Dance Music Therapy by Mark Ameba

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Editors note: Mark Ameba and the publisher of Islands magazine have graciously offered this piece for inclusion on our website, to be published in Islands soon. ---------- As society hurtles through time beyond the millenium it might well be worthwhile to consider just what this impetus to party is all about. Is it simply millenial madness or is it something deeper than that? Could it be possible that we are collectively manifesting not only a primal urge to release and connect, but subconciously we are recognizing the disintegration of a power that has held the future of our Mother Earth hostage since history began? Maybe we should start thinking of events to come as "her-story. " After all, ultimatly Mother Earth herself is in control. "Nature Bats Last" proclaims the sticker and if we are to enlarge the concept and broaden our perspectives even further we might see an enormous organism with divergent, although potentially balancing tendencies. An analogy between the mind of a single human and the mind of the entire planet can easily be made. A person might be lonely and insecure, unsure of their place in this world, addicted to self destructive habits, conciously seeking material gratification while subconciously repressing and denying the ill health and destruction of the body. As a planet, modern science tells us there is no other life in the universe, yet affirms faith in technologies that clearly spell disaster for our being at large. When a person is in denial they tend to not see that which is most detrimental to them. This planet might well consider consider itself to be in a similar situation. Mankind, as the technology extruding species, can be seen as the concious half of the planets brain, while Mother Earth herself, and all the accordant species of plants and animals form the subconcious body of this great being. Modern mankinds main goal has been to separate these halves with technology as effectively as possible, while building in an iron clad system of denial into almost all of all of societies institutions. The more vigorously something is suppressed, the more violent the eventual eruption will be . We witness this all the time with individuals, might it be possible that we are more than spectators when this happens to our gaian organism? When a person is finally able to break free of a self destructive habit and becomes concious of a pattern of denial, there is always a feeling of pain, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of relief and joy that manifests when wholeness is achieved. Perhaps this is what the subconcious celebration is all about. We are starting to feel the joy now that the technology producing half of this planets mind has finally achieved a level where the individual brain cells (people) can be connected. We are on the verge of becoming an enormous, self aware, concious entity, one that is gradually awakening to the heartbreaking damage that has occured along the way. As our minds become acquainted in the media field we call cyberspace what becomes of our bodies, left behind and grounded with the great body of earth? Are we so foolish to assume that we can heal our dysfunctional relationship with the planet without reconnecting our bodies as well? Perhaps we are subconciously feeling the urge for connection as strongly as we can sense the disintegration of the dominant paradigm. These two related forces might well be the underlying impetus for the sudden dynamic emergence of spontaneous tribal dance gatherings all over the globe. This dance movement, often referred to in its many permutations as "the rave, " brings forth many elements of what Terrence McKenna calls the "Archaic Revival. " Rave culture is DJ culture and when Terrence talks about partnership society, the living example might well be found on the dance floor. A modern day tribal dance party has no real precedent in our society prior to the acid tests of the 60's. "We've been misguided , We've been divided!" Western civilizations main thrust has been to wipe out or convert the illiterate savages found drumming around a fire and indoctrinate them into devisive systems of religion and government. . . ---- more in Islands, coming soon. . .