Psychedelic Festivals in the Planetary Era

Abstract of Anthropology Thesis by Ana Flávia Nogueira Nascimento

Nowadays, a new social phenomenon known as global psychedelic trance movement has been gaining more and more incomers in the whole world through ritualistic festivities focused on an electronic music style, called psychedelic trance which stimulates dancing and the altered states of consciousness, also integrating psychedelic art, nature and use of psychoactive substances that act in the physical, emotional and spiritual mind.
In this fluid and virtual context that has been reached by the most recent technological discoveries is the Psychedelic Art, which has now been embraced mostly by certain "computerized" youth sector, which makes use of signs and symbols that marks them in the contemporary scenario. The speed of getting information, now accessible through means of communication and their digital technology enables global social spaces related to new informational processes, creating new ways of amusement and interpersonal relations.
This article is the result of a two-year observation process held in the "Psychedelic Festivals" which took place in Brazil between 2003 and 2005. The result is an analysis concerning how in a contemporary society, surrounded by technology, speed, globalization of information and by the permeability of cultures, the experiences in mind expansion relate with cyber culture and with the spread of the Psychedelic Art throughout planet Earth - Planetary Era.

Link to thesis (portuguese)

Psychedelic Perceptions by James Joseph

Review : I am currently reading this book...
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Author : James Joseph
Year : 2006
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Synopsis :

There exists within our world a unique category of medicines, unparalleled in their ability to heal the human mind.

Utilized by our ancestors for thousands of years, these consciousness-altering plant derivatives effectively suspend the psychological defense mechanisms and egoic mind, allowing a 4 to 12 hour internal revelation into the origins of our own addictions, neuroses, fears, personality disorders, and patterned behavior. Invaluable as this mind-revealing encounter may be, there is no doctor able to prescribe this therapeutic method, as it has been deemed by our legal system to be devoid of any medical value.

There exists within our world a revered class of sacraments, unequaled in its effectiveness to initiate a direct experience of transcendental knowledge.

Applied in ritualized ceremony for hundreds of generations, these special plants hold the potential to generate the biochemical requisite necessary to attain the highly sought Mystical Experience. Yet, there exists no priest, rabbi or minister permitted to facilitate this method of direct knowing to the congregation, as it has been judged by authorities to posses a high potential for abuse.

Psychedelic Perceptions is a multi-perspective examination of how — and more importantly why — the substances which produce vital access to non-ordinary states of consciousness have been unjustly portrayed, legally forbidden, and misunderstood in our society.