Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture (Paperback)

~ Robin Sylvan (Author)
Key Phrases: global rave culture, one raver, everything inside the container, Rhythm Society, San Francisco, Bay Area (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

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 Psychedelic Experience and author of The Unfolding Self

Product Description

Robin Sylvan combines colorful firsthand accounts, extensive interviews with ravers, and cutting edge scholarly analysis to paint a compelling portrait of global rave culture as an important new religious and spiritual phenomenon that also serves as a template for mapping the future evolution of new forms of religion and spirituality in the twenty-first century.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; New edition edition (September 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415970911
• ISBN-13: 978-0415970914
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #88,085 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard to read, even for non-fiction, January 30, 2010

By	M. Thome (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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I love trance music. I love non-fiction reading. But I didn't really enjoy reading this book. Its really more of a longer thesis than a book. The beginning of the book is actually very very compelling, giving a history of how raving began, and how it unites many together.

I didn't finish this book. I got about 80% through and it got weird. The general feeling of the book changed greatly. Focusing more on spirit-ism and good vs evil spirit vibes. In addition the interviews were often times duplicated or only partially re-quoted as the book continued on. Sometimes even the short interjections from the author repeated.

Overall, if you are looking for a new way of looking at religion or music even, you may want to pick this book up, (it's kinda pricey for only ~180 pages) but if you are looking for information about raves / electronic music, or even a brief history of said music, look elsewhere.