Rave Religion 🎃 Neonn Felicity 🎃 Lightning in a Bottle 2023
Channel: Neonn Felicity
Date: 2023-08-12

This is a talk on the cultural anatomy of psychedelic dance culture, delivered at my mecca, Lighting in a Bottle, the highlight of my year every year. I want to dramatically expand people’s definition of raving. It is and is not just a party. Modern psychedelic dance rituals are our way of tapping into the most ancient mode of communal religious experience. They are pure engagements with the divine, stripped of the dogmatic, corrupt, and authoritarian aspects of religious institutions that have emerged to capitalize on our transcendental dispositions over the past few millennia. This talk will help people understand their social, historical, and evolutionary significance.

00:00 hello!
01:11 intro poem
04:40 context
06:06 precivilization
07:29 holy wars
08:29 spirituality vs religion
13:17 science of mysticism
18:05 shamanism
22:44 origins of music
26:18 ecstasy
29:12 dancefloor as place of worship
32:09 liturgy as ritual theater
34:00 Eleusinian Mysteries
35:32 fundamentalism vs. mysticism
36:48 rebirth
40:26 rites of passage
42:13 social coherence from tribal ritual
43:49 pilgrimage
44:50 holidays
47:38 innovative syncretism
48:45 ancient mushroom cults invented society
50:50 meaning-making mechanisms
54:13 experiential revelation
56:04 naturalistic sacraments
57:51 desubjectification
58:29 ecstatic therapy
1:01:09 raving as praxis
1:02:11 cultural fertility
1:03:59 designer realities
1:06:31 utopiate of the masses
1:07:20 heaven on earth
1:08:37 PLUR
1:10:09 preview of my book