Psychedelic Trance: ritual, belief and transcendental

Ethnographic fieldwork in various non-industrialised societies around the globe has demonstrated that dance is often related to trance: states of mind in which ordinary conscious awareness is usually partly and temporarily suspended. In these ethnographic instances, trance states are institutionalised and form a part of the religious norm. There, it appears that trance- induced naturally or chemically with certain drugs- is related to possession by spirits and deities and thus is an instrument of ritualistiFDQGUHOLJLRXVLPSRUWDQFHEHFDXVHLWSURYLGHVWKHEDVLVIRUH[SHULHQFLQJWKHµVDFUHG¶RUWKH µVXSHUQDWXUDO¶%XWZKDWKDSSHQVLQDZHVWHUQFXOWXUDOFRQWH[WZKHQXVXDOO\\RXQJSHRSOHJDWKHULQ so-FDOOHGµUDYHV¶DQGGDQFHQRQ-stopped within a large crowd, often under the influence of SV\FKHGHOLFGUXJV"7KLVLQWURGXFWRU\SDSHUIRFXVHVRQWKHGHVFULSWLRQRIWKHSV\FKHGHOLFWUDQFH´ subculture, in relation to the contexts of its historical socio-cultural emergence, past and present perceptions of shamanistic cultures, and to brain cognition