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shamanism in trance
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Gopendragon
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 26, 2005 20:42
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Dance culture is a nuevo-shamanic statement,a return to the tribal conciousnes with elements of sacred plants the sacraments wich will take us on a journey back to our shamanic roots.Trance festivals described as a ritual,tribal rite,in wich people dance for nights and days on electronic beats wich mimic the shamans drum.The beats the lights,lasers and psychedelic hallucinogenics serve as a catalyst for the participants of these rituals to enter into altered states of conciousnes continuing the centuries old shamanic traditions.People feel enhanced energy and the urge to dance,lost in the hypnotic rythms discovering realms through the spirit world , into a modern equivalent of the shamanic trance.The treble sounds act as a food for the imagination and we could even see geometric patterns,fractals, tripping into other dimensions in space and time...
what do you beleive about that?
are there any shamanic elements in rave culture?
with respect in any possible opinion!
  ~~~~~~~namaskar~~~~~~~~~
After the End,a new Begining startS.. |
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ganjagil
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Dec 26, 2005 20:52
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That is all that Trance is about my friend, i could not explain it any better. It's about a voyage, a change of reality, a dream come true even though now for this period of time its lost but i am sure that by time we will gain it back and break other layers of the cosmos create a new conciousness even better than the ones before! It's a test we had to pass through to go to the next level! Trance a tribe, a culture, a life just how we all wish it to be!
Bom
Ganja
Your sound, is your music, is your soul keep them all on the right track!
Please Check our music at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=438956
www.soulkontakt.com
contact :soulkontakt@hotmail.com |
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intrees
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Dec 26, 2005 21:18
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Well I've heard this many times before, the link between electronic dance music and shamanism; the link that when we dance under the influence of hallucinogenics and mind altering music we enter the worlds of the spirits, in much the same way as tribes would guided by a shamans drum.
I believe that psy-dance culture is related to this ; we really do follow a similar path into the mind when we follow hypnotic beats and rhythms, our conciousness is hightened and projected when we lose ourselves in trance  Have you noticed that wonderful, creative feeling you get after a particularly good party, you feel better as a person - more likely to be helpful to others, happier, and more aware....
These parties are rituals, yes a neo-shamanic dance ritual for want for a better expression !!
- - It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice... - -
www.revolvemagazine.co.uk |
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mubali
Mubali
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Posted : Dec 27, 2005 02:47
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I firmly believe there is a lot of truth in these statements, and how they relate to our cultures of the past. It is very interesting to see in todays society how humanity on one end is very skittish about spirituality and religion. Many people don't want to deal with the "spiritual mumbo-jumbo" (not my term) when associating with this music. The repeated beat however is one of those things that has linked all humanity off all walks of life throughout all forms of musical interpretation... Also music has been used in many forms of faith, whether it was with songs sung by the human voice, to more contemporary incarnations. There are people that both feel that music is just music and really has no connection to their spirituality or to who they are, but there are also those that are defined by it as well. From a psuedo-scientific perspective, music is human interpreted soundwaves, soundwaves are a form of energy... According to the First Law of Thermodynamics energy cannot be created or destroyed, just transformed from one form to another...
http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookEner1.html
In a sense isn't that what's happening when you look at the conversion from inspiration-creation-presentation-response-inspiration? Wouldn't that make for an interesting cycle ?... Almost similar to the water cycle or the food chain... Kinda wierd huh??
An Eagle may soar, but Weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. |
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Kitnam
Mantik
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1151
Posted : Dec 27, 2005 03:02
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shamanism is one of the endless arts which care about using the energy of everything (sames as god) in this case presented by the nature.
dance rituals are a part of shamanism too.
at the end its all the same. the answer is always inside of you. |
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Psycosmo
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Dec 27, 2005 04:19
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The connection what goes on in modern psychedelic scenes and their connections with "shamanic" practices found in hunter-gatherer cultures is something I have spent a good deal of time looking into. I think that there are clearly parellels, and Psytrance (especially Goa and chillout) in particular have taken a lot of inspiration from shamanic pratices (or at least popular conceptions of these practices). However I think that Psytrance has more in common with cultures that practice Ecstatic or Possession trance dancing, such as practiced by Voodoo sects in Gabon (See Possession, Ecstacy and Law in Ewe Voodoo, by Judy Rosenthal for more info).
Shamanism is focused on healing, and its practices generally involve a practicioner who interceeds with spiritual powers on behalf of a patient. This may involve the shaman taking a psychedelic intoxicant themselves and interpreting the visions or the shaman presiding over a group ceremony, administering the intoxicant and singing songs to guide patients on their journey. However not all shamanism involves drugs, and often it is focused on placating the anger of ancestral spirits or defending against witchcraft. In a way I think all these things are subliminaly, subconsciously taking place at a trance party, but only in a very metaphorical way, and the social games that take place between cliques, organizer crews etc are metaphorically like witchcraft and the core values of the scene are like the ancestral spirits.... In studying anthropology I saw that witchcraft is kindof a metaphor for all those negative feelings like jelousy and arrogance which create "bad vibes".
I think we have more in common with Voodoo Ecstatic dancers though. The festivals where devotees of a Deity become "posessed" by the spirit of that deity involve lots of people and noise and motion, as do trance parties. By bombarding my senses with so many stimuli, my mind is driven to a point of overload, dancing becomes so frezied that I forget time or place and exist only in an eternal moment which is ever changing in quality to match the qualities of the sound which drives it. In this state I find myself no longer consciously contemplating my movemets, but letting something beyond consious awarentess control them and so it is in a sense like "possession".
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Psycosmo
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Dec 27, 2005 04:29
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Also check out this book:
Shamans And Neo Shamans, Essays On Alternative Archaeologies And Contemporary Pagans. by Robert Wallis
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psycatrist
IsraTrance Junior Member
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409
Posted : Dec 27, 2005 05:07
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i think i have shamans and neo shamans |
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ganjagil
IsraTrance Junior Member
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858
Posted : Dec 27, 2005 12:05
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It's good to see that people still beleive in the shamanic ways of trance even after such a long time from Goa. Trance is spiritual because of this and if you take it as only music then you lose any sense of this music and culture! It will be the same as just going to a normal rave, with taking Trance as being spiritual you go to a party with the intention of celebrating God and ready to link with oneself inside yourself. It is at the end of the day all that counts in life, linking to the energy inside, let alone linking to the energy inside with many friends doing so at the same time! Trance!
Bom
Ganja
Your sound, is your music, is your soul keep them all on the right track!
Please Check our music at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=438956
www.soulkontakt.com
contact :soulkontakt@hotmail.com |
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odysseus
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
99
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1387
Posted : Dec 28, 2005 13:46
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Quote:
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On 2005-12-26 20:42, Gopendra wrote:
what do you beleive about that?
are there any shamanic elements in rave culture?
with respect in any possible opinion!
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unfortunately the last years music development goes more to commercialism and shamanic tunes slowly slowly dissapear..
give me darma, take your karma.. |
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odysseus
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
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1387
Posted : Dec 28, 2005 19:42
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but don"t worry gopendra my friend ,all of us got this magic as you mentioned for the music especially at our first trancexperiences, and allways new artists and new projects will appear & produce quality stuff with this mystycist influences we like..
just search to find them.. 
give me darma, take your karma.. |
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shahar
IsraTrance Team
Started Topics :
155
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2035
Posted : Dec 28, 2005 23:15
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I think that it is more true to say that the trance culture shows longing, a lot of times an unconscious one, for some elements and/or aspects of shamanic cultures. I also agree to some degree with Psycosmo's statement. However we can just group all these and call them cultures with magico-religious practitioners being a center of the society in them (for a (world-)wide coverage of the phenomena check: Winkelman, M. J., (1992) Shamans, Priests and Witches: A Cross-Cultural Study of Magico-Religious Practitioners (Aritzona State University))
However the view that trance culture is a modern incarnation of Shamanic cultures is very simplifying. Shamanic cultures are cultures whose interaction with the world around them and the way they look at the world are very very very different then ours.
What is amazing when studying these cultures, especially the shamanic cultures of South America, is the realization of the place that music takes in the everyday life in these societies. While modern western societies tend to rely mostly on language, logic and mathematics to explain the world around them and interact with it, these cultures use mainly music to do so. Hence, music plays a major role in their life and the shaman, who is in many ways the center of society, makes a lot of use of music (with or without psychedelics or other substances).
If you wanna know more I can recommend some good reading.
1. An excellent book about the religions of South America that kinda sums up all research done till the time it was written and builds a very interesting picture with it- not easy, but worth it. You should especially check the parts about shamanism and music, which are fascinating.
- Sullivan, L. E., (1988) Icanchu's Drum: An Orientation to Meaning in South American Religions (New York, Macmillan).
2. A great article that tells the story of 2 healers and the world of their tribe and their use of music- very deep and fascinating.
- Hill, J. D., (1992) "A Musical Aesthetic of Ritual Curing in the Northwest Amazon" in Portals of Power: Shamanism in South America (Langdon, E. J. M. & Baer, G., eds., University of New Mexico Press), 175.
On Shamans in general a must read is of course Mirce Eliade's classic book:
- Eliade, M., (1964) Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Pantheon).
If you read Hebrew and interested in music and shamanism in South America you can PM me with your email, and I can send you a work I've done on this subject.
There's a very good book written about modern-western interpretations of shamanism, but I can't find details now- I'll try to look it up later. It shows the differences and also shows very well the reason why researches of the original shamanic cultures tend to show-contempt/disrespect/make-fun-of this modern phenomenon.
Personally, I tend to think, based on my long years of observing and experiencing the trance culture, that it tried in a way to fill up gaps- areas that we unconsciously feel that are missing on our lives. For example- the tribe. Our important social units these days are mainly the individual and the immediate family- after that it's pretty much the state, a very big unit. That leaves a big gap, and our historical/genetic/psychological memory tells us that we need a tribe. A party is a tribal event (as this forum is a tribal unit to an extent..).
Another example can be the connection to nature or the need for a spiritual life- both are things modern western life lacks and trance culture tried to supply.
It's true all these also existed in shamanic societies and that is the connection- yet we have to remember that it was and still is (though not for long, I'm afraid) a small part of these societies and the picture is much much more complicated and detailed.
---------------------------------------------
"Be the change you want to see in the world!"
M.K. Gandhi
"There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self."
Aldous Huxley
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Psycosmo
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Dec 29, 2005 00:59
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trance trax: icaros of the information age...
PS The book Portals of Power that Shahar cited really is an excellent work, essential reading for anyone with an interest in South American shamanism and/or Ayahuasca. Sadly it is out of print, but most University libraries I have checked have it. Winkelmans book is also good, to my knowledge no book describes a more complete and well thought out classification system for magico-religious practices.
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14-year old e-tard
IsraTrance Junior Member
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11
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797
Posted : Dec 29, 2005 05:08
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I believe that people have been dancing to music long before shamans jumped on the bandwagon. I do not believe that shamanism and the subgenre of underground dance music that is called "psytrance" are related. They are two different things. It is down to each person to make a subjective "analysis", based on their experiences. I have met people that see a connection mainly because they believe they are the missing link, but personaly I do not see a connection between shamanism and underground dance music.
If I take mind altering substances, I might see a connection...if I take more, I might see fractals...etc...if I take lots of drugs, I might see flying pigs...but hang on...flying pigs don't exist.
Me>You |
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