‘I Get High With a Little Help From My Friends’ - How Raves Can Invoke Identity Fusion and Lasting Co-operation via Transformative Experiences

Abstract

Psychoactive drugs have been central to many human group rituals throughout modern human evolution. Despite such experiences often being inherently social, bonding and associated prosocial behaviors have rarely been empirically tested as an outcome. Here we investigate a novel measure of the mechanisms that generate altered states of consciousness during group rituals, the 4Ds: dance, drums, sleep deprivation, and drugs. We conducted a retrospective online survey examining experiences at a highly ritualized cultural phenomenon where drug use is relatively uninhibited- raves and illegal free parties. Engaging in the 4Ds at raves or free parties was associated with personal transformation for those who experienced the event as awe-inspiring, especially for people with open personalities (n = 481). Without awe, or a ritual context, indulging in the 4Ds was associated with a lack of personal growth, or anomie. A complex SEM revealed that personal transformation following awe-inspiring raves was associated with bonding to other ravers and prosocial behavior toward this group at a cost to self in a simple economic game. Bonding to humanity was not associated with these events. The findings suggest that employing the 4Ds in a ritualized environment - particularly dancing and drug use – can help build meaningful social bonds with associated positive behavioral outcomes.

The Watts Connectedness Scale: a new scale for measuring a sense of connectedness to self, others, and world

“…Connectedness as a construct spanning these three domains has not been measured, or systematically studied. Yet the experience of feeling connected to self and others, and the interconnected living world, is commonly described by psychedelic 'users'-whether they use be in ceremonial (Dobkin de Rios 1984;Gearin 2016;Kettner et al 2021;La Barre 1938/1975Tramacchi 2000), festival (Forstmann et al 2020;St John 2009), dance party or 'rave' (Newson et al 2021) or therapeutic contexts (Agin-Liebes et al 2021;Argento et al 2019;Belser et al 2017;Loizaga-Velder and Verres 2014;Noorani et al 2018;Swift et al 2017;Thomas et al 2013).…”

The importance of imagination and subjective knowledge: The evolution of art and religion as symbolic representations of feelings, experiences, and beliefs

“…In psychedelics research, the process of self-transcendence is often referred to as 'ego dissolution' (Nour, Evans, Nutt, & Carhart-Harris, 2016). However, this term may confuse whether ego diminishment or ego expansion takes place (Newson, Khurana, Cazorla, & van Mulukom, 2021):…”

“…We suggest here that in religious and artistic experiences particularly, it is self-expansion rather than selfdiminishment that takes place (see also the 'Broaden and Build' hypothesis, Fredrickson, 2004). In the context of awe-inspiring psychedelic trips as well as rave experiences, it has been found that selfexpansion (measured by the AWE-S subscale 'connectedness'; Yaden et al, 2018) rather than selfdiminishment (measured by the AWE-S subscale 'self-diminishment'; Yaden et al, 2018) predicted connectedness to nature or fellow ravers up to five years after the experience (Newson et al, 2021;van Mulukom, Patterson, & van Elk, 2020). A further investigation of self-diminishment has demonstrated that there may be three dimensions to self-diminishment which may be conflated by some self-diminishment scales: perceived self-size (feeling metaphorically small), vastness relative to self, and small self-perspective (i.e., a sense of proportion about one's daily concerns; feeling one's day-to-day concerns as trivial in the grand scheme of things) (Tyson, Hornsey, & Barlow, 2021).…”

“…Awe also has an influence on social subjective knowledge however. It has consistently been associated with feelings of connectedness (Bai et al, 2017;Newson et al, 2021;Van Cappellen & Saroglou, 2012;van Mulukom et al, 2020) and prosocial behavior (Piff, Dietze, Feinberg, Stancato, & Keltner, 2015;Prade & Saroglou, 2016), effects which are typically related to the reduction of (boundaries of or emphasis on) the self (Bai et al, 2017;Piff et al, 2015). Through this awe-induced ego reduction, new perspectives related to group rather than personal identity -social subjective knowledge -can be acquired (Stellar et al, 2017).…”

“…Meaning-making, like personal transformativeness, is typically associated with negative events, such as traumatic childbirth (Tasuji, Reese, van Mulukom, & Whitehouse, 2020) and coping with cancer (Park, Edmondson, Fenster, & Blank, 2008). However, more recent research has suggested that personal transformativeness can also happen after highly intense positive experiences, such as rave parties (Newson et al, 2021). Moreover, changes in perceived meaning in life have also been observed after the experience of awe (Rivera, Vess, Hicks, & Routledge, 2020).…”