Trance

The dictionary calls Trance: "A state of profound abstraction or absorption". I would say it is nearly any 'non-ordinary' state of reality or being. Ordinary awareness is so limited that it leaves a lot to be desired. And we do a lot of desiring in it! So my definition of trance is that the distance to one's desire has been reduced to zero: you are there!


There are two major ways to be in trance: asleep and awake. The asleep states include dreams, and also non-dreaming states, which can sometimes be remembered on waking. Often these very deep (abstracted?) sleep states cause one to cry with grief at being pulled out of them. But dreams are known to everyone, although some people do not remember theirs very well. Researchers consider dreams to occur mainly or entirely in REM Sleep, but I disagree. I know that sometimes my dreams are very bright and active - probably REM - but I also have very dull, 'boring', colorless stages of dreaming which nonetheless can be recalled and which bridge or frame the more active ones. Because we can't usually control our dreams to any great degree, why waste time thinking of them as trance states? Because sometimes, they have a quite non-ordinary character to them. For example, throughout my life I have had the very definite and provable experience of going to a place for the first time and recognizing it from a dream I had weeks before. Provable because in the moment I can predict something about the place that I have not yet seen, and it turns out to be true. This is not a useful psychic ability because I do not know which dreams will turn out to be of 'actual' places. (Maybe all of my dreams are of actual places that I simply never visit?) Sometimes I hadn't even woken from the dream, or taken any notice of it the next day, so the recognition is particularly - dreamy.


Another dream experience is to meet people or pets that have passed. Anyone who has had this happen knows the difference between just dreaming about, and really meeting up with, one who has passed. You know when it is really them, and not just the ramblings of your 'unconscious' mind. Still, not really controllable.


William S. Burroughs said something to the effect that dreaming goes on all the time. It is like the fact that the stars are always there in the sky, but the sun's glare makes them not visible to us. The glare of consciousness hides the dream track that is continuously going on, whether awake, in REM or otherwise. That's my theory anyway.


So, on to the awake trance modalities. Oh gosh, they are so numerous. A few that spring to mind for me are: dancing (there is something called "trance dancing"), driving to music (listen to 4 AM), being absorbed in outdoor color, wind, sounds, the feeling of sun on my body. It is easy to get lost in smells. Who hasn't smelled their lover's clothing when they are away? Food scents, herbs, flowers, boxes of old things... Easy to spend some time there. Either you are moved by smell or you aren't but it is the most fundamental and evocative sense. Someone recently brought me a piece of food, and I recalled a restaurant I had been to, 30 years before - that's the one! It is possible to smell Astrally also.


Movement is the main route to trance - which means just getting out of your ordinary mindset, remember - it doesn't have to be bizarre or dangerous. My practice of Intuitive Movement / exercise borders on this, depending on how I take it. Sometimes I really reach for a depth of communion with God in it, and I think you will agree that this is a form of "religious trance", with a long history. Other times, it is more like I am trying out choreography: a sort-of experimental laboratory, which helps me find new ways to express myself when I dance. Sometimes it is just, "let's get some movement and shake off the cobwebs." 

The Dance Ground where I practice

But stillness is another way, of course. One time, after watching someone lie motionless on the ground as a thunderstorm approached, right through until well after it had mostly passed by, I tried laying out in the rain (with nothing on, but I covered my face). It was a singularly passive feeling, to just be completely still with cold drops plashing on my skin. It made my mind passive as well, so I could sort-of get a good look at it, like a Tiger that was sound asleep. "You are not your mind, but it is yours to use."


As a Meditator, I have discovered four ways to fall asleep: Body - nodding off; Mind - drifts into dream with body still sitting firmly upright; Both gradually slowing down which sometimes leads to slumping forward and startling; With Awareness - body and mind fall asleep, but I am fully aware and watching them. The last one is pretty rare. And, it feels really good. Nodding off is awful, and certainly doesn't qualify as trance! But it can keep you alive when you are driving.


Now I feel as though I have talked around the whole subject without saying anything. It's been a sort of taxonomy of states, but no real heart. So why do we want / need (a distinction without a difference?) trance states? Well, they are natural, so they will happen anyhow, yet we can enjoy and come to 'covet' them. I realize I have skipped over the entire category of drug or alcohol induced states. Well, I think we can mostly do without those, and the lesson of drugs I have learned is: "you can do this yourself". Back to our question: why does it feel so good to dance, listen to music in the car, sit out back with coffee and watch the sunrise, watch the fire... Why does it feel good? I don't know of anyone who associates trance with unpleasant sensations or states, although it could happen. Maybe the whole thing is just that we are slowing down and focusing in enough to actually experience what feels good? And maybe some of what feels good are capabilities that we do not ordinarily work with, or even consciously know about. Can Trance be waking up to ourselves? Back to the definition at the top!