Raves, stimming paradise?

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The reason i mention is a lot of people on the spectrum can have varying degrees of seizures.
I'd hate to see someone go to a rave, only to have it bring out a seizure in them the minute they walk through the door.
God forbid it's an illegal rave, people might just try and hide the body since half of them or more are on drugs..

Or just ignore them.

I don't go to raves anyway, I don't even visit concerts, I prefer to see them in TV or on tape, I don't go into clubs, bars and discotheques either. I prefer being at home.

I don't have a problem with people taking psychedelics. I would just be too hyper-vigilant to enjoy it with so many people around me and I would probably need to wear ear plugs. I would like to see a rave once though, but once is enough.

I do like many of those genre of music - not my daily preference, but I do go through stages of listening preferences. Music is not the issue - it is the combined sensory bombardment of all elements combined, I do however - love loud music on it's own IF there is no other sensory input. Lights alone are enough to boggle my brain... I am glad you have the need for sensory input and get good out of it.. it leads me to believe you are on the hypo end of the sensory stick

I've had some similar experiences as the OP. On top of enjoying the types of house and techno and stuff that I'm into played at volume (I wear earplugs 100% of the time, it both feels and sounds better), and enjoying dancing... I was eventually able to overcome a fair amount of my crowd and touch anxiety and some other things through practice (only to a certain extent though, I still sometimes get anxious/overloaded at, say, very full shopping malls).

I've also found, oddly, that I'm a little more comfortable socializing in that environment (even while sober). Yes, one has to shout to be heard if you're not standing somewhere quiet, but at the same time, my body language quirks are more tolerated (and my general weirdness is more accepted in general). In particular, no one minds if you're looking at their mouth more than their eyes, or if you're not looking at them at all, but instead turning your ear towards them to hear better. Nobody minds if I'm rocking a little, or bouncing a leg or head-nodding to the music either.

I'm still nervous engaging with strangers (which I don't do unless they come up to me), of course, but when it's with friends or loose acquaintances, I find myself more at ease in certain ways I'd never have expected to.

Yes you actually bring up a point that I wanted to make a thread about, but thought it might be too controversial.

I don't feel more aligned with people when their on MDMA (XTC), MDMA makes people just more stupid generally speaking. Interacting with someone on MDMA is like interacting with a hyperactive 4 year old.

However, I have noticed that people on LSD seem to understand what I say with extreme ease, and I can have conversations with them that feel much more 'in sync'. Also in that same vein, my 'neurotypical' friends who I feel have the most respect for the way I am, and whom I feel understand me the most, tend of have had a good amount of LSD at some point. . I have often wondered if you put someone under the effect of LSD and if you measured their brain activity, if it would at all more resemble the brain activity of someone with autism, or if some similiarities could be found.

Last edited by metalab on 09 Jan 2013, 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This is all very true statement, in fact it makes me feel like I didn't put alot of forewarning in my initial post.

There are ALOT of really sh***y people, promoting really sh***y raves, just to suck as much money out of young people as possible. Unfortunately if you visit the scene much at all, you will run into this a few times. Just remember the promoters names who put on garbage, and never pay attention to their stuff or their venues again.

There are promoters and organizers that aren't that bad, and some that are really amazing. Areas are well laid out, there is ample decoration, ample artwork. Tickets are not over sold, so there is alot of open space to dance. Care is taken to make well decorated lounge areas with good places to sit and lay. The crowd they attract is generally more mature. Not everyone is tripping mad balls. Usually such events are also older, like ages 21 through 35. The kid raves as I call them, ages 16-21, are usually where you find events that are way way over sold, so its way too crowded, kids who take way too many drugs, poorly arranged and decorated enviroments. I would in all honesty avoid any rave that is not advertised as 21+.

Anyways, with that said, about stims. For my stims, I used to do this odd thing alot where I would grab my hands with each other and just keep squeezing my hands back and forth, kind of how you do crack knuckles, but I wasn't cracking knuckles, just habitually squeezing my hands and wrists without realizing it. The other thing I would do alot is bang my limbs on edges of things. Like hit the sides of my hands or forearms on the corners of desks repeadetly. I would also chew my tongue, very obviously. I was also an intense foot tapper and leg bouncer. When standing still I would also constantly twist my feet back and forth, or keep situating and standing at oddly placed foot angles.

Now instead of randomly contorting my hands around, and squeezing them, and hitting the edges of my arms on things, I will find myself doing liquid dance techniques. In the past years I've focused so much on becoming a better rave dancer that I have ingrained these dance maneuvers deep in my brain and tend to do those maneuvers unconsciously rather than my random ticks and stims I used to do, mind you this took the equivalent of what would be like a years worth of dancing every night for a couple hours straight. But now I find doing dance techniques are actually more effective than random stims I've developed, I feel like dancing has entailed me to get much more control over my body. Like I can dance through anxiety attacks and make it much more comfortable. Something about certain rhythmic motions of the body in certain sequences can have a huge psychological impact. I think this is actually why shamans would dance through spiritual rituals back in the ancient tribal days. In alot of ways I actually see modern rave culture as a rebirth of ancient shamanic rituals around dancing.

Also now instead of randomly twisting my feet around when standing, I'll tend to spin around, or shuffle left and right.

Now people ask me "why are you dancing?" instead of "what are you doing?" I prefer it.

I still unconciously chew my tongue though.... There are no mouth dance moves to ingrain in my brain.

Last edited by metalab on 09 Jan 2013, 10:32 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Yes this too... actually I wanted to mention this, but forgot to.

I used to have EXTREME crowd anxiety. As in, I would just go into my classroom at college with like 30 people sitting at desks quietly and my heart rate would go up so high that I would feel like I would vomit.

However I don't know where I started, or where it hit me. I have alot of friends into electronic dance music, and I would follow them to events. Until one time I went to a rave and was standing around and just starting dancing and noticed that, while I was dancing, I was comfortable. While moving my body in rhythm, I could better control my body, and it released some kind of tension or something, and I wouldn't feel anxiety. If anxiety rose, I would dance harder and it would relieve the anxiety. Going to raves and dance has now significantly reduced my crowd anxiety.

It would be neat if someone did an experiment on that, the results would be interesting.
LSD opens something in the brain i think... (i'm not saying take drugs or anything, god knows what they put in them nowadays)

They want to study DXM in relation to helping Autism:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.100 ... -z?LI=true

DXM does lower inhibition, it likely could help with empathy and emotion possibly. A lot of studies would have to be done though.
The downside might be bad potentially i don't know...

More like a hell of sensory overload. I never, EVER want to go to a rave. I like myself some EDM, but I'd rather enjoy it in peace on a set of nice headphones than in some crowded room blaring over speakers with a bunch of flashing lights and all that other BS.

Yeah, no.

Suicide bomb them all.

Idk - I definitely feel like I wouldn't enjoy that type of environment. I have tripped several times and feel that because of the sensory effects, I wouldn't want to be around loud music- that sounds like a nightmare to me while tripping. Every time I tripped , I was in an environment where I could avoid sensory overstimulation if I needed. I also get paranoid around people (probably because I have a hard time reading people).

To me : psychedelics+loud music/lights+people I don't know= paranoia and overstimulation.

Hi.. First post, here goes.

Im not sure whether I have Aspergers or not, but some of the stuff that people say in here, can be put in the same box as me.

I dont have problems with sensory overstimulation, unless im stressed
I do have problems with many people, regardless of where

But at raves (only psytrance events), I feel free.. This is where I live, where i can escape. I can see why some people would find it chaotic, even some of my friends does that. (A bar with only 4 customers can make my heart hurt, how the?)

Now psytrance Is what i breathe for, I love that s**t! It's fast, looping and amazingly tweaked sounds. But i think the volume of the music (which makes it impossible to hear anyone, except those next to you), helps me ignore the people around me. I have no troubles with flashing lights and laser, but I tend to go where the light is dimmed down.
Also I dont go these places for chit chatting, meet new people or get drunk/wasted.
I go for the music and the dancing.

If somehow the music is anything but psytrance at events like this, IM NOT THERE!

So if people really loves the kind music (read: LOVE), then maybe this is something for them..
Plan your way home, multiple departures, and never go alone!

Electronic music has caused me to have full-blown panic attacks in the past because I find it to be just too overstimulating. In other words, sounds like Hell-- count me out.

I like listening to trance music. Trance music is a combination of smooth, uplifting malonic and A strong progressive beat that work great for stimming and brain stimulating. Of course, I only listen to it on headphones on my MP3 player so I can adjust the volume or pause it when I need to. I would never go to a actual dance or rave because of the massive sensory overload that would cause.

oh, i thought you said people on pharmacy medication becoming dangerous

heres an example of a really big party