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When Scrooge was visited by the three spirits of Christmas, the first was Christmas Past. In a similar manner we are to encounter three modes of cognitive representation of ultimate reality. The first is the archaic mode of primitive consciousness, expressed through prototaxic aspects. These involve the body in somatic and kinesthetic behavior and other forms of enactive representation, including unsymbolized experience such as dissociation and trance, and often attended by the uncanny qualities of awe, dread, horror, and loathing. But though the prototaxic mode is not as genial as the ghost of Christmas Past, it has as much to teach us. For it encompasses the entire record of human behavior, and is therefore freighted with incident, anecdote, instance, and example, thus providing a rich background of data for organization and hypothesis-building.

Within the prototaxic mode are the procedures of dissociation, trance, possession, mediumship, hypnosis, psychedelic drug experiences, automatisms, organ possession including glossolalia and automatic writing. These varied states have in common the excursus of the ego with loss of memorability of the incident, an altered state of consciousness involving trance or dissociation.¹ There is obviously a "hierarchy" or taxonomy involved in the list of procedures above, which appear to go from "heavy" to "light," with the former procedures involving more characteristic behavior, and the latter less.

The prototaxic mode is notable for the scary, hair-raising aspect of the numinous element, which appears here in a much more

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frightening mien that it does in the other modes. Otto's mysterium tremendum is much more applicable here than elsewhere. This was the first racial contact with the numinous element, and it is still the most widely practiced. Consequently, from an evolutionary point of view it corresponds to the first developmental contact that the child has with the numinous element, which is of very similar nature. This experience was first noticed by that pioneer psychiatrist, Harry Stack Sullivan as the "not-me."

Sullivan, himself, defines the "not-me" as follows (1953:162-3):
 

The personification of the not-me is most conspicuously encountered by most of us in an occasional dream while we are asleep; but it is very emphatically encountered by people who are having a severe schizophrenic episode, in aspects that are to them most spectacularly real. As a matter of fact, it is always manifest in certain peculiar absences of phenomena when there should be phenomena; and in a good many people . . . it is very striking in its indirect manifestation (dissociated behavior) in which people do and say things of which they do not and could not have had knowledge, things which may be quite meaningful to other people, but are unknown to them . . . This is a very gradually evolving personification of an always relatively primitive character, - that is organized in unusually simple signs in the parataxic mode of experience, and made up of poorly grasped aspects of living, which will presently be regarded as "dreadful," and which still later will be differentiated into incidents which will be attended by awe, horror, loathing, or dread.

It will be seen from this that Sullivan, the expert in the dynamisms of development, identifies the "not-me" as pertaining to that class of experiences which are dissociated and uncanny - outside the pale of rational explanation or control of the developing child. Seen in most children in childish nightmares and night terrors, and in adults in the dissociated experiences of schizophrenia, the "not-me" emerges as a scary, poorly-grasped construct evoking emotional horror, rather than rational understanding. It is the purpose of normal development to "tame" this "collective" aspect of the psyche, to supplant its parataxic archetypes with an intuitive "modus vivendi" with the preconscious creativity, and more or less to fully control it in the psychedelic stage. Notice how well the careful observation of Sullivan refers to the "collective unconscious" in the second sentence, a property which evokes awe at this level, but later under the better control of later stages reveals its positive aspects as creative function.

If awe and dread of the uncanny (with which "not-me" is endowed

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as we first meet it in childhood) were not enough, the concept is further complicated by having no characteristics or form. It is fluidic, watery, reflective (like the "Smoking-mirror" of the Aztecs), and, to use an oft-misunderstood term: void. Here "void" does not have it modern meaning (as in a bouncing check) of "without value"; rather it has the Biblical meaning of "without form" as "The Earth was without form and void." When the Buddhist speaks of "the Clear Light of the Void," he is talking about a substance which transcends form, and is without characteristics, but is none the less, real.

The prototaxic mode is often explicated in a certain gross elemental crudity. An "authentic" musical evocation of this brutal "bloody" vis is found in Alberto Ginastera's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 (1961) in the toccata concertata (last) movement where the overwhelming, elemental, and fascinating aspects of the mysterium tremendum are clearly evident in the wild, atonal, lilting music.

Although prototaxic contact with the numinous is primitive and dread-full, it carries useful results. Prototaxic experience is better than no contact at all, and it may result in promoting security, in exorcising demons, in curing individuals of mental and physical ills, in control or pseudo-control of nature, in the elevation of status for those low in the peck-order, in revelation, and even in positive affect (in the case of organ possession). For the humanistic behavioral scientist, these phenomena offer a rich field of investigation, including the most obvious examples of the suspension of the ordinary laws of physics consequent upon an altered state of consciousness.² Prototaxic contact therefore represents the area of the greatest amount of anecdote, legend, incident, and potential research. Indeed, it confronts rational man at every turn with anomalies which should open his mind to the larger purview. Discarding fear and superstition, and particularly remembering the impersonal qualities of the numinous element, let us, with the same respect we would have for high voltage electricity, investigate this subject scientifically.

The chief characteristic of the prototaxic mode is the temporary or more permanent excursus of the ego, and its replacement by some foreign influence. Sometimes this excursion is induced (as in mediumship and hypnotism), and in other cases it is spontaneous (as in schizophrenia); sometimes (as in possession) there may be a combination. Whatever the means, disintegration of the ego is a major variable.

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Myers (1903) in his classic Human Personality early recognized this by turning his attention to dissociation before investigation of psychic phenomena. Schizophrenia represents the most extreme form of this disintegration; it assumes the anchor position in our discussion. Some behaviors characteristic of schizophrenics are similar to those in possession, induced trance, and the artificial psychoses of proactive drug ingestion. For example,
 

1. There is depersonalization, or loss of the experience of reality. The person commonly reports that "things don't seem real." All of us have some semblance of this feeling at times (i.e. illness, crises, accidents), but in the schizophrenic, incipient panic seems to be induced by a much stronger feeling that one is not oneself.

2. There is dissociation, that is, the separation of some aspect of the self from the mainstream of the total self. This may range from an unconscious impulse of which the person is unaware, to the splitting off of the personality into separate selves with reciprocal amnesia.

3. Commonly there are auditory hallucinations, "voices," which may threaten, libel, or command.

2.21 The Panic-Reaction Type of Boisen

Now let us turn to an unusual personal account from a psychologically minded minister who underwent this difficulty, and recovered to tell the tale.³ In a remarkable and neglected book, The Exploration of the Inner World, Anton Boisen (1936:30ff) describes the concerns, phobias and monomanias of the distressed person.
 

1) (p30) The sense of the mysterious: "Acute disturbances begin with some eruption of the subconscious which is interpreted as a manifestation of the supernatural . . . we have then the bewildered state which is called "schizophrenia". The deeper levels of the mind are tapped and in many cases the mental processes are quickened . . . it is as if the conscious self had descended to some lower region where it is no longer in control but at the mercy of primitive and terrifying ideas." Such observations are in line with Jung's conception of a "racial unconscious."

2) (p32) The sense of peril: "Ideas of an impending world change of some sort with great issues at stake . . . in the patient exalted ideas as to his own role".

3) (p34) The sense of personal responsibility: Concealment reaction is found in four forms: a) Externalization of conscience (accusing voices; mind being read by others; being poisoned or drugged); b) Transfer of Blame: (electrical currents shooting through body, hypnotic control as explanations of unacceptable thoughts, circumvention of one's plans

through outside organized conspiracy); c) fictitious self-importance (feelings of reference, delusions of grandeur), d) incapacitation (physical illness or old age).

4) (p36) Erotic involvement: disturbed about sex problems, socially unsanctioned sex manifestations in public, reports he is being accused of the vilest sexual crimes.
 

One of the more interesting and hopeful aspects of the active type of schizophrenia described by Boisen is that remissions are more likely to
occur. This dramatic change which we have called "Developmental Forcing" (Gowan 1974:187), Dabrowski (1964:xiv) calls "positive
disintegration." He feels that development does not take place without previous disintegration. Symptoms of anxiety and psychosis are therefore
not always pathological, but arise during periods of developmental crisis in individuals who have high levels of intelligence, creativity, and a
capacity for emotional closeness. Persons who undergo this mortification and transformation are particularly likely to emerge later as religious
leaders. Perry (1974) also discusses this matter.

Silverman (1973) believes that some schizophrenic states can be "creatively constructive." He qu otes Menninger as saying "Some patients have a
mental illness and then get well, and then they get weller. I mean they get better than they ever were . . . . This is an extraordinary and little realized
truth." Silverman notes that Sullivan was also of this opinion. He agrees with Dabrowski that "some of the most profound schizophrenic
disorganizations are preludes to impressive reorganization and personality growth." He notes, like Boisen, that the patient most likely to improve
had a sudden panic-type onset of symptoms and concludes "Many religious leaders - St. Paul, St. Theresa, and George Fox, the founder of the
Quakers, for example, have gone through experiences (of this kind)." ⁴ His article points out that sometimes drug therapy for schizophrenics can
abort this positive disintegration process and rob the world of the insights of a future religious leader.

It is history that many a religious leader has been "jerked" into a higher state of consciousness, showing dissociated behavior and loss of ego
control during the often terrifying transition period because, developmentally, he was not quite ready for the move. The list of such people is long
and includes: George Fox, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Jeremiah, Sri Ramakrishna, John Bunyan, Ezekiel, The Cure of Ars, St. Francis of Assisi,
Jacob Boehme, among many others. Interestingly enough, a look at schizophrenia tells us the reason why.

Just as the baby developing within the womb is surrounded by

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a placenta, we are all shielded from external reality by an envelope which protects us from external reality, the proper dissolution of which we call
illumination, and the premature rupture of which we call madness.

Development, hence, consists (in post-uterine as in prenatal existence) in growth and specialization which will allow for the appropriate penetration
of the placental envelope so that the individual can gain greater freedom and interaction with the external world. But if this placental shell is
ruptured too soon, then chaos results, and special means are required to save the individual and nurse him back to healthy development.

The placental envelope performs several functions: 1) it shields the nascent individual from recognizing elements in an environment with which he
at present lacks the specialization to cope, although he presumably will be able to in the future; 2) it prevents him from exercising the freedoms and
possibilities of a larger domain; 3) it represents a triumph of safety and security, over liberty and opportunity. The interest of development enables
the individual to move out of this primitive stage, hopefully prepared for new and wider experience, hopefully at the proper time, as the chicken
breaks out of the shell.

Whether the experience is the jerk of developmental escalation as with St. Paul, or the schizophrenic trauma of developmental forcing as with the
author Boisen, the general attitude toward the individual undergoing such a change is that of the Roman governor in Acts when he said to Paul:
"Thou are beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad." Boisen traces this trauma in a famous religious leader, George Fox, (1936:59-132),
and shows how ineffectual the various healing ministries would be today in George Fox's case. He says (1936:53):
 

This survey of the wilderness of the lost tends to support the hypothesis with which we started, that many of the more serious psychoses are essentially problem-solving experiences which are closely related to certain types of religious experiences.

Seen in this way, such episodes are like shock-treatment, in which people like Fox, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, St. Paul, Bunyan, and Swedenborg, are the
successes, and the inmates of the hospital back wards the failures. Boisen highlights this approach (1936:158) by noting that of several types of
schizophrenic development, the eruptive, an acute disturbance which reorganizes the personality, has the best prognosis of cure.⁵
But Boisen is not the only writer who can testify to this experience

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of schizophrenia as rupturing an envelope which protects most of us from naked reality. There are several others.

Myers (1903:38-42), in a chapter on derangements of personality points out that there is a hierarchy of degrees of loss of interference with fully
conscious control, beginning with the fixed idea, then hysterical anaesthesia, finally, the emergence of secondary or split personalities. Increasing
deterioration in the conscious control occurs in a sequence first of an idea, second of a body function, and third of the entire psyche. It testifies to
Myers' insight that he started his book on psychic phenomena with a chapter on dissociated behavior.

K. Wapnack (1969) declares:

 
Writing of the mystic's renunciation of his societal attachments which insulate him for the experience of God, Underhill (1960) uses the image of
the mollusk with its hard shell, thereby illustrating the nature of the person's shell of attachments. Likewise, Schactel (1959) employs Hebb's
image of a cocoon to describe the world of embeddedness that seals off the person's capacity for growth. Borrowing this imagery, it can be seen
that the schizophrenic is one whose protective shell has been suddenly and prematurely broken (i.i.o.).

Naranjo and Ornstein (1971:107-108) put it this way:

Moreover we may be justified in considering many cases of schizophrenia as the outcome of spontaneous plunging of an immature person into
the realm of that kind of experience which when properly assimilated, distinguishes the genius from the average man.

This painful experience of the premature rupture of the psychic placenta has been identified by a number of writers, not to mention Kierkegaard,
who called it "the sickness unto death." Higgin (1973) in a more recent treatise calls it the "centroversion crisis" in which "the ego is exposed to a
somewhat painful process starting in the unconscious which permeates the whole personality." Neuman (1964) in defining the word
"centroversion" states that it is "a tendency to compensation in an individual or culture when some imbalance has developed." The imbalance here,
of course, is too much intellectual rationality, which invites in turn the emergence of the irrational and numinous element. Centroversion according
to Higgin also explains Jung's "synchronicity" or the tendency of an idea whose time has come to occur independently to the best contemporary
minds. He also glimpses the preconscious aspects by referring to the phenomenon as "numinous."

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2.23 Unstressing⁶

The effect of the juncture of the conscious ego and the numinous elements results in some kind of behavioral outlet, which represents resolution of
the psychic tension engendered thereby. The overwhelming quality of this union usually produces some dissociation, which can be relieved by a
discipline such as a religious, artistic, creative, or meditational procedure. Since the joining is usually incompletely cognized in a mode other than
the syntaxic, it is externalized in prototaxic ways, such as hallucinations and headaches, or in parataxic examples like archetypes and dreams. The
psychic tension must be expressed in some outlet (dancing, shaking, glossolalia, ritual, art, creativity and healing) which may be honored and
respected by the peer society. Thus the discharge of psychic tension, originally an individual urgency, comes to have social benefit as well.

The social benefit may be

 
a) in artistic or creative production which can be valued for its own sake;
b) in advice or curing which has utility for the society;
c) in mediumship which in some cultures has positive regard;
d) in glossolalia which can be valued as evidence of possession by the Holy Spirit.

But it is the individual benefit which concerns us here. For in the process of development or therapy there may occur somatic relief of stress, pain,
or psychic tension in the form of vocalization or body movement. A number of healing modes and ministries have noticed this phenomenon which
the Transcendental Meditators have named "unstressing."

Transcendental Meditation teaches its neophytes that day long meditations should be undertaken only with permission and only under controlled
circumstances. We believe the reason for this injunction is to avoid the phenomena of "unstressing." Goleman (1971) describes this in detail:
 

In meditation, the psychophysiological principle can be used to understand the significance of "unstressing," a term used by practitioners of TM. Unstressing takes the form during meditation of completely involuntary, unintended, and spontaneous muscular- skeletal movements and proprioceptive sensations: momentary or repeated twitches, spasms, gasps, tingling, tics, jerking, swaying, pains, shaking, aches, internal pressures, headaches, weeping,, laughter, etc. The experience covers the range from extreme pleasure to acute distress. In TM, unstressing is gradual during
regular daily meditation, so that it is not always discernable.

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During special extended meditation sessions where one meditates throughout much of the day, more extreme forms of unstressing can occur.
When Maupin taught zazen to a group of college students as part of an experiment, they mentioned to him the emergence of "hallucinoid feelings,
muscle tension, sexual excitement, and intense sadness" (1965:145). Vivid and detailed first-person accounts of unstressing are reported in
Guruvani magazine by students of the ashtanga yoga system of Swami Muktananda.

Because of the unpredictable nature of unstressing, meditators who are unprepared for it or who are in the midst of others who do not understand
the process, can become agitated when it occurs in disturbing forms. For this reason teachers of TM and other systems recommend day-long
meditation only in supervised and secluded situations. Psychiatric clinics are beginning to get new patients who have been meditating on their own
all day for many days, and are brought in by others who can't understand and are disturbed by behavior changes they see; the dynamics of this
influx are parallel to the continuing wave of "bad-trips" due to drugs. As with acute drug cases, the psychiatric intervention may worsen and
prolong distress rather than alleviate it, while someone familiar with meditation can reassure the person and alleviate the crisis without recourse to
the paraphenalia of psychiatry.

Such unstressing phenomena as seizures, spells, glossolalia as well as the more acceptable aspects of psychic phenomena are in reality prototaxic
manifestation of psychic tension occasioned by the near approach to consciousness of the numinous element. They are hence similar to the crying,
groans, moans, bodily tics, and other gestural actions exhibited by counselees during the process of therapy when a feeling is being "exorcised" or
let-out, but cannot be brought completely through to cognitive recognitions and hence to verbal expression.

The effects of this sort of behavior, which we would now call "unstressing" (Gowan 1974:123), are related by a participant in 1831 (Podmore,
1902:8):
 

1 was conscious of a strained utterance not my own; and of a power and pressure of the spirit quite unutterable in a natural way. After this I was
silent, but with composure of mind; my whole body was agitated convulsively; and for the space of more than ten minutes, I was as it were,
paralyzed under a shaking of my limbs, my knees rapping one against the other, and no expression except a convulsive sign.

St. Paul appears to impute unstressing to the presence of the numinous element. He says concerning it (Romans:8:26):

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with signs too deep for words.

Some therapies, unlike Transcendental Meditation, make use of this discharge of stress in positive ways, and even encourage it. One notable
example is Re-evaluation Counseling, which expects that there will be episodes of crying and violent yelling with perspiration if angers are to be let
out and discharged properly. In Re-evaluation Counseling this is a necessary prerequisite for the healthy "super-intelligent" functioning of the
individual which is sought as a goal. Jackins (1965) indicates that negative emotions such as grief, fears, anger, etc., must be let out in such
prototaxic and somatic ways as tears, sobbing, trembling, shivering, cold perspiration, shouting, violent movement, laughter, animated talking, and
the like. Far from shutting off the client when he starts such emotional discharge, the co-counselor actually encourages him to go completely
through the cycle (like a dishwasher) and get everything cleaned up. Only then is it expected that he will be able to function more fully.

Re-evaluation counseling is not the only, but only the most notable ministry employing prototaxic discharge as a therapy. "Primal scream therapy"
is another good example. One may also note that Rogers in "A Process Conception of Psychotherapy" discussed the stage of gestural and crying
modes as a way station on the road to completion of therapy, and suggested that it was a healthy sign of developing ego-strength.

No psychologist can discuss this subject without immediately noticing the marked similarity of unstressing phenomena to some of the somatic
activity in trance, both in savage tribesmen and particularly in glossolalia (section 2.51). The same kind of shaking, violent body movements,
sobbing, moaning, incoherence, animated laughter, talk, or shouting are alike characteristic of all (it should be noted that they are also characteristic
of many adults during the release accompanying sexual orgasm). Evidently what we are looking at is a prototaxic or somatic discharge of energy
which has overwhelmed the consciousness to the extent that it cannot be significantly processed through parataxic or syntaxic modes. It is
therefore released in a rather primitive way. The value of unstressing is more or less proportional to the virtue or lack of it ascribed to it by the
cultural milieu in which it takes place. (One might contrast the Shakers with TM here, the former welcoming the effect, the latter avoiding it.)

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Another characteristic seen universally is the sense of relaxation and well-being, usually culminating in sleep which ensues after the violent
outbreak. And again, one may compare this with the excitement of the sexual orgasm coupled with the relaxation and sleep which usually follow.

Two implications flow from this consideration of symptomology. The first is that all healing ministries might profitably look at the encouragement
of the process of unstressing as a useful therapy or "hostillectomy" which appears to have the usual beneficial results of orgiastic performance.
The second is that if such benefits are received by even the prototaxic discharge of mis-stored energy, one must wonder how much more benefit
might be accrued by the parataxic or even syntaxic discharge of similar stress.

One of the problems in presenting the phenomena in this book in discursive form is that there are many intermediate examples which could have
been classified into several categories. Unstressing, for example, is very similar to glossolalia; both characteristically involve the use of the voice in
an unusual manner. We have separated them because glossolalia appears mostly in trance states, while unstressing appears mostly in the OSC.
One should go further, however, and note that chanting and mantras of the syntaxic mode also bear similarities. A tie between all three modes is
toning. Keyes (1973:30) who advocates toning as a meditative mechanism tells us to start with a sigh or groan with the eyes closed:
 

You will find that the voice after groaning is inclined to rise siren-like, drop back and rise again over and over until it reaches higher notes without
effort. When the body feels cleaned, a sigh is released.

Before men were certain about the object of their worship, an inner awareness of something higher and greater than themselves filled their hearts
with rapture and their tongues with praise.

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2.31 General²⁸

Trance is defined by Webster (in sense 3) as:
A sleeplike state such as that of deep hypnosis, appearing also in hysteria and in some spiritualistic mediums, with limited sensory and motor contact with the surroundings, and with subsequent amnesia about what has occurred during the state.

For clarity, this is the only way in which the word will be used herein.

Let us note the various properties of the state according to the definition:

1. It is sleeplike;
2. seen in hypnosis, hysteria, and mediumistic phenomena;
3. with limited (or absent) sensory and motor awareness;
4. and subsequent amnesia.

Trance is the generic and most general word for a series of phenomena which involve dissociation, loss of sensory and motor function, and memorability, and most important, (what is not stated in the Webster definition) some connection with the numinous element allowing for the manifestation of psychic phenomena.

Trance, which is a psychologically verifiable state of behavior, is often confused with "possession", which is a folk interpretation that the psyche of a given individual is possessed by a demon or a spirit. Prince (1968:5) points out that there are (1) naturalistic explanations for trance, such as dissociation, hypnosis, terror, drugs, and illness, and (2) possession explanations, such as possession by spirits, demons, witches, and even in some cases higher beings (as in the case of mystics). Possession as an explanation for trance is exceedingly common among all races and cultures, and throughout history, and it is (with suitable modifications) a construct equally acceptable with other explanations to account for the phenomena of mediums. The proceedings of the English Society for Psychical Research are eloquent testimony to this hypothesis, and the eminence of men like Myers and Gurney (both of whom were believers) is corroborated by the evidence of Roberts in The Seth Material and Seth Speaks.

These communications, of course, purport to come from humans who have passed over from this life, rather than from demons or spirits. Equally acceptable psychological theories can be advanced to explain the phenomena as an outpouring from the collective preconscious without the need for a possession hypothesis. All that we are attempting to establish here is that the possession hypothesis is not as naive and primitive as one might suppose, but is one that not only has been widely held, but also one which has been used by very experienced and civilized investigators in psychic research. For such activity we will use the phrase "possession trance."

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Table IV  Properties of Various Trance States Compared

One of the most interesting aspects of possession trance is that even where there is belief in a High God, belief in possession by such a Being is very rare. Instead there is successively belief in possession by a lesser god or demon, by nature devas, possession by evil living creatures or by sacred animals with supernatural power, and finally possession by the dead. One detects here a hierarchy going from all-powerfulness and badness to circumscribed power and a neutral or goodness aspect. This hierarchy can be seen in Table II which distinguishes various kinds of trance in terms of their properties, of which ego loss and memorability are the two principal variables.

Of all the phenomena in the prototaxic mode, the trance states are the least accommodating of specific definition. The word trance in itself, is utilized to represent a host of behaviors in which significant processual similarities exist, but also in which behavior and interpretation are widely discrepant. The literature indicates that trance is used descriptively in hypnosis, spiritualism, demoniacal possession,

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shamanism, and in some of the older works, even in cases of pathological disturbance.

A general description of trance is useful at this stage to elucidate the features consistent in the various behaviors. Van der Walde's assumptions (Prince 1968:57-8) about trance acknowledge two features commonly associated with all the variations:

 
"The present analysis of trance states rests upon the basic assumption that trance states are a class of ego mechanisms designed to allow for the discharge of basic drives in a goal oriented manner: . . . mechanisms can also serve other adaptive and defensive purposes. The second basic assumption is that certain basic drives indigenous to western culture are, in fact, universal and that it is only in the expression or in the discharge form of these drives that cultural determinants intervene."

Implicit in this statement is that trance is more or less a state sought by the subject to "discharge drives in a goal oriented manner." Van der Walde's statement however is slightly over-confining. Certainly in those trance states which are voluntary the activity is goal oriented. In spontaneous trance (i.e. possession states) goal orientation does not appear relevant. Nonetheless, his second assumption yields obvious credibility and insight in traversing the cultural province of such a universal occurrence as the trance state.

Ludwig (Prince:1968) lists various trance states induced by "an increase of exteroceptive stimulation and/or motor activity and/or emotion" as follows:

(a) Brainwashing and "third degree" grilling;
(b) "hyperalert" and "hyperkinetic" trance states induced by unusual tension in a crisis;
(c) trance states induced by rhythm as in drumming and dance;
(d) mob contagion and hysteria;
(e) religious conversion and healing experiences during revivalistic meetings and spirit possession states;
(f) shamanistic trance;
(g) "whirling dervish" trance;
(h) orgiastic trance induced by Bacchanalian rites;
(i) fire-walker's trance;
(j) fugue, amnesias, and similar traumatic neuroses;
(k) battle fatigue;
(1) panic and rage states where the person goes "beserk,"
(m) depersonalization;
(n) traumatic illusions and suggestibility resulting from prolonged fear;
(o) hysterical conversion, dreamy and dissociative states; and
(p) acute psychotic states such as schizophrenia.

Ludwig also reports that trance may be induced by relaxation such as

(a) mystical states;
(b) daydreaming, fantasy, or drowsiness;
(c) mediumistic trance;
(d) hypnotic and autohypnotic procedures; and
(e) creative states, and profound aesthetic experiences.

In the analysis of trance, it is worthy of note that sleep may be considered a kind of natural trance in which there is excursion of

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the ego. Some occult thinkers believe that during sleep the ego leaves the body, travels to other planes and receives knowledge there, - a shaman is supposed to do the same thing in magical flight. Since this experience is neither consciously engaged in, nor remembered, it is truly prototaxic. It may, however, have subsequent residual values in the seeping into consciousness of ideas gained during sleep. According to this view, any OBE experience, including the shaman's flight, is merely the parataxic or syntaxic awareness of such an experience.

At any rate, sleep is the involuntary curtailment of consciousness of sensory percepts, and as such it closely resembles trance states. We shall later note a similar connection between dreams and trance.

It should be noted that whether trance is induced by chemical or other means, it appears to act on the body in a way generally characteristic of toxic substances, such as alcohol. Consider, for example the testimony of Dr. Robert D. Fink of the Tennessee Psychiatric Hospital in Memphis at the New York AMA convention in 1973 regarding the progression of stages of delirium tremens:
 

Stage 1:   Tremors, excessively rapid heartbeat, hypertension, heavy sweating, loss of appetite, and insomnia.
Stage 2: Hallucinations-auditory, visual, tactile, or a combination of these; and, rarely, olfactory signs.
Stage 3: Delusions, disorientation, delirium, sometimes intermittent in nature and usually followed by amnesia.
Stage 4:   Seizure activity.

The similarity between the above and possession trance is inescapable.
Pearce (Bourguignon 1973:119)summarizes:
 

Trance experience is a disengagement from ordinary reality orientation. It is a suspension of the ordinary criteria of common consensus. Trance falls into the autistic mode of thinking. The kind of grown person who is able to suspend his reality orientation is the one who retains a pleasant recollection of former disengagements. His childhood fantasies were forms of play in which parental tolerance, approval, or participation played a specific part. The child could always come back to a warm security. The threshold between autistic and reality becomes a well worn path, a door well hinged and oiled through which access was easy and safe.

We may understand trance better by understanding dissociation. A classic description of the dissociation associated with a traumatic experience is given by Greenacre (1969:132-3):

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On several occasions patients have brought material which showed quite clearly some connections between visual shock, headache, and the development of a halo. Schematically the sequences is as follows. The child receives a stunning psychic blow, usually an overwhelming visual experience which has the effect of dazing and bewildering it. There is generally the sensation of lights, flashes of lightning, bright colors or of some sort of aurora. This may seem to invest the object, or objects seen, or it may be felt as occurring in the subject's own head experienced literally as seeing lights or seeing red. This is depicted in comic strips as seeing stars. The initial experience always produces the most intense emotions, whether of awe, fear, rage, or horror. Extremely severe lancinating pain may be part of the disturbing experience. The emotion is felt with great force, as if an explosion or a stab had occurred within the head. There is usually at first a feeling of unreality, or of confusion.

Trance states occur primarily in the domain of primitives; due in part to cultural mores and ritual, and also because "the psychology of archaic man and children is marked by the fusion of volitions, moods, emotions, instincts, and somatic reactions" (Neumann, 1954:111).

Among primitives (and children) the ego is less autonomous than among the more rational populations, is less separate from the body, has fewer inhibitions resulting from superego controls, and is more integrated with the id, thereby facilitating the trance state. In primitive cultures the trance states are desirable voluntary states, whereas in civilized societies the same or similar behavior is regarded as neurotic, hysterical, or psychotic.

Neumann (1954:310) makes the fascinating suggestion that rituals and trance induction in primitive societies enhance the developmental rather than regressive functions of the ego:
 

The development of ego consciousness is paralled by a tendency to make itself independent of the body . . . The point of all such endurance tests is to strengthen the ego's stability, the will, and the higher masculinity, and to establish a conscious sense of superiority over the body . . . ego gains an elementary experience of its own manly spirituality. To these triumphs is added an illumination by the higher spiritual principle whether this be vouchsafed by spiritual beings in individual or collective visions, or by communication of secret doctrines . . . The goal of initiations

is transformation ... in his higher consciousness man experiences fellowship with a spiritual and heavenly world.

An explanation for trance in the system of altered states of consciousness is made by Bourguignon (1973:5) who says:
 

Fischer (1970:232) constructs a "biocybernetic model of conscious experience" for which he finds a neurophysiological basis. Fischer orders states of consciousness along a continuum varying in terms of central nervous system arousal ("ergotropic excitation"). The "normophrenic" state, ranging from daily routine to relaxation and characterized by perception, is at the center of this model. It is flanked on the one hand by the continuum of reduced arousal, ranging from tranquil states to hypoaroused states whose extreme point is found in the Yoga state of Samadhi. This is the continuum of meditation in contrast to perception. On the other hand we find the states of increased arousal, ranging from sensitivity, creativity, and anxiety, to the hyperarousal of schizophrenia and in the ecstatic state of mystical rapture. This is the continuum of hallucination . . . In this view altered states of consciousness are characterized by deviations in quantity of central nervous system arousal from a central normal state.

In a further effort to orient trance into the general system Bourguignon (1973:6-6) states:
 

A rather different classification, limited to ASC is offered by Ludwig (Prince, 1968). He differentiates states according to the variables involved in their induction, grouping them into five categories:
 

a. reduction of exteroceptive stimulation and/ or motor activity.
b. increase of exteroceptive stimulation a / o motor activity a / o emotion.
c. increased alertness or mental involvement.
d. decreased alertness and relaxation of critical factors.
e. presence of somato-physiological factors . . .

In spite of the great variety of states included in this classification,

Ludwig finds that they share a series of ten general characteristics:

 

1. alteration in thinking
2. disturbed time-sense
3. loss of control
4. change in emotional expression
5.change in body image
6. perceptual distortion
7.change in meaning of significance (heightened subjective significance)
8. sense of the ineffable
9.feelings of rejuvenation
10. hypersuggestibility

We have found it useful to group these into two broad types:
 

1. states interpreted by the societies in which they occur as due to "possession by spirits" (possession trance PT)
2.states not so interpreted (trance T)
 T involves hallucinations, PT does not; T involves memorability, PT does not; T does not involve amnesia, PT does.

Trance is the center of activity in the prototaxic mode. Ritual is the center of activity in the parataxic mode. Meditation is the center of activity in the syntaxic mode.

Ludwig (1967) (P.A. 1967:10507)also concluded that:
 

Hypnotic trance is only one variety of trance. Trance phenomena are widespread and represent a normal faculty. Trance may be produced by many means and in many different contexts. Trance may serve important individual and social survival purposes in man.

In the varieties of experience in the prototaxic mode, a characteristic description is the absence of the ego during these behaviors. Serious questions arise, however, as to whether the ego is actually absent in prototaxic behavior, or if, perhaps, there has been "ego-consent" for the behavior, during which time the ego is simply obeying its own choice to be held in abeyance, or if indeed, it is not the ego, but rather the agency of inhibition, the superego, which is absent. The range of experiences which are included in the prototaxic mode do not all conveniently fall into the realm of ego excursive behavior, but rather seem to indicate by their nature an initial excursiveness of the superego. This is then followed, according to the depth and degree of the phenomenon, by "ego-consent" in certain of the behaviors, while in possession and the mental dysfunctions, indeed, spontaneous excursion of the ego occurs. In both cases it is the id which strives

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for ascendance. In ego-consent although the ego is held in abeyance, the more subtle mechanism is that the ego continues to maintain indirect control, thus in effect thwarting the spontaneity of the id thrust. In ego excursion the id gains functional autonomy and the ego can no longer maintain even indirect controls.

In all cases of prototaxic behavior regardless of the initiating process of ego-consent or excursion, the behavior is characterized by degrees of irrational responses and reactions representative of id consciousness. In the prototaxic mode the repressed, primal instincts surface, yielding the vivid impression that the subject is no longer in control of his logical, rational thought processes, but rather is governed by his base, primitive, sensory oriented capacities.

Today the expression "losing control" is typically used to describe varying behaviors categorized as psychological disturbance. Witnessing an adult yielding to or capitulating to infantile regressive behaviors, the psychologist would comment on the "break with reality" or "separation of the self (read ego) from the environment." The older psychotherapist might describe the same behavior as "hysteria" or "fugue," while the primitive man would probably respond to the behavior as "spirit" or "demoniacal possession," "shamanistic trance," or the like. The point is that behavior characterized by "loss of control" is not new to man, but rather has existed since earliest times. Its description from age to age has seen little fundamental change; rather, it has been subject to diverse sets of culturally imposed interpretations which reflect a given society's frames of reference at a given time.

Loss of control is typically associated with dissociation which is characteristic in the prototaxic mode. Stafford-Clark (1966:254) def ines the Freudian use of the term as:
 

The breaking off of connexions of any kind, in any sort of combination . . . for a functional interruption of associations or connexions in the mind . . upon which the revival of memories and systems of ideas depends, as well as the personal control normally exercised over various motor processes, and producing forgettings, hallucinations (negative), anaesthesias, etc . . .

For general purposes, dissociation can be treated as loss of control of normal ego functions which are replaced by id capabilities.

With these introductory remarks in mind we are now ready to investigate the different kinds of trance, or perhaps more accurately the different methods of inducing it and the different beliefs about it.

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2.32 Group Trance Dance

Many primitive cultures around the world employ a form of trance which may be called "group trance dance." This ceremony or ritual involves a large number of persons in the tribal group, generally though not always, of an elite nature. The purpose of the trance dance is usually for active curing or healing, although other paranormal activities are sometimes seen. It also seems evident that participants experience some intrinsic satisfaction by entering the associated ASC; they may also receive extrinsic incentives in societal rewards or increased status. Characteristic of this form of trance is group possession, exaggerated kinesthetic behavior, ultimate exhaustion and catalepsy, sleep, and no memorability of the incident. Aspects of group contagion appear to be involved; drumming and music often accompany the dance; and finally the spectacle is public and open. In many of these respects group trance dance differs from the trance activities of separated individuals.

Before we smile on such naive behavior we should notice that these ceremonies are very similar to the kinesthetic activities of many Christian and Sufi religious sects, notably the Quakers, Shakers, and whirling dervishes.

Group trance represents the consolidation of all the trance states developed thus far. Its significance, however, lies not in its replication of those states, but rather in the techniques which are used for induction of trance in groups.

Induction rituals among primitives are remarkably similar, in spite of specific culture-oriented deviation, and are notably dissimilar to induction procedures followed by individuals (with the exception of certain aspects of shamanism). The outstanding dissimilarity is that group trance ritual engages the body in active, and often strenuous exertion; there is little of the solemnity and quiet which is associated, for example, with the reduction in stimulus in hypnotic induction. In fact, the group trance ritual is a physical ritual. Reliance on the body as a vehicle for trance expression is an indication of the absence of the mental powers which would permit the ego the concentration and discipline related to trance. Gross body stimulation then would engender the primitive's capability to produce altered states of consciousness. Lee (in Prince, ed., 1968:49) attests to this state of affairs: "altered states of consciousness may be produced as a result of either a reduction or an increase in the level of exteroceptive stimulation and/or motor activity."

Another relevant aspect of the body consciousness of primitive man is its characteristic looseness of boundaries. The flexible self-image

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of the primitive allows him to remain, when he so chooses, undifferentiated from external reality. Neumann notes (1954, pp. 288-89) in a typical example the relationship of Australian aborigines to the "churinga" - a piece of wood or stone which the subject hides away as a manifestation of "one's own hidden body." Neumann cites this as demonstrative of "the self (which is) here felt to be identical with the body and with the world of the ancestors." The primitive is freer than his more rational relations to experience oneness with his environment, and thus through extensive bodily manipulation, rather than mental journeys, is able to extend himself into an altered state of perception of that environment.

The Kung Bushmen (as reported by Lee, Prince 1968:35) have an elaborate group trance ceremony which culminates in a dancing orgy. Special features include the high incidence of trance, and the public nature of the display. There are five stages to the exhibition:

(1) the preparatory dance and song;
(2) the entering of the trance which produces visible changes in the dancers;
(3) the "half death" in which the trancer appears in a supine catelepsy;
(4) the "active curing" phase when the entranced person rises to his feet, staggers among the crowd to perform the curative "laying on of hands" to the sick; and
(5) the return to normal usually during a heavy sleep.

Other typical phenomena seen during such group trances are fire walking, fire handling, and running amok. Lee also reports that active engagement in trance is a characteristic of young men; old men though experienced in such matters do not appear to have the power.

It will be helpful to give some eyewitness examples of trance behavior, especially to bring out the crude and gross somatic activity. Pfeiffer (1969:349-50) describes the trance dance graphically:
 

Another major phase of the Kalahari project concerns the relationships between behavior and beliefs. At the core of the Bushman's religion is the healing dance, and at the core of the dance is the trance of the healer. The Bushmen believe that medicine lies cold in the pit of the healer's stomach, and that it can be released and transferred to sick persons by a laying-on of hands. But first the medicine must be brought to a boil, which is the purpose of the dance.

Proceedings usually start in the evening as women, and often children, make a fire and sit about it clapping and singing. Soon some of the men move into the area to dance for brief periods in circles around the fire, shoulders hunched and feet stamping and arms pressed against their sides, in a casual sort of warm-up period that may last for two hours or so. Then the frenzy comes.

A vacant stare appears in the eyes of the dancer and he trembles, sweats heavily and stamps so hard that, in Lee's words, "shock waves can be seen rippling through the body."

The trance state is marked by moaning, shrieking, and intense physical exertion. Sometimes a dancer, a novice as a rule, loses control and runs wild into the bush or burns himself by dancing through the central fire. One man described the experience as follows: "I see all the people like very small birds; the whole place will be spinning around and that is why we run around. The trees will be circling also. You feel your blood become very hot just like blood boiling on a fire and then you start healing. . . . When I lay my hands on a sick person, the medicine in me will go into him and cure him."

These rituals serve a number of purposes besides healing. The people may also organize dances out of sheer exuberance, to celebrate the killing of a large antelope or to greet old friends coming for a visit. Looking at things in a wider context, Lee draws attention to a point involving the resolution of conflict. He emphasizes that in the course of their dancing activities the Bushman experience hallucinations, distorted body images and related effects which members of other societies, primitive and otherwise, experience with the use of drugs - and that certain features of the dance, such as violent exertion and shrieking, help provide harmless relief for resentments and fears and insecurities.
 

On the ideational level, suggestibility plays a significant role in preparing the group for a dance ritual. The primitive group, reflecting, of course, the individuals in the group, is less developed in its critical

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reasoning capabilities, and is likely to be more susceptible to explanations or promises with disregard for their irrational components. En masse susceptibility is heightened, as Rawcliffe (1951, p. 75) notes:
 

Suggestion in primitive society can be implanted with enormous effect. The combination of complete belief in magic and in the powers of the witchdoctor (or hypnotic), the large element of fear, the accumulative effect of reciprocal suggestion always present among a crowd, the state of excitement and intense expectation, all operate to induce a state of extreme suggestibility.

Mooney (1896:917) gives us this classic description of the Sioux Ghost Dance:
 

When they arose again, they enlarged the circle by facing toward the center, taking hold of hands, and moving around in the manner of school children in their play of "needle's eye." And now the most intense excitement began. They would go as fast as they could, their hands moving from side to side, their bodies swaying, their arms, with hands gripped tightly in their neighbors', swinging back and forth with all their might. If one, more weak and frail, came near falling, he would be jerked up and into position until tired nature gave way. The ground had been worked and worn by many feet, until the fine, flour-like dust lay light and loose to the depth of two or three inches. The wind, which had increased, would sometimes take it up, enveloping the dancers and hiding them from view. In the ring were men, women, and children; the strong and the robust, the weak consumptive, and those near to death's door. They believed those who were sick would be cured by joining in the dance and losing consciousness.

The Indian Ghost Dance (and undoubtedly most similar events) was a quest for ancestral communication and spiritual rejuvenation (Mooney, 1896). But in spite of the spiritual zealousness involved, it was also a social event, replete with all the trappings of a festival. Motivation for participation in the group dance was as much initiated for the 'social' as the 'spiritual' benefits. Thus, it is possible that much of what was purported to be trance was but an imitative

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performance, and Rawcliffe (1951, p. 153) notes that we
 

can observe cases where wishful thinking, suggestion,  or an irrational impulse to imitation, is responsible for initiating an activity which, at first subject to volitional control, rapidly develops into an involuntary psychological automatism.

This suggests spontaneous synthesis of suggestion and weak ego, which although permitting initial consent (to participation and/or imitation) can no longer control the impulses. The loss of control is similar to both the process and behavior of the possession state. Mooney (1896:950ff) crediting Brown's Dervishes gives us the following lengthy description of Sufi dancing:
 

After a new pause commences the fourth scene. Now all the Dervishes take off their turbans, form a circle, bear their arms and shoulders against each other, and thus make the circuit of the hall at a measured pace, striking their feet at intervals against the floor, and all springing up at once. This dance continues during the Ilahees chanted alternately by the two elders to the left of the sheikh. In the midst of this chant the cries of "Ya Allah!" are increased doubly, as also those of "Ya Hoo!" with frightful howlings, shrieked by the Dervishes together in the dance. At the moment that they would seem to stop from sheer exhaustion the sheikh makes a point of exerting them to new efforts by walking through their midst, making also himself most violent movements. He is next replaced by the two elders, who double the quickness of the step and the agitation of the body; they even straighten themselves up from time to time, and excite the envy or emulation of the others in their astonishing efforts to continue the dance until their strength is entirely exhausted.

The fourth scene leads to the last, which is the most frightful of all, the wholly prostrated condition of the actors becoming converted into a species of ecstasy which they call Halet. It is in the midst of this abandonment of self, or rather of religious delirium, that they make use of red-hot irons. Several cutlasses and other instruments of sharp-pointed iron are suspended in the niches of the hall, and upon a part of the wall to the right of the sheikh. Near the close of the fourth scene two Dervishes take down eight or nine of these instruments, heat them red hot, and present them to the sheikh. He, after reciting some prayers over them, and invoking the founder of the order, Ahmed er Ruffee, breathes over them, and raising them slightly to the mouth, gives them to the Dervishes, who ask for them with the

greatest eagerness. Then it is that these fanatics, transported by frenzy, seize upon these irons, gloat upon them tenderly, lick them, bite them, hold them between their teeth, and end by cooling them in their mouths. Those who are unable to procure any seize upon the cutlasses hanging on the wall with fury, and stick them into their sides, arms, and legs.

Thanks to the fury of their frenzy, and to the amazing boldness which they deem a merit in the eyes of the Divinity, all stoically bear up against the pain which they experience with apparent gaiety. If, however, some of them fall under their sufferings, they throw themselves into the arms of their confreres, but without a complaint or the least sign of pain. Some minutes after this, the sheikh walks round the hall, visits each one of the performers in turn, breathes upon their wounds, rubs them with saliva, recites prayers over them, and promises them speedy cures. It is said that twenty-four hours afterward nothing is to be seen of their wounds. (Pages 218-222.)

Witthower (1970) (P.A. 1972:10679) recounts native cult services in Haiti, Liberia, and Brazil to illustrate behavior patterns during trance states and states of spiritual possession. Trance and possession behaviors have some resemblance to epileptic and hysteric states and possess a great similarity to hypnotic trance states. Cult rituals have functional, adaptive value both for the cultures in which they appear and for the individual worshipper. The control of mystic power and its investment in otherwise insignificant peasants, may relieve feelings of impotence and expendability produced by discrimination, oppression, and the rapid cultural change of progressive westernization in developing nations.

The Voodoo rites of Haiti seem to be a combination of group trance dance and possession trance. Among others who have written about possession trance in the Caribbean area are Henny (1969), and others. But lest we become patronizing at the excesses of zeal in other cultures, let us note an indigenous example.

Mooney (1896:941) in his usual conscientious fashion tells of the Shakers:
 

About the year 1750 there originated in England another peculiar body of sectarians calling themselves the "United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing," but commonly known, for obvious reasons, as Shakers. Their chief prophetess and founder was "Mother" Ann Lee, whom they claim as the actual reincarnation of Christ. They claim also the inspiration of prophecy,

the gift of healing, and sometimes even the gift of tongues, and believe in the reality of constant intercourse with the spirit world through visions. In consequence of persecution in England, on account of their public dancing, shouting, and shaking, they removed to this country about 1780 and settled at New Lebanon, New York, where the society still keeps up its organization.

The best idea of the Shakers is given in a small volume by Evans, who was himself a member of the sect. Speaking of the convulsive manifestations among them, he says: "Sometimes, after sitting awhile in silent meditation, they were seized with a mighty trembling, under which they would often express the indignation of God against all sin. At other times they were exercised with singing, shouting, and leaping for joy at the near prospect of salvation. They were often exercised with great agitation of body and limbs, shaking, running, and walking the floor, with a variety of other operations and signs, swiftly passing and repassing each other like clouds agitated with a mighty wind. These exercises, so strange in the eyes of the beholders, brought upon them the appellation of Shakers, which has been their most common name of distinction ever since." With regard to their dancing, he says: "It is pretty generally known that the Shakers serve God by singing and dancing; but why they practice this mode of worship is not so generally understood: . . . When sin is fully removed, by confessing and forsaking it, the cause of heaviness, gloom, and sorrow is gone, and joy and rejoicing, and thanksgiving and praise are then the spontaneous effects of a true spirit of devotion. And whatever manner the spirit may dictate, or whatever the form into which the spirit may lead, it is acceptable to Him from whom the spirit proceeds." On one particular occasion, "previous to our coming we called a meeting and there was [sic] so many gifts (such as prophecies, revelations, visions, and dreams) in confirmation of a former revelation for us to come that some could hardly wait for others to tell their gifts. We had a joyful meeting and danced till morning."

The heating qualities of the numinous element when manifested in individuals are not alone seen in the perspiration of primitive peoples. George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, tells us in his journal (Nickalls 1952:1962:41): "The word of the Lord was like a fire in me, and being winter I untied my shoes and put them off." Having walked barefoot through an English winter foretelling doom to Lichfield, he returned "in peace," but "the fire of the Lord was so in my feet and all over me that I did not matter to put my shoes on

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any more....".  It should be noted that this experience is the inverse of fire-walking, a similar manifestation of the numinous element.

2.33 Possession Trance⁸

The possession of a human by a demon or disincarnate spirit smacks so much of witchcraft, primitive animism, and out-moded superstition that it is particularly objectionable to Western researchers as an explanation, or topic, for psychological analysis. The alternative psychoanalytically-oriented construct that repressed and despised aspects of the psyche become so numerous and so strong in the subconscious that they take over the conscious persona is also a possibility, provided we credit the collective preconscious with enlarged powers. Nevertheless, the first construct appears useful in understanding possession trance, which appears to be some kind of a way station between the frightening dissociation of schizophrenia, and the professional benign control of dissociation by a medical hypnotist.

Although one cannot with rigor totally distinguish possession trance from either schizophrenia, group trance, mediumistic trance, or shamanistic trance, since they all partake of some aspects of possession, we shall for clarity adopt Bourguignon's position and mean by "possession trance" only those cases where an individual (generally in a primitive society) is possessed by a demon or spirit, in which the possessed person has no memorability of the incident, and the "ill" behavior appears to have no social value. The popularity of the motion picture "The Exorcist" suggests that this kind of possession is by no means confined to primitive peoples. This type of trance is usually chronic; it is not sought by the person, but is considered by him and by his friends as an "illness" to be gotten rid of, often by shamanistic intervention.

The possession states by definition imply the presence of belief in the power of the spirits, generally assumed to be demoniacal, to enter the body of and possess the soul of an individual. The spirits are said to 'possess' the subject and to be responsible for his discordant and bizarre speech, actions, and general behavior.

The possession state is the first on the prototaxic continuum which is involuntary and unlikely to occur as a result of ego-consent. Further, at least at its inception, it cannot be included in the superego excursive category either. It is also the first of the trance states in which ego conflict and mental struggle are in marked evidence. And comparatively, possession is more akin to pathological personality disturbance than to the voluntary trance states.

In possession and the subsequent states, the superego, ego, and id relationship lends itself to conceptualization as ego-excursive. There

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appears to be a "sandwiching effect" wherein the ego is obliterated, or excursed, under the intense pressure of the id battling for experiential expression and the superego over-responding in its capacity to squelch the id's attempt at manipulation. This "sandwiching" pressure creates a fear factor embodied only in the involitional states. It indicates the fear of, rather than choice to, lose control. And therein lies a profound difference between the involitional and ego-consent behaviors. The weak ego cannot summon adequate resources to defend itself and as the battle between the id and superego escalates, the ego excurses in terror, with subsequent complete capitulation to the id's archaic impulses and/or the superego's moral verdict. In either case the ego excursion is total and results in serious behavioral abberations.

The id becomes the incarnation of the devil or evil spirit and the subject is said to be possessed when this manifestation of the archaic impulses assumes autonomous control of consciousness. While disclaiming actual spirit possession, Neumann (1954, p.300)nonetheless accounts for the possession factor by the unconscious:
 

The tendency of the unconscious contents to swamp the consciousness corresponds to the danger of being "possessed;" it is one of the greatest "perils of the soul" even today. Consciousness possessed by particular content has enormous dynamism; but counteracts the centroversion tendency of the ego to work for the whole. Consequently, the danger of disintegration and collapse becomes all the greater . . . Possession by an unconscious content entails loss of (ego) consciousness.

Neumann's conceptualization, because it deals with content and process rather than interpretation, establishes the commonalities between the primitive possession state and modern ego dysfunctions.

Oesterreich (1966, p.83) describes the "possession transformation" which concurs with Neumann's content and process and details the loss of ego control:
 

1. The subject gradually weakens in his resistance to the compulsive processes which constitute the essence of the "demon";
2. The process begins to be accepted but is not subject to the control of the will (sandwiching effect);
3. When the struggle is relinquished the patient ceases simultaneously as a rule to harbor compulsive ideas and to imagine the consciousness of the second personality (the spirit).

The struggle or transformation process typically is a violent outburst of energies from the unconscious (Oesterreich, 1966, p.85). Van der

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Walde (in Prince, ed., 1968, p. 44) notes that in the Kung Bushmen trance rituals, although initiates have consented to participation, they have not developed adequate discipline and self control and "young novices often plunge into trance and exhibit uncontrolled reactions and must be restrained." Violence or socially deviant behavior is characteristic of possession as well and in both situations appears to be the result of ego excursion which deprives the subject of self-control, and superego excursion which deprives him of his judgemental capacities.

In possession the unwillingness or incapacity of the ego to integrate the behavioral and ideational impulses of the unconscious forces the ego upon recovery to succumb to amnesia. In all likelihood the amnesia itself becomes the compulsive function of the personality. Prince (1968, p. vi) comments that the amnesia accompanying the possession states differentiates it clearly from what he calls the mystical trance states.

Possession is a spontaneous regressive behavior in which there is obvious absence of ego-consent and ego control (although a case could be made for "regression in the service of the ego" - as an adaptive defense of a weak ego). The behavior is accelerated in appearance "under the twin influences of suggestion and emotion (Rawcliffe, 1951, p. 78), and during certain periods (i.e. The Inquisition) has reached epidemic proportions. However, much of what was reported as possession was either highly imitative behavior (though of doubtful social value) initiated by predisposition toward personality dysfunction, or unlikely confessions of possession made under the extreme duress of torture. Finally it was in the majority of cases, severe personality disorders responding to both the suggestion and expectations of the society, and unlikely to be demoniacal possession at all.

Bourguignon (1973:42) defines possession trance as follows:
 

(It) . . . refers to a condition in which a person is believed to be inhabited by the spirit of another person or a supernatural being. During this possession . . . the person is in an altered state of consciousness, evidenced by one or more of the following:

Talking and acting like the inhabiting spirit,
lapsing into a coma-like state,
speaking unintelligibly,
exhibiting physical symptoms such as twitching, wild dancing, frothing at the mouth, etc.

Upon regaining his original identity, the person generally retains no conscious memory of the activity of the spirit.

Greenbaum (Bourguignon 1973:39ff) found possession trance correlated with slavery, and believed they were both related to intervening

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variables. Bourguignon (1973:327) in summary stated that possession trance may provide for status and self esteem among the lowly in a rigid society. "It provides compensation for those hardest pressed: 'women and weak men."'

Spirit possession is found extensively in Africa, descriptions of it being found in Ghana, the Kalabari region, the Yoruba region, the Tonga of Zambia, the Korekore Valley, the Zula, Bubyoro, Tanzania, Somaliland, Kenya, and among the Lugbara, the Alor, and the Sukama, all cited by Beattie and others (1969).

M. F. Field (Beattie 1969:3) describes spirit-possession thus:
 

The dissociated state in spirit possession (often called trance) is of brief duration, usually an hour or two . . . When normal consciousness is regained the subject has no recollection of what he did, said, observed, or felt while possessed. The dissociation closely resembles that which operates in sleep- walking and hypnotism . . . The possession fit or trance exhibits two distinct phases. There is a short opening phase of dazed mute inaccessibility, and a second longer phase of excitement with great activity . . .

There appear to be two types of trance, spirit-possession, described as above, and mediumship, in which the spirit activities are not somatic, but oracular.

Elizabeth Colson, (Beattie and Others 1969:70-2), gives us the following excellent description of a typical example of spirit possession in Tonga:
 

(The) Tonga recognize three varieties of possession, each due to a particular class of spirit. These are treated in different fashions and have different consequences for the one possessed and for the public. In each variety, a spirit is said to enter (kunji1a) the body of the one possessed; during periods of active possession the vehicle is addressed as the spirit and treated in ways regarded as appropriate for that spirit. During inactive periods it is common to speak of a spirit as being on the body of its vehicle, or perhaps near the body. Its presence is then disregarded. When the spirit departs, abandoning its vehicle entirely, the latter becomes cool (tontolo).

Basangu possession is the most important variety of possession as far as public consequences are concerned. It provides the inspiration for public ritual and is linked closely with social and political life. Perhaps  Basangu were once men, earlier prophets and community leaders. Perhaps they have always been spirits

who have gone from one human vehicle to another. Tonga may disagree on this point without feeling it important. It is what a basangu does, not where it came from, that interests people.

Basangu mediums are true mediums; for they are intermediaries between the spirits and the world of the living. Their messages are almost always of public import, the medium being only the vehicle through which they are transmitted.

The second form of possession, by masabe, is the most common and most spectacular. Whereas basangu possess their mediums because they seek to control or help the public, masabe seek vehicles through whom they can express their own desires and essential natures. The masabe medium is no medium at all in the sense of being an intermediary. The possession experience is of private import; it is addressed to the one possessed. It has its public aspect only because treatment involves the performance of a dance ceremony in which others must participate. Failure to carry out the instructions of the basangu can react upon the public rather than upon the medium who is only a vehicle of the command. Failure to carry out the orders of masabe reacts upon those possessed; for masabe affect only their own vehicle, unlike basangu who influence the world of nature, especially weather.

The third type of possession is ghost possession involving spirits known as zilube, zelo, basikazwa, and sometimes basangu. Ghosts originate in the forgotten local dead or are spirits who have fallen into the control of sorcerers, or perhaps they are a spirit remnant created at each death. Informants differ. A ghost enters its victim for the purpose of killing. Sudden violent illnesses are therefore attributed to ghost possession. Treatment is carried out in private and involves fumigation and the clanging of iron implements in an attempt to force the ghost to leave its victim. Before it flees it should call out its own name and perhaps the name of the directing sorcerer. The released victim should show immediate improvement.

Ghost possession differs from basangu and masabe possession in being wholly undesirable. Victim and helpers seek only to expel a ghost and prevent its re-entry, whereas basangu and masabe mediums expect a long-term association with their spirits and some personal benefits from being possessed. The ghost has no message to give, either public or private; it has no desires to be appeased. Ghosts have no mediums, only victims, and these must be short-term ones; either a ghost is expelled or the victim dies.

Henney (Bourguignon 1973:233-4) describes possession trance during a St. Vincent Shaker meeting:
 

States of dissociation that are a common occurrence during Shaker meetings are explained as possession by the Holy Spirit⁹. Such manifestations rarely appear during the early part of the service when the worshipers are occupied with responses, kneeling, shaking hands, and so on. If a worshiper does begin to slip into possession trance, as evidenced by a sob, a shout, or a shudder, perhaps, he quickly recovers.

Possession trance occurs as the performance of a single individual, or as a performance in which several individuals are affected but each acts as a soloist, or as a group performance in which possession trance takes on choral aspects. When a person exhibits symptoms of developing possession trance, he may be the only one in the church to display such behavior at the time, or there may be several individuals scattered through the church in a similar state; he may be a member of the congregation, or he may be the person who has been performing, preaching, or praying.

The first outward indication of possession trance may be a convulsive jerk of an arm or arms, one or both shoulders, or the head. Or it may be a shiver, a shudder, or tremble; a sudden shout, sob, or hiss; a series of unintelligible sounds; or any combination of such movements or vocalizations. The affected person may suddenly stand up and dance in place. These external signs of inward lessening of control appear to be spontaneous; and for each possession trancer, they have a random quality lacking any rhythmic pattern. As far as the group is concerned, if several persons are affected at the same time, each displays a different set of symptoms. At this level of possession trance, symptoms viewed either for the individual or for the group are random and unpatterned; however, from one session to another, the movements and sounds of a particular individual can often be predicted . . .

Feinhelder (1971) in a cross cultural survey of trance discusses some of the constants found in it. In the Ashanti of West Africa, trance is part of the healing ministry, In Bali, mass spirit-possession takes place in mourning and divination services which include frenzy, dancing, and unconsciousness. Among the Crow Indians, trance is used for divination, for manhood ceremonies, as a relief for stress, and as part of the ceremonial Bear dance. Among the Lapps, trance is used for clairvoyance; it is induced by rhythmic singing, dancing, and beating of drums. Among the Bedouin of Syria, trance may come

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about by spirit-possession. The Shango of Trinidad become entranced through the beating of drums, and it can be passed from one to another by touch. In the Bantu of Kenya, married women are possessed by spirits who make demands for prohibited objects, and who must be exorcised by ceremonies.

Feinholder concludes that trance is institutionalized behavior existing in societies where child-rearing is rigid, and where personal blame is high as a result both of social anxiety and intropunitiveness; it may provide opportunities to obtain otherwise unavailable rewards and indulgences.

2.34 Mediumistic Trance⁹

While mediumistic trance is similar to possession trance in that the ego of the medium is excursed under trance, and appears to be under the control of another personality, without memorability of the experience, mediumistic trance differs in several important particulars from possession trance. These are:
 

1. Whereas in possession trance the individual is possessed by a demon or malevolent spirit, the medium appears to be possessed by a benign spirit, usually that of a dead human being.

2. Whereas in possession trance the individual is seen as "ill" and his behavior something to be got rid of, in mediumistic trance the behavior of the medium is seen to be "good" and something to be repeated; hence possession trance is not sought, but mediumistic trance is.

3. Whereas in possession trance the behavior of the invading spirit has no social value or benefit, in mediumistic trance the behavior of the invading spirit has the social benefit of advice, help, knowledge, healing, precognition, prophecy, etc.

4. Whereas in possession trance there are gross somatic and kinesthetic movements of a crude variety, these acting-out behaviors are much less seen in mediumistic trance, being replaced by words intelligible to others, or other socially valuable paranormal behavior.

These distinctions are sufficient to require a special category for mediumistic trance, as they also distinguish the state from shamanistic trance, in which the shaman purports to have memorability and control himself during the trance. There is also another characteristic of mediumistic trance, seen even more forcibly in shamanistic trance which distinguishes them from possession trance. That is that mediumistic trance has to be learned and can be perfected. Like shamanistic trance, it also can be induced at will.

Mediumistic trance is very ancient; accounts of it are found in all cultures, and in ancient religious works including the Bible (The

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Witch of Endor being a good example). It involves both dissociation and an ASC. Myers, the great authority on mediumship, devotes a chapter to the subject in his Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, and notes the close relationship of trance possession to motor automatisms in the following definition (1903:345):
 

Possession is a more developed form of motor automatism in which the automatist's own personality does for the time altogether disappear, while there is a more or less complete substitution of personality; writing or speech being given by a spirit through the entranced organism (i.o.).

While possession has some similarities to the creative inspiration, automatic writing, and peak-experiences and satori, it differs in a most important respect, namely that the individual is not only not conscious, but the spirit seems to have vacated the consciousness, leaving it at the mercy of whatever comes along.

Possession is not the same as the conscious excursion of the spirit in ecstasy, rapture, OOB experience, or other mystical adventure, for here the consciousness while sometimes out of the body, and certainly somewhat dissociated, is still able later to relate what has happened to it during the interval when the body lay cataleptic. The same conscious awareness is not reported in possession.¹⁰

While most mediums, especially those of a spiritualistic bent, seem to turn up little but banality in their control utterances, (as if the gigantic computer associated with the collective preconscious had executed a "print dump" order), there are a few mediums who have reported significant veridictical material. Perhaps the most prominent of these is the data collected under the mediumship of "Mrs. Piper" (Myers, 1909:347).

It is significant that her "sitters" and the alleged disincarnate spirits attending her either were or had been men of distinction in psychical research. Apparently the keenness of the intellects of the sitters and the controls in these instances may do much to improve the quality of the communication, since it is not only the preconscious of the medium which is being tapped. Mrs. Garrett (1968), another noted psychic, reported that after it was discovered that she had mediumistic

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powers, she found it necessary to "be developed" by sitting with Hewitt McKenzie, another eminent psychic researcher. We are unsure as to whether there is a gradual education of the uncontrolled "not-me" aspects of the preconscious to a more docile aspect, or whether the "education" is merely a change of locus within the vast area of the preconscious, (as when several users pool their stored memory drum data on a giant computer). Or it may be that parts of the persona become more personalized and discreet, resulting in a fragmentary personality, or two or more persons. It was William James' conclusion (Myers 1903:382) that Mrs. Piper "has supernormal powers." Myers himself was one of her "sitters" and believed in the genuineness of her phenomena; it is interesting that after his death, he was one of the alleged controls in the phenomena of the next medium, Mrs. Leonard.

Another noted mediumship far above the usual was that of Mrs. Leonard (Smith 1964). As Smith says in the opening lines of the book (1964:11), "A great medium is a rare phenomenon, rarer than a great painter or a piano virtuoso." Mrs. Leonard apparently developed her psychic powers so that her sittings (some of which were with Sir Oliver Lodge) had unusual "power" and clarity, and her control, a discarnate entity named "Feda" was very accurate. We cannot in this short space give adequate examples of this ability, but we shall discuss one of the most unusual of Mrs. Leonard's powers - that of "direct voice." Direct voice occurs when (on rare occasions) the supposed disincarnate "deceased" speaks with his own voice through the medium, instead of communicating with the control who then speaks through the medium. There is nothing much in the fact that this happens, but what is significant is that the content of the D. V. messages reveals an entirely different personality than that of the control. In the direct voice protocols (Smith 1964:238), the "direct voice" supplies words when Feda asks, corrects Feda in content and pronunciation, contradicts Feda, expostulates with Feda, is unheard, misheard, or only partly heard by the control. Some examples:
 

Feda: It's like being put in charge of a department of boars.
D.V.: Borstal.

Feda: Admiral Idea, he says.
D.V.: Admirable.

Feda: A man once said Feda was a spectrum.
D.V.: Spectre.

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Feda: What do you call it - an empty sone?
D.V.: Zone.

No one can read these pages without being powerfully impressed with the conclusion that the direct voice communicator and Feda the control are two distinct entities, and that of the two the communicator is more sophisticated and educated. It is as if the medium were a piano, and there are two players, one much more skilled than the other. The direct voice communicator knows where to find the words in the medium's mind that Feda does not. In other words, he has a bigger vocabulary - certainly one of the prime aspects of personality survival. Smith (1964:229) also provides an explanation of how and why "direct voice" occurs, and its relationship to the whole mediumistic seance.

A third and final example of an unusually "high" control for a medium is the recent "Seth Material" from the mediumship of Jane Roberts (1970, 1972). If we are to believe Seth, he is a highly evolved entity, far above the usual table-rapping type; certainly his material, while somewhat formal and platitudinous, is generally in keeping with his claims. Seth's statements however, like those of other mediums, can be interpreted in one way as communication from the beyond and can also in another way be represented as communication from parts of the preconscious within.

In appraising the work of mediums, we should note that in a dissociated way, they are also creative, for through their dissociation, elemental energies become focused. Muldoon and Carrington (1961:20) point up this parallelism in stating "With mediums the imagination becomes a creative power of the first order."

Let us assume for the moment that mediumistic utterances can be taken at their face value, and let us examine critically the content of the messages in contrast to material on similar subjects produced by prophets, mystics, religious leaders, and "third-force" writers. One might assume that those who purport to speak from the other side of the veil might have some startling disclosures, some irresistible proselyting abilities, or some grand eloquence and majesty unequalled by mortal rivals. But this is not the case. The most eloquent descriptions of the afterlife, of man and his destiny, of the relation of man to the universe have not been written by spirits, speaking through a medium, but by inspired humans, in an advanced stage of development. The trance utterances, to be sure, give some hope that consciousness may survive physical death, but this doctrine is taught by many religions, and can be adduced, as we have seen in this book, by

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psychological analysis. Despite the elevated quality of the material produced through the mediumship of Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Leonard, and Mrs. Roberts, it certainly cannot compare with the New Testament, Paradise Lost, or the writings of Blake, Whitman, Emerson, or Maslow. Everyone is entitled to make of this what he will, but to this writer, these facts are eloquent concerning the restraints imposed by mediumship. And this brings us back to the central fact of possession, that while there may be benefits, there are also severe debits.

We have focused on mediumship because it is the most progressive and possibly useful aspect of possession. In reviewing the pros and cons of mediumship, one must ask oneself what has been accomplished. Perhaps some good has been done if any persons are persuaded that life is not as circumscribed by the counting house as Scrooge imagined it to be before being visited by a trio of ghosts. But what has happened to the medium? Has the experience facilitated or complicated her development? The grave loss of control of her own organism can hardly be desirable. Why are an overwhelming preponderance of mediums women? Is there some sexual aspect at work here? What would happen otherwise to the medium? Is this some sanctioned expression of the dissociated elements of the self which otherwise might later explode into schizophrenia? In our analysis of the developmental forcing of schizophrenia we referred to the rupturing of a placenta. Certainly there has been a similar rupture of a placental envelope in these cases.

We have reviewed examples of noted mediumship where (if one cares to believe the allegations) the medium was controlled by high disincarnate types, whose words make sense and give some larger meaning, but such cases are in the minority. Being a medium seems like hitchhiking a ride: you may be lucky and get to your destination, but you may also put yourself at the mercy of undesirable elements. The medium in effect allows her spirit to be invaded for profit, as the prostitute does her body. No one who values the regnancy of integrity of the human being can be happy at either outcome though men may, for expedience, accept the ministrations of both.

2.35 Shamanistic Trance¹¹

2.351 General

A shaman is essentially a sorcerer, a warlock, a "brujo" who deals in magic through the prototaxic procedure of trance. Shamanistic trance while similar to mediumistic trance in some ways, differs from it in several important details:

 
1. Whereas the medium's mission is to bring communications from the dead, the shaman's mission is to influence the natural environment

through magic; his essential duties in carrying out this mission include curing the sick through the expelling of malevolent spirits, influencing, advising, and prediction regarding matters of public importance (such as crops, hunting, weather), and acting as an advocate for his own or his client's private interests in instigating sorcery or preventing counter-sorcery from others.

2. Whereas a medium is usually a less dominant female, a shaman is usually a more dominant male.

3. Whereas a medium merely reports, a shaman bears responsibility for instigation, initiative, and decision-making. Hence, he has a higher status in his society: a medium is not feared; a shaman is.

4. Whereas a medium is entirely under the control of the possessing spirit, the shaman seems to be in control of his spirits, (who appear to be more like familiars of a witch).

5. Whereas the medium generally loses consciousness in trance and has no memorability of the incident, the shaman is able to remain in some state of control, remember, and recite at least some of the experiences he has had in trance.

6. Whereas the medium's paranormal activities outside of communication are generally relatively small, the corresponding activities of the shaman are generally large.

7. Whereas mediumistic trance purports essentially to be a bridge to communication with the dead, shamanistic trance purports essentially to be an out-of-body (OOB) experience, involving magical flight, hallucinations, and memorability, and often the temporary assumption of an animal form.

Elaide, the great master of the subject, characterized shamanism in one of his titles as the "Archaic Technique of Ecstasy," and it would be hard to improve on this description. While shamanism is generally confined to primitive cultures, Don Juan of Casteneda's books (1968, 1972) is a good example of a modern Mexican shaman who exhibits many of the characteristics just noted.

Eliade (1964:29-30) points to the mental health of the shaman thus:
 

The shaman differs from the epileptic in being able to bring on his trance at will.... He is animated, bubbling over with intelligence and vitality. In general the shaman shows no signs of mental or physical disintegration.

The Ojibwa (Indians) have two kinds of shamans, the Wabeno ... and the jessakkid. . . . Both are capable of shamanic exploits.

The Wabeno are also called fire-handlers, and can touch burning coals and remain unhurt. The jessakkid perform cures, the gods and spirits speak through their mouths ...

Some prophets-such as John Slocum, creator of the Shaker movement - opposed the old Indian religion and especially the medicine men. This did not prevent the shamans from joining Slocum's movement; for in it they found the ancient tradition of celestial ascents and experiences of mystical light, and like the shamans, the Shakers could resuscitate the dead. The principal ritual of this sect consisted in prolonged contemplation of the sky and a continuous shaking. . . .

2.352 Qualifications, Training, and Initiation

Shamans seem typically to be recruited from the ranks of those in a culture who experience the "positive disintegration" or the Boisen panic syndrome which we have discussed previously. Eliade (1958:88) says:
 

The strange behavior of future shamans has not failed to attract the attention of scholars, and from the middle of the past century several attempts have been made to explain the phenomenon of shamanism as a mental disorder. But the problem was wrongly put. For, on the one hand, it is not true that shamans always are or always have to be neuropathics; on the other hand, those among them who have been ill became shamans precisely because they had succeeded in becoming cured (i.o. Very often, in Siberia when the shamanic vocation manifests itself as some form of illness or as an epileptic seizure, the initiation is equivalent to a cure). To obtain the gift of shamanizing presupposes precisely the solution of the psychic crisis brought on by the first symptoms of election or call.

But if shamanism cannot simply be identified with a psychopathological phenomenon, it nevertheless is true that the shamanic vocation often implies a crisis so deep that it sometimes borders on madness . . .

The powers of the shaman are explained in terms of the societies' assumptive world and are unquestionably accepted as genuine by it. The routes for acquiring shamanistic powers vary greatly. In some groups the shaman acquires them against his will through

personal and private mystical experiences, and he is regarded as a deviant person with little status except when his powers are invoked. In other groups shamans are drawn from the ranks of the cured patients. In others as in the Kwakiutl, they undergo an elaborate course of training analogous to medical training in our culture and enjoy a high prestige.

Among the Manchy, the public initiation ceremony formerly included the candidates walking over hot coals; if the apprentice has at his command the spirits that he claimed to possess, he could walk on fire without injury. Another initiation involves the generation of "tummo" or psychic heat, by immersion in ice water. Producing heat is one of the essential feats of the primitive magician.

Endoes (1973) in speaking of the medicine man says:
 

He can be many things; a pejuta wiscara who heals with herbs; a yuwipi who finds power in a rawhide and stones, a waayata who sees into the future, a wapiya who conjures, . . . The wicasa waka . . . is a holy man who can cure, prophesy, commune with stones and herbs, conduct the sun dance, and possibly even change the weather. But all o