Trance Formation

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.

Robin Sylvan, Ph.D., is the founder and director of The Sacred Center, a nonprofit educational organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of Traces ofthe Spirit: The Religious Dimensions of Popular Music.

I. An Introduction to the World of Raves: Three Scenes 1. A Brief History of the Rave Scene 2. The Full Spectrum of Events: from Warehouse Parties and Clubs to Burning Man and the Love Parade II. The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture 3. Trance Formation: The Religious Experience of Rave 4. Techno Tribal Church: The Ritual and Ceremonial Forms of Rave 5. Transformation: Rave Worldview, Rave Spirituality, and Global Rave Culture 6. Living Laboratories: Rave Communities and Networks Conclusion: Rave New World Appendix Notes Bibliography