Yeah turns out that if you dig into the history of the Kumbh you not only find out about militant sadhus slaughtering one another but many stampedes. It is a very distinct feeling, being in a crowd that is dense enough and confused/surly enough that it has the potential to stampede. I'd choose the mosh pick any day! Someone needs to write: Everything I Learned about Human Psychology I Learned in the Mosh Pit.
I was in a post-burn stampede one year, which is especially scary when you're a 5'2" woman. Since then I have avoided large crowds even large outdoor concerts. I'll look at pics of the Kumbh from the safety of my home or Thai bungalow.
Yeah we are all going to be watching the effect of all this, how much it will further impede the free flow of fun...hope to see you one of these years, maybe come down for an Alembic gig? We have to get our travel budget straight first but do consider it a possibility!
There’s some powerful contrary action to a hipster/subculture grad attending the largest human gathering on earth, which sounds like it threatened to veer into Altamont or 2022 Kabul along with early Burning Man. You and Jennifer are made of sterner stuff.
Erik, thank you for letting me re-experience what was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I just finished reading your article and I'm still buzzing from it. I was at the Kumbh in 2001 from beginning to end. Thanks again!
Honestly, it all sounds pretty nightmarish. I imagine India as a third world, overcrowded, nationalistic version of California at it’s dark hippie, authoritarian, cultish, class-stratified worst. It’s like a dystopian vision of what California could become centuries from now. I don’t understand the appeal, but then I’m a old time Washingtonian and Californication is the enemy up here. Sounds like Hindufication is the OG version of that cultural virus, multiplied by orders of magnitude.
Amazing travelogue Erik! Thanks for sharing. All of your upcoming happenings sound great. The tariffs will probably make it impossible but it’d be great to hang at the Esalen hot tubs with ya.
Ah Elon, Elon, Elon, if only you were not prophesied in a Von Braun text...or a Philip K. Dick one!
Yeah turns out that if you dig into the history of the Kumbh you not only find out about militant sadhus slaughtering one another but many stampedes. It is a very distinct feeling, being in a crowd that is dense enough and confused/surly enough that it has the potential to stampede. I'd choose the mosh pick any day! Someone needs to write: Everything I Learned about Human Psychology I Learned in the Mosh Pit.
I was in a post-burn stampede one year, which is especially scary when you're a 5'2" woman. Since then I have avoided large crowds even large outdoor concerts. I'll look at pics of the Kumbh from the safety of my home or Thai bungalow.
Yeah we are all going to be watching the effect of all this, how much it will further impede the free flow of fun...hope to see you one of these years, maybe come down for an Alembic gig? We have to get our travel budget straight first but do consider it a possibility!
Antonioni’s documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZHucklRwi4
I love this so much. ❤️🔥🪭 all hail ganga burn. Basically the same 😜
Man what a trip — and I just mean your report!
There’s some powerful contrary action to a hipster/subculture grad attending the largest human gathering on earth, which sounds like it threatened to veer into Altamont or 2022 Kabul along with early Burning Man. You and Jennifer are made of sterner stuff.
Erik, thank you for letting me re-experience what was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I just finished reading your article and I'm still buzzing from it. I was at the Kumbh in 2001 from beginning to end. Thanks again!
Honestly, it all sounds pretty nightmarish. I imagine India as a third world, overcrowded, nationalistic version of California at it’s dark hippie, authoritarian, cultish, class-stratified worst. It’s like a dystopian vision of what California could become centuries from now. I don’t understand the appeal, but then I’m a old time Washingtonian and Californication is the enemy up here. Sounds like Hindufication is the OG version of that cultural virus, multiplied by orders of magnitude.
Amazing travelogue Erik! Thanks for sharing. All of your upcoming happenings sound great. The tariffs will probably make it impossible but it’d be great to hang at the Esalen hot tubs with ya.