Their shows started long before the first note was played, and lasted long after the applause died down. Imagine, you're at a show. There is total permission for you to be whoever and whatever you want in any moment, without judgment. The band steps out on the stage, everyone stands up and starts to clap. Finally, the music starts.
Energy begins to flow though out the amphitheater.
Your body starts movin' and grovin' to the beat of the music, your life force energy working it's way from the inside of your body out, healing yourself, as well as your neighbors, experiencing a sense of beingness, oneness, as your life force energy flows in accord with the life force energy of those around, matching in love and perfect harmony. I've had many, many magical experiences with the Grateful Dead, and as I think back over them, I can not imagine where on my own spiritual path I would be without them. At one concert that I attended, I had the opportunity to experience and watch a show from outside the amphitheater. As I stood there watching the this giant sea of tied died T-shirts, something snapped in me. I felt my 7th chakra open up wide.