Mosh pits! Your reaction/the psychology of it!

At the risk of sounding like an SP(I promise you that I'm not an SP), I thought it'd be interesting to explore mosh pit appreciation and then go into possiblities of why with the psychology of it. Offer up your own experiences, ideas, and feelings!

Though perhaps in a way not typical of many mosh pit participators, I love mosh pits. My experience of them is one of sharing a feeling of unbridled enthusiasm! Now believe me, I am NOT a physical person, and I can hardly stress that enough, but there is something about the space you can enter when crushed within a huge mass of throbbing and uncontrolable enthusiasm... I have lovingly named it "flesh mash". When my musical hero comes on and inflicts on me and those tightly surrounding me that powerful energy that makes us all CRAZY, there is just nothing quite like it.

Now, I don't know that I even participate in them properly. I cannot relate to the want to shove other people in any way, but I DO love absorbing it. I will be dancing around gesturing like my musical hero in that mass of enthusiasm and position myself to simply absorb the blows and get tossed around in this "flesh mash". I have even thought that maybe my lack of willingness to shove back may actually do more to slow down the actual mosh, but, of course I'm still very much a part of it as everyone has no choice but to collide into everyone else whether they are shoving or not.

I feel like I'm even a part of a mosh pit's atmosphere in large way because, as crazy as it seems, there is almost a very warm and cooperative air about them after a while, as if most of us are close buddies for that time and space. I feel like I help improve the atmosphere a lot too by the way I immediatlely launch myself to pick up anyone who has fallen to sort of represent those cooperative feelings, and out of responsibility, because after all, if you are on the floor in a mosh pit, you are in DANGER. In fact, I'd like to believe I help power-up that tendency for their to be people in and around the mosh that really are acting as protectors and referees. I have to say, even inside of the wild "flesh mash" expression of enthusiasm, one of my favorite things to do is to pick up people or recieve pats on the back from other participators who are encouraged by the energy that I contribute...



Even though I am NOT a physical person, my thought is that these occasions help surface in me my often dug in and repressed Se. I have heard in the past that INFJs can sometimes "act" an ESTP role occasionaly for a sort of "SP wannabe" reason. Now, I really do not relate to "SP wannabe". I take PRIDE in the huge stretch of difference between me and SPs, but, it sort of makes sense that that may be present. I mean, maybe because that Se is repressed in many of us it sort of gets wriled out of us in moments of hilarious spontaneity. I have heard that INFJs do sort of long for those occasions where they allow themselves to express that sort of spontaneity, and I think mosh pits are a LOUD example of that for me...

EDIT: So, I want to mention that I understand that most of you will not be able to relate. I mean, it takes some big leaps for me to really enter this space that I have described(and depending on the show, some volume of alcohol to ease my way in). Who knows, maybe some of you thinking "uuuhhhhhhh" have some other experience where you can sort of provoke your own suppressed Se....

I welcome ALL positive and negative reactions to this!

 

So I feel like I should give this more context.

I will travel to Les Claypool concerts whenever he comes within an eight hour drive of me because of my huge love of his music. I can hardly listen to much of his music without exploding out of my chair and running to my bass guitar to go crraaazzzyyy! So anyway, the prospect of bouncing around in his menacing gestures and experiencing him live is amoung the richest experiences of my life. I almost feel like it's in some ways like showing off or bragging about having even crazier enthusiasm than those around me. Or even if it's such a huge crushing mass that noone is really aware of anyone in particular around them, it just feels soooo good.

 

Hahaha! Ohhhh, Slant. So I'm left to assume your contention may be my SP statements, and it's true, one of my close friends who is an ISTP just has to get away from the crazier parts of the crowd. Perhaps it's a pretty big difference between Si and Se... Anyway, maybe this isn't a good time to offer my doubts on you being an SP... Just sayin'. Hahaha!

 

So, I want to mention that I understand that most of you will not be able to relate. I mean, it takes some big leaps for me to really enter this space that I have described(and depending on the show, some volume of alcohol to ease my way in). Who knows, maybe some of you thinking "uuuhhhhhhh" have some other experience where you can sort of provoke your own suppressed Se....

I welcome ALL positive and negative reactions to this!