Psychedelic Harmonics: August 2008

Space of Joy, Siberia, Altay power spots, and the wonder of Totality - Part 1

Exactly 2 weeks ago I embarked on a journey into completely unknown territory. The objective was to stand in the total shadow of the moon eclipsing the sun, the result was much more than I could have ever imagined or hoped for.

The location was the Altay region in south eastern Siberia. The Altay mountains are considered the birthplace of Shamanism on the planet, held sacred by the locals for their beauty, splendor, and power. The site was in the central meeting point where 2 rivers join the mighty Katun river who's source is the glaciers of the sacred Belukha, the highest mountain in Altay. The Altay region borders Kazakhstan, China, and Mongolia. The entire area is known world wide as a nexus of power spots where light can literally bend, reality twists, and portals open to other dimensions. Russian collective Space of Joy Community are veterans of seeking out special areas and creating magnificent environments for people to gather in so it was by no mistake that they chose this location for their Khan Altay festival which would encompass both the Mayan Day Out of Time ritual day and the Total Solar Eclipse day for their summer festival.

2 days leading up to departure, I couldn't even bring myself to think about the journey. One glimpse into what was coming would send my heart racing to near critical speeds. To say that I considered calling it all off many times would be an understatement. As always, I travel alone with nothing but a single carry on bag. The zen simplicity of arranging enough camping, living, and clothing gear to survive alone on the other side of the world in such a small space is part of the game. The fear of it all, is what gives life purpose. If I had not been terrified, I would not have considered the trip to begin with. I told almost no one before leaving but those who did know simply shook their heads. I knew I was on the right track. This was the right thing to be doing.

Flying to Moscow was routine. Long, but the usual. Arriving at Domodedovo airport, I exchanged greenbacks for rubles and braced for the 11 hour wait for my connecting flight to Barnaul in Siberia. After sampling some excellent Russian cuisine many times over at a great cafeteria style eatery in the airport, I wandered outside to find a shady park where I took several naps to pass the time. Immediately after taking my seat on my connecting flight, I noticed the person in front of me showing a map to the same site I was headed to the women next to him. When asked why I travel by myself, I always answer that I have never been alone. Fate tends to put new friends in my path and I knew immediately that this person in front of me would become a dear friend by the end of our travels and it was true. Atit, a German expat living in Goa for the past 13 years, traveling with his longtime friend Raimund also a German expat living in Goa for the past 8 years and an excellent minimal techno DJ both became wonderfully close friends to me and I cherish the time we spent together.

Arriving at Barnaul airport (the size of a high school gymnasium) we met up with other festival travelers and boarded the shuttle bus headed for Onguday some 700km south in the mountains. The bus was crowded from floor to roof with Russian and international travelers and all our gear. We all quickly became friends, playing the language game, learning how to communicate with each other and bonding over shared food and bodily odors. Stopping many times on the road at makeshift markets we sampled local fruits, vegetables and the main produce: honey! Honey, honey, and more honey in every imaginable form is a staple of the Altay region so I was in heaven!

On the bus, I befriended Aron aka Ocelot a multitalented artist originally from San Francisco but mostly doing the European gypsy thing now living off performing at festivals. I met Dennis, aka Psycho Zaika, a Russian expat from Telaviv, DJ and owner and operator of Zaikadelic records. His co-hort Tsabit, artist on Zaikadelic from Telaviv. Darren, a quite, soft spoken Australian artist with a penchant for conversations regarding Dimethyltryptamine. Hideyo (Black Moon), a beautiful wonder from Japan who I became close friends with over the course of the festival, and an amazing artist. And several other new friends. The trip took all day and evening and we finally arrived at the base camp.

The base camp was the meeting point for traveling to the festival and the last stop in civilization. Nestled against the foothills of the Altay on a river, it is normally used as a rafting camp. Travelers from around the world had taken up camp around the main log cabin building, signing in, eating food, arranging transport for their luggage and themselves to the festival site, and generally hanging out. We settled in to stay for the night. Helping ourselves to some food and diving into some bottles of vodka, the social lubricant did its work and we all quickly became close friends. Some new friends from that evening included a UK couple, Martin and Holly, who had just spent the last 6 months riding scooters around India and the last 2 traveling through Kazakhstan. Also Mauritsio, an Italian student studying Russian in St. Petersburg with a passion for linguistics and Southern Italian folk singing. I also got to know a Polish guy who had hitch hiked the entire way from Warsaw, who taught me some basic capoeira moves and I, in turn, taught him the basics of liquid and digits. That evening and the following morning were a wonderful bonding experience.

In the morning, we looked at our options. Hike the entire 30 some odd km to the fest site, ride in the back of an army truck on a 3 hour very bumpy ride, pack our gear in a river raft and take our chances on a 90 minute water ride, or hire an army van to go the short way around the back side of the mountain leaving us at a river with a 7 km remaining hike to the site (including a river crossing with a possibly washed out bridge). We opted to take our chances with the 7 km hike and the washed out bridge. The van ride was insane. Our crew included my new friends from Goa, Mauritsio, U-one an Australia DJ, his friend from Finland, a woman DJ from Finland, and a Russian couple. Many bumps and bruises later we arrived at the end of the road and were dropped off. We gathered our pack and began the 7 km hike along the river. After a couple km we encountered the remains of the bridge. Half the bridge was semi-submerged leading to a small island and the other side was no where to be seen. Taking off pants, shoes and paking gear into tarps we all started to wander across the rapidly moving water. Everyone made it across with little consequence. The remaining hike was breathtaking. Marijuana was growing wildly in all directions on all the hills we traveled. Wandering the tiny foot trail through the mountains following the tiny river valley revealed one more amazing vista after another. I have never had a more satisfying journey into a festival site. The hard work made it all more worth while and we all agreed that this was by far the most remote party any of us had ever been to. We stopped often to sit and gaze at the mountains and meditate on the beauty of our surroundings. The excitement was mounting.

Space of Joy, Siberia, Altay power spots, and the wonder of Totality - Part 2

Arriving at the site, the festival atmosphere was in full swing. Roughly a thousand campers had already settled in, dotting the landscape with brightly colored camps featuring creative shade structures nestled into the natural landscape of the river valley along side the mighty Katun between the junction of 2 other rivers. The Katun had a beautiful silt blue/gray color and raged along the shore of the site providing the soothing sounds of rushing water and a cool refuge to bath in to escape the daytime heat. We met up with Russian friends of my new Goa acquaintances who had been camping on site for the past 2 weeks already and had carved out a beautiful space under the trees along side the river. This quickly became our home and a central meeting and hang out point for most of the people we had met so far during the rest of the festival. We added a shade structure and a couple of hammocks right next to the river and relaxed.

It is hard to put into words the strength of the vibe at the festival. The shear undertaking of simply getting to the site acted as a natural filter distilling the crowd to only the most dedicated trance travelers. An unspoken bond existed between everyone on site as we had all shared similar adventures to make our way there no matter what our point of origin. The level of hardcore travelers was mind blowing. In our camp alone we had a guy from Iceland who had just spent the last 2 months riding a motorcycle through Mongolia and Kazakhstan. A former Russian army officer turned vegan naturalist who'd been living off the grid in Goa for the past 9 years. And a Russian pixie goddess who had spent the last 4 weeks camped at the rainbow gathering 60 miles away (a 35 km hike up 1500meters of elevation to that site which she had hiked up and back alone then hitch hiked to the fest base camp and hiked the entire 30 km to our site surviving the entire time off food she picked in the woods), among others. No trendy festival floaters here. This was a global hard core and you could feel it.

The first few days were music free, giving us time to acclimate, socialize, explore the festival site and hike the surrounding mountains and rivers, and love life in general. The fest site was huge. Walking from our camp on the far side of the chill out area to the main stage was a 20 minute hike including various distractions at the main info center along the way which featured wi-fi to satellite internet connection and an antenae you could stand under to actually get cell phone reception. During the music free days, a small music setup was put together on the terrace of the info center building and various artists and DJs collaborated on impromptu jam sessions providing interesting sounds for passers by and people relaxing in the area. On the far side of the main stage was the healing area and the family camping and kinder garten area which became our favorite home away from home during the day. Giant mayan calandars printed on cloth were stretched around the healing area creating an other worldy environment where one could enjoy a relaxing massage or partake in meditation or yoga sessions. The food throughout the 4 main kitchens and the various makeshift kitchens set up by local Altay people who had come on-site to participate was all fantastic. The local cuisine focused on variations of pirogies containing cabbage, potatoes, cheese, or meat, or any combo of them. A wonderful honey cider was a local favorite and a great drink for any time of the day.

The chill out stage was a beauty of natural decoration, incorporating wood and brush domes and sculptures and stacked stone sculptures. It created a wonderful space to lounge and enjoy the music which came later. The main stage was a fantastic design of stretched fabric creating a dragon which encircled the stage complete with wings covering the main speaker stacks in the later days. At the back of the dance area of the main stage was a fantastic string art construction which was a composition of sacred geometry creating a portal to other star systems which was activated every night. When the music started, both stages would open each day featuring local Altay shamans, throat singers, and performance artists. This careful attention to the integration of local art and culture played a key role in creating such a magical atmosphere separating this from any ordinary festival.

Musically, the festival focused on night time entertainment with the main stage closing by 10 am most mornings and moving into meditation sessions until noon. Healing, beatless, ambient music would take over during this time. The chill out stage would stay on until noon and start earlier than the main stage, usually by 5. One day there was a focus on the chill stage for daytime music and I was in heaven. My new friend from Goa DJ Raimund put together a 4 hour minimal techno set that had everyone enthralled. Following him, Hideyo (Black Moon) played a beautiful ambient set featuring her ethereal beats and singing. I had gotten to know her during the previous days and was excited to finally see her perform. Wrapping up that daytime session was Olivier from France playing his ambient act as Wavespell. I got to know Olivier quite well over the course of the festival and we became close random festival friends engaging in many fun random adventures. I loved his music from the first melodic morning set I heard on the main stage as Sacred Tree Portal, to his healing music the following morning in the meditation session and finally his ambient set that daytime on the chill out. That whole afternoon session featuring Raimund, Hideyo, and Olivier was one of the most psychedelic experiences of my life. The dance floor was magical. All of the fire performers had arrived on site by that time and although they were not playing with fire as it was daytime, their unique dance style was obvious and their freedom of physical expression helped open up the dancefloor to new and creative communication between all participants. Also, with the national rainbow gathering happening less than 60 miles away, by this point in the festival many of the rainbow community had moved over to the festival site and brought a wonderful caring vibe along with them. It was a magical afternoon that I'll never forget. Other daytime music of note came from Uone from Australia who threw down some wonderful stripped down tech funk house that got everyone in the chill area grooving and everyone on the main floor rocking during both of his sets.

Night time music of note featured Fragletrollet (my new friend Magnus from Norway) a spectacular night time artist who's sets focus on beginning and ending with ambient and traveling deep into heavily psychedelic night time forest trance. Simply mind blowing journeys coming from one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Another favorite was Aavepyörä (my new friend Kim from Finland) who's peculiar night time forest trance transitions beautifully into morning and daytime trance blending some of the most bizarre sounds that never lose a core grove that's sadly missing in most night time psychedelic music. His groove is deep and infectious and his heart and vibe fills the dance floor with smiles. A wonderful person that I'm stoked to have met. CPC from Russia is the king of dark and he terrified me right solidly. His performance was timed during the fire show and the two came together to create a magical environment that twisted the minds of all who witnessed it. Ocelot (Aron from SF) and Reality Pixie (Darren from Australia) both threw down incredible morning sets that blew my mind. Ocelot's morning set went from deep trance to funky house and I have no idea how he did it. The transition point around midway got so groovy I was in heaven. He was still throwing down deep morning trance but somehow generated a house vibe on the dance floor of pure love. Transitioning out of that he went into pure deep chunky house to lead into the following artist. Pure genius, I hope to see more sets from Aron in the future. Reality Pixie also threw down a wonderful live morning set. My buddy Tsabeat from Tel-Aviv killed it with a nice heavy Israeli style dark full on set on the first night and his friend/manager Psyco Zaika held it down on the second last night with some terrifying night time trance (dude is psycho! why is it always the most quiet soft spoken DJs play the most crazy tunes?).

Space of Joy, Siberia, Altay power spots, and the wonder of Totality - Part 3

Other non musical highlights included Banya, the Russian sauna which was on site as the location is also used as a camping spot by river rafting tours. The Banya is a large log cabin divided into 3 sections: a changing drying room, a washing room, and the sauna room. After stripping down in the changing area, you enter the sauna room and sweat heavily. After a session of sweating you jump into the washing room and fill large hand basins with cold water piped directly from the glacial fed river. We would take turns dumping the basins of cold water onto each other. The extreme temperature change and the effect of having other people dump the water on you is a fantastic feeling verging on a birth experience. We'd reserve the Banya for an hour long stretch for 6 people often inviting guests and new friends and repeat the process many times over often stepping outside the building naked to soak in the cold night air before jumping back inside. It was a wonderful bonding experience. Also on site was a couple of locals offering rides in an open cockpit 2 seater gyro copter. One morning dancing during a dawn set, I noticed the copter jump up for a morning flight. I left the dance floor and walked over to see if I could get a ride. 2 minutes later I was soaring high above the Altay mountains performing mid air stalls, negative g-spins, ground dives and other maneuvers. The experience was phenomenal and enhanced by a variety of psychedelic compounds I'd ingested over the course of the previous evening. Shortly after the flight I was back on the dance floor head spinning and heart rushing. A great way to enhance an already beautiful morning set.

Eclipse day came after a particularly heavy night of dancing and partying for me. I knew I would be worn out after the eclipse and wanted to get all my hardcore partying out of the way before hand. Our little festival family had grown to include Tom, a friend from Austria who I'd met in the Sahara last spring, and Jason a traveler from Australia in the middle of a year and a half round the world trek. We had all decided from very early on that we would leave the festival area and strike out on our own to find somewhere intimate to experience the eclipse alone. We had reserved horses from a group of locals camped on site for the day. We left around 11 in the morning each of us on our own horse with 2 hired guides. We traveled about 8 kilometers down river to a high dangling bridge which crossed the Katun then another 15 or 20 km back upriver on the opposite side and up a mountain which held a sacred Shaman burial ground at its base. Above the burial ground leading up the mountain, the ground formed a natural sun ray pattern which had been visible from the festival site. We had decided that this was a good omen and the focused energies of the Shaman burial ground, and the natural sun effigy carved into the mountain by glaciers would look after us on this special day.

The horse ride was fantastic. Galloping through the fields and valleys along side the raging glacial river looking at the majestic vistas of the Altay mountains, one couldn't resist the temptation to imagine what it would have been like in the times of Genghis Khan in that exact spot. We were all overwhelmed to the point of tears at multiple points during the day while riding. Our guides took special pride to point out natural features and areas of significance on this their local territory. Their love and apparent symbiotic relationship with the environment was beautiful and humbling. We rode as far up the mountain as we could and took off on foot for the rest of the climb. Arriving at the sub summit of our choice we sat back, enjoyed the view and awaited first contact. Having more than an hour to spare we made camp, cooked some food and consulted the various eclipse maps, compasses, watches, and charts that each of us had brought to determine the location of the eclipse, the time, and the path of the shadow. We exchanged eclipse glasses and welders shields, prepared cameras, meditated and enjoyed each others company. I took a well needed nap as I had been dancing all the previous evening.

--== First Contact ==--

At first contact Raimund woke me up. Things were starting to happen! While we had one night of rain (the first night we camped at base camp) it had been completely clear since. However, during our horse ride that afternoon, some clouds were starting to roll in. Now there were many very large clouds coming into the sky. During the partial phase of the eclipse from first contact to second contact the sun would occasionally be obscured by a large cloud for several minutes. We all held our breaths and dared not say out loud what we were all thinking. I shot several experimental shots through eclipse glasses of the diminishing stages of the partial eclipse leading to totality. We all agreed to be silent for the last few minutes before totality, during totality, and for a couple minutes after. As fate would have it, fortune smiled upon us and gave us a completely clear window between clouds from a few minutes before totality and the entire 2nd to 3rd contact and several minutes after 3rd contact for the diamond ring and the partial phase leading out of totality.

--== Totality ==--

Seconds before totality, I raised my camera to get an overview shot of our group and the surrounding mountains with the surreal, ethereal light of the last phases of the partial eclipse. As I spun around with my back to the sun a strange silence overtook the entire valley and the light darkened when I spun back around and gazed into the sky I was faced with the most awe inspiring sight I have yet to witness. The sun was gone. It had been replaced by an opalescent ring with a large dark hole at its center. From around the ring, giant streams of glistening blue light danced outwardly in sweeping radial patterns shifting ever so slowly. I sat transfixed with my gaze centered on this spectacle as it spoke and sang softly to me beaconing me to enter into its infinite depth. My perspective shifted and at once I was no longer standing on the earth but instead hanging rooted by my feet to the top of the mountain dangling off the earth perilously being sucked into this velvet stroking vortex in what used to be the sky but now somehow felt splayed out beneath me. Totality had struck. Nothing in my life could have prepared me for the wave of emotions which came over me. I spontaneously came to tears and laughter while every hair on my spine and arms slowly began to raise in a uniform pattern starting at my pelvis and ending at my skull. I'm not sure if I had any expectation of what standing in the shadow of the moon would be like but I don't think I expected more than seeing what I've seen of pictures of eclipses but now in front of my in the sky. The reality was so far from what could ever have been described, I still find it hard to believe what I experience. Most of all I wasn't expecting this beautiful thing in the sky to actually speak and sing to me while physically calling out with it's millions of beautiful streaming arms.

Om manifested into physical reality. Pure beauty. It speaks. I will return again.

--== Third Contact (diamong ring) ==--

After two minutes and thirteen seconds of the most primal de-contextualizing of my understanding of the universe the light returned. Third contact brings with it the diamond ring. Named for the splendor of the returning sun breaching the ring of totality in a single spot similar to a diamond on a ring, this return to light is like a million sunrises packed into a single second. The wave of light and euphoria it brings with it can't be brought into words. Again another moment of spontaneous tears and laughter. Wonderment, joy, beauty, re-birth.

--== Afterward ==--

The experience of the total solar eclipse is by far the single most profound and sobering thing I have ever witnessed. Our group remained silent for several minutes after 3rd contact until a large cloud engulfed the sun never to be seen again that day. We were given a gift during that window of clarity and we all knew it. We hugged silently exchanged well wishes, dried each other's tears, made some tea and began making our way back to the main festival site. The ride back was one of pure elation. Galloping though the beautiful Altay mountains on the back of such a mighty animal as a horse is another gift I'll never forget. Back at camp we gathered again for more tea before we engaged in various final night festivities. Our group had coalesced into a core of 9 wonderful souls who's lives will be forever entwined in that moment of totality that we shared. We came together from all parts of the world to form a temporary family of love and friendship.

I cherish that time and will never forget it.

Thanks to Jds from Isratrance for sharing his experience!

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