The sacred dance, in Maya cosmology, was represented in the sinuous curves of the Vision Serpent - a symbolic representation of the axis of communication between the human world and the numinous otherworld. It is a symbol of the world-tree – the roots of which extend into the past and the branches of which extend into the future. In Mayan temples, the vision serpent is often associated with the most sacred of trance-inducing rituals. These included public dancing or private blood-letting (if a king or his wife sought specific knowledge from the otherworld).

Trance parties, festivals, squat-parties and ‘alternative’ cultural events’ are highly contested spaces. Aside from the invariable troubles they pick up with authorities, they are often prone to internal conflicts over overall meaning, impact, and construction. Disagreement does not arise exclusively between inhabitants (organisers) and non-inhabitants (punters or participants) but often amongst organisers themselves. This is so, opines counter-culture commentator Grahame St John, because these types of events are realms of "competing discourses and practices." They are "alternative cultural heterotopias, rushing toward consensus and harmony, but also yielding discord and division."