62 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
62 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
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The Posture of Ecstasy
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The nature of ecstatic states of consciousness may be encoded in their
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postures. The types of visions, prophecies or healing abilities that accompany
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ecstatic states may have less to do with the religious content surrounding the
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ceremonies of ecstasy than with the posture assumed by the people undergoing
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the ecstatic experience.
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This unusual hypothesis is being proposed by psychological anthropologist
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Felicitas D. Goodman, PhD, based on observation of people in ecstatic states
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and her experiments training people to enter such states of consciousness. In
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some of her earlier re- search, Dr. Goodman learned that she could induce an
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ecstatic state in a subject through the use of a gourd rattle similar to that
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used in many primitive shamanistic ceremonies. While a subject, alone, or in a
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group, walked in a circle, or simply sat, Dr. Goodman would shake this rattle
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in a steady manner for 15 minutes. The use of the rattle was based on the
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hypothesis that "acoustic driving" affects the functioning of the brain,
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blocking the verbal left hemisphere and opening access the the intuitive right
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hemishpere. Within five minutes, most subjects were giving indications of
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being in an altered state of consciousness. At the end of the experiment,
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their verbal reports confirmed that they had been experiencing something
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resembling an ecstatic state, including visions and variations in body image.
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Noting that the content of these visions seemed to vary as a function of which
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subjects had remained standing and which had become seated, Dr. Goodman ran a
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series of experiments to specifically test the effect of posture.
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To obtain experimental postures, she went to ethnographic resources to locate
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either photographs of shamans in ecstasy, or artistic renditions of this state.
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She found five different postural positions. In her subsequent experiments,
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she would ask her subjects to assume a particular posture, commence the rattle
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playing for 15 minutes, then obtain their reports. She found that these
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reports were highly consistent for a given posture, but differed between
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various postures.
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For example, one posture was similar to sitting in medita- tion, except that
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the legs are both tucked under the body and turned toward the right. Subjects
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experienced color sensations, spinning and strong alterations in mood. This
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posture was that assumed by Nupe Mallam diviners. According to the literature,
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the divination experience begins by alterations in moods.
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In another posture, subjects stood erect with their heads back and their hands
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clasped at the abdomen. Subjects reported warmth, a flow of energy rising, and
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a channel opening at the top of the head. According to the ethnographic
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literature, this posture had been associated with healing, involving the flow
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of energy. In a similar manner, the other postures tested produced experiences
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resembling the reports of native shamans who assume the posture in their trance
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work.
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The author can only speculate concerning the mechanism by which posture affects
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the content of ritualized trances. We know that posture affect mood states.
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It is perhaps by their effect upon a wide variety of psychophysiological
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variables that posture affects the course of ecstasy.
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(Source: "Body posture and the religious altered state of consciousness: An
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experimental investigation," Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Summer, 1986,
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Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 81-118. Author's address: Cuyamungue Institute, 114 East
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Duncan St., Columbus, OH 43202.)
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