#trance state

[giftofgabber]

Blog until you enter the trance state.

[yumearcana]

Does the hypnotist have a favorite subject?

✦ ask yourself: am I being taken — or was I already looking for somewhere to sink? ✦

✦ ᛚ ᚦ ᛇ ✦

People assume the favorite subject is the easy one.

The one who drops instantly.

The one who follows every suggestion.

The one who never questions.

But I'm not sure.

The ones I remember are often the thinkers.

The subjects who arrive carrying an entire architecture of thoughts.

Questions.

Doubts.

Analysis layered upon analysis.

You don't guide them.

Not at first.

You wait.

Like someone sitting beside a nervous animal.

No sudden movements.

No force.

Just patience.

And then something strange happens.

Not surrender.

Recognition.

They discover they no longer have to hold every thought at once.

And when that happens...

they don't drift.

They dive.

Because the deepest immersion often comes from people who spent the longest time standing at the shore.

✦ᛚᛇ✦

[shamandrummer]

Techniques for Effective Shamanic Drumming

For thousands of years, the drum has been one of humanity's oldest spiritual tools. Across cultures and continents, shamans, healers, and mystics have used rhythmic drumming to enter altered states of consciousness, facilitate healing, connect with spiritual realms, and strengthen community bonds. While the shamanic drum may appear simple, effective drumming is both an art and a practice that requires intention, rhythm and presence.

Whether you are new to shamanic drumming or seeking to deepen your practice, understanding a few fundamental techniques can transform the drum from a musical instrument into a powerful vehicle for spiritual exploration. The potential is unlimited, yet the fundamentals of shamanic drumming are relatively simple. So let's explore the core techniques step-by-step:

Begin with Intention

Intention is a kind of decision-making that directs the focus of our attention. Before striking the drum, establish a clear intention. In many shamanic traditions, intention serves as a compass that guides the journey. Your purpose might be healing, divination, personal insight, honoring ancestors, or simply cultivating a deeper connection with nature.

Take a few moments to sit quietly with your drum. Hold it in your hands and focus on your breathing. Consider what you hope to achieve during the session. This simple act aligns your mind, body, and spirit before the first beat is played. Many experienced practitioners believe that the quality of intention influences the effectiveness of the drumming more than technical skill alone.

Play a Repetitive Rhythm

The foundation of effective shamanic drumming is consistency. Unlike performance drumming, which often emphasizes complexity and variation, shamanic drumming relies heavily on repetitive rhythms that induce ecstatic trance states. Ecstatic trance is a non-ordinary state of consciousness (NOSC) characterized by a sense of euphoria, heightened emotions, and feelings of merging with a larger consciousness. The act of entering an ecstatic trance state is called the soul flight or shamanic journey, and it allows the journeyer to view life and life's problems from a detached, spiritual perspective, not easily achieved in a state of ordinary consciousness.

Researchers have found that when a drum is played at an even tempo of three to four beats per second for at least fifteen minutes, most novices report that they can journey successfully even on their first attempt. This steady pulse helps synchronize brainwave activity and facilitate ecstatic trance states. The rhythm should feel natural and sustainable rather than forced or mechanical.

Beginners often make the mistake of speeding up or slowing down unintentionally. Practicing with a metronome can help develop rhythmic stability. Once the rhythm becomes second nature, the drummer can focus more fully on the spiritual aspects of the practice. Remember that the drumbeat serves as a pathway. Consistency allows participants to relax into the rhythm and surrender to the experience.

Use Relaxed Body Mechanics

Effective drumming is not about striking the drum as hard as possible. Excessive force can create tension, fatigue, and an uneven sound. Hold the drum comfortably and maintain a relaxed grip on the beater. Use short strokes with a minimal amount of motion to pull the sound out of the drum. Allow the movement to originate from the wrist and forearm rather than the shoulder. Keep your arms and shoulders relaxed.

Many practitioners find that gentle, fluid movements produce richer and more resonant tones than aggressive striking. The goal is to create a rhythm that can be sustained for extended periods without physical strain. As with meditation, relaxation enhances awareness. When the body is at ease, it becomes easier to enter a focused and receptive state.

Listen as Much as You Play

One of the most overlooked drumming techniques is deep listening. Effective drummers do not simply create sound--they develop a relationship with it. Pay attention to the resonance of the drum. Notice how the vibrations travel through your hands, chest, and surrounding space. Listen for subtle changes in tone, timbre and volume.

Many shamanic practitioners describe a point where their playing becomes very loose, spontaneous and innovative. This experience often emerges when the drummer shifts from controlling the rhythm to participating in it. Deep listening fosters a sense of communion with the instrument and can lead to more intuitive and meaningful drumming experiences.

Work with Dynamics and Texture

Although repetition is important, effective shamanic drumming does not have to be monotonous. Subtle changes in volume, intensity, and tone can add depth to a journey. Gradually increasing the volume may build energy and focus. Softening the rhythm can create moments of reflection and integration. Changing the striking location on the drumhead can produce different tonal qualities.

The key is moderation. Dramatic shifts can disrupt the trance process, while subtle variations often enrich it. Think of dynamics as the natural ebb and flow of a river. The current remains steady, but its expression changes over time.

Practice Presence Rather Than Perfection

Perhaps the most important technique in shamanic drumming is presence. Spiritual power does not arise from flawless rhythm or technical mastery. It emerges from authenticity, attention, and connection. Many indigenous traditions view the drum as a living bridge between worlds. The quality of presence you bring to the instrument matters far more than musical perfection.

Allow yourself to be fully engaged with each beat. Feel the vibration. Listen deeply. Trust the process. Over time, your relationship with the drum will evolve. What begins as a simple rhythm may become a doorway to insight, healing and transformation.

Begin the Journey

Close your eyes and focus on the sound of the drum, keeping your mind open to insights. Don't worry about missing a beat or falling out of rhythm. Allow yourself to be swept along with the rhythm. If your mind wanders, bring the focus of your attention back to the beat of the drum. Stay aware of what you are experiencing without trying to analyze or question its meaning.

Simply observe the thoughts and ideas as they flow in and out of awareness. Insight and guidance regarding your original intention may come through visions, symbols or images. It may simply be an intuitive, knowing awareness. You might witness a symbolic or dramatic presentation, which offers insight into your situation. You may be led on a journey to a landscape and meet a helping spirit who tells you what you want to know.

Return from the Journey

Returning from a shamanic journey involves an intentional process of transitioning from a non-ordinary state of consciousness back into ordinary waking consciousness. When your are ready to exit the trance state, gradually slow the tempo of drumming, drawing your consciousness back to a normal state of awareness. Do not rush the transformation. Visualize yourself fully grounded in your body, and then slowly open your eyes.

After the journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience. In some cases, your journey experiences will be clear and easy to understand. At other times, your journey may be dreamlike and full of symbolism. Interpret such journeys as you would any dream. Look for possible associations related to each symbol or image. Don't overanalyze the journey, for its meaning will become clear at the appropriate time.

Conclusion

Effective shamanic drumming combines steady rhythm, focused intention, relaxed technique, deep listening and spiritual presence. While mastering these skills requires practice, the essence of shamanic drumming remains beautifully simple--a repetitive rhythm that begins slowly and then gradually builds in intensity to a tempo of three to four beats per second. The ascending tempo will induce light to deep trance states and facilitate self discovery, empowerment and healing.

As you develop your practice, remember that the drum is more than an instrument. It is a companion, a guide and a bridge connecting the physical and spiritual dimensions of experience. Every beat offers an opportunity to enter more fully into the mystery, wisdom and interconnectedness of life. Shamanic drumming continues to offer today what it has offered for thousands of years: namely, a simple and effective technique of ecstasy.

[theweightofdivinity]

I forgot how intense drumming is. I was watching a Quimbanda video by pure randomness and suddenly felt that familiar woozy pull like when there is spirit pressure in the room that feels like a trance like pull in the body, one I haven't felt in a while. It brought me back to when one of my ex's mom would hear drumming and her whole body would start jumping and I'd have to hold onto a table because my body reacted too. Energy has always moved through me stronger than I ever admitted.

Across African, Afro diasporic, Indigenous, and ancient traditions, the drum is how you call the spirits, it is how you anchor ancestors, how you open the field. It's vibration, the beat creates a pathway a change in brainwave state and that's what lets spirit step closer.

That's why some people's bodies react on their own. It's not weird, it's sensitivity.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

PHOTOGRAPHY ::: Jean Cocteau photographié par André Papillon, Paris, 1939

* * * *

“Many ‘primitive’ peoples … believe that almost every normal adult has the ability to go into a trance state and be possessed by a god; the adult who cannot do this is a psychological cripple.” – Robert O. Becker and Gary Selden The Body Electric [subhead 'Hearing Without ears’]

[Alive On All Channels]

[ramapani-blog]

I made an app for generating drum patterns for shamanic meditation, or shamanic trance-like states.

Play for free: https://ramapani.com/page/trance

[daily-coloring]

[fablebagel]

I'm deciding I'm bringing the movement here too, after having so much success on substack- have any of y'all heard of astral art?? It's my very own revolutionary and anartchist genre that has its roots in automatism, abstract and surrealism painting, and channeling!! This is a post dedicated to describing what that is.

Astral art is art that is done without references, straight channeled from the Universe herself and the artist's own experiences in spirituality, anarchy, and revolution of the mind, body, and spirit!

The main effects I implement when creating "astral art" are magical/fantastical/whimsical colors, shapes and themes (like what you'd see during astral traveling), heavy use of symbolism to communicate to the viewer/audience, and channeled messages displayed in typically loose, abstract, or surrealist nature.

Astral art is like translating the deep subconscious directly onto paper. Any artist can do this part, but I only consider it astral art when the artist goes deeply into a state of trance to complete the work in its entirety, in one solid sitting. I do all of my art in one go, without looking away from the canvas or what I "see" in my mind's eye. There is no editing process, just flow and trust. Sometimes I use multiple materials in my practice, and other times it's just one media like sharpie, pen, or pure color.

This can be done with poetry too, but it's more complicated to describe and I will do this in a later post.

Here are some examples of my astral art:

Notice how everything is at least slightly disconnected from what you'd see in this world, but very spiritual in nature! It's directly translated from what I see when I travel astrally, scry into the future, and focus on the connecting threads of everything that exists.

All of these works are intended to be healing for both my subconscious and the subconscious of the viewers! This is more of a personal touch, as astral art doesn't have to be healing. It can be scary, or beautiful, but overall remains whimsical in nature!

This Jax piece of fanart is actually one of my favorites because the gun details in the mouth just came to me on the spot, and only recently did glitch release an episode involving guns and a shootout! It just felt right to include and I trusted it!

I really like experimenting with different styles and shapes I recieve visions of. This kind of art is deeply tied to my spiritual practice, and is meant to be healing because it dredges up things that are normally entirely subconscious and "unseen" for the artist and audience to be able to process! This is both how I have fun and experiment, and how I've healed my deepest traumatic moments in conjunction with therapy. Astral art is what allows all of me to have a real voice in my creativity, not just the "polite" or "kind" parts I show others on a daily basis. It's deeply healing and transformative.

I believe astral art can really be the "new thing" as a part of the revolution in the arts going on!!! I'd really like it to spread and become more of a common practice. Not just because I made up the concept and I'm proud of my work, but because I fully believe it will help folx let go of some of the more traditional artistic conventions and find their way back to play, healing, inspiration, and healthy communication through creativity. Which is what we all begin wanting to accomplish when it comes to art!! Every artist can relate to this! We just get lost in what others expect from us, fall into creative blocks, and end up struggling to do what we set out to do. Astral art for me has genuinely fixed all of these issues.

Confidence in art is a lost art (and one that people look at me weird for having at this point) so I also want to point out that astral art is where I've been able to build myself up the most, learn to trust my linework and use of color, and become the artist I've always wanted to be!! If you don't have a home in art quite yet, or are just completely sick of doing things a specific way (i.e. following what the algorithm wants, frequent art block, sick of capitalistic bullshit) maybe astral art is your calling!!! Fuck what's acceptable, let your true voice out!!!

Anyway thanks for reading, I'm speaking completely from the heart here so thanks for sticking around :) I hope that my vulnerability here helps others become more vulnerable in a space like this! It's maybe one of the hardest things in a world like the one we live in (rampant with fascism and bullshit rules + expectations) so I want to reiterate: thank you for being here!!! I really appreciate your gentle act of revolution from listening to what I have to say. Peace!