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Ecstatic Trance Postures

An ecstatic trance posture is precise body position or pose that turns your body into a portal for entering a specific type of trance state or a particular place in the spirit world. The results can be astounding.

Shamanic practitioner Ross Heaven has written an article on his own experiences and experiments with shamanic trance postures.

How Ecstatic Trance Postures Were Rediscovered

Ecstatic trance postures are an ancient shamanic technology. They were rediscovered in the late 20th century by anthropologist Felicitas D. Goodman, whose specialty was religious trance.

Goodman founded the Cuyamungue Institute to study and teach the postures. She and her students have taught them to thousands of people in Europe and the United States and written several books on how to do the postures.

Trance postures have been used in all parts of the world, in many cultures. Certain specific postures have been used by many cultures in many times and places. One famous cave painting that shows a shaman in an ecstatic trance posture is at least 27,000 years old.

Learning to Do Trance Postures

The story of Goodman's rediscovery of the postures, her early research, and the first instructions on how to do the postures are described in her exciting book, Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences.

Cover of the the book, Where the Spirits Ride the Wind, by anthropologist Felicitas D. Goodman, Ph.D.

After the original book on postures, Where the Spirits Ride the Wind, was published, readers wanted to know more details on some of the postures, and Goodman's group kept discovering more information and new postures. Belinda Gore, one of Dr. Goodman's students, wrote a workbook with more detailed instructions and information on additional postures.

.More recently Felicitas Goodman collaborated with another student, Nana Nauwald to write another book on ecstatic trance postures with detailed instructions on new postures and more information on how to make some of the hats and other special garments required by some of the postures.

All three books are excellent and highly recommended. Those of us who do the postures use all three. Each book has its strengths. It often helps to consult two books to get full information on the same posture from different sources.

Much more on ecstatic trance postures is coming soon.

Researching Postures on Your Own

As the trance posture books all explain, it's important not to try out postures without doing a ceremony around them. Find a quiet time and place, relax, clear your mind, and say a prayer of some sort, asking for protection while you do the postures.

As we explain in the section on Shielding and Protection, all metaphysical work shines in the spirit world, attracting spirits who may not always be nice.

Also, some of the postures themselves call in spirits. If you are experimenting with postures, you will be attracting spirits. Make sure you have cleansed yourself and the room or area and put protection around yourself (by sincerely asking to be protected).

When you are finished, be sure to thank the spirits for protecting you, and formally end the ceremony. It is best to cleanse yourself and the area after afterward just to be safe, especially if you don't live alone.

Information coming soon on how to discover new trance postures.

A Trance Posture Received From Spirit

Years ago an acquaintance, Mary, had heard a little about shamanic drumming asked to join a group of us for a journeying ceremony on the full moon. A mutual friend brought her, and when she arrived, Mary's energy was so jangly and hyper that the hostess didn't want her to bring that energy inside the house.

After cleansing and smudging outdoors we went inside and began the ceremony. Mary had never heard of trance postures, and we didn't mention them. When we journeyed to find out what shamanic work we should do that night, only Mary received a message.

"I saw something," she said, "and I don't know what it means, but I think I'm supposed to share it. There were these little clay men in a row..." at which point we knew--a posture! Many of the postures discovered by Dr. Goodman's group came from pre-Columbian clay figures.

"with their arms like this," Mary demonstrated, "and they were alternating, one side up, one side down, like paper dolls." So we tried it.

We were a small group, and it turned out that half of us were left-handed, so with our dominant hands down, holding rattles, and our nondominant hands up, as Mary had seen, we were, in fact, alternating around the circle. Just like paper dolls.

When we did the posture, rattling for ourselves, we felt the presence of many animals. The full moon cast the shadows of tree branches on the walls, and people spontaneously started making noises, animal cries at first, gradually changing to harmonic toning.

It was a posture to honor the full moon. We continued to do it every month for several years. The harmonic toning that developed with it was amazing. The feeling was one of devotion and peace. The sound was like that of Tibetan bowls.

Coming soon is information on how to do this posture.

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