Newsgroups: soc.religion.shamanism
From: markmil@halcyon.com (Mark Miller)
Subject: Re: rave and shamanism and more..
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 09:21:47 -0400
Approved: ciaran@aldhfn.org

mmussell@fmgu25.fm.intel.com (Morgan >Mussell) wrote:
> >Has anyone of you ever been to a trance/hardtrance rave? <cut>

Yes. I've found trance and ambient raves great environments for
shamanic practices like dancing your power animal, especially when
held outdoors.  You're right, Daniel; a circle of ~30 people dancing
to a physiologically determined beat under the open sky can lead to
powerful experiences.

While dancing my power animal has worked well, I haven't had much luck
trying to journey to rave/techno. As I understand it, most rave music
has a beat of about 120 minutes, while Harner (See Morgan Mussel's
reference to Harner below: p.78) recommends about 180 beats per minute
for journeying. I have tried with recorded music, but in addition to
the tempo difference, I've found rave music too interesting (read:
distracting) for vivid journeys. Live raves? Well, Ravers are pretty
inclusive, but I think lying down in the middle of the dance might
make them wonder just what kind of botanicals I'd been ingesting.

As always, though, Your Mileage May Vary, and you should probably
journey to ask your power animal if any of this would be appropriate
for you before you try.

> >are shamans more passive than other people?

I, for one, have become much more active since I started journeying
regularly. A little applied animism can make hiking and camping a much
more, ahem, social experience. Of course YMMV.

> From an experiential point of view, I know of no better starting
> place for exploration than _The Way of the Shaman_ by Michael
> Harner. Appendixes and bibliography will provide further resources.
> Morgan Mussell mmussell@mcd.intel.com

Ditto on mmussell's recommendation. I was initially attracted to
Harner because of his background in the structural patterns of belief
systems I studied in college (Eliade, Levi-Strauss) but have since
come to appreciate how Harner's pragmatic approach makes shamanic
techniques much more accessible to post-modern seekers.

Mark Miller
markmil@halcyon.com