Rave Culture and Religion explores the role of the technocultural rave in the spiritual life of contemporary youth. Documenting the socio-cultural and religious parameters of rave and post-rave phenomena at various locations around the globe, scholars of contemporary religion, dance ethnologists, sociologists and other cultural observers unravel this significant youth cultural practice. The collection provides insights on developments in post-traditional religiosity (especially 'New Age' and 'Neo-Paganism') through studies of rave's Gnostic narratives of ascensionism and re-enchantment, explorations of the embodied spirituality and millennialist predispositions of dance culture, and investigations of transnational digital-art countercultures manifesting at geographic locations as diverse as Goa, India, and Nevada's Burning Man festival. Contributors examine raving as a new religious or revitalization movement; a powerful locus of sacrifice and transgression; a lived bodily experience; a practice comparable with world entheogenic rituals; and as evidencing a new Orientalism.
A range of techno-spiritual developments are explored, including: *'techno-shamanic' DJ technique *techno-primitivism and the sampling of the exotic 'Other' *the influence of gospel music and the Baptist church on garage music *psychedelic trance, ecology and millennialism *psychoactive substance use and neural tuning. Rave Culture and Religion will be essential reading for advanced students and academics in the fields of sociology, cultural studies and religious studies.