Global Tribe – Technology Spirituality & Psytrance

Summary: This book, Global Tribe, explores the worldwide “psytrance” music and festival scene that grew out of the psychedelic music scene in Goa, India in the 70s and 80s. It looks at how technology and spirituality mix in this movement, as seen through festivals and the people involved in them across different countries.

Author: Graham St. John (https://www.edgecentral.net/)

Explanation: Global Tribe investigates a global dance music culture known as “psytrance,” which originated in India and spread internationally. The book uses firsthand accounts from people involved in these scenes to understand the movement across various locations like Australia, Israel, and the US. It delves into the history, artistic influences, and unique expressions of psytrance in different countries, acknowledging both its global nature and the way it adapts to local contexts. A key focus of the book is how technology, such as digital music production and online communication, intertwines with spiritual elements in psytrance festivals and the movement as a whole. The author argues that the rituals and altered states of consciousness experienced at these events require a new way of thinking about the relationship between music, culture, and ritual practices.

This publication, which is the effect of 15 years of research in over a hundred places, examines a fragmented global dancing history that has flourished globally since its origins in the various psychedelic song images that grew in Goa in the 1970s and 1980s. The event, which promotes itself as a world-summit of creative artists and rest, a united community of the world, has been the main expression of this activity, from smaller parties to major world events like Portugal’s Boom Festival. The book properly records this global movement with its various physical roots, several national translations, and local controversies. It includes first-hand records of the moments, situations, and songs of colorful sleep in Australia, Israel, Germany, Italy, the UK, the US, Turkey, and different locations. The book explores the connected roles that systems and religion have played in the development of this creative arts activity as a multi-sited anthropology and as an investigation of the modern, chemical, cyber, and media assemblage that make up psytrance. It also examines how these event-cultures accommodate rites of danger and consciousness, a difficult situation that involve the correction of regular conceptions of ritual, music, and culture.

Key Terms from Global Tribe – Technology Spirituality & Psytrance:

• Psytrance (psychedelic trance): A genre of electronic music that emerged from the psychedelic music scene, often characterized by fast tempos, layered melodies, and otherworldly soundscapes.
• Goa: A state in western India known for its beaches and, historically, a vibrant hippie and psychedelic culture, and is how the name of goa trance came to life.
• Ethnography: A qualitative research method that involves immersing oneself in a culture or community to understand its practices and beliefs.
• Multi-sited ethnography: An ethnographic approach that studies a cultural phenomenon across multiple locations, acknowledging the interconnectedness of different places and communities.
• Assemblage: A combination of diverse elements, in this case encompassing digital technologies, drug use, cyberculture, and media, that together shape the psytrance movement.

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