Preparation
for the Voyage
There is a lot one can do to ensure a enjoyable voyage. People
often talk about the "set and setting", squaking the three words
like bunch of parrots and hardly giving much thought into their
meaning. It's probably all the same whether you've ingested
super-pure & fresh LSD-25 or nail-polishing fluid if the set
and the setting aren't in condition.
- Packing: Get into packing a couple of days before the
voyage. Load your gear (brain) with everything you think
will be useful. Personally I like documents about nature
as they are easy to pack (video or TV). Books are fine but
bit slower to load. Walking in nature, quiet and peaceful,
and meditating ensures I get enough mental energy and happiness
along. Try to break the normal circles of work, and if you
are stressed, take few more days away from everything before
leaving on the expedition. Go easy on your diet. Some fast
for the previous week, others don't pay any attention to
what and how much they eat. I eat normally until the day
before, after which I eat mostly vegetables and fruits.
- Place: Clean it up. Get some fresh air into it. Tell all
your friends/relatives not to visit, and disconnect the
doorbell and take the phone off the wall. Make everything
as comfortable as possible. Fresh flowers will blow your
mind with their beautiful looks and odors. A stroboscope
is also worth a try, especially at 20 to 30 Hz. Lights are
probably best low or off (and of white color). Music is
so important we've given it its own section, coming up next.
- Flight: Loose clothing and something to put on/take off;
you'll be lying down most of the time, so pick something
you could sleep in. Something to drink - see if your drinks
include caffeine or other chemicals. Water is always the
best. Some light snacks to eat during the trip, and possibly
something to fill your stomach after the trip. Drawing during
take-off can be fun, also psychedelic videos. Anyway, for
a real "trip" I say: after the takeoff, turn the lights
off, turn the volume to the edge of subliminal, and relax
& tune into the vibe of the Earth.
Music and the Voyage
One of the important factors of the setting is music - especially
in urban environment music may be necessery to camouflage
and change the every-day-soundscape. Music can tingle your
imagination in a myriad different ways. Music can take you
away, comfort or make you feel unbelievalably good. It can
also make you sad, jumpy or angry. Therefore it is very important
to make the right choice of music. There is tripping music
and there is tripping music - depending on the results one
wishes to achieve. I will concentrate on the deeper side;
music for shamanic voyages, spacetravels and intense mushroom-magic-trips.
I speak from my own experience, thru my own frame of reference,
so all of the material recommended might not be on your wavelength
- I was often skeptical myself but results often are awesome
and surprising. Music you like during your normal states of
conciousness is probably not ideal - for instance lots of
the ambient done today is not very nice for tripping, but
probably ideal listening both before and after the trip. For
a voyage try to find music that is calm, not too hectic or
fast, not too structured and stays in the background if desired.
Ambient - lots of music goes under this name today,
and it may very hard to find something truly ambient among
all those new ambient- techno/dub releases... All time favorites
of mine and many others include Ashra Temple, John Cage, Cluster,
Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Steve Hillage, Daniel Lanois, Pink
Floyd, David Toop & Max Eastley, Tangerine Dream and Tuu.
Many music stores lump these under the heading "New Age" next
to stuff like Yanni, bleah... All of these move on the more
serious tangents - worth checking out. On the lighter, more
techno side of the ambient - try Aphex Twin, James Bernard,
FFWD, FSOL, Pete Namlook, The Orb (especially the newer releases),
William Orbit, Seafeel, Sun Electric or Terre Thaemlitz for
instance.
Ethno - music from the different cultures around
the world and especially music by shamen or music aiming to
a religious or spiritual experience - shamanistic drumming,
australian dijeridoo sounds or chantings by gregorian or buddhist
monks, for instance. "Meditative music" compilations can be
excellent. There are huge volumes of this sort of music published
around the world.
Minimalism - especially Terry Riley. Steve Reich,
Philip Glass and Lamonte Young have all made "psychoacoustic
music", to use a term developed by Brian Eno for his own music.
Riley is especially- er.. "beyond words" - something unbelievalable.
For connoisseurs.
Silence - either complete or 'The music of the
Mother Nature' - best tripping music for as long there has
been humans around to trip. The patter of raindrops falling
surpasses just about any music humans can come up with. A
must try. Perfect. |