Reading v. Real Life

I'm reading this professional journal article about raves. Well, it's not really about raves as much as it's about people who go to raves. And what happens at raves.

The paper is called "The Rave: Spiritual Healing in Modern Western Subcultures" by Scott Hutson

He theorized that ravers reach an altered state of consciousness (ASC) with the help of flashing lights, dancing, and strong drum beats. The question is: do ravers NEED all three of these to enter ASC or can they achieve this with just one of the three stimuli? For example, can they get ASC with just the strong drum beats?

I've never been to a rave. They became popular in the US when I was an undergrad and I was more into punk music and drinking by that point. And I've never really been into dancing.

I also have never reached ASC as far as I know. I've been content. I've been happy in retrospect. But even with the help of aids I've never reached what Hutson describes in his paper.

I've been to concerts where everyone is united and it felt like we were all feeling the same thing RIGHT THEN AT THAT MOMENT, but I'm not sure if that's the same thing as ASC.

Any comments or answers from past or current ravers would be greatly appreciated.

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