What is a ley-line? There are different thoughts to this highly controversial subject. Two ideas that I am attempting to pull together are these.

Firstly that the majority of the planet's inhabitants used to practise shamanism - a pagan belief system. The shaman would take a natural hallucinogen, such as peyote and fly through the landscape in a trance, communing with the spirits of the dead.

The lines of passage were then transcribed into the landscape permanently afterwards. This would show where the spirits were and allow the dead to be carried along these paths to their resting places. Relics of this are the famous Nasca lines of southern Peru.

The second train of thought is that ley lines are earth energy lines coursing through the ground. They carry the planet's life source. They form the origins to Feng-shui, Taoism, and possibly have a large role in Voodooism, early and pre Maori culture and Aboriginal peoples.

These images are an attempt to pictorially represent the feeling and sense of movement of a drug induced 'trip'.

The 360 degree format is a new viewpoint, where under the hallucinogens one no longer needs one's eyes - where walls and other such barriers of sight dissipate. One can move in any direction and change the appearance of one's landscape at will when in the hands of a trained shaman.

The images have been shot from three churches along the river Wye. The churches are in a straight line between Monmouth and Chepstow. According to shamanism, spirits travel in straight lines - the lines would have been marked with shrines and burial mounds.

In the ascent of Christianity, a lot of pagan sites were built upon by erecting a church in their place. This has allowed the possible sourcing of a line by the study of maps and looking for ancient sites, wells, churches and bridges.

This particular line is of my own discovery and is highly sceptical as to its reality. It serves its purpose through being a model to researching these phenomena.

The end result is aimed at creating highly detailed landscapes with an eccentric view point towards colour and vision. The images ask the viewer to day dream and try and look at landscape with new eyes.

© Ben Clegg - May 2004