BENEFITS OF ECSTATIC TRANCE
What are the benefits of ecstatic trance? As you read this please email me at brinknick9@gmail.com with you thoughts and comments.
My first book, The Power of Ecstatic Trance: Practices for Healing, Spiritual Growth, and Accessing the Universal Mind explores how trance can be used for and bring about healing and spiritual growth. It offers many examples from those who have participated in ecstatic trance groups. This healing is often of medical/physical problems, of resolving emotional problems or of overcoming other personal limitations. One of the very first sessions in which I participated, a young woman found ecstatic trance a successful avenue to quit smoking. Another in a later session found relief from depression. I found it very powerful in giving me some control over prostate cancer. Hardly a session goes by without someone finding new strength in facing some problem or finding an avenue to overcome some issue that limits them, such as a lack of self-confidence or excessive anxiety in some situation. The ecstatic experience often reveals an answer to some question, e.g. what is preventing me from accomplishing some goal in life? I consider the resolution of many of these problems as signs of spiritual growth.
With healing and spiritual growth a person can then go beyond to bigger issues, issues beyond themselves that affect others and the Earth. One such issue is to find ways to help overcome that which is leading us towards the destruction of our species and the Earth. This is the topic of my most recent book, Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers: Ecstatic Practices to Reconnect with the Great Mother and Heal the Earth. Thomas Berry believes that we need to go beyond what we are now doing to save the Earth by again becoming one with the Earth as our hunting and gathering ancestors were when they did not put themselves above all other life but saw themselves as part of the interdependency of all life. Berry suggests that the best way to gain this oneness is through dreaming, waking visions and regaining our shamanic personality. I believe that is exactly what ecstatic trance can accomplish. In trance, spirit animals and the spirit of Earth’s flora come to us with much to teach us, and we can become this life by using a shape-shifting posture with ecstatic trance. We learn much about the way to live from these flora and fauna spirit guides, so how can we continue to think of ourselves superior to or better than these guides.
As we proceed with the trance induction ritual we call upon the spirits of each direction. In this way we become one with Earth’s seasonal cycle and with the cycle of day and night. We experience East is the sun rise, the beginning of spring, and the beginning of life. South is the warmth of the middle of the day, of summer and the time of growth of our children and gardens. West is the sunset, autumn, the harvest and productive years of life. North is nighttime, winter, and time for sleep in preparation for a new birth with spring. The Universe above has placed Earth in a position with respect to the Sun to sustain life. It brings us the seasons, night and day, and our ocean tides. Then we call upon the spirits of the Earth, the Earth that sustains us through the interdependency of all things. As we call upon the spirits of each direction we bring alive within us the meaning of everything around us.
Ecstatic trance can also bring us to oneness with the Earth when we use it with intent to return to those very natural connections a child has to the Earth. Renewing these childhood experiences again brings alive within us this oneness. It is also important to identify in trance a personal daily ritual that we will use to maintain this connection, e.g. the hunter-gatherer would leave a token of thanks such as a pinch of tobacco or cornmeal whenever they took something from the Earth. These are a few of the ways ecstatic trance can be used to connect us to the Earth, and the above mentioned book, Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers, offers many examples.
In the title of the book The Power of Ecstatic Trance I mentioned Accessing the Universal Mind. In our group practice of ecstatic trance I consistently find examples of what might be called mental telepathy, when two or more people have experiences that have much in common, experiences that are exceptionally similar. Whereas the ecstatic experiences of healing and spiritual growth may be thought of as a journey into one’s unconscious mind, many of our group experiences seem to take people beyond themselves and into the Universal Mind, the mind of something beyond us individually. Again the book offers many examples.
One example of journeying into the Universal Mind is journeying into one’s past lives. Barbara Hand Clow’s book The Mind Chronicles: A Visionary Guide into Past Lives offers many examples of how hypnotic trance can lead us to journey into our past lives. Though her experiences were from hypnotic trance, those in my groups have had past life experiences one of which I described in The Power of Ecstatic Trance and Baldr’s Magic. Barbara’s past life experiences have taken her beyond some limiting deep seeded beliefs about herself which developed in previous lives, and freed her in her creativity and spiritual growth. Another example of journeying into the Universal Mind is journeying into the lives of our ancestors. My book Baldr’s Magic: The Power of Norse Shamanism and Ecstatic Trance takes me on a journey through my ancient ancestral roots in Denmark and Sweden, showing me how these hunter-gatherer’s lived in oneness with the Earth and what went wrong when we stopped venerating the Earth and turned to control of the Earth for our selfish benefit and greed. Understanding this history can provide us with a template of how to regain oneness with the Earth in venerating our Great Mother.
I find that certain places on Earth hold powerful spiritual energy, energy that I envision forms or is the composition of the Universal Mind. Using ecstatic trance while at these places brings alive the spirits of those places, spirits that offer us teachings of the ancient and current people of those places. My book, Beowulf’s Ecstatic Trance Magic: Accessing the Archaic Powers of the Universal Mind is the story of a new vision of the ancient poem of Beowulf brought alive through ecstatic trance when I visited two ancient spiritual sites, one at ancient Trelle Fortress in Trelleborg at the southern tip of Sweden and the other at Gammel Lejre in Denmark. The Danish site is the location of the great hall of King Hrothgar and the spiritual center of the ancient Skjǫldung people.
The book I am currently working on accesses the spirits of other spiritual sites found on three of the Earth’s seven continents, spirits that have much to teach us if our species is to survive the catastrophic climate change that we are now approaching.
These are the reasons I value and teach ecstatic trance. I hope this review triggers within you the importance and direction of some of your dreams and ecstatic trance experiences, experiences that you will share with me that demonstrate these benefits and others that possibly demonstrate benefits and directions that I have not yet considered or experienced in ecstatic trance. Please let me know what you think. Email me at brinknick9@gmail.com
My first book, The Power of Ecstatic Trance: Practices for Healing, Spiritual Growth, and Accessing the Universal Mind explores how trance can be used for and bring about healing and spiritual growth. It offers many examples from those who have participated in ecstatic trance groups. This healing is often of medical/physical problems, of resolving emotional problems or of overcoming other personal limitations. One of the very first sessions in which I participated, a young woman found ecstatic trance a successful avenue to quit smoking. Another in a later session found relief from depression. I found it very powerful in giving me some control over prostate cancer. Hardly a session goes by without someone finding new strength in facing some problem or finding an avenue to overcome some issue that limits them, such as a lack of self-confidence or excessive anxiety in some situation. The ecstatic experience often reveals an answer to some question, e.g. what is preventing me from accomplishing some goal in life? I consider the resolution of many of these problems as signs of spiritual growth.
With healing and spiritual growth a person can then go beyond to bigger issues, issues beyond themselves that affect others and the Earth. One such issue is to find ways to help overcome that which is leading us towards the destruction of our species and the Earth. This is the topic of my most recent book, Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers: Ecstatic Practices to Reconnect with the Great Mother and Heal the Earth. Thomas Berry believes that we need to go beyond what we are now doing to save the Earth by again becoming one with the Earth as our hunting and gathering ancestors were when they did not put themselves above all other life but saw themselves as part of the interdependency of all life. Berry suggests that the best way to gain this oneness is through dreaming, waking visions and regaining our shamanic personality. I believe that is exactly what ecstatic trance can accomplish. In trance, spirit animals and the spirit of Earth’s flora come to us with much to teach us, and we can become this life by using a shape-shifting posture with ecstatic trance. We learn much about the way to live from these flora and fauna spirit guides, so how can we continue to think of ourselves superior to or better than these guides.
As we proceed with the trance induction ritual we call upon the spirits of each direction. In this way we become one with Earth’s seasonal cycle and with the cycle of day and night. We experience East is the sun rise, the beginning of spring, and the beginning of life. South is the warmth of the middle of the day, of summer and the time of growth of our children and gardens. West is the sunset, autumn, the harvest and productive years of life. North is nighttime, winter, and time for sleep in preparation for a new birth with spring. The Universe above has placed Earth in a position with respect to the Sun to sustain life. It brings us the seasons, night and day, and our ocean tides. Then we call upon the spirits of the Earth, the Earth that sustains us through the interdependency of all things. As we call upon the spirits of each direction we bring alive within us the meaning of everything around us.
Ecstatic trance can also bring us to oneness with the Earth when we use it with intent to return to those very natural connections a child has to the Earth. Renewing these childhood experiences again brings alive within us this oneness. It is also important to identify in trance a personal daily ritual that we will use to maintain this connection, e.g. the hunter-gatherer would leave a token of thanks such as a pinch of tobacco or cornmeal whenever they took something from the Earth. These are a few of the ways ecstatic trance can be used to connect us to the Earth, and the above mentioned book, Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers, offers many examples.
In the title of the book The Power of Ecstatic Trance I mentioned Accessing the Universal Mind. In our group practice of ecstatic trance I consistently find examples of what might be called mental telepathy, when two or more people have experiences that have much in common, experiences that are exceptionally similar. Whereas the ecstatic experiences of healing and spiritual growth may be thought of as a journey into one’s unconscious mind, many of our group experiences seem to take people beyond themselves and into the Universal Mind, the mind of something beyond us individually. Again the book offers many examples.
One example of journeying into the Universal Mind is journeying into one’s past lives. Barbara Hand Clow’s book The Mind Chronicles: A Visionary Guide into Past Lives offers many examples of how hypnotic trance can lead us to journey into our past lives. Though her experiences were from hypnotic trance, those in my groups have had past life experiences one of which I described in The Power of Ecstatic Trance and Baldr’s Magic. Barbara’s past life experiences have taken her beyond some limiting deep seeded beliefs about herself which developed in previous lives, and freed her in her creativity and spiritual growth. Another example of journeying into the Universal Mind is journeying into the lives of our ancestors. My book Baldr’s Magic: The Power of Norse Shamanism and Ecstatic Trance takes me on a journey through my ancient ancestral roots in Denmark and Sweden, showing me how these hunter-gatherer’s lived in oneness with the Earth and what went wrong when we stopped venerating the Earth and turned to control of the Earth for our selfish benefit and greed. Understanding this history can provide us with a template of how to regain oneness with the Earth in venerating our Great Mother.
I find that certain places on Earth hold powerful spiritual energy, energy that I envision forms or is the composition of the Universal Mind. Using ecstatic trance while at these places brings alive the spirits of those places, spirits that offer us teachings of the ancient and current people of those places. My book, Beowulf’s Ecstatic Trance Magic: Accessing the Archaic Powers of the Universal Mind is the story of a new vision of the ancient poem of Beowulf brought alive through ecstatic trance when I visited two ancient spiritual sites, one at ancient Trelle Fortress in Trelleborg at the southern tip of Sweden and the other at Gammel Lejre in Denmark. The Danish site is the location of the great hall of King Hrothgar and the spiritual center of the ancient Skjǫldung people.
The book I am currently working on accesses the spirits of other spiritual sites found on three of the Earth’s seven continents, spirits that have much to teach us if our species is to survive the catastrophic climate change that we are now approaching.
These are the reasons I value and teach ecstatic trance. I hope this review triggers within you the importance and direction of some of your dreams and ecstatic trance experiences, experiences that you will share with me that demonstrate these benefits and others that possibly demonstrate benefits and directions that I have not yet considered or experienced in ecstatic trance. Please let me know what you think. Email me at brinknick9@gmail.com
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