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Monica Claesson
Jorge Morejon
DAN 793
10 May 2025

Demystifying Trance Practices

            All over the world, human societies have developed methods of achieving powerful altered states of consciousness. While the precise details of these trance practices vary across cultures, they also share striking similarities. Again and again, humans have hit upon the same techniques to enter into a trance state, and to direct that trance state for a specific purpose—often to promote some kind of healing or facilitate a life transition. However, despite the transformative potential of trance states, many traditional shamanistic practices have been effectively discontinued or intentionally stamped out. Additionally, many of these practices are inaccessible to the majority of the population, due to the fact that they have historically been so inextricably linked to particular cultural or religious frameworks. In societies now divorced from these frameworks, many rituals of trance are virtually impossible to practice.

 

I have long been fascinated with trance practices, but my own engagement with any kind of spiritual system is inevitably complicated by factors of my upbringing. As someone who managed to break out a fundamentalist Evangelical homeschool community at a relatively young age, I experience a lot of deep internal resistance when I am asked to believe literally in any kind of metaphysical concept. However, despite this protective mechanism of skepticism, I still consider myself deeply spiritual, and I understand that trance is a very powerful modality for healing and transformation. Therefore, in order to engage in these practices, I am always reframing them for myself as stories, metaphors, hypnotic suggestions, and forms of pretend play. This reframing has been immensely beneficial for me, and I know many others would likewise find trance more accessible with this kind of perspective shift. For this reason, I’m endlessly curious about studying different methods of achieving altered state of consciousness, in order to discover some of the underlying similarities behind the kinds of suggestions, techniques, and metaphors they use. Throughout my studies on this topic, I found that a few of the key elements for a successful trance experience are rhythm, surrender, suspension of disbelief, and intention. By understanding these elements and using these techniques, virtually anyone can participate in trance practices, or even design practices of their own.

 

Across cultures, shamanistic rituals share many of the same basic building blocks. These include practices such as rhythmic dancing, drumming, and chanting. For example, in the case of the cordon dance in Cuba, practitioners gather in a circle and perform a simple, repetitive step in unison, while participating in call-and-response chanting with the leader of the ritual. (Morejon 398) In many similar trance practices, rhythmic drumming is effectively used to create “changes in the central nervous system” (Harner 51). The drumbeats are particularly effective when the drumming matches the tempo of the theta wave EEG frequency range (52). Regardless of the particular details of how they are practiced, the same basic principles of rhythm and repetition exist in trance practices around the world. Rhythm is a powerful mechanism for shifting the consciousness into an altered state.

 

In addition to these essential rhythmic practices, the creation of a trance state often also involves the belief in some kind of higher power. For example, the Taíno practiced trance rituals as a means of “channeling energies” and “establish(ing) extra sensorial communication with the ancestors” (Morejon 574). Similarly, the orisha dances in Cuba were practiced as a means of inviting the spirits to possess or “ride” the bodies of the dancers (Anaya 48). In nearly all traditional societies, this element of spiritual belief appears to be a key ingredient to the induction of a trance in a shamanistic setting.

 

However, despite its prevalence, the element of belief is not strictly necessary for the successful use of trance as a healing modality. For example, in the case of hypnosis, the hypnotic subject does not necessarily need to rely on any kind of supernatural belief to enter into the altered state. Instead, they rely on the guidance of the hypnotist. This direct guidance perhaps serves a similar function as a belief in a deity, as it allows the participant to “let go” into the experience, and to not exercise so much conscious control. Similarly, the embodiment of a role or character can provide an analogous effect that facilitates the deepening of a trance experience. In his book Trance Forms, Ronaldo Morelos postulates that performers enter into a kind of hypnotic state on stage, in which both the performer and the audience suspend their disbelief and tap into shared cultural memories. (25) In Morelos’ interviews with various performers about their experiences, many describe different ways of conceptualizing this notion of “surrender.” This state of surrender is described as a “process of ‘letting go’...  wherein aspects of the “normal” individual personality are dissociated from the experience of performing” (51), or a  “state of ‘compelled’ movement that is so important in improvised performance – as one strives to work with the “impulse” and sense of “being moved” that is generated from within the embodiment” (79). Achieving such states requires a high level of “‘abandon’ – a capacity to allow oneself to be “carried away” by the affective weight of the moment and perform with that emotive quality” (60-61). In all of these cases, it seems as though an actual “belief” is not strictly necessary, and that merely the suspension of disbelief can prove sufficient for incorporating an ingredient of surrender.

 

When discussing the effect of belief on trance states, it may be useful to consider the different levels or intensities of the trance experience. In his book Music and Trance, Gilbert Rouget identifies three different intensities of trance. He defines these levels as degrees of proximity between the trance practitioner and a “deity.” He defines the word deity as a “god, spirit, genius, or ancestor” (26) but this term could ostensibly be secularized and expanded to mean “role,” “archetype,” or “the unconscious mind.” Rouget describes the three trance levels as 1) possession, during which a deity entirely takes over the consciousness of the trance practitioner, 2) inspiration, during which a deity coexists alongside the consciousness of the practitioner, and 3) communion, during which a practitioner has an encounter with a deity. (26) While the achieving of a full state of “possession” may necessitate a literal belief in a deity of some sort, achieving a state of “communion” or “inspiration” seems much more attainable in the absence of such a belief.

 

These “lesser” levels of trance are still more than sufficient to foster positive effects. For example, Mary Whitehouse describes a state similar to “inspiration” when explaining the practice of “authentic movement” in dance movement therapy: “The core of the movement experience is the sensation of moving and being moved. ... Ideally, both are present in the same instant and it may be literally an instant. It is a moment of total awareness, the coming together of what I am doing and what is happening to me. It cannot be anticipated, explained, specifically worked for, nor repeated exactly” (Levy 76). In this way, when the subject is moving in a way that is both conscious and unconscious, it may be correlated to a state of inspiration in which a deity is present alongside the consciousness of the practitioner.

 

Regardless of what level of trance any given practitioner reaches, there must be some kind of purpose behind their pursuit of that trance state in order to reap certain benefits. According to Michael Harner, this practice of entering into a trance state with training, discipline, and purpose, is what differentiates actual shamanistic work from more everyday forms of trance, such as light trance states while driving (“Shamanic Healing with Michael Harner”) Whether it is to heal a particular affliction, as in the case of the Cordon dance in Cuba, or whether it is to ready an individual for some kind of transition, such as the transition from childhood to adulthood, or whether it is simply to gain insight or wisdom on how to handle a particular situation, trances are traditionally performed with intention.

 

Over the course of my studies on this topic, it was essential not only to research these topics, but also to gain practical experience. After all, trance can only be understood to a certain extent on an intellectual level—ultimately, it’s something that must be experienced. I’ve dabbled in many kinds of trance practices over the years, including meditation, hypnosis, and more. However, I’ve always been a very high energy person, and sometimes these more static forms of trance make me restless. It was a really fascinating exercise to incorporate more movement-based forms of trance into my practice. I experimented with chanting, with drumming, with listening to drums and swaying back and forth repetitively, and more. I found I could achieve at least a light trance through all of these. With any kind of new skill, practice is essential, and I am eager to continue incorporating these methods of achieving trance into my own practice.

 

Altered states of consciousness will always have a mystical element to them. Even in my own practice—despite my lack of literal belief—I have achieved experiences in which it feels as though I am tapping into something beyond myself. Over and over, I have found that I can still access powerful states, even in the absence of a religious framework, and these states have helped me find healing, creative inspiration, and a sense of purpose and direction. If more trance practices were framed in this way, more people would be able to experience their benefits. So many spiritual practices are studied in context of their beliefs, but there is much to be gained from studying them for how they are employing the practical building blocks of trance in order to create a powerful altered state for their practitioners. With this mindset, even those who don’t ascribe to any particular belief system could participate in a spiritual or shamanistic experience and still gain powerful benefits. Alternatively, they could use the ingredients of trance experience to build their own trance practice using metaphors and suggestions that are specific to them. With this kind of perspective shift, the powerful benefits of trance could be made available to more people, regardless of religious or spiritual affiliation.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Anaya, Elizabeth. ““Salsa con Afro”: Remembering and Reenacting Afro-Cuban Roots in the
            Global Cuban and Latin Dance Communities.” Cultural Memory and Popular Dance,
            2021.

 

Harner, Michael. The Way of the Shaman. Harper San Francisco, 1990.

 

Levy, Fran J. Dance/Movement Therapy. A Healing Art. The American Alliance for Health,
            Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 1988.

 

Morelos, Ronaldo. Trance Forms. Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009.

Morejon, Jorge Luis. From the Areíto to the Cordon: Indigenous Healing Dances. Revista
            Brasileira de Estudos da Presença, 2018.

“Shamanic Healing with Michael Harner - the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.” YouTube, The
            Foundation for Shamanic Studies. 17 Apr. 2009,
            www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGbp-QEjCk. Accessed 8 May 2025.

Rouget, Gilbert. Music and Trance. The University of Chicago Press, 1985.