God Is My Drug | Explorer
[music playing]
TIM SAMUELS: I'm in Jerusalem, and I'm searching for ecstasy. [music playing] My search is for the Na Nach, a small sect of highly religious Jews who themselves are dedicated to the search for spiritual ecstasy. Religion as I knew it was a childhood battle against boredom, fidgeting in the face of archaic text. But in Jerusalem, religion can be more like the misspent nights of my youth, a God rave right in the middle of the streets. [music playing] A full-on yarmulke flapping, Na Nach dance party reverberating through the ancient Jerusalem stone.
[music playing] It's like five o'clock on a Thursday afternoon. People are kind of starting to go home from work. They're on their way back from the shops. And these guys have felt the need to come and express their joy for God by dancing to happy house on an old van. [music playing] In my old Manchester clubs, people weren't this happy without a little help.
To clarify what's going on here, I asked a professor of theology.
CANDIDA MOSS: An ecstatic religious experience is an experience in which an individual feels that they have sort of left themselves and have become one with the universe or God. They're kind of outside of themselves and in connection with something much bigger than themselves.
[cheering] [music playing] It exists in almost every religious and spiritual tradition. It can take lots of shapes and forms. And for some people, when they see others caught up in the spirit, looks kind of crazy.
[music playing]
TIM SAMUELS: So, this is what you like to do on a Thursday afternoon?
PERSON: No, every afternoon, actually. Every afternoon [inaudible]. Except for Shabbat.
[singing]
TIM SAMUELS: Is everyone just feeling good because of the music and faith, or do you kind of augment that with some substances, as well? Are you guys tripping? Are you high?
PERSON: - No. Or you just-- you just--
PERSON: No, we don't take anything. I think you don't need all these substances, you know?
TIM SAMUELS: The Na Nach are followers of the 19th century rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and his 20th century follower, Rabbi Odessa. As a Hasidic Jew, Rabbi Nachman taught his followers to observe the traditional dietary restriction of [inaudible] and grow the hair at the corners of their heads, but also encouraged them to clap, sing, and dance during their prayers to bring them closer to God.
PERSON: I think there's a disconnection between your heart and your head. And this connected together, when you start dancing, this action, it connects everything together. And you start living. You start living.
TIM SAMUELS: Mm. I'm still skeptical. [music playing]