The Ecstatic Postures

Felicitas Goodman reached a real breakthrough in her research on ecstatic trance when she realized the importance of particular postures in giving direction to the ecstatic trance experience. From an article by VF Emerson, a Canadian Psychologist she learned about the effect of various postures on trance . She then went to books and museums to find what she believed were the postures used by ancient and contemporary shamans and identified approximately 50 such postures. In leading her students at Denison University in the use of these postures while going into an ecstatic trance she found that they brought direction to the trance experience whereas before while using the ecstatic trance induction ritual she developed, though the students did go into a trance the trance was undirected. She found that certain postures brought to the person a healing and strengthening energy, while other postures led the person to find answers to questions, i.e. the divination postures. Other postures were for traveling into the spirit world, some postures for going into the underworld, some for going into the middle world or Earthly realm, and some for going into the upper sky world. Then there were the metamorphosis or shape shift postures, leading the person to become some other life form or Earth feature. Some postures were for initiation or for providing a death-rebirth experience, leading the person to let some unhealthy part of the self to die with the rebirth of a healthier innocent part of the self. Finally there were several postures for celebration or for calling the spirits.
When I first used these postures in workshops that I led at an International Association for the Study of Dreams annual conference I was very impressed by these postures and how they did what Goodman discovered. It was this experience at the conference that led me in my last ten years of work with these postures, and the groups that I have since led continue to validate the purpose of the posture.