Trance Formation

Robin Sylvan, Ph.D., is the founder and director of The Sacred Center, a nonprofit educational organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of Traces ofthe Spirit: The Religious Dimensions of Popular Music.

• I. An Introduction to the World of Raves: Three Scenes 1. A Brief History of the Rave Scene 2. The Full Spectrum of Events: from Warehouse Parties and Clubs to Burning Man and the Love Parade II. The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture 3. Trance Formation: The Religious Experience of Rave 4. Techno Tribal Church: The Ritual and Ceremonial Forms of Rave 5. Transformation: Rave Worldview, Rave Spirituality, and Global Rave Culture 6. Living Laboratories: Rave Communities and Networks Conclusion: Rave New World Appendix Notes Bibliography

"Millions of people on every continent of planet Earth, regularly coming together in ecstatic trance-dance celebrations held and energized by pulsing electronic beats, are having the deepest spiritual experience of their lives. In this thoroughly fascinating study, religious scholar Robin Sylvan makes a convincing case for regarding the global rave culture as an authentic expression of a unifying spiritual vision that integrates across all languages, religions and nationalities. Reading this book, as well as going to a rave, will leave you inspired and hopeful for our sadly fractured world." -- Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., co-author of The PsychedelicExperience and author of The Unfolding Self