From religious ecstasy to ecstasy pills: a symbolic and performative analysis of electronic music festivals

This article looks to analyze the process through which eastern cosmological elements and religious practices acquire new meanings as they take on fresh uses in western festive contexts, as well as examine the symbolic and performative dimensions of the phenomenon in question. Electronic music festivals suggest a reading of eastern religious factors that serve as a reference to their 'origin myth.' The ethnographic data reveals a new form of obtaining ecstasy via music, performances, 'natural' ambients and altered states of consciousness. The appeal to transcendence is the direct result of western re-workings of Indian religious practices - especially those proposed by the spiritual leader Osho, who formed a cosmology based on fragments taken out of their 'original' context and given meaning in the life of those who adopt the Sannyasalifestyle.