Religion in Bali by C. Hooykaas

15 Trance
The priests of the preceding paragraphs are mediators between the gods and mankind, aware of
its frailty and lack of mastery of the means by which the Gods wish to be approached. Numerous
as these mediators are, various as are the mantra, mudra and yadna with which they work,
different as are the fields in which they deploy their capabilities—in times of crisis and urgency
the will of God must be felt, His words (be it not His voice) must be heard, a decision must be
reached, no longer by using priestly channels but by listening to a medium in a state of trance.
When for a temple festival pure water is fetched from the béji, source, and the cortege which has
gone to obtain it is approaching the temple, it is welcomed by another cortege having gone to
meet it. Both groups start to dance, while slowly moving in the direction of the temple. Nobody
seems to wonder when one or more of the dancers after some time gets into a mild state of
trance.
In the temple itself, frequently during the night, a woman falls into a trance and reveals the
deity's wishes [6]. Immediately after the most recent puputan (bringing to an end, sc. of an armed
conflict), the cremation of Jaya Prana, the innocent victim of his feudal lord's jealousy, was
ordered to be organised by the medium of trance. This happened in the northern corner of the
island but found an enormous response everywhere. During the following years night after night
trance dances were held in South Bali and must have given consolation to nervous minds [21].
One might have expected that priesthood frowned upon direct contact with the gods and its
ignoring the priests' intermediating position. To the contrary: the priests do not scorn trance, but
pamangku and padanda do their utmost best to make return to ordinary life him or her who is
tired to death after having been under the spell of the god. Popular, frequent and frightful are the
dances of the mythological quadruped barong and the evil witch Chalon Arang, at the end of
which a number of men in a trance direct the tips of their creeses against their own breasts.
Pamangkus assist them with toya; this never fails [4].
It is only self evident that not all exhibitions of trance are always a full hundred procent genuine.
They prove, however, that the Balinese, in their craving for guidance and being possessed by the