There’s a space beyond language. Beyond logic. Beyond the mind’s need to understand.
This is the domain of trance. The place mystics vanish into, the space shamans navigate, the current artists, dancers, and deep feelers tap into when they dissolve into the flow.
Trance isn’t a destination. It’s a frequency of being. A thinning of the veil. A conscious surrender into something primal, electric, and infinite.
What is a trance state
- Trance is a state of altered awareness, not asleep, not fully awake
- A drop from fast-thinking Beta waves into deep Theta (4–8Hz) frequencies
- A place of time distortion, body release, and open access to the subconscious
- Where ego dissolves and raw perception takes over
- Often identical to states reported in psychedelic journeys, meditation, deep prayer, and REM sleep
How to enter trance
Psychedelics: a biochemical gateway
- Psychedelics like psilocybin, LSD, DMT, and mescaline often induce trance-like states as part of their unfolding.
- These substances disrupt default neural networks, allowing subconscious material to emerge and Theta dominance to increase
- Many mystics, artists, and seekers, including the founder of Find the Others (FTO), first entered trance through the doorway of plant medicine
Repetition: the rhythm of the universe
- Drumming, chanting, dancing. Monotonous rhythm synchronizes brainwaves
- 4–7 beats per second = Theta state access
- Practices like Sufi whirling or tribal percussion induce ego softening through movement
Breathwork & oxygen flooding
- Techniques like holotropic breathing, Wim Hof, or Tummo use rapid breath cycles to induce euphoria, visions, and catharsis
- Breath disturbs the usual neural loop and opens subconscious portals
Sensory deprivation
- Floats, tanks, blindfolded meditation, darkness retreats serve to strip external input to amplify internal vision
- Prolonged silence and stillness generate spontaneous imagery and insight
Sound & vibration
- Binaural beats, overtone singing, singing bowls all entrain the brain into altered states
- Low-frequency tones often trigger body awareness, energy movement, or spontaneous shaking
Surrender
- Trance often happens when you stop trying.
- Fatigue, extreme presence, music, emotion - when the thinking mind lets go, trance rushes in
What happens in trance
🕰 Time evaporates
👁 Visions emerge: symbols, archetypes, memories, cosmic downloads
🌬 Body becomes light or dense: a sense of floating or merging
🧘 Ego dissolves: the inner narrator goes quiet
🌌 Unity arises: oneness with space, sound, or Source
The science of trance
- Theta waves dominate (same as REM sleep, deep meditation, and psychedelics)
- Trance enhances pattern recognition, creativity, and problem-solving
- Long-term trance practitioners show neuroplasticity and decreased fear of death
- Studies show trance states support trauma processing, insight generation, and mystical experiences
Cultural practices of trance
- Amazonian shamans use icaros (sung medicine songs) to guide journeys and enter trance with the plants
- Sufi mystics spin into ecstasy through whirling zikr practices
- Haitian Vodou practitioners dance into possession, a sacred form of divine embodiment
- Indigenous Siberian and Mongolian shamans drum and chant to journey across realms
Across the world, trance isn’t anomaly, it’s initiation.
Final thoughts
Trance is a language without words. A ritual of return. If you’ve been seeking the divine, the clarity, the peace, it might already be inside you.
The question isn’t what is trance?
It’s: How deep are you willing to go?
📚 Resources
Foundational Books
Modern Spiritual Psychology
Psychedelic Insight
Eastern & Dream Yoga
Trance & Ritual Practice
Multimedia & Talks
