Sing ‘till the power of the Lord comes down!
There is a wave of passion spreading out through the Judeo-Christian world.
It is a profound desire to personally have the ecstatic, transcendent,
visceral experience of God. People want to pray to the Divine, joyfully,
ecstatically, with their whole body and spirit; and to be transformed by that experience.
They want to be able to say: “I feel the Spirit come down upon me!”
They want to ascend to that rapturous place where God’s presence is felt
and where miracles actually occur.
—Newsweek Magazine, August 2005.
As noted anthropologist and trance scholar Erika Bourguignon (1973) concluded,
the use of an altered state of consciousness in a sacred context is ubiquitous in indigenous
cultures throughout the world. The use of trance-inducing music is the most common means
used to achieve this state. African “danced religion” is particularly effective in engaging
the whole body in the ecstatic religious experience. And the tradition of gospel choir,
developed by the African American community, has adapted this technology into a sophisticated
set of highly effective, yet easily conveyed, ecstasy-evoking musical techniques.
I created this website for three purposes: