Raving Is A Lifestyle Essay, Research Paper

Raving Is a Lifestyle.

One of the most rapidly expanding scenes in the world is raving. The dictionary defines “Rave” as To utter in madness or frenzy; to say wildly; as, to rave nonsense, which makes you wonder why raves were ever called raves to begin with, unless of course you have been to one. I will never forget my first experience at a rave. Media portrays Raves as cesspools of filth, sex and drugs, so naturally I was very nervous about attending my first party. We sit in a circle inside the party with the lights and music assailing my senses and take out the pills. I stare at mine and sweat nervously. I have never really done drugs before, and I am going to put a pill in my mouth that someone that I do not know has manufactured in their basement. Little did I know that this was a common theme in the scene, quality control for basement pharmaceuticals is a difficult thing. I down the ecstasy and wait nervously for some thing to happen to feel something that had been extensively described to me, but for which I still had no idea what to expect for words can do it no justice. After forty minutes, I start to stand up to get some water, and before I know what is going on, I am already standing. It feels like I have no joints in my body, and everything is fluid. My mind is rushing and I let this sense of pure energy, goodwill and friendliness wash over my body. I feel the need for something different and wander off to make some new friends. I sit to talk to a beautiful girl by a pillar. Normally, I would be very shy and never dream of talking to a goddess such as she. Before I know what is going on, I am laying on my back with my head in her lap and she is massaging my face and neck gently, her touch so light that there seems to be almost no touch, just energy passing from her fingers to my face. I start to imagine strange worlds in my minds eye, seemingly rendered by computers full of brilliant glow-stick colors like fluorescent blues, purples and greens, and there are strange creatures dancing and racing about. Now this total stranger is kissing me very very softly, and I am lost in space and time, I can no longer feel the floor beneath my body and the images I see are more vivid, the moment lasting for eternity. Soon we break apart and I give her a warm hug and we go our separate ways, her name already forgotten in the sensory overload that I am riding. Imaging five thousand people all experiencing the same thing that I did for eight hours and it is not hard to imagine how an entire culture could be based on these parties. When I finally came down from the ecstasy later the next day, everything I knew about the world seemed to have changed. From that day on, the grass has seemed greener, the breeze feels more soothing and I have noticed and appreciated more of the simple pleasures in life more than I ever had before. Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. P.L.U.R. is the Raver code that, if everyone lived by, the world would be infinitely better than it is today.

When you were young, your mom probably told you that to be accepted by everyone you had to be yourself. As time goes by, most people forget what it is to be their self and build up attitudes, fronts, and inhibitions that become their accepted personality. The Rave culture is so popular because when people are on ecstasy, which is by far the drug of choice for partiers, they have no up attitudes, fronts, and inhibitions and you get to see the raw personality underneath. Imagine a party with four to twenty thousand people oozing friendliness and goodwill, with no social inhibitions all dying to meet you, and it is not hard to see why this culture is so popular. Since my first party I have continued to rave frequently, and have brought many of my non-raving friends to their first party. Without fail, each of those people tells me after that it was the greatest night of their life on every band of the sensation spectrum and none of their lives were ever the same again. Ecstasy offers insight into yourself that you keep after the party is done and invariably people become nicer all around.

Ecstasy is not the only drug consumed at parties, although I frequently wish it were. The scariest are Crystal Meth, which is the dirtiest most addictive drug going, is also very popular. It makes you very jittery and can easily keep you awake for two days or more. There are too many young kids that do not know the dangers of the drugs they are getting into that are addicted to this horrible drug. The next bad one is GHB, more commonly known to the public as a date rape drug. The problem with this is that it is incredibly bad for you, and the difference between one cap and two is unconsciousness, and two and three can cause a temporary coma that is impossible to wake someone from for one or two hours. Special K or Ketamine is very popular amongst the eastern crowd, and it is a horse tranquilizer that is a disassociative, causing all strait lines to go curvy. The more I party, the more I have to ask myself if the scene is more about the drugs, or more about the people on drugs. It is kind of like the chicken and the egg, where it is hard to tell what came first but, one would certainly not exist without the other. When I started partying a year ago, everyone did ecstasy, more or less. Now it is frightening to see the amount and variety of drugs available.

The Rave scene is changing rapidly, mostly because of the availability of drugs, and the word of mouth popularity of the parties. In the year that I have been partying, everything seems to have changed. Now the raves are mostly full of kids, the average age being around seventeen, and the more mature ravers, like myself, have moved to rave clubs like Government, System Sound Bar and Smaller parties that are more exclusive. Because of the massive increase in people partying, the drugs are getting to be worse quality and some contain some crazy stuff that is not supposed to be there that is injuring my friends. The music is evolving and splitting like a paramecium to grow with the changing scene and more individual tastes. Electronic music has transformed into many subgroups, such as Jungle, Trance, Progressive Trance, Booty House, House, Happy Hard Core and many more. I do not like the way that the young kids are getting so out of hand. I wonder how many parents know their fifteen year old is out at a twenty thousand person party blowing basement pharmaceuticals up their noses every weekend, doing drugs they have never heard of, let alone know anything about.

My name is Andrew, Janine, or Reza. I am a student, electrician or desk Jockey. During the week I exist above ground, working and eating, leading a normal life, but I really live in the clubs deep in the testicles of the city. I do not sleep all weekend partying from Thursday to Sunday, leftover chemicals in my blood getting my through Monday. This is how people in the rave scene exist. To many it sounds ludicrous, basing our sole existence around crazy all night parties consuming drugs like food and wearing insane outfits and covering ourselves with baubles and bracelets. There is an expression that goes, for those who have been, no explanation is necessary, but for those who have not, no explanation is possible. Our rave culture is rapidly expanding and splitting, with P.L.U.R. as a general principal, but with dozens of different paths to evolve along, and who knows where it will stop?