The Anthropology of the Future (Pt.1: Setting Sacred Space)

I ran today on Mill Creek Rim after a rain-storm.  It was the bees'-knees!   This entry isn't to reflect on running, but rather the beginning in a series on Peer Broozer's Social Psyence:

© Phutureprimitive 

Have you studied the anthropology of the future?  Has anyone?  I've considered it often, since I first brainstormed the concept at one point in my 20s (along with many others, but this one has stuck with me. . . demanding my attention and mental affection).  How can we guess at our lifestyles in the coming years, and channel our actions to attain a desirable culture?  Not only does the idea tickle with wonder, but as an initial anthropology major in college I realized we were OUT OF OTHER CULTURES TO ANALYZE.  The academics of the 20th Century took care of most of that, including my beloved adviser at West Chester, Paul Stoller.  He went to Western Africa and studied as an apprentice to a sorcerer for over a decade.  How cool is that?   But. . . us undergrads in the early 2000s didn't have any new tribes to go ethnographize.  What culture can we put under a microscope to learn more about what it means to be human?  Why. . . the culture we're creating, of course.  What will it be.?. . . after all, we can't worship money and stare at social media forever. . . the COVID quarantine is showing us that.  As we continue the paradigm shift of finding-the-future, we need to become an evolved species that has all dimensions of its needs cared for, the way they were when we lived in egalitarian tribes and, most importantly, with a respect for The Sacred. 

We've lost touch with setting time & social gathering occasions to show our respects (AKA worship) to . . . to. . . whatever you wanna call it (I'm not here to preach about whether it is The Source, God, The Great Spirit, the Unseen Mystery, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Brahman, etc.)  For sake of my writings, I will call it THE OVERMIND.  And giving that nomenclature is scientifically correct as well, as science points to this Universe being built of INFORMATION and not dead matter ("The Overmind" was also featured in Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End, which is a work of "Future Anthropology" if there ever was one).  Information requires a system of mind or computer to operate, and computers are made by humans, therefore:  We live in an overmind - The Overmind (might as well keep it proper since we're shooting for a return to reverence for The Sacred, after all).

Melting into One at the mercy of rhythm.

The greatest route I have found to jiving with The Overmind is through music.  After all, "universe" literally means "one song," so it makes perfect sense that music is our greatest utility for feeling a sense of being with & respecting The Sacred.   In particular, I've found that rhythm-heavy electronic dance music (EDM) has the greatest power to dissolve one's ego and be AT ONE with The Source that is producing the "One Song."  I was at the Gem & Jam Festival in Tucson earlier this year and did not drink a drop of alcohol the entire time (the first time I've been without booze at a music festival), which gave me the capacity to transcend (trance-send even) in a more conscious and deep way than ever I have before.  It was during Manic Focus' set (pictured above) that the sensation first kicked in, and it lasted through Tipper's set.  My sense of "self-conscious" ego, in that I am Peter "Panic" Brewer left entirely, and my - no, THE Consciousness existed purely in the flow of creation happening all around, particularly in the music.  The next day, I referred to the experience to a friend as "ending up in The Cosmic Cockpit."  One feels a HIGHER WILL at work, a will which set the spark of the Big Bang off to evolve light & matter to the point of enjoying music in the vessels of human bodies. It happened to me slightly at other times in my life, but never this fully and lasting this long.  Here is my break down on what this means exactly (many who've had this experience likely feel it is "ineffable," but having minored in religious philosophy in college, I can attempt to explain):



In is undeniable that there are greater forces at work above (The Cosmos), below (gravity), around (the atmosphere), and within (biological systems).  We can't entirely explains how or why these forces operate.  However, day-to-day, we choose to identify mostly with The Ego (that flashy, mental construct).   The Ego is nothing more than a story you tell yourself and others.  That's it.  So - when an experience like mine at Gem & Jam happens, you are still conscious but IDENTIFYING WITH AN ENTITY THAT IS NOT THE EGO.  You realize you are "part of God," or your "Atman is a piece of Brahman," or you're at "One with The Great Spirit." . or YOU ARE AN EXCITED NEURON IN THE BRAIN OF THE OVERMIND.  The latter is a most sensible way to talk about The Sacred in our current time.  We are learning about ourselves through psychological sciences lately, and thus, being a neuron in a Bigger Brain is the most rational way we can explain how to relate to The Overmind.  And. . . what an honor and pleasure this is!  All us raver kids - we're onto something here, and it goes beyond sex, drugs, and debauchery:  This is WORSHIP.

As I'm leaving the festival I glow heavily with the experiences of the weekend.  When I am getting back to normal life and no longer have such breathtaking interactions with The Overmind, I get to thinking. . . "Why don't we Cosmic Neurons get together more often and feel like this?"   Sure, there's churches. . . but let's face it - the World's "great religions" aren't making the cut any longer (if they ever were).  Most of them are based around ancient mythologies or enlightened teachers' teachings.  Some of them are power-structures that wish to control & manipulate.  They provided their services while they could, but now let's work to gather and find a new way of showing reverence to The Sacred. . . one that will fit nicely in our "anthropology of the future."  Sure, there's Burning Man. . . there's clubs. . . there's immersive festivals - but what do these all have in common?  Consumerism.  They depend on ticket sales.  Why must this be the only way that we can gather and get groovy with The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

I propose that, as homo Sapiens entering a new paradigm which needs a proper culture, we gather and dance together to rhythm-heavy music blasted through only the highest quality sound systems we've got.  We can do it once a week!  Call it Infinite Funky Friday. . . a sabbath for The Overmind's excited, dancing neurons.  And why rhythm-heavy EDM type stuff?  Well, in the anthropology of magic, religion, and witchcraft (which was the name of  a class at West Chester University that Dr. Stoller taught and / or still teaches) there are a few different "spiritual" experiences observed where an individual loses the ego and becomes "something else" (trance, spirit possession, etc.).  The methods to induce these may include chanting, DRUMMING, and / or ingestion of substance (usually psychedelic / entheogenic).  So, if our new Sacred spaces ("churches") use EDM, they can have a similar effect as what drums had on tribal individuals and shamans who entered "trance."  EDM (artistically produced) and blasted through big, bad-ass speakers is THE MOST POWERFUL DRUM on Earth.

You might say "but we've got clubs we can do this in . . . why do we need to make 'churches' for the bass to blast?"  To that, I'll once again point out that The Sacred needs to be separated from consumerism. . . it can't depends on ticket sales.  Nothing can be sold at these gatherings. . . especially not alcohol (if we want to get all us Neurons elevated optimally, we don't need or want alcohol there).  At least, let's not serve it on Infinite Funky Friday.  Save the boozing for Saturday, or Sunday, or any other day.  But give this new sabbath your sober attention.  Now if there was a multi-day weekend retreat / Sacred festivals type shindig, alcohol could be considered on the second or third day to let loose perhaps, but the first day of such a retreat (which might very likely be Friday. . . an Infinite Funky one!) should be free of it, to have clear hearts & minds in setting a worshipful attitude to The Sacred Overmind.

The seeds of gatherings / churches like these have already planted.  While living in New Orleans in 2012, I went to an event every Sunday night at The Dragon's Den club called Bass Church.  And it really was a church for me and many others!  It was my time once a week to get with The Great Mystery, in a city fraught with energy & attention directed towards much hedonism.  In Denver there is a Rhythm Sanctuary where groovy people gather to take part in ecstatic dance (other towns and cities hold ecstatic-dance events as well).  We need these gatherings my fellow homo Sapiens. . . we need to get together and feel that, collectively, we ARE a part of something greater than our egos and our possessions.  We desperately need the community that forms when people elect to set aside time & place for worship.   Even if you're an atheist, consider switching to deism to allow the idea that SOMETHING set the universe in motion which led up to these fantastic meat puppets that we've become (or just get to dancing collectively and see if you can feel emotionally there is higher-power instead of trying to work it out logically in your head), who are lost if they don't interact lovingly and cooperate for greater good.  We need to feel the heart beating as ONE.