4 from ritual to theater and back: the efficacy ... - AAAARG.ORG

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magnitudes of performance
peculiarities become less conspicuous because of the concerted
attention persons in possession trance give to the same rhythm pattern.
. . . Sooner or later the second level of possession trance
changes. The smoothly patterned phenomenon in which each individual
submits to the group-impressed rhythmic beat is disrupted as
the dissociated persons emit loud sighs and yells, and breathe with
complete disregard for the previous regular timing. . . . All movements
and sounds again become individualistic. . . . That the Shakers themselves
are aware of differences in possession-trance levels came to my
attention when I played for them some of the tapes I had made.”
(Henney 1974: 61–3)
Insiders: Balinese sanghyang trance: “GM [Jane Belo’s Balinese assistant]:
what is the feeling like when you are beginning to be smoked [put
into a trance]? Soekani: When I am just being smoked my ears are
stopped up, hearing the song. After that I immediately lose consciousness,
I feel as if I were all alone. When I am about to come to
myself suddenly I know where I am . . . Darja: When I’ve gone in
trance, my thoughts are delicious, but I do not remember them.
What’s more, my whole body is very hot. And then, if I am touched
with holy water, my thoughts are like a crazy person’s. . . . Darma:
When I’m a sanghyang snake, suddenly my thoughts are delicious. . . .
When my body is like that, as a snake, my feeling is of going through
the woods, and I am pleased. GM: And if you’re a sanghyang broom,
what’s it like, and where do you feel? Darma: like sweeping filth in the
middle of the ground, like sweeping filth in the street, in the village, I
feel I am being carried off by the broom, led on to sweep.”
(Belo 1960: 221–2)
Outsiders: “The hypnotic threshold, the selective awareness of certain
stimuli and imperviousness to others irrelevant to the situation, wellknown
in hypnosis experiments, is illustrated in the players’ remarks
about hearing the song, but not hearing people talking of other things,
not seeing the singers, but trampling upon them when angered. The
feeling of lowness, which Darma described as delightful, fits in with
the whole constellation of ideas about being mounted, being sat on,
and so forth, wherein the pleasurable quality of the trance experience