Dance, trance and the ecstasy of life. There's nothing the human species needs to experience more today.
Poised at the edge of the 21st century, our species is taking a stunning gamble. According to Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute, history is accelerating. The economic and social trends that are degrading the sustainablity of the planet are moving so quickly that their unchecked momentum threatens global political and economic systems.
We're playing with the highest stakes imaginable: the ability of the life systems of the planet to sustain future generations. Ignore the situation, and we will likely see widespread starvation, intensified ethnic and religious warfare, and social disintegration. Or, we could wake up, get a spiritual life, and begin using our knowledge and technology to reverse the current trends and create healthier relationship with one another and the ecosystems of our common home.
According to Brown, "The effort now needed to reverse the environmental degradation of the planet and ensure a sustainable future for the next generation willrequire mobilisation on a scale comparable to World War II." Waking up and carrying out this work are the greatest challenges our species faces today - Superbowl Sunday, OJ Simpson, Whitewater, abortion wars, shopping mall sales and the Contract with America not withstanding.
Probably the most important question we can ask is, Where are places where there is hope to awaken our species to the reality of the situation, and to energise our culture to do something about it ?
Two very hopeful places are bubbling in the cultural underground. One, a passionate and global movement of young people dancing themselves into trance, celebration, ritual and community. The other, a passionate and global movement of people of diverse ages immersing themselves in the theology and practice of creation spirituality. Both have great potential to dig into the root spiritual issues that are contributing to the inertia of the greater culture. And together, they can contribute to the awakening of a species to celebration and awe, which is the proper beginning point to stimulate the energy and creativity needed to bring about widespread ecological and social justice.

At first glance, rave and creation spirituality may appear to have little in common. Rave, predominantly youth-oriented, adamantly anti-religion and formed around distinctive music, art and fashion. Creationspirituality, predominantly older, coming from within religious traditions, and formed around a body of literature and emerging practice. Yet when the deep rhythm of rave mixes with the deep sources of creation spirituality, only joy, energy and justice could break out.
Who are the people in these movements, what do they have in common, what are their differences, and what do they have to offer one another, and to the culture at large? Rave refers to a loosely defined subculture of young people sharing in common a passion for a particular type of music characterised by a fast beat, usually around 120 beats per minute (coincidentally the heart rate of a fetus in its mother's womb.) It is a global movement centered around music and dance, and surrounded by a rich artistic aesthetic that is expressed through large and small gatherings, fashion, graphics, design, video production, interior architecture and Internet applications.
Although it is as diverse as the people who are involved, it does have a common history and a general set of characteristics and principles that are embodied in its multitude of events, art forms and personalities.
Its history is, significantly, a history of music, not words, books or philosophies. Sound gave birth to rave, and remains its incarnational force to this day.
Rave was born of a series of socially andpolitically significant events the past 20 years:
The shifting of technological tools from the hands of a few to the hands of many. The growing widespread availability of music-making technology in the 1980s broke the grip that major bands and record labels had on the production of music. Almost overnight, anyone could use easily available turntables, mixers, vinyl albums, and create new forms of music. These tools set fire to the creativity in black inner city neighborhoods, giving birth to rap music, a new urban folk music that told the hard truth of life on the streets. As music technology developed, previously expensive synthesizers were becoming cheaper and more readily available. The work of musicians in Chicago experimenting with technology-based music, soul vocals and new drum machines quickly grew popular at a local club called "The Warehouse," and this new music inspired the beginning of the rave movement. Today, the wide range of music loosely called rave includes house, techno, trance, breakbeat, jungle, tribal, deep house, ambient, and dozens of variations.

Not only music benefited from the mass availability of technological tools, but also a spectrum of multimedia arts. The growing accessibility of personal computers over the past decade gave you they found some transcendence. Ironically, this transcendence would come not by escaping their urban environment, but by actually magnifying its intensity through high energy dance music and light shows, then letting go to it and encountering breakthrough beauty.
For many young people, this breakthrough happened with the assistance of a psychedelic drug called MDMA, or "Ecstasy," which experienced its height of popularity among those discovering this emerging music. At raves, Ecstasy broke down social barriers and gave young people significant ability to produce professional quality arts of many forms including graphics, promotional flyers, and video images.

The DJ as urban shaman.

As the "house" sound began to catch on, the role of the DJ took on special importance. No longer were groups of people passively receiving the music of a band or rock star.
Now a DJ, located on the periphery of a room, became a kind of shaman whose spiritual work was to intuit and guide the "vibe," or spirit that moves through a group of people sharing the dance. This remains the central experience of rave today, and again, at another level, is political in that it took power away from ego-centered stars and big business, and instead the power, or vibe, is contained by a community of people.
Widespread community mystical experiences.In the intense, disjointed, media-saturated and resource-depleted world these young people had inherited, young people found a quick way to let go and fully experience the primal qualities of this beat-driven music, making it seem very beautiful, liquid, and encompassing. Participants made friends easily in this context and formed relationship to try to cope and heal from the hostile world around them.
But despite its integral role in raves, Ecstasy did not have all the answers. Today, there is a spectrum of opinion regarding its use: some say it continues to be a quick way for young people to reach transcendence, while others say they have used it and it achieved its purpose, but now they are seeking to move beyond it into spiritual practice as a path to transcendence. Still others say they have never used it and that the music itself is sufficient to alter their consciousness.
Of course, the test for any spiritual tool, chemical or otherwise, is how it leads to compassion in the outer world.
Language that shifted away from text-based modes to the sensory: image, sound, dance. The rave itself, although born of modern technology, was actually discovering powerful pre-modern spiritual practice: dance to a primal beat, shamanism, ritual, mysticism, and storytelling through image, light and sound. In the context of a modernIn the intense, disjointed, media-saturated and resource-depleted world these young people had inherited, young people found a quick way to let go and fully experience the primal qualities of this beat-driven music, making it seem very beautiful, liquid, and encompassing. Participants made friends easily in this context and formed relationship to try to cope and heal from the hostile world around them.

But despite its integral role in raves, Ecstasy did not have all the answers. Today, there is a spectrum of opinion regarding its use: some say it continues to be a quick way for young people to reach transcendence, while others say they have used it and it achieved its purpose, but now they are seeking to move beyond it into spiritual practice as a path to transcendence. Still others say they have never used it and that the music itself is sufficient to alter their consciousness.
Of course, the test for any spiritual tool, chemical or otherwise, is how it leads to compassion in the outer world.
Language that shifted away from text-based modes to the sensory: image, sound, dance. The rave itself, although born of modern technology, was actually discovering powerful pre-modern spiritual practice: dance to a primal beat, shamanism, ritual, mysticism, and storytelling through image, light and sound. In the context of a modernculture that is word and text-oriented, its central gathering force is the beat. It is dance. In a culture of dualism and arguing between false dichotomies, its motto would be, "Shut up and dance." In a culture alienated from its body, rave calls for embodiment, for full experience of the body in dance. In a culture of excessive words, its language is image and feeling. In a culture hostile excessively logical; its language is mysticism. In a culture dominated by male power, the archetype of rave is the wise child: innocence, receptivity and creativity tempered with wisdom.