Stop The Earth!

That’s right, it’s that time of year again when all the creatures of the night come to the university of bradford for infest, a cyber-electro goth 3-day festival which is run by mainly german DJ’s. I was given a press pass and was super excited to see the new university of bradford students union in action.

Just before the event began I ran into a few attendee’s and we discussed people’s prejudice to the goth sub-culture. One guy with a WW2 hat said that most of the time the mainstream community just assumes everyone is gay, but he laughed pretty hard when he mentioned the “what is it” game. The rules are simple, stand outside the toilet and when people leave the bathroom, try to guess the gender.

I met a few really sexy cyber-goths who said if they could summarise the event in 3 words it would be “oh my goth” and the same group had notified me that the transvestite count as currently at 11 and rising.

A steampunk dude I spoke to about cyber-electro music let me know about an interesting story. In 2004, lights of euphoria were playing and for some reason the fire alarm had started going off in the venue, but because the sound of the fire alarm was so similar to the sound of lights of euphoria the crowd just kept dancing.

Just before the first act went on stage I managed to push through the crowd and see probably the greatest and rarest sight on the planet…The goth macarena, it’s basically the standard macarena but with glow sticks, 10 inch heels and a kick arse attitude.

Mandro1d were the first act, they hit the stage and begun singing about the EDL and all about what they want for christmas, I come from a completely non-gothic musical background but it was absolutely grand! I found myself singing along before half the song was over.

Day 1 had skirts, bikinis, tank tops and then there were the girls (haha), no but really, everyone that attended had put so much effort into what they were wearing, there was a guy with hair at least 2 feet into the air…I pray nobody lights a match near him. So far the music has been sexy as hell, heavy and hard electro-beats with the strongest electro-static baselines I’ve ever heard.

The consensus so far seems to be that this annual festival is more about being with friends and people who share similar interests rather than the music.

I believe in ghosts, in fact yesterday i was haunted twice. It would seem however, that lately my understanding of the human body is telling me there can be no ghosts. My complete lack of supernatural knowledge (as no one can know the other side) is leading me to broken faith.

I believe it is the collective workings of all cells at once that create a consciousness. All the cells work at once, creating chemical imbalances which cause action potentials to fire making behaviour occur, but it also creates a body wide magnetic field, much like that of the earth (but a hell of a lot weaker and not driven by a rotating molten core).

My problem is that when your body dies there are no chemical imbalances because cells cease to function, if there are no chemical imbalances then there are no electrical potentials which also means the magnetic field surrounding us disappears. According to one of the laws of physics; Energy can never die, it only changes state. If this is the case then, what happens to a magnetic field when there is no longer a driving force behind it? If the earth’s core stopped spinning, what happens to all the energy that has accumulated? Does it just dissipate? does quantum gravity keep it all together? or does it separate?

Is will power enough to liberate the energy? Some people say ghosts are around because they have unfinished business or because they refuse to die, is this resistance to death enough to fire enough neurons throughout the entire body so that a stronger magnetic field comes about? A self sustaining one? which is then free to leave the body and do whatever it wants…People say ghosts bring around static electricity, flickering lights or disrupting televisions/radios…you think I’m crazy? Nawh, all the pieces fit together…If ghosts are electro-magnetic fields liberated from their meat sack then wouldn’t it make sense for electro-magnetic fields to disrupt lights, televisions and radios? Especially the older televisions and radios that rely on static electricity and radio waves (not to mention that electro-magnetism and radio waves are all on the same spectrum).

The crisis is that…I believe in ghosts and see them and hear them…but I don’t know what they are…and that causes a massive conflict of belief which makes me feel how the guy in the picture above looks.