I just spent the last week at the Ozora Psytrance music festival in Hungary and it was a pretty amazing experience, especially as it was the first music festival I’ve ever been to.
What I was not prepared for however, was the gobsmacking amount of Israeli propaganda just absolutely everywhere, and it only got more and more blatant as the week went. I’m being made to understand that this is actually fairly normal and apparently “Israelis love colonizing festivals”. Apparently they also really love psytrance festivals, and used every opportunity to invoke the memory of the NOVA psytrance festival that was caught in the crossfire on Oct. 7th.
I posted a direct response about it in the festival subreddit here, but I feel like there is so much left unsaid.
The whole thing being rooted in psychedelics just adds several additional points. First, it is straight up baaaad vibes, in place where “vibes” are super important, the constant barrage of blatant propaganda just absolutely pollutes the headspace. I found myself being unable to ignore it at multiple levels of tripping. The propaganda spanned from the more mild but still blatant “in remembrance of” sorta stuff, up to straight war propaganda including what I can only describe as “Star of David Totenkopf” which is probably the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in awhile (I’ll attach it as the main image).
It’s a psychedelic hippie festival, everyone wants to be yoga, free love, and good vibes, no one wants to escalate or fight the Israelis, so they go entirely unconfronted on their disregard for everyone around them.
I’m also trying to process how psychedelics revolutionary potential appears to be completely captured, how they were meant to be a tool to free the mind from fascism, but then here it appears to be made near totally inert, incorporated into this new sort of “Candy Fascism”. I get how a type of nihilistic hedonism is part of fascism, but how this has actually developed boggles me.
I say as someone who used to be really into psytrance, but the whole scene is bougie white, coloniser, and Israeli AF. It’s been this way for decades. I wouldn’t be this harsh if I haven’t gone to a fuckload of festivals myself and experienced it firsthand.
Honestly doing psychedelics and dancing to trance are fine in moderation. But coming into it with a real expectation of personal growth is just idealism. There’s all this pseudo Eastern religion promising betterment, which aligns so closely with classical fascism that it’s almost funny. Not to criticise OP, but rather many people who align with psytrance, the woo health and spiritual promises of the community are never going to be fulfilled.
You are right, tho, festivals didn’t have explicit Israeli propaganda until recently, at least from what I’ve seen. Israelis were always there, and it felt weird, but it seemed like the ones who were there wanted to disconnect from politics.
Funny story: I went to a re-birthing ceremony maybe 8 years ago. My city is majority non-white although yes I’m white. I looked around in this re-birthing ceremony and saw 300 posh white people and not a single non-white person. I walked out feeling weird and never went back.
psychedelics revolutionary potential appears to be completely captured
is it captured or was there never much there to begin with? I like psychedelics, but I feel like the idea of psychedelics as revolutionary has been dead where I live for decades, long disproven by history.
There was a ton of hippie theorizing at the time acid really hit big that it could revolutionize things if there was mass adoption because basically it makes you really silly and joyful, and unable to take anything seriously. I genuinely think that it was a threat of some sort, that the threat contributed to the need for a war on drugs.
That theorizing was what I was alluding to yeah, I just don’t see people taking those ideas seriously any more. Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but I’ve never believed in them really either. It didn’t seem to me that psychedelics actually did a lot for people, politically anyhow, at the height of their mass use in the US, the hippies who were most into psychedelics by and large all sold out and reintegrated into mainstream society, and I’m not sure if they were, in large part, ever seriously leftist. If anything I’ve heard at least as compelling arguments that the CIA or whoever was pushing psychedelics to derail or undermine revolutionary movements somehow. Again not something I wholeheartedly believe, but it seems to have at least as much substance to it.
psychedelics took away my revolutionary spirit and gave me false consciousness for a long time. I think they can be enjoyed as a tool for self reflection, surely, but their usefulness is vastly overstated, and the delusions it can give you can lead very easily down the crunchy right path.
I used to love Tim Leary, nowadays I tend to take the perspective of the Black Panthers when he went to Algeria with them, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, I never felt like they took anything from me except maybe a reprieve from depression lol, but I’m not that into them, and I’ve definitely seen LSD do not great things for others, just taking it a lot as an escape from shitty conditions/relationships, but ultimately just keeping them in that place more than helping.
Yeah, “tune in, turn on, drop out” is escapist, not revolutionary. From the jump the idea was less to change society and more to abandon it.
As someone else mentioned, they can help with self-reflection, but that’s just one component of adopting a socialist worldview, let alone doing anything to try and make it happen.
That said, psychedelics are great, do them responsibly.
Should have arrived via paramotor
Probably the greatest idea so far. Flyover while blasting Esa Mighty.
I’m sure you know this but psytrance is like, a pretty Israeli genre in the first place. Was developed by Israelis for the most part (although imo the best psytrance producer is hallucinogen who is British).
Good to know though, that’s fucking awful and I will stay far away
Ok this is good to know, because I could see that there had to be some reason it was so popular with Israelis but I have no idea what.
Yeah, so psytrance emerged from Goa Trance, and Goa Trance is called that because it was developed in Goa, India. Goa was a hippy spot known by lots of hippies I think I. The 70s and 80s and became a destination I think for Israeli draft dodgers. Then they returned to Israel eventually and brought the music with them. Hence why it’s so big in Israel. Also infected mushroom is Israeli and they are like the biggest psytrance act so yeah.
Tbh though I kinda hate modern psytrance. Origins are very very fun and interesting but limited, as far as I can tell. I only have a handful of psytrance albums that really speak to me and most are not Israeli, which I think has a bit of a darker sound. The gathering is crazy though
I’ve listened to a lot of psytrance in my day, a bunch of Infected and LOUD included, and I wanted to say I agree 100%, especially the part about Hallucinogen
Yeah. It’s also kinda fucked that like, the genre peaked Imo in the mid to late 90s. At some point the genre stopped being about taking you on a journey through an album and idk, became about having a really punchy kick drum. for me the coolest thing about psytrance is how dynamic it is and how artists can really build and release energy through an album. Beyond the Infinite by Juno Reactor is like, I think the pinnacle of building and releasing energy, although it’s not nearly as fun and whimsical as a lot of other albums)
Oh, sick! I have a personal preference for Bible of Dreams due to a special experience with the album but yeah Beyond the Infinite is one of my faves too
For me it’s extra good when producers do a little music theory with their psytrance. I like melody and harmony! Hallucinogen and Juno Reactor are real good about that. I mean, come on, that time signature change in Snakey Shaker?? It’s nothing complex really but it works so well!!
Bible of dreams is fucking crazy. It was the first psytrance album that like blew me away and got me into the genre.
And yeah, I mean idk what to even say about lone deranger. It may be a perfect album
you didn’t wook out hard enough, rookie mistake
serious though, these types of spiritual festivals always seemed like the worst types of white people congregating together. I’d stick to the more party to music type festivals like Glastonbury, Coachella, Tomorrowland, Primavera etc.
I know a lot of non-party, non-outgoing, non-druggie types think these are lame or whatever but it’s all good fun, nothing is serious, and the other option is what you experienced lol
There’s definitely an overlap of odd spheres when it comes to some of these ‘spiritual not religious’ spaces. Much like cottagecore and the tradwife/tradlife stuff, similar things happened within new age/psychedelic areas. A lot of Q folks came from these kinds of areas like mayo yoga, crystals and sacred geometry, etc. Rogan has been one of these figures directing weird folks in a rightward direction. Communities bounded together via vague notions of being outside the mainstream seem to present fertile soil for grifters, fascists, etc.
My mom was briefly dragged into right wing conspiracy shit because of a new age lyme disease support group she was a part of. It started with harmless woo-y treatment stuff, went to “Lyme disease is a bioweapon that slipped from the lab” and started going in the direction of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Fuckin wild because my mom was always a typical 1970’s lib, called herself a hippie, and went to BLM protests.
Black flag with white star of david over crossed bones…?
Never went to Ozora, but pre covid, i went to psytrance events in Europe on a regular basis. There was always a strong presence of Israeli DJs and promoters because psytrance is fairly huge there, but never any overt propaganda like this. What was there in regard to bad vibes where conspiracy types that often were straight-up sovereign citizens and esoteric fascists, and funnily enough these guys who where often well-connected in a community full of fans of Israeli artists where usually not too subtle about their antisemitism, either. They didn’t have to be subtle, that crowd is just full of idealist and brainwormed takes, and nobody understands any racist dogwhistles. It doesn’t surprise me at all that this shift to open apartheid propaganda is taking place now.
OH yeah if the exodus from colonized Palestine really kicks off… nobody sane will be able to go to psytrance or possibly any kind of electronic thing anywhere in Europe/mostly coastal North America without this shit.
I’m also trying to process how psychedelics revolutionary potential appears to be completely captured, how they were meant to be a tool to free the mind from fascism, but then here it appears to be made near totally inert, incorporated into this new sort of “Candy Fascism”.
That made me think of soma in “Brave New World”.
soma 2 <noun> <Hinduism>
1 An intoxicating drink prepared from a plant and used in Vedic ritual, believed to be the drink of the gods.
1.1 (also soma plant) The plant from which the soma drink is prepared. See hom
1.2 (in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World) a narcotic drug which produces euphoria and hallucination, distributed by the state in order to promote content and social harmony.
Etymology: Sanskrit sōma.
I tend to prefer the view Huxley had of psychedelics in his ultimate novel, Island. Brave New World shows how psychedelics could be used for harm, and island how they could be harnessed for benefit. The book is starkly anti capitalist too.
Rich Jewish folks are particularly attracted to the music festival scene. Not looking forward to that aspect of whatever upcoming festivals I may or may not attend.
But hey you know the Jolly Roger game? That goes double for Israel flags.
could you explain the jolly roger game? I googled it but the only results I got were gay visual novels.
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anyone doing LSD or shrooms for recreational purposes is a fucking moron. lol yeah i’d like to ‘dance’ (aimlessly wander and wonder wtf i’m supposed to be doing with my body) in public with a bunch of drunks while i have the worst muscle soreness ever while re-living every single instance of trauma in my entire life while in psychic communion with the grass i’m walking on listening to it sing a song about focusing on fun stuff instead of sad stuff and then finishing it all off with an 18 hour long crying session in my bed thinking about my dead mom and contemplating self harm and suicide while everyone else i know is somehow asleep despite taking the same sleep-preventing drugs. sounds like a fucking blast better invite the bros.
That sucks so bad man, I’m sorry.
i should specify i think psychedelics can be useful to self reflection etc. in controlled circumstances far far away from alcohol and strangers and with appropriate preparations (i wouldn’t advise doing LSD for example immediately after a workout or during an event where you will perform an unusual/unprecedented amount of physical activity, and i would also personally advise against any greasy or sugary snacks or foods or any beverages other than water or maybe tea)
Or just let people do drugs however they want.
Wow never thought of it that way
I would hate doing acid under the circumstances described in that post. I’m social as hell and wanna go places I shouldn’t be.
A single hit of LSD before a workout on the other hand? Wonderful
From my understanding, Hungary is also extra about being pro-Israel because of their guilt surrounding their participation in the Holocaust.
Do they actually feel guilt about it? Wasn’t Hungary one of the countries that post WW2 took over Jewish businesses, properties and wealth, and then conducted pogroms against returning Jewish people?
Yeah I highly doubt its guilt, Hungary has absolutely psychotic levels of Islamophobia and general racism embedded in every level of society, outside the touristy parts of Budapest it’s generally not a safe country to be in if you’re visibly non-white
Star of David Totenkopf
never been to a psy rave but as long as I can remember there has been a pretty heavy connection to Israel in that scene, lots of fans and producers from there, it is pretty funny how the psy scene markets itself as this alternative musical and social space that’s more in-touch with the earth and shamanism and spiritualism and so on but they have this giant contradiction in that they always support Israel, I guess the ‘remember NOVA’ campaign shows they’re either afraid to confront it or just internalized their support for Israel by now and don’t even care, btw I think Burning Man started a psy-only event and look where that is at nowadays
