The ancient ritual for the 21 century

“Redefining the Ancient Tribal Ritual for the 21st Century:”
Goa Gil and the Trance Dance Experience

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A Thesis
Presented to
The Division of Philosophy, Religion, and Psychology
Reed College

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In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts

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Michael Belden McAteer
May 2002

Tableof Contents:

Introduction 4

Chapter 1: Goa Trance Parties as “Secular Ritual:”
A History of a Modern Communal Gathering 7

Chapter 2: Ritual Structure: The Goa Gil Trance Dance
Initiation Party as a Rite de Passage 22

Chapter 3: Goa Gil as a Mystagogue: The Emergence of
A Charismatic Ritual Authority and theTransformation of “Party” into “Religion” 44

Conclusion: 64

Appendix I: Photographs 65

Appendix II: Interviews:
- Goa Gil: 11/23/01 72
- Goa Gil: 11/25/01 92
- Swami Chaitanya: 10/6/01 98
- Rebecca Preciado: 3/24/02 104

Bibliography: 116

Dedicated
To My Parents and Teachers
of the Three Times and Ten Directions:
Especially
ToGil and Ariane
And To Lani

Om Namo Narayan!

Introduction

On my first trip to India in 1998, my attempts to rendezvous with my younger brother in front of the Jaipur City Palace in Rajasthan resulted instead, in a frustrating set of miscommunications, in our meeting 800 miles south on a beach in the small state of Goa. What he had dragged me to witness, quite unexpectedly forboth of us, was an international group of foreigners, hundreds of them, gathered around what has become the topic of my thesis: the Goa trance party. This style of party, in which electronic dance music is played all night by a DJ in an outdoor setting, has spread from its origins in Goa to become a global phenomena affecting the lives of countless modern youth.
In the following essay, Iwill investigate the Goa trance party, specifically the type organized around DJ Goa Gil, as comprising ritual. Goa Gil, often referred to as the “father of Goa trance,” calls his project of creating these parties, “Redefining the Ancient Tribal Ritual for the 21st Century” (Goa Gil 2001a). This idea of “party” as “ritual” is intriguing since the act of dancing all night to rhythmic beats iseasily comparable to the tribal rituals of our archaic past. As one travels into the narratives of its creators and participants, however, the concept of “party” as “ritual” increases beyond a mere comparison, and approaches fully religious proportions.
Within the trance phenomena, the category of the emic[1] arises at the point where a participant becomes convinced that something more thanwhat is typically meant by a “party” is taking place at a gathering. The term “party” becomes inadequate for describing their perception of the event to those who have not experienced it. They may continue to use the word “party” among other participants who they feel can understand the word in its modified meaning. However, the term is not used in the same way as its conventional, etic,counterpart. When relating to an etic audience, as well as when informing themselves in etic terms, party participants instead use the term “ritual” to explain the extraordinary qualities they perceive in their parties.
The content of these “extraordinary” qualities, and consequently the meaning of “ritual,” conceivably differs, however, according to the experience of each individual. Inaddition to an emic/etic distinction in the word “party,” a gradation of meaning in the emic use of the term also exists. While two participants may agree that “that was a great party,” one may be referring to a lot of fun, while the other to a religious experience. Different DJ’s describing their parties as “ritual” may also be doing so with different meanings in mind.
For this reason, I have...