the relationship of this complicity and techno-artistic
creation, awakened by the interaction between technology, the artistic object and
man (Simão, Magalhães & Silva, 2013). Once externalized, technologies take on a
life of their own and ever since, they have given new shapes to society and the man
himself (Lévy, 1990). Human beings are cyborgs since the year zero and they have
been inventing tools to shape society and themselves. In all stages of the nomadic
homo-faber, the culture is a techno-culture that incorporates the technique as part
of their essence and of its development (Davis, 2002). Since his remote existence
man has the need to adapt to the surrounding environment in pursuit of meeting
99
his needs, from the most basic to the most subtle. Since the archaic pre-historical
tools to the digital technology, man has outdone himself again and again, creating
and recreating parallel ways to its evolutionary stage and satisfying sophisticatedly
his increasingly sophisticated needs.
The growing evolution and the consequent need for increasingly complete and
complex instruments also came from the need for a redefinition of technology, from
where emerged, in parallel, new languages and new poetics, which originated new
rituals and new relationships between man and machine, and between the artistic
object and technology. The modern musicians have created a solitary relationship with
their digital tools, and entrench in them as the instrumentalists in their instruments.
They incorporate the role of the composer, performer and technician, emphasizing
his proximity with the machine and the proximity of his art with technology.
The Psychedelic Trance is a strong indication of this emotional relationship between
man and machine, where music as an artistic expression and an aesthetic ideal, is
created, manipulated and disseminated by them, which in turn are driven by man in
a process of continuity and exchange. The cult of electronic dance music shows that
this particular interaction goes beyond the axiomatic physical relationship. This is
why the studies about a human computer interaction insist on an intersection between
several technological, artistic, sociological, psychological realities among others to
understand the complexity of these relationships (Preece, Rogers & Sharp, 2005).
The physical relationship between man and machine is noticeable at the moment that
man seizes the machine itself in a tactical and manipulative way, seeking thereby
the production of a desired effect, as in the case of a DJ. This is also extended to
the VJ. In these situations, the artists can witness a kind of sense of ecstasy flowing
through their melodies and visual effects, cogitated by their computer entrenched
in this spiral of alienation and ecstasy, associated to the repetitive rhythms and ma-
chine like rhythms of some electronic dance music (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi,
2002). The interaction between man and machine is consummated with increasingly
subtle touches that the metaphorical allusions from interfaces of musical and visual
production and editing programs provide (Shneiderman, 1996). In contrast and by
its nature, this affective relationship brings us to a wider sphere of analysis and more
ambiguous understanding, despite the fact they are related, human and machine are
supposedly located in different existential poles. Regarding the interaction between
the sound stimulus and the human being, and being the sound structure similar to
the mind structure, it is possible that the sound vibrations can unify with the psy-
chic vibrations establishing analogies between technological devices and man, at
the same time as extensions of his nervous and emotional system (Lopes, 1990). In
addition to having extensions that complement him, man still allows himself to get
hold of the machine itself and of the prosthetic and physical dimension. The digital
production and the field of technical devices allow an impression of the sound and
100
therefore the psyche through sound stimuli, further reinforcing the sphere of affinity
between man and machine. The mental absorption of sound is crucial to create the
affective dimension but if it´s intentionally experienced as a part of a ritual, it can
be raise to a spiritual dimension.
The interaction between science, aesthetics and psyche, has nowadays aspects
of complementarity that used to be taken as incompatible and the more traditional
scientific doctrines no longer hold exclusivity in the use of electronic and digital
languages. Technologies enable an artistic sonorous and visual environment suit-
able to achieve multiple sensations and experiences (See Figure 3 - Multimedia
surrounding at the dance-floor). In some artistic tendencies it is responsible for
the life of the work itself from the moment of its conception to its assimilation by
the public. Its legitimacy has a parallel existence with technology, and depends on
it from the first to the last moment such as digital art, net art, multimedia art, and
electronic music itself. Concerning the music, hyper instruments allow the develop-
ing of the potential of musical expression since they understand the artistic intent
of the musicians. The music itself and the way of creating it have been changed
through new technological means (Lopes, 1990), changing the whole context in
which music is consumed and also allying technology with new esthetic concepts
through multimedia tools.
Figure 3. Multimedia surrounding at the dance-floor: Respect Lost Festival, Brazil

(©2010, Murilo Ganesh. Used with permission.)
101
The cult of electronic dance music is a reality where some artists create a close
relationship with their digital technologies. In this electronic adulation, the music
as an expression of artistic and aesthetic ideal is created, manipulated and dis-
seminated by the computer through interfaces that enable interaction between both.
Through art, man has created new proximities with new digital tools and its relation-
ship with the machines, apart from technological and physical, it has also become
affective. It is from this set of relationships that the artistic object springs and its
results can fluctuate depending on the intensity of these relationships. These rela-
tionships have been enhanced by digital platforms and the Internet, seeming evident
that the Psy natives and their rituals of music and dance have grown and multiplied
in parallel with its spread across the online universe. In the cyberspace, the psyche-
delic tribe is building new territories and subcultures in an increasingly cyber-era
(Wilson & Atkinson, 2005).
Could the relation of ownership and internalization with computers to be putting
the DJ and therefore the VJ at the crossroads of evolution for the cyber persona
(Ferreira, 2007) or for the digital persona (Negroponte, 1995), walking to a new
existential half human - half machine paradigm of individualities? The increasing
integration between machine and organisms is clear, even in that complex stratum
apparently lacked of rules as the human affection (Cross, 2000), however still no
assumptions as valid responses, in our view.
CONCLUSION
Globalization and its massive cultural effects encouraged the emergence of neo-tribes
associated with musical movements. In addition to being in its essence aggrega-
tions of individuals who share common interests, they are characterized by having
evolved and led to the creation of symbolic identities and true philosophies of life.
The Psychedelic Trance remains a musical style, but realizes that it has evolved into
dimensions that refer beyond this designation.
The relationship of technological dependence that man lives in, led to a relational
estrangement with nature so rampant, that regression and demand by the missing
link may be the only solution to rediscover its true identity. The hedonism and ec-
stasy tied to psychedelic events have been for many individuals, the new catalysts
of reconsolidation of the sense of belonging and tribal spirits in this post-modern,
technological and global scenario. The multimedia in Psychedelic Trance events
are fruit of techno-artistic complicities and creations awakened by the interplay of
technology, art, and human psyche. There are also similarities between the shaman
and the DJ as they both are travel guides through alternative states of consciousness,
even though one externalizes sounds naturally or through archaic forms and the
102
other uses sophisticated new technologies. The electronic dance music cult seems
to wake up new relations between men and machines, art and technology, shamans
and DJ´s, and VJ´s eventually. As an artistic expression, music enters a technological
relationship which goes beyond the physical extending as it awakes different kinds
of emotions, especially in Psychedelic Trance. Multimedia technologies perhaps
are not shamanic instruments but they can be emotional expanders and facilitat-
ing vehicles to access imaginary worlds and altered states of consciousness, if the
primary intention is focused on it. They can create audible and visual environments
specifically designed to provide trance states, and in this sense we can assign a
shamanic facet. Multimedia elements are necessary for the celebration of psyche-
delic tribe neo-rituals and even if the ritual itself is not subordinated directly to the
technologies, they ensure all the logistical, technical, audible and visual aspects of
the party. In the context of Psychedelic Trance parties and festivals as neo-tribal
gatherings, the multimedia is a strong enabler of large multi-sensory experiences.
The psychedelic experience is potentiated across the multimedia experience through
the specific sounds of this musical style, simultaneously with the images projected
in line with the rhythmic variations of music.
A conventional duality between spirituality and technology gave rise to a new
emotional relationship. Electronic music allows this relationship by providing the
trip and the neo-ritual sustained by the post-modern shamans and multimedia tools
as modern techniques of ecstasy, by allowing the amplification of emotions and
reconstruction of shamanic pretensions. Technologies have helped to the disenchant-
ment of the world but their mystical impulses continue to incorporate them, creating
a new electronic state of enchantment shared in a mixture of archaic and futuristic,
spirituality and new technologies in the world of Psychedelic Trance.
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EDMC: Electronic Dance Music Cultures acronym.

Gathering: A gathering can be an agglomeration, an assembly or a meeting es-
pecially in social or festive context with a previous convocation. Lately, psychedelic
parties and festivals have been called gatherings, reinforcing the concept of reunion
and celebration associated to these events and their ritual connotation.
Multimedia: In a technological definition, multimedia technologies are tools
that use different combinations of static and dynamic contents (audio, video, im-
ages, or animation). To be considered as multimedia, a performance must include
one static content and one dynamic at least.
Ritual: There are many definitions of ritual, some of them contradictory, depend-
ing on the reality in which they are interpreted. In general, rituals are characterized
by systemic practices involving elements according what is indented to achieve.
Ritual has normally sacral symbolism notwithstanding being religious or pagan,
and includes rites or other specific practices.
106
Shamanism: Shamanism is a secular ritual practice that involves reaching altered

states of consciousness and is guided by a shaman who normally enters trance states
who interacts with transcendental energies and meanings. These trance states can
also be provide in other people participating in the ritual.
Video-Mapping: Video-mapping is a projection technology used by artists to
transform objects like buildings, trees or other kinds of constructions and landscapes
into a display surface. The projected images can be static or dynamic and are often
used in all kind of events, including psychedelic parties and festivals.
ENDNOTES
1
Producers: Boom Festival. For more information, see the webpage: www.
boomfestival.org ZNA Gathering. For more information, see the webpage:
www.znagathering.com
2
Artists: DJ Goa Gil. For more information, see the webpage: http://www.
goagil.com DJ Menog. For more information, see the webpage: http://menog.
com
3
As an example the online radio of electronic music Digitally Imported ((http://
www.di.fm/#) hosts over 70 channels, each one associated to a specific musical
style. Therefore, there aren´t all designated because it is actually impossible
to catalogue exactly all the existent electronic styles.
4
The Freedom Festival occurs every two years since 2005, and the last edition
was in 2013, near Elvas (south of Portugal). For more information see the
webpage: http://freedom-festival.eu/2013
5
The Cosmic Gate Festival has three editions, and the last was in 2013, near
Viseu (center of Portugal). For more information about see the webpage:
https://www.facebook.com/cosmicgatefestival?fref=ts
6
The ZNA Gathering has four editions, and the last was in 2012, near Lisbon
(south of Portugal). For more information see the webpage: http://www.zna-
gathering.com/
7
For more information about Universo Paralello see the webpage: http://www.
universoparalello.org/
8
For more information about Ozora Festival see the webpage: https://ozoraf-
estival.eu/
9
For more information about Antaris Festival see the webpage: http://www.
antaris-project.de/
10
For more information about Rainbow Serpent Festival see the webpage: http://
www.rainbowserpent.net/
107
11
For more information about Earthdance see the webpage: http://www.earth-
dance.org/
12
These statements were collected in 2010, from interviews with two Psychedelic
Trance DJ´s and producers (Goa Gil and Menog). The interviews concerned
the possible shamanic facet of technologies in Psytrance parties, and the usual
comparison between DJ´s and shamans.
13
In general the MDMA (methylenedioxy derivative of methamphetamine)
usually causes euphoria sensations, well being and happiness and the LSD
(lysergic acid diethylamide has more effect on the spiritual and introspection
level. They are both some of the substances that are used in the Trance parties
(Rodriguez, 2012)
108
109
Chapter 5
Psychedelic Trance
on the Web:
Exploring Digital Parties
at Second Life
Emília Simão


ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes an approach about Psychedelic Trance tribe behaviours and
manifestations in digital environments, and cyber ritual dynamics beyond the virtual
parties in Second Life. Many spatial communities are simultaneously digital com-
munities, and both became complements and extensions of one another. Psychedelic
Trance movements and manifestations have been happening through all kinds of
physical spaces, now also extended to digital spaces. Psytrance neo-nomads are
now techno-nomads, moving to, from, and through the web, redefining themselves,
their practices and their gatherings. In this scenario, Psychedelic Trance branches
emerges everywhere, especially in social networks and three-dimensional immersive
environments like Second Life. This digital migration is not only making the tribe
growing, is also enhancing boundaries and increasing the individual and collective
consciousness of its members. Nevertheless, even if the Trancers became simultane-
ously physical and virtual natives, the digital parties do not seems to replace their
outside experiences.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch005
Psychedelic Trance on the Web
INTRODUCTION
New information and communication technologies, also named digital (or virtual)
platforms, which are part of websites, blogs, forums, social networks, games, 3D
environments, among others have been creating new patterns and new realities. The
whole world of electronic dance music and more specifically Psychedelic Trance was
absorbed also by the digital realm, in several ways, and the phenomena emphasizes
itself while individuals share organic and virtual floors and combine its physical
identity with virtual profiles through avatars.
There are not only new territories and identities coming from this digital awaken-
ing, the psychedelic flight experiences are changing as well since both the organic
and digital are converging it as equal parts of the sum. The virtual existence of these
real and simulated identities, with real or fanciful proposes, have in most cases
previous bottom lines in physical fields outside the digital networks. But even if
the vast majority of relations and info-communicational dynamics happen on-line,
in one way or other the Trancers always return to the ground.
The Psychedelic Trance scene breathes the essence of psychedelic culture and its
fifth element is music, essentially the heady electronic sounds that draw this peculiar
musical style. Psychedelic Trance is not just music, is a whole movement based on
holistic and hedonistic philosophies and in individual and collective expansion of
consciousness of the man and the world. These days, this whole psychedelic vibe is
increasingly representative, mainly through the virtual scene (Bennett & Peterson,
2004).
Social networks and immersive worlds provide new forms of assimilating
reality and for some, these new virtual homes are increasing unprecedented new
experiences as real as reality itself. In Facebook, for example, unexpected virtual
reunions started to incubate a new order of things, reawakening and redefining the
entire Psychedelic Trance movement. In other territories like Second Life, people
have been dancing Psytrance and similar sounds in virtual dance-floors, sharing
and searching psychedelic experiences with their second self’s. In this chapter we
refer several times the expression virtual Psy party (or psychedelic party, festival,
gathering, event) with the same meaning: Psychedelic Trance non-physical events.
It’s a fact that this sort of music presupposes immersive tribal experiences as
we can see in the psychedelic gatherings occurring all over the world. Are these
experiences already gaining new dimensions when transposed to virtual immersive
environments?
110
TRANCEMIGRATION: THROUGH NEW TERRITORIES
The migration phenomenon is inherently connected to the existence of territories

and to the several ways of mobility and experiences between and inside them.
Referring to the EDMC’s context, some of these movements initially originated
urban tribes which later gave place to neo-tribal aggregations (Maffesoli, 2006). In
this type of aggregations the concepts of being and sharing are always present and
actually, they are almost inseparable from the cyberspace, turned into its own new
alternative territory. By territory we can perceive an inhabited area later appropri-
ated and valued by man in a symbolic and instrumental way, where he combines
dimensions and does flow different kinds of contents (Gimenez, 1999). The actual
being in society way comes today from this flow spaces (Castells, 2001) and es-
sentially, from the need that individuals have to communicate amongst them and
to keep informed about their most various interests. As a result of these requests,
the cyberspace became a cultural space of information and knowledge in constant
development through a collective intelligence, generating cyberculture (Lévy,
1999).The fluidity between different territories is one of the important dimensions
of virtual reality and the on-line communities are what define the virtual places.
The analysis of on-line communities presupposes permeable and fluid realities in
a growing convergence between on-line and off-line inherent from this cyber-era
we are constructing (Wilson & Atkinson, 2005).
Associated to the migration concept, the diasporas are normally associated to
ethnical dispersion and communities that disperse globally. Diaspora differs from
migration by not being linear or structured, consequently being more related with the
Psychedelic Trance scene and its tribe which has fluid and non static identities, but
at the same time, nostalgic and even utopian feelings to specific places (D’Andrea,
2007). They spread through diverse regions but they keep their original and identity
features whether real or imaginary (Kearney, 1995). In such cases the existence of
an aspiration for the return to the origins nourishes a collective identicalness based
on that principle (Clifford, 1997) and the return to the origin might be one of the
endeavors of the migration to the virtual environments. Despite the change of sce-
nario, there are original features which remain by the proximity of the movement
by their natives and through the resemblances between non-physical and physical
representations and dynamics.
The Internet brought a growing impact in culture globalization through the
technologically measured communication being fundamental on the emergence of
cyber communities or cyber cultures. The rave culture from where the Psychedelic
Trance was born, in part, always has been a subcultural entity and traditional cul-
ture resistant through the production of information communicated now powered
by the Internet (Wilson & Atkinson, 2005). So, it looks evident that Psy natives
111
multiplied as well as their gatherings, in parallel to their dissemination through

the digital platforms. The virtual environments like Facebook and Second Life are
above everything relational spaces that empower human and social communication
flows. These networks enable an unprecedented interactive communication about
common interests (Castells, 2001) and are the new territories of a great variety of
communities, including the ones inserted into the EDM context. On-line communi-
ties are culture producers inside the cyberspace commonly associated to external
cultural values, despite its digital upgrades facilitates the creations of concepts even
more utopian and fantastical.
The virtual communities can be characterized by various dimensions: cohesion,
effectiveness, mutual help, relationship, language and regulation. These features
are visible in some groups as the Psychedelic Trance followers in Second Life,
where the isolation and the crowd coexist only separated by the human will and an
interface (Katz, 2008). Before the mass migration to the virtual, the Psy tribe was
constituted by relatively small groups spread by the world, holders of ideological
tendencies associated to a specific musical tendency searching for new experiences
and states of mind. Nevertheless, the last decade brought deep transformations, and
the proliferation of artists and psychedelic events and its public affluence can cause
irremediable losses. The movement is still out the frontiers of mainstream, but is
possible that the whole mystique and spiritual is losing its initial meanings. Psy-
chedelic Trance started as being a subculture associated to a specific musical style
later transformed into a movement, and despite its alternative essence, the threat of
massification can compromise its uniqueness spirit. The rhizomatic structure which
characterizes the Psy tribe was empowered when extended to the digital platforms.
The new digital territories allow more and better information between the rhizome
nodes and also allows his full time effectiveness in a space in constant update. This
rhizomatic dispersion appears to be a getaway route in response to the less positive
changes referred above which the Psychedelic Trance universe suffered in the last
years (De Ledesma, 2010).
Its member’s interactions are now cyber-global and the inter-connectivity turned
into one of the main resources of the psychedelic scene (D’Andrea, 2010) not only
derived from the transnational flows between parties and festivals but also from
the info-communicational flows in the cyberspace. The mobility which character-
izes the Psy tribe identity switched to hyper-mobility (Maffesoli, 2006) due to their
actual instantaneous global displacement revitalized in the digital territories. The
global hyper-mobility of this psychedelic guerrilla (D’Andrea, 2006) was already
a reality, nevertheless, hybridizing the everything also hybridizes the subject. From
gathering to gathering, the neo-nomads divides themselves between the I and the
crowd, in the same way they live between the real I and their digital I, and moreover
between the social networks profile and their avatar. In the digital environments this
112
hyper-mobility grows unprecedentedly, considering the user’s easiness to displace

instantly from some spaces to other spaces. This fluid movements are creating new
individuals, interactions, attitudes, habits and consequently, new realities.
VIRTUREALITIES: ON-LINE ENVIRONMENTS
The virtual environments also called digital environments are becoming a useful
tool for global mobilization in various spheres (Pimenta & Varges, 2006) and its
main features are the non-materiality, the fluid frontiers, and the body absence ef-
fect (Aretio, 2007). The digital territories and associated practices are gaining an
invigorating role in the social dynamics of all kinds, essentially in human individual
and collective consciousness. This type of dynamic generates all sorts of relation-
ships between known and unknown individuals, encouraged by the same values and
trends they share in the physical world.
Digital platforms are increasingly coming to absorb the whole of human life
essentially in its social and cultural dimensions (Silva & Ramos, 2014). The post
modern man depends undeniably of technological mediations and to interact with the
current world, he has been creating platforms and artificial environments to grows
and cohabit with his fellows (Domingues, 2010). This entire media ecosystem is also
constantly changing due to the convergence of content and platforms in wide web
collaborations (Jenkins, 2006). We can recognize the machine, the technological
artifact, as an extension of man, so we can realize the digital platforms as extensions
of man’s life since the digital mediation is becoming our new skin (Domingues, 2010).
Will this hyper technological culture betray the individual (Davis, 2004), by
mutilating bodies and breaking identities to adapt it to different contexts of post
modern society? Are new forms of life within the on-line world recreating new
patterns to substitute the organic off-line world?
The identity arises only when there is interaction with others and is specifically
through this interaction that the identity is defined. The individual´s identity, the I
or the self is only potential when recognized by another identity and simultaneously
recognized by himself (Habermas, 1991). Each person requires an identity or even
several, but in some cases, the legitimacy of these identities is only turned effective
by the group inclusion or exclusion (Azevedo, 2007) or by the recognition of this
identity associated with a particular community. On-line environments raise new
controversies about the identity and the separation of the physical body in relation to
the communication process because the computer-mediated communication promotes
the formation of other identities, leading to a fragmentation of the initial identity.
In virtual worlds, the simulacra of reality ended up creating hybrid subjects that
move in and out of the network, as it happens with the on-line Psychedelic Trance
113
community. More than virtual reality, real virtuality brings us increasingly closer
representations of reality (Castells, 2001) and virtual environments are also getting
closer to our new human nature. This new nature is embodying man in a multiplicity
of bodies and shaping it while individual and social being. From the body instrument
to the mutilated body, to entertainment body, these conceptual appropriations have
implications in the various spheres of man’s existential condition (Devillard, 2002).
Transforming the look and adapting it according to certain situations or purposes, is a
cultural mark inherited from the earliest forms of sociability. Essentially conditioned
by cultural and social aspects, the men self-represents his physical body according
to wishes and possibilities, but this is not applied to the non-physical body, which
does not have such constraints, and is only based on a materialization of an almost
limitless imaginary. The self-representation mutability in on-line environments is
probably the key aspect of virtual identity (Turkle, 1995). In digital territories the
former single body notion faded and progressively is redefined as a set of symptoms,
pictures and identities, in a kind of schizophrenic delusion (Garro, 2008). The ques-
tion is if whether these identity transformations are rational processes or if they are
wrapped in a web of inconsistent and uncertain evolution, or even and probably, if
they are the result of crossed fragments from both.
Most concepts that define virtual reality focus mainly on its technological po-
tential, but despite this emphasis on technology the user’s presence versatilities are
key elements for a more complete definition (Steuer, 1992). Digital and virtual are
similar concepts, and lately the term digital is frequently used to avoid the ambigu-
ity of the term virtual and its unreal connotation. But, what is real? Perhaps the
reality is just the perception we have of it, whether physical or imaginary (Deleuze
& Parnet, 2004). The reality is the human reality, but deepening the question, this
reality has always been virtual considering it was built symbolically in order to de-
fine practices and their meanings (Ilharco, 2007). Real is never entirely natural, it
also depends on the surrounding environment mainly characterized by technological
extensions of our sensitive perceptions (De Kerckhove, 1997). In short, reality is
all that enables man to experience something whether on-line or off-line in a natu-
ral environment or in a digital representation of the natural. Virtual reality exists
across platforms that provide immersion and live interaction directly stimulating
the imagination through a trilogy of elements: immersion, interaction and real-time
(Burdea, 1994). The immersive environments assume that the interaction between
the user and the virtual environment provides the feeling that it is within the own
environment which allows to experiment as completely as possible, the computer
synthesized reality. However, as a subject matter, immersion can be a complex
reality because it depends on several factors, including the category of the devices
or applications and their ability to run properly and also on the user´s imagination,
perception and experience.
114
Second Life is an example of an immersive virtual environment in real time that

can be navigated and allows interaction between users and the environment itself
(Vince, 2004). These environments enable the user to think it is elsewhere based
on information generated by computers (Heim, 1993) and those computers act as
mediators of human senses, partially or entirely caused by artificial stimuli (Laurel,
1990). The virtual is more than a place of ideas and represented memories, is not the
other reality but one of them, as real as any other since it has meanings and allows
the users to play a certain role. Virtuality is just as real as reality, both make up
the reality of the world and man, than, both are real. Virtual do not oppose to real
because and the Psy parties are real for their natives and even if they don’t share the
same physical space they share the same virtual. This hybrid condition is clearly
shared by the Psy natives when they migrate their relationships, music and dancing
to virtual environments. The simulation of conventional Psy gatherings and their
Psy natives through virtual and Psyvatars are maybe an ephemeral illusion but in
fact, this virtureallity is happening and its consolidation is still unknown.
PSYTRANCE’S SECOND LIFE: FROM

THE FOREST TO THE WEB
Generally speaking, Second Life is an interactive virtual reality application where

users move themselves through an avatar, in three-dimensional immersive environ-
ment (Ribeiro, 2012). In this platform, multiple simultaneous users with interactions
in real time endorsing immediate feedback (Bartle, 2004) have the ability to promote
changes inside and outside this world. We may also define Second Life as a set of
electronic simulations in environments that can be experienced over the use of some
specific equipment, allowing the user to interact in a realistic and three-dimensional
space (Steuer, 1992).
The socialization component is perhaps one of its most important and complex
aspects, since the interaction between users allows the occasional creation of bonds,
but also allows the appearance of true communities with apparently consistent
relations between users. It is important to focus on technological aspects, but also
consider the entire human side, imaginative, social and sensory. Human experience
is one of the keys to virtual reality, concepts like technology and hardware should
also be used further to the significance of being. The technological and human
complements grow up with each other, and together, they build an extended world
of human experience (Myeung-Sook, 2001). This extension is unlimited and can be
enhanced by the characteristics of the avatar’s performance, realism and similarities
with the real world, through the interface quality monitoring the actions (Manninen
e Pirkola, 1998). Second Life is a direct extension of the imagination that allows
115
the expansion of a man’s life, even more than create a second (Zagalo & Pereira,
2008). Despite some activity decrease in recent years, Second Life remains one of
the most relevant parallel worlds existing on the web.
The dynamic behaviors and interactions between users depend on the avatar’s
continuous presence and anonymity, among others, but its self-representation is a
determining factor (Yee & Bailenson, 2009). More than a faithful user represen-
tation, the avatar is an alter ego, the dissipation of the human ego to that second
self, is transferring from the self to the other, making the second person another
first person (Freud, 1969). Through the avatar, the user is transferred to a second I,
despite that being the second person, still the first in the context of its place. These
analogies however preserve an equality significance of self, in the sense that others
are also selves (Ricoeur, 1989). Even though is sometimes partially conscious, the
alter-ego serves as a reflection of the ego, visible in the personification of avatars
and representation that others do about the human behind machine.
Virtual reality has provided new opportunities for searching and re-setting com-
ponents for individual’s life, including spiritual, in sense of devotion to particular
communities or groups of people, reflection moments, and transcendence meaningful
experiences (Geraci, 2014). Since the Psychedelic Trance has undeniably spiritual
traits are their representations in Second Life also shrouded in such aspirations?
Can the neo-tribal experiences associated with physical space gatherings turn into
cyber-tribal, when transposed into virtual space?
Society remains in some cases an almost idolatrous relation with image (Durand,
2001). This view fits Psychedelic Trance in a culture imagery ambition, which
remains associated with transcendence and altered states of consciousness, in an
environment simultaneously high-tech, futuristic and archaic (Simão, Magalhães &
Silva, 2013). Imagination does not have to be unreal, considering that it can be run
as a set of exchanges between a real image and a virtual image (Deleuze, 1992). In
Psy gatherings, the line between these two realities is extremely subjective, and that
subjectivity extends to their representation in virtual environments. The messages
transmission through aesthetic and visual combinations shared with the musical
component, is a major concern of their events. These elements are central in building
parallel realities that provide projection for altered states of consciousness (Simão,
Magalhães & Silva, 2013).
Inevitably following this trend, the graphic and three-dimensional representations
for these virtual events also refer to utopian and imaginary realities, as in the off-line
physical version. The imaginary valuation and its projection through various forms of
symbols, is a concern of man since the dawn of its existence. In immersive environ-
ments, the user, while a designer, has the ability to configure the spaces according
to the symbolism and each trend implicit archetypes, philosophy or specific culture.
Being Psychedelic Trance a hyper-symbolic universe, highly metaphorical and ultra-
116
sensory, is intended that their virtual representations are accordingly conducive to

immersion. Introducing these elements in virtual context enhances the possibility
of the user’s immersion. Social networks have been in vogue but at some point will
likely reach a saturation point (Turkle, 2011), and then platforms like Second Life
could expect an addition growth. The electronic dance music events have reasonable
representation in virtual worlds such as Second Life, and this even happens quite
often, could this happen with the psychedelic gatherings?
VIRTUAL ETNOGRAPHY: IN THE WORLD OF PSYVATARS
Participant observation allows direct experiences and contacts that enable a broader
view and a privileged position in relation to a particular object (Quivy & van
Campenhoudt, 1998). The ethnographic understanding of a particular phenomenon
is achieved not only by a voyeur stage but also by a participant attitude who tries to
understand the emotions of the individuals through constant interaction and ques-
tioning (Hine, 2000). Virtual ethnography is a methodological tool of qualitative
approach applied in digital environments (Kozinets, 2010), in this present case, its
application has allowed a better understanding of Psychedelic Trance on-line com-
munity in these environments, in particular at Second Life.
In order to understand what would be the projection of Psychedelic Trance gather-
ings in Second Life, it was initially made an exploration for events on the platform’s
search engine with the keywords Psy party, Psy gathering, Psy festival and Psyche-
delic Trance, without results. There were also introduced other keywords related to
derivatives of the main musical style such as Psytrance, Goa Trance or Progressive
Trance. This last search showed yielding results not associated to psychedelic events
but to other electronic dance music events with various musical styles included.
About 300-400 EDM events happen daily in Second Life although this count
is general and not corresponding to specific musical styles. The results using the
keyword trance indicated the existence of events, communities and dance clubs.
However this trance designation is not associated in particular to Psychedelic Trance
or any of its subgenres1.
Digital psychedelic gatherings are not disclosed to the general public through the
main page of the Second Life platform. These events are only promoted within specific
communities and where people who follow this movement apparently move, just like
it happens in the physical off-line context. This promotional information is shared in
specific spaces dedicated to this musical style in profiles of associated groups and
through messages sent by clubs or events promoters, to the existent Psy communi-
ties. Other researches, now using the category general and the keyword Psytrance as
criteria indicated 98 results, including groups, DJs, dance clubs and shops.
117
From these results, 90 are groups or communities, but the vast majority has already
been extinguished. Currently there are only three active Psy clubs: Organica (1238
members), Psychedelic Circle (795 members), and Psy Tree Spirit (191 members).
The Psy Tree Spirit only had some activity for about six months, between late
2013 and early 2014, and the last party took place in April 2014. Currently, this space
has no events and is usually empty despite continuing to stream music, in particular
Psybient or Psychill, some of the Chill Out genres of Psychedelic electronic sounds.
The first large community of Second Life is called PsyTrance and was established
in 2006. The overview of this community clearly ranks up under the Psychedelic
Trance universe [From Goa to Fullon, Dark, Minimal & Prog Psy, this general
purpose group is intended to bring together psytrance fans for anything related to
psytrance including venues, art, clothing, and of course, music! All Psytrancers wel-
come! Lets burn virtual dancefloors with the music we love!]. Psytrance community
has 916 members and approximately 80 are DJ’s, but most of them are inactive.
Its popularity reached its peak in the early years but now it has a very low activ-
ity despite the fact that it continues to support some information about events that
happen in the virtual world. The Om Festival had 785 members and it was another
representative Psy community in Second Life, its narrative also fits in the premises
of the Psychedelic Trance: Pure Love. Unity. Eternity. Mind blowing sound. Not
just music, a state of mind, a sense of community. This club/community even had a
website with information about events, renting spaces, streaming services, events
schedules, artists, and other items related with virtual Psy parties. Om community
was extinguished due to internal inconsistencies between stage managers, the ac-
tivity decrease and due to the costs of its maintenance. The Buddah was another
community with a large representation in the virtual Psychedelic Trance however,
it was also recently extinct. There were more Psy clubs in Second Life but that are
no longer active, in particular, Aum Dome, Chi-AD, Mandala Club, PsyMoon, Psy
Que Delic and PsyMusic. In 2009, the Boom Festival, one of the most significant
Psychedelic Culture festivals in the international scene also had an island in Second
Life, although, for uneconomic reasons and allegedly by overly technological pres-
ence instead of human, it was extinguished shortly after being created. Other EDM
dance clubs like Wood, Energy Club, Audiophile, Equinox, Singularity Tribe, Loop,
Magic of Trance, BURN 2 are still running, but they are not specific Psy stages even
if occasionally they promote events with Psychedelic Trance DJ’s. The exclusive
places in Second Life with associated virtual communities who are currently func-
tioning are Organica and Psychedelic Circle.
The Organica (also designated Happy Clam Island) is an island with several
stages with frequent events and it’s characterized by psychedelic and hypnotic aes-
thetic components and environments [HCI is diverse and its community ranging
from musicians, dj´s, artists, builders, and lots of friendly folks around the world
118
building the future. Happy Clam Island is dedicated to justice, respect, freedom,
peace, friendship and great music. Is a virtual community in Second Life devoted
to Peace and Higher Consciousness through music. Our magical venue, Organica,
provides wonderful goa/psy and live music events, and our island exists as an edu-
cational portal and place of community where friends can meet and share ideas
and talents as we prepare for an uncertain future. We celebrate nature and music at
each solar point throughout the year at our Equinox and Solstice Festivals. There
we gather in a rite of renewal to Life as we burn our Wicker Man and celebrate the
Great Mystery]. The different stages of this place are the Arcadia Temple, The Tree
stage, Heart bound stage, commercial spots like Seventh Sanctum and other living
room environments like Chakrin Forest and Fairy Forest, very similar to the Chill
Out stages in the off line Psy gatherings. The graphical and aesthetic component of
these various places is divided between lighter idyllic, daytime and naturals spaces,
and others more nocturnal, psychedelic and fluorescent, just like in the Psychedelic
Trance events that occurred in the physical world. All these stages have as background
electronic music although the more directed to the Psychedelic Trance is the Clam
Stage. This stage streams various psychedelic styles such as Full-On, Dark Trance,
Progressive Trance, but also Lounge and Psychill as calmer musical genres. The
Psychedelic Trance is the trademark of this island, which is a reference to all the Psy
community in Second Life. The Arcadia Temple is a discussion room within Organica
where weekly events called Salon of the Earth happen to chat about issues such as
music, environment and sustainability, holistic philosophies, new patterns of human
evolution, among other matters related to psychedelic cultures. Organica hosts small
events daily but also conducts festivals, and four times a year the Psy community
flows to the Solar Festival, coinciding with the spring and autumn equinoxes, and the
summer and winter solstices since 2006. The last virtual edition of renowned festival
Burning Man, the Burn 2, happened at Organica stage between 19 -27 October 2014.
The Organica also has a website that provides the schedule of musical events
and information about the discussion panels at Salon of the Earth. By information
provided, it appears that the range of artists always have international contributions.
There is also a private group of Organica community in Facebook with 36 mem-
bers, where the users are the avatars themselves, considering by the profile pictures.
It is curious that Second Life users feel the need to extend their relationships to
social networks, without severance of their avatar alter egos. These extensions of
virtual relational dynamics to social networks can give the avatar more of a human
dimension, which can explain this need of migration to other digital platforms.
Second Life stimulates these parallels connections with social networks, among
others, and the possibility of sharing directly photographic records on Facebook
or other social networks like Flickr or Tweeter are one example of communication
convergence between digital platforms.
119
The other Psychedelic Trance reference in Second Life is Psychedelic Circle, as

mentioned above. It’s currently the only dance club that manages its events accord-
ing to the European time, which normally takes place three times a week (Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays between 22:00 and 02:00 a.m.). This virtual Psy commu-
nity also has a Facebook public group with 272 members that are mainly avatars.
The info-communication dynamics on Facebook page occur weekly and the posted
contents are mostly musical or about events in Psychedelic Circle. This virtual club
once had a website which provided a streaming service for DJs to play in Second Life,
but without any other reporting function. The streaming can be rented directly by
the artists or by the owners of clubs and it´s a relatively simple procedure, working
simply by pasting the URL link on the set of the place where the music is supposed
to be heard. In Second Life, among a multiplicity of sales and rental offers, there
are streaming rental places where anyone can acquire this service.
The Psy clubs and associated communities are apparently limited in time, and
at some point, they begin to lose activity as we have seen throughout this ethno-
graphic analysis.
According to the feedback of some of people who ran these virtual clubs, a lot
of dedication is needed to ensure a proper management. The charges are mentioned
as an obstacle to the continuity of these spaces since most live on tips and when the
influx of people decreases, these financial compensation decreases as well. Running
a Second Life island or a simple fraction implicates costs and even if the investment
is relatively low, it’s always a limitation. To provide working capital to support these
investment, it’s possible to purchase directly Linden $ (€ 1 is approximately 300
Lindens $). Taking the virtual parties as example, the artists, club managers, event
promoters, hosts, designers or builders can make Lindens working and receiving
financial compensation for their services. The cost of land is variable but normally
the weekly rental is approximately 2,000 Linden Dollars. This value varies depend-
ing on the area and on the prims in each area which initially includes 937 prims.
These objects, or graphic representations, permit the characterization of the dif-
ferent places and can assume the most varied forms, according to the reality to be
simulated. The builders are experts in construction and they often sell the highest
quality objects, although any user can also build. Many regulars of Psy gatherings
in Second Life are also DJs, and some of them only perform virtually. As compen-
sation for their performances, the artists receive payments from the clubs managers
and also tips from the public. In their performances, the DJ´s use specific software
like Virtual DJ, for example.
Despite the virtual Psy parties happening with some frequency in Organica,
virtual ethnography took place more forcefully in Psychedelic Circle for being the
most active community during the methodological observation period. The Psy
gatherings in Psychedelic Circle took place three times a week and the average at-
120
tendance was between 15 and 30 users which possibly increased on Fridays. These
community members seem to be very familiar with each other and the collective chat
revealed the existence of continuous interaction between users. Multiculturalism is
a characteristic of the psychedelic parties and festivals that extends to the virtual,
and in both worlds is common to meet people of various nationalities.
In their conversations they use some terms like sisters, tribe, family, or home, so
it is visible the spirit of unity, connection, sharing and respect between the members,
as well as some concern with the integration of new people and noobs. The info-
communication collective dynamics are frequently conversations about music and
the event, and it is usual to share animation scripts and teleport offers to other places.
The music that plays in Psychedelic Circle is always Psychedelic Trance, with
some variations depending on the preferences of DJs, who normally spins Psychedelic
Full-On, Dark Trance, Progressive Psy, and occasionally, Goa Trance. Even when
there are no events and the club is empty, the music continues to play and there are
avatars sometimes, usually seated and allegedly listening to music or waiting for
someone to chat.
During these virtual Psy parties, the vast majority of avatars are dancing in the
dance-floor (See Figure 1. Dance Floor at Psychdedelic Circle) and this space is
always clearly marked in the center of the stage with highlights to the DJ booth. The
dance-floor is the main and most dynamic area where there are more interactions
between avatars. This interaction is also visible through some behaviors, for example,
if the avatars like the music they dance, or if they don´t, they leave the dance-floor.
Figure 1. Dance Floor at Psychdedelic Circle

(2014, Adapted from Second Life)
121
It is very rare that avatars stop dancing, but occasionally some stay around the
dance floor apparently in private conversations. We realize that when there is com-
munication between two or more avatars by the collective or private chat, they tend
to approach each other. The interaction between avatars seems to be limiting for
some users who aspire more than an artificial communication, but for others, it is
a facilitator for allowing them to experience behaviors that otherwise they would
not have. As in the physical world, a large part of the collective messages are re-
lated to music and artists and, eventually, avatars activate animations or emit sounds
of euphoria in response to some musical tracks. Entertainment is one of the reasons
that lead people to the virtual Psy gatherings in immersive environments, and
sometimes avatars also make more humorous comments.
Notwithstanding the dance-floor is the area where most of the avatars concen-
trates, there are parallel areas where they frequently stand. Just as in offline events,
when the DJ´s performances ends on the main floor it is common to find some
avatars gathered at the Chill Out. This stage is normally a more comfortable space
where they listen to quieter music, Ambient and Psychill, for example, and that is
also recreated in the Second Life, also called After Party (See Figure 2 - After party
Chill Out at Psychedelic Circle).
The fluorescent decor and the dynamic and static visual effects are a constant
in virtual Psy parties. In the main Psy clubs such as Organica and Psychedelic
Circle, the simulation of utopian and idyllic settings illustrates the concern to re-
produce the virtual parties as similar as possible to the originals and the presence
of some decorative objects is also common in both versions of the festivals, espe-
Figure 2. After Party / Chill Out at Psychdedelic Circle

122
Figure 3. Natural surroundings at Organica Stage

cially mushrooms (See Figure 3 - Natural surroundings at Organica Stage). The

metaphorical reference to magic mushrooms is common in the off-line events
decorations, also for being one of the psychotropic substances commonly consumed
in psychedelic gatherings.
The multimedia effects are quite well represented due to the increasing quality of
graphics cards, the evolution of the platform potential, and also the improvement of
building skills by the users. Similarly to the Psy conventional events, it is also com-
mon the combination of natural elements with artificial elements including multime-
dia, lasers and visual projections (See Figure 4 – Psy party in a virtual forest).
Figure 4. Psy party in a virtual forest with visual effects.

123
Figure 5. Canabis scripts at Psy party

Curiously, psychoactive consumes are also common in virtual Psy parties. The
avatars can activate various sorts of scripts to simulate the visual effects of LSD
hallucinations, unfocused images, powerful colors or other possible effects from
these drugs. When avatars are allegedly smoking cannabis, there can be seen some
amount of smoke and cannabis leaves flying around the place (See Figure 5 – Canabis
script).
The appearance of Psyvatars is also quite similar to the styles of many Psy na-
tives in terms of looks and accessories, considering by their hairstyles and hybrids
clothes styles both tribal and futuristic. It is common to see avatars with dreadlocks
and tattoos (See Figure 6 – Psyvatar) probably as a result of customization to the
user’s image or for being the associated style of Psychedelic Trance followers, or
eventually referencing to the real image of the user.
There is a multiplicity of gestures associated with various types of dance and
most resembles bodily expressions as seen in original Psy gatherings. The move-
ments of the avatars range from gentle movements when the music is more me-
lodic to more vigorous when the rhythms are more intense. The Psychedelic Trance
dancing is a free style and we observed the same tendency in Second Life where it
is very uncommon to see two avatars dancing the same way. We notice that the user
monitors continuously their avatars, which implies outside presence or at least
punctual attention. Even without establishing communication with each other, ava-
tars are positioned in various places and if sometimes they get closer the DJ and
change frequently the dancing steps, in other times they move away or seat around
the dance-floor. It’s not usual but sometimes the avatars stay for hours dancing with
124
Figure 6. Psyvatar
the same movements, or staying at the same place. Through this avatar´s inactivity
it is possible to understand that there is no outside monitoring. We have realized
that some users get on-line in Second Life just to listen to music, and that is why
some avatar stands always static.
Returning to the similarities, uninterrupted dance can be a similarity between the
two versions of events. Getting into trance through exhaustive dance is characteristic
of rituals and also happens in psychedelic gatherings while Psy natives stand for
hours in the dance-floor.
Along the ethnographic process, we realized that personal and affective relation
with the Psychedelic Trance universe and the way it is experienced in the natural
world is decisive in the virtual experience. The affinity with digital platforms and
the dexterity in immersive environments are also important to maximize the virtual
experience, and these skills are determinants to the significance of the experience.
We realized that virtual Psy events are extensions form the conventional to
some users while replacements to the majority who don´t use to attend Psy parties
outside the web.
Although some of the users are largely absorbed in the virtual, in general the
non-physical parties are still considered as partial alternatives at least meanwhile
technology is improving its simulation capabilities.
A state of trance requires a total immersion but despite some high-tech devices
are able to simulate human gestures, expressions and even sensory, the total human
immersion is not evident until now neither generalized. Theses virtual Psychedelic
Trance variations can be designated as near-real experiences, not because they are
not real but because the psychedelic understanding is limited in comparison with
the non-virtual experience.
125
The psychedelic gatherings and festivals are perceptive as ritual celebrations

with strong spiritual components that seem to be lost when transferred into the
digital world. The materiality of physical is opposed to the excessive non-physical
immateriality and platonic experiences, at least from our point of view during the
ethnographical exploitation.
CONCLUSION
The migration to the digital platforms is mutating the Psychedelic Trance tribe and
despite being clearly an alternative movement, its near anonymity faded due to its
dissemination through the digital territories, namely social networks and immersive
environments. In immersive environments like Second Life the tribe is not repre-
sentative, since these virtual natives are less than 100 persons, but there are many
thousands in the social networks.
Psy parties or gatherings are immersive environments in its offline or online
version although that immersion is experienced in a different way. Despite the dif-
ferences between both formats it was noticeable a wide range of similarities. The
legitimacy of the virtual parties varies and relies essentially on the affective relation
with the real parties. This multicultural movement involves thousands of people,
including the cyberspace, but the vast majority is not aware of the existence of vir-
tual gatherings, and the few who know these events don’t recognize its legitimacy.
The key issues of virtual psychedelic events are essentially the absence of the
total immersion, of the human body, of the spiritual and emotional characteristics,
and also the lack of direct bonds with other natives and with the nature elements.
The dance is one of the most restrictive issues of the virtual Psy parties. As
much the Psyvatar dances and gestures in non-physical environments, he will hardly
achieve the same feelings and sensations as in the physical world.
This music style has quite hypnotic and ecstatic characteristics, and its assimilation
through the physical and sensorial experience is fundamental, which immediately
raises incompatible needs regarding the virtual party and the avatar version of Psy
native. The multiculturalism, the environment manipulation, the instantaneity of at-
tendance and retreat, the relationships, among others, if on the one hand, are faster,
more comfortable and safer in the web, on the other hand, are ephemeral, experience
limited, and too predictable. There is always someone who feels more comfortable
anchored to his alter-ego, comfortably represented by the avatar, but if it can be a
liberating experience in some cases, it also is inhibitory in others. The multisensory
experiences are still limited on virtual environments as the missing body anguish,
and a representative migration to the virtual parties is especially conditioned by
126
this reasons. In Psychedelic Trance gatherings, some of the consciousness state

alterations are artificially induced by the ingestion of psychoactive substances, but
in the virtual experience, the whole experience is fully artificial.
The virtual events are world metaphors (Martins, 2012), and more than recre-
ations they are rather a simulacrum of the known reality. The touch, the body and
the identity are three ambiguities from cyberspace (De Kerckhove & Rowland,
1997), but if the identity question looks safeguarded, the same doesn’t happen
regarding the touch and the body, appointed by the users as the biggest limitation
of the virtual party, where the other cannot be felt, nor the dance can be felt. The
music is the fifth element of the Psychedelic Trance gatherings, the dance, shared
with the others is the heart of the dance floor, and the body is his locus (Freeman,
2000), and missing that locus, it will miss the essential.
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(Portuguese version)
Avatar: In this essence an avatar is a deity descendent from the Hindu religion but
in computing context, an avatar is the graphical representation of the users’ alter ego.
EDM: Electronic Dance Music acronym.
Gathering: A gathering can be an agglomeration, an assembly or a meeting es-
pecially in social or festive context with a previous convocation. Lately, psychedelic
parties and festivals have been called gatherings, reinforcing the concept of reunion
and celebration associated to these events and their ritual connotation.
Immersion: Is a perception of being in a non-physical world created by virtual
reality, it can be achieved through the similarity with the real world and also from
a persistent interaction. The feeling of immersion is best achieved less the technol-
ogy is external to the user.
130
Noob: Inexperienced user of Second Life, normally beginners or novice.

Second Life: Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Labs where
users are represented avatars as user´s representations. In that alternative reality the
rules are whatever the creators of that world decide.
Virtual DJ: is on-line software operated through a digital interface. Is an edit-
ing and music mixing program and it provides streaming on on-line radios or other
digital platforms such as Second Life, for example.
Virtual: Virtual can be a reality beyond the screen, and in this context by virtual
we do not mean non-real but non-physical.
ENDNOTES
1
Trance refers to a state of hypnotism or altered state of consciousness but in our
context is an electronic dance music gender. Trance music is more frequently
instrumental although vocals also can be introduced. Is often confused with
Psychedelic Trance, as we have witnessed in Second Life, but these two music
styles are completely different not only in its esthetic and artistic features but
essentially in their background. Trance music is a mainstream musical style
while Psychedelic Trance is an alternative style and a whole movement based
is its own philosophies.
131
132
Chapter 6
Requirements of a
Digital Platform for
Psytrance Parties
Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal & Minho University, Portugal
ABSTRACT
is a growing fusion between real life and digital objects. Wireless technologies,
screens’ resolution and colours, 3D technologies, virtual and augmented reality
can change the way a user experiences a virtual environment. This chapter explores
input and output technologies for computing devices and discusses the technological
developments that constitute requirements for the success of non-physical trance
parties or, as some would prefer to call them, virtual trance parties.
INTRODUCTION
The development of digital technology has transformed the society and the way
people interact. It is now quite obvious that digital social networks exist as a pertinent
phenomenon that alters the way social networks are established and maintained.
Previous works have indicated that trance parties have a neo ritual component that
uses multimedia technology to recreate the elements of the ancient tribal rituals,
like the fire and the drums (Simão and Tenreiro de Magalhães, 2012). This is also
a technology related transformation of social organization.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch006
Requirements of a Digital Platform for Psytrance Parties
Trance parties are now mass productions, with festivals like the Boom Festival
that occurs every two years in Idanha-a-nova, Portugal, hosting tens of thousands
of “natives” that come from all over the world. Combining the financial capability
required to attend these events and the fact that the digital is an important part of
the phenomenon, one might ask if there is a chance that this can evolve to virtual
parties that can maintain the livelihood of this “tribe” between organized physical
events. This question has two dimensions that must be considered: are the natives
willing to participate in these real parties in a virtual world? And what are the
requirements that a digital platform must have in order to provide a proper envi-
ronment for the party? This chapter will discuss those requirements starting, in the
next section, by discussing Human-computer interaction and then progressing to the
fundamentals of virtual reality and augmented reality. The chapter progresses to the
case of Second Life, from Linden Labs, and other similar platforms, and ends with
the specific case of virtual trance parties’ technological requirements, addressed in
the final conclusions.
Before progressing, it is important to clarify the meaning of the expression “vir-
tual trance party” that will appear many times in this chapter. By “virtual” it’s meant
non-physical. The term virtual has several meanings but it points to the property of
not existing as such but having the potential to became so. Only the advent of the
computational science brought the widespread notion of virtual as a simulation of
what exists and, therefore, as something that is not real. In fact, virtual does not op-
pose to real and in the case of trance parties the virtual parties are quite real, even
if they don’t imply being together in the sense of sharing the same physical space.
HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION
Computers can be visualized as a closed box, more or less transparent, with input
and output devices that enable the human-computer interaction (HCI). In this context
we will consider that quality is the capability to provide a satisfactory experience
for the user when interacting with a computing device and, assuming this definition,
we can say that the quality of both the input and output hardware and software is
fundamental to reduce the difficulty that many have in using computational devices
(Hartson & Gray, 1992). The development of the body of knowledge in the HCI
field is probably one of the reasons that justify the spread of mobile technology,
namely smartphones, in the most recent years.
The classical input devices are the keyboard and the mouse. But it is interesting
to verify that have changed with time. Mobile phones and tablets quite frequently
do not include a physical keyboard, incorporating a virtual one that appears only
when necessary. Also the mouse device has lost part of its importance because it is
133
being frequently replaced by touchscreen technologies. The first evolution increased

the portability of the devices while the later has not only achieved the same but also
allowed for new user’s actions, once the fingers started by being used as pointer
devices but evolved to allow for new multitouch gestures. This has transformed the
actions related, for instance, with the zoom definition, and is also transforming the
way that users login to their devices.
The concept of a computing device has also changed. A computing device started
as an enormous apparatus, called computer and available only in military or academic
facilities, and evolved to small machines, called PC or Personal Computer, available
at offices, Internet cafés and even at homes. More recently the computers reduced
even more in size, while still improving their capabilities, and progressively turned
into laptops, palmtops and smartphones. Smartphones are more similar to a computer
that to a mobile phone, once programs can be installed and executed, and they are
extremely common nowadays. In May 2011 35% of the American Adults owned a
Smartphone and in February 2012 that number had increased to 46%, representing
more than 50% of the population owning a mobile phone (87% of the entire adult
population). Furthermore, this increase in penetration was verifiable in nearly every
major demographic group (Smith, 2012). Recent corporate reports indicate that these
numbers continue to increase, changing the way people interact socially (Rocha and
Mill, 2014). Despite the fact that mobile phones have voice recognition systems
for quite some time now, namely for voice dialling, this functionality only started
to conquer the users when a new requirement arisen: the need to interact with the
phone without taking the hands out of the driving wheel in a car. The generalization
of Bluetooth enabled radios was the trigger for this evolution in the input methods.
Wireless technologies also changed the input systems for computer games, either
played in general use computers or in dedicated computers, designated as gaming
consoles. Wireless controls, like the one used to interact with Nintendo© Wii©
(Figure 1) can be used to enhance the user’s experience, by providing more realism
to the input, for instance through adapter that, once attached to the wireless control,
allow for the “fire” action to be activated by a trigger in a toy gun instead (Figure
2) of pressing a button. This was first common in arcade games, but the wireless
component increases the realism, once the user is not tied by a wire to the computing
machine. The most recent gaming consoles not only user improved wireless controls
but also allow the interaction to be made using a smartphone.
It is important to notice that while the initial purpose of games was to entertain
the player, today’s players might have several goals (Caroux et al., 2015). In fact,
the field now known as serious games applies games to education, children develop-
ment, social change and health improvement (Ritterfeld et al., 2009). These games
need the interaction to provide a satisfactory and exciting experience to the user, in
order to maintain the characteristics that make a game what it is. Despite the devel-
134
Figure 1. Wii wireless control (simple version on the left and control with “nunchuk”
on the right side of the image)
Figure 2. Wii wireless control with venom© adapter
opment of heuristics for Human-computer interaction, they sometimes must be

ignored in order to achieve the game’s goal (Caroux et al., 2015). That is to say that
the development of specific heuristics for videogames is an open research topic.
The wireless technology changed many other ways of interaction with technol-
ogy. A good simple example is the television’s remote control. But that too is be-
ing transformed by the increasing capability of computational devices to capture
the reality of their operating context. Smart TVs, which enables viewers to access
interactive online services, from social networking to media-on-demand and online
gaming, are also changing the users’ experience, namely through the recognition of
hand and body gestures and by being context-aware (Lee et al. 2014). These features
can, for instance, provide programme suggestions, indicate that certain movie is not
adequate for all present viewers or to present targeted advertising.
135
In the context of this chapter it is important to notice that a Smart TV is in fact a

computational device that requires input and output technologies. The screen, which
we frequently mistake with the television as a whole, is the output technology; and
the remote control, the buttons in the TV’s box and/or the motion/gestures sensors
are the input technology. This transformation implies such a change that a TV’s user
should no longer be called a “viewer”. He interacts with the TV in a non-trivial way
(more than choosing a channel) and, for instance, he sometimes chooses the camera
that he wants to be displayed in the screen. He is no longer a passive receiver of the
broadcast and, in a sense, he has moved from the viewer’s position to the director’s
position. He is a user, not a viewer.
At the same time that the input devices evolved, the output devices have also
evolved, always with the objective of improving the user’s experience. The first re-
markable change in the way we receive data from the television was the creation of
colour transmissions in the early 50’s of the twentieth century (Sterne and Mulvin,
2014). This might have been a minor event in the history of perception, as some
state (Sterne and Mulvin, 2014), but it changed the quality of the experience. If in
doubt, simply ask a modern 10 years old child to watch an old movie in black and
white. It also changed the amount of information transmitted, once the colours could
be imagined and/or described, but were not well defined. Almost unbelievably, for
many decades the computer’s continued using monochromatic screens. But the re-
cent years brought with them many changes (for computer monitors but especially
for television screens). It is also important to notice that, once the televisions are
becoming more a computational device that a simple screen, it is likely that in a near
future one can no longer clearly distinguish a computer or a gaming console from a
television, like the distance between a computer and a mobile phone is now shorter.
Television screens have evolved both in resolution as in colour precision. The
resolution is the precision available to “draw” the pictures and is measured by the
number of different points of light that can be controlled in a screen (a pixel). 20
years ago, a screen with a resolution of 600x480 pixels (six hundred columns by
four hundred and eighty lines) was common. But now one can find in stores televi-
sions with ultra HD technology that have 3480x2160 pixels and the industry has
evolved to developing cameras and televisions with 7680x4320 pixels. This is im-
portant not only for the quality of the image in regular size screens but, above all,
it is important for giant screens. And giant screens are relevant for the immersion
perception, as we will discuss later. Colour’s representation has also evolved from
an 8 bits precision (256 colours) to what is called deep colour with 48 bits precision
(248=281.474.976.710.656 colours).
136
Televisions’ screens have also evolved in what concerns to the number of covered
dimensions. Televisions were traditionally a 2D display but now 3D televisions are
increasingly more common and that also increases the user’s experience, once it
brings the television’s user closer to the reality that it’s being broadcasted.
3D technology has also come a long way since the first stereoscope was con-
structed in 1832 by Sir Charles Wheatstone (Holliman et al., 2011). The 3D per-
ception is frequently achieved by supplying different images for the two eyes. The
easiest way to do that is by the use of simple chromatic glasses combined with a
chromatic image. In these glasses, also called coloured filtered glasses, the lenses
have different colours, making it impossible for each eye to see the corresponding
colour. For instance, an eye with a red lens will not be able to see anything of that
exact red. So the image is constructed almost as blurred but in a controlled manner,
so that each eye has a slightly different image and the brain can construct a notion
of depth that is the third dimension of the 3D images. In fact, that is what happens
in normal vision of the world. The left eye and the right eye are not in the same
position, so they view slightly different images. That is verifiable by closing one
eye and then the other (while opening the first). The image that is seen seems to
shift in this process, simply because the view point changes.
Another way of providing two different images to the eyes is by using a head-
mounted display that uses a pair of micro displays (Holliman et al., 2011). This has
the advantage that the image provided to each eye can have all the existing wave-
lengths, once there is no filter. But the headset is much more expensive than paper
coloured filtered glasses. Another advantage of head-mounted displays is that some
models can overlap images with what is in fact being seen. That is called augmented
reality and will be discussed later.
Another way to provide different images to the two eyes is by using high frequency
videos. The human eye cannot process more 58 images per second (58Hz) so if there
is a switching made quickly enough the viewer won’t be able to perceived it. If the
switching is made by the display apparatus then it must be able to send at least 90
images per second, 45 Hz for each eye (Holliman et al., 2011). These processes are
called time-sequential polarization processes.
Many different ways exist today to achieve stereoscopy, including systems that
track the movements of the head or of the eyes (one is related to the other, but eyes
can move without movement of the head). But another big step in the usability of
3D systems is the innovation provided by horizontal parallax multiview 3D displays
that allow stereoscopy without any apparatus. The display is constituted by many
different extremely small areas, 20-30 nm (one millimetre equals one million nano-
metres), visible only from some perspectives. Once each of the television’s user’s
eyes is in different view zones, each eye will receive a different image and the brain
will construct the 3D image (Holliman et al., 2011).
137
It is also interesting to see that the immersion in a virtual context can be achieved
not only through the similarity with the “real” world, but also from a persistent
interaction. Social networks are an example of that, where people have friends they
never met and trust them with some of their secrets. To some extent that was also
the case with pen palls, a slower form of long lasting interaction (computer scientists
call the normal mail “snail mail”). It is also known that this happens with strategic
games, like travian©, a game poor in graphics where alliances are a sine qua non
condition to surviving in the game, and therefore to having some possibility of win-
ning. Despite the simplicity of the media, the immersion is so deep that users end
up revealing many of their personal private data to their virtual friends (Barreiros
and Tenreiro de Magalhães, 2010).
Another issue with 3D is the feeling of immersion, relevant in certain applications
and particularly relevant when we are considering the possibility of virtual trance
parties. But the feeling of immersion is best achieved when the technology is not
something external to the user. Therefore, the increasing development of wearable
technology will probably change the way we imagine some experiences and, through
that, the level of user’s acceptance of virtual activities.
Wearable devices have long been known and used, but only more recently have
created some expectancy of widespread use. In the late 90’s, the Sun Corporation, now
part of the Oracle Corporation, created the Java Ring© that was, as the name indicates,
a ring that was able to execute Java code (Java is an object oriented programming lan-
guage). In a way, it was a computer in a ring. Smart fabrics have also played their role
in the development of an immersion experience, including high tech devices in normal
routine actions in an almost transparent way. In the beginning of the XXI century the
construction of a sensor enabled fabric required complex research and development
(Tenreiro de Magalhães et al., 2007) but today there are commercial products that
include in the garment sensors for monitoring vital signs, both for sports as for health
monitoring. More recently, devices like Google’s Glass© generated high expectations
about the development of wearable technology. But the future is always unknown.
Also Rift© glasses, an apparatus for virtual reality immersion that has achieved an
interesting level of acceptance and success in the gaming market, is generating some
expectancy about the future of virtual experiences.
From what has been exposed, it is clear that there are two different situations in
which a user can be immersed in a digital environment. In what is called Virtual Reality,
the environment of the user is replaced by a new one, digitally constructed. But there
is also another possibility, called Augmented Reality, in which the user’s environment
is enhanced with digital features. Figure 3 shows an example of this. It is an image of
an augmented reality windshield designed for information agents (Tenreiro de Mag-
alhães et al., 2007), which is able to identify known vehicles previously registered in
a database, overlapping that information with the image that the driver is viewing.
138
Figure 3. – An image from an augmented reality windshield
Virtual reality and augmented reality are two important concepts in what comes
to digital immersion and to the fusion between the digital world (many times called
virtual world) and the analogical world. They both can create a context for a satis-
factory experience in virtual worlds, the topic of the next section.
VIRTUAL WORLDS AND SECOND LIFE
Virtual worlds are platforms where users are represented by what is called an avatar.
In that alternative reality the rules are whatever the creators of that world decide. For
instance, in Second Life, a virtual world developed by Linden Labs, avatars can fly
and can also be teleported into a different location. Strangely enough, or not really,
people continue buying cars, bikes and boats in Second Life, proving that those items
aren’t simply a mobility apparatus. Different virtual worlds have different laws and
the economic viability model is also very heterogeneous. In game related environ-
ments it is frequent that real money allows for the user to benefit from advantages
in the game. In Second Life the user can buy a piece of land, directly from Linden
Labs or indirectly from another user, or buy any of the many objects created by
users. All of these transactions are made with Linden Dollars, exchangeable from
and into real US Dollars. There is also a script programming language, called LSL
(Linden Scripting Language), created to allow objects to be active and/or to provide
the avatar with extra features.
Managing an avatar in Second Life is not completely intuitive. To start, this
platform, as any highly graphical programme, requires quite some computational
capability and slower computers or those not designed for graphical calculations
139
will respond with some delay. Also it demands quite a lot from the network, once
the transformations must be sent to the servers in order for other users to be able to
interact with the user’s avatar.
Things like the colour of the skin and the length of the hair are relevant for
establishing some type of identification between the user and the avatar and some-
times obtaining a satisfactory result can be quite defying. Even learning to walk and
learning to control the available “Sun” light can be challenging.
Another issue with general purpose virtual worlds, like Second Life, is the
difficulty in finding other avatars with similar interests. That is not a problem in
a dedicated immersive environment, where a common theme unites the avatars,
but in a world like Second Life, that can really be a problem. That is probably the
reason while there are many regions dedicated to some specific topic. For instance,
there can be an island dedicated to Punk lifestyle and Punk avatars will tend to buy
their houses there. Time zones are also a problem, once a user in a country where
that virtual world is less popular might have some trouble finding other avatars just
because most of them are in a completely different time zone.
Worlds like Second Life have bars, nightclubs, apparel stores, hairdressers and
whatever business can find some profitability, all dedicated to the avatar. People
buy their avatars better hair, better skin and even better genitals (for display in nude
beaches or in intimate interactions with other avatars); all with Linden Dollars that
are in fact are a representation of the real money that could be obtained with them.
In this virtual world avatars can have fun, go shopping or attend to conferences (many
universities are or were present at Second Life). But they can also work to earn money.
The concept of working in Second Life is one of two: it can represent the work of the user
that is represented by the avatar, for instance if the work is giving lectures or answering
a questionnaire for some specialized company; or it can represent the work of the avatar
itself. In this later case the work is called camping and it is not a real work, although it is
really paid. Stores often make some jobs available in order to attract avatars, paying in
Lindens Dollars what would be a cent in real US Dollars for fifteen or twenty minutes
of work. Work can vary from cleaning the floor (that is always clean because abandoned
objects are automatically returned to their owner after a fixed limit of time) to dancing
or playing the guitar (a programmed script enables the avatar to play).
Second Life is also a place for delusion. There are islands dedicated to drug dealing,
for the avatars, of course. And there are gun stores, also for the avatars. It is a second
life in almost any sense. The exceptions are the banned activities: banking and gam-
bling. Banking is now restricted to real life banks, after some chaos was installed when
Ginko Financial, a private bank (in the sense that it was possessed by one avatar/user),
bankrupted in 2007. Gambling was banished from Second Life soon after its creation,
once this was a form of competition with the real life legally established casinos and
that is a highly regulated area of activity in the United States as in many other countries.
140
There is also space for talking and relaxing in Second Life. Avatars can com-
municate through written chats or, if the bandwidth allows, using the user’s voice
as in any VOIP (voice over IP) system. They can also listen to the surrounding
environment, both listening to real audio as listening to whatever is typed in chat
conversations nearby. Once avatars are in fact controlled by real people, these spaces
have all the dynamics that are present whenever social networks are established,
either in digital ways or in conventional ways, and it is sometimes very difficult to
find a place in the group.
It is in this context that some groups have already organized some trance parties,
so far with weak levels of participation. But that might be related to the difference
of experiences between real life parties and virtual life parties. Once the techno-
logical requirements are satisfied, there will also be a space for an industry anger
to profit from these meetings/parties/gatherings. That will boost this phenomenon,
once there are lots of objects to be developed/bought/sold in order to create such a
space. But where there is an opportunity for profit there is always someone willing
to profit, so that won’t be a problem.
Virtual worlds are not limited to Second Life, but only a few had a similar level
of success, with exception to gaming virtual platforms, which should be considered
in a different category, once social interactions have a secondary role in those sys-
tems. Nevertheless, they have some features that are relevant for the present study.
It is also important no notice that platforms that allow money exchange both
from and to the physical world are a more natural extension of it. Naturally, as a
corollary, they represent an opportunity for business/professional development and,
simultaneously, several legal challenges, namely to what concerns to tax payments
and money laundry. In the case of trance parties, this type of virtual worlds might
represent an opportunity for companies that organize paid parties as well as for
companies that could supply multimedia artefacts for these parties, in similitude
with the several agents that supply physical parties. The next section approaches
other virtual worlds that represent alternatives to Second Life, what is especially
relevant when Linden Labs is announcing that will be creating a new virtual world
that will replace Second Life (Linden Labs, 2014).
OTHER VIRTUAL WORLDS
There are many different virtual worlds, with the purposes and different target au-
diences. Before presenting some of them, it is also relevant to mention the project
named Lively, developed by Google Inc. in the year 2008. The idea was to allow
website developers or blog owners to easily imbed a three dimensional chat, where
up to twenty users could interact. According to Mark Kingdon, chief executive of
141
Linden Lab, the idea was to provide more than a 3D chatroom. The objective was
to provide a space where people could work, teach and develop virtual objects to
buy and sell (Stone, 2008). The interaction model was so similar to the Second Life
that CNET published an article called “With Lively, Google tries its own ‘Second
Life’” (Shankland, 2008). Lively would compete with other similar systems, like
Vivaty that had similar principles but target Facebook and AOL instead of blogs
and websites. These are examples of 3D digital platforms that did not achieve suc-
cess. In fact, should Lively saw the daylight (it never left the project stage in Google
Inc.), and maybe our present concept of online interaction would be quite different.
The history of 3D platforms is, as most of the other fields of business, filled
with unsuccessful cases, like Lively, Vivaty, Metaplace and Fortera. But Second
Life enjoyed a quite long period of prosperity, despite losing the attention of the
press. Corporations and other organizations went in and out of Second Life, but the
rate of financial transactions continued to be, according to the information made
public by the company, significant. At the same time, scholars continued to study
the potential of this virtual world, for, in the logic of serious games, professional
training in simulated environment (Menzel et al, 2014; Ashley et al, 2014).
Other successful 3D platforms include IMVU (www.invu.com), which includes
hundreds of 3D chatrooms and a catalog with millions of virtual objects developed
by its users; Habbo (www.habbo.com), is a Finnish platform formerly known as
Habbo Hotel, where the users manage their avatar’s hotel room, interacting with
other users; Club Penguin is a platform that targets a younger audience, with a
world that is very similar to a game and where user’s spend money (real money)
to have more pets, play other games, buy different clothes or have penguins with
other colours; finally, it is also important to mention another 3D platform that is a
game: World of Warcraft. In this role playing game, users use an avatar to interact
with other players in a magic/fantasy world.
Another relevant platform is OpenSimulator (www.opensimulator.org). This is
as application server that allows developers to create their own virtual environment
and that has not yet achieved a version that can be considered stable. Due to the ef-
forts to maintain some level of compatibility with Second Life, it is uncertain how
it will evolve once that platform is discontinued.
CONCLUSION
is a growing fusion between real life and digital objects. Second life is an example
of a digital world that is able to globally create a social network and that, consider-
ing their latest software updates, is betting on the success of the development of
142
3D technologies to enrich the experience of their users. So far, the experience of

being in a trance party is quite different when the environment is virtual, but the
development of 3D technologies, both for virtual reality as for augmented reality,
in wearable devices is probably the requirement that is missing for this transition
to happen, once it will allow the “native” to feel that he is in fact in there, in the
party, listening to the sounds and visualizing, in 3D and in a realistic way, their
fellow natives.
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Augmented Reality: It is a digital enhancement of the common world, allowing

an increased perception of the reality.
Avatar: Digital representation of a user in a special environment. In a three
dimensional digital world the avatar frequently uses the form of a human or of a
mythological figure. But it can be almost anything. In a physical board game, which
can be seen as a world with its own rules and objectives, the avatar is frequently a pin.
Immersive Environment: It is a digital environment where an information
system’s user can interact with a perception that he is physically in there. This is
achieved through the use of hardware that deceive the human senses.
144
MMOG (Multiplayer Massive Online Game): It is as online game where a

physical world is emulated and where the player usually represents a character in a
story. The graphical environment can be quite elaborated but frequently this games
are less about graphics and more about interaction.
Virtual Trance Party: A gathering, in a digital platform, of people interested in
enjoying the trance party and/or the trance culture. The interaction levels between
real users can vary a lot, as well as the interaction level between avatars.
Virtual Reality: It is a digital representation of a space, including a set of objects
and physical laws, which might be similar to the real world or completely different.
It is frequently a very limited space.
Virtual World: It is a digital representation of a world, including a set of objects
and physical laws, which might be similar to the real world or completely differ-
ent. It is frequently a very broad space in which avatars can travel and interact with
each other.
145
146
Chapter 7
Psytrance Influences on
Touchless Interactive
Experiences:
New Roles for Performers
and Audience within the
Electronic Music Scenario
Paulo César Teles

University of Campinas, Brazil
Aidan Boyle
Jacobs University Bremen, Germany
ABSTRACT
In the fields of new media, art, and technology, we live and evolve together with
multimedia interactivedigital technology. This symbiosis has made it possible to
develop novel works that dialogue with theexploratory nature of the human being
when confronted with unfamiliar technological equipment. The electronic music
scenario brought us some elements that inspired and provoked us in this quest. The
Psytrance style in particular made us realize that once a minimal simple harmony
was supported by a solid rhythm, the audience could interact and control many of the
sound clusters available, solely with their body movement. In this chapter we report
experimental results and analysis, which point towards an approach for composing
electronic music through the distinct and innovative behaviour of the participants,
turning them into real performers, as well as transforming the role of the DJ/VJ by
engaging them in a two-way dialogue with their audience.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch007
Psytrance Influences on Touchless Interactive Experiences
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the viability of a novel interactive and collaborative electronic
music form – one that can be attained by audience members strictly through their
body movements and without any physical contact with an interface. The influence
of contemporary electronic music in the development of such a system, particularly
certain characteristics of psytrance, one of their sub-genres, is outlined. Initially,
some aspects of electronic music particularly related to the evolution of instruments
and music production software are described. We then report on our experiences
in the conceptualization and design of an interactive instrument, and subsequently
instigate a reinterpretation of the roles of both audience and DJ.
Our interactive system surpasses the typical linear narrative of popular music
genres and catapults us into a non-linear narrative realm that offers multiple con-
current electronic textures and electroacoustic landscapes. Particular musical and
behavioral elements are highlighted that offer a novel approach for music production
and performance within such an interactive instrument. Reference is made to par-
ticular literature that contributes to the understanding of interactivity and immersion.
Finally, this work provokes questions and discussions in the interactive music
research field. It applies not only in the field of contemporary electronic music, but in
the fields of contemporary art and communication as well. Thus, this chapter relates
a selected number of accounts and analysis of some of our works and experiments
that lead us to consider them as promising systemic-based conceptualizations for
interactive electronic music.
TOWARDS AN INTERACTIVE TOUCHLESS

ELECTRONIC MUSIC SCENARIO
Interactivity is now at the forefront in the design of new instruments, immersive

installations, and interactive dance experiments. Considering the popularity of
devices such as the Kinect, Nintendo Wii game console and music‐based games,
such as Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, and Rockband, “the full use of one’s
body in controlling an interactive experience is showing itself to be what people are
looking for in their play experiences” (Giannachi, 2004).
Bearing this in mind, we directed our research in interactive environments with the
aim of developing an organic sound ambiance that could be activated and influenced
by the presence and movement of people. This lead to a more specific question: would
it be possible to interactively co-compose electronic music works with a few members
of the audience? The following scenario serves to illustrate the aforementioned features
as well as support the accounts and discussion that follow in the chapter.
147
The trembling of the microtexture sets the beat at 145 bpm. In a way that seems
disconnected, a smooth voice emanates some kind of mantra in Hindi. On the main
dance floor some people writhe, others move in a distorting manner. Immersed in
a musical and electronic profusion, the trajectory of the narrative environment with
its lights and imagery, each following a specific body part, move in synchrony with
the music’s continuing and unchanging tempo, whilst the rest of the body ventures
into a world of disconnected micro-choreographies. At the back of the room, on a
lustrous stage, the DJ oversees the whole process with magical mastery, like a Xa-
man performing a sacred ritual for a ceremony in a remote lost civilization.
At first sight, this scenario resembles any ambiance of electronic music since the
late 1980s. However, on closer inspection some peculiarities begin to emerge. On
the sides of the venue, small balcony islands interconnected by two small stairways
rise up about one and a half meters into the air. Occasional dancers from the crowd
climb up and execute more calculated or exploratory moves, invoking immediate
reactions in the music, the images, the colors, and the subtle illumination.
Our imagination instantaneously teletransports us into a different dimension, cata-
pulting us into a downtempo musical ambiance. The electronic atmosphere on the
inside of this geodesic structure is pure science-fiction. The sound is a compelling
mixture of primitive with electronic psychedelic, and fuses with a plethora of stimulat-
ing visual projections and LED arrays. In the center, a translucent totem pole with
sensors pointed in the four cardinal directions allow analyses people’s movements
and allows them to alter the music. On the ceiling, a similar array of sensors evokes
a series of light effects that track the individuals interacting with them.
The DJ no longer acts on his own accord – infrared sensors and cameras inserted
above each balcony capture and transform the dancers movements into commands
causing explicit visual transformations; ultrasonic sensors are placed on the front
and sides of these structures, creating environments that possess a particular mu-
sicality. Since movement affects the sound in real-time, the gesturing crowd directly
influences the environment’s fleeting narrative at every moment.
Back in the real world, we are not unfamiliar with an environment permeated
with “touchless” sensor technologies and interactive digital processes. We live and
evolve with them every day thanks to advanced research in the field of communica-
tion, art and technology. Such systems, which are already quite widely exploited in
the area of electronic games, are lately gaining more space in artistic and electronic
music festivals, as well as in a growing number of art museums.
These issues were actuallythe key that triggered us to develop sensorial interfaces
that might propose novel relationships between people and expressive informational
systems, with the aim of investigating those same interactions. Via these systems
we could investigate interactive processes triggered by spatial movements involv-
148
ing no physical contact with the device. During our research, the potential of such
experimental devices in the field of music, especially electronic music, became
very apparent.
In order to illicit new aesthetic elements in dance and musical performance, and
to fully understand how environmental systems like the one described above can
influence the audience behavior, we searched for a theoretical basis in contemporary
electronic and digital aesthetics, music history and electronic music technology. We
then drew some parallels between part of the sound material produced and some
historical and contemporary musical phenomena.
Recent Technological Advances in Music

Instruments and Evolution of the Player
Many of the post-acoustic instruments that were developed through electrification,

such as electric guitars and organs, retained the ergonomics of the original acoustic
instrument; in particular electric organs – they still look like piano keyboards. A
few exceptions are the drum machine and the Theremin, which were developed
with their own specific designs and sonority in mind. The electrification of instru-
ments and the simultaneous advent of recording processes permitted the record-
ing of musical works for prior playing, and consequently made it possible to edit,
reconstruct and recompose and/or assemble a piece without having to synchronize
live with the members of a band or orchestra. In this way, each musical instrument
in the piece could be subject to some form of modular processing and equaliza-
tion, before being appropriately mixed with the other instruments. These devices
and software, which custom-built for sound creation, production and reproduction,
would henceforth (re)produce novel sonorities that were otherwise impossible to
create on analogue platforms.
Our investigations on touchless systems and interactive processes involving
rhythmic sound lead us to establish research relations with the electronic music
genre. More specifically, our rhythmic sound elements (repeated ad infinitum in
an almost hypnotic way), as well as musical accompaniments using pre-recorded
material over a continuous rhythmic and temporal structure was corroborated by the
electronic music aesthetic. Within this context, we shall hereby refer to “electronic
music” as music production whose backbone is based on remixes i.e. the reassem-
bling and recycling of informative and expressive data (music, or a part of it, and
all types of noise). Although these works are only briefly outlined in this chapter, a
more detailed description can be found in previously published works (Boyle 2010,
Teles 2009b, Teles & Boyle, 2008a and 2008b).
149
Psytrance and the Ecology of Texturization
Electronic music can be produced in numerous ways. One of those approaches is

the remixing of sounds or musical excerpts already produced: for example, musique
concrète used cinema’s recording and montage techniques to manipulate tape frag-
ments to create sound compositions. Taking some inspiration from the montage
approach, “remixes” are songs, musical excerpts or any other kind of sound narra-
tive, that are “redesigned” in an editing process that occurs live and/or in a studio
setting. This possibility not only defined a new approach for composers, but also
totally transformed the role of the DJ.
One of the main characteristics of this electronic musical paradigm is the auto-
mated production and arithmetic calculation of rhythmic markings and “looping”,
which are subsequently played by electronic drums or drum machines. “Collage”,
“mantric minimalism” of the melodies, and the vibrational atmosphere generated
by electronic distortions of the sound wave complement this spectrum. In the 1940s
and 1950s, the out-of-sync aspect and the texturization of musique concrète and
electro acoustic music seized the aesthetics of the “collage” and “remix” processes,
and thus redefined the act of “composing”, “interpreting” and “improvising” in the
musical field.
Western contemporary music, especially “pop”, is strongly influenced by aesthet-
ics derived from electronic and digital equipment, which makes it more and more
algorithmic and serial. The musical instruments employed tend to be simulated
where limited keyboard or mouse clicks increasingly replace the motor ability
that is usually necessary to play mechanical instruments, and the manifestation of
a piece tends to be more cognitive and less corporal (Teles, 2008, p. 7). This is in
accordance with Iazetta (2006) who reports that electroacoustic methods may have
initially caused some distancing of corporal practices in several stages of creation
and musical appreciation. However, musical practices involving technology have
reintroduced physical and corporeal actions back into music in the past few decades
(Iazzeta, 2006, p. 42).
A marked consequence of the advent of electronic music composition was the
emergence of an abundance of electronic rhythms, genres and styles that took over
the popular music cultures in practically all parts of the globe. Consequently, this
had a transformative effect on the social dance scene that had up until then always
involved live performers; in many public places designed for recreational dance,
especially after the 1970s, the performer was replaced by the DJ [Teles, 2009b, p. 51]
who commandeered the “discos” – recreational dance venues where only recorded
music was played. Giorgio Moroder, an Italian record producer and DJ, pioneered
electronic dance music, in particular the disco rhythm. It was initially based solely
150
on percussion and electronic melodies and packed the dance floors throughout those
venues. The proliferation of discos buried the jukebox era and at the same time put
an end to many live venues where real musicians played.
Techno established itself in the 1980s and 1990s, and by 2000 there were already
over a dozen rhythms and electronic genres, as well as several “tribes” formed by
young (and not-so-young) followers of each stylistic tendency and sub-tendency:
psychedelic, new-age, among others. These tendencies came out of the dance houses
originally initiated in America and from the open-air electronic music festivals
originally initiated in Europe and India. It was the within the techno genre that the
phenomenon of trance state was markedly evident. By attending a number of raves
in Brazil in the 2000s [1] we were able to empirically observe the “trance” that was
induced in the participating audience.
From a relational standpoint with the music, it was notable how many people
surrendered themselves to the musical journey by merely using their bodies rhyth-
mically, so as to accompanying the music in a solely hypnotic way. In the absence
of any pre-established or improvised choreography, the behaviour of many of them
was stimulated by alcoholic beverages and other psychoactive substances – as is
common in these types of events. Observing this collective agitation – a paradoxi-
cal mixture of intoxication and passiveness – inspired us to speculate on how the
crowd’s behaviour would evolve in the presence of our touchless interactive system.
This line of inquiry helped us make informed decisions while developing the map-
pings employed in our system. The wealth of melodic, noisy, rhythmic and mostly
artificial sounds that emerged during our experiments brought us closer, in both a
material and conceptual way, to processes inherently connected to electronic music.
Amongst the interactive possibilities we observed, the potential for some members
of the audience to manipulate the music was one that distinctly stood out.
Some aspects of the sound experiences produced in our installations also bore
similarities to historical and aesthetic reference points of electroacoustic experi-
ments in the 40s and the 50s: for example, the out-of-synch, the non-linearity and
the sound texturization. Other aspects were reminiscent of contemporary electronic
music such as drum’n’bass, industrial, and moreso psytrance (all of which reclaimed
the psychedelic “looping” approach from the 60s and gave it a digital and rhythmi-
cal makeover).
At certain moments the aesthetics of the resulting melodies and soundscapes are
reminiscent of the experiences of the electromagnetic sound distortions made with
Theremins form the 1920s; they showed traces of the eletroacoustic works of Schaef-
fer and Cage, or even the sound sculptures of Isaac Smetack, and the multisensory
psychedelic music of the 60’s. Their unchanging rhythmic tempo was interrupted
by a few short or sometimes long sallies, into ethereal and psychedelic moods that
were filled with melodies characterized by tone variations and minimal narrations.
151
The plot was often contextualized by noises that catapulted us back into the true
artificiality of an electronic “atmosphere” reminiscent of psytrance (contrary to
other music genres, psytrance relies much more on timbre and non-pitched sound
than on melody, harmony, or rhythm).
Thus, psychedelic and hippy ideals merged with electronic dance music resulting
in an aggressive and fast [138 and 152 bpm], but at the same time rhythmical,
electronic music whose melody–indeed difficult to be perceived by non-receptive
ears–is created by the combination of a basic repetitive fast beat, that resembles the
sound of African drums, with other peculiar electronically produced sounds often
inspired by natural sounds such as those of thunders, water drops or bird singing.
(Papadimitropoulos 2009)
The psychedelic transcendence or altered state evoked in psytrance is a con-

sequence of the wave high frequencies associated with rapid uninterrupted beats.
It is slightly faster than most mainstream trance music and the constant sixteenth
notes produced at the 145 bpm tempo are comparable to alpha brain waves. Even
with all the imagery and chemical stimuli involved, it is argued that this type of
percussive repetition has a powerful interaction with our brain waves and may well
induce trance. Neher (as cited in Tuzin, 1984, p. 581) discovered a correlation
between drum rhythms of an effective frequency for causing abnormal states and
the normal range of brain wave frequency and suggested that this could potentially
induce trance. Although this claim has however been challenged (Rouget, 1977, as
cited in Papadimitropoulos, 2009), recent investigations revealed that sonic booms
may well play an important part in nerve behaviour .
It was through an array of subgenres of electronic music rooted in and derived
from psytrance that we identified, a posteriori, a lot of the characteristics of the
material produced during our work: drum machine beats, non-syncopated offbeats,
breaks and moments of climax, monotone bases (such as in the Raja Ram classics),
“short loop” mantric patterns, techno-surreal soundscapes of Radical Distortion,
and even some slowed down versions of more relaxing and meditative atmospheric
rhythms [2].
CONSIDERATIONS FOR AN INTERACTIVE

ELECTRONIC MUSIC (IEM)
Music emanates from the body (of which the mind is a part) and to the body it must
return (in order to make sense of it). If we approach this issue from a uni-directional
stand point, the emanation and return of the music to the body evokes two distin-
152
guished bodily behaviours: instrumental performance and dance. However, by

analyzing this question with the multi-dimensional lens of interactivity, we obtain
a very different picture – one that could just as easily be identified with the pre-
instrumental tribal dances from the Paleolithic as it can with the interactive techno-
hybrid performances of Cunningham and Cage or with the body performances of
the Barbatuques – in which dance and instrumental performance come together in
one set of behaviours (Teles, 2009a).
Interactive processes require participation through direct actions of users or ac-
tive spectators for the execution of works that are designed for that purpose. Mur-
ray (2000) pointed out this issue in the context of the role in which an individual
has the ability to act in a dematerializing and multidirectional way. In contrast to a
more traditional dance context, where a dancer can only influence their partner, the
computer offers an arena where we can be both dancer and MC. She states, “That’s
the feeling the agency gets. [...] Because of the vague and pervasive use of the term
Interactivity, the pleasure of agency in electronic environments is often confused
with the ability to move a joystick or click on a mouse. But activity alone is not
agency” (Murray, 2000, p. 128-129).
Such concerns overlapped with ours, especially those related to interactive actions
in the musical environment, which appeared during our experiments. After all, it is
precisely in the “modus operandi” of having the ballroom under the control of a few
of the dancing public that such uneasiness resides. It goes beyond the materiality
of touch or haptic manipulation. Another concept that underpinned and, in a way
boosted our experiments and our subsequent interactive work, was “Endo-aesthetics”,
as proposed by the researcher and artistic curator Cláudia Giannetti (2006).
Her endo-aesthetic model suggests that from the standpoint of an internal or
external observer of a system, we no longer perceive the world as a place to be but
as an interactive interface. By applying this system to communicational processes,
the actions of the individual – confronted with a work of art or any other form of
measured communication and expression - are seen as fundamental to the completion
of the informational process. Hence, in accordance with Giannetti, it is impossible
to approach the paradigms of artistic creation solely from essentialist or ontological
perspectives (Teles, 2009a, p. 36).
In her book Estética Digital [Digital Aesthetics] Giannetti proposes systemic meth-
odology as being the most fulfilling way to understand artwork as a whole. Influenced
by scientists such as the physicist Otto Rössler; the biologists Francisco Varella and
Humberto Marurana, the philosophers Deleuze, Guattari, Luhmann, and others, she
invites us to observe art by considering both the participation of the public and the
environmental context as an effective and essential part of the artwork. Currently, this
philosophy tends to fit in with many interactive installations that demand effective
physical actions from the audience in order to “make the art happen”.
153
Her argumentation is to insert the viewer as an “agent” within a work. In this

way, the work’s current state can be activated and handled by the agent. This has
guided our approach by becoming one of the fundamental conceptual bases in the
analysis of the interactive processes that we developed. Such analyses included:
creation and manipulation of content, the primary dialogic (trigger action-reaction)
and immersive potentialities, and the quality of the triggered interactions.
Figure 1. Comparison of an ordinary haptic multimedia system with a touchless system
154
Figure 2. Schematic showing comparison of an ordinary haptic system with a touch-

less system: Multimedia event variations and multimedia event activations
Sound Samples via Ultrasonic Sensors: Interface

Development and Initial Artistic Experiments
Right at the beginning of the technological and conceptual development of our

interface we created an artwork called “Antigenous”: an interactive sound installa-
tion in which the interaction of the individual with the system was a metaphor for
the relation between “invading bodies” and a host system and its reagents. We im-
mediately recognized the potential of this interface as a musical instrument and
presented it as such at the New Instruments for Musical Expression conference in
Geneva in 2008 (Teles & Boyle, 2008a). This work was later opened to the public
in 2010. “Antigenous” was, in an organic or energetic way, analogous to the internal
systemic relationship between living organisms and the “foreign bodies” that invade
them. The installation itself represented the entire organism. When people reached
the enclosure of the exhibition, the proximity sensors “reacted” to these “invading
foreign bodies” present in the space and generated sound (immune) “responses”
that evoked the feelings of pleasure, pain or discomfort as felt by the host organism
(Teles, 2009b).
155
Once inside “Antigenous” the interactors’ need to keep moving gives them
the impression that it is their own energy that is responsible for the sound. This
phenomenon is achieved through a precise and critical mapping – the designed
link between an instrument’s playing interface and its sound source. Within such
interactive environments, Hunt (2002) has reported that the mapping determines to
a greater extent the psychological and emotional response elicited in the participant.
A further two interactive audiovisual works of the trilogy that employed the same
interface, “G-spot” (Teles & Boyle, 2009; Teles, 2009) and “Wishing Tree” (De,
Teles, Ferreira, Thomas, Letsiou & Boyle, 2013), also incorporated interactive sound
experiences. The former offers a discourse, via interactive movements around the
installation’s core structure, on the behavior of the vital energy in the human body
in its different phases of tension, charge, discharge, and relaxation. The transit and
mobility of persons is given a vital role in manipulating the audiovisual environment
of the enclosure through the activation and transformation of audio – a process that is
accessible in the reactive zones of the work. The possibility of “touchless interactive
music” evolved through “G-Spots”, which was produced and exhibited in Benasque
(Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Campinas and São Paulo (Brazil). Particularly in the
exhibitions made in Brazil, we observed that close to the zones where the proximity
sensors were located, some people moved their torsos, legs and harms in a dancing
manner, interacting rhythmically with the surrounding sounds.
In the interactive installation “Wishing Tree” (exhibited in Brazil, Portugal,
Germany and Greece), four ultrasonic sensors were implanted in a tree-like structure
made of recycled materials; the proximity and movement of the participants evoked
not only a sonic response but also influenced the projection of a series of images
of the participant in the video montage, as well as cartoons that mirrored their desires
[3].
Ambient music with several non-edited tracks formed the sound basis for these
particular installations [4]. The instruments were recorded, digitalized in separate
channels and programmed to play in synchronization. Each one of them was pro-
grammed to have its individual volume augmented via a specific sensor. In this
way, the proximity and distance from one or more people in the reactive zones
determined which instrument’s volume was varied, resulting in different (re)mixes
for that specific music configuration.
The capability of the interface we developed and used in these works – be it in
lab experiments, studio experiences, or installations – opened up an array of novel
audiovisual automations of an aesthetic and communicative nature, that originated
from body movements within the space and in the absence of touch or physical contact.
156
Figure 3. Casa das caldeiras, Sao Paulo, Brazil, (2010)
Continuous and Available Sound Narratives: Remixable and

Generative Soundscapes within an Augmented Reality
Music is a fundamentally a linear or cyclical phenomenon whose narrative cycle

length can make the diversity of the plot inversely proportional to the amount of
repetition. In live performances in the contemporary electronic music world, archived
sound data is mixed with sounds and rhythms produced on the fly by software or
electronic samplers. We produced much of the sound content for the aforemen-
tioned experiences in a number of different ways: by remixing of pre-recorded
materials, generation of monotone elements, utilization of digitally archived music
clips, or by computer-simulated musical instruments. This approach propelled us
into an authentic contemporary electronic music production scenario, of which
the progressive genre was the closest parallel with our sound response. Its intense
variations of minimalist melodies as well as its eco-psychedelic textures meant that
157
it lent itself well to allowing people the opportunity to manipulate some elements
of that nature to a background of a constant repetitive drumbeat. Our focus was to
offer the audience the possibility to become composers/conductors of melodic and
environmental textures; eventually, through a more advanced integrated systemic
relationship between environment, performer, content, and audience, they could
control the rhythmical aspects of the work.
Associating a set of sound archives and modifying algorithms to a determined
proximity sensor, gave the participants the possibility to mix and produce sound
effects and textures. In this way the public could interact directly with the music
being performed by adding, sublimating or even composing and conducting their
own music, through available narrative and environmental (contextualizing) ele-
ments, which are activated by interactions in these active zones. These works were
a playing field that offered a space for a poetic dialogue between “interactor” – as
defined by Murray (2000:128), someone who gets involved with the process in
a bodily and emotional way, rather than executing automatically “clicking” on
a button– and contemporary interactive electronic music, momentarily catapult-
ing the audience member into the simultaneous roles of composer, musician and
performer.
It was previously reported that the musicality of interactive dance performances
was greatly enhanced by imposing some sort of rhythmic or even melodic background
over which the dancer can improvise and embellish (Boyle, 2010). On the one hand,
in order to provide a steady sonic background and some sort of structured musical-
ity, a sound library containing non-interactive pre-edited rhythms was built. On the
other hand, the melodies, textures and tonal effects, volume, speed, distortion, and
granulations, are interactive and accessible in mapped regions of a determined tri-
dimensional space and could be manipulated directly by the audience. Using this
approach we were able to propose alternative ways to compose and perform a type
of interactive electronic music.
In order to develop effective interactions between the participants and our reactive
environment, we explored a number of angles: we examined the results of volun-
tary, compulsory and unconscious interactions; we explored some provocative and
illustrative possibilities – elements to better provoke and involve the audience; we
speculated on novel relationships between DJs and their audiences through this kind
of musical interface. Thereby, when attending electronic music events we listened
more attentively to the musical components to better comprehend the assortment of
sonorities involved. We then speculated on the behaviour of such sonorities when
made available as sound clusters in one of our interactive spaces.
158
Voluntary, Involuntary and Subconscious Interactive

Behaviour: Concept, Propositions and Discussion
on the Protagonism of the Audience
When attending an art exhibition in a museum or gallery, the general tendency of

the public is be quiet and more reserved. This would explain certain fears and resis-
tance of some of the public towards interactive works exhibited in such venues, as
witnessed in some of our own installations. In contrast, in a music venue such as a
nightclub or festival, the percentage of people who are ashamed of or intimidated by
the unexpected is almost negligible. In these environments, people are more at ease
to experiment with the possible gestural interactivities, to understand the system,
and to explore the musical or sound universe that might manifest as a result of their
actions. This results in a more corporeal involvement of a participant within such
an installation or environment.
The role of the audience in such works has been discussed in much detail in
literature. In Mark Hansen’s (2004) conjecture, he tries to establish the individual
(audience member) as the center of works of an “augmented” nature.
The reality encoded in a digital database can just as easily be rendered as a sound
file, a static image, a video clip, or an immersive, interactive world, not to mention
any number of forms that do not correlate so neatly with our sensory capacities.
Viewed in this way, the digital era and the phenomena of digitalization itself can
be understood as demarcating a shift in the correlation of two crucial terms: media
and body. Simply put, as media lose their material specificity, the body takes on a
more prominent function as a selective processor of information. (Hansen, 2004:22)
An example of voluntary participation would be a conductor who could control

the tempo of all the instruments in an orchestra by his or her own movements and
in the absence of musicians. In an involuntary situation, visitors could explore (or
not) an interactive installation in some art museum through some uncommitted
actions in the vicinity of the installation. Lastly, subconscious interaction occurs
when a passerby walks through a “sensorized” space and unknowingly activates/
deactivates a set of events.
We can use the example of the conductor above to clarify the voluntary interac-
tive actions. In this case the protagonist would be fully aware of the transformative
power of their movements and gestures, as well as their consequences. Neverthe-
less, to fulfill these criteria it is necessary to have an understanding not only of each
designed affected empty space, but also of the content and commands available
within them. The level of engagement with the interface, with the environment or
even with the work as a whole, should go far beyond that of an occasional visitor.
159
More profound interaction should be possible with increased familiarity with the
interactive features. Such voluntary interaction could come from someone who is
directly involved in the production of the performance or work, or from someone
who is, for example, a game enthusiast. In both cases the quantity and the repetition
of actions are decisive factors in achieving the desired outcome. It is noteworthy
that an increase in the level of interactivity was observed when the mapping was
implemented in a systemic way. Thus, our methodology always ensured that changes
in the settings, content, and interface in these experiments were always carried out
concurrently in the presence of an active participant.
In the second case involving involuntary interactive actions such as those dis-
played by visitors to a museum or art gallery, they have at most a generic notion
about the environment and the conceptual basis of the work, but do not initially
know the intricate characteristics of the interfaces; nor are they aware of the detailed
procedural consequences taking place in that specific environment or at that exact
moment. They are individuals who at first investigate, explore, understand and if
possible, integrate their protagonist actions with the other elements of the work.
It is in this particular case that the opportunity lays to detect the widest range of
variations in the behaviour of individuals’ with respect to their integration into the
environment or into the work itself.
Finally, when events are triggered by subconscious acts – such as an individual
innocently walking through an installation in a public space – the co-authorship was
observed to happen through simply eliciting a response in a completely involuntary
manner, without the slightest idea of the context or of the interactive process taking
Figure 4. A photo of the i-Lounge installation, Campinas, Brazil (2014)
160
place in that space at that given point in time. We noticed in the course of some of
our installations that on many occasions several people behaved like mere pass-
ersby – by inadvertently walking trough a sensor zone they would casually activate,
produce or transform, some expressive events without actively engaging with the
system.
In order to better understand the level of activity and responsiveness of the
people’s interaction, factors of a social or intimate nature must be taken into ac-
count. Such factors include: varying levels of curiosity, shyness, compulsion, as well
as shame and the embarrassment of standing out in public while trying to interact
with something that they do not dominate (we noticed such occurrences solely in
the installations exposed directly to the public). This highlights the necessity to
examine in more detail how to raise the awareness of one’s role within the system
in order to optimize the mapping.
Provocations, Statements and Dialogical Relation in

Interactive “Techno” Content: Performance Possibilities
of an Immersive, Dialogical and Generative Nature
It is reasonable to assume that a few audience members may have some music
knowledge as well as experience with some interactive movement technology. We
observed that occurrences of a visual nature were detected quickly by the partici-
pants were fully understood. Contrary to the sonic response, the immediate connec-
tion between the participant and the image usually promptly provoked the people
to explore and dialogue with the interface and the environment. However, for the
general public, establishing a new interactive musical relationship between people
and touchless interfaces in dance clubs and other social venues would entail a shift
in their cultural paradigm. Such a shift would help overcome their initial alienation
from its languages and ergonomics. Both Manovich (2001) and Guattari (1999)
have, in different ways, drafted a diversity of factors regarding such a consolidation.
Manovich (2001) has also pointed out the necessity for a connection, hitherto
unknown, in which some minimal overlap is indispensable between the repertoires
of the two identities – so as to provoke a communicative action through attention
and later through comprehensive absorbency (and consequent learning). He has
stated that the language of cultural interfaces is a hybrid. He elaborated further,
“It is a strange, often awkward mix between the conventions of traditional cultural
forms and the conventions of HCI – between an immersive environment and a set
of controls, between standardization and originality”. (p. 91)
What alterities have in common, be they immersive (Murray, 2001), agency,
rhyzomic (Deleuze, 1995) or fractal (Guattari, 1999) is their systemic perspective
when treating the aesthetics of a work or ambience that takes into account the in-
161
ternal and external conditions of its environment; they also encompass the context
of both the author’s and the audience’s repertoires and sets of actions.
We seed the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do

from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded
by a completely other reality, as different as water is from air, that takes over all of
our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus. (Murray, 2001:102)
Guattari (1999) discussed a proto-subjectivity of machines based on “ontologi-

cal heterogeneous ways of subjectivity” in regard the “domain of otherness” be-
tween machines and beings, and between themselves, of which he identifies some
alterity, like the “proximity between different machines and different pieces of the
same machine; [...] of internal material consistency; [...] of diagrammatic formal
consistency; [...] fractal”, among others.
Just as scientific machines constantly modify our cosmic frontiers, so do the ma-
chines of desire and aesthetic creation. As such, they hold an eminent place within
assemblages of subjectivation, themselves called to relieve our old social machines
which are incapable of keeping up with the efflorescence of machinic revolutions
that shatter our epoch. (Guattari, 1999:68)
From the way it has been contextualized here, the hybrid nature of the interface
described by Manovich seems to have been internally fulfilled by Guattari’s alterity.
Both of these authors made considerable contributions to our conceptual basis for
the elaboration of the interactive mapping, by taking the whole engaging process
of the interface into account, which happens only through the understanding of the
nature of the possible otherness within it.
It is clear that in certain cases the creation of a solely sonic “atmosphere” would
not produce enough elements for the comprehension of the musical processes taking
place. It is also necessary to develop structures and indicative semiotic elements so
people can familiarize themselves with the whole system. Even so, a series of actions
on the designer’s part should be planned so as to boost the interactive action of the
audience. Such a multi-faceted planning simultaneously involves the architecture
of the constructed environment, the programming of the visuals and the sound, the
content selection, and the mapping to a set of stimulating actions. Our future work
is planned to extend this to an immersive and reactive “interactive organic lounge”.
From observations within our own works, and as observers and occasional par-
ticipants in many other interactive works, we can ascertain to the power the visual
imagery has on engaging people’s attention. In most of the works related herein,
the supremacy of the visual understanding above the other senses was very apparent.
162
Figure 5. Interactive experience with Visual Art, Music and Media students. Uni-
camp Brazil, 2014
We observed that people were much more at ease in finding a visual reference than
a sonic one. Notably, people demonstrated more difficulty in understanding their
roles in interactive sound activities. It has been previously reported that in interac-
tive sound processes the presence of interaction implies the existence of a mutual
or reciprocal action or influence between the player and the instrument (Jorda, 2007).
Thus, an effective interface design implies that the performer can maintain a cor-
respondence between a set of movements and gestures and a set of predictable
sounds or effects. In the case of interactive dance, the dancer thus causes certain
changes in the sonic events, which in turn, feed back to the dancer through audio
and visual manifestations. This essential feedback process facilitates and inspires
the performer to further vary those events in a controlled manner (Boyle, 2010, p.
5).
The insertion of luminous narratives and image textures in our work was essential
in realizing that even if the image was not part of the specific scope of the work or
experiment, it served as a necessary visual indication immediately understandable
by the observer – even if it was only to help localize the sensors and the previously
mapped interactive space. Therefore, we included a number of visual elements in
the works that could be manipulated via the sensors; these were programmed to
cause immediate and impactful visual responses, either independent of or in con-
junction with the music, with their main function being primary indicators of the
consequences of movement and gestures. Abstract luminous textures emanating
from the transformation of the image of one’s own body, formal distortions of im-
163
ages, and other means of sensorial manipulation added spice to these experiences.
People immersed in these interactions were just as quick to perceive altered images
of themselves, as they were to perceive shaded or mirrored images.
It is true that the sound response could be programmed in such a way that a
very short displacement in the space or a brief gesture could be mapped onto a very
audible change or distortion of the ongoing composition. However, from a listening
aesthetic point of view, such sonic perturbations are undesirable on a large scale – the
sonic response can become quite cacophonous and eventually unlistenable. Major
perturbations in the visual quickly capture one’s attention but are not as disturbing
as their sonic counterparts.
These considerations were determinant not only in selecting content for the
production, but also for structuring the mapping and algorithms in such a way as
to take into account the possible behaviour between the sensorial interfaces and
the people, and vice-versa. After a series of touchless interactive experiments, that
produced sound sculptures liken to those of Walter Smetack [5], we then decided
to implement continuous rhythmic beats. Electronic percussive contra-tempos
were programmed to have to be triggered by certain activity levels and have their
amplitude raised and lowered in certain “sensorised” zones. Other zones emanated
distortions of pre-recorded noise timbres, or increasing and decaying echoes of
minimalist melodies, that played in synchrony with the drum rhythms.
Further Metamorphosis of the Role of the “Performer”

(DJ) in an Interactive Electronic Music Set
After some experience with our interfaces, the potential for manipulating music
and sound in other interactive contexts became apparent. One such possibility lay
in the nightclub context, where the role of the DJ could be morphed into something
novel. Originally considered a technician or entertainer, the DJ conquered the techno
arena and from the late 1980s onwards achieved the status of both musician and
artist in nightclubs and big electronic music festivals. The complexity of performing
remixes such as layering and tonal distortions etc., meant that DJs were effectively
conducting, producing and composing all the rhythms, melody and ambiance of
the music, live on stage.
However, the power to interact with the system is not confined to the DJ – the
audience can be an agent too. We recognized the changing role of the audience:
moving from passive spectator to active co-performer and executing a series of
sound-transforming commands on their own accord. An array of interactive devices
are available (both off-the-shelf devices or custom-built by us or by other enthusi-
astic artists of interactive music) that permit members of the dancing audience to
become a co-performer without physically handling any instrument.
164
Figure 6. Interactive experience with Visual Art, Music and Media students. Uni-
camp Brazil, 2014
In this way the protagonist role, which has been up until now assumed solely by
the DJ, can be changed so that it is shared with the whole audience, or with some
part of it. At first glance this may look like the end of the artistic facet of a DJ’s
career. But the ultimate authorship and the production of all sound (and visual)
content would still be under the DJ’s control. His role would also include determin-
ing the movement-to-sound mapping for the audience interaction and the live ma-
nipulation of these co-performers. This could in fact redefine the roles of DJs and
their audiences in the world of interactive electronic music by offering a series of
alternative actions and moods within techno or other dance sets.
CONCLUSION
The sum of those relates above has shown how our experience with transforming
sound and image linked us to the electronic music world in search of databases and
sound samples, especially those derived from the ambient sound environment or the
hypnotism of psytrance. The resulting sound experiences lead us to develop a novel
165
system and format for interactive musical expression – one that was derived from
the direct participation of the crowd who performed, played, remixed, retextured,
and modified timbres and tempos, entirely through their own movements.
The potentiality to become immersed and significantly co-participate in the
interactive musical processes, as observed in the lab and studio, was corroborated
when the works were installed in public spaces. The remixing and (de) rhythm ca-
pabilities in “Antigenous” and “G-Spots”, and the synchronized sample (re)mixing
in the “Wishing Tree”, opened up a fascinating approach to interactive performance
of musical works using movement within public spaces and through physical and
gestural closeness. The ordinary paradigm of dancer being subordinate to the mu-
sic was upturned. These touchless systems allowed people to directly influence
the musical output, thus acting momentarily as co-performers. Consequently, this
ensures that Murray’s interactor is a “dominant player” in the work, as opposed to
being simply constrained to dancing to a determined tune, dictated by predefined
fixed soundscapes and fixed visual sequences.
Our research gave us some insight into what were once imaginary electronic
environments. Furthermore, we are highly encouraged by a significant growth in
festivals whose language is electronic as well as the continuing emergence of other
spaces dedicated to interactive art. What we related herein is not simply a report
on constructive experiments with interactive electronic music, but evidence of a
new tendency in both the artistic and entertainment domains. Factors such as “re-
sponsiveness”, interactive role, human and environmental (ergonomic) conditions
in augmented reality – initially themes restricted to contemporary art and commu-
nication – are now essential elements to be considered in any further research in
contemporary electronic music.
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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITION
Alterity: The state of being ‘other’ person or creature . We employ the Guatarri
(1999:58) concept of the term in a “machinic heterogenesis” context, in particular
the “fractal alterity”: a systemic correspondence among machines belonging to
different levels.
Interactivity: In this work the interactivity of the touchless system refers to its
ability to be activated and influenced by the presence and movement of people within
the range of the sensors. The systemic interactive system includes the computer as
a co-performer, collaborating in a feedback process with the interactor.
Jukebox: A device that contained dozens of songs in “single” vinyl format. To
play a song, you had to place a quarter in the machine and press the button with the
name of the desired song.
Touchless: Technology that allows people to trigger and/or operate some devices
and systems by means of proximity and gestures rather than by touching a control
or interface.
ENDNOTES
1
“Paraísos Artificiais [Artificial Paradises]” (Dir. Marcos Prado, 2012 – 98
min) is a Brazilian film inspired in Charles Boudelaire’s book – “Les Paradis
artificiels” – that narrates the adventures of a Brazilian DJ within the electronic
music domain, including rave festivals, night clubs, drugs’numb, etc.
2
Raja Ram and Radical Distortion are significant players in the “techno” scene.
Ram is an electronic musician and DJ since the mid-1990s and is considered
one of the first musicians to make psychedelic trance.
3
This set of interactive installations took place in the following primary/secondary
schools: SESI – Serviço Social da Indústria, Campinas, Brazil; Escola Básica
2,3 Prof. João Meira, Guimarães, Portugal; Tulla Realschule, Kehl, Germany;
Oreokastro, Thessaloniki, Greece.
168
4
In the experiments in Brazil and Portugal, a composition by Gian Berselli was
used, originally composed for an interactive musical experiment in his Media
Studies undergraduate Program at Campinas University, Brazil. In Germany
and Greece, a work composed by Aidan Boyle was used, originally for New
Beginnings, a contemporary dance performance at Theater space, Jacobs
University, Bremen, Germany.
5
Walter Smetack (1913 – 1984) was a Swiss Brazil-based musician who in-
fluenced much of the Brazilian music of the “tropicalism movement” in the
1970’s, with his “sonoric sculptures” and semiotic suggestions in instrumental
performances and in his lyrics.
169
170
Chapter 8
Exploring Psytrance
as Technognosis:
A Hypothesis of Participation
Psyence Vedava
Independent Researcher, Greece
ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the performative process occurring in the dance-floor/
stage of a psytrance event as ‘technognosis’, a concept that combines media, arts,
performance and technology with the notion of gnosis. Technognosis is proposed
as an overarching concept, able to theorize the whole transpersonal range of the
psytrance experience, including its spiritual dimension, enabled by the induction
and facilitation of alterations in consciousness. The psytrance experience is ana-
lyzed it terms of aesthetic, visionary and mystical experiences understood here as
qualities of gnosis. At the same time, this chapter contends that technognosis affects
participation and invites its multi-media and performative expression, triggering
fundamental changes in ways of human thinking, imagining and operating; poten-
tiating the adoption of participation as the next paradigm in human existence. In
parallel, the chapter proposes a post-modern approach in researching and analyzing
the psytrance phenomenon as a whole, combining media and performance studies
with religious studies methodological tools.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch008
Exploring Psytrance as Technognosis
INTRODUCTION
Postwar youth cultures and their relationship to music and style were initially
studied from a sociological perspective as a cultural phenomenon of resistance and
solidarity under the lens of Marxist subcultural theories developed by the CCCS
(Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies) (Hall and Jefferson, 1976;
Bennett, 1999). Following this line of thought, and progressing to theories with a
post-modern perspective, early research on proto-raves as Electronic Dance Music
Cultures (EDMCs), underlined the loss of subjectivity and the disappearance of self
through intoxication and a new media voyeuristic escapism/hedonism, conceived as
a form of ‘hyperreal’ and ‘imaginary resistance’; the dance-floor was seen as a place
for temporary liberation from the everyday life of consumer-based post-industrial
late capitalist society, which lacked any other substantial meaning (Melechi, 1993;
Redhead, 1993; Rietveld, 1993, Knutagard, 1996, Reynolds, 1999).
The widespread consumption of illegal substances, and the spate of legislation
banning rave events in the UK and USA during the 1990’s, attracted widespread
academic attention, from a public health perspective, on the negative consequences
related to health risks, thus re-affirming the earlier assumption of contemporary
youth’s sense of loss of meaning (Reynolds, 1997; Yacubian et al., 2004; Kelly,
2005; Miller et al., 2005; Sterk et al., 2006). However, illegal substance use itself,
and police actions to prevent raves, also served to strengthen their countercultural
character; something consistent with the grass-roots and DIY structural organization
of rave culture, complementary to the PLUR ethos (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect)
(Hill, 2002; Reynolds, 1999; Takahashi & Olaveson, 2003). PLUR acted as a marker
of authenticity, in accordance with its (hippy) countercultural heritage, derived from
a sense of connectedness, solidarity and belonging, that arose from communal dance
and the use of substances such as Ecstasy, Mdma and Lsd, which enhanced the
empathic feelings of participants and functioned as liberating agents engendering
the formation of individual and collective identity (Hutson, 2000; Sylvan, 2002,
2005; Hitzler & Pfadenhauer, 2002; Salasuo & Seppälä, 2004; Ter Bogt et al., 2002).
The dance-floor has been analyzed as a space for spiritual healing, transcendence
and transformation achieved through transpersonal ecstatic states, where socio-cul-
tural differences and constructed identity boundaries dissolve (Hutson, 1999, 2000;
Saunders & Doblin, 1996; Sylvan, 2002, 2005; Landau, 2004; St John, 2011a). Van
Gennep’s liminal ‘rites of passage’ and Turner’s ‘structural ritual’ were adopted by
cultural researchers of electronic dance music gatherings as the functional models
of analysis, evaluating the events in terms of their ‘efficacy’, that allowed for the
formation of spontaneous “communitas” (Van Gennep, 1909; Turner, 1969; Gore,
1995, 1997; Grimes, 1995; Malbon, 1999; Gauthier, 2004; Gerard, 2004; Takahashi
& Olaveson, 2003; Olaveson, 2004; Tramacchi, 2000; St John, 2004, 2008, 2010).
171
Gradually, the concept of Mafessoli’s (1996) “tribus” or “tribe” replaced earlier

subcultural group characterizations, stressing the fluid, temporal and dynamic
nature of experimental individual and collective identity re-formation, expressed
in EDMC’s through participation in festive, postmodern rituals (Bennett, 1999).
The ‘vibe’ became the characteristic measure of these neo-tribes as the successful
or optimum social dance experience, touching on sacred meanings arising from
corporeality and empathetic sociality (Sommer, 2001; St John, 2012).
In the early 1990’s rave music started to become entwined with alternative
spirituality ideas stemming from pagan, New Age and esoteric concepts; while
Goa trance, as a psychedelic inspired electronic dance movement evolving from the
1960’s counter-culture itself, invited limitless explorations of uncharted territories
of the Mind, of Gaia and of Cyberia, though the experience of ‘shamanic mystical
states of consciousness’, facilitated by psychedelic substances and all-night dance
under the sound of a continuous drumbeat (Rushkoff, 1994; Cole & Hannan, 1997;
Sutcliffe, 1997; McAteer, 2002; Davis, 2004; Green, 2010; D’Andrea, 2007; Gerard,
2004; St John, 2011b). Today Goa trance is pluralistically developing towards more
complex transnational and multicultural fusions of arts, media and social shifting
under the broad label of “psytrance” (St John, 2012), while it often seems to function
as a synchretic alternative spirituality movement in its own right through different
utterances and subsets, entailing a number of other contemporary spirituality ideas,
worldviews and practices, too, such as neo/technopaganism, techno/neoshamanism,
New Age, Goddess spirituality, Sacred Ecology, Music religion etc.
As rave and trance culture permeated different social settings – physical and
digital- and as club culture and commercialization melded further with them, they
became reconstituted as leisure and touristic activities for psychological recreation
and spiritual hedonism, operating within capitalist neoliberal rules. This blurred
the boundaries between authentic and mainstream expressions of these cultures
(Malbon, 1999; Thorton, 1995; Davis, 2004) and their counter-cultural credibility
was called into question (Hutson, 2000; Goulding & Shankar, 2004). The author of
this chapter would further contend that authentic spirituality coming from ‘direct
experience’ occurring in the dance-floor/ stage of a psytrance event is gradually
becoming dissipated too, as it becomes marketable posturing, without actual experi-
ential substance, especially in large scale self-designated psychedelic or entheogenic
trance events. So, when researchers like Graham St John compare New Age spiritual
bazaars, “sustainable entertrainment”, consumer based and star –system oriented
homogenous youth camps like Portugal’s Boom festival with the Eleusinian myster-
ies, then confusion about what is actually going on in contemporary “psychedelic”
trance culture or its transformative potential predominates (St John & Baldini, 2012,
pp.548-549; St John, 2012, pp.218, 167).
172
By seeking to merge media and performance theories with research into west-
ern esotericism and religious studies approaches and methodologies, this chapter
investigates the operations, the philosophical implications and the offered possi-
bilities emerging from the performative transpersonal experiences occurring in the
dance-floor/stage of a psychedelic trance event, where substances such as Lsd are
consumed, while techno-shamanic techniques are employed. The spiritual proper-
ties of psychedelic substances like Lsd and psilocybin have been widely highlighted
by counter-cultural figures such as William Burroughs, Carlos Castaneda, Albert
Hofmann, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Ralph Metzner, Michael
Harner and Terence Mckenna, the latter being a huge influence on psytrance culture
and its most quoted and sampled spokesperson. The methodological and analytical
tools of mainstream cultural studies are inadequate on their own for dealing with
the spiritual dimension of psytrance and the psytrance phenomenon as a whole,
where art, technology, media and performance combine in facilitating alterations
in consciousness that potentiate transpersonal experiences often interpreted as
paranormal or spiritual. And although media and performance studies stress the
epistemological value of “embodied knowledge”, employing performative-sensitive
ways of knowing that take into consideration the particularities of the subject mat-
ters and their participants/experiencers (Conquergood, 2002), they cannot account
for experiences and knowledge coming from the ‘mind’ or the ‘self’, based on the
multi-dimensional cognition of human beings. On the other hand, post-modern
religious studies approaches like that proposed by the “participatory turn” in the
study of religion, spirituality and mysticism, recognize the centrality of body in
spiritual practice and experience and, in addition, they incorporate other modes of
cognition be they gendered, visionary, erotic, psychic etc, for making sense of the
‘sacred’ experiences (Ferre & Sherman, 2008).
Combining ‘empathetic participation’ (Takahashi and Olaveson, 2003) with
‘sympathetic participation’ (Turner, 1992) and ‘participatory knowing’ (Ferre &
Sherman, 2008), this chapter applies a form of a (post) modern gnostic approach
(Kripal, 2007) to the conceptualization and analysis of the inter-subjective and
transpersonal aspects of the psychedelic trance experience as a whole. Gnosis refers
to a specific kind of knowledge – intuitive, visionary or mystical – experienced
directly by individuals and often received while in altered states of consciousness.
Its meaning and contents are so profound that they cannot be grasped in simple
words but they can nevertheless be communicated through symbols and symbolic
forms, which are the language of myth, dream, art and fantasy. Thus it is proposed
that experiential anthropology based on pragmatic concerns, first-hand academic
research and rational thinking in tandem with participatory forms of knowledge that
are performative - enactive, creative and transformative, privileging experiential
knowing over believing, accounting for the intuitive and the symbolic, and affirming
173
the fluidity of alterations of consciousness and the whole range of human attributes
as valuable and legitimate modes of cognition, offer the means for a critical and
engaged analysis of the performative experience occurring in the dance-floor/stage
of a psytrance event, addressing directly its spiritual dimensions regarded here as
qualities of gnosis (Ferre & Sherman, 2008; Kripal, 2007).
In addition, participatory knowing approaches spiritual phenomena as “co-
created events” admitting and affirming the existence of “spiritual realities” (Ferre
& Sherman, 2008, pp.34- 35). These events are here regarded as emanating from
the image producing stratum of the unconscious, dubbed by Jung the collective
unconscious (Whitmont, 1969, p.42), and the mythopoetic imagination of an ‘open’
human mind. The ‘mediated’ human cultural variables play a formative role in
the visionary construction and interpretation of different spiritual experiences, as
well as the contextual, the embodied and the intentional that stress the plurality of
transpersonal experiences (Jung, 1976, p.228; Ferre & Sherman, 2008, pp.34-35).
Thus in this chapter, the process occurring in the dance-floor/stage of a psytrance
event is analyzed as “technognosis”, a concept that combines the key notions of
‘technique’, ‘art’ and ‘technology’ through performance and mediation, with the
notion of ‘gnosis’. By using a combination of a number of techniques, arts, tech-
nologies and media, a psytrance trance event provides on the one hand the physical
space, the framework, the method and the resources for facilitating alterations in
consciousness, with the potential to induce individual and collective gnostic expe-
riences; whilst, on the other hand, it offers the means for articulating the contents
of gnosis symbolically through media and performance, so that a great plurality
of inter-subjective utterances and meanings in a rapidly developing transcultural
context can occur.
As the spiritual experience of gnosis is transformative, the hypothesis of this
chapter postulates that according to intentions, common aims and expectations of
the organizers, artists, contributors and participants in a psytrance event, technog-
nosis has the potential to express, affect and re-affirm ‘participation’ on a large
scale – mental, imaginative, and performative and thus spiritual-artistic, social-
environmental– for triggering significant and fundamental changes in ways of human
thinking, imagining, experiencing and operating. The dysfunctional and critical
planetary and human conditions existing today are regarded here as the results of
Enlightenment rationalism based on causality, and institutionalized religion based
on faith that have dismissed participation, and thus gnosis, as a valid orientation
towards life, disrupting the essential psychic balance of the whole society. It is pos-
sible that through technognosis this balance can be once again restored.
Having said that, the next section presents gnosis from a historical perspective
in order to highlight its link with alterations of consciousness in general and dur-
ing the psychedelic experience in particular, while its connection to participation
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is also explored as a contrast to the ideologies of causality and faith. Subsequently,

the concept of technognosis is analyzed through its relation to notions of mediation
and performance. This is followed by the analysis of the stage of psytrance in terms
of aesthetic, visionary and mystical experiences that constitute qualities of gnosis.
Finally, participation is outlined as a hypothesis and further research on the subject
is suggested. The chapter closes with an overall conclusion.
GNOSIS AND PARTICIPATION
In the late 1980’s the Dutch specialist on ancient Gnosticism, Gilles Quispel, argued
that three basic streams of thought coexisted in Western cultural tradition: one based
on ‘faith’, the domain of churches and theologies, one based on ‘reason’ as exempli-
fied in the scientific and philosophical traditions, and one based on gnosis, a superior
spiritual wisdom, which has been suppressed and marginalized by the other two
(Quispel, 2005). Inspired by Quispel, Wouter J. Hanegraaff in his article “Reason,
Faith, Gnosis: Potentials and Problematics of a Typological construct” proposed that
faith, reason and gnosis should be understood as three kinds of knowledge running
simultaneously through western thought, and that they should not be confused with
specific historical movements and authors (Hanegraaff, 2008, p.133). The acid test
to differentiate the three kinds of knowledge consists of two basic questions: can
these claims of knowledge be verified by others, and can they be communicated to
others? The type of knowledge based on ‘reason’ provides affirmative answers to
both questions; but in the case of knowledge claims based on ‘faith’, although they
can be communicated through language, they cannot be verified. Finally, the third
kind of knowledge, that based on ‘gnosis’, can neither be confirmed by others or
its contents communicated; but it is considered to be of the outmost importance by
those who have received it.
Lucien Lévy-Bruhl argued at the beginning of the 20th century for the existence of
two stratums of human thought; one he termed “causality”, characteristic of modern
man, and the other he termed “participation” as a kind of a pre-logical thinking
or mentality that in his view characterizes primitive societies (Lévy-Bruhl, 1988).
Later on, Tambiah argued that human beings do not act and think solely in rational
ways based on causality, but they can also act and think in more holistic, associative
and poetic ways emanating from participation (Tambiah, 1990, p.105). Enlarging
upon these concepts, Hanegraaff conceived of causality as “instrumental causal-
ity”, which refers to operations of rational thinking for explaining reality in terms of
cause and effect (Hanegraaff, 2003, p.373). He argued that this way of knowing has
been officially adopted by the dominant forces and institutions of Western society
as an ‘ideology’ since the time of the Enlightenment, when reason triumphed over
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imagination and science over magic, and fostered a deterministic and materialistic
worldview based on reductionist external observation (Ibid. p.375). And although
the modern scientific method of rationality has its roots in pre-Socratic physicians
and Judeo-Christian metaphysical models and worldviews (Grant, 1996), causality
as “the project of establishing a complete worldview based upon a theory (or a set
of theories) claiming exclusive truth and sufficiency with respect to all dimen-
sions of reality” (as did institutionalized religion before of it) (Hanegraaff, 2003,
pp.375-376), in denouncing faith and religion as fallacies, it also rejected gnosis
and all other ways of approaching knowledge that emanate from participation. It
thus became the predominant guiding paradigm of modern civilization, nurturing
the “disenchantment” of the world (Weber, 1971).
Other authors have also elaborated on the idea of two stratums of human thought,
or mentalities or orientations towards engaging with and understanding the world.
Malinowski (1978, p.236) stated that all cultures possess a language of science and
a language of magic. Henri Bergson differentiated between ‘thinking in translation’,
when dealing with quantitative aspects of external reality through language and
science, and ‘thinking in duration’ through intuition as the direct vision of the mind
Figure 1. Materialism Created by Vedava & Gatekeeper www.hydrozen.info
176
that can attain metaphysical knowledge of insight into the real (Bergson, 2002a,
pp.58-59, 2002b, pp.274-284). And Carl Jung differentiated between ‘retrospective’,
intellectual or directed thinking under the direction of the conscious ego, and ‘pro-
spective’ types of knowledge, where autonomy of thoughts and thinking in symbols
pre-dominate (Jung, 1973, 1989).
The ideology of causality, as a standard way of perceiving the world, can be
linked to a ‘supposedly’ ordinary consciousness state, experienced by individuals as a
specific state of the mind in western society while awake. In contrast, ‘participation’,
which is based on feeling, affection, imagination and intuition with an emphasis on
the immediate experience can be linked to “altered states of consciousness”; that
is to different patterns of physiological, cognitive and experiential events, defined
against an ordinary waking state (Baruss, 2003, p.8). But altered states of con-
sciousness do not exclude logical thinking but also involve ‘imaginative’ processes
fundamental in everyday thought throughout life, which are inextricably linked to
our understanding of reality (Taylor, 2001). In addition, increased engagement of
the imagination, as well as changes in emotional expression can result in intense
altered states of consciousness. However, their fluidity renders these states unstable
psychophysiological conditions and thus the term “alterations of consciousness”
is preferable, the ordinary state being just an agreed upon behavioral construct,
serving the ideology of causality and the dominant paradigm of existence (Baruss,
pp.8, 25, 36).
Alterations of consciousness can express participation as a sense of a ‘mysti-
cal’ unity to and of the Whole Existence, in which the connection between cause
and effect is immediate; while the universe and life itself are often understood and
experienced in terms of correspondences, (hidden) patterns and analogies (Hane-
graaff, 2003, pp.373-374). As alterations of consciousness do not exclude processes
of logical thinking, participation does not exclude them either. It just affirms the
multidimensional cognition of humans in engaging with the world. It also character-
izes indigenous societies living in harmony with the ‘spirits of nature’, as well as
different esoteric, magical, artistic traditions and contemporary spiritualities that
engage with the world through the direct experience and the powers of intuition
and imagination.
Gnosis occurs during alterations of consciousness; it emanates from and re-
affirms participation through the direct, experience of the hidden realms of nature.
The attainment of gnosis has been the central pre-occupation of a kind of a trans-
confessional cultic milieu that flourished in ancient Egypt in particular, and whose
adherents during the Hellenistic period interpreted Platonism in a way that transformed
it into a religious world-view with its own mythologies and ritual practices, known
as “platonic orientalism” (Hanegraaff, 2012, p.23). In this context, gnosis referred
to the attainment of knowledge of salvation by which the human soul, within which
177
a divine spark exists, could be liberated from its material entanglement and become
reunited with the divine Mind. It should be noted that for many of these ancient tradi-
tions, like the Hermeticists, reason and faith were necessary ‘prolegomena’ for the
attainment of gnosis, but the actual gnostic experience was regarded as being a gift
from God, whose contents could only be beheld directly by the individual through
some faculty beyond the senses and reason (Hanegraaff, 2008, p.140).
The later revival of platonic orientalism in the west has evolved since the 15th
century after the import and subsequent translation from Byzantium to Italy of a
corpus of ancient Greek manuscripts including, among others, the ‘Corpus Her-
meticum’, the texts of Plato and Aristotle, and the theurgical ‘Chaldaean Oracles’.
Different Christian intellectuals of the time transposed elements they learned from
these ancient pagan sources and the newly discovered ‘Jewish Kabbalah’ and in-
corporated them into their theological and philosophical frameworks. This resulted
in the formation of different magical/esoteric traditions during the Renaissance
and until the Romantic Era, like the Hermetic Tradition, that flourished within an
enchanted worldview founded on personal experience and the engagement with the
powers of the imagination (Hanegraaff, 2012, pp.29-30).
Later Renaissance thinkers associated Hermetic religiosity and the Platonic frenzies
(divine states of madness, understood here as corresponding in today’s terminology
to ‘altered states of consciousness’ - ASCs) with one another to a point of “virtual
identity”, so that, although the term gnosis was never used, its signification as a
kind of supra-rational ecstatic knowledge became an important theme, rendering
the survival of gnosis incognito (Hanegraaff, 2009, 2015).
In his dialogue “Phaedrus” (370 BCE), Plato stated that not all kinds of madness
(mania) are evil; rather that, when granted to people as a divine gift, they benefit
humankind. Through his Socratic mouthpiece, Plato spoke first about the “prophetic”
madness, which he recognized in the predictions of the oracles of Delphi, the priest-
esses of Dodona and in Sibyl. He then presented the “telestic” madness, which he
associated with prayers and worship of the Gods and with purificatory rituals for
healing purposes. A third kind of madness he introduced is the “poetic” one, which
emanates from the Muses and inspires a delicate soul to compose lyric and other
kinds of poetry (divine inspiration). Finally, he presented “love” as a fourth kind of
divine madness, sent by the Gods to help humans achieve the greatest happiness.
This fourth kind of madness, of love, which Plato regarded as the most beneficial
of all, occurs when someone sees beauty and is reminded of the true Beauty in the
plain of Truth and thus, according to Plato, this man is called lover, because he is
the lover of beauty and the true philosopher. The platonic frenzies are here regarded
as corresponding to qualities of gnosis ranging from important moments of self-
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understanding to moments of profound creative inspiration; from aesthetic experi-

ences to experiences of states of love and eros; and from visionary experiences to
mystical experiences, the latter here conceived as the ultimate experience of gnosis.
After the period of the Enlightenment, with the rejection of gnosis and the sup-
pression of participation by the ideology of causality, esotericism continued to be
developed as the “occult”, gradually emerging as a social phenomenon in its own
right. It took the form of actual organizations and social networks that started to
compete with the established churches of traditional Christianity and Enlightenment
causality by proposing a third way, “occultism”, which advanced in different forms
and transformed pre and early modern worldviews under the impact of new cultural,
social and scientific-technological developments. Origins of the occult are found in
Frans Anton Mesmer’s (1734-1815 CE) theory of practice and healing called “mes-
merism” or “animal magnetism”, from where ‘hypnosis’ and the subsequent study
and conceptualization of what is now known as the ‘unconscious’ developed through
experimental psychological investigation (Mccalla, 2006). Occult techniques, used
for accessing hidden realms of reality through the depths of the unconscious to find
illumination in the Night-side of nature, are based on a number of techniques for
inducing and maintaining alterations of consciousness by engaging the imagination.
The occult continued to spread after the 19th century, following a general ten-
dency towards the psychologization of the sacred in tandem with the sacralization of
psychology, further encompassing post-WWII spiritualities and worldviews, which
have been said to constitute a ‘cultic milieu’ or an “occulture” (Partridge, 2005a).
Occulture, as a contemporary phenomenon, refers to the existence of a rich cultural
reservoir of ideas, worldviews, symbols, and practices together with the social groups,
networks and individuals interacting with them. These are concerned with occult,
hidden, rejected, fantastic and oppositional beliefs and claims of knowledge that
contradict the accepted worldviews and rules of the dominant ideologies, giving an
emphasis to immediate spiritual (paranormal) experience and to particular monistic
cosmologies, anthropologies and theologies (Partridge, 2005a, p.123).
Contemporary spiritualities operating in the occultural context, like the New
Age movement, Neo-Technopaganism, Neo-Technoshamanism, Music religion,
Goddess spirituality etc. use a number of means, techniques, technologies and
symbolic systems to approach gnosis or access hidden realms of reality, according
to personally meaningful choices and interpretations (Hanegraaff, 2003). In this
context, the contemporary meaning of gnosis is akin to its original conception, but
as human beings and nature are regarded to be expressions of the divine, in the
sense that divine and living matter are already united, the end goal of gnosis is not
an ultimate union with the divine because no real separation has ever existed; the
attainment of gnosis, thus, comes in the form of becoming aware of the human,
divine nature through different practices. These practices include the use of differ-
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ent occult, technological, artistic and spiritual media and techniques for inducing
and maintaining alterations in consciousness such as: yoga, meditation, holotropic
breathing and sexual practices (tantra); psychological techniques for engaging the
imagination like Carl Jung’s ‘active imagination’, as well as artistic, and ritualistic
performative practices such as chanting, listening to a continuous drum beat and
dancing intensely; and consumption of psycho-technologies such as LSD, or natural
power plants, known as entheogens (from ancient greek έν-θεος = filled with divin-
ity), such as ayahuasca, peyote, mushrooms, mescaline and cannabis.
The sacralization of psychedelic substances in the west, and their conceptual-
ization as means of accessing other realms of reality where encounters with the
Other World, the Spirits, the Archetypes, the Source and the Self are possible, is
rooted in the 1950’s and 1960’s countercultural movement and the popularization
of the spiritual qualities of the psychedelic or shamanic experience through dif-
ferent intellectuals and artists. Some interpretations and conceptualizations of the
psychedelic experience by people like Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary were
influenced by an Eastern spiritual setting, due to the process of an Easternization
of the West, rooted in the Romantic Era and developed through the Theosophical
society since the late 19th century, culminating in the 1960’s with the migration of
Indian gurus to the West (Partridge, 2005a, pp.96-97). However, simultaneously,
other authors like Carlos Castaneda, Robert Wasson and later Michael Harner and
Terence Mckenna, promoted shamanic approaches to the psychedelic journey, from
where neoshamanism emerged. Neoshamanism is a form of a modern entheogenic
religion, which, after the 1970’s, branched off into two directions (Hanegraaff, 2013,
pp.400-402): one legal and safe, with a public profile of using ritual techniques and
psychotherapeutic practices e.g. core shamanism; and another one, which is still
illegal and underground, using psychoactive substances, and which after the mid
1980’s and the harnessing of the capabilities of new media technologies and the
internet, spread as ‘technoshamanism’ around the globe via the psychedelic trance
movement.
Mythological narratives accompanying neoshamanism and psytrance fall within
the New Age millenarian eschatology concerned with the threshold period marked
by the year 2012, a phenomenon that emerged from neo-shamanic circles and was
further linked to the end of the Mayan ‘Long Count Calendar’. From this perspec-
tive, psychedelic trance culture emerging from a mixture of oriental teachings and
shamanic practices, is linked to New Age ideas and neoshamanism. However, at
the same time, it can be further coupled with the spiritual category of ‘entheogenic
esotericism’, and from there with Goddess spirituality and paganism; while the
technological potential of gnosis (Davis’ ‘techgnosis’, 1998) through music and
other media further contextualizes it in technopaganism and technoshamanism.
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Entheogenic esotericism is a specific phenomenon in contemporary religion based

on the use of psychoactive substances as means of access to spiritual insights about
the true nature of reality (Hanegraaff, 2013, p.404). In this context, entheogens are
conceptualized as ‘the most direct and effective portals to gnosis’, a view promoted
by Terence Mckenna, who foresaw the emergence of an archaic revival, “the process
of reawakening awareness of traditional attitudes towards nature, including plants
and our relationship to them” (Mckenna, 1991). According to Mckenna, through
the use of psychoactive substances, something still common in indigenous societies,
humanity can re-discover its roots and give birth to a new paradigm of existence based
on the “gnosis” of the Vegetative mind – the Gaian collectivity of organic life-, by
coming closer to the Goddess archetype and thus to a partnership model of social
organization. In this chapter, it is argued that the gnosis of the vegetative mind is the
affirmation of participation through psychedelic experience, while the partnership
model of social organization is here explained as referring to the corporeal expres-
sion, implementation and actualization of the fruits emanating from participation
through media and performance, analyzed as the ‘hypothesis of participation’ and
examined in the context of psytrance.
TECHNOGNOSIS
The ‘hypothesis of participation’ argues that a process of re-establishing participation as a

valid orientation towards the world and expressing it at the corporeal level through media
and performance has been gradually occurring in the west since the mid 20th century,
something also evident in the proliferation of alternative spirituality movements since
the 1950’s. This has become possible through the gradual recognition and conceptualiza-
tion of the performative qualities of the ‘experience per se’ and of the world in general
aided by the proliferation of media technologies and the rapid articulation of new kinds
of information, psychedelic substances and thus alterations of consciousness. There
have also been relevant and related practical and theoretical developments in different
domains of human activity and culture which have contributed to this growth in aware-
ness. During the 1960’s all these processes culminated in the ‘performative turn’ in arts
and culture. This, in opposition to the representationalist forms of knowledge, suggested
that the world is enacted and actively performed anew, stressing the radicalization of
the performative aspects of every artform and medium in the context of the ongoing
constitution of the performativity of culture (Kattenbelt, 2010, pp.33-34). Against this
practical and conceptual background, performance became theorized in terms of its ef-
ficacy through its transgressive or resistant potentials, conceptualized as the pragmatic
effect of the performativity of an embodied act. Performativity here refers to the general
quality attributed to something by virtue of it being a performance (Loxley, 2006, p.140).
181
As an act of communication that in order to be realized requires an embodied

consciousness to adopt a ‘performative orientation’ towards what is being performed,
taking up the role of the observer/listener and an active constructor of meaning,
performance is participatory in its nature (Kattenbelt, 2010, p.30). Different kinds
of performance evoke and express different kinds of participation; while, as a
communicative act, performance is characterized by ‘mediation’ in the sense of
articulating information. Again, without a consciousness to receive it mediation
does not exist, and according to the orientation adopted towards the performative
event, mediation corresponds to different kinds of participation.
Performance and mediation are central to the concept of technognosis, which
combines the notion of gnosis with the notions of technique, technology and art.
Technique and technology are derived from the ancient Greek word “τέχνη» (techni),
which in Greek also has the meaning of art. In this chapter art and technology are
understood as ways/means for revealing hidden aspects of reality, and also as ‘me-
dia’; means of communication and carriers of information. Technique refers to the
invention and realization of a skilled method for actualizing an intention; in this
chapter it mostly refers to performative practices for enabling contact with the hidden
forces and realms of nature, and applies especially on the ritualistic consumption of
psychedelic substances. All these terms are additionally linked with creativity and
invention, and thus with reason and imagination. In addition, technognosis involves
the notion of “τεχνογνωσία” (technognosia). Technognosia in Greek signifies the
‘know-how’ - as the outcome of indispensable elaborations - for realizing a specific
end through the manipulation of different methods, techniques and technologies.
Thus, technognosis refers to a process involving the intentional manipulation of
different performative techniques, artistic, technological and spiritual media for
affecting and expressing participation.
A psytrance event frames a ‘performative situation’; a situation of showing,
engendered by the embodied, communal, festive activities occurring in and around
the dance-floor/stage. The architectural structure of the dance-floor delimits a kind
of a theatrical space – a ‘stage’ – where, the musical performance of the Dj is the
primary focus, surrounded by different technological and artistic media. The the-
atricality of the event enrolls everyone as an ‘experiencer’, their role transcending
that of being a passive member of an audience, spectator or spect-actor (Nelson,
2010, p.45). At the same time it actualizes the signifying process of ‘ostention’ that
works symbolically through the de-realization of the performed objects, bodies,
sounds and actions by making them stand as ‘signs’ for an entire class (Eco, 1977,
p.110). From this perspective, every experiencer and artistic/technological medium
in the stage/dance-floor performs a symbolic function and acts as an intentional
sign. Thus the experiencer becomes a medium, too, while the expressive performa-
tive opportunities offered in a psytrance event render the experiencer also a ‘par-
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Figure 2. Technognosis Created by Vedava & Gatekeeper www.hydrozen.info
ticipant’ who realizes embodied action and physical contribution to the congregation
through the awareness of responsibility towards the situation. This way, the stage
of a psytrance event constitutes a “hyper-medium”, involving different media and
allowing many kinds of performative mediations to occur between and in-between
material and immaterial realms, operating as a Gestalt, which signifies that which
is more than the sum of its parts (Kattenbelt, 2007, p.31). Finally, through the or-
chestrated invocation and facilitation of alterations of consciousness in the dance-
floor/stage of a psytrance event that enables the direct experience of qualities of
gnosis, the participant-experiencer is further inducted as a “co-creator” of hidden
and ephemeral spiritual realms, that, when articulated symbolically through media,
performance and art to the rest of people, realize the romantic function of the artist,
in this case, the shamanic artistic function.
More specifically, in esoteric contexts, mediation between human consciousness
and the spirit/otherworld can be achieved through the powers of the imagination.
Imagination has been often conceptualized as a ‘divine medium’, which renders pos-
183
sible access and navigation in and in-between various subtle, intermediary levels of
reality (Faivre, 1994). Thus there is an etymological connection between magic and
imagination. Romantic artists and intellectuals like William Blake, Coleridge and
Shelley, for example, conceived of a ‘divine-human’ imagination, which manifests
a Divine Vision due to the original link of imagination to image (Hazard, 2011).
Through engagement with the imagination by techniques of the occult that induce
alterations of consciousness, and through divine inspiration, the Romantic artists would
experience gnosis in the performative co-creation of spiritual realities, and acting as
‘medium’ themselves, they would translate a fraction of divinity into a portion of
materiality, through different artistic media and according to individual perspective
on reality. This way, the artist would ‘participate’ in the divine-self actualization of
the universe and in the evolution and self-actualization of human-consciousness.
That was because they believed that the arts have the ability to mediate a ‘glimpse’
of a fraction of Truth through ‘symbols’ and ‘figures’ that are not only decorative
but convey actual meaning and can induce gnosis by means of correspondences
and analogies (Mccalla, 2006). Ideally and according to intention, anyone partici-
pating in a psytrance event can act as a ‘mystical journeyer’, ‘modern Prometheus’
and a ‘shaman’ through alterations of consciousness, becoming a medium and a
co-creator of hidden information by diving into the depths of the unconscious and
bringing back a fraction of gnosis, articulated through individual style, body and
media and expressing the aesthetic and the ethical through the individual perspective
on existence (Mckenna, n.d.; Bauduin, 2013, p. 3). This function of the artist that
today manifests itself mainly through the visionary art movement is central to the
process of technognosis, realizing participation in the mental (artistic/spiritual) and
corporeal level (social, embodied, mediatized) through different kinds of mediations
that can induce different kinds of gnostic experiences.
Having said that, the media comprising the stage of a psytrance event and ac-
tualizing performative mediations are: humans, natural landscape, architectural
construction incorporating technological equipment; visual media, such as fabrics,
paintings, sculptures, ritual objects, digital art, land art etc. reinforcing the process
of ostention, as well as, light installations, visual and light projections and LCD
screens that enhance the physical space. Music plays a very special role in the whole
process mediating symbolically through material and immaterial realms. But most
importantly, imagination mediates through alterations of consciousness, revealing
hidden aspects of reality to individuals in a co-created process with the structures
of the collective, unconscious forces. And as gnosis is participatory in its nature, in
the next section the transpersonal experiences that occur in the stage of psytrance as
different qualities of gnosis are analyzed in terms of aesthetic, visionary and mystical
experiences, enabled by the participatory combination of the different techniques,
arts and technologies that affect and express participation in many different ways.
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Aesthetic Experience
The performativity of a psytrance event can invoke the adoption of the ‘performa-
tive orientation’, where the communicating participants through body, individual
style and different media meet each other as ‘social actors’ who share and live in
the same world (Habermas as explained in Kattenbelt, 2010, p.31). The dance-floor/
stage, involving elements of carnival, festival and play, too, enables also performa-
tive participation through the embodied expression of the imagination, as well as
social participation (Gauthier, 2001, Schütze, 2001/2002).
As an art installation, the dance-floor/stage of a psytrance event exhibits also
symbolic qualities, fostering the adoption of the ‘aesthetic orientation’. The aesthetic
orientation as a specific expression of the performative orientation concerns the
presentation of ‘experience qualities’ in an act of affective perception and reflection
on the encounter, the shared situation, oneself and the life-world (mental participa-
tion – participation of the mind) (Kattenbelt, 2010, p.31). The aesthetic orientation
is constituted here as the intention to find meaning in the symbolic qualities of the
encounter, by ‘reading’ it and actively constructing a meaning out of it (Gadamer,
1986, pp.25-26). Thus, the aesthetic orientation is participatory in its nature.
A symbol is a medium of signification and, as mentioned before in esoteric
contexts, it is associated with correspondences and analogies. Here it is further
understood through its classicist apprehension, in which a symbol refers to itself,
but as a fragment of being that “promises to complete and make whole whatever
corresponds to it” (Gadamer, 1986, p.32). Its meaning is not based on a pre-supposed
convention with an agreed upon reference, but in the spatiotemporal imbrication
of the indeterminate reference of the symbolic and the intention of every direct ad-
dresser in making whole, through an act of recognition, that, which already exists
in the imagination as a fragment of potential information. Thus, the apprehension
of the symbolic derives from the engagement of the imagination – imaginative
participation - through contemplation in an act of communication with what is be-
yond human finitude. In other words, the symbolic expresses the inexpressible by
addressing everyone directly through a pluralism of possibilities in meaning. The
act of recognition in the symbolic – the found meaning- can result to the “aesthetic
experience”, which is further accompanied by feelings of pleasure.
The symbolic exists in the beautiful and the beautiful can be considered “sym-
bolic”. According to Gadamer, the experience of the beautiful is “the invocation
of a partially whole and holy order of things, wherever it may be found meaning”
(1986, p. 32). The “contemplation” of a beautiful landscape for example, pleases
the one who encounters it in an act of communication with Nature, which confronts
humanity with its own existence and fulfills it, when people accept the task to find
meaning in the presence of here and now as part of a whole and holy order of things.
185
This way, the universe manifests its transcendental infinity in an act of symbolic
communication with sentient, embodied conscious species pointing to the actual-
ization of its ‘purposiveness’ in the intention of (self) reflection and understanding
in the here and now. In the case of art, and according to the artist’s intention, the
beautiful again invites the aesthetic orientation.
According to Kant, the encounter with the beautiful results in judgments of
beauty that are based on a feeling of “pleasure”, which is inter-subjective and
claims a universal validity in the sense that, because the effects of the beautiful
are so emotionally intense addressing the onlookers directly, everyone should
experience the same feeling of pleasure (Kant, 1911, pp.41-42). And as according
to Plato (370 BCE), love occurs when someone sees beauty, the actualization of
the “aesthetic experience” resulting in feelings of pleasure, a sense of recognition
and a sense of completion through the construction of meaning, is also possible to
evoke feelings of love. Further contemplative engagement with the symbolic can
result in intense alterations of consciousness that can offer higher degrees of hidden
meanings. That is because, contemplation allows a special kind of reading to occur
by engaging with the symbolic in order to internalize it until it permeates one’s
own consciousness and becomes a ‘second nature’ (Versluis, 2004, p.60). Thus the
aesthetic experience can be regarded as a spiritual experience exhibiting qualities
of gnosis, as it is based on participatory processes that engage the imagination in
an act of communication with what is beyond rational apprehension, while at the
same time expressing participation.
The spiritual qualities of the aesthetic experience can be further understood
through the theories of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who postulated that aesthetics and
ethics are one. According to Wittgenstein, the aesthetic and the ethical are signify-
ing values with no objective referent in the external world, and thus they cannot be
expressed in propositional language, signifying the inexpressible. Their relationship
is interdependent and tautological in the sense that they are both transcendent and
they are one to the extent that the mode of being of the ethical is “showing” itself
(as explained in Stengel, 2004, p.615). As transcendent value statements, they of-
fer a perspective on the world, which can only be expressed in and through words
in the formation of language that is in ‘style’, in living practice. Style expresses
the ethical as a way of understanding life in the absolute value of the good in and
through aesthetic form, while the aesthetic form, to wit style, expresses the ethical
as an individual, yet universal, aspect of the aesthetic act (Stengel, 2004, p.617).
The uniqueness of the expression of individual style points to the inter-subjective
aspect of existence, in the necessity for bringing into life the unique expression of
the mind’s perspective of eternity, of infinity.
186
Although Wittgenstein is theorizing about the possibility of transcendent, inex-

pressible value statements being shown through the form of language, it is easy to
transpose his hypothesis into human performance and art. Through performance and
the performativity of art, the unique, individual perspective on the world is “showing”
itself as the corporeal expression of ‘divine’ imagination, which through individual
consciousness and will it is manifested in style, which is inherently symbolic. The
aesthetic and the ethical as transcendent, inexpressible values can be perceived as
signifying gnostic qualities, symbolically communicated through style.
The aesthetic experience is actualized in a psytrance event through the aesthetic
engagement with the beautiful/symbolic qualities of the different media and the
hyper-medium of the stage as a whole. It is further enhanced through the inherent
capacity of psychedelic substances to initiate the revelation of the beautiful aspects
of the world through alteration of consciousness and the engagement of the imagi-
nation, enabling a person in this way to perceive beauty in nature and experience
feelings of pleasure, love or gnosis. The conscious articulation of the contents of
gnosis through human performance and media further actualize the shamanic func-
tion of the artist by the use of archetypal symbols and universal patterns as analyzed
next through the visionary experience.
Visionary Experience
Beauty, art and psychedelic substances, when experienced in combination first in-
duce an aesthetic orientation conducive to an aesthetic experience, which can then
transform itself into a visionary experience. According to Huxley, visionary experi-
ence reveals the world as a mystery full of new forms that emanate from thought,
intuition and imagination, offering new insights and meanings to the experiencers
(as elaborated in Partridge, 2005b, pp.91-92). Visionary alterations of consciousness
are characterized by the psychological phenomenon of “transliminality”, referring to
an openness to images, ideas and feelings arising from within the mind, the world,
or both, a condition inculcated by participation and enabling creative inspiration
(Baruss, 2006, p.16).
Music induces flow, while rhythmic music, as in the case of an incessant electronic
drum beat, has an increased capacity to induce and enhance flow states, serving as
the vital link for bridging separate realities and dimensions, assisting in the passage
from one consciousness state to the other (Dobkin de Rios & Katz, 1975, p.65).
This is because music has the capacity to release material from the unconscious by
invoking alterations in consciousness in its own right, supporting the emergence of
mental imagery. Thus music is transliminal, and, when contemplated from an esoteric
perspective, it can be seen as a divine medium, operating as a threshold between
the material and the immaterial, the exoteric and the esoteric, the spiritual and the
187
symbolic, connecting mind, body and spirit (Gouk, 2006, p.811). In combination
with psychedelics, with their capacity to dissolve the boundaries of the ego, the
inherent structure of music fills in the void in the consciousness of the individual
and provides new structures for consciousness to follow.
Furthermore, music immerses the listeners in virtual worlds, paralleling qualities
of space and motion through the psychosomatic experience (Pladott, 2002, p. 2).
Sound penetrates through the ears into the body and is perceived as having specific
directionality. Synthesized electronic sounds projected through stereophonic equip-
ment allow greater control over the apparent reception of the directionality of music,
enabling the immediate reception of sound without intermediary interference. In
addition, electronic music has the capacity to generate the perception of space be-
yond the realm of natural space, and this is actualized by the use of effects such as
panning, reverberation and scalar value changes in volume, pitch and timbre; effects
unique to psychedelic trance music that cannot be replicated in traditional acoustic,
instrumental, music production (Pladott, 2002, pp. 16-20). Thus, the motions and
spatial qualities of psytrance music are perceived as creating a reality, which tran-
scends the boundaries of ordinary motion directionality and physical space. What
is perceived is a multi-dimensional arena of vectors, motions, and spaces realized
in time and mediated through electronic music.
This intrinsic capacity of music to generate perceptions of motion and space
can be further understood in terms of “synesthesia”, a neurological condition in
which a stimulus received in one sensory modality elicits a sensory-perceptual
experience in another (Harrison & Baron-Cohen, 1994). In a psytrance event, this
synesthetic experience is accompanied by the other media technologies, with the
colorful participants positioned in and around the stage, synchronizing themselves
with music in their dancing. In addition to contributing in an artificial way to the
co-creation of an ephemeral alternate reality through lighting effects and psychedelic
video projections, adding more movements, colors and vectors in the environment,
visual media using flowing movements juxtaposed with sharp repetition, and ef-
fects resembling perceptions experienced in altered states of consciousness further
enhance the visionary experiences of the participants. From an esoteric perspec-
tive, the performativity of technological-digital media and their intrinsic qualities
of blending the material and immaterial (spiritual, cultural and social) dimensions
render them ‘spiritual technologies’, potentiating the experience of gnosis through
their promise of ‘salvation from materiality’ and self-divination (Davis, 1998). Thus,
visual media such as screens, lasers and video projections are not only able to cre-
ate, recreate or closely simulate visionary experiences, but they also comprise and
represent other dimensions of reality mediating information coming from beyond.
In the hypermedium of the stage, the physical external images and their materiali-
ties, together with the visual media contents and their immaterial qualities, become
188
Figure 3. Let’s Trance! Created by Vedava & Gatekeeper www.hydrozen.info
interwoven with individual visions and intangible alternate realities. This contributes
to the creation of an “extra-ordinary” time-space continuum, which overwhelms,
immerses and guides the participants through hyper-mediations.
When actualizing the romantic/shamanic function according to the intentions of
the creators, the technological and artistic media of a psytrance gathering commu-
nicate gnosis indirectly through symbolic visual forms and auditory samples, the
latter acting as the common referents for the diverse participants and thus revealing
transpersonal aspects of the collective imagination. Collective imagination manifests
itself through contemporary mythologies and the fantasies that are articulated through
popular media in the context of occulture. Science fiction stories, images and nar-
ratives in the form of films, TV- series, documentaries and radio all delve into the
paranormal, the imaginative, the ancient and the futuristic, and they feature through
vocals, fashion, visuals and event décor as coherent cultural signifiers and fragments
of the collective memory and imagination in the stage/dance-floor of psytrance.
According to Jeffrey Kripal (2011, p.6), science fiction has been born out of the
paranormal experiences of its creators, who by means of imagination and through
art transform the paranormal – with its gnostic implications – symbolically into the
fantastic, in this way reflecting, refracting, and exaggerating the real-world possi-
bilities for gnosis. Science fiction’s symbolic qualities can be regarded from this
perspective as artistically expressing contents of the collective unconscious, or the
esoteric contents of humanity’s imagination, that, through their re-mediation in
different media and individual style in the hyper-medium of the stage/dance-floor,
participate in the co-creation of the visionary experiences of the participants.
189
Mystical Experience
By first inducing the aesthetic experience, followed by the visionary experience,

the end goal of a psytrance event can be the ultimate experience of gnosis in the
form of a mystical experience, in which from a secularized point of view, in terms
of a structural ritual or a rite of passage, a sense of unity and oneness with the
whole congregation occurs (Turner, 1969, p. 94). Technically speaking, this sense
of oneness becomes realized through the synchronization of the physiological and
psychological movements of the participants by harmonizing the alpha/theta waves
in the brain in sympathy with the orchestration of body and media with the flow
of music (Siever, 1997). This synchronization is called ‘entrainment’; occurring as
a collective altered consciousness state, a communal trance and ecstasy perceived
as a ‘state of transcendence’, a state superior to ordinary experience, accompanied
by sublime feelings of joy, completion and self-validation (Baruss, 2006, p.187).
States of transcendence relate to “peak” experiences that, according to Maslow,
occur as spiritual events where the unitive consciousness or b-cognition allows for
the experience of oneness with the whole, thus being transformative and meaningful
(Mashlow, 1970). Maslow’s listing of peak experience characteristics overlap with
characteristics identified by Walter Pahnke in his analysis of mystical experiences
occurring during alterations of consciousness invoked by the use of psychedelic
substances (Baruss, 189-190). Many of these characteristics also overlap with
Shrader’s investigation into mystical experience such as the sense of unity, direct
insight, space-time distortion, transiency, ineffability and others (Shrader, 2008).
From a secularized perspective, communal rituals are understood as symbolic
actions that maintain the integrity of community, affirming a sense of group soli-
darity (Mead, 1934; Turner, 1969; Durkheim, 1976). But in shamanic terms, rituals
can be understood as the external enactment of internal events (Drury, 1995, p.32),
expressing inner tensions and anxieties, which are resolved through a constrained
physical manifestation (Loudon, 1959). From a Jungian perspective, the internal
events are parts of the spiritual journey into the collective unconscious, the deeper
layer of the psyche, where in primordial forms our ancestral instinctive heritage can
be encountered as the archetypes. For Jung, the mystical experience is the “experi-
ence of the archetypes themselves” as projections of the psyche, an experience that
restores psychological health and allows for a deeper understanding of the soul, dur-
ing a process he named the “transcendent function”, referring to the reconciliation
of the conscious and the unconscious aspects of the self (Jung, 1969, p. 110 Miller,
2004; Fontana, 1993). As a mode of performance, ritual, like play, is participatory
in its nature but the difference from play lies in intention and belief in the power
of the ritual that in religious terms can maintain or restore the balance between the
human and divine worlds. During ritual, people engage the powers of the imagina-
190
tion, communing with hidden powers and dimensions of nature, but the performative
consciousness of the acting ‘as if’ that characterizes secularized performances is
not clearly delineated (Schechner, 1985), because in ritual as in children’s play, to
‘act’ is to actually ‘do’ what is supposed to be acted out.
The technognostic process culminates in the induction of the mystical experience
as the experience of the contents of the collective unconscious that can manifest
the co-created and ephemeral spiritual realms reflecting humanity’s evolving self.
This experience, akin to an erotic/sexual experience, represents the ultimate form
of participation. The ritual dimension of the event harmonizes the collective inten-
tion for contacting and revealing hidden aspects of the world through individual and
collective imagination. Acting as media themselves and performing the self through
acting ‘as being’, sailing between imaginative realities and physical spaces, mixing
individual visions with common occultural referents, dissolving their ego boundar-
ies, re-uniting with the whole and experiencing the sacred immanence and love, the
participants simultaneously become artists, visionaries and mystics.
In addition, the actualization of the technognostic process can be perceived as a
mystical experience in its own right as individual and collective gnosis is individually
and collectively mediated through the process of ‘trance-mediation.’ This process
refers to the duration, during which individual, collective and divine imagination
actualize the romantic/shamanic function, co-creating the new and manifesting it
symbolically through media and performance. Symbolically speaking, the hyperme-
dium of the stage actualizes a hypermediated, embodied and imaginal technognostic
performance, expressed through style and media according to individual perspec-
tive on the world, realizing momentarily full participation in all aspects of reality.
What ideally occurs is a co-creation and identification with the myth (ancient and
contemporary) through its embodied actualization in the dance-floor/stage. From
there the balance between the individual and collective Self can be restored, trig-
gering the awareness of responsibility towards life, Nature, society and the planet
that can be disseminated to the rest of the world through media technologies and
human performance, ideally expressing the manifestation of the aesthetic and the
ethical and a practiced, transartistic spirituality.
PARTICIPATION AS A HYPOTHESIS
Duality is an inherent quality of human experience. Since our moment of birth into
this life, our physical body delimits our individuality and personal consciousness,
acting as a barrier between the self and the world. But through the body, in which
the change of different psychophysiological patterns affects alterations of conscious-
ness, the esoteric – the ‘έσω’ (eso), the inside – is possible to unite itself with the
191
exoteric – the ‘έξω’ (exo), the outside. The esoteric and the exoteric exceed human
finitude, but the finite body can operate as the portal between these dimensions.
Embodied consciousness is the ‘principal’ of participation through which duality
is overcome and becomes Oneness.
In the 21st century we have learned enough lessons from our written history and
we now are experiencing the consequences of causality, materialism and seculariza-
tion. Psychedelic substances offer us the direct experience of gnosis, triggering the
expression of participation in large groups of people. In conjunction with the par-
ticipatory qualities of media technologies, namely their playfulness, personalized
features, interactive processes and instant communication capabilities of connectiv-
ity, the fruits of participation have started to be shared and disseminated all around
the world. The participatory qualities of art further allowed the fruits of participa-
tion to be expressed and articulated in a safe context, in a distinct participatory
domain of human activity within the secularized society. In addition, on the thresh-
old of the new millennium, psytrance was born through the participatory combina-
Figure 4. Participation Created by Vedava & Gatekeeper www.hydrozen.info
192
tion of all the aforementioned aspects of mediation and performance in society,

which through its technognostic potential, can affect and express participation as
the unification of reason and imagination, the esoteric and the exoteric, the imma-
terial and the physical, all combining to partake in human (un)consciousness, from
where goal directed action emanates.
Thus through technognosis, the hypothesis of participation becomes ‘participa-
tion as a hypothesis’, a new paradigm for civilization involving the transformation
of ways of thinking, imagining and acting in the world individually and collectively,
manifesting the true Self and actualizing a purpose in the evolution of the universe
and with the universe. But all depends on the ‘participatory intention’.
TOWARDS A HYPER-ECOSOPHY
The technognostic process, through the performativity of the experience of gno-

sis and the actualization of participation, operates as an assemblage of singular
events that trigger fundamental changes in the nature of human consciousness and
existence. Change can be affected by singular events from which infinite possibili-
ties can become actualized, unveiling new directions for action and forming new
relations between individuals and the different aspects of society, culture and the
world. The hyper-mediations and performances/performativities that participate in
the realization of a psytrance event constitute symbolic examples of how different
co-existing environments are able to function from an aesthetic-ethical perspective
and towards an aesthetic-ethical outcome.
The study of environments is known as ecology, and according to Felix Guattari
(2000) our world, as experienced from a human perspective, operates in and in-
between three different interrelated ecological environments, which co-create and
co-constitute all aspects of our existence. Guattari conceptualized the three environ-
ments as three ecological systems: three ecologies concerned with the movements
and intensities of evolutionary processes as auto-referential, existential assemblages
that engage in irreversible durations (Guattari, 2000, pp.40-44). He differentiated
between the mental, the social and the machinic/environmental ecologies, which
he proposed to study through ‘ecosophy’. Ecosophy refers to an aesthetic-ethical
engagement with the ethico-political articulation between the three ecologies, while
its aesthetic-ethical aspect renders ecosophy an artistic process that tries to capture
existence in the very act of its constitution. Through ecosophical practices, humans
can operate as artists, co-creating the self and the whole of life through the beautiful
and the ethical and thus for the good.
193
Taking a media perspective, some authors have argued for the existence of a
fourth ecology separated from the natural environment and constituted as a ‘media
ecology’ (Levinson, 1997). Thus, in addition to the mental, social and environ-
mental ecologies, there also exists a distinct media ecology, because technology
has increasingly become an indispensable aspect of everyday human experience.
Taken together, the four ecologies participate in the actualization, re-invention and
performative, mediated co-creation and constitution of the contemporary and future
hyper-environment of planet earth.
Although Guattari approached these ecologies from a materialist viewpoint, it
would be useful and interesting to examine them from a participatory perspective.
The stage of psytrance offers the actual and conceptual space through which the
four ecologies interact to effect participation. Thus, from an ecological perspective,
participation can be constituted as an ecosophical paradigm and technognosis as an
aspect of its functional implementation.
Being a hypermedium, the stage can be first analyzed through a media ecological
perspective, where different mediations and medialities occur. Processes like inter-
mediality, transmediality, remediation and, as mentioned before, trance-mediality
are central to the technognostic process; but again, taking into consideration the
fundamental role of consciousness in articulating and receiving information, and
thinking of the body, the open mind, imagination and every aspect of the external
and internal environments as carriers of information mediating between material
and immaterial realms, the concept of media ecology presents itself as a candidate
for consideration as a hypermedia ecology.
In this overarching hypermedia ecology all the other three ecologies participate. A
further examination of the relations among and between the four ecologies in terms
of hypermediations, starting from the stage of psytrance and through participation,
can further constitute a hyper-ecosophy, when we recognise and accept the idea that
hidden forces participate in all aspects of existence. A participatory mental ecology
that co-creates reality through the engagement of reason and imagination; a par-
ticipatory social ecology which, through embodied action, expresses the collective
mental ecology; a participatory environmental ecology that views the whole natural
environment as alive, manifesting its hidden aspects through science, technology,
beauty, art and embodied alterations in consciousness; and finally a hyper-media
ecology that articulates the other three ecologies together with itself in everyday life
from an aesthetic-ethical perspective. The hyper-ecosophy can offer us the means
for analyzing and actualizing the paradigm of participation in all aspects of human
experience so that the world of the future will be manifest. Further research on how
psychedelic trance culture participates in the hyper-ecosophy could potentially reveal
ways humanity can aspire to a hyper-civilization.
194
CONCLUSION
Psychedelic trance gatherings combine methods and techniques from the ancient
beginnings of human culture with the most contemporary and state-of-the-art tech-
nologies, creating unique processes that for the first time in written history are able
to affect non-violent fundamental changes and transformations in large masses of
people. The involvement of psychedelic substances and alterations of consciousness
in the experience of psytrance potentiate a spiritual dimension, which traditional
cultural research and methodologies are not equipped to account for as a total phe-
nomenon. This means, participatory and multidisciplinary post-modern approaches
comprising rational criticism and embodied gnosis are necessary for the substantive
understanding of the processes involved in a psytrance event, as well as for avoid-
ing the spreading of false, and damaging, information about what is actually taking
place in these gatherings.
In contrast to techno-mysticism, which seeks, in an inclusive way, to conceal all
the esoteric processes involved, as well as the contents of the mystical experiences,
technognosis enables the collective experience and the manifestation/articulation
of the contents of the different qualities of gnosis, to be spread in the world. The
contents of this gnosis constitute symbolic information that partake in the shaping
of existence and of our own psyche, although the dominant forces and our current
paradigm have dismissed and rejected them as fallacy. The organizers of psytrance
events are those with the heaviest responsibility towards the culture. If they ex-
ploit psytrance purely for commercial gain, prostituting its spiritual potential, they
instantly destroy all the ancestral endeavors that have led humanity to its current
evolutionary state and squander our heritage of gnosis existing in the collective
unconscious. The concept of technognosis needs courage and conscious intention
for its full implementation, as it needs faith and education as necessary prolegomena
for its realization; but most importantly it needs a humble and sincere orientation.
It finally invites further conceptual and actual participatory contribution in order
to realize what it really potentiates.
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QQCT-61H5-CL3F-FVQ3 PMID:15468747
A Religion: It is religion that has taken the form of a social institution.
203
Alterations of Consciousness: Patterns of physiological, cognitive and experi-

ential events or psychophysiological conditions occurring in the flux of conscious-
ness. They include, among others, sleep, trance, ecstasy, flow, peak and mystical
experiences; strong emotions, daydreaming and immersion, as well as pathological
conditions such as dissociation and schizophrenia.
Ecstasy: An altered consciousness state without a clear definition but derived
etymologically from the Greek word ‘ekstasis’ (έκσταση), meaning ‘entrancement’,
‘astonishment’ or ‘displacement’. In indigenous societies it is associated with states
of possession or with “enthousiasmos” (=filled with god). Its clear differentiation
from trance states remains open to discussion.
Esotericism: Explained here from a typological perspective, it refers on the
one hand to certain types of spiritual or religious activities related to the notion of
secrecy and to ways of attaining gnosis through direct experience; on the other hand,
it refers to a structural, inner dimension of religion and spirituality as its true core,
opposed to its merely exoteric or superficial dimensions as exemplified in social
institutions and official dogmas.
Flow: An ‘optimal’ experience and a common consciousness state that occurs
spontaneously and is characterized by a deep sense of enjoyment. It is achieved
when a person becomes so involved in an activity that their concentration maintains
a balance in relation to challenge and skill, leading to feelings of inner fulfillment
when the goals of the activity are clear. It occurs during engagement with imagina-
tive performative activities, such as singing and dancing and through engagement
with different media.
Immersion: A common consciousness state referring on the one hand to psy-
chological and mental involvement or total absorption in alternative worlds (e.g.
thoughts, fantasies, book narratives, musical compositions etc.); on the other hand,
and in relation to digital media environments, such as virtual realities, video games,
installation arts etc., it refers to the sensory experience/perception of being submerged
(being present) in an electronically mediated environment.
Liminality: A threshold state or a state of transition during which an individual
or a group become detached from earlier fixed points in social structure and indi-
vidual/collective identity, from where ‘the new’ is born.
Mysticism: Arising from the Hebrew ‘mu’ referring to a closed mouth, it is a
practice or religion based on epistemological individualism and related to secrecy
and the ineffable. In Christian contexts it refers to the manifestation of the divine
plan of salvation Jesus Christ comprehended by means superior to rational knowl-
edge, while after the 16th and 17th centuries it appeared as designating a total unitive
experience of the ultimate presence of god in man.
204
Performance: An act of showing where someone assumes the role of the per-
former and someone the role of the observer in a shared communicative act.
Religion: Any symbolic system, which influences human action by providing
possibilities for ritually maintaining contact between the every-day world and a
meta-empirical framework of meaning.
Spirituality: Any human practice that maintains contact between the everyday
world and a meta-empirical framework of meaning by way of the individual ma-
nipulation of symbolic systems.
Trance: An altered consciousness state that subsumes a variety of different
psychological phenomena while lacking a clear definition. During trance states,
the appearance of awareness is present but characterized by involuntarily behavior
and decreased environmental responsiveness, exhibiting great degrees of absorption
and intensity in aspects of alternative/imaginative realities.
205
206
Chapter 9
The Paradox of Self
in the Imagination
of Goa Trance:
The Trancer
Sara Constança
Independent Researcher, Portugal
ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the first part of the investigation in regards to the experience
of self in the Goa Trance dance-floor. The author analyzes the paradox of self in a
phenomenological scope without going to deep into philosophic concepts but deep
enough to give a sufficient basis to understand the arguments of the next chapter
with same title and different subtitle. After dealing with the self, a notion of what is
that we call real is then put forward within a framework from the Portuguese poet
Teixeira de Pascoaes. This will also be in the context of an analyses of the Pythagorean
tetractys in order to understand what can be said that is or is not existence in a
conceptual stand point. This will set forward the necessary basis for understanding
what is happening with the pure trancer in the Goa Trance dance-floor.
“γνῶθι σεαυτόν” (gnowthi seauton)

Know thy self
Phemonoe
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch009
The Paradox of Self in the Imagination of Goa Trance
INTRODUCTION
The Psychedelic Trance music and festival scene opens doors to quite a few philo-
sophical problems, in the way the dance-floor experience makes us question and
think about our notions of self and reality. Because this is always present in the
Goa Trance Dance-Floor, before being able to properly analyse Goa Trance and
it’s very particular Dance-Floor, we need a philosophical analyses on what the
self is and how we dwell in its paradox so that everyone can understand the ways
in which this is relatable to reality or what we have as a notion of real. This is the
grounding basis from where a sound philosophical approach can explore that which
is the very foundation of Trance and subsequently Psychedelic Trance. The Indian
state of Goa is where it all started in the seventies with the Psychedelic Rock of the
hippies progressively becoming Proto Goa Trance during the eighties, giving rise
to Trance and Goa Trance in the late eighties and early nineties. The music used in
the eighties was mainly electronica and synthpop which the DJs from that time cut
extensively to remove the lyrics, extending the more psychedelic repetitive parts
making for something resembling a ritual trance experience (Mothersole, 2010,
April 14). Because they had inherited the psychedelic culture of the hippies which
moved to Goa during the seventies, the psychedelic influence had to be present.
Psychedelic Trance eventually became the world wide definition of the more specific
designation of Goa Trance as a way to distinguish it from Trance. Today we have
many genre subdivisions from what started by just being Goa Trance or the trance
from Goa. To understand the role that Goa Trance plays in the paradox of self, we
will first start by investigating the trancer.
THE PHENOMENA OF SELF
Persona
Vision is our main sense and the window to our innermost experience of self but we
insist in hiding the object of our perception under extra perspectives and ideas that
don’t actually add to the thing as it necessarily is. Be it an outer or inner object of
our self-perception, this process of trying to find who we are blocks us from know-
ing it. The development of comfortable ideas and practice of defence behaviour
mechanisms to protect and show to others that we know who we are creates our own
delusions. We trick ourselves and adopt matching personas (Jung, 1989) to produce
the empathic levels required for connecting with others in a conceptual standpoint,
building up the minimal confidence which allows for the exchange of trust. This is
done on emotion, taste and interest, coming from personal notions of self or from
207
other selves with whom we have some kind of affection; adopting traits and shared
cultural experiences and what we think the self might be in our psychological un-
derstanding. We eventually end up hiding ourselves in the process, as if we’re trying
to run from who we are, searching for something we believe to be more interesting
or appropriate, forgetting there’s nothing more appropriate then who we genuinely
are and how that is more interesting than any of the other versions we create for
our own being, in its own relation to and with all others in the world. We must be
honest! We have to come clean and really observe these innermost experiences to
get to know our own true self. We have to see!
Mind
The sense of vision is so important and so primordial for us that we use its name to
express other levels of contemplation such as the mental ones. We say that we see
either with our eyes or with our mind. The perceptual object of vision is the visual
and the perceptual object of the mind is the entity (Ferro, 2001). Mindfulness is
having the full presence of the entity. When we have perceived an entity we say that
we have seen it. Contemplating with the mind is to see within. Only when we have
the entity of contemplation clear within we can really see it. In eye vision we don’t
need to have the visual object within to see it. It may be in front of us, we see it
outwardly and we don’t yet have it within. Eye vision without mental contemplation
is superficial, it stays in a skin level and misses out on everything contained by the
surface. So, when we say that we really need to see something we’re not just talk-
ing about the sensory organ of vision, we’re talking about the mind. When seeing
with the mind we see within and when seeing with the eyes we see without. It’s the
difference between extraordinary and ordinary vision. The visual is part of what the
perceivable entity emanates but while we have not yet dwelled introspectively, we
won’t have the perceivable entity realised in itself. Which doesn’t mean that having
a perceived entity is having perceived the entity. Appearances are everywhere and
they are very deceiving (Kirk, Raven & Schofield, 1994). We can never be sure we’re
not seeing an illusion (Descartes, 2000). With the visual object we have something
concrete in front of us and that gives us a certain level of confidence in what we
see with our eyes. Light reflects off the surface of what we look at and comes into
our retina, but this is tricky because most of the time we don’t really get what the
object is, we just think we do because we’re able to form some sort of understand-
ing. What comes through our eyes is very convincing but it doesn’t have to be true.
With a mindful attitude towards seeing we tend to stay in contemplation of what
things might be beyond what they appear to be (Trungpa, 1976). So, in order to
find ourselves we need to go beyond what we seem to be. We have to see within!
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Perception
Our first and foremost contact with the world is made through the eyes (Aristotle,
1995, 1997) and yet we don’t really see what we have in front of us but rather what
we make of things (Husserl, 2000). And we feel such great confidence in the per-
ceptive produce of what we look at that this becomes more real than reality itself.
Interpretation becomes imperative in the search of significance and understanding
of everything around us, it is the medium with which we think we need to be in
relation with in order to build and maintain a comprehensive body of references. If
we go deeper into the understanding of what things are by themselves and not just
what we tend to make of them for various reasons, through all sorts of interpreta-
tion, the objects of perception will start to feel otherworldly. Understanding what
the objects are by themselves won’t put them distant from us, on the contrary, but
when getting closer to what we’re used to, they become different. If we genuinely
make a phenomenological effort to see what a certain object in front of us is in itself
without our interpretation and then succeed at doing that, this object which once
was the obvious phenomena we could interpret and hold as a reference or confront
with our reference system, becomes an unveiling mystery. We lose ground and go
‘out of our depth’. We have the habit of expecting that perceptual objects will fall
into place and order within the system of what we believe to be reasonable and
coherent. Without interpreting what we see it’s very hard to find any coherence in
the phenomena and we even start feeling uncomfortable (Trungpa, 1988). Even the
word we once had so familiar for an object may start to feel strange when seeing its
phenomena as it is and not as a produce of our interpretation and attributed function.
Looking at a black shining shoe under the closed curtains of a window will imme-
diately make us see the window, even if we don’t see it directly, and this is because
we can see it in the reflection of the shining shoe. This recognition of the window
in the shoe is the result of a very complex system of perception with interpretation
of references, including advanced geometry and optics. If we look at the shoe as
phenomena we will only see a white spot in the middle of the black and not the
window (Ponty, 1999). It could be white paint… To recognize the window we need
to know about reflection and how it works, we need to know what a window is and
how light comes through it, and this is just an intermediate level of getting closer
to the phenomena. To really see the phenomena without any interpretation is like
seeing something we never saw before (Heidegger, 1962). It’s nothing like what we
thought it would be and it comes up as an odd thing that by its own very simplicity
feels quite weird. In a phenomenological stand point on a familiar object, we trade
the previous comfortable notion of a corresponded reference with something totally
209
new, accompanied by the feeling of having lost the understanding of what it’s for.
We label everything and conceptualize relations of correspondence in a coherent
system. This is a by-product of learning a language.
Language
When learning a language from a non-discursive stand point, just like we do in a

young age, in order to be able to gather and relate information in groups of refer-
ences with attributed signs for oral or written speech, so that we can communicate
in society, we trade our natural perception system for an artificial one. We have to do
that if we want to keep any functional integration in the current human civilization.
And then we develop this to a point in which the distance to our natural view is so
big that it’s very hard to see things more naturally as they are before being tinted
by our surges of interpretation (Wittgenstein, 1949). Learning a language turns us
into interpretation machines with machines inside of machines (Deleuze & Guat-
tari, 2004) that work for a semiology without end. We keep on adding and adding
layers on layers of conceptual dust to shape our own expectations of what we think
things ought to be for a reasonable understanding. Making a relative and coherent
sense of it all. Instead of trying to open what the objects of our perception truly
are by unveiling their secrets, one by one, in a slow and patient endeavour that will
eventually take us there, bringing us closer and closer at each step (Husserl, 1994),
we prefer the quick route of having instant answers at hand. The inclusiveness of a
coherentist point of view (Quine, 1995) is more than enough for most people; we
don’t really need more than a certain level of coherence to make all our data work
logically, regardless of its true or false conclusions. Things need to fall into place
and they do to a certain point, we can make it work, or at least we think we do and
keep adding more and more conceptual dust.
Developing an alternative to discursive language is not an easy task, because for
us to communicate and function as a societal community with common languages, we
develop referential relationships through conceptuality. We use labels as if they were
coordinates in a map of references and create a fractal of narratives with branches
coming out of branches ever so more complex (Baryshev, 2002). And we have to
rely on conceptual access in order to progressively get rid of it and finally achieve
freedom from artificial conceptions and fabricated perspectives (Deleuze, 2002).
Only by doing so we are able to evolve and ascend to higher states of existence.
But we need a glimpse of light to clean all the conceptual dust that is blocking our
natural view (Trungpa, 1995). These narratives can be used to walk the path back
to the source by removing the sandstorm glasses in order to see with clean eyes and
remove all those particles blocking our access to what things are by themselves.
210
Fear of the Unknown
But things don’t like to lend themselves to their pure understanding and because of
that we create a myriad of ways to catalogue and conceptualize every object so we
can deal with them all. We’ve developed such an insecurity in our pure abilities that
we can only trust reasoning and if we’re not able to do a proper reasoning enabling
us to get closer to our own pure selves, free from artificial elaboration, we end up
crystalizing our conclusions about us, others and the world around us, upon more
conceptualization than it would be wise. Instead of using conceptual thought to get
closer to the thing itself, we use it to protect ourselves from the fear we don’t even
want to imagine by eliminating everything that might represent a risk (Trungpa, 1988).
If there is even the slightest risk that we might have to be dealing with something
unknown, we avoid crossing this very thin membrane as much as we can. But if the
unknown is unknown we should not jump into conclusions before knowing it, and
because we’re afraid of what we don’t know we keep the unknown in its unknown
state and therefore we’ll always be kept from knowing it. Who or what keeps us
from diving into the unknown, one might ask? One could say that it is fear and that
it is fear of our selves! We are in an sort of unending paradox loop: this fear for the
self that was already created by its individual holder, in order to avoid the fear of not
knowing who we are, is the fear itself responsible for the rise of an unknown in the
first place because the first of all of the unknowns is that self we fear not knowing.
If we embark in the diaspora of crossing all the layers of self to cut through to our
pure self and see who we really are, then there is no more reason to have fear for
anything in the first place because if we are able to really know who we are there
will be no more unknown to fear (Nietzsche, 1998). We can always rely on our own
pure self if we know it. Unless we believe there’s no pure self and then this is the
first step into the mischiefs of the unknown, because if there is no pure self to aid
us in getting rid of the unknown, going beyond the relative selves we stack on one
over the other in layers, will always feel like going deeper into the unknown. This
can be very scary and move us away from any disposition to find ourselves. It may
be as simple as that (Trungpa, 1988). If we are firm in the belief that there is no
pure self we don’t even care to explore it because there is no point to it… and then
if we try doing it in this state of mind, we really get submerged into the fear of the
unknown. If we manage to find a way to avoid the usual expectations that we place
on the next layer as we unveil the one in front of us, and in doing so we can deal
with the prospect of a possible unknown, avoiding the build-up of fear from fear,
until we find an answer to who we are in this ancient quest, then we might really
be able to know our selves (Nietzsche, 2000).
211
Illusion
We run from the unknown as if we knew it was going to swallow us full, not realis-
ing that by fighting it in this way we only get deeper in its throat. We are actually
being digested into the illusions that we create out of fear, stuck in the paradox that
will only be overcome if we go beyond its own logic. But to go beyond the logic of
the paradox we have to give it up. We have to be able to go beyond conceptuality
if we want to break through. Yes, we are in the midst of a sophisticated language
system and we need conceptuality to navigate through it, but we must use it wisely
so we can see beyond it and find the thing as it is and not just a mirror of our own
confabulations. The comfort-zone of illusions is the reason for the discomfort-
zone of reality. We give up reality to build up the illusion of a common language
for the impression of communication (Wittgenstein, 1949) in social community
and comfort in self-consciousness. And this is not bad, it even is natural, we all do
it and civilization as we know it would not be possible without it. Nonetheless it
invariably takes us from the phenomena as it is in itself and submerges us into the
corridors of psychology (Heidegger, 1962). When in fact, if we look at it deeply, the
end point of psychology is actually to eliminate itself because if we keep interpret-
ing everything and don’t go deep into what we are interpreting, free from all those
layers of interpretation, we will never find a real answer, an answer that can prevail
as knowledge. If we do not resort to some sort of phenomenological reduction we
will never achieve reality by itself (Husserl, 2000) and even if we find that to be
impossible, at least we get close to it. Don’t we want to know or at least get close
to know who we are? Can we do that? Are we real? Is there a reality? Can we talk
of an absolute reality?
Individuation
Before going to the next point, there still remains a question unanswered… How
do we actually develop our notion of an ‘I’? According to Martin Buber the notion
of an ‘I’ in the development of our perception of self is created by the presence of
a ‘thou’. Ich und Du (I and Thou)(Buber, 1937). Our idea of a self ‘I’ is created and
maintained by the self of another self ‘I’: the other. The ‘I’ becomes the ‘thou’ and
the ‘thou’ becomes the ‘I’, they are inseparable in their making. The very young child
is not aware of itself, there is no notion of ‘I’ until that notion is developed though
the realization that there is another. The mother is many times the first other arising
(e.g.) in the throw and catch games that babies play in order to test their range of
action. Eventually they find their body is limited and there is another caching the
objects for them. The ‘I’ of the baby arises out of the ‘thou’ the other represents.
The reality is that we’re not separate from the others, we’re all the same in one very
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big being represented by several impressions of individuality on the haecceity of

our individuation (Deleuze & Guattari, 1999). So, maybe, if we can just subtract
ourselves from this divisionary becoming and fall into a moment before it, we might
see. Going beyond conceptualizations and getting closer to the thing itself as it is
like Pythagoras shows on the top of the tetractys (Iamblichus, 1818) we find only
one individuation.
A POINT OF VIEW ON REALITY
There is no doubt that there are relative realities, we all experience them and abide
to their rules so we can give and take in return, in order to build a meaningful life.
But, can we say there is one stable and unique reality? Is there one thing that can-
not be questioned?
Condition of Possibility
In our point of view there is only one thing that is absolutely non questionable and
this is the condition of possibility (Kant, 2001; Deleuze, 1994) for existence. In
this we’re not talking about a god or a deity or any kind of being but just the logi-
cal necessity that is behind the fact that this text is now being read (Wittgenstein,
2002). It is not because some entity decided that we could exist that we do exist…
It is exactly the opposite! There is an undeniable fact that we are existing in some
way, even if it’s just in imagination. There is no way of going around the fact that
there has to be a condition of possibility for us to be here, a condition of possibility
of writing and reading that ultimately will just be the condition of possibility for
existence. Even if we consider it’s all an illusion, the condition of possibility for
existence of this illusion is undeniable. That is necessarily the first principle of any
philosophical endeavour. It’s just logics, there is no opinion or belief here and this
is what we can know for sure without any doubt (Descartes, 2000). The top of the
Pythagorean tetractys.
Tetractys
The τετρακτύς (tetractys), or tetrad, — “‘(…) the harmony in which the sirens sing.’
says Iamblichus as an answer to the question: ‘What is the oracle of Delphos?’; ‘The
true source of wisdom about things (…)’”1 (Kirk et al, 1994, p.242) — is a repre-
sentation of the universe with preceding conditions of possibility. Plato identifies
these sirens with the ‘music of the spheres’ in which celestial bodies move (Plato,
1996). The tetrad is a sacred geometry triangle with ten points in four layers (Figure
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Figure 1. Tετρακτύς (tetractys), or tetrad.

(© 2014, Sara Constança Design. Used with permission.).
1 shows a τετρακτύς), divinised by the Pythagoreans who developed devotion to it

after understanding its functions, so much so that they took their initiation oaths upon
the tetrad (Iamblichus, 1818). Harmony, both musical and numeric, had for them
a cosmic significance, for the celestial bodies moved according to equations they
found on musical notes, producing a symphony (Riedweg, 2007). It is interesting to
point out, here, that in the Theban myth, Harmonia, the Greek goddess of harmony
and concord, was daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, the god of war and the goddess
of love (Grimal, 1999). Heraclito shows harmony as a perfect tension between op-
posites giving the example of the bow and the lire. (Colli, 1996; Kirk et al, 1994).
A Logical Necessity
On top of the tetrad we have the first point, on the second layer two, the third layer
has three and the fourth is comprised of four points. Rumours say that Pythagoras
had inherited this from his Egyptian masters and taken it to Greece but Iamblicus’s
study of the Pythagoreans suggests it probably is of his own creation (Iamblichus,
1818). As it was used by him and now under the light of this essay, the first point is
what we can call a condition of possibility. Not yet something in existence, just pos-
sibility. If something comes to existence it will be preceded both by the condition of
possibility for existence and non-existence (Aristotle, 1995). Existence is only possible
with a condition of possibility and in the level of its possibility existence can come
to be or not. When something comes to be it is only after not being and vice versa,
we only know that something is not there if it was. And this is not chronological
it’s just logical necessity. “In logic nothing is accidental: if a thing can occur in a
state of things, then the possibility of the state of things must already be pre-judged
in the thing itself”1 (Wittegenstein, 1922, p. 30). It could also be chronological but
at this point there is no time or any continuum yet. A possibility no longer contains
the notion of one, it’s two: affirmation and/or negation of its condition (Parmenides,
1997; Aristotle, 1995). This is the second layer of the tetractys. In the first we have
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the condition of possibility for existence and in the second we have the affirmation/
negation of its possibility. Possibility is already two fold because for one thing to
exist its non-existence is also present. There is no absolute beyond the condition of
possibility. If the second layer contains the notion of two then the first layer contains
the notion of one, it is non-duality. The oneness of all is the condition of possibility.
This may seem quite simple and is some way is but it’s not intuitive at all. We tend
to think that one is one and if only one thing exists than that is the one, but in this
logic the one is actually two and the real one is what we usually call zero. We can
talk about a zero and we can make mathematics with zero but there is no actual zero
in nature, there is only one absolute one as condition of possibility. In the end zero
is just a plain and simple one with logical anteriority to the moment from which
the possibility of existence will rise: affirmation/negation.
Affirmation
This is the becoming and it also reflects the Hegelian triad: thesis, antithesis and
subsumption (Hegel, 1990). Only now put upside down: subsumption, thesis and
antithesis; in a never-ending explosion of cosmic fractals (Baryshev & Teerikorpi,
2002). Subsumption here, put in first place, is a priori and non-dual, while put after
affirmation/negation is a posterori and subject of continuum. This a posteriori of the
Hegelian triad is the joining of both affirmation/negation in continuous alternation.
It is both one and the other interchanging like a DNA helix. First comes affirma-
tion, which is the infinite energy of Dionysos, the bull running to his target with no
second thoughts (Kerényi, 1996). And then comes the negation, which is the astute
energy of Apollo, the beautiful player jumping over the bull (Nietzsche, 1997).
Bullfights may be heirs of ancient Greece but back then it was just bull leaping. In
Portugal there is still a similar tradition but there is no jumping over the bull, the
practitioners of the pega (grab) will just confront the bull serving as target and when
the bull runs to them the objective is to stop his motion. It’s a powerful display and
the bull doesn’t get hurt in the process, very much like in ancient Greece. This is a
good example for both these energies of the Dionysian and Apollonian.
In the third layer of the tetractys we start to have what we may call time or a sort
of continuum. In sacred geometry we would draw the first point and then the second
and third, creating a simple equilateral triangle of three points, and then, the third
layer would be created by rotating down the first point on top of the triangle on the
axis of the second and third, setting the first of three points on the third layer. Our
take on this is that what first was the absolute of one, the condition of possibility
for existence, now becomes the absolute of time, which is the present. Affirmation
turns into past and negation into future, but this is not very clear… it could be the
other way around, there is no way to know which came first, though we’re strongly
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inclined for affirmation. Without a first affirmation there is no way we can even
think of negation, the non-being by itself is something we cannot think about be-
cause when thinking we’re already in the being (Parmenides, 1997). As argued in
the Peri Hermeneias this non-being can only be inferred going back to a potential
a priori to the actual being (Aristotle, 1995). The present is so minutely absolute
that we can never hold it.
Maximum Cognoscible
Aristotle describes an inverted triangle also with four layers in the first chapter
of book Alfa of the Metaphysics (Aristotle, 1995, 1997). The first on the bottom
is aesthesis. Aesthesis is the absolute moment of the present sensation happening
before being apprehended, we never witness it, unless we hold some special pow-
ers of perception that are not recognisable in most people. Maybe under the effect
of certain entheogens (McKenna, 1993) we can witness the present of what is
happening in sensation as an absolute aesthesis, but even so we doubt this is logi-
cally possible… we may get really close to it and have the impression we can do
it though. Anyway, entheogens are able to slow down the perception process to a
point that we can perceive the tiniest of details, and if under their effect one tries
to understand the whole of what is happening, it will take some time till we can
hold all the references we use, to map and understand everything on the other world
of beings around us (Strassman, 2001). Converting them from the otherworldly
faces they are into something that we can work with to build a perception. After
the aesthesis, which is the bottom layer of this inverted triangle, there is mneme
(memory). No one really understands how we go from sensation to memory, it’s
an inexplicable jump, but we do know that memory is built from the repetition of
sensations. After that there is empeiria (experience), also achieved through a jump
that results from accumulation of memory. These jumps are a mystery. And the last
step is from experience to techne. Techne is usually translated to art because its literal
translation to technique is really far from the original meaning and in the classic
times it was used to refer to art. Can also be translated to skill and this is perhaps
the best option for today because techne is a very high knowledge about a subject.
In fact, no one can say for sure that we have ever got there entirely. We are in the
metaxy, in between maximum and minimum cognoscibility (Plato, 1996). In the
level of techne there are no opinions, only knowledge, it is pure wisdom. Opinions
are formed in the level of experience and the true goal of philosophy is to eliminate
opinions in the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. But we do not hold knowledge
statically. Our level of knowledge is always evolving, what we once thought was a
known fact soon becomes an opinion as knowledge evolves into a better understand-
ing of a given data behind it. Sometimes it’s just new data we didn’t have before.
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Our level of knowledge is dynamic so the philosopher has to be wise or else it will
become something else. The philodoxos, which is the opposite of the philosopher,
is someone with an obsessive attachment to opinions, which can be quite unbalanc-
ing if the goal is to develop knowledge about a subject. Philo is usually translated
to love and this is not wrong, what may be wrong is the notion of love. In Phaedro
Plato explains that philo is a very specific kind of love, it’s that love we usually say
is crazy, a blinding love, a mania (Plato, 1997). Philia can be harmful for specific
disciplines but positive if oriented towards wisdom (Plato, 1996). Philosophy is an
obsessive attachment for wisdom in its hole, the point being to be close as we can
to knowledge. Getting back to the subject, knowledge is dynamic.
Awareness
The present is an absolute which is impossible to hold in our perception but the
past and the future are illusions. So how can this be? The past is gone, the future is
still to come and the present is an echo of what no longer is. Both past and future
are no more than illusions of memory and expectation. Memory itself is not from
the past, it belongs to the present, but we’re always a step behind just after it hap-
pened as soon as a perception can take place. We’re in the decay of memory, it’s
there we form our gross level of conscious experience through the accumulation
of perceived sense images, present on the moment of perception (Bergson, 2005).
Memory is created and develops like a living being, ages and eventually corrupts.
On opposition to what we usually think, memory is not really something from the
past but something we hold with us in the moment we ‘recall’ it. That what we ex-
perienced in the past is always relative to what we are experiencing in the present,
on the constant decay of present into memory (Husserl, 1994). Actually, the decay
of memory starts with our experience of the present. As said above, the absolute
moment of the present is not accessible, we’re not aware of what happens in the
level of aesthesis (sensation), the awareness we have from the present is always a
fraction of time after the input into our senses. Perception occurs in the future of
the sensory input we get from contact with something that marks a difference in
the flow of time. First we are in a specific configuration of body, psyche, mind,
etc. and then a moment after that we notice a slight difference, usually due to some
kind of motion. This occurs in a very short time but it’s not immediate, it will pass
through the medium of our sense organs and the brain till it comes up as awareness.
If we are to rely on our body for communication, input or output, what is going on
with our senses takes some time to reach a level of consciousness. It is our strong
conviction as author of this investigation that consciousness doesn’t happen at the
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level of the body, it passes through the body awareness of sense organs input but it
can also work without having the body as a media gatekeeper (Strassman, 2001).
Consciousness can be immediate.
Transceiving Brain
In the Bahagavad Gita from the great Hindu epic Mahabharata, the body is de-
scribed as a nine gate fortress (Vyassa, 1996). These nine gates are the doors the
body uses to be in contact with the outside world. The notion is that we’re trapped
in the body with a perception limited by our sense organs. We’re much more than
the body and our consciousness is what we can have as the highest state for our
individuation as humans. Our individual identities are coming from different states
of consciousness in relation to biological heritage and external input. But we don’t
know much about consciousness and there is a tendency for the materialistic sci-
ences to take consciousness as something produced inside or by the brain (Dalai
Lama, Benson, Thurman, Goleman, Gardner, 1999). But let’s enumerate all the
sense organs through their objects of perception before we continue exploring this
view about consciousness further. Pressure is the object of touch, flavour is the
object of taste, odour is the object of smell, sound is the object of audition, light is
the object of vision and the entity is the object of mind. The latter can have many
forms of input. There is no specific sense organ that we can point for the mind. We
could say it’s the brain and in many ways is but it may be more than the brain and
this investigation is favourable of the idea that mind is not just located in the brain.
This absence of a very clear sense organ like all the other senses have: vision/eyes,
audition/ears, smell/nose, taste/tong, touch/skin; makes us count only five senses
and then say that some of us have a sixth sense that no one really knows much about.
If we take the input of all sense organs and the brain after them, we are already
very close to having a sense organ for the mind. It can be argued that the brain is
the sense organ for the mind. Many trancers and other psychonauts, both inside
and outside the Goa Trance scene, are now sharing the thesis we’re about to put
forward. It’s likely that the brain is not only a processor of information but also a
kind of antenna, receiving data as a sort of sense organ by itself. This is of course
at the level of opinion but the shared notion with so many people around the world
gives us great confidence that this might become knowledge soon, but it’s still very
early to put it forward as knowledge. We actually have to wait for an unquestionable
position from the scientific world and we haven’t got one. Most proponents for this
thesis don’t really care if the science scene is going to embrace it or not, they just
have this very strong notion that they know it’s like this. This is so new and yet to
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be developed that this investigation prefers to leave it as a suggestion for it is only

speculation, but this is indeed a very attractive answer to a lot of phenomena that
is going on in trance parties and wherever people tend to break through into other
states of consciousness.
Efflux of Consciousness
Rupert Sheldrake has an interesting thesis somewhat related to that of Democri-

tus, the atomist from ancient Greece. “(…) our minds extend beyond our brains.
They do so in the simplest act of perception. The images are where they seem to
be.” (Sheldrake, 2004, p. 282). According to Democritus theory of perception we
send signals with our sense organs as a sort of effluxes that are emitted from all
objects, they would be sent to the object of perception and then sent back to the
same sense organ forming a perception (Burkert, 1977). His example uses vision
and how the eye is able to see so perhaps he just meant this to be the working of
vision. We only have fragments. Nonetheless this isn’t totally wrong in the sense
that we can only perceive what we know that exists. If a specific object or specific
characteristic of a specific object is not contemplated by our reference system as
was described above, there will be no input from the phenomena as if it wouldn’t
be there. If we don’t have a concept a priori for a certain object we won’t form a
perception of what that concept can refer to (Kant, 2001). We can only see what
we already know that is there. We do see something but we don’t get what’s really
there and in the demands of our need for understanding mixed with the fear of the
unknown, we end up seeing something that is not what is in front of us. We inter-
pret it as we can in order to be able to relate to it. We tend to psychologise input
data and in doing so open ourselves to erroneous perceptions (Heidegger, 1962).
Only a few of us are actually interested in going after any hint we may get that is
not yet the thing but already is beyond or is still before our projected ideation. We
have to attribute sense in order to get it and to get something outside the range of
our understanding we need to first open the mind (Trungpa, 2002). If Sheldrake is
right our consciousness is located outside of the body, in and out, within the whole
sphere of perception. Consciousness is not something produced by our brain and
even less is located there but the brain is the sense organ dealing with it. He says
that when we are conscious of something and this is, for instance, just to keep the
visual example, something the eyes are capturing outside of the body, then that,
what we are actually forming as a conscious thought of and the conscience of it, is
there, outside, and not in the brain. The brain seems to be just a very sophisticated
transceiver with a huge level for processing information. The more we can get into
our perception in a given moment the bigger our conscience will be at that moment,
extended outside and deep as our perception is able to be. But this is very complex
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and it would demand a whole essay just to develop the subject properly. What we
should be retaining at this point is the strong possibility that our brain works as an
antenna helping us send and receive information that we are not able to perceive
with the five common sense organs. This means that we should be able to com-
municate through what is called telepathy and there is no question about that for
Goa Trancers in the dance-floor. Going back to the tetractys, we were at the third
layer, with three points, in which the former is the illusion of past, the middle is the
unattainable and infinitesimal absolute of present and the latter is the projection of
expectations for the future. Past, present and future will become actualized in the
fourth layer. In the bottom of this triangle we have four points for the basic states
that will be fundamental in the composition of all natural phenomena. All matter at
some point will be in the states of plasma, solid, liquid and gas with consumption
or release of energy in between shifts of state.
The Next Realm
In Polémica sobre o Sentido da Vida (Controversy on the Meaning of Life) the Portu-
guese poet Teixeira de Pascoaes (Pascoaes, 1993) gives a spectacular account of how
the reality of our imagination comes to be. It is the relation between the realms of be-
ings in the world from the simplest to the most sophisticated, ending in a realm that
most people will not take as real or at least not as real as the others. The first realm is
the mineral world. The mineral world is quite simple and basically very close to the
elementary particles described in the periodic table, actually, it’s exactly that but with
some complexity for most cases. We do not usually find the elements isolated per se,
they are quite intertwined between themselves. This healthy mix and the principle of life,
which we’re not going to discuss because it is not the subject of Pascoaes explanation
nor the point of this investigation, is what makes up the possibility for the next realm.
The shift from the first to the second realm is done through a synthesis. The elements
that before were arranged in a random mix will be in a very specific and organized mix
in the next step, they will be subject to a synthesis that allows for the next realm to come
forward. The vegetable realm is a synthesis of the mineral realm. It’s easy to argument
a level of consciousness for the vegetable world but the mineral world can escape quite
easily the notion of consciousness. Plants have alkaloids with which we can establish a
line of communication with them (McKenna, 1993). But it’s also possible to argument
that planets have their consciousness, stars too, galaxies and so on. Nevertheless, these
would be very different types of consciousness, not at all similar to our own experience
of consciousness. The present investigation takes fruition in entertaining the idea that
every single being, sentient or not, considered to be living or not, has its own level and
type of consciousness. If we see consciousness through the eyes of Sheldrake the idea
that every single one of the Leibniz monads has a consciousness is not that strange.
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Monad
In the Monadology Leibniz defends the idea that everything is composed by monads
(Leibniz, 2001). A monad is an individual element that cannot be divided without
losing its own particular identity. This is pretty much the same thing as the atom
(Ferro, 2001) in Democritus thesis. Democritus was not talking about particles as
we know them today, he was talking about particles as they are for their intrinsic
qualities (Kirk et al., 1994). An atom for the atomist is not just the smallest particle
possible but the smallest particle still containing its own identity. For instance, if we
take water as an example here, which in chemistry terms is the smallest particle that
still keeps water properties and in that this elements identity, is not an atom but a
molecule: H2O. For Democritus H2O would be the perfect example of an atom and
this is a particle that when divided gives two very different elements with almost
opposite properties to H2O. Hydrogen is a combustible and Oxygen an oxidizer,
and their mix is what we usually use to put out the fire that could be lit with these
two elements of the water molecule. The monad is in many ways like this but there
is a big difference: the atom is usually related to a small particle and the monad,
which in its name says ‘one’ isn’t related to size, but to its individuation. The term
monad is derived from the ancient Greek word monos, which means one. This idea
of one can be found every time we identify a specific property or identity that will
only be present with a certain set of elements. A chair, for instance, is only a chair
if it has all of the three elementary parts: the legs, the base to sit on and the back
to lie upon. If we take the back from a chair we lose this monad and get another, a
chair without its back is no longer a chair but a stool. So, we cannot divide a chair
into smaller elements without losing the monad. The monad is undividable. Leibniz
spoke of many monads from the tiniest elements to the biggest. The planet Earth is
a monad, the Solar System is yet another monad that contains the monad Earth and
the Via Lactea contains both, and all these monads are contained by the monad of
the known Universe. But this is not just for material elements because as the great
rationalist put it, there are monads for every single existing thing. Everything is
composed out of monads. And no one can refute the idea that everything has its
own individuation.
Non-Theistic Pantheism
Leibniz even went as far as saying that there is a King Monad responsible for the
existence of all others and that this was for him the Christian God. In his time this
was very well received but in our view it’s very questionable, not because we believe
in it or not but because we shouldn’t need to believe for it to make sense. And there
is in fact a logical King Monad in which we do not have to believe in order for it
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to make sense, and this is the logical principle that was shown above as condition
of possibility for existence. It’s a prerequisite. Who is to say that there is no con-
sciousness in every monad? No one can say that there is but also no one can say
that there isn’t. As much sense this may make for the writer of this text and many
trancers, psychonauts and so on, it will be still nothing more than speculation. Any
and every individual thing would be in fact an individual and not just a thing, from
a quark up to the clusters of galaxies and all that can have any sort of identity like a
certain feeling, an emotion, a thought, a thought process, an idea, a possibility, etc.
Every identifiable thing that could come or relate to existence in any way would
have its own conscience. And also anything that would not be there, anything in
possibility providing that it would become some sort of monad when turned into
the action of being. We could say this theory is akin to a type of pantheism but it
would never be a theistic theory because we do not need a god/God or any gods for
this to make sense. Never the less, if it was to be the sort of gods that composed the
ancient Greek pantheon then it would make some sense, because they were more
like a romanticized ideal representation behind the psychological and natural phe-
nomena of existence and less like gods as all powerful and perfect beings. But then
most of the ancient gods and deities were like that, the difference with the Greek
ones being the fact that they were produced by a very conceptual culture. But the
gods came to be before the age of conceptuality. We’re saying that they came to be
but in reality they were created or in the least discovered to be a good system of
correspondence with the monads of the known worlds.
Imagination
Going back to Pascoaes, who is giving us the structure to develop connections

between all these notions and ideas, the next step is to work through the synthe-
sis of the vegetable world. The animal world is the product of a synthesis of the
vegetable world. The vegetables provide with the basic nutrients that the animals
need to survive, just as the minerals do the same for plants. The minerals are quite
basic in respect to having life in them, we do not even know if we can say that,
because we take them as inert matter, there is no biological life in minerals, but
considering that they may have some sort of monadic conscience, then in that case
it’s only logical to open that possibility. Our notion of life can always change with
a paradigm shift. After the animal kingdom we all know where we are going. The
human realm is a synthesis of the animal realm. We are animals, yes, but we are
not just animals, and the difference is not due to our developed language because
many other animals have developed quite sophisticated languages. The difference
is also not the ability to use tools because we know that some mammals, usually
apes, not only use tools but they categorise them in order to have precise tools for
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specific jobs and they keep them and carry them, we could even say they make a
basic non written inventory. Language is clearly not what sets humans into the next
kingdom. We have something special and this is very easy to show, we just have to
think about what we are doing now. The investigator is pouring out her imagina-
tion in words and the reader is building up an image through these words, and this
is something other animals don’t do. The difference is not language the difference
is imagination. But even so the boundaries are not very clear. According to Marc
Fernandez Morron, a cetacean biologist that studies whales and dolphins in Azores,
cetaceans have extremely advanced intelligence to the point of being able to produce
an imagination that might not be too different from ours, with the practice of rituals
and intricate family interrelationships (Fernandez, personal communication, Sep-
tember, 22, 2014). It is very interesting that they have a high respect for the elders.
Some species of whales from Canada will have a totally different language to that
of whales from the Azores islands, they will not be able to communicate because
they really have different languages, just like us. They could communicate but only
in very simple signs as we do when we are in a foreign country without a common
language: we communicate with gesture language. This is exactly what they will
do. There is a specific species of bottlenose dolphins, the Tursiops aduncus, which
has been studied to the point of us actually knowing scientifically that they have a
notion of self, akin to a developed social culture. They can decide what they will
learn or not from their mothers. The case scenario is the use of a sponge to capture
and open sea urchin as a delicacy. They don’t have sea urchins in their usual diet but
enjoy them enough to go to the trouble of learning such a sophisticated technique.
And this is where it gets interesting: when the mother dolphin is teaching the tech-
nique not all offspring will choose to learn the technique. This is not because they
have different abilities but because they are able to make a choice and decide what
they want to learn according to the cultural standards of their community. Spong-
ing is considered to be a female activity and only some males will decide to learn
the technique (Krützen et al, 2005). These dolphins show us that we humans are
not the only ones able to make decisions that will shape our future personalities. In
Fernandez words: “they deal with multicultural validity”. This suggests that they
might have an imagination powerful enough to create imaginary worlds, but this is
still unclear and a matter of opinion. That is what we humans do.
Evolution of Consciousness
We have an extremely sophisticated imagination that allows us to build up imagi-

nary worlds, which we’ve never witnessed before. It is a mix of worlds that we do
know, because we cannot know want we never knew before. Nevertheless, we do
take leaps into otherworldly realities unknown to us, and when we do that we feel
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lost diving in these realities for the first time, exactly because we cannot imagine
what we never had contact with before. We are there but lost without the map. This
is done with a very specific kind of information material from the plant world.
Some plants and fungi have specific alkaloids that we can read with our biological
system into perception. These plants have stories to tell us, it’s incredible what we
can find about ourselves with them. They can make us see worlds that we’d never
see without their stories. And these are not just stories, they actually give us access
to a step beyond our usual perception. These plants have been used for millennia of
human experience to build and keep contact with what the shamanic cultures call
the ancestors (McKenna, 1993). These ancestors are the dead. It is not clear what or
who we get in contact with but it is very likely that our notion of a celestial realm
was fed by these experiences. And this is the reason why we call them entheogens.
‘En*teo-’ ἔνθεος (entheos) is ancient Greek for god within and ‘gens’ comes from
the term γενέσθαι (genesthai) which means ‘to come into being’ (Montanari, 2006).
Alike the term ‘enthusiasm’ the term ‘entheogen’ translates into having a god like
presence inside, being possessed by a spirit, which may simply be seen as just a state
of mind or mind-set. This is a term which is related to the experience of spirituality.
‘Enthusiasm’ is a state in which someone is possessed by a spirit and an ‘entheo-
gen’ is a substance that can bring that into being. An entheogen can produce a god
like experience. Not that we experience ourselves as gods… we might and some
do describe that type of experience, but what happens for everyone in general is an
experience of contact with another world beyond ours (Strassman, 2001). This is
what we do with our imagination, be it with the help of entheogens or not. If we take
into account the theories coming from the psychedelic experiences of the McKenna
brothers as being right, then it’s certain that entheogens are responsible for our own
creation of a celestial kingdom and a lot more. Terence, the elder, was an interesting
author and amazing spokesman and Dennis is a peculiar ethnopharmacologist. They
postulated the idea that we have evolved from the animal kingdom into the humans
we are now through this capacity of imagination, because our very early ancestors
had experimented with psychedelic plants such as mushrooms, easily available in
nature. Terence says this gave us the ability to start developing our brains to the
point of turning them into the very powerful organs they are now. According to
him this is the reason why some apes evolved into humans. This could be! It’s not
certain nor scientific or verified knowledge, but it could actually be. It makes sense.
And this is the motto for the next step. Teixeira de Pascoaes says that the synthesis
of the human kingdom gives rise yet to another. Writing about this next realm is
very obscure because it’s above us and we don’t really have the tools to study it.
We’re very limited to do that so all that we can say from here will be pure specula-
tion. Anyway, we can study some of the phenomena that we have in our cultural
knowledge and experience of our production of imaginary worlds as are given by
224
Strassman test subjects in their communication with the vegetable realm. Pas-
coaes gives us the example of Don Quixote, not the book by Cervantes but the
character he named (Cervantes, 2005). He says that this is an existing being even
though there was never an historical Quixote. He was created by Cervantes out
of the human realm through its undeniable attraction towards spirituality. To
the psychic realm as he would say, a produce of our psychology—far beyond
the brain—perfected in superior beings. He references Quixote along with other
characters from literature like Hercules, Prometheus, Jean Valjean, etc… The
latter, he says, more spiritually lively and perfect than his creator. It’s a cosmic
metamorphosis towards the maximum power of consciousness. He connects this
idea with mass attraction. “Since man created a psychic world superior to man,
his destiny is to get closer to it, just like the destiny of a stone which is loose in
space is to fall on the earth”1 (Pascoaes, 1993, p. 117). The stone falls because
the Earth has superior mass and volume and likewise the more perfect life at-
tracts the less perfect. The human realm tends for the perfection of the spiritual
realm. He describes the evolution of the universe in empedoclean terms. “It’s
visible that the universe has great reserves of latent forces which from time to
time (in the genesic periods corresponding to the appearance of the four great
cosmic forces) will expand and awake, turning nebulous matter into star, star
into planet; stone and iron and water, etc., into tree and flower; tree into fish,
reptile, bird, mammal, human; and from this, finally, the spiritual being, which
in virtue of its identical structure to the initial ether, closes the circle of the
great metamorphosis of the universe”1 (Pascoaes, 1993, p. 120).—In his natu-
ral philosophy Empedocles proposes the idea that there are six elements in the
foundation of the universe: fire, earth, water, air, concord and discord. In fact
it’s four elements plus two forces but he includes the forces as elements. Con-
cord and discord, or love and hate, are the forces responsible for the contraction
and expansion of the four elements into their total mix or perfect separation in
four spheres. In either the results of concord or absolute discord nothing can
become, no stability is possible in the extremes of this everlasting cycle. (Kirk
et al, 1994).—After the spiritual realm there may be many other realms but we
cannot know. We can have knowledge about the realms which in consecutive
synthesis gives rise to our own and we can think about the realm that is produced
by a synthesis of ours, but we cannot even imagine the worlds beyond the one
created by our imagination. Nonetheless we should keep the premise that there
may be many after that. This is the sceptical point of view: if we cannot know
we abstain from taking a conclusion (Empiricus, 1990); and this works for both
sides, so we cannot say that there are nor that there aren’t.
225
Myth Membrane
What we should keep from this, the conclusion that this can give us as an insight
into who we are, is that each realm is defined by the next. It’s reaching the frontier
membrane from one world to the other that we may look back and understand what
the previous world was (Aristotle, 1995). When we know that we have reached a
frontier this means we have crossed it. We need to know we have reached it though,
having a feeling is not enough, this has to be a known fact or else we will only have
the opinion or illusion that we have crossed it. This is the membrane that will tell
us who we are. Each world has such a membrane. From animals to humans this
membrane is imagination, it is what sets us apart. From our realm to the next it’s
very difficult or maybe even impossible to know but there are some things we can
know and talk about. The next world is not really fully available to us so we go on
interpreting it and this has given rise to many versions, be it just popular culture
created by literature or the accumulation of religious stories. Different religions are
a good example of that. There are many views onto the next realm and they all have
things in common, the most obvious being the fact that they all have mysteries, and
this is where we stop. We dwell in these mysteries and we get a lot of input mainly
in the form of intuition, revelations and epiphanies, which are all immediate. So, it
is our conviction that the membrane from our world to the next is mythos. Myth is
the key to understand the human world just as is the door to the next. It’s the answer
to most of our questions and yet we’re not satisfied with it because it won’t give us
what we expect, which is something concrete and palpable we can feel comfortable
in the explanation. But… “The Saturn of explanation devours that which it adopts”1
(Steiner, 1993, p. 44). The mystery is resistant to explanation, it cannot be devoured
by it. If it would give in to explanation it could not be a mystery in the first place.
Mysteries are not permeable through rational scrutiny like problems are and where
those can be solved and gone, mysteries are to be experimented, revered and inte-
grated. (Kerényi, 2008). The idea of mystery is many times used as an excuse to
avoid developing the understanding of a subject which is difficult to understand or
is perhaps beyond the usual understanding of what our common languages allow.
It’s easy to just say that poetry is ineffable, because than we just don’t have to say
much more—there is nothing we can say about it. And there is some truth to it,
poetry is in fact ineffable and that is why we use it to express what we cannot say.
Myths are stories with special narratives that do not really make rational sense for
the human realm, but through that access of discursive thought which is a myth we
can actually go beyond and find a lot about ourselves without the restrictions of
conceptuality. Kant once said that “Thoughts without intuitions are empty; intuitions
without concepts are blind”1 (Kant, 2001, p. 89), and we have to agree with this,
it makes perfect logic sense in the mundanity of the human realm. If we have an
226
intuition but are not able to produce its concept it’s as if we never saw it, we can’t
communicate it; and if we can think of it but never saw it then all we think of it is
for nothing, there will be nothing to communicate. We do need both while in the
human realm, but this doesn’t mean that it is so for the next. And this is why the
mysteries are so intriguing and convincing as an access to the next realm. These
spirits we talk and write about, like Don Quixote, they do exist by themselves, but
if we keep giving them the properties of the human realm we will not really access
them, we’ll just be scratching the surface, dwelling in the membrane without looking
beyond (Pascoaes, 1993). This next world could be totally devoid of conceptuality
and if so trying to understand it conceptually will not help, it will instead block us
from experiencing it. When talking about the Sanskrit notion of shunyata as ultimate
sanity (shunyata is usually translated to ‘emptiness’ but it can also be translated to
‘openness’), Chögyam Trungpa asked his audience: “How could this ultimate san-
ity go further than conquering conceptuality and the sense of experience? Is there
something more than that? Isn’t that enough?” (Trungpa, 2001, p. 140). Myth is
perfect in this because it plays with conceptuality for the big joke it is at this level.
It holds contradictions that don’t contradict themselves. Myth is incommensurable.
Language is not that which gives us a higher animal quality making us humans;
language is what keeps us chained into the animal realm. The point of it is not to
understand but to go beyond the mediation of duality to see in clear light.
Virtual Reality
After exploring all these notions of real, what is and what isn’t, and what we can say
about it, and who we are in it, we have not yet questioned it in relation to the virtual.
What is real? Is real anything more than virtual? Is the virtual reality just a produce
of our imagination or is it a form of the real? Can we be sure that there is any reality
beyond virtuality? We will now explore some ideas on the virtual by Gilles Deleuze
(Deleuze & Parnet, 2004). The French philosopher starts by focusing the fact that
philosophy is the theory of multiplicity but he is not meaning with this that it’s the
case of a logic conjunction. He is talking about lines that stretch through possible
agencies. The amount of possibilities in this system of multiplicities is limitless. In
these multiplicities that actually are the agencies, we have what we call ‘real objects’
and ‘virtual images’. They are all present at any given moment and in any situation.
In his own words that we now loosely translate: “Any real object is surrounded by
a mist of virtual images”1 (Deleuze & Parnet, 2004, p. 179). In this mist is very
hard to find the droplet of water that is the real object among all the virtual images
and as we analysed before, we only get things in the decay of present into memory
because we’re never there when it’s happening. This is like a straw in a haystack but
this haystack is always escaping from under our feet, hence all the straws that we
227
find and put aside will change place and go back into the haystack. It’s an infinite
process and we’re not likely to find any real object. It escapes our perception as it
changes in the dynamic of memory decay (Husserl, 1994). Deleuze says this van-
ishing point is a deterritorializaton. It’s a line that doesn’t belong to a determined
territory and is not escaping from the world but instead is making it anew. As soon
as we can perceive a virtual image in our quest to find the real object, this virtual
image has already changed and there is no way we can detect it any longer. Our
own perception is plunged into this myriad of non-real images always presenting
themselves to us. This is so exactly because we have that system which is sustain-
ing itself on a coherent web of references. When two related things come together
they change into each other and gain validation with it. This is what Deleuze calls
devenir, a special kind of change in which things turn into what they get in contact
with, interchanging their beings. Devenir, a notion which he borrowed from Hera-
clitus, is a process of becoming (Colli, 1996; Deleuze & Guattari, 2004; Deleuze
& Parnet, 2004). His famous example is that of a bee and an orchid. When the bee
collects the orchid’s pollen it changes itself into the orchid and the same happens
the other way around, the orchid changes into the bee when it gets the pollen spread.
They make themselves mutually possible. And this is happening at the level of our
perception particles. He says “(…) a perception is like a particle (…)”1 (Deleuze
& Parnet, 2004, p. 179) and this can only be because the agency of a particle is
supported by a system of others around it. Memory becomes virtual right in its first
moment and extends itself into virtual layers in continual reformation. Anywhere
we look in order to build a perception immediately comes into play another cloud
of virtuals that becomes imperceptible and unconscious as recollections of diverse
orders. If we cannot really and effectively find a real object in the mist of virtual
images then we might as well use our prodigal imagination to go beyond this and
find solace in the mysteries.
Beyond Logic
The mysteries are and have been since immemorial times our most direct and intel-
lectually honest ‘access to the files’. It’s through the openness of myth that we’re
able to get a genuine account of who we really are. We’re those animals able to
transcend language and go beyond frontiers in the trail of mythos. But we easily
dismiss it for lacking logic and this is because we don’t see it as a correct represen-
tation of our past, present and future. Myth is dismissed so vehemently that is hard
for us to find meaning on a life with choices based on mysteries, but we forget that
logic has serious limitations. They aren’t the same in short term but in the long run
the difference is not that big. Kurt Gödel was an analytic mathematician trying to
prove that mathematics could solve and answer everything with logics and after a
228
big effort he ended up proving the contrary. If we are mathematically able to follow
Gödel’s Theorem: On Formally Undecided Propositions of Principia Mathematica
and Related Systems, we’ll find serious logic limitations. Cognitive scientist Douglas
Hofstadter says that “He presented mathematicians with the astounding and melan-
choly conclusion that the axiomatic method has certain inherent limitations, which
rule out the possibility that even the properties of the non-negative integers can
ever be fully axiomatized.” (Nagel & Newman, 2001, p. 4). When his results were
published in 1931, everyone thought he had to be wrong and hoped to find a flaw
in his findings, but time would show this was the 20th century most revolutionary
discovery of mathematics. Still today many science minded people find Gödel’s
conclusions very awkward and unrealistic, it’s hard to ‘believe’ that all these axi-
oms we learned to be true are in fact more like dogmas. And this is an unavoidable
epistemological fact if we pretend to understand the limits of knowledge. Logics has
flaws like any other human construct. Stephan Hawking gave a public lecture for
mathematics scientists titled Gödel and the End of Physics (Hawking, 2002). How
could that be? Mathematics is not really a solid base for reality nor the universal
language of nature. This is flabbergasting! But David Hume had said it before in
his proposition that we could not prove a theory of causality because it could all
just be a matter of habit (Hume, 2001). A produce of belief based on experience,
either with logos or mythos.
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Atom: Meaning ‘no parts’ it’s the smallest particle in which an element can be
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which anything could be divided while keeping their properties.
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‘discourse’ or ‘speech’, it’s the type of narrative which is bound to the principle of
non-contradiction. The term ‘logic’ is derived from the term ‘logos’.
Mythos: Transliteration of the Ancient Greek term ‘μύϑος’, meaning a certain
type of narrative not constrained to the principle of non-contradiction, which is
usually derived from oral prehistoric accounts, as well as poetry from all ages.
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Opinion: A certain type of awareness not based on knowledge but rather on
decision provided by judgment or belief.
ENDNOTES
1
Loosely translated by the author of the present essay.
233
234
Chapter 10
The Paradox of Self
in the Imagination
of Goa Trance:
The Dance-Floor
Sara Constança
Independent Researcher, Portugal
Emília Simão
ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the second part of the investigation concerning the experi-
ence of self in the Goa Trance dance-floor. The authors present and develop the
presentation of Goa Trance parties with a general view and special emphasis on
the relationship between the DJs performance and the participation of the trancers.
The genre is explained wile the connections between all participants on the party
or festival are explored, with regards to Goa Trance. We eventually come to the
conclusion that this genre facilitates a self-conscious analyses and its subsequent
non conceptual elevation towards a self which is shared in a non-egocentric expe-
rience. This investigation proposes that the DJ is not really the shaman figure that
people usually assume to be but in fact this shaman figure has to be a result of the
collective efforts that build the spirit of the dance-floor. In conclusion, we realize
that the DJ is the one which has the responsibility to keep this level of connection.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch010
“Ich würde nur an einen Gott glauben, der zu tanzen verstünde.”

I would believe only in a god that knows how to dance
Friedrich Nietzsche
INTRODUCTION
Regardless of multiple nuances which are synergistically projected and absorbed in

a dynamic between native dancers, in essence the catalysing element of the dance-
floor is music. In this, we can find and explore the fifth of four elements in which
dwell the several planes of human existence, in a harmony just as ecstatically simple
as it is quite complex, from the most basic to the very ethereal.
Did we knew while witnessing the emergence of the rave scene—the ritualizing
altars of EDM (Electronic Dance Music)—that we were propitiating paradoxical
rites between the machine and spirit? Knew we that the machine like trance (Fer-
reira, 2007) would one day project us towards spiritual trance, and that new tech-
nologies would one night turn into modern techniques of ecstasy? Today we do!
Being the sound structure similar to the minds, the auditory vibrations unite with
the psychic ones, establishing analogies between technological devices and Men, as
far as they are extensions of its nervosa and emotional system (Lopes, 1990). These
fluxes get prolonged between natives and DJ (Disc Jockey), coming and going, in
a play that keeps sending back to one and another, feeding in a harmonious logic
of instantaneous exchange of significance which may be conscious or not, underly-
ing communicational dynamics of the most various levels on the dance-floor. The
symbolic identity of the dance-floor may come in part from the mating of various
forms of altered consciousness, that we may take as alterations in states of presence
and unity in relation to what surrounds us, or is it that these altered states of con-
sciousness are after all not really altered for they are Thee consciousness in all its
embrace? Notwithstanding the elevated decibels, the silence of lyrics in the music
ends up promoting a less conceptual interpretation of the message, facilitating the
sensorial recreation of an interior world free from contents. At a certain point, the
signification of the word demystified the magic of the tribal world (Davis, 2004), but
the abstract instrumentality of Goa Trance may have come to change that, reviving
this magic, considering the unquestionable presence of its spirit in the dance-floor
where individual experiences are gradually incorporated into a perfectly syntonic
collective. The rebirth and consolidation of this sense of belonging and tribal spirit
within the global and technological post-modern scenario in which we live in, as
awaken new relationships of evident integration between man and technology (Cruz,
2000) enhanced by EDM. Technology as mediator but also as inducer of trance on
the dance-floor has itself a shamanic facet (Simão e Magalhães, 2010) by allowing
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communication between different zones of reality in this context, connected by a

central axis which is music. But, what about if the real doesn’t originate in reality?
And what about the vibration emanating from the dance-floor coming from a virtual
reality? Is this magic? We believe it is the result of finding oneself in Goa Trance.
THE GOA TRANCE DANCE-FLOOR
Psychedelic
Goa Trance is a subgenre of the trippy psychedelic music from the late sixties, sev-
enties and early eighties, which has become part of a wider style of technological
trance called psychedelic trance, so we should start by exploring what psychedelic
means. Psychedelic is a compound word combining the two ancient Greek terms:
ψυχή (psyche) and δῆλος (delos). Psyche as we all know, is the soul or the mind
depending on the point of view and it can be our true self if we are able to find
it. Delos comes from δέλεαρ (delear) and it means to entice (Montanari, 2006).
Together with psyche is to entice the mind into vision, and this can be ordinary or
extraordinary vision. Psychedelic is something that is capable of bringing into vi-
sion what usually is not seen, the extraordinary. What the psychedelic experience
brings to us is something we could not perceive before but it was already there all
the time, it is not just like a hallucination but it can lead to one. The mind perceives
an entity and reveals it to awareness in a synesthetic way as if the sensory input is
coming from exchanged sensory organs and mixed up together, sounds as vision
and visions as sounds, and so on, as if they were all the same thing in the end.
And then, if we give in to suggestion and start interpreting, psychologising the
aspect in which the phenomena itself is being presented to us, we end up creating
another level of sensory phenomena that is no longer a produce of the perceived
entity (Heidegger, 1962), instead of getting closer to the thing itself by reducing
our perception to things as they are actually given to us (Husserl, 2000). A hallu-
cination is usually considered to bring into perception something that is not there;
it is merely a production of imagination and usually a sign of mental sickness or
fatigue, it is the produce of extreme suggestion propitiated but a mind altering sub-
stance or situation. Nevertheless, they can coexist, and in the realm of psychedelia
nothing is certain… there may even be a jump into a schizophrenic type parallel
reality (McKenna, 1994). The psychedelic experience gives access to see what we
didn’t see before and, depending on set and setting, it can produce powerfully deep
expansion of consciousness (Leary, Metzner and Alpert, 1969), we just have to find
the missing link and then we’re able to perceive what was once unperceptive. It is
a mystical door that opens our perception to serious spiritual revelations (Huxley,
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1954; Strassman, 2001). There is no need to take an entheogen to start seeing what
we didn’t see before, that can be done in many ways, but an entheogen or a psyche-
delic substance will bring into perception an immense amount of information that
was not there before (McKenna, 1993).
Trance
Trance is a common term but many times not correctly understood by everyone. It
is not only that type of bewildered condition in which one stops functioning by its
own volition, totally absorbed into some sort of strange ethnic mental state, end-
lessly jumping to one beat in an epic loss of consciousness and identity. In fact, the
reason for such a state to even be observable from an external point of view, can be
due to the acquirement of a consciousness expansion and not the other way around.
Actually it usually is that and Goa Trance has no other goal, besides also having
fun in the process, because fruition is a big part of its mind-set in the experience
of finding oneself. Trance is a very specific state of perception in which we can
surpass our usual limitations. The states of trance are a very special kind of clarity
hypnotic states where we do have control of the vehicle to reach a form of ecstasy.
The vehicle (e.g.) may be our body and mind floating in the pure flow of dance
as an expression of identity and over heightened body language communication.
It usually is but there are many possibilities here and many ways to participate. A
trancer is usually a dancer but not necessarily dancing in the traditional way. There
are many trancers that go a long way without even expressing the body in what we
call dancing but it is really rare to find someone not moving to the beat. We can steer
these states and we do but there is also suggestive guidance that is coming from the
trance inducing object and in the case of psychedelic trance is music. It also is the
decoration and the behaviour of all the other trancers, the mind-sets all round and
the individual, fears and expectations, set and setting as we already pointed out,
determines the experience and type of journey we go into (Zinberg, 1984) but in
the end music plays the main role with its repetitiveness. We can chose to go with
the flow or we may create our own individual experience but in a party or festival
with a good sound system it will be very hard to not be modelled by the music, and
most trancers and even new people coming to the scene, they will all be in one huge
synchronicity that goes well beyond showing off some dance moves. It is hard to
define this in just one point of view because psychedelic trance can be many dif-
ferent things, it really depends on context. Taking from a knowledge standpoint,
this is an ecstatic state in which the perceptive experience becomes visionary. It’s
a synesthetic moment beyond temporality where imagination translates itself into
the experience of the real object or what we have as experience of the real object,
even if the real object cannot be experienced. This experience goes beyond concepts
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or conceptuality, depending on the type of entrance into the trance. It belongs to

intuition and is communicable between individuals under the same trance effect
without the need for descriptive narrative, keeping the experience out of temporality.
In laymen terms, the synch effect produced in the social fabric of a festival propels
the trancers into a sort of telepathy that goes on between individuals that can tap
into the same mental frequencies. It is as if we are connecting beyond our bodies
in a sharing of mixed consciousness (Sheldrake, 2004). These states of connection
are a unique moment for us to access the unveiling of the mystical without perturb-
ing its own ineffability on the spiral dance towards the birth of who we are in the
labyrinth of identity (Kerényi, 2008).
Goa Trance
What is Goa Trance? We should start by pointing out the fact that there is no specific
definition for this genre of psychedelic trance in musical terms. Back in the nineties
it was more common to just call it Psychedelic Trance and only some of us talked
about Goa Trance and how the scene was moving away from it, many years before
the scene started to use the term ‘Psytrance’ for referring to psychedelic trance.
Actually, today Psytrance is a specific subgenre of Psychedelic Trance, just like
Goa Trance ended up becoming one too. There are many names for many variant
subgenres but Goa is where is all started, and if we look back we’ll see that it is a
genre that resists classification for it has so many different approaches. Only more
recently we started to pin point Goa Trance more as a genre with very specific char-
acteristics, trying to mimic what we think it is in a way to keep it alive reviving it,
but this may not be all positive as we can see in the point of view of someone that
lived Goa parties in the eighties and then moved to the club music scene, just like
most trancers from the nineties did. It is a valuable account for it has the impartiality
of someone that lived the beginning and has moved away from the scene many years
ago but still has a loving memory for what the genre really stands for. In an article
that started to circulate the internet in 2010, Dave Mothersole says that “As soon
as people started calling it Psy-Trance and making music with Goa in mind, it lost
its way for me. That’s fine though. I’m not a fan of what Punk became either - but
that doesn’t stop The Clash being my favourite band. Just because Trance became
a narrow, soulless succession of drug triggers, that doesn’t take anything away
from what Laurent did back in the 80’s and early 90’s. His legacy goes beyond way
beyond such limitations.” (Mothersole, 2010, April 14). It hadn’t lost its way for us
in the nineties but we can really understand what Mothersole is talking about, more
so because calling Psytrance to Psychedelic Trance only became common ground
after the year 2000. It is after 1998 that trance started to become narrow and stale on
creativity and innovation, becoming more drug trigger oriented and getting closer
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to what was to become known as Fullon. This is not the goal of Goa Trance! It is
true that many trancers use mind altering substances to enhance their experience
and this genre is connected to the use of psychedelics, but that is more like a theme
suggestion for self-exploration and not at all a requirement that will not take us
there if not fulfilled. Actually, most veteran trances know very well that with Goa
Trance the vibe in the dance-floor is so high that we need no artificial enhancers
to go there up and stay high. As the pioneer sonic manipulator Simon Posford says
about the name of his nineties project Hallucinogen: “Hallucinogens are something
that affects the mind and expands the mind, and hopefully the music does that kind
of thing, has the same effect on your brain as a hallucinogen. For people who don’t
take drugs, it’s an easy way.” (Posford, 2014, Feb 9). Moreover, there comes a point
from which we cannot see beyond if we keep on trusting these artificial enhancers,
for they can open doors and no one will ever deny that, but once these doors are open
if we don’t start going in by our own effort with no external aid, we won’t be able
to really see in depth and with careful precision that which is there to be revealed.
“Drugs are too unwieldy to grasp the imperceptible and becomings-imperceptible;
drug users believed that drugs would grant them the plane, when in fact the plane
must distil its own drugs, remaining master of speeds and proximities.” (Deleuze,
Guattari, 1999 p. 286). And this really is at arms length from us for the possibilities
within this genre are sufficient alone. This early magic from the beginnings is still
going on today and a few artists are absolutely true to the scene and their music,
even after starting to produce more of what we now call Psytrance giving up a bit of
the creative freedom they exercised in the nineties. The golden era of Goa Trance,
from 1994 to 1997 (Castle, 2014, Feb 8), which was highly explored to the limits of
abstraction in 1996. A great example of this is the successful transition to Psytrance
the British band Manmademan made in this turning of events, always keeping that
same level of trancy abstraction and storytelling awe, with an unquestionable mystic
effect on the dance-floor. We could even say that they were guiding us along the
way. And they did! After brilliant tracks like William, from 1996 (Manmademan,
1996), which is clearly styled non obvious and abstract Goa Trance, that can really
take us to the other side, we then have powerful stompers like Palladium, from 2002
(Manmademan, 2002), already showing us what Psytrance was becoming, but not
losing one bit from the otherworldly magic we previously had in William. In fact, if
there is a genuine Goa Trance band making the transition along the years that truly
is abstract and otherworldly to the core in all is Manmademan, while also keeping
the psychedelic rock origins of the EDM genre from Goa.
Many trancers nowadays think Goa Trance is a genre related to exotic melodies
built on Indian or Arabic scales. This is very deceiving both for them and their
experience of what Goa Trance actually is, and it misinforms everyone else that
might take them as knowledgeable on these matters, a misconception which is be-
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ing spread all over since the revival of the genre in the end of the last decade. It’s
an easy way of describing some of the Goa Trance tracks because these melodies
and scales are indeed used, but they are also used in other styles that are not Goa
Trance. This idea is convincing because the style was created in the Indian state
of Goa, hence the name it has, and that suggests it is to do with eastern melodies.
India was always mainly Muslim and Hindu, till the Hindu-Muslim tension (Rühe,
2001) divided the country into India and Pakistan after the English left, so these
are the two main influences that tend to be taken as defining the style of trance that
was born in Goa. But this is a misconception! Goa Trance has to do with a specific
mind-set and not the scales used in the melodies. It is a genre of Psychedelic Trance
where melodies play a very prominent role but they don’t have to be specifically
this or that and the more abstract they are the more effect of this mind-set we can
get on the dance-floor. One typical defining characteristic we can point out is the
coexistence of many melodies in one track, each with a specific storyline enriching
the plot, working to produce a certain harmony and suggest other melodies that
are not actually in the tune. Binaural beats have a similar effect. This can be very
powerful or not, depending on the build of the track, but the less obvious melodies
give the deepest Goa Trance dance-floor experience. It is a unique opportunity to
find epiphanic answers to who we are. If we go for a more obvious melody set or a
tune, or a very well know track, this will reverberate a lot in the dance-floor, because
it’s easier for the trancer to follow it and act on it going into a socially playful stance
which they can easily understand and communicate in a more common level, but this
will make the experience more about the surface of the moment and not so much
about the mind-set or the experience of finding oneself in relation to the spirit of
the dance-floor. Sometimes it’s important to be light and epidermic, we also need
that once in a while to level everything up, but we should respect the depths of the
higher experience and avoid making it an experience based on the mundane aspects
of Goa Trancing. The trancer is naked.
Standards
Goa Trance is a very complex style of trance, extremely psychedelic and high with
mind boggling variations that occur slowly from one melody to the other, modelling
our perception of reality. There have been coming up new tunes from recent projects
that are not as psychedelic, which tend to be based on specific types of arpeggios
but we can’t say they aren’t Goa Trance; they are a softer style of Goa that slowed
down gives the best chill out, the Goa Ambient. They can be quite powerful as trance
tracks sometimes but because they’re not really as psychedelic the particular effects
of this style will not be felt as much, it tends to stay more on the surface. Some of
these new Goa Trance tracks are also not particularly creative, they either follow the
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typical type scales or they end up just exploring old tunes standards, as it happens
with jazz. We’re not saying this is bad, not at all! We jazz lovers have a big time
enjoying standards. It’s not so much about the scales used but the working philosophy
that is behind it, the structure of the tracks. But there is a lot of space for variation
and improvisation. And this is also akin to eastern influences, for both Carnatic
and Hindustani music are characteristic for their improvisations on the standards
coming from the Vedas. There’s a big presence of classical Indian devotional music
in the sense that Goa Trance is also an exploratory style of classic and devotional
music, much alike jazz, coming from a mix of Disco, Pop, Rock, Ethnic, Erudite,
and many other references. In an interview to Revolve Magazine, Martin Glover,
better known as Youth, the former bass player of the eighties band Killing Joke and
one of the pioneers responsible for the Goa trance scene with the widely respected
label Dragonfly Records, bringing out many important Goa Trance albums such as
the pinacle IFO (Identified Flying Object) by the Italian band Pleiadians (Humphrey,
2005)—from which we point out Asterope as being one of the best examples of
Goa Trance storytelling and also, along with the whole album, a standard for many
new producers (Pleiadians, 1997)—; Youth clearly states when asked about Goa
that “What was great was that the music was coming from everywhere, very little
of it was designed or made for there, as it became more and more popular and the
sound followed this evolutionary curve into high-octane trance suddenly the band-
width of expression became narrow. But in some ways that was good it did cut out
a lot of chaff from the wheat, it had to be really good to fit into that bandwidth and
some artists really redefined it because of that and took it even further like Simon
Posford and X-Dream.” (Youth, 2005). The beginning of Goa Trance with its many
Proto Goa styles in the mix, with great tracks and others not so good, had in one
side a great freedom which was greatly diminished but, on the other, it grew into
a cutting edge quality production defining itself into an increasingly more specific
genre, with its own proper characteristics. But only after the new millennium some
bands openly became object of standardization for they were turning into classics.
As it became more popular and commercial, the genre continued to be taken
into a narrower set of characteristics, becoming more obvious and predictable, but
there’s no point for artists to go too obvious unless we’re dealing with some sort
of Pop Art and Goa Trance is not like that. For some tracks it could be and we
shouldn’t dismiss them, because true Goa heads welcome the exploration of all
possibilities. Nonetheless, there is good and bad work and with the burst of interest
from everyone in the revival of the genre, strongly felt in the end of the last decade,
there have been coming up many new producers aiming to create Goa Trance and
most of what has been done is not really up to standard, not for a demanding Goa
Trance dance-floor. As regards to producing according to standards, what is not
so positive in this approach is that Goa Trance was since the beginning a rich ex-
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ploratory style, joining an open mix of many influences, and with the following of
standards this exploratory potential became narrowly applied into their variations
and not onto the creativity from which the whole track is made of and for the style.
The best bands are usually those that have found their very particular sound and are
still able to produce the qualities needed on the Goa Trance floor, to make it a deep
exploratory experience for the trancer as well as a good fun time for everyone. This
is a lot about fun and it also is about the aerobic experience of dancing but goes way
beyond these mundane pleasures. It’s about exploring one self and it even is about
finding out who we humans are in the age of the post-modern tribalism.
Cosmic Overture
Going back to the genre’s structure, because this is in many ways what allows for
the complex web of inter-connections in the trance floor, both between trancers
and with their own selves, it is very common to have intricate complexity. This is
not only on the melodic lines but also on the percussion arrangements, occurring
riffs, various sound effects, bass lines, the rhythmic structure itself, etc. The beat is
usually four by four and very hypnotic but rarely basic and simple, never dull. Then
we have a wide array of slight changes to each synth voice, be it the basses, pads
or leads, they all have changes in many parameters, resulting with more changes
in tone and not so much in pitch, to produce both a stronger psychedelic effect and
also a more involving organic feel, going up and down, contracting and expanding,
landing and taking off, rising to the occasion, taking a break and coming back to
rise higher and higher in every take. It is mind-blowing. And there is always a path
to follow for everyone. Being particularly organic in tone change and with many
layers, trancers may go into wider realms of possibility. The tunes really talk to us
and this is in part why we say they are connected to alien contact, because it seems
like they talk in a cosmic language. It’s as if we’re getting messages from outer
space. One track that shows this very well, with playful tongue-in-cheek wit, is
Supernatural by the British band Slinky Wizard (Slinky Wizard, 1995). It’s a great
example of the genre! Specifically nocturnal Goa Trance. And this tune is really
quite otherworldly, which is also a very particular characteristic very prominent in
the mid-nineties. The feeling of being from another world and the idea that we can
be in contact with a superior civilization of extra-terrestrial beings makes for the
perfect setting to host theories around our making as an intelligent species. This was
very popular in the nineties and many bands still explore the subject.
What goes around the psychedelic trance festival and the trancer is a constella-
tion of elements and as such we have to keep an open focus. The complexity of Goa
Trance is not random at all, it is very organized and we could even say erudite; it is
the closest style of EDM music we have to erudite or classical music, mainly operatic
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overtures, due to the majestic and complete creation of elements as we can find in
Wagner. It is in fact a full symphony orchestra of synths opening us to the unknown
mysteries of mental experiences going into epic journeys full of mystical beings. We
love this! No wonder films like the Avatar by James Cameron are so well received
in popular culture. These journeys in which we are able to interchange identities
and personalities play a fundamental role in helping us find ourselves. Goa Trance
has a specific characteristic without which a track would hardly be complete and
this is the level of storytelling. The better the storytelling the better the experience
will be in the dance-floor. There has got to be a story in a Goa Trance piece or else
it will just be an empty exercise of style. It may sound great and be very danceable
but if there’s no story to journey on, it will take us nowhere. And this is the main
reason why the best option for a Goa Trance DJ performance is to go for the most
classic and simple mixing techniques. That is, if the goal is to keep the Goa Trance
vibe and not going into something else that won’t take us where we want to go.
The tracks are so complex and have such different stories to tell between them that
there will hardly be any advantage on mixing as it’s done with other EDM genres
like Techno, House or Progressive Trance.
In Between
There is a gap, there has to be a gap in the mix. This is where imagination takes the
opportunity to unravel. If we don’t look out for the hiatus and make sure it’s there,
we may be losing the chance for opening the door to the other side. That’s how it
works, by understanding in the between (Fremantle & Trungpa, 1987; Thurman,
1994). Intuition comes from the between. Introducing Cutting Through Spiritual
Materialism, Chögyam Trungpa says that “Since there are always gaps in our self-
consciousness, some insight is possible.” (Trungpa, 2002, p.5). We go through the
cracks, it is how it’s done, but we tend to fight it because to do it we have to deal
with the fear of the unknown. “Whenever we are not quite certain of things which
are beyond the scope of our conceptualized ideas, then we begin to panic. We are
afraid of our own uncertainty and we attempt to fill the gap with something else.”
(Trungpa, 2002, p.193). And many DJs do run from the gap between tracks. Leaving
this gap open can be very uncomfortable for the DJ that doesn’t know how to use the
absence, the silence, the between beats. Besides that, some DJs are so much driven
by their own egos that not having the whole dance-floor jumping all the time feels
like a failure, it’s as if trancers are not going along. They don’t see the whole picture
for they are confused with their self-importance (Trungpa, 1988). The genuine art-
ist won’t fall into that trap. Starting his brilliant book about art, Chögyam Trungpa
says that “The basic problem in artistic endeavor is the tendency to split the artist
from the audience and then try to send a message from one to the other. When this
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happens, art becomes exhibitionism. One person may get a tremendous flash of
inspiration and rush to “put it down on paper” to impress or excite others, and
a more deliberate artist may strategize each step of his work in order to produce
certain effects on his viewers. But no matter how well-intentioned or technically ac-
complished such approaches may be, they inevitably become clumsy and aggressive
toward others and toward oneself.” (Trungpa, 2008 p. 1). The Goa Trance party is
not about a relationship between DJ in one side and trancers on the other, they are
all in the same side of the journey, and if an undesirable artist type megalomania
rises the DJ self-importance over the others, there will be a split and that generates
an aggressive outcome in the dance-floor, hindering the chances for a good in depth
development of the spirit for which Goa is all about.
The DJ is always becoming the trancer and vice versa (Deleuze 1999, 2004).
One needs to lose themselves in dance so they can find the way (Nietzsche, 1998).
Dancing is about fun but it also is about crossing frontiers and in the Goa Trance
dance-floor, dancing is all about crossing the membrane of this reality into the
hyperspace of the next. Knowing about the next realm is something we can’t have
any certainties for sure, it will always be a product of our imagination (Pascoais,
1993), and this is why it is so important to leave that space open for the trancer to
be able to go and fly through, building on its possible agencies (Deleuze & Parnet,
2004). This is not just about hedonism. There is a lot of it, no doubt about that,
EDM culture is an heir of the sixties and all its loving pleasures, but it is also about
something more and this genre of dance music is showing it and proving it to the
core. Our imagination is capable of taking us through the mystic membrane into a
new world of realities, beyond concepts. But this only really happens if we leave
space for it, if there is enough freedom for our wits to cross through. If we don’t have
an opening, there will be no change and if there is no change, no new perception
is to take place. No paradigm shift. We need this freedom to be creative in finding
the way to the next world, overcoming some of the limitations of this nine gate
imprisonment (Vyassa, 1996).
In between two Goa tracks there should be a hiatus in the same way that we find
one in between two chapters of a book. If not the experience of the trancer could
be trapped in a block of materialistic memory decay, not aware of the whole of it
(Bergson, 2005; Husserl, 1994), unable to jump onto another mind-set, and this can
be quit harmful for the explorer of the unknown, and moreover if under the influ-
ence of a potent psychedelic. The responsibility here is too big to be taken lightly
and the repercussions of blocking change in perception by not respecting the gap
between stories could be deeply confusing, which is the exact opposite of what is
meant to happen in a Goa Trance dance-floor. The lack of such a trigger may rep-
resent being stuck in a less than healthy mental frame. There may be tracks that are
mixed into becoming like one book chapter but if it’s all beatmixed than it will be
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a book with only one chapter… and that is not conducive to a good journey for it
goes on saying the same over and over again, without providing with an opening to
breakthrough. If we’re in a bad place, that can be terrifying! And if we’re in a good
place, it can numb what is not supposed to be numbed. Most other genres of EDM
play it safe, they keep us grounded. In House or Progressive Trance these openings
are not required nor requested because these are quite simple genres in there struc-
ture, relying on the sophistication of sound production and not on the complexity of
composition. They just give us a comfortable groove to lie upon, a texture to surf in
pleasant feelings of numbness. A Goa Trance party is like a collection of books with
many provoking chapters that are supposed to be awakening. The more chapters we
have, the more opportunities trancers will have to take the journey into the next level
and see the light. We make the big journey in small increments (Descartes, 2000),
jumping from one psychedelic exploration into another. There is a level of hypnosis
like in all trance genres and most EDMs but in Goa Trance we keep suggestibility in
our hands. We have to, or else it might just get out of hand. Each and every single
trancer creates their own experience. It is with the help of everyone else, of course,
but the gap in between stories, or recognizable instances, empowers the imagination
of the individual trancer to take a turn, it introduces change into the experience so
we can develop a new set of perceptions. Only then, understanding in the between,
we have be opportunity to make a proper psychonaut journey (Dalai Lama, 1999).
Storytelling
We are not saying that no one should ever beatmix Goa Trance but because of the
complexity and eclectic possibilities of the genre and because a good set that can
take us somewhere is not produced by telling the same story over and over again, we
have to respect the variations between tracks and the story each tune brings. The goal
is aligning tracks together with as much respect for each track as possible in order
for the whole mix to be complete. This is much harder because not beatmixing we
have to excel in the combination of stories. A good storytelling is required! There
may also be beatmatching without mixing the actual beat, but even this can hurt the
storytelling experience because some tracks just can’t be upbeated or downbeated
without losing some of their magical qualities, and this is not just about the pitch
and change of key, it also is about the speed. Some stories need to be told slowly
and others fast, just as some parts of a book must be read slowly and others faster for
them to have the proper impact. We can’t just be technicians… we have to be poets!
Or else the DJ performance will not be an art but a display of tricks and sometimes
an ego centred display of skill. In beatmixing sets we just need to find two tracks
that sound similar and then it’s all about the superficial technique of joining both
textures. It can also work for joining stories though but this is almost impossible
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if we are looking for a varied storytelling. Some tracks in a mix will join perfectly
but not all, and if all beatmixes perfectly than something is very wrong with the
storytelling, because good storytelling brings out many aspects that are different
between each other and such different tracks just don’t beatmix well… they have
to be mixed in the end of the current track and beginning of the next, outside of
the beat section. Some even require a slight silence gap in between them for the
storytelling to be effective. If we just beatmix like it’s done in Fullon Trance or
other styles that play on the surface with effects but don’t go into depth and story-
telling, it will never be an actual Goa Trance experience. It will be like going to see
a very long trailer and not the film, and this can be quite displeasing for the pure
Goa Trancer that is relying on the access provided by the music. The connoisseur
of the storytelling possibilities within each track will be terrified with such a set
beatmixed from beginning to end, and the others will be left in a limbo of hedonistic
experiences that don’t go very far in telling them who we are and what we can be.
With good storytelling there’s no need for anything else than the music! The Goa
Trance experience can be so high and rich that no substance is necessary for one to
go up there and explore the universe of the mind and the collective imagination. A
proper set may also be beatmixed, of course, and we have great examples like the
one of Japanese DJ Tsuyoshi Suzuki in 1996, a true deck wizard that used to do it
brilliantly. But if we do a lot of beatmixing, something that Suzuki didn’t do, the
whole set must still be like a book in which we can find many consistent chapters,
with differences between them. Unfortunately, the majority of beatmixed sets loose
that special and magic quality we look for in this genre. They become other than
a Goa Trance set. Just as an example: if we use only the higher and stronger part
of each track on a set, playing about half or less of the whole track, in order to be
up there all the time, this will not provide with a Goa Trance experience, even if it
sounds like it. This will be much more like a Fullon set that just sounds like Goa.
It will lack consistency in storytelling and it will be kept on the surface, which is
exactly what Goa Trance is not about.
Journey of the Spirit
Goa Trance tracks usually start small or simple with some announcement of what
will be, and then build up from there till it shows the theme in the first minutes. Then,
depending on the level of storytelling, it will go through many stages of contraction
and expansion, creating a kind of curiosity mind-set and a predisposition for the
journey. It opens and prepares for what is coming to be. More towards the end there
will be a cathartic experience giving a powerful solution to the inquisitive moments.
There are exceptions to the rule and we don’t always have or look for an obvious
climax in the end but this is a very common structure. First we put the problem and
246
Figure 1. Widespread use of UV lamps on an outdoor dance-floor under a tent.

At ZNA Gathering, May 2012, Portugal (Vertical Sweep © 2012, Sara Constança
Psytography. Used with permission.)
analyse it and then give an answer. So, it makes more sense to keep most of the
track in the mix and work on the connections of each story and not so much on the
superficial effects of the beatmixing technique. For the set to really have the Goa
Trance spirit, the storytelling has to work its magic or else we will only be getting
catharsis to emotions that were not suggested or getting a catharsis to the suggestion
of another emotion which gets no resolving in that catharsis, and the mix, instead of
creating a flow between stories mixes it all up. There is so much power and mystic
in a full Goa Trance track that we don’t need to make a patchwork of climaxes. And
if we do that we interrupt the storytelling of the journey and prevent everyone from
surpassing themselves. The kinetic energy to this genre can lift most everyone into
a high spirit wanting to go dance, trance and share an intimate experience of life
and being alive with everyone else. Finding oneself in that spirit and sharing the
experience beyond the common use of language, transcending the limitations of
self-recognition and developing our synesthetic imagination as communion. If we
keep it in the surface with no consistency on the storytelling that will be flat and
bland. An honest set done right promotes a type of non-conceptual communication
which is all about the celebration and ritualistic depths of myth. The storytelling is
fundamental! We can’t stress this enough. And if we get to transcend the membrane
with the guidance of a good story told all the way through, we’ll be all present with
no illusions and no expectations dancing like nobody is watching. Each trancer will
play an abstract role in each track dancing like there is no tomorrow. Not for show
247
Figure 2. A dance-floor warming up with most of its key visual elements. At ZNA
Gathering, October 2012, Portugal (Longing for Trance-Formation © 2012, Sara
Constança Psytography. Used with permission.)
but for spiritual elevation. There is a moment where the trancer crosses the mem-
brane of the natural states of consciousness through the storytelling of the trance
into timeless expansion, and when this happens different types of connections start
to take place... the psychonaut develops telepathic trance states as a community
and finds a way into the next realm of existence through the mystical experience.
The Shaman
This genre of psychedelic trance can be very effective at doing something that most
genres of EDM do if the sound system is powerful enough. The tracks act as a kind of
maestro for an orchestra of trancers. It’s the conductor and the libretto. And in this there
will be no reason not to trust the trance and dive safely into the unknown. Trance can
do that very well. Each individual in the dance-floor will connect more with a specific
part of a track and play out a role in the story that is connecting everyone in the same
moment. Some will connect more with pads, others with bass or percussion, most will
react strongly to leads and everyone, most everyone is led by the beat. The libretto of
this opera has many faces. There will be moments of individual exploration and others
of collective ecstasy. And we must understand that this is something which is happening
beyond the DJ. The DJ has a responsible role because of the decision making regarding
which track to play but besides that and a performance presence that helps the creation
of the dance-floor atmosphere the energy put in to it, it is the music making all the
248
Figure 3. Alien type structure decoration elements. At ZNA Gathering, October

2012, Portugal (Message from God © 2013, Sara Constança Psytography. Used
with permission.)
magic. It’s common to consider the DJ as a kind of post-modern shaman and in some
aspects this is not entirely wrong but the reality is that the DJ is as much a trancer like
everyone else and the shaman is beyond any of the individuals in the party. There is a
shamanic presence on trance parties and festivals, that is clear, what is not clear is that
this is the DJ. It’s easy to confuse the DJ with the shaman because of the role taken in
the eyes and ears of everyone and because it’s common to have the DJ perform on a
special kind of altar which is usually also portrayed as a portal.—The DJ is up there,
helping us cross the portal to the other side, so he must be the shaman for he is guiding
us.—One might say and many do say that. But this is not what is really happening, for
the circumstances of this post-modern shamanism are created by everyone present, DJ
included, everyone is doing it. The post-modern shamanism is a non-individualized
shamanism that is produced by the spirit of the dance-floor and the most successful
performances are those that recognize this and are not based on egocentric values for
the creation of the set and performance. The absence of egocentric values on the genu-
ine Goa Trance performance of the DJ is such that the best spot for the DJ to perform
the set is a non-visible one, just like we had in the beaches of Goa by the late eighties
and early nineties. “The DJ was tucked away in a very small little table (…) obscure.”
(Castle, 2014, Feb 8). Today we see the performance on a stage between loud speakers
and some technicians argue it must be like that because the DJ has to be close to the
sound system. It’s a fact that such a configuration poses less technical issues but we
have been in contact with veteran musicians that argue it doesn’t have to be so. Being
in the middle makes a lot of sense because we need to get good stereo image to feel the
track properly, but we really don’t have to be up there in a stage as if we were some sort
of deity in a shrine. In our experience as a DJ, dancer and trancer, the best spot would
249
Figure 4. Daylight dance-floor on the mountains. Old School Gathering, 2013, Por-
tugal (Caotic Circus © 2013, Sara Constança Psytography. Used with permission.)
be in the middle of the dance-floor without any kind of decorative elements calling for
attention other than the necessary light to work. The DJ would then be dancing to the
set just like all other trancers on the dance-floor without being an object of focus or
devotion. It’s not that we are without an ego and the egocentric interests of an ego drive,
but the very specifics of Goa Trance are related to the spirit of the dance-floor and not
the ego of the DJ, and this is what really allows a performance honestly devoid of ego.
The creator of the set is not really the DJ.
Spirit of the Dance-Floor
There is an abstract entity non-individuated in a single bodied living being in the

dance-floor and this is the spirit of the dance-floor. This is not really exclusive to
Goa Trance but difficultly happens with other genres in the same way because for
Figure 5. Fully decorated indoor dance-floor after a party. At Spirit of Psychodelic,

October 2014, Switzerland (Havanna Lights © 2014, Sara Constança Psytography.
Used with permission.)
250
this to be possible it needs the sophistication of complexity and depth from this
highly spiritual psychedelic trance. Goa Trance allows for a dance-floor spirit like
no other psychedelic trance genre, but it doesn’t do this alone. A journey with the
right concatenation of tracks will deepen the experience to a point that this spirit
gets unbreakable standing out as a very stable meditator. The meditator here is not
the individual trancer, it is the spirit. And then we as individual participants on the
communal experience draw the map of its face, joining the pulse in a dancing yoga
through the guidance of the spirit’s meditative states. We, trancers, are the gestures
of the non-bodied spirit. We create it together and we are its organs. The paradox
of self is quite present here: we Goa Trancers create the spirit of the dance-floor
and the spirit of the dance-floor defines us as Goa Trancers. Just like the Don Quix-
ote spirit was created by Cervantes and lives still today (Cervantes, 2005; Pascoaes,
1993), there is also a spiritual being that we create together in the Goa Trance dance-
floor living today, here, as we go through the lines of this paragraph. This is the
product of a big constellation of elements, starting with prior parties that build up
till today. But there are many other elements like everything which is related to the
deco: the use of UV lamps as main light source is a key factor (Figure 1 shows the
widespread use of UV lamps in an outdoor dance-floor under a tent). The light
which is actually rendering our shapes is reflected light coming from the fluorescent
elements of the decoration and not from the light rods themselves, adding to the
mystical experience of light which is not coming from the light source (Figure 5
shows a fully decorated indoor dance-floor after the party fully lit by reflected UV
light, which is turned bright by the fluorescent ink while the lamps stay dim). Many
elements play a big role in opening for the spirit of the dance-floor, suggesting
transference of identity to the collective conscious experience. One thing that is not
common on the dance-floor of parties put up by conscientious and mature party
organizations is a bar. Not having such an obvious commercial exchange near the
dance-floor can help create and maintain a proper connection to the spirit for most
trancers and this benefits the whole experience for everyone (Figure 2 shows a
dance-floor warming up with some of its visual elements but there is no bar in the
vicinity; we have trancers and DJ, UV lamps, fluorescent decoration, sound system,
and we can even see some beverage bottles on the floor, the bar is not an element
of a proper Goa Trance dance-floor). There is then an extremely varied composition
of dancers and trancers with lots of different objectives creating several distinctive
flows of energy. Some are going through experiences induced by psychedelics and
entheogens, others prefer the solid ground of amphetamines. Many are just moti-
vated by alcohol and cannabis and others with no kind of drug use at all only drink
water to hydrate, everyone giving unlimited input as characters of the storyline cre-
ated by the storytelling set. We can find it all in the dance-floor and all will give a
partial contribution to build the spirit, but the open mind towards the mystic with
251
energy exchange between the intentional and unintentional imaginations of everyone

involved is what really produces the spirit of the dance-floor. Everyone willing to
give and collaborate (Figure 4 shows a daylight dance-floor on the mountains, where
everyone actively contributes as part of Goadelic Freaks Movement to build up the
venue and make it what is now considered to be, along with the ZNA Gathering,
for different reasons, the most important Goa Trance venue in Portugal, where the
spirit of the dance-floor can be truly experienced). As a group we create one living
being that is us all together there and no one in particular and this is a lot like Rous-
seau’s idea of general will (Rousseau, 2003). It’s not the will of anyone in particu-
lar but a very particular sum in which none of the specific desires are met but all
get justice. This being is the ‘one’ every trancer talks about, it is us all together in
one. It goes beyond the party and the dance-floor, it’s an identity, a cultural iden-
tity for many of us in such a way that in the dance-floor we don’t belong to countries
and have no political identities, we’re just those special imaginative animals that
are ready to go to the next level through the ritualistic dance of myth. We’re getting
up there to see what was making the shadows, in many aspects just like in the pla-
tonic ascendant dialectic (Plato, 1996). We’re crossing the membrane. We become
spiritual beings of a world without barriers and frontiers that only exists beyond the
limitations of narrative language and conceptualized distinctions, not constrained
by private language (Wittgenstein, 2002). In that level of communion we are all and
one, individualized only by the vehicle which is our body and our specific role in
the production of that one spirit. One indivisible monad containing all others (Leib-
niz, 2001). This one spirit exists in the dance-floor but pervades it in the sense that
it not only is there as it is in all other parties, be it today 2014, yesterday 1997 or
tomorrow in decades to come. In this spiritual state beyond our conceptual fabrica-
tions as humans, beyond time and space, we all belong to the same country and all
have the same political identity. The suggestion is that we become the alien species
that we truly are, though, this is just a theory and we cannot postulate it without
reservation. There is a very emblematic track by the Italian band Etnica which talks
about this theory very clearly. This classic is Vimana and the voice samples are from
the 1994 television movie Roswell: The UFO Cover-Up directed by Jeremy Kagan.
It goes like this: “(…) This visitor somehow explained the way aliens have been
genetically altering the development of our DNA, from our very beginnings, and
that they inspired our great spiritual leaders./ They had in fact influenced the course
of human history in rather critical and startling ways./ Spiritual leaders./ Other
dimensions that co-exist with our own and these beings have the technology to
somehow just slip in and out./ This disc actually landed by intention and then an
exchange with alien life-forms. (…)” (Kagan, 1994; Etnica, 1996) and many tranc-
ers follow this to the letter and help make it real in their active and producing
imaginations (Figure 3 shows decorative elements that resemble and suggest alien
252
type structures, common to the Goa Trance dance-floor imaginary). Our stand here
is that it makes no sense to attribute this to others since we’re also them. We are the
other species, we are the aliens. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” (Anon-
ymous). It’s we creating the spirit in which we get a trancers individuation with
alien DNA. We are them!
The Oracle
The best journey has ups and downs, quiet moments and powerful high passages,
compression and expansion. A proper set is like sound itself in waves, it’s a fractal
build-up result of the very shape of sound vibration. A representation of the universe
in the way its vibration produces everything in the cymatics of modal phenomena
(Jenny, 2001). Just like a cosmic ocean that progresses from the smallest fractal to
constellations (Baryshev & Teerikorpi, 2002). When we cross an ocean there are
waves, sun, rain, storms, deep sea, wonderful and terrifying creatures. A proper
set is that which will bring our imagination into a very high state of production to
the point that we cross the barrier and start producing the next level of existence.
The imagination of Goa Trance is that which can go beyond our human frontier
into the other side of the mysteries. We do this right after leaving the conceptuality
of language. It’s the same moment when the trancers start communication in the
outer level of our understanding. The way to it is by going in but the result ends
up being a travelling out of ourselves and into a communion with the spirit of the
dance-floor. We become the spirit. We become pixies and elves going beyond the
fabrication states of the Apollonian into the accepting and affirmation states of
the Dionysian. It is through the diagonal strategy of Apollo that we can access the
absolute non conceptual states of Dionysos, the Greek god of a thousand names
(Nietzsche, 1997). In the Dionysian there are no limits to what we can be, the only
limit is conceptuality, if we try and understand it conceptually we immediately fall
into the Apollonian and decay into regular humans. In the dance-floor we can be the
spirit! We not only produce the spirit with all the elements that create it but we also
are it. In the Dionysian state we’re open to a chaotic realm of all possibilities with
no limits and become Bromios. Bromios, one of the thousand names of Dionysos,
is that which stands for resonance (Kerényi, 1996). The spirit of the dance-floor
is a resonance of all that is producing it but it also is the resonance that produces
the other side, building it up with a particular mix of our synaesthesia and the so-
phisticated cymatics of Goa Trance in connection to the universe. It’s a crossover
between the Pythagorean celestial music of the spheres (Iamblichus, 1818) and the
abstraction of synthesised human creativity. The actual disk jockey of Goa Trance
is not an individual. It’s this mix of elements, it is the spirit. The one guiding the
dance-floor is Bromios! The only thing the individual person that is assuming the
253
serious responsibility of DJ does, is using his/her own sixth sense skills for perceiving
the spirit to which him/her also belongs in communion with everyone else. Plunged
into the same experience. And in this, reading the general will (Rousseau, 2003) that
comes as a huge Bromios, the only input from the DJ beyond the decision making
of the spirit, relies on taste and a keen sense of opportunity that is interpreted by
choosing the right sequence of tracks guiding the journey with its own storytelling.
This is as powerful as it is extremely delicate for if the DJ lets the ego be in front
of it the synthesis of everyone will be dismembered. In a true Goa Trance set it’s
not the DJ who is making the set, it is Bromios, the dance-floor spirit. The DJ is
not like a shaman as many understand it, the shaman is Bromios. The honest DJ of
Goa Trance is in connection with the shaman like every other dancer/trancer but
has a particular ability to understand its language and acts as an interface for its
messages. The one in charge of reading and bringing Bromios into the experience
of the dance-floor for everyone to commune with it and have the experience we all
have, is in fact the same figure that gave the ancient Greeks their guidance. Instead
of being the shaman which is the community of every trancer that is sharing the
experience as the dance-floor spirit, the specific role the genuine Goa Trance DJ
assumes is that of an oracle. It’s very difficult to actually be such a DJ, it takes
decades of experiencing the spirit of the dance-floor as a dancer/trancer and a true
predisposition to give up all expectation, because a proper storytelling has parts that
most DJs want to avoid in their search for stronger reactions from the dance-floor.
Instead of being the oracle many try to be the shaman and in that disconnect them-
selves from the spirit. The Goa Trance DJ is the most delicate role because this DJ
is nothing but a humble intermediary that connects us to an existence beyond our
common perceptions. Such a world exists and we can access it in many ways but
no art is higher than the poetry of dance.
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EDM: Acronym for Electronic Dance Music referring to music generally made
with the use of synthesizers and computers based on a repetitive beat pattern.
Goa Trance: Subgenre of Psychedelic Trance preceding it in formal creation by
DJs in the beaches of Goa during the eighties, influenced by bands using more synths
and less vocals with a repetitive beat and few to no lyrics which they would remove.
Hallucination: An imaginary construct created by the mind based on experiencing
sensory input data of perceptual illusions which are then completed and rearranged
according to belief, suggestion and expectation.
Psychedelia: Everything pertaining to psychedelic culture and the psychedelic
experience, palpable or not, concerning the arts, artefacts, customs, consciousness
expansive substances, revelations, empathic interpersonal exchange and so forth.
Psychedelic: Traditionally meaning something which entices the mind into
vision, be it ordinary or extraordinary vision, it is also unlimited to the perceptual
synesthesia of all sensory organs and imagination.
258
Psytrance: EDM term which was first used as an abbreviation for ‘Psychedelic
Trance’ in the turn of the millennium and is still used as such but now it also refers
a specific subgenre of Psychedelic Trance.
Trance: A very specific type of hypnotic euphoria produced by a repetitive
task in which one is somehow beyond the conditioning of usual body limitations,
time and space but still fully aware of its own identity and that of everyone around.
Trancer: An adept of EDM Trance, usually referring to people who go to Psy-
chedelic Trance parties and festivals, getting entranced into the beat in some sort
of static or dynamic dancing, empathically sharing the dance-floor and the venue
in trance.
259
260
Chapter 11
Pushing the Boundaries:
Investigating the Musical
and Social Aesthetics
of Dark Psytrance
Botond Vitos
Independent Researcher, Germany
ABSTRACT
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Melbourne psytrance scene, this
chapter addresses the musical and social aesthetics of the dark psytrance (darkpsy)
electronic dance music subgenre and its furious dance floors. The interviewees of
my research often regard psytrance tracks as the musical transpositions of psyche-
delic drug – particularly LSD – experiences. Dark psytrance can be considered the
hard core of psytrance, sending its LSD-infused musical structures into overdrive.
Regarded as the flagship in the evolution of psytrance by fans and considered to be
uncomfortably or even menacingly intensive by others, darkpsy follows the basic
imperative of becoming increasingly faster and adopting more abstract forms of
expression, destabilising rigid boundaries and catapulting the listener into a zone
of the unknown. Such dissolution of meaning is celebrated on dance floors of high
intensity, where psychedelic music and drug become integral parts of a media ecol-
ogy that is aimed at the presentation of the unpresentable.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch011
Pushing the Boundaries
INTRODUCTION: DARKPSY OVERDRIVE
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Melbourne psytrance scene,

this chapter addresses the musical and social aesthetics of the dark psytrance
(darkpsy) electronic dance music subgenre and its furious dance floors.1 In Aus-
tralia, psychedelic parties have been organised already since the early 1990s, and
by the mid-1990s Melbourne became a centre of the psychedelic electronic music
played at ‘doofs’ – the Australian onomatopoetic word2 for its primarily outdoor
festivals (St John, 2012, pp. 248-251). While doofs had initially attracted anarchist
and eco-activist collectives, by the 2000s the audiences had widened, and festivals
turned into “a frequently transgressively carnivalesque context in which young,
and youthful, populations could suspend obligations internal to traditional familial
roles and citizenship in a semi-legitimate context” (St John, 2012, p. 253). Through
the example of the Rainbow Serpent Festival, the largest psychedelic festival in the
Melbourne area, St John (2012, pp. 259-262) also points to the lack of a dominant
ideology and the presence of a range of agendas that can be propagated and con-
tested at such festivals.
While the local contexts and explanations of the psytrance vibe may indeed vary,
the name of the genre suggests that psytrance is electronic dance music ‘optimised’
for psychedelic drugs such as acid. My interviewees often regard psytrance tracks as
the musical equivalents of psychedelic drug – particularly LSD or ‘acid’ – experi-
ences, suggesting that psytrance cannot be “understood” properly without having
experienced such drugs. Academic psychology discusses the psychedelic state trig-
gered by LSD consumption as a profound ASC or altered state of consciousness
(Ludwig, 1969). The pharmacological list of the commonly perceived effects of
such states include alterations in thinking; distorted sense of time; (temporary) loss
of control; change in emotional expression and body image; perceptual distortions;
change in meaning or significance; sense of the ineffable; feelings of rejuvenation;
and hypersuggestibility (Ludwig, 1969, pp. 14-17). Especially with higher doses,
the psychedelic effect may trigger, for over eight to twelve hours, intensive and
disturbing distortions is sensory perception: thoughts are potentially ‘realised’, and
impressions are amplified or distorted. Acid is thus conducive to ‘tripping’ or getting
away from the non-altered, waking states of everyday sense perception, in terms of
one’s personal, virtual adventure. It also attracts attention on musical subtleties and
synaesthetically aligns the trip to this enhanced flow of the music. My research also
suggests that experience may trigger reflections on one’s personality and life narra-
tives, in synergy with the music. My interview and fieldwork accounts correspond
to the academic view that the nature of each LSD trip is highly dependent on the
dosage, the personal predisposition or expectation (set) and the actual environment
(setting) (Pechnick and Ungerleider, 2004).
261
Most interviewees agree that the uncanny, the abnormal, the grotesque, and ulti-
mately the ‘trippy’ characteristics of the music are channelling the same sentiment
of “feeling weird, psychedelic or . . . out of place” (Magan, individual interview,
March, 2013) as the psychedelic experience. As suggested by the following inter-
view fragment, many psytrance tracks can be seen as the musical transposition of
LSD’s effects.
Q: You told me that there are certain clues of a different plane of reality that you
can reach while on acid. Do you think that this kind of second plane, let’s say,
or these kinds of realisations are built in the music as well, somehow?
John: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Q: And how?
Jimmy: The music is almost … A lot of the music that we listen to, especially in
psytrance, is designed to …
John: Well, it’s written on that plane almost. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense un-
less you’re on that plane.
Jimmy: Or at least have experienced that plane before.
Rick: It enables you to achieve higher states of consciousness, or not necessarily
higher, but . . . you can get really weird with psychedelics, if you’re listening
to good music, it will take you there safely, if that makes sense. So, yeah, the
music is like a guide (focus group, June, 2012).
In a later stage of the interview it is also proposed that the music is designed to
harmonise with the state of consciousness triggered by LSD by means of produc-
tion technologies such as “squelchy” filters and delay effects. According to other
interviewees, the music becomes “abnormal” and “connected with drugs” due to its
unexpected structures and sonic distortions (focus group, August, 2012),
Dark psytrance can be considered the hard core of psytrance, sending its acid-
infused musical structures into overdrive at a tempo that ranges from 150 to 200
BPM (beats per minute), and it is played predominantly during the night at out-
door psytrance festivals. The subgenre and its further variations such as forest and
high-tech psytrance are followed by a small, grassroots community in Melbourne.
Interestingly, the majority of the performers and a significant portion of the audi-
ence are of Indian origin, which is reflected in my interview sample as well (six
out of 17 interviewees). A single crew organises regular club nights (several times
a year). At the time of my fieldwork the biggest Australian psychedelic festival,
Rainbow Serpent, did not feature international darkpsy artists. Nevertheless, dark-
psy producer/organiser Vipin is fairly optimistic about the future of this grassroots
subgenre in Melbourne:
262
Vipin: There is a very small community following the harder style of music, and it’s
come along in the last few years, and it’s seen some positive changes because
a lot of people in Melbourne have started to produce that kind of music, and
that’s how it’s gonna grow even bigger. Because you write something, you
show it to your friends, who might like it, and that’s how the word spreads.
And you put a few people like this in the scene, and suddenly you’ve got all
these different branches that are making up the whole scene. So that’s what’s
happening. And look, it’s too early to say whether Melbourne’s gonna develop
a darkpsy scene that is as big as any other country, ‘cause influence is a big,
big factor, and you know how things work. So yeah, like, in Europe, you can
see, ‘cause it’s such a closed network, everyone’s kind of hopping between
countries, different festivals, and that’s how the whole scene skyrocketed (focus
group, December, 2012).
As suggested by Vipin, the situation is different in Europe, where certain fes-

tivals are devoted exclusively to darkpsy. For instance the Noise Poison festival in
Slovakia, which I visited in July 2013, features more than 48 hours of uninterrupted
music predominantly from one of the more recent branches of darkpsy called high-
tech psytrance.3 Despite its limited popularity in Australia, the subgenre is worth
investigation because it delivers a heavily concentrated manifestation of the ‘trippy’
musical aesthetics characteristic of the wider psytrance genre.
PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES
It is important to note that some of the respondents who are involved in dark psy-
trance (as listeners, DJs or producers) often avoid the term and use the names of
its variations instead, such as forest and high-tech psytrance. The reason for this is
that while darkpsy undeniably delivers intense feelings, these are not necessarily
experienced as ‘dark’ (in terms of a sombre atmosphere). In the words of Umesh:
Umesh: I would say that psytrance is a way to explore different possibilities. So

to open my mind, I need to listen to all kinds of darkpsy. I can’t just say OK,
this kind of darkpsy is for this particular mood. And you can’t really say that
darkpsy in particular is dark. It’s just a name. We are just classifying this
particular category of music: it’s called darkpsy. It doesn’t mean that it is
dark (focus group, August, 2012).
However, it is often stated that the subgenre is experienced as dark, scary or even
evil by non-fans who cannot ‘relate’ to it. As Baniya reacts to the words of Umesh:
263
Baniya: But the thing with that classification is that it’s classified as dark because
many people get paranoid and have dark feelings with that music, related to
it, so it’s classified as dark.
Umesh: But for me it’s not like that.
Baniya: Yeah. Music is music, and I agree, I love darkpsy so …
Q: You don’t get paranoid ...
Baniya: I don’t get paranoid, it’s all good (focus group, August, 2012).
Respondents who would not normally listen to darkpsy also note that darkpsy
is not necessarily dark but perhaps too ‘weird’.
Rick: I prefer more [the] happy vibe music, ‘cause it takes you to a happy place.
Some people like dark music, music that takes you to a dark place, but I think
that’s [also] kind of weird sometimes.
John: I don’t like to explore those places.
Jimmy: I don’t necessarily think it takes them to a dark place, but just a weirder
place (focus group, June, 2012).
More often than not, the subgenre intensifies the ‘trippy’ and ‘weird’ aesthetics
of the wider psytrance genre, or at least speeds up to a tempo that is unpleasant for
many partygoers. Quality darkpsy music involves the organic evolution and break-
down of heavily processed sound layers that are interacting with or responding on
each other, embedded in bass line at a tempo that exceeds 150 BPM and sometimes
collapses down to zero or speeds up to hyperspeed. The design of the tracks deliv-
ers a destabilising feeling of continuously traversing boundaries, with the same
manifesto being evident in the evolution of the subgenre:
Vipin: Evolution [in psytrance] is really, really important, which is kind of OK in

the hardest stuff, darkpsy, because people keep pushing the boundaries of, you
know, how more abstract you can get, that’s, kind of, what’s made this really
popular all of a sudden.
Q: So it’s more, like, surprising?
Vipin: Surprises, yes, full of surprises.
Q: Against previous formulas?
Vipin: Absolutely. Because it’s evolved, you know. Starting from like really dark,
abstract, grungy sounds, you know, from Hallucinogen and all these people,
suddenly it’s now reached a level where people like Osom Music Records, you
know, they are producing 200 BPM. And even though it’s really fast, for someone
who can understand that music, it’s really well-crafted, and really intelligent,
you know. That’s a really good use of technology (focus group, December, 2012).
264
For Vipin, evolution in darkpsy signifies the accelerated production of increas-

ingly faster and more “abstract” music. The main preoccupation of this subgenre
seems to be the continuous transgression of its own perverted boundaries, both
musically and semantically: the processing, fading, panning, speeding up and de-
struction of rhythms and layers, the use of both menacing and nonsensical sound
patterns contribute to its characteristically freakish atmosphere. Among the more
acknowledged variations of darkpsy are forest and high-tech psytrance. Vipin, who
is a forest psytrance producer, defines the former by its use of woody, organic and
squeaky sounds. The music is eerily atmospheric, with a tempo around 150 BPM,
and as the name suggests, particularly suitable for being played in a forest, generally
between dusk and dawn. High-tech psytrance operates on a faster tempo (exceeding
170 BPM) and typically delivers almost surgically clean, futuristic, synthetic and
robotic sounds twisting over a wide frequency range. Both are capable of delivering
a rich fluctuation of disorienting emotions and are thus considered to be more suit-
able to the advanced listener, with interviewees often mentioning that for outsiders
a less demanding subgenre such as progressive psytrance is a better introduction
to the scene.
Vipin: It’s not something with which, you know, you can just start off this thing
right away. This music kind of has to grow on you. Like, very rarely you come
across someone, you know, who can just start listening to a track which is like
really complex and dark, and start liking the music. You have to go through
the journey to reach to a stage where you are an advanced listener, and you
can kind of relate to what’s happening (focus group, December, 2012).
Sabeena: What I feel with Neelix, for example, I’m just giving a pure example.
Like, let’s say these guys were just entering the psychedelic world, would you
take them straight to a dark party or would you actually take them to Neelix?
Because, you know, this is something that is a little less intense, you know
[laughs] (focus group, August, 2012).
Sabeena mentions Neelix, a psytrance artist who produces and performs melodic,
uplifting and moderately paced (around 140 BPM) progressive psytrance tracks.
Compared to the catchy tunes of progressive psytrance, the sound of a 180 BPM
high-tech track, for example, due to its combination of fast speed and sci-fi sounds
would metaphorically deliver an overall effect of an overdriven spin drier that,
catapulted to outer space, entraps the deranged cacophony of little green droids.
Baniya: I feel a robotic feeling on darkpsy. I become a robot. [Everybody laughs.]

Sabeena: It is, yeah, you become a robot, it is like that [laughs] (focus group,
August, 2012).
265
The conglomerate of such intense, fast, deranged, mechanical, eerie or dark

sounds is particularly immersive for those who are on psychedelics, and it is regarded
as highly innovative by fans whose community is defined in terms of belonging
to this music. At the same time, darkpsy does not create an attractive embodied
experience for many.
Sabeena: I don’t like darkpsy. For me, I get paranoid, and I have done that on acid,
and it was, like … I’ve gone to Noise Poison in Australia, and that was my first
dark party here. And I was just standing in one spot for like 5 hours, I could not
move, ‘cause it was, the music was just trrr-trrr-trrr-trrr, you know [laughs].
To be honest, I did not enjoy that because for me it’s all about the journey,
it’s all about talking, and you know, just being able to still move around and
do whatever I wanted to do, and in dark[psy] I could not do that. So I didn’t
really enjoy it (focus group, August, 2012).
For Sabeena, the ideal journey at a festival does not equate to total and inescapable
immersion into the music. Instead, she prefers to retain some control and engage
in social interactions. Yet while on acid, the whirl of the intense music may trigger
captivating sensations and synaesthetic perceptions that obscure everyday social
relations, encapsulating the partygoer into a zone of mysterious frequencies. The
engagement with the unknown in darkpsy is evident in what can be considered key
tropes of forest and high-tech psytrance: the mysterious woods (as nature/Other)
and the deranged robot (as machine/Other). These motifs are not retained as mere
representations of established systems (as imageries of fantasy or sci-fi literature
for example) but are continuously reworked in tracks that are increasingly “more
abstract”, often nonsensical and continuously “pushing the boundaries” (Vipin, focus
group, December, 2012), corresponding to the expansive logic of the psychedelic
trip, which is sometimes also reflected in the use of surprising vocal samples.
While much of psytrance music is abstract and devoid of lyrics, the tracks may
occasionally contain short vocal samples that are usually borrowed from popular
media such as movies, documentaries or radio broadcasts. These samples may open
up the music to a range of narratives that can be reflected in the artwork of the
albums and the names of the tracks and labels as well. For instance, in the 1980s
and 1990s (proto-)Goa trance and psytrance, the topic of outer space was reworked
through sound samples relating to space travel (e.g., radio dialogues from NASA’s
Apollo program) and the visual representation of the alien (on psychedelic decora-
tions), which were often mixed with Indian mythological elements (e.g., in the label
name “Shiva Space Technology”) (St John, 2012, pp. 202-205). While such topics
may indeed fashion “other-than-human identifications” (St John, 2012, p. 205),
266
contemporary psytrance employs a wider range of vocal samples, usually during

sudden breaks in the music, that may convey anything (human or non-human) that
could stir up the LSD-trip.
John: I really like samples in psytrance, but only during, generally, only during
the breaks, and I used to call them, and I still would sometimes call them,
thought provokers. Sort of, like, thought stimulators, like these trippy as little
quotes they put in like a 32 or 64 bar break in a psytrance track. And it’s just
like something really philosophical, some sort of like statement, or some sort
of weird thing that ends with a question, or ends open ended, and then it will
sort of just like drop [you] back into the trance, and you’re just left with this
question, and it’s like: what? And it can just, you know, drag your mind into
these sorts of thoughts.
Jimmy: It’s like, it builds these thought-provoking samples and questions and stuff
into the music. And at the very end of that break or whatever, it seems to last
for eternity while you’re thinking about that question, and then it just drops
[you] back into the music, and then you’ll be like, yeah, back into it, and you
forget about it. But yeah, that one moment kind of seems to last forever, when
you’re thinking about it, yeah (focus group, June, 2012).
Jimmy illustrates the cognitive effects of the drug/music interplay through a

captivating episode that is commonly experienced on the dance floor. The “philo-
sophical” statements or “weird” open ended questions mentioned by John emerge
as surprising breaks in the music and are already detached from the ordinary
contexts of the everyday, thus they are highly appropriate for interacting with the
psychedelic trip, similar to the ‘trippy’ sounds and effects inherent in the music. In
a recent (2013) paper, St John calls these short samples “nanomedia”, describing
them as “fleeting, heavily edited sound-bytes, entire film scripts condensed into a
few carefully chosen lines on eight minute tracks”. St John’s examples on nanomedia
in psytrance include, among others: a fragment from the children’s musical Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Stuart, 1971) that covertly refers to LSD; an
esoteric quote from Terence McKenna; a sample from the movie Ghostbusters (Re-
itman, 1984) echoing Bakhtin’s (1968) grotesque realism; a sample from the sci-fi
cartoon sitcom Futurama that warns the drugged partygoer: “If you stop partying
for a single second, you’ll explode and kill everyone here in a fireball of melted
gears and splattered bones” (St John, 2013).
It is important to note again that such samples are not necessary ingredients of
tracks, and their textual content is subordinated to a ‘trippy’ logic that provides the
weird or psychedelic feel of the music:
267
Magan: For some people having Simpsons [cartoon samples] in a track sounds
freaky, all of a sudden in the night. So anything to make it freaky or to make
it look weird goes with psytrance. That is what psytrance is, feeling weird,
psychedelic or feeling out of place.
Q: And this has to do very much with the way acid works …
Magan: Yeah. ‘Cause on acid you will like the things which are out of the box.
‘Cause you are experiencing something which you have never experienced
before (individual interview, March, 2013).
This continuous quest for novelty and surprising effects is escalated in the more
intense psytrance subgenres such as darkpsy. A furious DJ set is like an intense
acid trip, where meaning is obscured or emptied through the overuse of signs
and structural complexity. The kaleidoscopic diversity of the musical journey is
also crucial in most other psytrance subgenres. Yet all this happens within a rigid
metric structure driven by the four-to-the-floor beat, and accompanied by ‘weird’
sounds which are, however, normalised in the genre. While it might be true that
for outsiders, psytrance ‘all sounds the same’, this external criticism can be ap-
plied to four-to-the-floor driven electronic dance music in general, as well as to
other clusters of aesthetically different yet structurally similar subgenres in popular
music (Reynolds, 1999, p. 7). However, much of psytrance music is distinct from
other electronic dance music genres because it is purposefully designed to sound
‘weird’ and deliver sensory overload, thereby providing a good companion to the
LSD experience. The unique musical aesthetics of psytrance is inseparable from
the mediating mechanisms of the psychedelic experience.
THE INVERTED SUBLIME AND DARK PSYTRANCE
As suggested in the previous section, dark psytrance provides a particularly effec-

tive guide for the acid (LSD) trip, potentially leading to the vertiginous dissolution
of the cultural conditioning of self and reality. This is a feeling that may render
newcomers and non-fans paranoid, but is embraced by many darkpsy enthusiasts:
Magan: [Darkpsy delivers] fear … paranoia … a lot of paranoia. Um, feeling out
of place, feeling of death, feeling that the world is going to end, feeling of, I
don’t know, the new world is beginning. Anything changing, every time, on
an experience, yeah.
Q: So why would you listen to music that makes you feel paranoid?
268
Magan: I have listened to it so much because I like being paranoid; well, I used
to [get paranoid, but] now I don’t get paranoid because … I remember in the
starting days, I even used to like music in the daytime, looking at chicks on
ecstasy,4 in the starting days. But the moment I heard, myself, I experienced
myself for one night, um that changed my life, on darkpsy and acid together.
It changed me . . . I had no one to talk to, and I had only these fast bass lines
rolling over my brain … and yeah, never ever have felt paranoid, ever after
that. ‘Cause that day I lost everything, I lost my ego, I lost my fear (individual
interview, March, 2013).
Sophie: I think with darkpsy you get lost in the music a lot more than you do with
prog[ressive psytrance]. Like yeah, you sort of fold into it. Go off, into your
own world for a while (focus group, December, 2012).
What each respondent encounters in the depths of their acid trip (Magan after
“losing the ego”; Sophie after “going off”) is deeply subjective. Nevertheless, most
participants emphasise that darkpsy at night is particularly suitable to intensely
“fold into” the music while on acid. The way Magan senses the loss of his cultur-
ally constituted self, or Sophie abandons the surrounding world, is aligned to the
sensory and semantic overload triggered by the music. The partygoer is absorbed
by a synaesthetic vortex that generates an excess of unreality from which distinct
aesthetical sensibilities arise.
In the discussion of this underlying aesthetics I borrow my key concept from
Lyotard’s (1984) article ‘The Sublime and the Avant-Garde’. (An earlier version of
this discussion can be found in Vitos, 2009.) Lyotard evokes the Kantian sublime,
where the subject encounters an object of immense proportions (such as a desert
or a storm at the sea), an absolute which can be conceptualised as an Idea of reason
but cannot be adequately represented because in its dimension and indeterminacy
it defies the imagination. The impotence of imagination creates a painful tension,
which is converted into a double pleasure: the imagination attempts to present the
unpresentable by ‘elevating’ its object to that of reason, while the inadequacy of
representation reveals the immense power of the Idea (Lyotard, 1984, pp. 39-40).
The absolute is thus revealed in negative presentation. The sublime sentiment is
called forth in romantic and avant-garde art, which are both preoccupied with the
presentation of the unpresentable. However, while romanticism tries to evoke the
sublime at a great physical or temporal distance, the avant-gardes focus on the
immediate surface of the artistic work. Lyotard (1984, p. 40) also recalls Burke’s
thoughts on the negative pleasure of delight. In this perspective on the sublime, the
object of immense proportions threatens the subject with the terror of impending
extinction or the extinguishment of the system, implying that nothing further will
happen. Yet the threat is suspended and distanced by the artwork, and the relief that
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despite the threat of dissolution something still happens – in this instant, ‘here’ – gives
birth to the sublime sensation. Lyotard (1984, p. 40) notes that Burke recognises
the limitations of figurative representation (as in figurative painting) in expressing
the aesthetic of the sublime.
While the dark psytrance dance floor is preoccupied with a similar problematic
(the dissolution of fixed systems, which is terrifying for some yet seductive for oth-
ers), it situates the recipient in a different position, to a place which is not ‘here’, but
‘there’. If the sublime situation concerns the confrontation with the infinite ocean that
surrounds and threatens the subject’s island of existence, then the dance floor will
throw the subject in these waves. Through this process, not the ability of represen-
tation, but that of conceptualisation, is abolished; while cognitive acts would draw
around the subject concentric islands of interpretation, these islands are repeatedly
decomposed by furious (music) waves continuously pushing the boundaries. Indeed
for Magan, the design of the music, experienced through the chemical mediation of
psychedelics, alters the brain functions and potentially kills the thoughts:
Magan: Good psychedelic trance takes me to a different level, where I’m thinking
nothing. And the beat, the bass lines rolling over each other, [they] don’t let
any thoughts to be produced in my head while I’m on a [psychedelic] drug. .
. . So psychedelic trance is a mental therapy level. It has something to do with
the brain, the name says it all (individual interview, March, 2013).
Both the sublime and the darkpsy experience approach the frontier between
world and un-world (between the system and its dissolution, the articulated and
the unarticulated, finite and infinite); however, their perspectives are inverted.
The sublime conceives its unpresentable entity from within the system, and con-
ceptualises it in the form of an Idea, which occupies a place in the structure of the
system. The dance floor inverts the sublime situation by attempting to explore the
frontier from the outside, from an impossible space where all meaning is rendered
inconceivable (including the meaning of the experience). This semantic breakdown
is triggered by the positive presentation of a freakshow at psytrance festivals. The
show inverts the avant-garde sublime because that obscure object of desire resides
not in the great distances of the romantic thought, but in the very proximity, in the
raw material of the dance floor.
Johanna: I like anything hard, dark, fast, really loud [in psytrance]. I’m actually a
metal head first, then electronic [music fan], so I kind of like music that’s crazy
everywhere. . . . In terms of emotions, it’s just like a horrible, um, floundering,
it’s basically like being in a mosh pit [laughs]. If I’m happy on the dance floor,
it’s like I’m going nuts (focus group, December, 2012).
270
Through the continuous, psychedelic transgression of sounds and forms, the dance
floor freezes and expands the very moment of entering the inaccessible zone of the
forbidden Otherness (in the following moment, or immediately after crossing the
frontier, the prohibition dissolves, and the unknown becomes part of the system).
The impossible attempt of the dance floor aims at experiencing the immensity of
Otherness out ‘there’, without transferring it ‘here’ (the continuous dislocation of the
experience impedes integration). Therefore its very goal is in being as ambiguous
and ‘spaced out’ as possible. Psytrance festivals often employ unusual, fantastic or
bizarre decor and visual art: sometimes the partygoers themselves appear in cos-
tumes, and the use of symbols, such as sci-fi motifs or aliens, further dislocates the
psychedelic experience of the participants.
The following fragment considers some of the environmental factors mediating
the sense of a “different planet” that is characteristic of both psytrance parties and
psychedelic drugs:
Baniya: The ambiance [of] any psytrance party [suggests that] you are on a dif-
ferent planet. Not [just] at a psytrance party, [even] if you have a good drug,
you are already on a different planet, and also it’s like ... Yeah, the Rainbow
[Serpent Festival] visuals are pretty good, like fucking yeah.
Q: So do the visuals enhance this feeling of being on a different planet?
Umesh: Yes. And not just visuals, it’s also about the people around you. Because
Rainbow was such a big party, so there were many people dressed up in cos-
tumes. . . . You will feel more like being on a different planet. . . .
Sharabi: Yeah, and the decors of Tree of Life [festival]. When we went to the Aus-
tralian launch event, well that was the best visual I’ve ever seen. Like they had
these five projectors mapping onto one screen that was on the main stage, and
there these massive lasers, they’ve got airspace clearance for it, which was
just visually blissful. Like the colours were incredible.
Baniya: Coming back to the same point, so it doesn’t matter wether it’s Rainbow,
wether it’s Tree of Life. It is a different planet altogether, you just need good
drugs [laughs wickedly] (focus group, August, 2012).
The ideal psychedelic drug/environment transfers the participant to an unknown

place, such as an alien planet, through the simulation of the dissolution or the evasion
of the system. Such nullification of meaning happens predominantly at night, which
according to the interviewees is particularly suitable for darkpsy. On the night dance
floor the music guides a psychedelic experience that is deeply personal yet may
also interact with the trips of others. When the heavier use of psychedelics renders
‘ordinary’ communication impossible, the psychedelic music may become the core
of new, ever-changing languages, facilitating an embodied form of communication
271
where the intense alienation of the drug experience can be paradoxically shared
with others. The drug/music interface is conducive to virtualisations that may be
experienced as greater than themselves, like putting two mirrors in front of each
other and enjoying the infinite depth effect.
The working mechanisms of psychedelics assure that each recipient acquires a
different (alien) perspective on the performance, the only unifying point being the
common un-knowing of what exactly is going on. The dance floor develops as a
modified tower of Babel, urging for the dissolution of reason, which is not collapsed
by the multitude of its incomprehensible languages, but exploits the entropy of its
“mosh pit”, and keeps on growing or developing as an organic structure. In contrast
with the formless negative presentation of the sublime, the inverted sublimity of
the dance floor experience arises from the constant whirling, and – in a grotesque
manner – from the reflexive transgression of forms.
Magan: You are just becoming matter. And the music is the medium. And then you are
just flowing, pretty much. You’re just becoming matter. So you can be dancing
very fast, or you can just feel free to do what you want. You’re just basically,
um, like when you have a thermocol ball in a glass and blow some wind on
top, you’re just rotating around. Your brain is completely washed out, empty,
and just flowing in the medium of music (individual interview, March, 2013).
The party ultimately generates a system that simulates the lack of rules: this is
embedded in the very structure of the dance floor. The volatility of this structure,
captured metaphorically in the whirl of the thermocol ball blowed by wind in the
glass, is guaranteed by both the unpredictable nature of the psychedelic trip and
the vague environment of the party. The technologies employed in this process are
carefully designed to maximise the detachment from ‘this world’.
The aesthetic category disengaged in this process is that of an inverted sublime.
An opposition with the sublime was already characteristic of the aesthetics of the
grotesque (Bakhtin, 1968, pp. 35, 43), an aesthetics that can be associated with the
psychedelic experience and festival (Vitos, 2010, pp. 165–167). Unlike the sublime
sentiment which arises from the failure of expressing a conceivable entity of infi-
nite proportions, the darkpsy dance floor attempts to express something which is
inconceivable or unarticulated in the system. While the sublime relief is triggered
by the fact that something specific happens ‘here’ despite of everything ‘there’, on
the overdriven dance floor nothing meaningful happens, or perhaps: everything that
is not meaningful happens. As suggested by Vipin (focus group, December, 2012),
in the evolution of the subgenre the continuous pushing of boundaries results in
increasingly more abstract forms of expression, where the anchoring of meanings
becomes highly problematic.
272
Lyotard’s (1984) discussion of the sublime is one of the two key points of refer-
ence in the investigation carried out by Malpas (2002) on the relations between the
Lyotardian sublime and avant-garde art. Malpas notes that the avant-garde break
with traditional structures, involving a highly experimental approach to the materi-
als of art, may open up new ways of thinking and acting by disrupting everyday
perceptions and their limited, realist forms of representation (Malpas, 2002, pp.
199-200). Through its engagement with the sublime that is irreducible to the “laws
of technological innovation and the marketplace”, for Lyotard avant-garde art bears
witness that “the instrumental rationality of techno-scientific calculative thinking”
can always be potentially disrupted (Malpas, 2002, p. 207). A similarly disruptive
potential can be attributed to the inverted sublimity of dark psytrance, although the
cultural context is different: avant-garde has been accepted in the ‘high’ cultural
canon; psytrance circulates in popular/underground culture. Furthermore, while
avant-garde artists such as Barnett Newman experimented with minimalist reductions
in the forms of expression during their negative presentation of the unpresentable,5
the darkpsy party exploits popular culture topics within a heavily mediatised context
and sends presentation into overdrive. As suggested earlier by Vipin (focus group,
December 2012), the continuous need for experimentation is particularly impor-
tant in darkpsy, not just in terms of sustaining a healthy and financially profitable
evolution of the subgenre, but to maintain the psychedelic sense of technological
indeterminacy that contributes to the aesthetic mode of the inverted sublime. The
latter is employed at parties in the temporary disruption of solidified structures
and indeed suspension of rational or calculative thought processes – described as
“mental therapy” by Magan (individual interview, March, 2013).
The concept of the sublime can be employed in the analysis of other electronic
dance music genres as well. Chapman’s (2003) article on the “hermeneutics of
suspicion” inherent in drum and bass music refers to Jameson’s (1991, pp. 34-35)
notion of the “technological sublime”, in which the sublime sentiment is defined in
relation to the complex global network of contemporary technologies. Chapman’s
techno-cultural investigation of drum and bass encompasses both the tension between
imagination and reason characteristic of the Kantian sublime and the threatening
terror addressed by Burke. A key characteristic of drum and bass is the intense,
syncopated complexity of its programmed breakbeat rhythms, which are, of course,
not performed live by human musicians, and, consequently, evince superhuman
capabilities during the performance (Chapman, 2003, p. 1). In the embodied experi-
ence of the dance floor the ‘imagination’ of the dancer resides in a “fundamentally
‘embodied’ envisioning of the music . . . where the body is at a loss to respond to
all of the music’s intricacies” (Chapman, 2003, p. 7). This impotence of embodied
imagination is then elevated to the hyperkinetic rhythms of the music. Additionally,
the body experiences a terror entangled in the computer-generated metaphors of a
273
sinister anxiety that in Chapman’s (2003) work is explored along the lines of the
technological sublime. My analysis signals that this engagement with the sublime
returns in inverted form on the dark psytrance dance floor. As Vipin notes, the “ad-
vanced listener” does not lose track of the overdriven complexities in the music (to
which then the imagination would need to be elevated) but continuously keeps up
with it and is able to “relate to what’s happening” (focus group, December, 2012).
Acid is of particular importance here as a catalyst that facilitates and synaestheti-
cally intensifies the sensibility to the inverted sublimity of the musical material.
CONCLUSION
At electronic dance music events music, drug and environment are adapted to each
other in the manipulation of a vibe that is mediated yet unrecordable (it recedes
from the grasp of external audio-visual equipments because the final process of
chemical mediation takes place within the human brain) and poses a challenge to
analytical transposition (St John, 2013). This challenge can be overcome through
the application of interpretive methodology in the evaluation of mediations, using
empirical data gained from insider participants in the theoretical exploration of the
social aesthetics of electronic dance floors. As Geertz (1974, p. 29) suggests, eth-
nographic methodology allows the researcher to grasp “experience-near” concepts
and place them “in illuminating connection with experience-distant concepts that
theorists have fashioned to capture the general features of social life”.
By investigating the case study of the Melbourne scene, this chapter focused on
the musical and social aesthetics of the dark psytrance subgenre within the broader
psytrance genre. Darkpsy is regarded, by its fans, the flagship in the evolution of
psytrance because it sends its LSD-infused musical structures into overdrive. The
continuous need to push the boundaries corresponds to the expansive logic of the
LSD experience, which is then celebrated on dance floors of high intensity. As
Magan notes, during the drug-infused experience of the darkpsy party “you are just
becoming matter . . . and the music is the medium” (individual interview, March,
2013): whirling like a thermocol ball blowed by wind in a glass, partygoers are im-
mersed in a fractal dance of particles building up the dance floor.
In the analysis of such whirling dance floors the aesthetic category of the sub-
lime (Lyotard, 1984) can be effectively employed, albeit in an inverted form. This
signals that variations of the Lyotardian sublime, preoccupied with the presenta-
tion of the unpresentable, may emerge not only in romantic and avant-garde art,
but also in popular music. The comparison of the present investigation of darkpsy
with Chapman’s (2003) discussion of drum and bass also suggests that in elec-
tronic dance music research the sublime may provide a useful analytical tool that
274
may draw attention on the differences between the embodied experiences of the
various subgenres. The evaluation of such diverging perspectives emphasises the
necessity of careful differentiation between electronic dance music (sub)genres
and related (local) vibes.
REFERENCES
Bakhtin, M. M. (1968). Rabelais and His World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chapman, D. (2003). Hermeneutics of Suspicion: Paranoia and the Technological
Sublime in Drum and Bass Music. Echo: A Music-Centered Journal, 5(2). Retrieved
from http://www.echo.ucla.edu/volume5-issue2/chapman/chapman.pdf
Geertz, C. (1974). “From the Native’s Point of View”: On the Nature of Anthropo-
logical Understanding. Bulletin - American Academy of Arts and Sciences. American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, 28(1), 26–45. doi:10.2307/3822971
Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Dur-
ham, NC: Duke University Press.
Ludwig, A. (1969). Altered States of Consciousness: A Book of Readings. In C. T.
Tart (Ed.), Altered States of Consciousness (pp. 9–22). New York, London: Wiley.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1984). The Sublime and the Avant-Garde. Artforum, 22(8), 36–43.
Malpas, S. (2002). Sublime Ascesis: Lyotard, Art and the Event. Angelaki: Journal
of the Theoretical Humanities, 7(1), 199–212. doi:10.1080/09697250220142128
Pechnick, R. N., & Thomas Ungerleider, J. (2004). Hallucinogens. In M. Galanter
& H. D. Kleber (Eds.), The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Substance
Abuse Treatment (pp. 199–210). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Press.
Reynolds, S. (1999). Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Cul-
ture. New York: Routledge.
St John, G. (2012). Global Tribe: Technology, Spirituality and Psytrance. Sheffield,
UK: Equinox Pub.
St John, G. (2013). Writing the Vibe: Arts of Representation in Electronic Dance
Music Culture. Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, 5(1).
Vitos, B. (2009). The Inverted Sublimity of the Dark Psytrance Dance Floor. Dance-
cult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, 1(1).
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Vitos, B. (2010). DemenCZe. Psychedelic Madhouse in the Czech Republic. In G.

St John (Ed.), The Local Scenes and Global Culture of Psytrance (pp. 151–169).
London: Routledge.
Reitman, I. (Dir.). (1984). Ghostbusters. Los Angeles, CA: Black Rhino Productions.
Stuart, M. (Dir.). (1971). Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Los Angeles,
CA: Warner Bros.
Dark Psytrance: A sonically intense form of psytrance that is often considered

abstract and experimental, delivering the destabilising feeling of continuously tra-
versing boundaries at a tempo that typically ranges from 150 to 200 BPM.
LSD Experience or ‘Trip’: The altered (psychedelic) state of consciousness
triggered by LSD consumption is conducive to ‘tripping’ or getting away from the
non-altered, waking states of everyday sense perception, in terms of one’s personal,
mediated experience.
Scene: A widely used concept in popular music studies addressing the particu-
larities of urban communities centred on popular music subgenres, with special
regard to their cultural and spatial contexts.
Sublime (Lyotard): Drawing on Kant and Burke, Lyotard locates the sublime
in romantic and avant-garde art, which are both preoccupied with the presentation
of the unpresentable.
Vibe: The central dance experience of electronic dance music events, interlocked
with subgenre- and scene-specific socio-aesthetic sensibilities.
ENDNOTES
1
My fieldwork was conducted in 2011–2013 and included participant observa-
tion at seven parties, four focus groups and an individual interview. My inter-
locutors were field acquaintances in possession of valuable insider knowledge
and their knowledgeable friends reached through personal referrals. I was less
interested the opinions and experiences of newcomers and outsiders, because
these persons do not typically play influential roles in shaping the central,
social aesthetics of dance floors and the related discourses.
2
The word imitates the rhythmic sound of electronic dance music.
276
3
A darkpsy festival bearing the same name had two editions in Australia in
2009 and 2010, but it is now defunct due to the limited interest of local punters.
The Slovakian festival is, of course, readily accessible for a wider, European
audience, which makes the yearly invitation of major darkpsy performers
financially sustainable
4
Empathy-inducing or empathogenic drug used predominantly in dancing/
clubbing contexts, with pharmacological effects including feelings of euphoria
and a heightened sense of well-being, and the intensification of sensory stimuli
and perception (Reynolds, 1999, p. 83).
5
Lyotard (1984) exemplifies the sublime through Newman’s abstract expres-
sionist paintings, which drastically reduce the forms of expression, yet through
the flashes of their characteristic ‘zips’ (vertical stripes dividing the surface
of the painting) become enunciations of sublime moments surrounded by the
threat of indeterminacy (Malpas, 2002, p. 205).
277
278
Chapter 12
Arcadian Electrickery:
Locating “Englishness” in
England’s Psytrance Culture
and Sonic Aesthetic
Gemma Farrell
University of Sussex, UK
ABSTRACT
Psychedelic Trance (psytrance) is a sub-genre within electronic dance music (EDM)
that is notable for its longevity considering EDM mutates and evolves so rapidly. It
has flourishing scenes worldwide and for many participants it constitutes a lifestyle
and an integral part of their identity. Psytrance has been discussed in terms of its
global and local expressions; this chapter seeks to explore how England as a local
node reinterprets the culture of a global scene. Some key characteristics of English
psytrance are discussed via types of national identity outlined by scholars like
Martin Cloonan and a further attribute specific to English psytrance, a humorous
psychedelic sensibility, is argued for.
INTRODUCTION
English psychedelia has tended to take inspiration from the past, expressing a deep
nostalgia for a pre-industrial, pastoral golden age whose basis lies more in the realm
of mythology than historical accuracy. On the other hand, English literature and
film past and present is awash with science-fiction and the notion of technology-
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch012
Arcadian Electrickery
assisted social progress. Psytrance encompasses both these perspectives, at once

embracing ancient wisdom and neo-tribal sensibilities whilst making reference to
space travel, cyborgs and the like, and adopting ever more complex music produc-
tion technologies. English psytrance particularly exemplifies this dual horizon. It
is heir to the nostalgia of preceding manifestations of English psychedelic culture,
from Humphry Davy’s experiments with Nitrous Oxide and Thomas de Quincy’s
exploratory use of opium at the turn of the 19th century to the psychedelic folk mu-
sic of the 1970s and the acid house and rave scenes of the late 1980s and 1990s. It
is also influenced by well-established literary traditions in science-fiction and by
technological progress, from H.G. Wells to Dr Who and the Industrial Revolution
to Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web. A distinct anarchic humour prevails in the
English psytrance scene, permeating and subverting its brand of Arcadian nostalgia.
This chapter investigates how England as a local node of psytrance reassembles
the culture of the global psytrance scene. Some dominant characteristics of English
psytrance are discussed via types of national identity and a further attribute specific
to English psytrance, a humorous psychedelic sensibility, is argued for. The first
section provides a brief introduction to psytrance and then presents five types of
Englishness and a number of dominant attributes relating to those types, proposed
by Martin Cloonan and other scholars writing more recently. The second section
discusses some of the dominant attributes of Englishness identified in the first sec-
tion, adding the perspectives of scholars in the field of psytrance. The final section
argues for an additional dominant attribute in English psytrance, a humorous and
introspective psychedelic sensibility, identified using Andy Medhurst’s work on
British humour and the author’s analysis of psytrance music.
BACKGROUND
Contestation has defined psytrance from its earliest Goa beginnings, where an early
schism developed over live-ness and authenticity between the original ‘freaks’ of
the late 1960s and 1970s, whose parties were accompanied by psychedelic rock and
soul music and the new influx of nomads in the 1980s who brought their club music
with them in the form of artists like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream (Mothersole,
2012). This newly imported electronica blended with the spiritual music found in
India and other countries on the hippie trail, retained much of the progressive psy-
chedelic sensibilities of its predecessors and would eventually become the prevalent
musical style at Goa’s beach parties (St John, 2012b). A cultural nexus formed in
Goa, a site of discourse with music scenes all over the world. Diverse electronica
like Chicago house, Detroit techno, New Wave, Electronic Body Music, Goth and
Industrial collided there and DJs, such as French innovator Laurent, extracted and
279
recontextualised vibes, cutting out vocals and looping instrumental breaks with
tape decks to create a pastiche of continuous hypnotic music which would form
the characteristic Goa trance sound (Mothersole, 2012). Another pioneer, DJ Goa
Gil, was one of the original freaks who began DJing mixes of psychedelic rock and
soul in the 1970s and would prove instrumental in the development of psytrance.
His continued involvement in the scene over the years is a unifying thread running
through the different permutations of psychedelic music that have arisen in Goa.
Psytrance has been driven by technology from its inception to present day and
changes in its style have been profoundly influenced by advances in technology,
from the Roland 303 synth, to DAT tapes, to software like Logic and Ableton Live
and producers and listeners alike vaunt the high production values of the genre.
Virtual studios allowed for more ‘noise’, moving further away from the more tonally
centred, melodic sound, gradually diverging enough that the music would become
known as psytrance rather than Goa trance. The internet and sequencing software
allowed many new producers to come forth, making DIY psytrance from their bed-
room studios, digitisation that would offer both new capabilities and new limitations
which would significantly impact the sonic aesthetic. The vibe became even more
eclectic and cosmopolitan with the increase in accessibility to source materials for
sampling via the World Wide Web and as production software continued to develop,
providing scope for intricate sound sculpting and textural variation. In the same
way that original freaks of the 1960s and 1970s found electronic music taking over
the accompaniment to Goa beach parties, so the enthusiasts of the 1980s and early
1990s found the slower, more melodic style was being eclipsed during the mid-90s
by faster, driving BPMs and a darker vibe. Goa Gil for example was deliberate in
his intention to ‘ritualise the end of the world’ using faster and darker music at
night which would give way to uplifting morning sounds in a liminoid social drama
of death and rebirth (St John, 2011). It can safely be said that having been birthed
from this nomadic, trans-virtual melee, psytrance is an intrinsically cosmopolitan
and liminal music genre.
The British psytrance scene developed as nomads returned and recreated their
Goa experience by organising parties in London. UK psytrance became established
with creative enervators like Raja Ram and Simon Posford at the vanguard. British
produced music was increasingly known for its innovation and quirkiness and leading
artists from the UK became world players on the global scene. After the introduction
of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 (UK Government, 1994) the
UK party scene was largely forced indoors, being exposed to a mainstream EDM
audience and absorbing elements of club culture such as the adoption of a wider
palette of recreational drugs. As de Ledesma observes, many rhizomatic ‘lines of
flight’ were dispersed at this time (De Ledesma, 2010) perhaps due to the response
280
of the psytrance scene to the change in policy. Going underground resulted in the
emergence of smaller local neo-tribes in different regions of the UK who explored
different creative paths simultaneously, leading to diversifications in style.
During this time scenes with their own creative lines of flight sprang up in many
other parts of the world, with their own individual take on psytrance culture (Ryan,
2010). The idiosyncratic style of the UK began to play a lesser role on the global
scene; because of the popularity of ‘full-on’ mainstream styles it was not as much
in demand (De Ledesma, 2010). This may also have been part of a more general
trend as during the latter half of the 1990s, the popularity of British music waned in
the US and elsewhere, the perception of its quirkiness changing from cutting-edge
to hackneyed. During the more economically stable 2000s a new wave of British
psytrance artists emerged and as a result of progress in technology, software and the
internet becoming faster and more widespread, more budding producers now had
the luxury of a virtual home studio in their bedroom and the benefit of increased
contact with other producers around the world to better hone their craft. The British
style has managed to stay relevant to the global scene with its own brand of ‘full on’
which still retains its individual quirkiness and humour. The UK psytrance scene
continues to thrive despite increasing restrictions in government policy relating
to public gatherings and recreational drug use and mainstream British artists such
as Avalon and Tristan and the many major labels based in the UK have achieved
global notoriety.
The research of psytrance is still a relatively new field, having emerged during
the latter half of the 2000s. The first volume of scholarly essays on the subject, The
Local Scenes and Global Culture of Psytrance, was published in 2010 (St John,
2010b), followed by Global Tribe: Technology, Spirituality and Psytrance, a com-
prehensive ethnographic study of global psytrance culture (St John, 2012b). The
first volume of an academic journal devoted entirely to psytrance was published
in 2012 (Ed. St John, 2012). Scholars writing about psytrance so far have explored
its ritual and religious aspects via anthropological horizons and neo-tribal theory
(Maffesoli, 1995; St John, 2012b); the social geography of the scene, especially as
a liminal culture expressed in global and local nodes (St John, 2010b); themes of
decline and exodus via retrospectives (D’Andrea, 2010; Saldanha, 2005); politics of
the dance floor e.g. the Temporary Autonomous Zone (S. Riley, More, & Griffin,
2010; Ryan, 2010), issues of race, nationality and age (Saldanha, 2005; Schmidt &
St John, 2010); the development of the scene in terms of genre/meta-genre (Lindop,
2010), rhizomatic stylistic development (De Ledesma, 2010) and examination of
the cultural and identity work within psytrance, including the tensions between
purpose and play, conscientiousness and the pleasurable (O’Grady, 2012; St John,
2010a; van Straaten, 2012).
281
Englishness
Writing in his 1997 article on Britpop and Englishness, Martin Cloonan quotes Stuart
Hall as saying “everywhere the question of Englishness is in contention” (Cloonan,
1997; Hall, 1997). The nature of English national identity is indeed a popular and
contested topic. In his article Cloonan outlines five different types of Englishness,
drawing from his own work, the work of Stuart Hall, Mark Fisher, Simon Frith and
from newspaper and magazine articles written around the time. He then draws out
what he feels are the dominant attributes within these types, critiquing their mainly
exclusionary character. This first section of the chapter will use Cloonan’s types of
Englishness and dominant attributes and add to them the views of scholars writing
more recently on the subject, to bring the subject up-to-date.
The first style of Englishness discussed is ‘ambivalent Englishness’, which
Cloonan states has its roots in social realist songs and is characterised by “a fas-
cinated revulsion with Englishness”. He gives the example of punk, which whilst
reactionary in spirit, had ambivalent politics which amounted to a disavowal of the
structures of authority such as the state, the royal family and the music industry.
Adding to this ambivalence was a contradictory nationalism based on xenophobic
feelings towards America. Cloonan’s second style of Englishness, ‘overt national-
ism’, extended this attitude of xenophobia and nationalist pride a number of steps
further to far-right, racist ideology expressed through genres like ‘blood and hon-
our’ (Cloonan, 1997). Thirdly, “hip little Englishness”, for Cloonan is defined as
being somewhere in between ambivalence and overt nationalism. Cloonan sees
this type expressed through artists like Morrisey, whose music reflects their am-
bivalence toward English society with an added air of punk’s reactionary-ness and
vaguely directed critique. He points out that this type of Englishness in pop music
has sometimes strayed over the line of ambivalence to a right-wing commentary
on contentious issues such as race and immigration, by direct or more ambiguous
means. Cloonan’s fourth type, “hip big Englishness” is described as having both a
national and international outlook and left-liberal political leanings. Billy Bragg and
his folk troubadour-rooted stylings exemplify this type of Englishness, reimagin-
ing English patriotism in a left-nationalist stance that centres on the working class
experience of life in England (Cloonan, 1997).
The fifth type of Englishness outlined by Cloonan in his article is perhaps the
most relevant to psytrance. “Non-articulated Englishness” refers to all pop styles
which do not have lyrics as the central focus of the music. He lists a few of the
electronic genres of the 1990s, such as rave, techno and jungle as examples, high-
lighting their emphasis on rhythm and movement. He identifies the lifestyle of the
music scene rather than the music itself as the mode of expressing their English
identity (Cloonan, 1997). To Cloonan, this style offers opportunities for the expan-
282
sion of notions of Englishness, in that it has more ethnically diverse artists with an
equally diverse range of texts. He sees it as offering perhaps the only real alternative
at the time to the hegemony of Eng. Lit. pop- lyric based pop music drawing from
what is historically the country’s most important cultural export, English literature
(ibid 1997). Cloonan settles on ambivalence and hip little Englishness as the most
characteristic types of English national identity in pop music. Citing Schlesinger,
who posits that the examination of inclusion and exclusion is key to understanding
national identity, Cloonan goes on to list the attributes he finds the most dominant
within these two types (Cloonan, 1997; Schlesinger, 1987). These attributes will
now be outlined, with reference to the views of more recent scholars writing about
English national identity.
He begins by tackling the frequent conflation of British and English perpetrated
by many English writers and musicians. By making this conflation, they reveal a
privileged outlook of which perhaps they are not aware. They are happy to refer to
themselves as British, tacitly assuming England as the central country in the union
and thereby symbolically colonialize the other countries. On the other hand people
from Wales may prefer to call themselves Welsh, highlighting their separateness
from England and perhaps also from the uncomfortable connotations of ‘Great Brit-
ain’ and the exploits of the former British Empire (Cloonan, 1997). For Cloonan,
regional divisions within England are also important markers of identity, as local-
ity can mediate national identity. The North of England, for instance, has its own
distinct identity and culture and also within it a multiplicity of regional divisions
and allegiances, such as those between Yorkshire and Lancashire. The North is also
frequently ‘othered’ in a London-centric way of thinking (ibid 1997). The views
of Irene Morra are in line with Cloonan’s on this subject. She comments that the
overarching discourse of British pop music defines it as being post-Imperial, mod-
ern and with an ‘of the people’ folk sensibility. However, she points out that this is
often expressed in very patriotic language, which reasserts the historical colonising
power of Great Britain. The assumed centrality of England in the union functions
in a similar way, which contradicts the idea of the British pop canon being a folk
music (Morra, 2013).
Cloonan discusses the exclusion of non-white people and women from notions of
Englishness, stating that the representative format of pop music consists generally of
“four white men with guitars” (Cloonan, 1997). He notes at the time of writing, that
xenophobia directed at America is rife within the pop music scene. Damon Albarn
of Britpop band Blur for instance, described their music as ‘happy’ and their image,
‘smart’, in contrast to the maudlin ‘grunge’ genre from Seattle that was also popular
in England (ibid 1997). This type of exclusion is evident in Morra’s observation
that as modern youth culture became the dominant way that English nationality
was represented abroad, for example during the late 1960s with the Beatles, its
283
international ‘face’ automatically became a monolithic symbol of national pride.

The ‘British invasion’ rhetoric sealed this fate in emphasising Britain’s imperialist
past (Morra, 2013). Simon Featherstone charts the historical evolution of England’s
sense of nationhood, constructed from revisionist, nostalgic sources in an attempt to
recover its identity in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, the collapse of the Brit-
ish Empire and two world wars (Featherstone, 2009). Morra suggests that pop music
and pop culture in general, have found ways to revise history to exclude problematic
events and narratives. She uses Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony as her
example, where pop music, working people such as NHS staff, the landscape and
ancient monuments were foregrounded in the representation of Britain to the rest
of the world. Problematic histories such as Imperialism and slavery however, were
clumsily excised leaving noticeable gaps in historical timelines. Isambard Kingdom
Brunel for example, was featured speaking the words of Shakespeare, creating an
awkward incongruity between histories and themes whilst blithely appealing to Eng-
land’s most vaunted cultural export, English Literature (Morra, 2013). Featherstone
is in agreement about this deliberate amnesia and England’s unwillingness to deal
with the embarrassments of its colonialist past. However he also highlights an intro-
spective type of Englishness that has developed more recently, perhaps in response
to the collective amnesia of the nation and furthermore states that a key attribute
of Englishness is in fact this act of searching for its identity (Featherstone, 2009).
Frith describes British pop music as essentially suburban in origin, expressing
boredom and having the sound of “suburban longing played out via metropolitan
means” (Frith, 1997). This idea is echoed by many others, including Savage in his
work on punk, England’s Dreaming and Bracewell’s attempt to locate Englishness
in pop culture, England is Mine (Bracewell, 1998; Savage, 2002). The focus on
scenes and neo-tribes over youth subculture has informed the examination of the
cultural and identity work done within psytrance, particularly the tensions arising
from a work/play paradigm; the immediate identity work accomplished via dance
floor ego-annihilation versus anxieties over what positive work there is to be done
following the Dionysian orgy(St John, 2010a). It is perhaps at the intersection of
concepts of work and play that the most dynamic and interesting qualities of psytrance
culture are found. Contestation arises from the differing agendas and interpretation
of meaning among scene participants, creating codal confusion which keeps the
culture progressing and changing. Similarly in the music itself, representations of for
example, playfulness, the grotesque body or transcendence interact, creating drama.
Suburbia is a place of liminality, which oscillates between countryside and
city, home and the workplace, childish and adult states of being and between “the
mundane and the apocalyptic” (Frith, 1997). At all these intersections are anxieties
over technology and modern life, something addressed by Cloonan’s definition of
nostalgia, which for him is also bound up with anti-technology sentiments. He asserts
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that pop has often defined itself in opposition to modernist movements (Cloonan,
1997). Frith and Bracewell have described how the boredom, longing and anxiety
that characterise suburbia have spawned many a dandy, artist and musician. There
is also a certain undercurrent of excitement and potential transgression beneath
the evenly spaced landmarks, orderly houses and neatly trimmed privet hedges
(Bracewell, 1998; Frith, 1997).
Pop music has often aligned itself with the streets and the working class to garner
authenticity. Morra states that the plebeian is the main representative of English
national identity, lending to pop music the associated qualities of cheerfulness in
the face of adversity and honesty (Cloonan, 1997; Morra, 2013). Indeed, in Morra’s
view the marginalised voice has become as British as the Queen or the BBC. How-
ever, the lionising of the poor working class does them no favours, instead merely
strengthening the idea of class and upholding the hierarchical structures of society.
This to her indicates an overriding nostalgia and a received sense of tradition, heritage
and identity in the way that British society views itself (Morra, 2013).
One could conclude from these perspectives that some important characteristics
of English pop culture are: nostalgia, introspection, nationalism (whether overt or
presented in more ambiguous terms), valorisation of the working class poor in an
appeal to authenticity, collective amnesia around the less appealing aspects of Brit-
ish history, the suburban sensibility of pop and the construction of national identity
in opposition to perceived others (whether based on ethnicity, gender, regional al-
liances or xenophobia). What do psytrance scholars have to say on the subject of
Englishness? The objective of the next section will be to outline some of their views,
linking them with the ideas about Englishness discussed above in this section. The
most fitting types and attributes will be drawn out and applied to English psytrance.
DOES ALBION DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?
The psytrance dancefloor experience is one of ‘sensory overload’; psychedelically

inspired visionary art, decoration, lasers and other lighting, VJ projections, dry ice,
music, the psychedelic aesthetic of the party goers, dancing as a collective and the
addition of psychoactive substances. All these elements, labelled ‘spiritechnics’ by
Graham St John, combine to produce a liminal space which dissociates participants
from the outside world, their day to day life, their usual concept of time and their
ego, facilitating a ritual-like transformation of the self (St John, 2012b; van Straaten,
2012). Psytrance music reflects and compliments the experience of using psychoac-
tive substances. Rich sonic textures along with the temporal effect of long music
tracks linked seamlessly over many hours, induce a state of mind akin to ‘oceanic
boundlessness’, a sense of expansiveness and disintegration of ego described by us-
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ers of psychoactive substances (Dittrich, 1998). This may result from the temporary
inhibition of filters the brain uses to process sensory information in a manageable
way, allowing sensory information to flood in (Vollenweider & Kometer, 2010).
LSD has had considerable influence on psychedelic culture in the 20th and 21st
centuries and still features prominently in ever-increasing palette of psychoactive
substances used in the psytrance scene. A key attribute of LSD is that it initiates the
novelty effect in the brain, causing the familiar to be perceived as novel, a process
that likely evolved in our early ancestors as a response to the threat of predation
(Julien, 2007). In his discussion of genre in Psytrance, Robin Lindop describes
the psychedelic elements of the music as ‘wacky’, with textural sounds and quirky
noises (Lindop, 2010). These are placed in the mix, with a variety of production
effects applied to them, particularly delay and reverb; the combination of these ele-
ments give a sense of space and the location of the listener within it, as if travelling
through a cavernous, resonant tunnel (Rietveld, 2010). There is a great sense of
anticipation in the music, which constantly builds with intensity whilst the hypnotic
minimalism of the bass line facilitates the trance state of the dancer; placed against
the background of this feeling of anticipation these quirky noises in contrast have
a sense of momentousness and novelty.
The reason music provokes and inspires us is its ability to induce and regulate
emotion. Research indicates that there may be an autonomic response triggering
an emotional reaction when a peak of tension is reached and then dispersed in a
gratifying way (Turner & Ioannides, 2009). Passive musical perception may involve
areas of the brain associated with motor behaviour; activity in these regions may be
induced by the listener equating the sequences of sounds with physical movement
and gesture. Music can therefore be considered as embodied, expressive movement
which can facilitate collective movement via the process of entrainment (Cross &
Morley, 2008). Entrainment is defined as the coordination of a participant’s musical
behaviours in time with those of the wider group and may involve the abstraction
of a regular beat from a sequence of rhythms. Cognitive processes then organize
events and sounds based around the pulse being inferred. Music is therefore an
interactive, collective activity which allows participants to experience moving in
time with others, facilitating concurrent individual and collective focus on critical
points in the music and sequential patterns and that emerge as it unfolds (ibid, 2008).
Psytrance music is very effective at facilitating entrainment on the dance floor
due to its clear sonic cues such as build ups and bass drops, and the visceral nature
of the bass line. This is further explained by the isomorphic hypothesis, the notion
that sound is perceived by the auditory cortex and interpreted as an abstract form
in space by the visual cortex. Gradual change in musical parameters then gives a
sense of direction and distance, gesture and locomotion. People on the dance floor
will receive the music as a somatic experience, relating the feeling of inner bodily
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states to states of mind and then assigning more complex layers of semiotic mean-
ing (Pladott, 2002; Todd, 1999). This process provides the means for the argument
that the anaphones (structural homologies of sound, music and touch) identified
in the following section represent aspects of psytrance culture and wider culture
(Tagg, 2011).
Many of the disparate sounds found in psytrance are formed in very similar ways-
taking a white noise effect or a saw wave and adding resonance and delay seems to
be a particularly common starting point for engineering a sound. However, the key
to the diversity and complexity of its textures lies in the skill of producers making
slight alterations to parameters; fine tuning is a vital component of creative psytrance
production. In that respect, for all the use of the latest music production software and
hardware, there is again the sense of looking back to the past; the psytrance producer
has the feel of an antiquarian watch maker or jewel cutter, obsessively poring over
the minutiae of their work. From this point on in the chapter some anaphones will
be identified, accompanied by a time value in parenthesis, so that in conjunction
with the discography, the reader may find and listen to the sounds described.
Difference, Exclusion, Nationalism and Nostalgia
The ‘vibe’ is the particular ‘flavour’ of psytrance culture extant in a scene, a combi-
nation of the music, visual aesthetic, location, group of people, and the surrounding
culture that influences these. (St John, 2012a). Psytrance scholars have described how
local scenes reconstruct the ‘vibe’ of the global culture in their own fashion, so that
each scene has different regional qualities (St John, 2012b). For instance the UK scene,
which has been particularly influential in the development of psytrance globally, often
includes cultural influences from its Goa roots, such as displaying art depicting Hindu
deities and also influences from its native myths, such as art depicting the Green Man,
at its parties, or arranging parties on significant dates in the pagan calendar.
From the perspective of anthropologist Victor Turner’s work, communitas is an
experience of unity between a group of people in terms of mind-set and/or emotion
and in a specific space and time. This usually occurs in a space between the everyday
occurrences of structured society, such as tribal rituals (V. Turner, 1969). Psytrance
events create spaces in which participants enjoy psychedelic communitas, a shared
psychedelic state of mind, and engage in trance dance to facilitate transformations
of the self (St John, 2012b). Perspectives differ on whether events are more about
leisure and entertainment than the spiritual Psytrance parties do not constitute ritu-
als per se; it is more appropriate to say that they incorporate ritual-like or liminoid
elements. Bona fide tribal rituals are not always serious in tone and can include
play, humour and critique of the structures that give rise to the ritual; this is similar
to the tone of psytrance parties, especially those in the UK.
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A long history of popular music and diverse culture finds its way into British
psytrance music. Cosmopolitanism in the English psytrance scene can be found in
the wealth of foreign cultural influences and the variation in stylistic influence from
other EDM genres, and the use of tonal devices such that signify ‘world music’, like
the Aeolian and Phrygian modes. The use of traditional instruments from around the
globe, sounds that resemble those instruments and ritual-like elements in the music
may reflect a conscientious aim on the part of producers to create trance-inducing
music and are redolent of Tibetan Buddhist or Sufi ceremonies. Hand drums and
wooden percussion can be heard in Tristan’s ‘Talking Technicolour’ (03:46) and
Dickster’s ‘One and Together’ (02:24). A ‘rain stick’ shaker effect is heard in ‘One
and Together’, particularly prominent at the end of the track as if marking the end
of a ritual. Church choir-like cadences like those found in Dickster’s ‘One and To-
gether’ add a cod reverence that is subversive considering England’s long history
as a Christian country. It is humorous in effect and yet also imparts something of a
bone fide feeling of transcendence and spirituality.
The reproduction of the sound of these ancient instruments found worldwide
could be a synecdoche for the ancient, the primitive and for tribal peoples and their
rituals. However, this also constitutes cultural appropriation and ‘othering’ and one
could argue this is colonialism at work. Use of ‘ethnic’ instruments may also reflect
a desire for spiritual well-being, identity work and even enlightenment. By com-
bining these sounds with technology and science-fiction references the music can
also be thought of as envisioning a utopian technocracy which blends technological
enhancement with a return to ancient tribal wisdom – a kind of nostalgia which is
important in Michel Mafessoli’s concept of the neo-tribe (Maffesoli, 1995). This is
notable in counter-cultural musics that preceded psytrance for example The Master
Musicians of Joujouka – the Berber Sufi trance musicians who inspired the Beat
Generation and the Rolling Stones (Schuyler, 2000). Other examples include Ravi
Shankar’s collaboration with the Beatles and the influence of Asian sacred music
on minimalism (Reck, 1985).
Psytrance as a percussion based music is similar to ritual drumming, and with
its drones, beat entrainment and simple harmonic overtones is similar to didgeridoo
music, jaw harp, Tuvan throat singing and singing bowls, all ancient instruments
used in ceremony and ritual, some of which are found all over the world, the jaw harp
especially (Lowe, 2011; Pegg; Wright, 2014). An example of a jaw harp like sound
common to psytrance, can be found in ‘Talking Technicolour’ (03:50). Repeated
notes in dotted rhythms make the sound almost identical to the plucked idiophone.
The didgeridoo, jaw harp and throat singing all focus on the inward, bodily experi-
ence, using the body’s cavities for resonance. As will be discussed later, English
psytrance music is replete with anaphones that suggest the sound of the inner work-
ings of the body, so this also seems significant in that respect.
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According to Lindop, British psytrance is a meta-genre, ‘psychedelicizing’

and co-opting other subgenres in a way that ensures it stays current and does not
stagnate. For Lindop, difference and cosmopolitanism are the traits that character-
ize the UK scene (Lindop, 2010). Rietveld also highlights the cosmopolitanism of
British psytrance and puts this in context as both a response to “electrified culture”
and globalisation. In terms of the history of psytrance she, like Lindop, considers
London the epicentre of Goa trance, and that it is still today engaged in the repack-
aging of difference. St John similarly describes psytrance as a ‘difference engine’
(Rietveld, 2010; St John, 2012b). This relates to Cloonan’s hip big Englishness, in
the way that the local culture is both national and international. On the other hand
the psytrance scene is overwhelmingly white and its DJs and music producers gener-
ally white and male (Saldanha, 2005). It therefore also falls into two of Cloonan’s
exclusionary categories, where he refers to English pop as being characterised by
“four white men with guitars” (Cloonan, 1997).
It was Bennett who first suggested that electronic dance music cultures exemplify
Maffesoli’s neo-tribe concept (Bennett, 1999). This posits that contemporary society
is characterized by tribes that resist social norms promulgated by late capitalism
where frames of reference such as social class, religion and occupation are replaced
with consumption, political apathy, a devaluing of 9-5 work and a focus on leisure,
sensual enjoyment and appearance. The impulse to ally with others is born from a
nostalgia for less complicated times in a post-modern society of high populations,
industry, mass communication and capitalism. Neo-tribes are not as defined as tra-
ditional tribes, with margins that are easily traversed, allegiances that are in flux and
multiplicities of tribal membership (Maffesoli, 1995). By this reckoning, psytrance
culture is an exemplary neo-tribe. Furthermore the smaller, regional neo-tribes of
English psytrance fit very well into Cloonan’s idea of how locality mediates na-
tionality (Cloonan, 1997). Neo-tribes populate scenes, which also have permeable
boundaries, not being confined by geography, nor limited in their membership like
a subculture. Scenes boundaries and memberships are fluid and. impermanent,
intersecting in a ‘Venn diagram’ of interests, characteristics and agendas.
Psytrance also resembles Cloonan’s non-articulated category, which challenges
Eng. Lit. pop, in that it has few lyrics and so is less signified than other pop mu-
sics (Cloonan, 1997). Despite being not being very racially diverse, it still offers
a challenge to Eng. Lit. pop, by allowing the possibility for new kinds of English-
ness. ‘Psychedelicizing’ other music genres also assists in maintaining diversity as
it is able to incorporate the diversity of other scenes (in for example, the case of
psybreaks, which may attract a crowd also interested in breakbeat and from there
perhaps drum ‘n’ bass, and so on). In this way psytrance seems to fit with Morra’s
post-imperial modern pop sensibility, without crossing the line into nationalism
(Morra, 2013), but at the same time, the psychedelicizing of other genres seems
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rather like an act of colonialism! Featherstone’s observations about revisionism and

nostalgia might also be applicable to psytrance: English psytrance culture utilizes
the landscape, mythology, ancient places, 1960s counter-culture and technology in
its conception of itself but neatly sidesteps all the problematic events and issues
in-between (Featherstone, 2009). Can English psytrance itself then be considered
a deliberate and collective act of amnesia?
Nostalgia, Pastoralism, Technology and Suburbia
As previously noted, the development of psytrance has been marked by change and
disagreement (St John, 2012b). Contestation gives rise to liminality in that liminal
spaces can be found between opposing ideas (Lewis, 2008). In the case of psytrance
culture, the liminal can be located between, for example, notions of ancient wisdom
and utopian, technologically advanced futures, or experiences with psychoactive
substances such as an LSD, which have an onset, peak experience and post-trip
state. Part of what makes psytrance so interesting is this collision between nostalgia
and modernism.
England’s landscape is suffused with myth, mysticism and ancient landmarks:
Tintagel Castle and Arthurian legend, ancient pagan stone circles like Stonehenge,
Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest, and woodland faeries. In the wake of the devasta-
tion of World War I and the rapid change and industrialisation it brought, composers
like Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Ireland and Bax wrote music to re-enchant
and restore the landscape in the British psyche, in a roots revival that captured the
collective nostalgia for a pre-industrial pastoral idyll. Similar revivalist lines of
flight went out from the aftermath of World War II and the economic hardship of
the 1950s, fostering the conditions for psychedelic folk and rock to emerge (Young,
2010). Artists like Syd Barrett wove the magic of their childhood stories and nursery
rhymes into to their music, for example the anthropomorphic animals of The Wind
in the Willows (Grahame, 1908) and its depiction of the god Pan, the piper referred
to in Pink Floyd’s album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and the psychedelic oddity
of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll, 1865).
Nostalgia for a pastoral golden age and environmental concerns seem to be re-
flected in psytrance via the use of anaphones representing forest noises, soundscapes
of animals, insects and birds and water-like sounds. Laughing Buddha’s track ‘Shiva
Sunrise’ has many good examples of this, for example the haunting, bird-song-like
noises (04:33) and the sound of crickets or cicadas at dusk. A chirruping ‘frog croak’
is heard in ‘Talking Technicolour’, gusts of wind are evoked (06:55). Other ‘wet’
noise examples can be found in Dickster’s ‘One and Together’ (01:02). English psy-
trance also brings to mind mystical and mythological landscape, through the use of
anaphones and samples from fantasy and science-fiction TV programmes and film.
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‘Magical’ noises are common, evoking the sweep of a ‘magic wand’ with a sound
similar to set of chimes, bells or a harp glissando. Dickster’s ‘One and Together’ has
exemplary sounds of this kind (00:58) where a downward, metallic sweep occurs.
A background, ‘magic wand sweep’ then occurs as the initial sweep fades away, a
reverb tail echoing back from the original sound, like a ghostly apparition.
Rietveld states that the cosmopolitanism of UK psytrance is a response to capital-
ism and anxieties about modern life and technology (Rietveld, 2010). In psytrance,
samples of 1950’s B movies, TV science programmes, digitally mediated human
utterances (cyborgs and/or robots) and virtuoso manipulation of digital sounds have
can hold dual meanings. Firstly, as in Dickster’s ‘One and Together’, which borrows
from the most recent Star Trek movie, are re-contextualised to communicate positive
ideas concerning the future, in this case collectivism:
“Are you from the future?” (Scotty)

“Our minds, one and together” (Spock)
“Your future is going to be far more futuristic than originally predicted”
In this example multiplicities of sounds, such as the use of different voice samples
in the track, rich texture and well-timed cues, build-ups and strong bass drops (which
facilitate collective entrainment) give a feel of community or solidarity. Other samples
are re-contextualised to signify less positive ideas about the future, for instance a
warning of impending apocalypse. Science-fiction samples then can become alien
transmissions and the use of devices like sirens, ‘submerged’ metallic sounds and
industrial noise seem to invoke that post-apocalyptic future. A good example are
the sonar-like sounds found in Laughing Buddha’s ‘Shiva Sunrise’.
As Taylor’s states in the account of his research into the New York psytrance
scene during the 1990s, the scene participants seemed to have largely avoided the
anxieties felt in 1960s counter-culture over technology’s advance and the potential
anti-modernist position that entails. They incorporated music technology used
in events (then vinyl and turntables) into their conception of the ‘natural order’
(Taylor, 2001). His informants were of the mind-set that for different eras, humans
have developed different tools to facilitate the same kind of ritualistic drumming,
music and dancing. Taylor also encountered scene participants whose embrace of
technology left them ambivalent about the natural world and distanced themselves
from the ‘tree-hugging’ hippies who viewed music technology as ‘spiritechnics’ (St
John, 2012b; Taylor, 2001). The same attitudes are apparent in today’s psytrance
culture, with its music production software and CDJs. As Rietveld points out there
is a DIY aesthetic to the British EDM scene and in psytrance specifically (Rietveld,
1998, 2010). A large proportion of psytrance’s audience are also practitioners; DJing,
writing their own music, connecting with others online for production advice, col-
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laborating with friends and mentoring each other. Connecting with others in this
way may also help to assuage concerns over technology and modernity. The DIY
aspect of English psytrance and its location in suburban bedroom studios, links to
Frith’s description of “suburban longing played out via metropolitan means”, as
does the location of psytrance events, between rural sites, city ‘squats’ of industrial
spaces and in the virtual world of internet forums and social media (Frith, 1997).
Cloonan and Morra agree that the archetypal working class man is the national
representative of English pop culture on the world stage, functioning as a simulacrum
for authenticity (Cloonan, 1997; Morra, 2013). Psytrance differs from other pop music
in this respect because it is a decidedly middle-class affair. Even at the beginning,
those participating in the early Goa parties first had to travel there at no small cost.
DJ equipment, computers and sound systems are expensive and psytrance events
are usually a labour of love, usually just breaking even or taking a loss. There may
however be a sense in which psytrance appeals to this working-class archetype via
the use of comical sounds and samples, which will be addressed in the final section.
TOWARDS A PSYCHEDELIC ENGLISHNESS
Psytrance parties and festivals can be described as “vehicles for transgressive and
disciplined concerns articulated in rites of risk and consciousness” (St John, 2014).
Ecstatic aims are defined as the immediate concerns of the participants on the
psytrance dance-floor, the transgressive ritual sacrifice of puissance to achieve a
state of transcendence (Bataille, 1997; St John, 2006; Van Veen, 2010). Conversely,
activist aims are concerned with not only the immediacy the dance floor but also
disciplined concerns beyond the party, for example maintaining the local psytrance
scene, environmental activism, or viewing scene participation as a political act
(O’Grady, 2012; S. Riley et al., 2010). Whilst the ecstatic state might leave the
body feeling ‘wasted’, can result in an elevation of mental and/or spiritual wellness
for participants, the performance of risk thereby becoming a means of achieving a
state of wellness. The performance of risk can also help to bind a group of people
together through intense camaraderie (Kavanaugh & Anderson, 2008). Risky and
subversive behaviours have pervaded English pop culture and given that psytrance
is heir to that history, some of them will be outlined next.
Anarchic Influences and Risky Behaviour
Before hippy culture arrived from the US in the 1960s, areas of London were home
to a multi-ethnic immigrant population, bohemians and freaks. During the late
1960s the International Times and Oz Magazine emerged as the underground press
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to the psychedelic counterculture there (Grunenberg, Harris, & Harris, 2005). It is

interesting that in the areas of swinging London during this time there were two
distinct countercultures. ‘The underground’ was anarchic, associated with drugs,
voiced by the underground press, used humour and subversion, was rife with political
activism and dissidence – and harassment by the police seemed only to fuel their
agenda (Young, 2010). Bands associated with the underground were, for example,
Hawkwind, Soft Machine and the Deviants. The denizens of Gandalf’s Garden, a
shop and café, on the other hand tended more towards a spiritual outlook and were
concerned with issues such as vegetarianism, ethics and pacifism. Out of this side
of the scene arose a magazine of the same name (taken from JR Tolkien’s fantasy
novels) and artists like the very successful Incredible String Band (Farren, 2010;
Rycroft, 2003). This dichotomy seems to reflect the orgiastic and the conscientious
tendencies discussed earlier in this chapter as characteristic of psytrance culture.
As the US ‘Summer of Love’ of 1967 was underway and psychedelic rock and
the hippie movement reached their zenith in the UK, young people crossed tradi-
tional boundaries of sex, substance use and protest (Bratus, 2011). During this time
the International Times and Oz Magazine emerged as the underground press to
the psychedelic counterculture there. It is interesting that in the areas of swinging
London during this time there were two distinct countercultures. ‘The underground’
was anarchic, associated with drugs, voiced by the underground press, used humour
and subversion, was rife with political activism and dissidence – and harassment
by the police seemed only to fuel their agenda (Bratus, 2011; Young, 2010). Bands
associated with the underground were, for example, Hawkwind, Soft Machine and
the Deviants. The denizens of Gandalf’s Garden, a shop and café, on the other hand
tended more towards a spiritual outlook and were concerned with issues such as
vegetarianism, ethics and pacifism. Out of this side of the scene arose a magazine
of the same name (taken from JR Tolkien’s fantasy novels) and artists like the very
successful Incredible String Band (Farren, 2010; Rycroft, 2003). As covered in
previous sections of the chapter, this dichotomy is also apparent in psytrance culture
as Taylor and Rietveld attest (Rietveld, 2010; Taylor, 2001) .
Punk rock rose from the ashes of the hippie movement and the poverty of the
1970s. Although as noted previously by Cloonan, its politics were ambivalent, its
DIY sensibility and defiant spirit influenced many successive alternative music
genres in the UK (Cloonan, 1997; Savage, 2002). The late 1980s and early 1990s
brought the acid house and rave scenes from which Orbital, the Prodigy and the
Shamen rose into mainstream pop culture. Orbital were named after the illegal raves
that took place on green belt land at various points off the M25 orbital motorway
around London. (Dayal & Ferrigno; McKay, 1998). The illegal raves of the 1990s
have been viewed as a response to the capitalistic, individual centred politics of
the time. Drug laws became more prohibitive and punitive and public order leg-
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islation was tightened in response to moral panic in the media over two infamous
raves, Castlemorton in 1992 and Tribal Gathering in 1993 (S. Riley et al., 2010).
The new legislation put a stop to the larger raves and made a major impact on the
scene; parties had to be smaller and stealthier. The rural free party scene grew as
a consequence, and people also began using buildings obtained by calling upon
squatters rights so the police could not evict them (ibid 2010). The Amendment to
Statutory Instruments of the Criminal Justice Act was passed in 2003 (UK Gov-
ernment, 2003), containing a clause outlawing squat parties and also reducing the
number of people constituting an illegal gathering to just twenty. Despite all this,
the British free party scene is still thriving both in urban and rural areas and in fact
it appears that increasing restrictions afford the opportunity of a little non-violent
resistance, which is relished by scene participants.
Self-regulation, self-determinism, sovereignty over body and space (S. Riley et
al., 2010) and the exercising the freedom to sacrifice puissance or vitality in the
pursuit of jouissance, an ecstasy vastly exceeding mere pleasure and crossing over
to the transgressive (Barthes, 1975; Lacan, 2013) are clearly important features of
the UK scene. Psytrance dance floors constitute Temporary Autonomous Zones
(Bey, 2003; S. C. Riley, Griffin, & Morey, 2010) which represent a way to take a
political stance while avoiding confrontation with authorities thus putting the con-
tinuation of the free party scene at risk. The political statement made on psytrance
dance-floors is therefore simply a disengagement from the authorities and societal
institutions (ibid, 2010). As Kavanaugh and Anderson point out, rave and EDMCs
clearly have an anti-government or politically apathetic stance, but as they are not
actively attempting to bring about social change in an organised fashion cannot be
considered social movements per se (Bennett, 1999; Kavanaugh & Anderson, 2008).
The British legislative approach towards substance remains prohibitive and puni-
tive and perhaps in response to this, British drug users appear to valorise risk and
bravado over conscientiousness and harm reduction (Sarah Riley, Morey, & Griffin,
2008). The Global Drugs Survey’s findings seem to also support this. Respondents
were asked whether they had taken a ‘mystery white powder’ in the last year and
the UK result for those who answered ‘yes’ was 10.9%, more than double the aver-
age figure for the 17 countries involved in the survey. The only exception to this
was Ireland’s figure, a close 9.7%. In addition, the prevalence of Ketamine over the
previous year was 19.8% for UK participants, 3.5 times the average figure for all 17
countries and the highest prevalence of Cocaine use out of all 17 countries at 33.7%.
The UK had the highest reported use of LSD out of the 12 European countries in
the last year and was joint 2nd with Ireland on MDMA prevalence at 45.2% with
Netherlands the highest at 50.6%. Finally, respondents were asked whether they
had ever purchased substances over the internet; the UK ‘yes’ response was 22.1%,
twice the 11% average for the whole sample (Winstock, 2014).
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Research conducted in nightclubs during the 1990s and 2000s shows that ketamine
made its way into UK nightlife during the latter half of the 1990s. The staples before
this were ecstasy pills, LSD and amphetamines, but today there is a wider range of
drugs available to clubbers and they are more likely to combine different drugs in
one evening (Measham & Moore, 2009). Analysis of attitudes towards ketamine
use in the British party scene has revealed its divisiveness amongst participants
and the way in which this reflects on issues of body sovereignty and personal re-
sponsibility. Participants seen to be too ‘wasted’ on ketamine are derided for not
knowing their own limits, contravening group norms of individual responsibility
and self-regulation (Sarah Riley et al., 2008). This also suggests a certain amount
of bravado by implying that needing assistance from others in a crisis of that kind
is a sign of weakness.
The Electrickster
One of the most notable aspects of UK produced psytrance is the frequent inclusion
of samples relating to drug use which are re-contextualised in a playful and humor-
ous way. For instance Sonic Species in his track ‘Just another freak’ uses samples
from the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Gilliam, 1998), a dark comedy based
on the book by Hunter S. Thomson set in the wake of the 1960s hippie movement
where psychoactive drugs play central role in the plot. Sonic representations of
drug experiences, such as commonly reported feelings of psychedelic states of mind
like ‘oceanic boundlessness’ are also represented in most psytrance tracks via the
expansive sound, reverb and delay used to create a sense of space. ‘Acid lines’ like
those found in Tristan’s ‘Talking Technicolor’ track are also a defining aspect of
all psytrance music. Tristan adds a very British, darkly-humorous element to these:
uplifting church choir-like ‘ah’ samples are heard against samples from an awkward,
staid 1950s television documentary about psychological experiments using LSD
(Lattin). The programme features Dr Sidney Cohen giving an experimental dose of
acid to a ‘normal’ non-drug taking housewife. An austere male voice announces:
“This is a glass of water, colourless, tasteless. It contains 100 gamma of LSD 25.
Let us observe the effect.”
It is as if the LSD dose is the sacrament in a religious ritual and this idea is then
juxtaposed with playful noises, subverting the formality of the documentary and
its reverent tone in a profane mimicry of the sacred.
Humour is conveyed through the use of samples from television and film comedies,
quirky noises and sound effects from cartoons. Cosmosis famously used a sample
from the animated TV comedy series, The Simpsons on his track ‘Weird Sick and
295
Twisted’, from an episode about a Freemason-like organisation called the Stonecut-

ters. Scorb’s ‘Mutoid’ utilises a sound effect of the kind used in the Roadrunner
cartoons for example, where the character skids to a sudden stop, bringing the music
to a halt with great comedy timing. Humour and subversion are inextricably linked
to the idea of the carnivalesque: the performance of risk and the orgiastic dedica-
tion displayed by the UK scenes can be related to this concept from Bakhtin. In his
discussion of Rabelais’ writing on the medieval Feast of Fools, where authority and
institutions were temporarily subverted and burlesqued, Bakhtin draws comparisons
with the Festival of Saturnalia (ancient Rome). These acted as conduits for tensions
in society and temporary levelled social strata: all wore the ‘pileus’, the hat denoting
a freed slave, so that their status was indistinguishable (Bakhtin, 1984). This guising
and role reversal was common to both festivals.
The playful subversion found in English psytrance evokes the ‘trickster’ archetype,
who stands between the sacred and profane. The fool, the circus clown an mythical
figures like Loki and Eris are other examples of this archetype (Bakhtin, 1984).
UK music also seems to have more reference to insanity in its samples and musical
representations of madness expressed via cacophony, off-kilter tonality, and use of
tri-tones, minor 2nd and 7th intervals. An example of the trickster archetype in the
sound of English psytrance would be Tristan’s personification of LSD in ‘Talking
Technicolour’. He uses a rasping saw tooth wave, much like the distortion of an
electric guitar, which bounces with dotted rhythms and syncopation and drives the
music forward, functioning in a similar way to the classic Roland 303 synthesizer
‘acid lines’ of the 1980s and 1990s. Tristan’s version is deeper, intrusive, insistent
and a little menacing, appearing just after a sampled voice announces “LSD-25”.
The result is a fun and celebratory personification of LSD but one that also insinu-
ates mischief, a potential loss of control, or the ability to lead one into madness.
This device began as somewhat a trademark for Tristan and is now widely used
in UK psytrance (Tristan, 2013). Similar devices representing madness and the
occult are found in heavy metal music (Walser, 1993). Reference to madness can
also perhaps be linked with the Greek mystery cult of Dionysus with its Maenads,
excess, drunken frenzy and ecstatic dancing, and Roman Bacchanalia cults, which
were based on their ecstatic practices (Baldini, 2010).
De Ledesma describes English psytrance as “technical and twisted” as well as
having wit and eccentricity (De Ledesma, 2010), whilst Lindop describes it as hav-
ing its own particular psychedelic sensibility built around the use of ‘wacky’ sounds
and cartoon-like psychedelia (Lindop, 2010). Andy Medhurst in his discussion of
British humour concludes by saying that there is no one national humour, but there
are multiple styles of humour that could be considered English or British due to
proximity with that culture and by referencing specific aspects of that culture that
are not ‘exportable’ to other countries. He also feels that humour is very important
296
to the English sense of nationhood (Medhurst, 2005). There are many comical ele-
ments to English psytrance: squelchy noises, impish humour, samples relating to
excessive drug use and many samples from comedy films and television programs,
for example The Simpsons, are peppered throughout English psytrance music. Could
the use of this kind of humour be viewed as an appeal to the ‘plebeian as national
representative’ trope described by Morra and Cloonan?
In his discussion of The Royle Family TV programme, Medhurst describes how
the working class are drawn upon for humour and in particular the character Jim
Royle, and his vulgar toilet humour. His catchphrase “…my arse” and lines like
“Nowhere like your own toilet, is there?” could have been plucked straight from
Rabelais, however Medhurst points out that although The Royle Family and other
working class comedies have a strong sense of the carnivalesque, they are not
political per se, or even very transgressive (Medhurst, 2005). The vulgar humour
functions as a “drama of self-affirmation”, affording a comforting feelings of fa-
miliarity and belonging which soothe anxieties over the fast pace of modern life
with its globalisation, migration, economic problems and technological progress.
Working class comedies of this type are about celebrating an identity and way of
life and about “refusal rather than uprising” (ibid 2005). This fits very well with
Cloonan’s ambivalent Englishness and also reflects the psytrance scene’s apolitical
stance (Cloonan, 1997).
Medhurst describes Jim Royle as a ‘beached trickster’ whose grotesque body
links him to the idea of the carnivalesque. Medhurst observes that the carnival body
“lumbers slobberingly through English comedy in an unquenchable variety of guises”,
giving other examples including the Carry On film series and grotesque 1990s TV
phenomenon ‘Mr Blobby’ (Medhurst, 2005). English psytrance seems to celebrate
the grotesque body, through a proliferation of ‘wet’, squelchy and gurgling noises
which could be viewed as anaphones for the digestive system and the innards of
human bodies in general. Sonic Species’ ‘Just another Freak’ is full of these types
of sounds for example at 01:30, where the standard ‘psy-squelch’ (as it is known
among producers) is deployed. There are also human voice-like sounds which are
sometimes simply primal exclamations, or spoken or sung samples that have been
modified. Scorb’s ‘Mutoid’ uses breath-like noises (00:32) and features a guttural,
highly modified voice leading in and out of the track - a single syllable extended
over time with a gradated timbre.
Introspective Psychedelicness
As noted previously, De Ledesma asserts that England was a nexus for the Goa trance
sound and that psytrance retained the Goa influence as the 1990s progressed. In this
period he says the music was ‘traditionally’ psychedelic in terms of having elongated
297
structures, and being experimental and rhizomatic in quality (De Ledesma, 2010).
The rhizome is a useful concept to describe the development of culture as opposed
to hierarchical or ontological descriptions which offer binary choices for growth
– referred to as ‘stratified’ or ‘arborescent’ (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987). Psytrance
culture is a great example of rhizomatic development, especially in England, with
its ‘cottage industry’ and mentoring culture in the production of its music. An ex-
ample of arborescent development might be music whose development is governed
by industry, such as large record companies that are more sales driven than small,
less lucrative scenes like psytrance. The rhizome concept, and similarly the idea of
the ‘body without organs’ is also applicable to individual psytrance tracks, DJ sets
and albums and the whole body of work in the psytrance genre, as tracks constitute
open-ended assemblages which are constantly forming and reforming connections
between each other (Cox, 2006).
During the 2000s, English psytrance had to adapt to the world market, where
there was a growing preference for ‘full-on’, a more strident, commercial style
originating in Israel. English psytrance gradually followed this trend, becom-
ing more bassline oriented and physical thereby retaining its relevance on the
global scene (De Ledesma, 2010). Lindop also charts how the UK developed
its own version of full-on psytrance with a particular psychedelic sensibility
based around cartoon-like psychedelia (Lindop, 2010). De Ledesma opines that
UK psytrance has succumbed to commodification and has inherited a wider
palette of drugs than the LSD of Goa trance days, but he concludes that on bal-
ance UK psytrance is still rhizomatic in its identity. He cites its link to 1960s
counterculture via psytrance progenitor Raja Ram and its sense of humour and
eccentricity, as being the factors that connect it to its Goa past, despite the loss
of ‘authentic’ psychedelic characteristics (De Ledesma, 2010). The shift in style
that De Ledesma and Lindop describe appears to be from a Deleuzian ‘body
without organs’ psychedelicness, with elongated structures that form a plane
of consistency from which sound emerges on a ‘wave of becoming’(Deleuze
& Guattari, 1987; Hemment, 2004), to a more Bakhtinian, body-oriented and
carnivalesque psychedelicness (Bakhtin, 1984). A look at non-British versus
British psytrance album titles, track titles and samples reveals that the non-
British releases include more references to aliens, outer-space and spirituality
whereas British titles seem more often concerned with inner space, referenc-
ing embodied experience, the mind, insanity and the individual psychedelic
experience (Tarski). References to the inner workings of the body are frequent
in psytrance across the global scene, for example the kick drum, which sounds
like a heartbeat.
298
CONCLUSION
England as a local node of psytrance reassembles the culture of the global psytrance
scene, imbuing it with its own cultural references and ‘vibe’. The important types
of Englishness (as outlined by Cloonan) expressed in English psytrance seem to be
ambivalence, hip big Englishness and non-articulated Englishness. Applying these
types raises issues around the exclusion of non-white people and women but also
indicates that through its diverse range of texts, psytrance provides opportunities
to redefine notions of Englishness. Nostalgia has been historically very important
to England’s sense of nationhood, but this often deteriorates into nationalism and
revision of history to edit out problematic elements. Psytrance, being non-articulated
and constructing its identity on the extreme ends of a primitive - futuristic continuum,
seems to avoid having to tackle problematic aspects of English national identity,
however it could be argued that because of this, English psytrance culture in itself
is a colossal act of deliberate amnesia.
English psytrance music uses sacred music anaphones, particularly instruments
sounded with the breath, juxtaposes reverence and the profane and reflects the idea
of the grotesque body in its sounds and samples, in a style that could perhaps be
described as a ‘cosmic fart joke’. Considering these qualities together and view-
ing them in the light of the ‘introspective Englishness’ identified by Featherstone,
they form a type of ‘introspective psychedelicness’ that reflects England’s ongoing
search for its identity.
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
1. This research would benefit from a practise based approach, as engineering

sound and producing psytrance would provide singular insight into how the
music works. Such an approach could gain insight from established psytrance
producers and their compositional methods, the DIY nature of psytrance pro-
duction and further explore the idea of an English ‘psychedelicness’. At the
time of writing, the author is about to begin a study using these methods.
2. Frequency spectrograms could be further utilised to analyse psytrance tracks,
created in software such as Sonic Visualiser (Cannam, Landone, & Sandler,
2010), to compare for example the length and average number of ambient
sections in English psytrance tracks, which fit into a ‘classical’ notion of psy-
chedelicness involving experimentalism and elongated structures. The author
is about to begin a study using this method to inform research into English
psychedelicness.
299
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communitas is an experience of unity between a group of people in terms of mind-
set and/or emotion and in a specific space and time. This usually occurs in a space
between the everyday occurrences of structured society.
Liminality: The liminal in anthropological terms denotes a transitional stage of
a ritual, the point at which the initiand stands on a threshold between the separation
(pre-liminal) and incorporation (post-liminal) stages.
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305
Rhizome: Named after the structure and growth patterns of certain underground
roots such as ginger, the rhizome can be a useful alternative concept to describe
the development of culture as opposed to hierarchical or ontological descriptions
which offer binary choices for growth – referred to as ‘stratified’ or ‘arborescent’.
Rhizomatic structure allows for a multiplicity of growth directions and connections.
Risk: Transgressive behaviours usually entail risk, such as possible harm to the
body through polysubstance use. The performance of risk can also further ecstatic
aims, create solidarity between people in a group or be an act of political dissidence.
Scene: Scenes are populated by neo-tribe communities engaged in a social activ-
ity. They have permeable boundaries and are not confined by geography.
Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ): A temporary, liberated space that is
beyond the controlling influence of formal societal structures.
Vibe: The particular ‘flavour’ of culture extant in an EDM scene. A combina-
tion of the music, visual aesthetic, location, group of people, and the surrounding
culture that influences these.
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307
Chapter 13
Flying Away:
Electronic Dance Music,
Dance Culture, Psytrance, and
New Sounds in Portugal
Paula Guerra
ABSTRACT
The EDM has been growing since the 1980s with a set of features that work simulta-
neously as distinctive features, but also as the basis from which the genre obtains its
legitimacy, from within the contemporary music production field. Starting from this
approach, our main goal is to highlight an important proposition of post-subcultural
studies: although electronic dance music, club culture and psytrance are globalized,
there is no doubt that local appropriations are of the utmost importance. So our
focus in this chapter will be to analyze the emergence and dynamics of psytrance at
a global level and at the Portuguese level, based on the inputs from post-subcultural
studies. By addressing psytrance, we propose to discuss these theories taking into
consideration their potential heuristic nature in view of the interpretation of these
contemporary musical and cultural manifestations, characterized by being complex,
global, and local in nature.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch013
Flying Away
START FLYING AWAY: INTRODUCTION
The EDM (Electronic Dance Music) has been growing since the 1980s based on
a set of distinctive markers, and on features based on which the genre obtains its
legitimacy from within the contemporary music production field. EDM demands a
sense of belonging and allowing oneself to get lost in the music, whether through a
sound system or sound effects that populates some experimental electronic music.
It is precisely due to this that the drug aspect is so central in the electronic imagina-
tion, explaining as well the existence of a certain form of metaphysical language
(Reynolds, 1997). The huge potential of the technical crossovers consent that, in the
interaction aspect of the EDM, a continuous push towards change exists, resulting
in a ‘what trends are coming’ feeling. One aspect that characterizes (sub)cultures
associated with electronic music is precisely the connection between music and the
place where it is heard: we have to go to clubs to experience dance culture, or else
the music is taken out of context and sense. Mixture/ mix is a good word to define
dance culture, and it can assume multiple meanings: social mixture, as we can find
in clubs a variety of people in terms of gender, race, social background; the belief in
hybridity and in overcoming stylistic barriers; sonic, social, cultural and ideological
blend (Guerra, 2013a; 2010). Starting from this approach is it important to mention
the changes that electronic music operated, in the 90s, in the framework of urban
popular music in Portugal.
Trance arrived in Portugal in the beginning of the 90’s and the first parties and
raves took place in 1994. It was a time when house and techno was thriving, with
dozens of events organized in big warehouses in Lisbon and Porto, much in the line
of British club culture. Overtime, trance started appearing outdoors in secluded
places; its greatest stimuli ends up being Boom Festival in 1997. The increase in
festival offer, the appearance of various DJs and producers interested in psyche-
delic trance, as well as the progressive increase in public adherence suggest that
the global phenomenon has implemented in Portuguese territory ever since. Much
like happened with house and techno (the three of them having arrived in Portugal
at the same time), trance has been slowly explored in nightclubs and urban places,
becoming further known and recognized by young people as a night time leisure
activity. This ‘mediatization’ of trance has not, however, led to a greater accep-
tance by the media of these activities. Parties appear related to social interdicts,
such as drug use, and are the object of moral panics. Victor Silva (2005) considers
the participants of contemporary trance parties are a specific elite of university
students, despite considering there is a ‘real’ trance movement, consisting of a
melting pot of more countercultural juvenile factions. These parties bring together
the psychedelic freak looking for spiritual epiphanies, the self-assumed anarchist
which rejects the capitalist regime, or the travellers, coming from the movements of
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new age and neo-hippies. However, in Portugal what we have observed is that both
the elite participants and the “real” ones belong to higher social classes, due to it
being the standard in what concerns consumptions and leisure in Portugal. Above
all, psytrance is a fragmented reality, still very much unknown in Portugal due to
its successive mythical creations.
Our main goal is therefore to approach the proposition of post-subcultural studies
in the study of psytrance: regardless of the fact that electronic dance music, club
culture and psytrance are globalized, there is no doubt that local appropriations are
of the utmost importance, given the loyalty and involvement in the scene. We seek
to prove that there is always a municipal, regional and national aspect in these forms
(Thornton, 1996). Our methodology will consist of an analysis of 20 interviews to
electronic music DJs, producers and musicians1, and the collection and systematic
processing of information of the Psypartys website. We will then reflect on the genre
and (sub)cultural features of its emergence and dynamics, and its appropriation to
a Portuguese scale.
GET UNLIMITED NOISE SPIRALS: GENESIS

AND CONSTITUTION OF PSYTRANCE
Psytrance is a genre of EDM developed in the late 80s and throughout the 90s as
result of a combination of other electronic music forms (ambient, techno and house).
In fact, trance or rave culture (a term strongly associated with the music style, being
the spatial and social context in which it gains form) has its roots in the 90s dance
music, in gabba, progressive house or jungle: “A rhizomatic descendency of hundreds
of styles; an anonymous revolution which set the tone for the music world in which
we live today” (Blanquéz, 2006a, p. 315). Moreover, and in line with Blánquez,
we can say that “trance was born as a reaction to the abuse of obscurity, the excess
abstraction of techno and house” (Blánquez, 2006b, p. 516). In the constitution of
psytrance, Goa takes a very relevant role as a laboratory of “spiritual hedonism”,
attracting thousands of western travelers to a trip to the Orient which means spiri-
tual and cultural freedom (St. John, 2012a, 2009). In practice, Goa was a refuge for
contracultural exiles, since the 1960s, organizing seasonal parties focused on DJing,
in a process of “genre canonization”, which was absorbed by the organization of
EDM parties (St. John 2012a). It would be worth mentioning the classification of
psychedelic, in the sense that we are not only referring to a style or a music genre,
but to a state of music fruition which stems from the varied forms in which human
conscience is altered: psychoactive substances, dance, music, light, sound, sensory
deprivation, breathing control, exercise, fasting, art, meditation, prayer, sex and yoga
(St. John, 2010b). The ‘vibe’ cycles create in themselves more ‘vibes’, by way of
separation, aggregation, and are thus constituted in the very notion of Goa Trance,
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seated in multiple understandings of freedom, liberation and journey. It seems in-

teresting to intersect here the concept of ‘imaginary affinities’ which mobilize the
travelers to find new places, cultures and communities (Fogarty, 2012).
Psytrance is clearly consistent with the globalization (Soja, 2000) of post-colonial
sonic cultural landscapes since the 90s to the present day. This is indeed a Western
fascination with the orient “that demonstrates a desire to return to simpler, more
innocent times that have not been corrupted by Western capitalism”, which is not
surprising given the progress made by multiculturalism and new age ideas, among
other factors (Huq, 2003, p. 200). Examples of this are the many festivals taking
place around the world contributing to the expansion of this musical genre: Trance
Energy (Holland), Full On Ferry (Holland), Global Gathering, Planet Love (United
Kingdom), Boom Festival (Portugal), Full Moon Trance Festival (Germany), World
Electronic Music Festival (Canada), Rainbow Serpent Festival (Australia), among
others2.
Psytrance and psyculture quickly spread all over the world, making it one of the
most vivid youth movements in society today. As a world phenomenon that attracts
different people3, rave culture today is an industry much related to the tourism, lei-
sure, music (in a broader sense) and fashion industries. This happened especially in
Portugal in the cases of fashion, drugs, smart-shops and a series of aesthetic artifacts
which capitalized on rave culture. Psytrance appeared in Portugal in the mid 90s
as a reaction to the decadence of house and techno raves, as a result of its massi-
fication and the transformation of its core psychotropic consumption (Domingos,
2011; Carvalho, 2003, 2007). The first parties were illegal, clandestine and selec-
tive, organized for a very small number of people who normally came from urban
middle classes with quite good education levels (Silva, 2005). These parties were
entertaining and social alternatives built on the defense of new age and neo-hippie
ethos (and aesthetics). Their distinctive features, compared to ‘other’ raves, were
naturalism, a natural scenario, vegetarianism, spiritualism, the use of drugs at the
service of conscience, and the search for difference (Domingos, 2011; Silva, 2005,
2006). Psyparties were therefore formed so as to be set apart from other raves and
parties, and in some cases, as a response to these others.
After 1997, when the Boom Festival appeared, the number of parties increased,
and a number of DJs and producers interested in psytrance came along, significantly
increasing its audiences (Figure 14) and geographical spread in Portugal (Domingos,
2011; Silva, 2006). The length of these raves parties seems to be one of the most
striking features of this culture: parties sometimes lasted more than one day, and
people danced all or most of the time (Pais, 1999). The main reason why people want
to attend these parties is that they’re looking for the vibe – or better still, “for the
communion between the body, the soul and the space” – as one of the interviewees
mentioned. As Blánquez argued, “this style searched for strange sounds and psyche-
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Figure 1. Number of events per year and month in which the event occurred, between
January 2010 and November 2014
Source: Psypartys, 2014
delic stimuli that fostered melody and the human factor, creating positive feelings.
Easy music that doesn’t make you think: only feel.” (Blánquez, 2006b, p. 516). This
is why despite the deliberate underground aura that characterizes it, psytrance is set
within Portuguese society in its recreational habits and nightlife. Using the NVivo
software5, we counted the most frequent used words to describe the psytrance par-
ties in Portugal (Table 1). This was a rather interesting exercise in that it showed a
broad range of words directly related to the celebration of psyculture, how the par-
ties worked, and who attended them: party, @, free, freaky, fiction, psy, day, night,
magic, trance, birthday, festival, dreams, open, air, tour, session, live, psychedelic,
world, mind… These words are almost exclusively English, showing that Portuguese
psytrance was already set amidst a globalized modern context.
The Boom Festival has existed since 19976 and is one of the largest psytrance
and alternative culture world festival. It is organized by Good Mood Productions in
Idanha-a-Nova, Castelo Branco. St. John calls it a tribal festival, which is symp-
tomatic of an intriguing transnationalism, as the festival had about 30 thousand
visitors from more than 150 countries in 2014. As the premier event in the global
psychedelic trance, the Boom festival is connected to a wider industry of music
production and performance, independent labels, micro media and event-management
organizations, communities of visual, sound artists, and seasonal networks of local
parties and regional festivals held in dozens of countries (St. John, 2010b). Mani-
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Table 1. Words more commonly used to describe the Portuguese psytrance parties
between January 2010 and November 2014
Word No. % Similar Words

party 332 5.41% party, party@
@ 173 2.82% @
free 155 2.53% free, loose, release
freaky 142 2.32% freaky
fiction 139 2.27% fiction, fictions
psy 139 2.27% psy
day 115 1.88% day, year, years
night 95 1.55% dark, darkness, night, nights, nox
magic 73 1.19% illusion, magic, magical, trick, witch, witches
trance 71 1.16% enchanted, trance
birthday 63 1.03% birthday
festival 62 1.01% celebrate, celebration, festival, merry
dreams 56 0.91% dream, dreams
open 54 0.88% initialize, loose, open, opening, outdoor
air 53 0.86% air, breeze, line, tune
tour 50 0.82% go, tour
session 47 0.77% session, sessions
live alive, animal, animals, beings, exists, go, keep, last, life, live, lives,
46 0.75% merry, zippy
psychedelic 42 0.68% psychedelic
world earth, exists, global, human, humans, man, planetary, reality,
42 0.68% universal, universe, world
mind 41 0.67% awareness, brain, mind, minds, psyche
madness 40 0.65% crazy, deliriant, fury, insane, insanity, mad, madness, sick
club 38 0.62% club, club@, order, society
trip 38 0.62% active, light, travel, traveling, trip
tribe 36 0.59% kin, tribe, tribes
blast 34 0.55% attack, bang, blast, blasted, blowing, boom, smash
return 31 0.51% generation, return, returnal, take
cosmic 30 0.49% cosmic, cosmical
power 30 0.49% force, forces, king, power, powered, powerful, strong
round 30 0.49% around, attack, beat, beats, cycle, rhythm, round
sounds 29 0.47% audio, go, good, sound, sounds, wisdom, wise
new 28 0.46% new
continued on following page
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Table 1. Continued
Word No. % Similar Words

 28 0.46% 
year 28 0.46% age, year, years, yrs
europa 26 0.42% Europa, europas
bar 26 0.42% bar, stop
vision 25 0.41% vision, visions
vibes 25 0.41% vibe, vibes, vibrations
blissful 24 0.39% blissful
low 24 0.39% broken, first, low
roots 24 0.39% begin, beginning, beginning, radicals, root, roots, solution, source
point 23 0.38% charged, level, point, show, signal, spot, stop, tip
first 23 0.38% 1st, begin, beginning, beginning, first, initialize, start
moon 22 0.36% moon, moonlight
porto 22 0.36% Oporto, Porto
killa 22 0.36% killa
secret closing, hidden, private, release, secret, secrets, undercover,
21 0.34% underground
festations of this social and musical diversity include the many dance floors beating
to the sounds of the various psytrance substyles: progressive psytrance, full on,
dark, spugedelic, psybreaks and also electro styles (electronic funk), ambient or
psy-ambient (including psydub), trance fusion bands (fusion of electronic and
acoustics) and traditional trance shows (with djambes and didjeridoo). In his eth-
nographic research visits to the Boom Festival, St. John established the following
motivations: the possibility of becoming one with a tribal aesthetic according to the
psytrance subgenres (St. John, 2009, 2010b,); and the disposition towards difference.
The Boom psyculture therefore illustrates a heterotopic, carnivalesque and synes-
thetic context (St. John, 2010b) – of constant experimentation of drugs, dances,
fashion, piercings, hair styling, tattooing, alternative diets, etc.). The Boom is rep-
resented as a autonomous temporary context free from regulations and repression
of habitual institutional contexts: after all, this is an underground socio-sonic aes-
thetic equivalent to the experimentation of the ‘vibe’ (St. John, 2009, 2010b).
We cannot fail to notice that the Boom Festival managed to achieve a sort of
‘contact zone’ of interaction between psytrance and local residents (Ueno, 2003),
developing cultural and economic resources that positively impact on the local
community (Gore, 1997). Despite the introduction of psytrance in Portugal, as we
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will see, the media reactions (Thornton, 1996) are nonetheless responsible for the
strong moral panic linked to the dangerousness of parties, and the fact that they are
symbolically linked to the sale and consumption of illegal drugs7.
GOING OUT OF MY HEAD, I NEED MY TRIBE:

SUBCULTURES, TRIBES, NEO-TRIBES AND FLOWS
Bringing into this text the heritage of knowledge on cultural studies and sociology is
inevitable as regards the study of youth subcultures and their connections to partying,
music, leisure and he consumption of psychotropic drugs, a this heritage is needed to
interpret and analyze these EDM manifestations in which we situate psytrance. As
Hebdige (1979) posits, subcultures can be seen metaphorically as noise, represent-
ing the strength and recognition of the underground, the marginal. The theory on
subcultures produced in the past twenty years sustains this type of perspective, as
well as the reemergence of a potential political awareness of the working class. In
this approach to the subculture concept, style appears as a synonym for resistance,
a physical translation of a semiotic guerrilla. This is a Structural analysis in which
subcultures are presented as the answer to the problems raised by class, race, and
gender, understood in historical, economic and political terms.
Post-cultural studies have grown in importance since the late 90s (Redhead,
1993, 1995, 1997; Redhead & O’Connor, 1997; McRobbie, 1994; Muggleton, 2002;
Muggleton & Weinzierl, 2003), and have become more distant from this ‘heroic’
view of youth subcultures of the working class, as the new complex and fluid youth
cultural practices can no longer be analyzed under a viewpoint that examines sub-
cultures as homogeneous units resulting from a particular social class (Muggleton &
Weinzierl, 2003, p. 7). As a musical (sub)culture, psytrance brings together differ-
ent participants of all ages, musical tastes and socioeconomic backgrounds. In this
sense, and extending to this day, it seems to have a functioning akin to contemporary
neotribalism. In the contacts we had with participant and producers of parties, their
bonds showed neo-tribal natures, given that people were together in festivities over
24 hours long, living a physical and spiritual communion. However, when the party
ended, this communion died alongside.
Another relevant issue that stems from these studies analysis of the relevance of
the media in the subcultural widespread and dissemination. Thornton (1996) consid-
ers that the various forms of media, through promotion (flyers), evaluation (music
magazines) and sensationalist news (tabloids), have helped bring together the diverse
and diffused cultural fragments into cohesive and comprehensible (sub)cultures
(Muggleton & Weinzierl, 2003, p. 8). This shows a clear move away from the static
and homogeneous image that the Birmingham theorists conveyed. The emphasis
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on fluidity and mobility of subcultures can be found in Maffesoli’s work (1996), in

particular in his concept of ‘tribe’, in which the author seeks to describe new forms
of socialization that can be understood as ‘post-tradition’, in other words, “group
identities are no longer formed along traditional structural determinants (like class,
gender or religion); rather, consumption patterns and practices enable individuals
to create new forms of contemporary sociality – small-scale social configurations
that operate beyond modernist class borders” (Muggleton & Weinzierl, 2003, p. 12).
Fluidity is precisely the modus operandi of clubbing, from the perspectives of
both fruition and production – a characteristic which psytrance shares with other
EDMs, where producers, recipients and intermediaries move across many artistic
identities (St. John, 2010b). This modus operandi made easy with new technologies,
the arrival of the Internet (Ferreira, 2001) and cyber media provides for a variety
of sonic identities in various regions, or even within the same place during a party,
feeds this culture with diversity, flows and endogenous flexibilities (Reynolds,
2007). This is the point of view of two of the interviewees, DJs (Fikentscher, 2000)
and also producers and participants in raves, after-hours and psytrance parties, as
illustrated in the excerpts below.
I’ve always loved music and nightlife. I used to be just a simple consumer, mingling
in the audience, I’d go there and have to deal with all that, about not being allowed
in … it had the aura of an avant-garde place, of being different. Then I decided to
mix music and launch a sound system with some friends. I’m into everything, house,
techno, trance, rock… -Interviewee 1, 38 years, male, DJ
Both sample and remix suggest a type of fruition model different from the one linked
to rock culture. Instead of having a custom-made type of listening, that values the
act of buying records, of learning the lyrics, of going to concerts and admiring
their stars, there’s a different scene that includes DJs as well as producers hiding
under anonymity, pseudonyms or musical projects, who are not reluctant to break
the original song or to remove it from the original album to intensify the ephemeral
and sensory experience of the dance floor. -Interviewee 2, 42 years, male, DJ
According to Grossberg (1984; 1997), ravers, without realizing it, bring out the
possibility of resisting unitary belonging. He adds that one cannot identify a common
identity of these party-goers, except for the joint notion of sharing and belonging to
the party spaces and, perhaps, its organization. From parties that can last one night
to festivals that last a couple of weeks, sometimes associated with changing seasons
or the commemoration of celestial events, these gatherings are the context which
St. John calls neotrance (St. John, 2009, 2011a, 2012b). By assorting the complex
personal, social and political statuses affected by psychedelic festivals, we can say
that these events enable ravers of different nationalities, cultures and styles to express
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their differences and, at the same time, provide them with a unique experience. The
tribe – and its music, time, aesthetic, and bodily markers – is adopted to connote a
particular aesthetic, practice, technique, or language by which individuals or groups
distinguish themselves from others, and/or designate the dissolution of such differ-
ences (St. John, 2009; Ledesmo, 2011). As we can observe through the contact with
key-actors, in Portugal the parties are also fundamental to achieve the communion
which Grossberg describes – between individuals, music and bodies - otherwise
inexistent in their daily lives. It can be seen in the words of the interviewees that
the aesthetic aspects are especially important, namely the decoration and lights, in
the creation of the communitas. It is also of note that it happens in both small raves
and big festivals.
Electronic dance music means just being there and losing yourself in music, either
through a huge sound system, or through sound effects that characterize more
experimental electronic music, through both aesthetic or giving into a full sound
scenario. It is precisely because of this state that the imaginative power of drugs is
central to electronic imagination. -Interviewee 3, 30 years, male, DJ
In general, electronic music is said to be void and shallow, specially by the bystanders
who are not part of it, who see it as an escape from reality: one of the most radical
aspects of music is hoe electronic music breaks away with the depth model often
used by the critics (whereby some art is shallow and some is profound) because
all its pleasures are on the surface. Music is a flat surface of sensitive happiness.
So dance music subverts the traditional classification hierarchies, reviewing and
revisiting the actual notion of shallow or light music, and profound and true music.
-Interviewee 4, 27 years, male, DJ
This appears to be because the effect that this type of music causes on listeners is
like the effects caused by the consumption of some drugs, like ecstasy – music takes
us to other realities, so distant from our everyday lives. -Interviewee 5, 31 years,
female, DJ
Maffesoli´s standpoint (1996) applied to the rave culture, clubbing and psy-
trance is particularly important as far as the post-rave technocultural groups are
concerned (St. John, 2003). As we have mentioned before, the expression of these
groups reaches its maximum peak at the parties, or in the ‘temporary autonomous
zone’ (St. John, 2003, 2010a, 2010b). These contexts are thus the reason why small
nodes appear – neo-tribes, which resist and respond to post-modernism and its eth-
ics institutionalized by means of a return to local ethics and empathic sociabilities
(McRobbie, 1994). This is as if the homo aestheticus is reborn, a sort of search
for mutual aid, of proximity, and a rediscovery of the senses in specific places and
with people with similar tastes, reviving individual identities. In Maffesoli’s logic
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(1996), St. John regards rave and clubbing as ‘laboratories of the present’, in which
interaction is fleeting and temporary, disappearing as soon as the individuals leave
the dance floor (St. John, 2003). In this sense “rather than belonging exclusively to
a subsection of a parent culture and being aware of how (and why) that respective
group deviates from general culture, subculture has become a discursive construct,
more akin to a palette of tastes that the individual can draw from, modify and remix
in achieving a reflexive understanding of self.” (Robards & Bennett, 2011, p. 313).
When Robards and Bennett address the uses of the Internet by young people, they
conclude that their practices “are, conceptually speaking, far more closely aligned
with current sociological interpretations and applications of neo-tribalism than with
subcultural theory”. (Robards & Bennett, 2011, p. 313). This is perfectly visible in
the Portuguese case, as all moments out of the party are cybernetic – invitations,
reviews, participants – as can be seen in the daily dynamics of the Psyparty website.
Such cybersociabilities are also fundamental to understand the emergence of
protest movements, demanding democracy, freedom and ecological sustainability
in a struggle against the market, organized economy, and uncontrolled globalization
– protest carnivals. This type of association is done at an informal level by various
deglobalized activist groups, in which these ‘activist neo-tribes’ form alliances with
each other to attack not the State, but rather the dominant cultural codes (St. John,
2003; 2010a, 2011a). They aim to reconstruct the sense of community, appealing to
a form of ethical consumption, constructing their own alternative cultural codes and
formulating more or less concrete social and political proposals (Riley et. al., 2010).
Now, these are the basic structuring principles of trance parties today. Cases such
as “Que se Lixe a Troika” protests, Occupy movements, “à rasca” protests, or even
certain carnivals, which integrate EDM, dance and activism in the same framework,
are clear demonstrations of these contemporary feelings of labour democracy hav-
ing pathologies. These are more so akin to the global contexts in the sense that the
internet is the primary vehicle for the organization of these protests. Bringing rave
culture and psyculture closer to the do-it-yourself (DIY) cultures is not without its
importance, as McKay (1996, 2000) addressed it; this re-approchement is based on
ecological concerns, alternative policies, and specific forms of production. As such,
the world of ‘fabricated risk’ described by Beck (1998) is conducive to a solidarity
of anxiety, creating these types of communities, counter-tribes and technotribes (St.
John, 2003; 2010a, 2011a).
The importance of cyberspace as a new praxis is also of relevance, enabling a
new way of living: non-partisan, political, filled with ideals of genre, religion, and
environmental concerns, as well as appropriations made by a non-corporate context
concerned with these ideals (St. John, 2003). The use of technology in countercul-
tural media has a long story, from using pirate radio stations to independent editions
(fanzines). Underlying this is the very concept of ‘sound system’ equivalent to the
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group of producers and DJs who organize parties is a DIY ethics (St. John, 2003,
2011a). These are not depoliticized creators, but rather dedicated to the searching for
ideals and are steered to an idealized future, fighting for it – dedicating themselves
to pleasure and to politics, involved in direct projects and with a vast cultural and
artistic production. A reflection of this is the associations, promoters, and groups
that boost the psytrance parties in Portugal. This communitas – the feeling of ‘being
together’ - brings musicians, producers and participants together, making way for
common memories and sonic experiences. This also involves expanding the possi-
bilities of creating and disseminating music (Ryan, 2010) always in an informal way,
as there are just over six formal and professional psytrance producers in Portugal.
WE BRING YOU TO THE FUTURE!

PSYTRANCE, HETEROTOPIAS AND LOCAL,
TRANSLOCAL AND VIRTUAL SCENES
The renewal of post-subcultural studies introduced the concept of scene at the end
of the 90s. This concept has been increasingly mobilized into the sociological dis-
cussion of cultures and youth sociabilities in urban contexts, in particular in respect
of the study of the expressive practices and youth rituals in music. Although some
ambiguities have been found in the use of the concept of scene, it has become more
popular and is considered by many authors as a good alternative to the concept of
subculture. This conceptual initiative was, to a great extent, due to what we can call
post-structuralism in a sociological context. In fact, those who championed this cur-
rent hoped that the relationship between youth, music, style, and identity could be
re-evaluated in this ‘new’ global society in which global and social flows are ever
more complex, generating new and hybrid cultural constellations. So to replace the
concept of subculture several new conceptual proposals came into light (Muggleton,
2002), as already mentioned. And it is precisely in this renewed perspective that the
concept of scene becomes more unanimously used by sociologists, geographers, and
anthropologists interested in analyzing and describing spaces of music production
and consumption. Underlying this consensus is its ability to read the space and the
modern urban society in a more reticular way (Guerra, 2013b).
The scenes have often been used to analyze and describe the spaces of modern
cultural consumption and production, increasingly flexible and often facing invisible
obstacles, coexisting in very diverse spaces. Straw (2006) emphasizes the efficiency
of the concept of scene in the analysis of music, in an attitude of abstraction in rela-
tion to more rigid and theoretically complex units of class or of subculture (Ben-
nett, 1999, 2001, 2004). This author defends scene as a space where various music
practices are concomitant, yet continue to be different between each other. This is
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therefore a “cultural space in which a range of musical practices coexist, interact-

ing with each other within a variety of processes of differentiation, and according
to widely varying trajectories of change and cross-fertilization” (Straw, 1991, p.
373). This is made all the more visible in psytrance expressions and festivals. For
instance in Freedom Festival, taking place in Portugal, there are several spaces of
music fruition such as the Chill Tent or the Experience Lodge which focus on dif-
ferent genres and ethos.
It is precisely in this sense that Peterson and Bennett have proposed a three-
pronged reading of scenes: local, global, and virtual. As posited, the “local scene,
corresponds most closely with the original notion of a scene as clustered around a
specific geographic focus (…); translocal scene, refers to widely scattered local scenes
drawn into regular communication around a distinctive form of music and lifestyle
(…); virtual scene, is a newly emergent formation in which people scattered across
great physical spaces create the sense of scene via fanzines and, increasingly, through
the Internet” (Bennett & Peterson, 2004, pp. 6-7). The concept of scene calls for the
analysis of the dynamic of the increasing interconnection between social actors and
social spaces (whether physical, with a particular focus on the cities, or mediated).
As an interpretative tool, the concept of scene should lead to the analysis of
the interconnection between the social actors and social spaces of the cities, thus
facilitating the understanding of the dynamics of the existing forces – social, eco-
nomic and institutional – that influence the collective cultural expression (Cohen,
1991). This concept also provides us with a rich map of the relationships of musical
scenes with other cultural scenes – for e.g., theatre, literary, and the film scene –,
emphasizing both its heterogeneous nature and unifying factors and, consequently,
questioning the rigid subcultural model. The concept of scene is therefore widely
used and continuously applied to EDM, to raves, and to various scenes resulting
there from (Skelton & Valentine, 2005).
Considering the Boom festival again, we can say that one of the festival’s fea-
tures is the concept of a temporary autonomous zone based on heterotopia (St. John,
2010a, 2010b, 2011b). As we have said before, this festival is geared to the global
coexistence of sounds and values and its programme is a global event. It showcases
productions such as ‘Sacred Fire’ (world sonic mix stage), global exchange markets
and the ‘Liminal Village’ (a place for workshops and general presentations) (St.
John, 2009, Huq, 2003). In an effort to systematize our thoughts, we can say that
one of the features of this festival is that that its participants form a freak Diaspora,
some being global nomads (or neo-nomads) characterized as belonging to a digital
era (St. John, 2012b, D’Andrea, 2007).
The festival shares a sort of mystical collectivity reflected in the mutual under-
standing and living synchronicity felt among participants and the key elements of
‘vibe’ – the ability to synchronize music and rhythm, dance and movement, as well
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as the energy from the intense sociability felt in the parties (St. John, 2010a). Con-
sumption at the festival is perceived in various ways, yet St. John refers to ‘Georges
Bataille’s general economy’ in the case of the Boom (St. John, 2009). So sharing
closely with fellow party enthusiasts under the banner of non-profit consumption
and no significant economic interest opens an ‘external sacredness’ and a moment
of ‘deep approach’ – in that sense, music, dancing, movement, drugs, products and
everything in general is more than a hedonist form of consumption, rather one of
sharing – embodied in the festival’s billboarded message ‘We are One’ and in wrist-
bands worn by participants (St. John, 2012b).
Following the logic of the ‘Gathering of the Tribes’8, Boom is in a way, as St.
John sees it, a ‘freak theatre’, consisting of individuals who transgress categories,
trespass physical limitations, and have varied symbolic embodiments (anime, super
heroes, mythical and extraterrestrial beings, UV). As a translocal scene, Boom marks
the worldwide scene of psytrance and is of Portuguese origin.
The historical roots of raves date back to the late 1980s and 1990s, a period
characterized by cultural tensions in which rave culture was a lifestyle alternative
to the mainstream conventions. In fact, originally the rave scene is associated with
dance parties that continued into the night at the sound of EDM (techno, house,
trance and drum’n’bass), normally without a license (Gilbert & Pearson, 2003).
Rave culture consists of various elements and these elements also distinguish it from
other cultures in Portugal. First and foremost, the spaces and heterotopias (Foucault,
1966) (spaces of others which exist in communication and in the moment) where
these types of parties took place. In its early period, raves were illegal and were held
in isolated settings and large spaces, for e.g., abandoned warehouses, terminals, or
in the open. So rave culture was not only different because of its music, but also
because of the spaces where it took shape. Over time, and along with other large-
scale parties, small-scale events were organised in the cities (Table 2). According
to the data collected, there is a considerable preference for events taking place in
open spaces/in the open air: all together, the open space events and the in & outdoor
events totaled about half of the events held in 2013 and 2014 (52.17%). Why this
preference for of open air events? The answers can be found in the very praxis and
topos of the rave, based on the search for freedom and for an authentic relationship
between Man and nature (St.John, 2013). According to the values shown in Figure
2, in 2013 and 2014, there was something very specific about open air events: they
tend to be more consistent than events held in closed spaces (which in the summer
are almost non-existent). This is clearly to the detriment of the in & outdoor events
(which are more or less constant throughout the year).
Whether open or closed, the spaces used for the raves, regarded by the media as
both seductive places and but also as dangerous and destructive, refer to a second
element that defines the rave culture: the rupture with everyday life, provided by
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Table 2. Type of space where the events are held (number and percentage), between
Type of Space No. %

Open Space 144 25.04%
Closed Space 233 40.52%
In & Outdoor 156 27.13%
Circus Tent 42 7.30%
Total 575 100.00%
music and its celebratory moments (Carvalho, 2007; Domingos, 2011). As demon-
strated by some of the testimonials of the interviewees, raves are experienced as a
moment of alienation from worries, constraints and everyday responsibilities, an
opportunity of freedom, a moment for the search of sensations and pleasure that
reaches its peak when a hyper-reality is created, transcending and contrasting with
Figure 2. Number of events according to the month in which they occurred, between
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the daily routines. This idea concurs with the ‘theory of personal saturation’ (Gould-
ing & Shankar, 2004) and translates yet another post-modern paradox: the leisure
activities and social life of ravers are offset by routine educational and professional
careers, but they promote social and material integration.
Because raves need a topos, we will now discuss the geography of Portuguese
psytrance. When analyzing the psytrance parties and their distribution across the
country, we see that they are quite dispersed (Figure 3). Still, the municipalities of
Lisbon (14.78%) and Porto (10.26%) is where we find the highest number of events,
closely followed by the municipality of Ovar (6.78%) and Coimbra (6.61%). As re-
gards the NUT III, this reveals a prevalence in the Greater Lisbon area 15.83%) and
Greater Porto (13.74%), Baixo Mondego (9.57%) and Baixo Vouga (8.35%) (Table
3). The distribution of parties in Portugal is limited by economic, social, cultural
and recreational development, following the intrinsic development of the country in
the north-south axis (not including Lisbon) and inner country/sea shore. These are
more visible in the metropolitan areas and along the coast, following the distribu-
tion trend of general events, and music and pop rock festivals in Portugal (Guerra,
2010). While the geography of psytrance today clearly shows a strong intensity of
local psytrance places in a post-structuralist perspective, its interconnection with
translocal scenes must not be forgotten. Festivals are one of the translocal scenarios
of rave and psytrance in Portugal. As we know, it all began with the Boom and Free-
dom festivals that today represent global, translocal and virtual scenes – bringing
the fairness of post-structuralist perspectives into the picture.
Continuing the analysis of the Portuguese raves and psytrance scenes, we base
our work on Anderson & Kavanaugh (2007) identification of the major components
that help establish the authenticity of raves. One of these components is its ethos
PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity and Respect), which appeared in a context marked by
liberalism, freedom of expression, tolerance and acceptance. Indeed, we find in
these ‘reverberating rhythms’ (Riley et. al, 2010) many different people who come
together at the event to participate in and share a relationship with (electronic)
music, with the venue and with others, seeking the same sensations. Even though
they may appropriate the moment differently, they still maintain an empathic so-
ciability. This ethical principle reminds us that parties and raves in Portugal are also
a space where social inequalities in terms of access to leisure are reproduced. As
we have discusses before, access to these spaces is economically determined (see
Table 4) and they are attended mostly by urban middle classes with quite good
education levels. Throughout the interviews it was interesting to identify a negative
representation of the growing massification of parties, and the fact that they are
open to more and more people, as indicative of a claim for taste and distinction – not
always in line with the tolerance typical of PLUR communitas.
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Figure 3. Distribution of psytrance events per Portuguese municipalities (percent-

age), between January 2013 and November 2014
Another component pertains to how raves are organized, often being described
as being informal and organized in a DIY fashion and on the Internet. Website post-
ings, mobile phone messaging, flyers, the Facebook, discussion groups and tablets
are typically used to disclose these parties, which are ways of protecting raves from
police interference and emphasizing their ‘vibe’ (St. John, 2012b). The increasing
widespread and quick access to the Internet since the mid 1990s has introduced
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Table 3. Distribution of psytrance events per Portuguese NUT III (number and
percentage), between January 2013 and November 2014
NUTS III* Where the Event Occurred No. %

Grande Lisboa 91 17.67%
Grande Porto 79 15.34%
Baixo Mondego 55 10.68%
Baixo Vouga 48 9.32%
Dão-Lafões 48 9.32%
Lezíria do Tejo 28 5.44%
Pinhal Litoral 22 4.27%
Oeste 21 4.08%
Península de Setúbal 14 2.72%
Cova da Beira 14 2.72%
Ave 12 2.33%
Beira Interior Sul 12 2.33%
Douro 12 2.33%
Pinhal Interior Norte 11 2.14%
Tâmega 10 1.94%
Entre Douro e Vouga 9 1.75%
Médio Tejo 8 1.55%
Cávado 5 0.97%
Algarve 4 0.78%
Alto Trás-os-Montes 3 0.58%
Região Autónoma da Madeira 2 0.39%
Alto Alentejo 2 0.39%
Alentejo Litoral 2 0.39%
Minho-Lima 1 0.19%
Alentejo Central 1 0.19%
Serra da Estrela 1 0.19%
Total 515 100.00%
*Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics || Note: We cannot find information for 60 events.
major changes in our daily lives. Some of these changes have caused what Harvey
(2000) coined as time-space compression, linked to the innovations and develop-
ments associated with the global communication systems, which are no longer
limited by time and space borders. Quite the contrary, now we have translocal and
trans-temporal communication channels.
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Table 4. Price of event tickets (N 575), between January 2013 and November 2014
Average of the lowest price 8.20 €

Lowest Price
(Buying Tickets in Free entry (no. events) 104
Advance)
No data (no. events) 89
Average of the highest price 9.15 €
Highest Price
Free entry (no. events) 39
(Buying Tickets Later)
No data (no. events) 89
Still on the issue of the organization of raves, note that they are divided into
multiple rooms or tents hosting specific genres of music, associated with the already
mentioned ethos of diversity, tolerance and equity (Chaves, 2003). This echoes the
notions of spatial division which Straw points out, and we consider that, in Portu-
gal, these processes have been furthered even more than in most countries – taking
for example Boom, in which the multiplicity of genres is tremendous. The identity
markers or symbols, such things as language, style, gestures and body shape and
size are also a component of the rave scene and conveyed in recurring messages
in social networks. Post-subcultures are therefore eager to access information and
communication channels, and their flows, as a means to support their attempts to
be democratized and advertized, and to access information that is not mediated by
the dominant culture, opting, in sociopolitical terms, for underground (Kahn &
Kellner, 2003).
In general, one can say that the style of rave culture is a celebration of a sort of uto-
pian society. Alternative norms and behaviours are another component that characterize
it. Dancing to electronic music into the early morning hours was the primary activity
that defines the rave identity. To this is added the values of independence and connec-
tion, and the consumption of illegal drugs, such as ecstasy, acids and amphetamines,
synthetic drugs that produced an effect of communion and transcendence that lasted
a long while (Reynolds, 1997), engaging in an expanded hetero-cronos. It is worth
pointing out that, in Portugal, psytrance events (Tables 5 and Figure 4) last between
1 and 7 days, but most last 2 days (93.91%); they usually take place uninterruptedly
over the weekend (i.e., they start on one day and finish on the following day, without
any pauses). There are 27 (4.70%) events lasting three of more days, held specially
between March and October, certainly because they are already regarded as a festival,
needing good weather conditions in order to take place. Finally, we have to mention
that many authors have postulated the ‘death’ of raves as a consequence of the pro-
found changes in the elements that characterize them, the loss of authenticity, their
increasing commercial nature and also the loss of their influence in popular culture.
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Table 5. Number of events according to duration (in days), between January 2013
and November 2014
Duration of the Events (Days) No. %

1 day 8 1.39%
2 days 540 93.91%
3 days 19 3.30%
4 days 1 0.17%
5 days 5 0.87%
6 days 1 0.17%
7 days 1 0.17%
Total 575 100.00%
Post-structuralism, however – and the Portuguese data – tells us that the scenes, nodes,
channels are increasing, metamorphose from local scenes into translocal and virtual
scenes as the result of the psytrance cyberactivists (or neotrance) (St. John, 2009,
2010a, 2010b). The processes of virtualization and fragmentation of culture – through
the worries with size and niche of particular genres – can be felt in Portugal deeply.
Simultaneous to a decrease in rave numbers, the increase in rave culture expressions
through online means as shown this transition in context.
Figure 4. Number of events according to duration (in days) and month in which the
event occurred, between January 2013 and November 2014
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CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE: CRYSTALS, THAT WHICH

EXPRESSES THE SOUL OR THE SPIRIT
Who are you? Who would you like to be?

Dream, invent yourself, dress up in imagination.
Change your perfume, your skin, your hair colour or your sex.
Invent a character.
We want to invite you to a party!
Our music celebrates timeless pulses.
Surprise will come from your desire to invent.
Music will turn you into euphoria.
Emerging from your energy.
Until you no longer feel your legs.
Which costume would you choose?
A master of ceremonies will welcome you.
He’ll ask you to transform yourself.
Transform yourself.
LuxFragil, Luxmail # 327 (personal communication), November 25, 2008
This chapter looks into EDM, its potential and differences as regards modern-day
sonic settings. EDM allows a broader reflection on the connection between music
and venue, the connection between the body and the mind, the mixing of musical
genres and subgenres, and on the social mix of music production and reception.
In one simple sentence, EDM has enabled openness, mixing and complexity in
globalized modernity.
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse psytrance as a key musical and cultural
genre (psyculture) in EDM. More specifically, we wish to discuss the specificity
of psytrance and how it is embodied in the Portuguese context. At its origins and
during its consolidation, psytrance and psyculture evolved from a culture of exodus
and nomad spirituality that existed in Goa in the 1960s. This is a complex sonic
landscape owing to its diverse musical, psychedelic and spiritual elements. But it
is specifically a marker of heterotopias in the globalization of sounds. It appeared
in Portugal in the mid 1990s as a social and special restriction and had an under-
ground nature. Its settlement in our country is intrinsically related to the social and
economic developments of Portugal and to the Boom Festival. Our data suggest
that psytrance should be explained within the framework of post-subcultural stud-
ies (tribes, neo-tribes, channels), in that it has to do with new forms of sociability
which runs counter to the notion of homogeneous class and the heroic perspective
of resistance that cultural studies attached to working classes in their affiliation to
musical subcultures. The identities of psytrancers are not formed by traditional labels
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(class, gender, religion, ethnicity), but by temporary ties of affection and recreational
sharing. We therefore have various neo-tribes with musical and stylistic affiliations
characterized by different sonic identities. Note that in these (dis)communitas, the
importance of cybersociabilities centered around systems of social connectivity
is decisive, and that these sociabilities are often based on a new form of activism
(ecological, vegetarian, spiritual) and on a DIY form of production and sharing
of the sound system. These neo-tribes are heterotopias and are guided by a plural
cronos and topos. So what we have discussed here is the importance of reading
psytrance in the light of local, translocal and virtual scenes of post-structuralists. We
were able to identify some of the main characteristics of the Portuguese psytrance
scenes: the importance of the location of outdoor parties; the variety of psytrance
manifestations across various local Portuguese scenes, in particular in the two met-
ropolitan areas of Porto and Lisbon, and on the coast of Portugal; the importance
of the Boom Festival as a worldwide psytrance scene (local, translocal, virtual);
psytrance scenes being assumed as PLUR spaces (of freedom, tolerance) but with
some concerns regarding the participation of social classes that lack the means to
attend these parties; the input given to the various psytrance scenes by cyberactivism
and DIY strategies with respect to the organization and production of parties and
music; and also the clear underground nature of these parties and scenes as a form
of resisting mainstream scenes, as shown by the media discourse on the stigma of
drugs, inducing a moral panic on a lost ‘youth’. What can be gathered then is that
the Portuguese psytrance stems from a global template of psytrance scenes, with
some specificities in what concerns the individual actors of the raves – the symbolic
and cultural capital demonstrated relates to higher cultural contexts, as well a high
economic capital. Given that electronic dance music rarely makes use of words and
lyrics, it becomes at its birth a global product, which could justify these translocal
similarities. This is the first approach to psytrance in Portugal that needs to be further
developed. So, the dynamic and fluid nature of this terrain and the manifestations
of these issues require ongoing investigation and revision.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank the participants in this research for their valuable time and
insights. We gratefully acknowledge the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
grant (Project PEst-OE/SADG/UI0727/2014).
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Electronic Dance Music (EDM): Genre of music made for dancing, played
by DJs and produced in a studio, that is, as a track and not as song. It is developed
around tunes, textures, spatiality, rhythms and repetitions, working as a systematic
frame for dancing sociability while promoting changes in the senses of its recep-
tors, influencing his or her heartbeats, muscular reflexes, equilibrium, environment
perception, etc. It had as precursors Edgard Varèse, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Brian
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Music Scenes: The scenes have often been used to analyze and describe the
spaces of modern cultural consumption and production, increasingly flexible and
often facing invisible obstacles, coexisting in very diverse spaces. Straw (2006)
emphasizes the efficiency of the concept of scene in the analysis of music, in an
attitude of abstraction in relation to more rigid and theoretically complex units of
class or of subculture.
Psyculture: Culture associated to psytrance.
Psyparties: Parties where the psytrance is the principal genre of music. Psypar-
ties were formed by various features that set them apart from other raves and parties.
Initially, in 1994, raves were illegal parties held in remote locations and large venues
outside urban communities. The first parties were illegal, clandestine and selective,
as they were organized for a very small number of people who normally came from
urban middle classes with quite good education levels (Silva, 2005).
Psytrance: Psytrance (psychedelic trance) is a genre of EDM developed in the
late 80s and throughout the 90s as result of a combination of other electronic music
forms (ambient, techno and house). In Portugal, psytrance was gaining importance
in the 90s, through rave cultures.
Subculture: As Hebdige (1979) posits, subcultures can be seen metaphori-
cally as noise, representing the strength and recognition of the underground, the
marginal. The theory on subcultures produced in the past twenty years sustains this
type of perspective, as well as the reemergence of a potential political awareness
of the working class. In this approach to the subculture concept, style appears as
a synonym for resistance, a physical translation of a semiotic guerrilla. This is a
Structural analysis in which subcultures are presented as the answer to the problems
raised by class, race, and gender, understood in historical, economic and political
terms. Post-cultural studies have grown in importance since the late 90s (Redhead,
1993, 1995, 1997; Redhead & O’Connor, 1997; McRobbie, 1994; Muggleton, 2002;
Muggleton & Weinzierl, 2003), and have become more distant from this ‘heroic’
view of youth subcultures of the working class, as the new complex and fluid youth
cultural practices can no longer be analyzed under a viewpoint that examines sub-
cultures as homogeneous units resulting from a particular social class (Muggleton &
Weinzierl, 2003, p. 7). As a musical (sub)culture, psytrance brings together different
participants of all ages, musical tastes and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Translocal Scenes: “translocal scene, refers to widely scattered local scenes
drawn into regular communication around a distinctive form of music and lifestyle”
(Bennett & Peterson, 2004, pp. 6-7)
334
Flying Away
Tribes and Neo-Tribes: Within the framework of post-subcultural studies, neo-

tribes constitute the answer of individuals and groups to the post-modernism and its
ethics institutionalized by means of a return to local ethics and empathic sociabili-
ties (McRobbie, 1994). This is as if the homo aestheticus is reborn, a sort of search
for mutual aid, of proximity, and a rediscovery of the senses in specific places and
with people with similar tastes, reviving individual identities. In Maffesoli’s logic
(1996), St. John regards rave and clubbing as ‘laboratories of the present’, in which
interaction is fleeting and temporary, disappearing as soon as the individuals leave
the dance floor (St. John, 2003). In this sense “rather than belonging exclusively to
a subsection of a parent culture and being aware of how (and why) that respective
group deviates from general culture, subculture has become a discursive construct,
more akin to a palette of tastes that the individual can draw from, modify and remix
in achieving a reflexive understanding of self.” (Robards & Bennett, 2011, p. 313)
Virtual Scenes: “Virtual scene, is a newly emergent formation in which people
scattered across great physical spaces create the sense of scene via fanzines and,
increasingly, through the Internet” (Bennett & Peterson, 2004, pp. 6-7).
ENDNOTES
1
This chapter is part of the research project “Urban Cultures and Youth ways
of living: scenarios, sonorities, and aesthetics in Portuguese contemporaneity
- SFRH/BD/24614/2005 - that supported the author’s PhD thesis in Sociology
- The unstable lightness of rock. Genesis, dynamics and consolidation of the
alternative rock scene in Portugal (1980-2010). Porto: Faculty of Arts of the
University of Porto presented in 2011. In this sense we have elaborated over
200 interviews to musicians, DJs and producers of the contemporary Portuguese
music scene. Amongst these, several have stated connections with electronic
music and psytrance. It was those that were considered for this chapter.
2
Note that whilst some of these festivals relate only to trance and its variations,
others cover all sorts of electronic music genres.
3
Rave culture encompasses individuals from various social classes, ethnic
groups and ages, and is not limited to youth, as shown in some works.
4
Statistic data are presented throughout the text that has been collected from re-
search into the virtual world of psytrance events. To this end, and realizing how
important the reach and aggregating capacity of the website www.psypartys.com
is, we used it to collect all events held between 1 January 2010 and 22 November
2014 (in a total of 1,930 events). However, due to some constraints, we were only
able to thoroughly process the events that took place between January 2013 and
November 2014 (575 events). All data henceforth will refer to this source.
335
Flying Away
5
NVivo (originally called NUD*IST) is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) soft-
ware package. It has been designed for qualitative researchers can be used to
organize and analyse interviews, field notes, textual sources, and other types
of qualitative data including image, audio and video files. The software allows
users to classify, sort and arrange information; examine relationships in the
data; and combine analysis with linking, shaping, searching and modelling.
6
Interestingly, however, 1997 was the year in which the Internet reached its
utmost expansion in Portugal.
7
In 2014, and although the Boom Festival was important and well known in
Portugal and abroad, the Portuguese media referred to this event as the prime
location for consuming illegal drugs.
8
This event in the 60s promoted union, spiritual revolution and mind revolution.
According to St. John, this type of union-related movements and aggregation
of specific clusters led to the creation of alternative niches where individuals
seeking utopian views could experiment with the body and mind in that search
for alternative lifestyles. This is how a ‘freak nation’ saw in the young middle
class population disillusioned with life a group likely to embark on a mass
‘exodus’ to this sort of nation without frontiers. ‘Freak’ thus became a form
of a nation, with temporary and seasonal nodes appearing all over the world,
mostly in temporary autonomous zones. This created what D’Andrea (2007)
named a global ethnoscape freak, characterized by festivals, clubs, parties,
and locus beyond these areas, which formed new micro-industries. The, in
the 90s, these nodes formed the global psytrance events, in the aftermath of
the ‘Gathering of the Tribes’ model (See St. John, 2009).
336
337
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About the Contributors
Emília Simão is researcher and Invited Professor of Communication at the

Faculty of Social Sciences of Portuguese Catholic University. PhD in Information
and Communication in Digital Platforms by the University of Porto, MSc in Mul-
timedia Communication by the Portuguese Catholic University, Post Graduated in
Artistic Direction by the Superior Artistic School of Porto and Graduated in Com-
munication Sciences by the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda. She focus his research
on the role of information and communication technologies in the spread of Elec-
tronic Dance Music Cultures, Psychedelic Trance phenomenon, and Neo-tribal
behaviors extended to virtual environments.
Armando Malheiro da Silva Armando Barreiros Malheiro da Silva is Associ-

ated Professor of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto and member of the
coordinating committee of the Information Science degree taught by the Arts and
Engineering Faculties of the University of Porto. Born in Braga, PdD in Contem-
porary History in the University of Minho, graduated in Philosophy by Philosophy
Faculty of the Catholic University of Braga and in History by the Faculty of Arts of
the University of Porto. He obtained the diploma of the course of Librarian-Archivist
of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra. Is member of the Center for
Studies in Technology, Arts and Communication Sciences (CETAC.Media) and
shares his researches in areas such as the archivist and information science; the
metanalysis; political and ideological History in Portugal in the XIX-XX century;
Family history and local studies.
Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães, PhD, teaches Information Security related top-

ics in the Portuguese Catholic University. He is also a researcher in that university,
mainly in the fields of Information Security, cyber enhanced terrorism monitoring,
prevention and social impact. He has published several works in international refereed
journals and in international conference proceedings and he is currently a member
of several international conference committees and editorial boards.
***
Heitor Alvelos PhD Royal College of Art, 2003 / MFA School of the Art Institute
of Chicago, 1992. Professor of Design and New Media, University of Porto. Course
Director for PhD Design,U.Porto/UPTEC. Vice-President of Scientific Board for
Humanities and Social Sciences of the Foundation for Science and Technology
(Portugal). Director (U.Porto) of ID+, Design Research Institute: group “Media
and Perplexity”. Outreach Director (2010- 2014) of UTAustin-Portugal program
in Digital Media. Curator of FuturePlaces.org (2008- present). Principal Tutor of
Drawing Studio, Royal College of Art (1999-2001). Advisory Board member, visual
essayist and monograph editor for Manobras no Porto (QREN, 2011-13). Advisory
Board member for Digital Communities, Ars Electronica. Conceptual sound carrier
and designer with Touch Music, musician at Stopestra, co-director of 3-33.me. AV
projects include Autodigest, Antifluffy and Before Surgery.
Aidan Boyle, Ph.D., is a new media artist, sound designer and producer from
Ireland. He has been working in the field of interactive sound and visuals for the
past 10 years. Using motion tracking and the computer as co-performer, he creates
reactive environments for dance, theater and installations. He is a Visiting Fellow
with the Visual Communication and Expertise Research Centre (VisComX), Jacobs
University Bremen, Germany.
Sara Constança lives and works in Lisbon. Started her DJ career in 1987 and
photography as profession in 1993. Finished art studies in 1996 and philosophy
academic studies in 2007. Got involved with the trance scene in 1996 and became
Goa Trance DJ in 1997. After having seen the trance scene move away from Goa
Trance to other genres in the end of the nineties, Sara has been actively working
towards reviving the true spirit of Goa Trance since 2010.
Gemma Farrell is a PhD Music candidate at the University of Sussex, UK. Main
research areas: The ethnomusicological study of popular music: Electronic Dance
Music Scenes, electronic music, psychedelic music and psychedelic trance. Other
research interests: Heavy metal, stoner rock (the Palm Desert scene), psychedelic
rock, the cognitive psychology of music, the cognitive neuroscience of music, psy-
choactive drugs and the perception of music, folk music and early music.
373
Paula Guerra is a Sociologist, Assistant Professor of Sociology at University

of Porto (FLUP), Researcher in the Institute of Sociology (IS-UP) and Invited re-
searcher at the Centre for Geography Studies and Territory Planning at the Faculty
of the Art and Humanities, University of Porto (CEGOT). She is also an Adjunct
Professor of the Griffith Centre for Cultural Research (GCCR) at Griffith University
in Queensland, Australia. She is the head researcher in the project Keep it Simple,
Make it Fast! (PTDC/CS-SOC/118830/2010) that is composed by a multidisciplinary
team and has as central objective the reinterpretation of the youth urban cultures
in the contemporaneity, centred in the popular music. URL: http://www.punk.pt/
paula-guerra-2.
Andrew Johner is the creator of the film Electronic Awakening, released in

2012. He is also a writer and researcher on electronic music cultures, spirituality,
and transhumanism. He is currently pursuing an MA in Ethnographic Journalism
at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Peter Smith is Emeritus Professor of Computing. He joined the University as

an undergraduate student in 1975 and received his Doctorate in 1981. Since then
he has held several teaching, research and management positions at the University,
including Dean, and Chair of the University Research Degrees Committee. He has
published over 250 papers, and supervised and examined over 100 doctoral can-
didates at Universities in the UK, Europe and Hong Kong. Peter is a Fellow of the
British Computer Society and the Higher Education Academy. He has published
extensively on a range of subjects including computing, management, and doctoral
studies, particularly in relation to Professional Doctorates.
Paulo Teles is a Brazilian new media artist and musician who began his artistic
career as a DJ when he was 14, in the early 80’s. He has a PhD in Semiotics and
Communication; a Masters in Multimedia; a graduate in TV & Radio, and develops
interactive multimedia installations and rising media. He is currently working as a
lecturer and researcher in the Arts Institute of Campinas University.
Psyence Vedava Visual Artist, Researcher and Visionary. Vedava studied film-
making in the School of Film Studies, Department of Fine Arts at Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki, Greece. She then completed a two-year research master in Media
and Performance Studies at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, which she
combined with studies in Western Esotericism at the University of Amsterdam. She
organizes and participates in different mixed media artistic events and exhibitions,
giving presentations on various matters.
374
Botond Vitos received his PhD degree with specialisation in Cultural Studies
from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He received an MA in Cultural
Anthropology from the ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary. His research interests
include electronic dance music studies, the media ecology of the electronic dance
floor, the relationships between music and technology, urban cultures and the cultural
meanings of drug use. His PhD project “Experiencing Electronic Dance Floors” was
a comparative analysis of Melbourne’s techno and psytrance scenes.
Michael Winkelman, Ph.D. (University of California-Irvine) retired from the

School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University in 2009.
He was President of the Anthropology of Consciousness section of the American
Anthropological Association, as was the founding President of its Anthropology of
Religion Section. Winkelman has engaged in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary
research on shamanism and altered states of consciousness, focusing principally on
the universal patterns of shamanism and identifying the associated biological bases.
His principal publications on shamanism include Shamans, Priests and Witches
(1992) which provides a cross-cultural examination of the nature of shamanism; and
Shamanism: A Biopsychosocial Paradigm of Consciousness and Healing (originally
2000, 2nd edition 2010). Shamanism provides a biological model of shamanism that
explains the evolutionary origins of spiritual healing in ancient ritual capacities. This
biogenetic structuralist approach is expanded in an assessment of the evolutionary
origins of religion in his co-authored Supernatural as Natural (with John Baker,
2008). These approaches provide a framework for understanding the necessary role
of psychedelics in human evolution and their continued application in healing (also
see Psychedelic Medicine [2007], co-edited with Tom Roberts). Winkelman’s work
has shown that shamanism and psychedelics have a deep intersection in human evo-
lution; these capacities for altering consciousness continue to be an important part
of human experience and well-being today, as evidenced in the multidisciplinary
Altering Consciousness (2011) that he has co-edited with Etzel Cardena. Winkel-
man is currently living near Pirenopolis in the central highlands of Brazil where he
is engaged in developing permaculture-based intentional communities.
375
376
Index
3D technology 132, 137 D

A Dance Floor 34, 63, 94, 121-122, 127, 148,
267, 270-275, 281, 284, 286, 292,
Aesthetic Experience 20, 185-187, 190 315, 317, 335
Alterations of Consciousness 2-3, 9, 16, Dark Psytrance 260-263, 268, 270, 273-
20-21, 23-24, 27-29, 170, 174, 177, 276
179, 181, 183-184, 186-187, 190-191, Devir 206
195, 204 Digital Platform 132-133, 145
Alterity 162, 168
Atom 221, 233 E
Augmented Reality 132-133, 137-139,
143-144, 157, 166 Ecstasis 35, 62, 75, 85
Avatar 112, 115-116, 119, 125-126, 130, Ecstasy 3-4, 23, 31-32, 35, 75, 85, 88,
139-140, 142, 144, 243 91-92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102-104, 171,
Awareness 16-17, 21-22, 26, 62, 68, 161, 190, 200-204, 235, 237, 248, 255,
181, 183, 191, 205, 217-218, 233, 269, 275, 294-295, 316, 325, 332
236, 314, 334 Ego 21, 92, 116, 130, 177, 188, 191, 245,
250, 254, 269, 285
B Englishness 278-279, 282-285, 289, 292,
297, 299-301
Biogenetic Structuralism 33, 36 Entheogen 224, 237
Boom Festival 59, 69, 83-84, 90, 103, 107, Esotericism 173, 179-181, 197-198, 200,
118, 133, 172, 202, 308, 310-311, 203-204
313, 319, 327-328, 333, 336 Ethnography 117, 120, 129
C F
Carnivalesque 201, 261, 278, 296-298, 313 Fear 3-4, 27, 85, 211-212, 219, 243, 268-
Communitas 2, 13, 75, 85-86, 171, 203, 269, 295, 301
287, 305, 316, 318, 322, 328 Flow 7, 25, 65, 105, 111, 187, 190, 204,
Consciousness Industry 85 217, 237, 247, 261
Cosmic 16, 28, 50, 76, 90, 97-98, 107,
162, 214-215, 225, 229, 242, 253-
254, 299
Index
G K
Gathering 59, 77, 79, 82, 90, 94, 96, 106- Ketamine 294-295, 303
107, 110, 112, 117, 130, 145, 189, Kraftwerk 38, 45-46, 50-56, 279, 333
247-250, 252, 294, 310, 320, 336 Krautrock 38, 40-41, 45, 48, 50-54, 57
Gnosis 170, 173-184, 186-193, 195, 197-
198, 200-201, 204 L
Goa Trance 54-55, 90, 117, 121, 172, 196,
201, 206-207, 218, 234-247, 249-254, Liminality 60, 75, 197, 204, 284, 290, 305
258, 266, 280, 289, 297-298, 309 Local Scenes 128, 202, 276, 281, 287,
Gong 38, 42-43, 49, 52, 54, 56 300-304, 319, 326, 332-334
Grateful Dead 38, 43, 49-50, 52, 54 Logic 94, 142, 198, 206, 212, 214-215,
226-229, 233, 235, 266-267, 274-275,
H 280, 316, 320, 335
Logos 229, 233
Hallucination 75, 236, 258 LSD 3, 24, 39, 48, 66, 95, 108, 124, 171,
Hawkwind 38, 41, 48-50, 52, 54, 56, 293 173, 180, 260-262, 267-268, 274,
Hominids 4, 9-10, 17, 27, 36 276, 286, 290, 294-296, 298, 302
Hominins 13, 36 LSD Experience or ‘Trip’ 276
human-computer interaction 105, 132-133,
135, 143 M
Hypermedium 188, 191, 194
Hyperscapes 75, 85-86 Martin Cloonan 278-279, 282
MDMA 3, 23-24, 95, 108, 171, 203, 294
I Mediation 11, 14, 59, 63, 69, 86, 97, 113,
170, 174-175, 182-183, 193, 227,
Illusion 115, 208, 212-213, 220, 226 270, 274
Immersion 73, 93, 114, 117, 125-126, 130, Michel Mafessoli 288
136, 138-139, 147, 204, 266 Migration 109, 111-112, 119, 126, 180,
Immersive Environment 115, 140, 144, 297
161 Millenarianism 58-59, 68, 76-77, 80-81
Individuation 212-213, 218, 221, 233, 253, Mimesis 1, 7, 10, 13-15, 17, 36-37
301 MMOG (Multiplayer Massive Online
input devices 132-133, 136 Game) 145
Integrative Mode of Consciousness 23-24, Monad 206, 221-222, 252
27, 35-36 Multimedia 48, 87-88, 91, 94-99, 101-103,
Interactive Music 146-147, 156, 164, 167 105-106, 123, 129, 132, 141, 146,
Interactivity 129, 147, 153, 160, 167-168 154-155, 167, 257, 300
Inverted Sublime 268, 272-273 Multi-Media Performance 52, 57
Irene Morra 278, 283 Musical Aesthetics 90, 260, 263, 268
Music Scenes 53, 56, 127, 279, 307, 329,
J 334
Mystery 60, 98, 119, 187, 206, 209, 216,
Journey 4, 74, 82-83, 85, 97, 151, 180, 226, 294, 296
190, 237, 243-247, 251, 253-254, Mystical Experience 16, 190-191, 248, 251
265-266, 268, 310 Mysticism 26, 54, 98, 128, 173, 196, 198,
Jukebox 151, 168 204, 255, 290
Mythos 70, 76-77, 226, 228-229, 233
377
Index
N Revivals 58, 62, 74-75, 82-83

Rhizome 112, 298, 306
Neo-Ritual 87-88, 92, 95, 97, 103, 105, Risk 39, 199, 211, 292, 294, 296, 306, 317
130 Rock Concerts 38-39
Neo-tribe 102, 172, 281, 284, 288-289,
300, 305-307, 314, 316-317, 327-329, S
335
Neuropenomenology 36 Second Life 109-110, 112, 115-126, 128-
New Order 51, 88, 110 131, 133, 139-144
New Religious Movements (NRMs) 58 Shaman 1, 3-5, 11, 72, 88-89, 93, 98, 102,
New Wave 46, 279, 281 107, 184, 234, 248-249, 254
Non-Duality 215, 233 Shamanism 1-7, 10, 14, 31, 35-37, 64-65,
Non-Violent Communication 85 88, 92, 94-95, 98, 104, 107, 180, 196,
Noob 131 249, 255
Simon Featherstone 284
O Situational Psychology 77, 85-86
Social Aesthetics 260-261, 274, 276
Opinion 95, 213, 216, 218, 223, 226, 233 Social Networks 70, 109-110, 112, 117,
Oracle 138, 213, 234, 253-254 119, 126, 132, 138, 141, 179, 325
output devices 132-133, 136 Space Rock 38, 40-41, 48, 50, 52-53, 56-
57
P Storytelling 234, 239, 241, 243, 245-248,
251, 254
Performance Analysis 40, 53, 57
Subcultures 53, 66, 102, 104, 112, 196,
Pink Floyd 38, 42, 49-50, 52, 54-55, 290
198, 201, 284, 289, 300, 307, 314-
Possibility 97, 117, 119, 138, 150, 156,
315, 317-318, 327, 329, 331, 334-335
158, 164, 187, 206, 213-215, 220,
Sublime (Lyotard) 276
222, 229, 242, 289, 313, 315
Post Punk 38, 40-41, 46, 48, 51-53, 57
Post-subcultural Studies 307, 309, 318,
T
327, 331, 335 Technival 85
Psychedelia 38, 40-42, 48-50, 52-53, 236, Technoshamanism 2, 104, 180, 197-198
258, 278, 296, 298 Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) 306
Psychedelic Drug Use 60, 260 Territory 8, 92, 109, 111, 128, 228, 308
Psychedelic Gathering 87, 96 Tetractys 206, 213-215, 220
Psychedelic party 87, 110 Therapy 1, 21-22, 31, 36, 55, 270, 273
Psychedelic Rock 48, 57, 207, 239, 279- Touchless 146-149, 151, 154-156, 161,
280, 293 164, 166-168
Psychointegrator 36 Trancer 206-207, 237, 240, 242, 244-249,
Psychointegrators 24-26, 37 251-252, 254, 259
Psyculture 310-311, 313, 317, 327, 333- Transformational Culture 58-59, 63, 76-78,
334 81-82
Psyparties 310, 334 Translocal 53, 56, 127, 318-320, 322, 324,
Psyparty 109, 317 326, 328-329, 334
Translocal Scenes 322, 334
R
Revitalization Movements 58
378
Index
U Virtual DJ 120, 131

Virtual environment 114-115, 132, 142
Unknown 46, 54, 113, 115, 138, 161, 211- Virtual Party 109, 126-127
212, 219, 223, 243-244, 248, 260, Virtual Reality 111, 114-116, 127, 129-
266, 271, 309 130, 133, 138-139, 143, 145, 227, 236
Virtual Scenes 318, 322, 326, 328, 335
V Virtual Trance Party 133, 145
virtual worlds 98, 113, 117-118, 127, 129,
Vibe 91, 110, 172, 239, 243, 261, 264,
131-133, 139-143, 145, 188, 292, 335
274-276, 280, 287, 299, 304, 306,
Visionary Experience 187, 190
309-310, 313, 319, 323, 333
VJ 88, 97-100, 102-103, 146, 285
Video-Mapping 99, 107
379

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Exploring Psychedelic

Trance and Electronic

Armando Malheiro da Silva

Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães

Published in the United States of America by

CIP Data Pending

British Cataloguing in Publication Data

Biogenetic Structural Perspectives on Shamanism and Raves: The Origins of

Michael James Winkelman, Arizona State University, USA

The Roots of Trance: Reflections of Space Rock, Psychedelia, Krautrock, and

Peter Smith, University of Sunderland, UK

Transformational Festivals: A New Religious Movement?.................................. 58

Andrew Johner, Lesley University, USA

Psychedelic Trance and Multimedia Neo-Rituals: The Modern Shamanic

Emília Simão, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

Emília Simão, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

Armando Malheiro da Silva, University of Porto, Portugal

Requirements of a Digital Platform for Psytrance Parties.................................. 132 ; ;

Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

& Minho University, Portugal ;

Psytrance Influences on Touchless Interactive Experiences: New Roles for

Paulo César Teles, University of Campinas, Brazil ; ;

Aidan Boyle, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany

Exploring Psytrance as Technognosis: A Hypothesis of Participation. ............. 170 ; ;

Psyence Vedava, Independent Researcher, Greece ; ;

Sara Constança, Independent Researcher, Portugal

Sara Constança, Independent Researcher, Portugal

Emília Simão, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

Pushing the Boundaries: Investigating the Musical and Social Aesthetics of

Botond Vitos, Independent Researcher, Germany

Arcadian Electrickery: Locating “Englishness” in England’s Psytrance

Gemma Farrell, University of Sussex, UK ; ;

Paula Guerra, University of Porto, Portugal

About the Contributors.................................................................................... 372

Index. ................................................................................................................. 376

Biogenetic Structural Perspectives on Shamanism and Raves: The Origins of

Michael James Winkelman, Arizona State University, USA

The worldwide development of raves and similar collective rituals characterized

The Roots of Trance: Reflections of Space Rock, Psychedelia, Krautrock, and

Peter Smith, University of Sunderland, UK

Transformational Festivals: A New Religious Movement?.................................. 58 ; ;

Andrew Johner, Lesley University, USA

With the growing popularity of psychedelic trance worldwide, as well as a general

Psychedelic Trance and Multimedia Neo-Rituals: The Modern Shamanic

Emília Simão, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

This chapter examines the relevance of multimedia technologies in Psychedelic

Emília Simão, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

Armando Malheiro da Silva, University of Porto, Portugal

This chapter proposes an approach about Psychedelic Trance tribe behaviours

Requirements of a Digital Platform for Psytrance Parties.................................. 132

Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal

& Minho University, Portugal ;

Psytrance Influences on Touchless Interactive Experiences: New Roles for

Paulo César Teles, University of Campinas, Brazil