Views from the Dance floor
b) Rudiger Schmolke & Frederik Luhmer: Eclipse e.V
Rudiger Schmolke & Frederik Luhmer
Eclipse, Goehrener Strasse 7, D-10437 Berlin.
Phone no: ++49 +30 +4435 6561. Fax no: (phone before!) +4435 6562
www.eclipse-online.de info@eclipse-online.de
Introduction
Eclipse e.V is a
group of about fifteen people mostly from Berlin, Germany. The consensus is that
we all like to party, as most of us met each other at parties. Otherwise, we
have very different backgrounds: some of us have some kind of professional
background; some of us are also working in official drug counselling centres,
others are psychologists and sociologists. We also have different interests in
the field of drug work; some want to do drug research, others have political
interests, others are just involved in the actual work on parties.
The project was founded about three years ago as an independent project without
any regular financial support except for irregular payments from a few party or
event organisers. We are self-organised and do not belong to the professional
drug support system. We have contacts, but do not co-operate with other
organisations within this system. Eclipse is a part of the nation-wide peer
project network involved in the party scene. As we are an independent
organisation, we are allowed to do whatever we want to, as long as it is legal.
We share the point of view of drug users. That means that the people we work
with should be the ones to define what help they get. We try to offer support
that fits in with people's needs. That is the basis of what we do.
Activities
We work mainly in big open-air parties and big festivals around Berlin. These
festivals are attended by about 10,000 or more people. We try to be a part of
the party. We all enjoyed going to these parties before we became an
organisation and still go to these parties outside of organisational work. When
Eclipse is at a party we set up a regular chaishop, a nicely decorated tent with
lights and coloured cloth. We sell chai (spiced tea with lots of milk), water
and other things such as fruits and snacks. We also supply information, but we
do not force people to take it.
First and foremost the tent is a chill out area. Nobody is forced to talk about
anything; we don't address people aggressively. People can come to us with any
problem or desire, not necessarily concerning drugs. They can talk to us about
whatever topic they want. We are not social workers. We do not only talk about
people's problems; we also like to share their good experiences. We defined it
once as 'offering an open and communicative atmosphere'. We want people to
participate in the party like we do, not only to dance and maybe take drugs but
to also seize their creativity. That means: do whatever you want, participate,
be a part of it, communicate, create things.
The 'adventure chill out area' is a chill out space where we try to offer people
things to participate in. For example live action painting, or offering toys or
giving people the opportunity to build objects with bricks. We also set up a
typewriter where everyone can sit down and write whatever comes to mind about
the party. The atmosphere is meant to be open, open to everything: open to drug
users, open to non drug users, open to people with altered states of mind; open
to whomever.
Another service we provide at these parties is what we call the 'psychedelic
ambulance'. It is a kind of crisis intervention. Sometimes at parties people -
especially those who take psychoactive or psychedelic drugs - can get into
mental or social difficulties. Therefore we try to create another space, a quiet
tent, which is, if possible, quite far away from all the noise. It is a place
where people can just rest, leave the party if they are troubled by the light,
the noises, the people, the music or anything else. We try to guide them through
that state of mind, and talk people down, if necessary. Also we are providing
mineral and fruit drinks. All in all, we are trying to take care of people.
Our group includes people with a therapeutic background in activities such as
massage, yoga, breathing techniques etc., or psychotherapy. Contact is very
important: showing them they are not alone, that they can share their
experiences, soothe difficulties, and multiply benefits. Another thing that is
very important at these parties is the promotion of networking. We try to
encourage people to talk about their (drug) experiences, about good and bad
experiences. Not only in the way of: 'this was great' and 'that was horrible'.
People should recognise all shades of grey. They should present everything they
feel like, not being ashamed of bad experiences. And they should not keep away
good experiences because they are afraid of pushing other people to take drugs.
Just the possibility to share their experiences helps a lot in integrating them
into their everyday life.
The core of Eclipse's work is done at parties but we also have other projects.
We are participating in a drug testing initiative in Germany. We have a web-site
@ www.eclipse-online.de where we are
offering drug information as we do at parties. We have also developed some drug
information sheets, and flyers to explain what we do at parties and how to get
in contact with us. People who come to us at a party usually do not get the
impression that we are drug counsellors; there is just a tent with our name on
it, nothing else. The full name of our organisation is 'eclipse: association for
accepting drug work and psychedelic crisis intervention'. If we were to write
this on our tent probably no one would show up. So what we try is to make
ourselves known by word of mouth, let people inform each other like: "Have you
heard there are some quite cool people in there? You can get information about
drugs but you can also sit down and just drink a chai with them or just smoke a
joint or whatever".
We have a consensus about not taking drugs at parties ourselves if we are
working in the `psychedelic ambulanceī, although that does not necessarily
include cannabis. It is also very important to us that we work closely with the
organisers, so we have walkie-talkies, and communication with the medical
ambulance service, because we have our limits. We cannot help everyone, though
we would like to, so we always work together.
Responses
People's reactions are usually quite positive because we don't push things.
Maybe in part it is because we do not come into contact with people who do not
like us, because they simply stay away. If people want to come to us, they can
come, if they donīt want to, they donīt have to. Of course there are always
exceptions, some people are very critical about what we do.
Another aspect of our activities is that we try to work with intermediaries, for
example social workers or youth workers from the educational system. Their
acceptance of us is sometimes crucial. But as we accept them, and donīt say we
are right, and they are wrong, it is possible to talk with them about our point
of view and give them the opportunity to consider the possibility of our
different approach. We want to promote alternative lifestyles and self
responsibility, we want to provide or develop the social infrastructure needed
for other people to let things like this happen. The relationship depends on
what we offer people and more on what they are asking for. In the eyes of some
though, we are just another chaishop. They think that we are making money
through them. But if we explain what we do, that we are not only offering drug
information, but we are also there for people who have overdosed on drugs
(although there are only a few people in severe psychotic states), people
usually accept, and sometimes support, our work.
At parties, there are usually about fifteen people from the Eclipse organisation,
but also our friends help out at parties, so there are usually 30, sometimes 35
people all together. We have people who help us to decorate, we have people who
make music. The program we offer grows with the size of the party. We have an
agreement that friends of ours can help us in serving chai and so on but not to
talk about drug problems: that is only for members of Eclipse.
We have information sheets that provide basic information about different dance
drugs and safer-use possibilities, and we put them with regular flyers on the
tables of other chaishops and at the entrance to catch people's attention. We
try to be open-minded and give people the feeling that they only have to do what
they feel like.
Lots of people come and ask what we are doing. They are often surprised to find
out that we are a non-profit organisation. Other people usually want to make
money. Non-profit means that none of the money we make goes into private hands,
most of the time we just cover our expenses. If we do make gains, the money
flows back into other project activities. Otherwise we could only do our work by
allying ourselves to a professional drug support institution. So far we neither
have to nor want to do this. Nobody sends us to a party; we decide ourselves
whether we attend a party or not. We have the freedom to do what we want to,
unlike the regular drug support system where drug agencies have certain
obligations. We have our agreements with the party organisers and the main focus
for us is the needs and desires of the party goers.
Contact:
eclipse
Goehrener Strasse 7
D-10437 Berlin
phone ++49 +30 +4435 6561
fax (phone before!) +4435 6562
www.eclipse-online.de
info@eclipse-online.de