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Sometimes dispatches from Ibiza send me into a frenzy of despair. The hot, hazy days of August are maddening enough. Does anyone really think what the island needs is communiqués from the front-lines of gobbledygook such as the press release for Energy Week Ibiza? (www.energyweekibiza.com)

Apparently intent on cementing the island's reputation as a hippie hang out, some weird collection of "Tao masters" and "angel experts" is gathering like a bad cloud to spend three days filling the already dizzying atmosphere with further mind-altering/numbing nonsense about getting in touch with your inner-god(dess) and chakra alignment.

Now, if people feel the need to pay good money and waste three days of their life to listen to self-styled "masters of life" and "aura experts" far be it from me to stand between them and the realms of irrationality.

But I can't help but be baffled by the attraction of a convocation billed as an "International Congress for Energetic Consciousness" - especially on an island better known for its devotion to obliterating consciousness by any chemical means available.

What exactly is Energy Week supposed to achieve? According to its website:
The main idea of the ENERGY WEEK is that all life is based on a certain elemental force. On this inexhaustible source of energy all human principles of life as health, creativity and emotional and spiritual expression are based.

That sentence is to lucid explanation what George W Bush is to world peace. The only thing I gather, reading between the lines, is that the backers of this conference are counting on a captive audience of people who've spent the summer scrambling their brains on the dancefloor and will need a pseudo-redemptive comedown cure in October.
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A large part of Ibiza's appeal as a holiday spot, or a home, is that it offers a temporary escape from a world that is sharp, hard and challenging. There is something distinctly unsettling, however, in this attempt to turn it into a 21st century faerie kingdom.
Wanting to lose your mind on the dancefloor is understandable. Abandoning it permanently to a fantasy realm of energy healing, angels and auras is just plain irresponsible.