Kind of a spiritual wet T-shirt competition you think? A chance to shake their booty? Hot and wet in L.A.! 8)the loose wet hair, the special saris, the ritual and twitching
I think that BKs in the West are stuck with the practises of the Indian institution - there must be a hundred BKs in India for every Westerner. The point is that in India trance is common across the board - it is a Hindu thing and just about every man and his dog is having a go at it. So it is kind of expected of a major religious institution to include it.
It was certainly a big part of things in the early days. It has been toned down a lot, probably due to a combination of abuse of the process and Westerners going "what the ... ?".