Nature fests and acid trips

What really happens at Rainbow and other nature parties?

By TRACEY SHIPLEY
2016 Midburn event (photo credit: MAAYAN FELDMAN)
2016 Midburn event
(photo credit: MAAYAN FELDMAN)
Over the past six months I have been on a journey to discover what happens at nature parties. Are the myths, in fact, reality? Who goes? What happens there? Should we be concerned about our kids attending? The first nature party I attended was the Rainbow festival during the intermediate days of Passover. It took place deep in the woods not far from Beit Shemesh.
Rainbow is a secretive festival. You have to be connected to it in order to know about it. Directions are given out shortly before the festival begins, and only Rainbow- connected people are informed about the when and the where. This keeps outsiders from attending and maintains the special Rainbow feeling.
What happens at Rainbow? People of all ages take a tent, a sleeping bag, bottles of water, a bowl, a spoon/ fork, a cup and a guitar, and just show up. They pitch their tent, roll out their sleeping bag and often build a fire. They go with friends, family or alone.
I went alone. My daughters had gone for years, and now it was Mom’s turn. I got there just in time to hear the call for the Food Circle. Everyone joins the circle, sings and brings in some of the bounty of Mother Nature. After the Food Circle, the singing continues, along with dancing, drumming and strumming. The key to Rainbow is everyone sharing what they know and what they have.
This leads me to the next festival I attended. The ContraBurn festival is a mini MidBurn, which is a spinoff of the Burning Man in the US. The ContraBurn is an event that is held in tandem with the Burning Man festival, which is known for its intimate nature, fascinating people and magical vibes. Burners meet for the sake of the union of creativity, fun and radical self-expression. As in the Burning Man festival in Nevada, the community explores various forms of artistic self-expression and the “selfless giving” of one’s talents. The Burning Man event takes its name from its culmination, the symbolic ritual burning of a large wooden effigy (“the Man”).
Contrary to Israel’s MidBurn, which takes place every year in the deep Negev in the heat of the May sun, the ContraBurn takes place up north by Lake Kinneret.
Burners create themed tents featuring various types of arts and activities, music, yoga and more. Participants young and old visit these tents day and night, and the music and festivities last all night long. As Shabbat approached, the music by the water became more spiritual, a gentle electronic vibe that helped put everyone in the Shabbat space.
My next festival experience was Nataraj (the Sanskrit term for “king of dance”), an annual event that takes place in November Kfar Hanokdim, a beautiful oasis between Arad and Masada. A three-day festival of music, dance and meditation, Nataraj has been going on in Israel for 16 years. The festival features a wide range of top spiritual, healing and self-development teachers from all over the world, along with the intense music and dance celebrations. Like they do at the other festivals, attendees camp under the stars or stay in bungalows built in Sinai style. Festival goers can choose from an array of lectures, yoga sessions, concerts and dance activities every hour on the hour. Kabbalat Shabbat started Friday morning with music and dancing in the spirit of the Sabbath. As at all the festivals, one could choose whether to observe Shabbat. Unlike the other festivals, however, Nataraj has a cost which covers the workshops and location.
For my final venture, I attended a festival of music and dancing near Nahariya.
Now for what affects us as parents in regard to deciding whether to discourage or allow our kids to participate in any of these festivals. In principle, Rainbow is opposed to the use of drugs or alcohol at the festival.
This is strictly adhered to during all the main circles.
At Nataraj, no bottles of alcohol are allowed into the grounds, and no alcohol is served in the communal Chai Shop, although some campers did manage to bring in the odd bottle of wine for Shabbat. Contra- Burn, and I assume MidBurn as well, has no policy on drinking, and a few of the hot spots were traveling bars.
The drinking went along with the all-night trance parties.
At none of the festivals was there any rampant use of marijuana; however, the one factor that I found at every festival was the use of acid.
At the Rainbow festival, I woke up hearing the young man in the adjacent tent talking about his acid trip the night before. At the ContraBurn, I had the same experience. Luckily for these young people, they were not bad trips. Ironically, at the Nataraj, the one festival that does not cater to the wandering hippie, I heard the most outrageous story. An army psychologist had taken a hit and a half of acid the night before, and one of the women I met spent the night talking him down from a bad trip. This is a man whose job consists of listening to stories of kids who have made choices causing them to need psychological help in the army, mostly drug related! At the last festival, I heard the most riveting story about a man who was hiding a vial of liquid acid in his underwear when he was about to enter a nature party.
The bottle broke, and he took off on a trip that lasted two years – a trip from which he has yet to recover.
Studies reveal that 8% of acid takers do not fare well and have bad trips. Can you die from the acid itself? Actually not. But you can die from the illusion that you can fly, as was the case with one unfortunate young man who jumped from the top floor of a wellknown hotel in the center of Jerusalem. He and his friends were partying in a hotel room when he lost his head from acid and then lost his life. Similar stories are prevalent worldwide. Too many in our own country. Also, as with marijuana and other drugs, there is the possibility that poisonous additives may have been mixed with the drug, amplifying its danger and unpredictability.
Acid is not what it used to be. In the past, it was used to open our consciousness at a time when the world needed to raise our consciousness. Many of the hippies of yesteryear explain that we no longer need consciousness- building. We are now in a different place and can expand our minds in other, healthier ways.
Yoga, meditation, movement, music are all excellent ways to connect to ourselves and the world around us.
My current purpose in life is to turn kids on to natural highs. That is what the Sobar is all about. This is what our job is as parents. Let’s take the time to turn our kids on to our own natural high.
The writer is a certified addictions counselor with 28 years of experience working with teens, young adults and their families. She recently opened the Sobar in Jerusalem, a live music club for youth as an alternative to the downtown bar scene. You can read about Shipley on her website jerusalemteencounseling.net and contact her at tracey@malkatshva.net.