FREE ESSAY ON RAVING IS A LIFESTYLE

RAVING IS A LIFESTYLE

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?