Healing and Trance States

Varieties of healing states

Healing has to do with reaching specific states where the unconscious processes are enhanced, processes of enhanced awareness, and more specifically self-repair processes, instinctual procedures which seek to mend the wounded parts of the psyche, and also those which help its growth. All therapeutic techniques, ultimately, are based on an effort to produce such favourable states in the ailed individual.[1]

The levels theory gives standard clues to assess which states are reached and which are favourable in freeing the psyche of stagnation (due to repression), reaching some degree of insight and increasing awareness, and getting some freedom of choice and responsibility of action. Here are the levels:

Level	Description couleur	Remarks
0	factual state without investment in the body, purely mental; emptiness	inhibition or avoidance of the body life, or possibly being in a non-vitalised or de-vitalised state; sensationless
1	tension ridden state, stress, in need; state of wishes, desires, usually repressed or avoided, causing secondary stress; will-ridden state	invested in the body, mostly switching between avoidance and wanting
2	emotional state; actuality but connected with past events lived in the present; insight; feeling of being in a truth (truth1)	invested in body life, release of tensions; truth1 is in fact past actuality
3	let-go state, surrender to the flow of life, easiness; richness of feeling; action not from will (mental) but from inner pressure (feelings)	beyond will and want, not fighting for something, beyond need, wanting, and emotions
4	insight state, openness of sentiment, connection with self and the actual surrounding world, and also with a larger and more meaningful world, feeling of reaching a universal truth (truth2)	fully alive, fully aware, feeling full and reaching a truth; truth2 is present actuality

Each state is an improvement over the previous one: there is more involvement in the body life, less in the selfprotective mechanisms, less tension, more openness and easiness, increased awareness and insight into one's life and the surrounding world. The "healing instincts" in us seem to push us to invest more often and for lengthier periods the upper states, even if those feel rather unpleasant at first. We tend to cling to lower states out of fears: fear of the unknown, fear of the meaning of the discoveries, fear of the strength of the experience. The higher the level, the stronger the experience.

Most psychotherapeutic schemes are devised to tackle levels 0 to 2, and to try help the person to go from one level to the next. With autistic, psychotic, or paranoic structures as described in the Research on the Psychoses and Addictions section, those levels do not apply, and another assessment rule has to be used.

States 3 and 4 are those available to some of us, generally with the aid of specific exercises or methods, such as let-go techniques, dynamic relaxation techniques, hypnosis, lucid dreaming, sensation isolation or extreme conditions, etc. Those are often sought by individuals during their therapeutic process, although they may give consistent results only when the core structure (the essential archaic imprints) has already been rebuilt to some extent.

In addition to these states, we may add still stronger types which pertain to the realm of ritual, trance and possession:

Level	Description	Remarks
5	ecstatic trance state with vanishing of the mind, emotional and self contents, total investment in the body associated with a very high energetic charge and complete let go, leaving a great freedom of action and total absence of repression without personal will	full unhindered body life; the body is fully activated, but void of the usual personal motivation
6	ecstatic trance with incorporation of some foreign psyche (either an animal one, a living or dead human one, or a "spirit" one)	full unhindered body life; the absence of personal motivations authorises the body to be activated by a foreign psyche in its stead

 Those latter states have a reputation of being very helpful (healing) to either the beholder or to the recipient, and even to the group present.

States beyond number 2, states 3 to 6, are often referred to as anomalous, abnormal, or simply denied. In the face of the abundance of testimonials, a scientific must not mask the evidence by an "abnormal" or a "does not exist" attitude. Those states should be studied as part of our world and deemed worthy of our interest. Cardeña and al. have collected a number of those phenomena for ample examination[2]. Bourguignon has shown that around 90% of the people of the planet used one or the other of those trance states institutionally for the benefit of the individuals and the community[3].

Healing and trance

Structural therapy and healing rites

Cure and improvement follow definite "deconstruction" paths, i.e. reliving past traumatic events to free them from repression and dissolving their emotional content, and definite "reconstruction paths", re-triggering the instinctual necessary imprints of the early life and re-living the early construction states in a favourable environment[4] to let the psyche build up its basic functions. If those paths are not obtained by standard therapy schemes, they can be shown to be part of many ritualised settings specifically designed for those purposes: "deconstruction" is more or less equivalent to de-possession or exorcism rites, and "reconstruction" is more or less equivalent to "rebirth", "welcoming", "transformation" and "passage" rites[5].

Use of trance states

Healer in trance

The most frequent scene is when the healer is himself in trance (here we speak only of deep ecstatic trances, more or less akin to "possession" or "mystic state", not the lighter types such as a states or hypnotic states). He or the entity acting his body then uses directly the trance state to "see" or "feel" what is the case and acts accordingly to help the ailed person best. It is usual for the healer to induce a slight (or sometimes deep) trance in the person by influence which favours the process. When the healer is in trance, there is a sort of irradiation or contamination of the viewers; some may also fall in a state of trance.

Patient in trance

The second case is when the trance is induced by some technique in the person to be healed, that state being considered healing in itself. The person may be stunned, dazed, loosened, or even incorporated ("possessed") by induction. She will possibly act in a way revealing the true nature of her ailment and the way out of it.

Examples of healing states

Of the 488 societies studied by Erika Bourguignon, 92% used trance in a way or other for the improvement of the individual and the community. There are roughly 3 main types of trance, although one may find more: 1-shamanistic trance where the healer "goes" to the underworld or upperworld invoke entitles to reveal what is the case and act on the diseased; 2-incorporation or possession trance where the healer let his body be ridden by some entity who will speak and act through it in his place, 3-mystic trance where the healer is in a state of openness and manifests elements or forces of the other world. In our experience, those types although looking out very different, are based on similar states, reached by similar means, and use the body in a similar fashion. The body is first voided of personal contents (emotions, memories, etc.) so as to let a foreign force take hold of it. That force drives the body in the stead of the healer himself. It may be felt as a foreign entity riding the body or entering the body and acting it, as a journey to the other worlds, or as a connection or communion with the invisible part of the world. The latter forms depend much on culture and rituals, whereas the surrender mechanism and the acting foreign force are rather constant features.

Stanley Krippner (2000), give descriptions of some "shamanic" styles. Here is a short segmentation of the various practices around the world.[6]

North-American, Siberian, Mongolian, and Meso-American shamanism

Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Caribbean religions (Orisha, Voodoo, Santeria, Umbanda, Candomblé and other related religions)

North African and Middle Eastern Islamic brotherhoods

Hebraic, Hassidic, and Jewish traditions

Central and Southern American native shamanism (Aztec, Huichol, Tupi, Guarani and Amazonian shamanism, Maya, Inca, etc.)

Indian and Eastern religions (Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism)

Australian and Pacific shamanic practices

Europe is a shamanic noteworthy exception in that the religions have lost very early their initiation schools by pretending that ecstasy or possession was only a gift of God, or a miracle, thus impeding monks to develop the technique, contrary to the other people where the initiation schools are abundant and train new adepts. The disappearance of the shamanic and mediumnic cults or religions is due to the invasion of the Roman Empire followed by the Christian invasion (Roman Catholic in the south) with its train of edicts to forbid the heretofore widespread pagan shamanic practice.

Some traditions use entheogenic substances (chemical psychotropic alteration) while a great majority rely only on body-techniques (breathing and motion) or specific attitudes (attraction postures) to induce trance. Apprenticeship is widespread although the creation of a new shaman-healer-oracle-mystic is by no way an easy task, and always a dramatic and lengthy procedure. This transformation path has been described elsewhere[7].

Healing rituals

Ritualising produces faith

Although in principle no ritualising is required for the trance state to act, most of the time, the healing act is ritualised. This practice occurs in all cultures and with all procedures, here are a few instances:

—    medication and surgery is ritualised in Western countries by the medical set-up and clinic style

—    psychoanalysis is ritualised by the environment and the style of the analyst and his way of talking and acting

—    exorcism is ritualised by the Church

—    bodypsychotherapy is ritualised by a type of setting, a type of language

—    etc.

Although most practitioners will claim that there is no ritualising, and that that most of the time this ritualising is unnecessary, it nevertheless takes place, often as a professional guarantee.

Ritualising is a link between the procedure itself and the system of beliefs and/or the system of sentiments of the local group or the culture group. It produces:

—    confidence

—    trust that the operation will work and have positive results (even in the evidence of the contrary)

—    safety in what one is supposed to do in the situation (such as be passive, submit to the operator, say certain definite things, swallow certain products, etc.)

—    faith in the process to be applied (for instance, almost all patients take drugs in a hospital without even asking what drug and what for, what effect is expected, although they may inquire if they were at home

In fact, ritual has much to do with producing faith for the cure by using a display to which the person under treatment is accustomed to or trained to accept as good. Whether the process is beneficial or detrimental to the person is then not a point and not to be discussed. Submission to the ritual as a whole suppresses all forms of questioning and rebellion. We have tested this rule in therapy groups using psychodrama techniques with complete success: even a ritual of sacrifice does not raise questions nor resistance as long as it is deemed "good for the group" (either nominally or implicitly). There are many historical examples where this absolute absence of resistance to a dramatically detrimental process is patent. The psychological analysis of this fact is currently being undertaken by our team[8].

Ritualising enhances safety

Most healers would say that the locus and symbolic surrounding, and the following of certain patterns bring safety for the process and the results to be obtained. It is for instance easier to incorporate an entity in the temple devoted to that entity, or in a corner of nature connected to it, than in an ordinary or lay environment. The same is true of ritual procedures, using certain objects, pronouncing certain sentences or songs, using certain attitudes. Those sets of ritual items "makes sure" that the healing force will work properly.

Ritualising creates a symbolic space

Apart from producing faith, and safety, the ritual implements a number of symbolic procedures. It has been acknowledged that symbols evoke emotions in us, and that they may be used to prepare a favourable state either in the healers themselves (for instance as a help to induce trance or possession) or in the person or the public, without which the process itself does not function.

In fact, a number of healing processes do necessitate the active participation or determination of the cared for. For example, psychotherapy does not function if the "patient" is passive and not responding, nor willing to cure himself. This is contrary to the medical paradigm where the patient is passive and operated upon, where his body belongs to the medicine for the time being.[9] In all psychologically based healing schemes, the person wants the cure and participates as actively as possible to the cure. Being active is even a part of the cure itself. The highly symbolic surrounding therefore acts as a powerful evocating device to instigate the favourable state for the cure in progress.

For the healer, the basis of his/her capture of the psychic force necessary for the cure (called "energies", entities, spirits, spirit helpers, etc.), to absorb that force in his/her body (incorporation, possession), or channel it (channelling, transducing, visualising), comes from a specific state more or less prepared by his/her emotional link with that force. Therefore, the symbolic surrounding, although not absolutely necessary, acts as a powerful catalyst to make the link or incorporation easier or more accurate. For instance, it may ease the invocation of a definite entity by a sort of filtering out the unwanted ones. We shall explain below that the display is also more than purely symbolic.

Beyond symbolism

Western culture has difficulties in seeing objects as more than material (its physical and chemical properties) and symbolic (images of some feat of life). On the contrary, all traditional healers would probably insist that the objects have a "life" and are more than material, and certainly more than "symbolic", in that it is not their representation content but their psychic content that acts.

Most of them take a long time getting their ritual objects from specific place and during specific times, and doing intricate procedures to put a "life force" of certain quality into them. This is not to be rapidly disqualified as simple beliefs or folklore. The objects used in shamanism, magic or mediumnic religions, or trance healing, are far from neutral physical objects or support representations. They are psychoactive. They produce directly some energetic or emotional effect. Some put directly the person in a state of awe, of catalepsy, of surrender, of lucidity, or even in a state of trance.

Those objects are ritually and periodically "charged" with that life force of the right quality needed for their purpose. That force is taken directly from nature (specific locations in the adequate places), from animals or persons, or from being close to an incorporated healer for some time. They are also charged by specific ritualised periodic procedures. One should not overlook the psychic properties of correctly prepared ritual objects.

Therefore, they are highly active during the ritual preparation and ceremony itself. They induce states, activate forces in healers and healed, in the local group, and produce transformation. There are thus reasons why these charged objects are highly revered and deemed absolutely necessary for the purpose.[10]

Ritual and imprints

Identity of ritual lore and archaic essential imprints

Even to a non psychologist observer, it is apparent that rituals have to do with imprinting, i.e. seek to produce an impact on the psyche of the recipient and/or the group and trigger some important functions heretofore dormant, therefore bringing transformation. Ethnologists and anthropologists have taken long steps to describe those impacts. Joseph Campbell has shown that those imprints are both ways identified to myth and society[11].

Now as psychologists, we may show that those imprints displayed both in myth, religious lore, and societal traits, are but the essential ones described in the Structural Psychology section, both archaic and tardive, from which the very psyche itself is built. Felicitas Goodman has made a comparison between various type of people and their associated rituals using the necessities of habitat and food source as the independent variable[12]. The imprints found are more or less constant, and the rituals used display those imprints in a regular fashion, with some variations due to their basic way of feeding and lodging. Now we may add a comparison between those correlations and our set of essential imprints.

Here are the findings:

Age	Imprints	Rites	Remarks
Birth	Vitality	Delivery rites	Usually does not raise questions since no external modification is applied and vitality is guaranteed[13].
	Bonding	Delivery rites Rites of welcome for the newborn and its entering the group as a new person	Provision is made to ensure correct and timely bonding between mother and child, by preparation of the mother, preservation of the attachment instincts, by the use of a doola[14] which helps the mother to bond without fear, by the help of the close group.
Attachment and separation	Symbiosis	Group support for the mother	Uses the full support of the group to help the mother live the symbiosis with the child without being bothered by interfering survival problems.
	Imparting strength	Divination rites Shaping the baby practices	Use of divination to assess the destiny of the baby; giving it a significant name, using practices to activate the temperament to be needed later.
	Separation	Rites of weaning (ending the symbiosis period)	In many societies, an operation is done by the healer or chief to separate the child from the mother (around 2 years) to help the mother dissolve the attachment which may become detrimental, and give the child to other elder women. Initiates life with the other ones.
7th year	Giving freedom	Rites of giving rights and freedom to explore and learn	The power of the group is used to give full rights to learn and explore the world at will. Prevents conditioning. Not found in all societies.
Adolescence	Passage	Rites of transforma–tion into adult life	A profound change of the system of motivation is necessary. Death (of child's motivations) and rebirth (into adults system of motivations) rites are generally used together with challenge and authentication rites. Instates adults rights and duties. Instigates sexual and parental life. Beginning of autonomous and responsible life. Compels commitment to the group necessities and life with a group.
Midlife	Midlife crisis	Rites of appointing an elder as a teacher	Usually, at midlife, the prominent ones are chosen as chiefs, teachers, team leaders, ritual directors, or are assigned for special operations.
Death	Death	Rites of death, funerals	The materialisation of the departure on to the beyond is done. A farewell in the other world is given.

 The interested will discover that all the imprints carrying out the establishment of a core function of the psyche, essential to its construction and integrity, are generally acknowledged, reverenced, ritualised, fostered by efficient procedures, and that their failure is most feared since it means a disaster for the recipient and problems for the society and a bad portent for the future.

Taboos

More than mere procedures, those imprints are also generally identified as deities (to show the utmost importance they have!) and associated with taboos. Here is a short table showing this identity:

Age	Imprints	Deity	Signification	Taboo
Birth	Vitality	God/Goddess of Life Sun God Creator and Giver of Life Pregnant Goddess	Reverence for the life force Life is the most precious good on earth Absolute necessity of vitality (otherwise psychic death)	Cannibalism taboo Do not kill life except for the strict necessary predation[15], therefore: Do not kill like
	Bonding	Mother Goddess and Child God	Necessary attachment of children to the breast and the heart of the mother (otherwise psychic death or craziness)	Children taboo Do not harm the children by any means (non protection of the mothers, the infants, and the children is unnatural)
Attachment and separation	Symbiosis	Breast Mother Goddess Mother Earth Earth Goddess	Reverence for our full and necessary symbiosis with the earth and its contents (otherwise psychic death or craziness) Identification of the absolutely necessary symbiosis with the mother and the absolutely necessary symbiosis with nature	Nature taboo Do not try to modify or use nature (disturbing our instinctual life and our absolute symbiosis with nature is unnatural)
	Separation	Prodigious Child God Monstrous Deities (results of rupture of symbiosis or of incest[16])	Attachment beyond the natural end of symbiosis is unnatural and leads to problems (craziness or atrociousness)	Incest taboo Do not attach the children by any means (unnatural attachment) Do not attach anyone by any means (slavery is unnatural)
7th year	Giving freedom	Young Hero God	Freedom of discovery, learning, and action is an absolute necessity (otherwise slavery of action and thought)	Incest taboo Do not impede freedom of thinking and acting by any means (prohibition of thinking is unnatural)
Adolescence	Passage	Sex God and Sex Goddess Fertility Goddess Lord of the Law Renewal Deities	Attachment and devotion to the local group is a necessity Sex is a necessity Order is a necessity Protection for the pregnant, parting, and feeding mothers is a absolute necessity Protection of the children is an absolute necessity	Incest taboo Do not have sex with kin (unnatural attachment) Divinity taboo Do not ignore and respect the divine
Midlife	Midlife crisis	Old Wise God Hierophant Oracle Teacher God	Transmission of knowledge and know-how is an absolute necessity for the group to survive	Divinity taboo Do not ignore and respect the order of the world
Death	Death	Death Gods and Goddesses	Awe in front of death. Respect for the ancestors and the trespassing ones is an absolute necessity.	Divinity taboo Do not ignore the other world and respect it

It has to be stressed that those deities and taboos are not mere imaginary figures nor "projections" of our unconscious psyche (which is the same), even if in some religions, especially dogmatic and politic religions, they are just that. Most of what westerners call "gods" or "deities" when speaking of the traditional world are not figures, but real forces actuated by the mechanism of incorporation, acting and sometimes speaking through entranced bodies. They are not fictions nor inventions, but actual psychic beings of a world reachable only through the mean of trance states. In the like, taboos are not prescriptions invented for political reasons, but instinctual devices stressed and materialised for us by the same mean.

Descriptive and analytic sources

 Among the abundant literature on the subject, we recommend to read descriptions of rituals in various cultural background with a knowledge of our structuring imprints and skeleton functions. Here are some titles: 

Aubrée, Marion, Laplantine, François, La Table, le Livre et les Esprits, Jean-Claude Lattès, Paris, F, 1990.

Augé, Marc, Le Dieu Objet, Flammarion, Paris, F, 1988.

Augras, Monique, Le double et la métamorphose, Méridiens Klincksieck, Paris, F, 1992.

Bourguignon, Erika, A Cross-Cultural Study of Dissociational States: Final Report, Ohio State University, Colombus, OH, USA, 1968; Possession, Chandler & Sharp, San Francisco, CA, USA, 1924.

Campbell, Joseph, Primitive Mythology, Occidental Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Creative Mythology, Penguin-Arkana, New York, NY, USA, 1971-1991.

Cazeneuve, Jean, Sociologie du rite, PUF, Paris, F, 1971.

Doore, Gary, Shaman's Path, Shambhala, Boston, MA, USA, 1988.

Eliade, Mircea, Le chamanisme et les techniques archaïques de l'extase, Payot, Paris, F, 1983.

Goodman, Felicitas, Ecstasy, Ritual and Alternate Reality, Indiana University Press, Indianapolis, IN, USA, 1988; Trance, der uralte Weg zum religiösen Erleben, GTB Sachbuch, Gütersloh, D, 1992.

Heinze, Ruth-Inge, Shamans of the 20th Century, Irvington Pub, New York, NY, USA, 1991; Trance and Healing in Southeast Asia Today, White Lotus, Bangkok, TH, 1988.

Leiris, Michel, L'Afrique fantôme, Gallimard, Paris, F, 1981.

Nicholson, Shirley, Shamanism: An Expanded View of Reality, Theosophical House, Wheaton, IL, USA, 1987.

Róheim, Géza, Animism, Magic and The Divine King, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, USA, 1930; Psychanalyse et anthropologie, Gallimard, Paris, F, 1967.

Sebnat, Jabrane M., The Trance Conference, Alifia International, Lund, S, 1992.

Spence, Kate, Theft of Secret Hopi Statues Endangers Religious Ceremonies, Shaman's Drum, 32 Ashland, OR, USA, 1993.

Storm, Hyemeyhosts, Song of Heyoehkah, Ballantine, New York, NY, USA, 1983.

Thomson, Robert F., Faces of the Gods, Prestel, New York, NY, USA, 1993.

Tucci, Giuseppe, Heissig, Walter, Les religions du Tibet et de la Mongolie, Payot, Paris, F, 1973.

Verger, Pierre Fatumbi, Orisha, Métaillé, Paris, F, 1982.

Villoldo, Alberto, Krippner, Stanley, Healing States, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, USA, 1987.

Walsh, Roger N., The Spirit of Shamanism, Tarcher, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 1990.