Is Trance...

[Amaris]

I just had this question pop into my head, is trance apart of meditation? Better yet, what is trance? These are random questions that happen when it's close to bedtime for me. So can someone clear this up for me?

BB,
Amaris

[Shanti]

Hard to explain what a trace is as the experience of it can vary from person to person and there are many levels and types of trances, but what I can say is:

I can be in a trance and not be meditating.
I can meditate and not be in a trance.
I can be in a trance during a meditation.

I dont know if that helps. :weirdsmil

[Wingéd Mermaid]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've found.

It really just depends on how deep of a trance you are in. Often times one can be in a light trance while engrossed in reading or watching TV.. so being in a trance does not necessarily require meditation. It's just a state of consciousness and thinking. However deeper trance can be reached through meditation and other methods (like hypnosis).

Trance is just altered state of consciousness, though usually not so altered like what the effects of drugs have on you. Usually your mind becomes quieter. Sometimes you feel like you're in a bigger place or like the atmosphere has changed. There can be a very slight humming feeling in your body and you may even feel like it's in your surroundings. I know that I feel very safe and relaxed. Any sharp/sudden noises while in a trance are painful, and can feel like a blow to the solar plexus.

One of the last times I was in a meditative trance, my husband accidentally turned on the bathroom light (I was in the dark bedroom). It slipped through the cracked bathroom door, through the cracked bedroom door (so the cats wouldn't scratch at it) and hit me right in the face. WOW was that painful. Very intense also. So make sure if you're going to be in a trance to be somewhere where you won't be disturbed and give others around a talk about being quiet and not disturbing you until you're finished :) No one likes a wake up like that after all.

On a side note, I've noticed that when you're in a trance you don't breathe nearly as often. If you try do deep breathing while in a trance you'll find it quite hard or awkward! I found that rather funny. That on top of everything else almost makes you feel like you're asleep ^_^

I hope I answered your question or at lest helped!

[Xander67]

Very nice info Winged Mermaid!

There are varying degrees of trance ranging from mild to hypnotic.
Shamans and Native americans use extracted DMT from plants to induce hallucinations and gain access to the spirit world.

Currently, there are things like Binural beats, Brainwave entrainment, and other safer and LEGAL methods of inducing a trance.
One thing that all of these have in common is that they are designed to put the seeker (one who is meditating) in a particular brain state,

Alpha, Delta, and Theta.

It is not neccessary to be in Trance state to meditate,

[Wingéd Mermaid]

Very nice info Winged Mermaid!

There are varying degrees of trance ranging from mild to hypnotic.
Shamans and Native americans use extracted DMT from plants to induce hallucinations and gain access to the spirit world.

Currently, there are things like Binural beats, Brainwave entrainment, and other safer and LEGAL methods of inducing a trance.
One thing that all of these have in common is that they are designed to put the seeker (one who is meditating) in a particular brain state,

Alpha, Delta, and Theta.

It is not neccessary to be in Trance state to meditate,

Thanks!
And I love binaural beats! I highly recommend them- just don't pay a lot for them. There are sites with good ones for cheap and free, and you can also torrent a lot of them.
They're good to build your 'trance' muscle (brain actually) but don't depend on them.

Here's a 10 min one on YouTube that I use when doing a quick session. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNlUjCB3YWQ

[Nesta]

Hard to explain what a trace is as the experience of it can vary from person to person and there are many levels and types of trances, but what I can say is:

I can be in a trance and not be meditating.
I can meditate and not be in a trance.
I can be in a trance during a meditation.

I dont know if that helps. :weirdsmil


This is pretty much the same for me. It can change depending on what I'm doing, how I'm feeling, what I want. It's entirely relative to each individual.
I don't use any outside method to induce a trance. I feel that if I can't do it myself then I shouldn't be doing it.

[Xander67]

OH I almost forgot,
http://www.health-spy.com/binaural.html

This has a ton of good info on Binaural beats, and also a section on DNA Activation too

[Amaris]

Thank you for the information. The reason why I was wondering was something that happened about a year ago. I'm an avid music listener and I wasn't even listening to any kind of meditative music, just the regular radio on my CD player. Anyway I'm sitting alone in the back of the van and I don't know what happened. It felt like I blinked but that was it. Everything went black for a second and then I saw this woman, a black woman, dressed in a leopard spotted head wrap with matching wrapped dress. I think there was a blue back drop with a candles all around her. Since then I haven't met her, no matter how hard I try to meditate, which isn't always. When I came back to awareness I was still in the back of the van, the music was still playing and I was confused as to what happened. That was the freakiest thing that happened to me, aside from what happened just recently.
Again thanks for the info! :uhhuhuh:

BB,
Amaris

[brymble]

I think in general, there is a lot of confusion about trance. Here is my understanding of trance, according to my hypnosis studies.

Human perception takes in more sensory information than can possibly be coped with, let alone processed and understood. We naturally filter out much more information than we even consciously notice, let alone remember. We have to limit our consciousness and narrow it down to certain useful information in order to function effectively. A trance is any limited state of consciousness. Technically, all of consensus reality is a "trance", albeit a very inclusive one.

When people think of trances, they think of very deep, focused states of relaxation. Not all trances are relaxing. When you're angry and you don't notice you're saying something cruel that you don't mean, for example, that information (the cruelty of your statement, and that you don't mean it) is filtered out of your immediate consciousness, because your awareness is mainly limited to your own anger and whatever or whomever you're directing it at.

Trance is a tool that you can use to access information, emotions, helpful states of consciousness, memories, and experiences beyond immediate notice. Actors, writers, artists and musicians use trance when they create their art. Politicians and advertisers use trance to get people to think and feel the way they want them to about their causes or products. The scientific method, you could say, induces a sort of trance. Even if there is no conscious working knowledge of hypnosis, people still go in and out of many different trances - pre-coffee grogginess, driving in morning traffic, problem-solving or selling or creating at work, enjoying a meal, zoning out in front of the tv, sleep - every single day without trying or knowing about it.

The spiritual application of trance involves consciously inducing non-ordinary states to deeply relax, expand awareness, access information through divination, heal, achieve ecstacy, release emotions and energy. Meditation is a practice that trains the meditator to control their awareness to a highly focused, or greatly expanded state.