Mosh pits! Your reaction/the psychology of it! | INFJ Forum

Mosh pits! Your reaction/the psychology of it!

Hinsoog

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Jun 9, 2009
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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!
 
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Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....
 
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.
 
I like your enthusiam, Hinsoog. I can see how it's exhilarating.

Not really my thing, though. I've never been in a mosh pit. I did go to the Gay Pride Parade in Chicago last Sunday and it was so crowded and people were pushing and shoving and smashing their bodies up against mine to squeeze through..and it was something akin to a mosh (a slow mosh?)
I thought I was going to die. I felt like a farm animal.
 
During the breaks between classes, which was five minutes, the school halls got so crowded that other people rubbed up against me. I usually smacked them.

I do not like to be touched.
 
Closest I've been was in a Nickelback concert. Two, actually.

It felt good in a way, but I always ensured my personal space by subtly spreading my elbows apart on the railing (yeah, I was in the front line! :D) so that if anyone got too close they would feel my bony limb making aquaintances with their kidney.

I too, do not appreciate being smashed against someone's armpit. Nor having my priviledged spot taken~
 
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....
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!
 
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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!
 
Too many people. I'm up for thrilling activities, just not being trampled by a bunch of strangers. Don't like parties, don't like crowds.

I'm no E.
 
Mosh pit = Se overload.

I don't even like looking at them.
 
I recently went to a Morrissey concert. Now, I loved the Smiths. I love a good Morrissey tune, too. But I HATED this concert venue. Why? It felt like a freakin' mosh pit. There were no assigned seats - no seats at all - and we had to stand the whole time. I was okay with the standing. But I'm relatively short, okay? What I was not ok with was the shoving and the folks getting in my face. One guy got so hyper he nearly shoved me down, so I shoved back. HARD. He kept rubbing against me (he was either drunk or high, I dunno) and his girlfriend was freaking out because she knew what was going on. The guy was too tanked to notice, though, and kept grinning through the song set.

I will never. NEVER go to a concert that doesn't have assigned seating or some semblance of order again. So a mosh pit? For.Get. IT.:m071:
 
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Taste of Chaos concert, Chicago :D I like discos and concerts and mosh pits -- although I'm not big in being directly in the mosh, I do like being squeezed around sometimes. Course, I love the adrenaline and the energy
 
Mosh pit = complete sensory overload = NOT GOOD for an individual with Asperger's Syndrome like myself. :shocked:
 
Well, I think I've said it in previous posts, but personally I enjoy the experience of a mosh pit to some degree. It completely depends on the show and what bands are playing. I enjoy one if I decide to enter it (if it's a band I like, I'll probably mosh on the rare chance that they have moshing songs). I hate it when I get forced into one.

When I'm playing with my band and a mosh pit or skank circle starts (we're a ska band) I love getting off stage and playing guitar or singing from the middle of one.

I totally see where you're coming from with the 'warm and friendly' aspect of a mosh-pit though. Usually people aren't there to hurt each other and when they are is when I start having problems. I have no problem throwing a few punches at the douches who are there trying to hurt people.
 
I completely understand the feeling of adrenaline and collective enthusiasm. I have not, however, been in a mosh pit. If you ever saw me, you would know why. I would break.
 
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!
I prefer to activate my Se by instigating bar-room brawls.
 
Everyone else's Se leads to me getting punched in the face in the bar brawls when one of the guys fighting is too drunk to hit the right person.
 
Everyone else's Se leads to me getting punched in the face in the bar brawls when one of the guys fighting is too drunk to hit the right person.
That's so sad. I'd intercept a punch for you by lifting the table up and then slamming a glass bottle against the wall for good measure.