EXPANDING THE FRONTIERS OF YOUR CONSIDERATION

That’s what ACE is all about; getting you to consider some new and different possibilities in the realms of spirit, consciousness, lifestyle, science, art, music, and the entire human experience. The Global Village family has attended, appeared at, and even co-sponsored events with the Association for Consciousness Exploration for several years, resulting in some of the highest and most rewarding experiences they’ve had, and a whole lot of fun besides.

The Starwood Festival, their premier event, is a 6-day summer camping festival serving several communities, including New-Agers, Free-Thinkers, Naturists, Neo-Pagans, Hippies, Deadheads, Ravers, Conspiracy Buffs, Holistic Healers, and anyone into exploration and celebration. Held at Brushwood Folklore Center in Sherman, NY (about 30 miles east of Erie, PA), it features over 150 classes on a variety of subjects, public ceremonies from several spiritual paths, musical and theatrical performances by both local and internationally-acclaimed artists, all-night drumming circles and parties, and a Saturday-night fireworks-stuffed bonfire the size of a small house! Muruga Booker has presented classes on such subjects as Nada Yoga and Trance Drumming there to appreciative audiences, played with Merl Saunders and the Rainforest Band (for their reunion performance in 2000), and shared the bill with such celebrated acts as Amompondo, Baka Beyond, Gaelic Storm, Stratospheerius, Owain Phyfe, Victoria Ganger & Revelry, Matthew Abelson, Ron Slabe, Wynne Paris, Seeds of Time, Raquy & the Cavemen, ArcheDream, Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express, Stephen Kent & Trance Mission, and magician Jeff “Magnus” McBride. He’s also brought the Global Village Ceremonial Band there to perform with special guests like Sikiru Adepoju (of Babatunde Olatunji’s Drums of Passion and Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum), Jazz Tabla artist Badal Roy, African Musicologist Prof. Halim El-Dabh, Perry Robinson (Clarinet), Jeff Rosenbaum (Drums & Recorder), and other friends.

We’ve enjoyed interacting with some of the finest minds and souls in the fields of consciousness and spirit at Starwood.  Here’s just a partial list (believe it or not) of speakers who offered classes the years we’ve been at Starwood, a roster Muruga, Ralph Koziarski, and others in our tribe are proud to have been part of:

Isaac Bonewits, David Jay Brown, Baba Raul Canizares, Rev. Dagmar Celeste, “Mambo” Miriam Chamani, Dennis K. Chernin MD, Charles “Skip” Clark, Ian Corrigan, Phyllis Curott, Jim Donovan, Halim El-Dabh, Robert Lee “Skip” Ellison, Philip H. Farber, LaSara Firefox, Gavin & Yvonne Frost, Laurence Galian, Stephen & Ina May Gaskin, Jesse Wolf Hardin, Charles Hayes, Richard Kaczynski, Donald Michael Kraig, Paul Krassner, Stanley Krippner, Marty Laubach, Martin A. Lee, Deborah Lipp, Patricia Monaghan, Nema, M. Macha Nightmare, Diana L. Paxson, R.U. Sirius, Chas Smith, Rev. Ivan Stang, Jay Stevens, Harvey Wasserman, and Oberon Zell-Ravenheart.

In 2003 ACE and Musart (Muruga’s musical recording & production company) combined forces to create the SpiritDrum Festival, a tribute event to the memory of Master African Percussionist Babatunde Olatunji. This 3-day camping event, held at Brushwood Folklore Center, featured Muruga Booker & the Global Village Ceremonial Band, Sikiru Adepoju, Badal Roy, Halim El-Dabh, Jeff Rosenbaum, Perry Robinson, Jim Donovan and others, offering African drumming, dance and drum-making classes during the day and performances and drum circles at night. This led to performances of the central musical set at RhythmFest at Nelsons Ledges (in Central Ohio) and at Starwood, and the two groups hope to produce both a CD and a DVD from these performances to honor Olatunji in the near future.

The WinterStar Symposium is ACE’s “cushier” event. Held in at the luxurious Atwood Resort in Delroy, OH, it’s a four-day getaway featuring classes during the day, entertainment and multi-media presentations in the evening, and cabin parties far into the night. They’ve been hosts to such innovative drummers as Jim Donovan of Rusted Root and Halim El-Dabh, unique personalities like Cosmic Clown Wavy Gravy and Magician Jeff “Magnus” McBride, Counter-culture figures Robert Anton Wilson, Paul Krassner, and Ralph Metzner, Magical authors Steve Blamires, Diana L. Paxson, Isaac Bonewits and Margot Adler, and others such as those in the Starwood roster.

Muruga & Shakti will be appearing there February 8-11th, 2007, with Shamanic explorer Prem Das, Patricia Monaghan, Marty Laubach, Sally Eaton, SubGenius Ranter Extraordinaire Rev. Ivan Stang and others, with musical guests The Gregory Morris Group.

For more information, visit the ACE website at www.rosencomet.com