Since I was introduced to trance and had more thoughts about this particular awareness state I have realized that I have witnessed actual examples of trance in my life.
The more emotional example is when I witnessed the celebration of Thaipusam. It is the occasion for many devotees to thank the deity for some gift. At that occasion, people parade with needles, hooks embedded in their skins and other bloody and painful contraptions. In fact they are set in trance by priests at the start of the parade. Trance allows them to easily bear pain. What impressed me the most when I followed such parade from the inside in Kuala Lumpur, a famous location for this festival, is how people were being set out of trance in an instantaneous manner by priests at the end of the parade. They also expressed quite a different behavior and character during the parade itself (and were carefully shepherded by helpers during their trance).
Another example is when I was confronted to someone being ‘possessed’ – also during a spell in south-east Asia. The poor lady was effectively suddenly shivering and seemed to be in another state of consciousness, with inarticulate sounds and random movements. In a religious context, exorcists were brought in and after some time the lady regained normal consciousness (whereby the exorcists concluded they were effective at drawing out the evil spirit that inhabited her).
In western civilisation such occurrences are less often related however there is no doubt that spontaneous trance states do occur. Trance is thus a state which many people encounter in their life, sometimes without identifying is as such.
In a series of post I will describe a personal journey into an altered state of consciousness – cognitive trance – that I was privileged to undertake this year. Previous posts in this series:
