Throughout history, in most human cultures music, magic and medicine are deeply intertwined. The roles of healer, shaman and musician are often indistinguishable. However, for the last 400 years, Eurocentric culture has developed the almost unique concept of secular music, which exists purely to entertain and distract from the business of life, rather than actively engaging with it. Clearly this is an anomaly. It is becoming clear to a growing number of westerners that music has the power to heal, to transform, and to facilitate communication with the non-human world of animals, plants and spirits.

Ever since the introduction of LSD and electronics into western culture we have begun to slowly regain what was lost. From the first Summer of Love and the acid drenched sonic wizardry of Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and the Merry Pranksters through to the explosion of Rave and Club Culture, modern psychedelic gatherings serve as a sort of DIY initiation ceremony for millions of young people as they breach the barrier of adulthood. Yet somehow the wider culture still views these ceremonies and rites as merely a form of ‘Entertainment’ or 'Art' to be appreciated and consumed, devoid of any deeper spiritual value.

In many cases, the transformative aspects of these rituals - specifically the ingestion of psychoactive substances - is viewed with suspicion and disdain, or at best a sort of casual indifference. How many of us have witnessed powerful synchronicities, entered into dialogue with the non-human world, and felt a profound connection with spirit in front of the speaker stacks only to discount the experience as ‘just the drugs’, for fear of being ridiculed?

Legitimate spiritual experiences should be clean and pure with ‘natural’ acoustic instruments, plant based psychoactives, and indigenous shamans, they should revolve around meditation, abstinence, and focus, not pounding electronic beats, garish neon lasers, and experimental research chemicals in a chaotic swirl of mud, dust, booze, sex and bass... right?

Further complicating matters, the so-called Psychedelic Renaissance is now pushing a western medical framework to encourage the wider acceptance of entheogenic medicine. But does this not also risk devaluing and minimizing the magical powers of Festival? From the Eleusinian Mysteries to the modern syncretic forms of Santo Daime and Santeria, other cultures have long understood the transformative value of group ceremony paired with psychoactives and live music. Can we ever unlock the full power of Psychedelic Ritual on a therapist's couch or a hospital bed with a pair of headphones and a spotify playlist?

At the same time rave culture is far from perfect, the majority of participants are only vaguely aware that they are engaging in some form of magical ceremony and the dearth of spiritual architecture and crucial animistic frameworks is a very serious danger. The concept of ‘acid casualty’, the specter of drug addiction, and the endless destructive spiral of those too deeply trapped in ‘the party scene‘ are archetypes that have become worryingly familiar.

How can we learn from other cultures to create more healthy, explicit and sustainable ‘events’?

How can we best share the western innovations of amplification and recording with other cultures to help power their own musicomagical technologies?