Trance & Tripping: Are They the Same or Different?
Garnet Dupuis / Lucid Studios
February 12, 2022
Preface
“Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.”
William James described ordinary waking consciousness as only one form of possible consciousness. Henri Bergson similarly proposed that the brain functions as an eliminative filter, protecting us from being overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information potentially available to perception.
Aldous Huxley developed this idea through his concept of “Mind at Large”: the brain and nervous system act as a reducing valve that limits the information available to ordinary awareness. Language further organizes this reduced awareness into symbolic systems, shaping how we interpret reality.
This distinction can be understood as the difference between the “extensional” world of direct experience and the “intentional” world of words, concepts, and symbolic maps that represent it.
Introduction
Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs), also referred to as Non-Ordinary Conscious States (NOCS), form a broad category of conscious experience beyond ordinary waking states. Trance is one form of ASC and can involve a temporary alteration of consciousness or a change in the customary sense of personal identity.
The normative end of this spectrum includes expanded absorption, creative flow, meditation, hypnotic trance, shamanic states, and other unusual modes of perception. Other experiences, including psychedelic states, synesthesia, savant capacities, and near-death experiences, occupy different positions along the spectrum, while pathological forms can include dissociative and neuropsychiatric conditions.
Importantly, trance and altered states are not necessarily pathological and may in some circumstances be therapeutic. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
Anthropological research also suggests that ASCs are widespread across human cultures. Studies of 488 societies found that more than 90% had an institutionalized form of altered states of consciousness, with possession trance among the common forms.
The paper also describes a continuum of focused attention that can bridge ordinary and altered self-experience—from everyday concentration and absent-mindedness to creative flow, meditation, and hypnotic trance. These narrowed-attention states can be understood as forms of normative dissociation.
Extensional and Intentional Consciousness
This paper considers an oscillation between “extensional” and “intentional” states of consciousness. In Huxley’s terms, the question is what happens when the brain’s “reducing valves” are opened, allowing experience to move beyond the limitations imposed by ordinary language and conceptual thought.
Creative experience provides an example. Artists and scientists have often described their creative ideas as feelings, moods, images, or sensations that exist before they become words or symbols.
This raises an important question for altered states: can experiences that precede language provide direct access to aspects of the mind that are difficult to express through ordinary conceptual systems?
Trance & Tripping
Contemporary interest in NOCS/ASC has grown around psychedelic compounds, rave and trance events, neo-shamanistic practices, and traditional spiritual practices. Because these categories are often used loosely, their meanings can become confused.
Two commonly discussed approaches are Trance and Tripping. The central questions are whether they represent the same phenomenon, whether they overlap, whether one can lead to the other, or whether they are distinct pathways to altered consciousness.
Trance – The Research
Scientific investigation of consciousness is relatively recent compared with philosophical and religious approaches. Advances in neuroimaging and other technologies have made it possible to investigate conscious states in living subjects with increasing precision.
Research has expanded substantially in meditation and psychedelic states, while neurophysiological research specifically focused on trance remains more limited.
The paper highlights research examining absorptive states, shamanic trance, trance music, traditional healing, and shamanic states of consciousness.
It emphasizes that the term “trance” should not be used to lump together unrelated indigenous, anthropological, religious, and contemporary interpretations. In particular, the paper does not focus on modern electronic “trance music” associated with rave events.
Shamanic Trance
Shamanic trance is described as an altered state that can be achieved with or without psychedelic substances, including through repetitive drumming. Practitioners may report experiences resembling those associated with psychedelic substances, including mystical experiences, disembodiment or flight, and dissolution of the ordinary sense of self.
Shamanic States of Consciousness (SSC) are characterized by narrowed but lucid awareness of the physical environment, expanded inner imagery, modified somatosensory processing, an altered sense of self, and experiences of spiritual travel.
The paper presents SSC not simply as a religion, but as a set of culturally defined healer or medium practices that systematically use altered states for healing and group cohesion.
Some research cited in the paper suggests that the capacity for shamanic trance may not be culture-bound and may represent an inherent psychobiological predisposition. Similar altered-state markers have also been reported across meditation, yoga, hypnosis, psychedelic experiences, mediumship, and shamanic practices.
Neurophysiological Features of Altered States
The paper identifies several neurophysiological features reported across different altered states of consciousness:
- Shift toward right-hemisphere dominance, potentially reflecting increased right-hemisphere activation and reduced influence of functions associated with ordinary, ego-bound states.
- Greater alpha activity with anterior-posterior synchronization, associated with relaxed wakefulness, creativity, and free association.
- Increased theta activity, including synchronized bursts associated with rich visual imagery, blissful awareness, and dissolution of ego boundaries.
- Increased gamma activity, associated in the cited research with diffuse cortical activation and integrative conscious information processing.
- Synchronization between left and right frontal regions, potentially accompanied by reduced frontal activation in deeper trance states.
- Greater parasympathetic dominance and release of endogenous opioids, potentially related to reports of ecstasy and reduced pain perception.
Types of Shamanic Journey
Historically, shamanic trance has been associated with shamanistic and mystical ecstatic experiences. Three types of shamanic journeys are described:
- Ecstatic trance — the shaman’s spirit is described as leaving the body and communicating with animals or other spirits.
- Possession trance — animal or other spirits are described as entering the shaman’s body, sometimes replacing the ordinary sense of self.
- Dreamlike trance — the shaman retains the sense of self while meeting animals or spirits in a shared domain.
Drumming and the Brain
One of the most significant findings discussed is research into shamanic trance induced without psychedelic compounds, using drumming alone.
An fMRI study reported increased connectivity involving the posterior cingulate cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and left insula. These findings suggested interaction between networks involved in internally oriented cognition and networks involved in attentional control.
The study also found auditory perceptual decoupling, suggesting reduced processing of external auditory information during trance.
Repetitive drumming may therefore serve a paradoxical function: because the predictable stimulus requires relatively little ongoing processing, it may help disengage attention from the external environment while supporting an internally directed state.
Trance & Tripping — Same or Different?
Research comparing shamanic trance with psychedelic states suggests that the two can share important phenomenological characteristics while remaining distinct states of consciousness.
In one study, shamanic practitioners and healthy controls were examined during rest, shamanic drumming, and classical music listening using high-density EEG. Measures included neural power, connectivity, signal diversity, and criticality.
Shamanic practitioners showed altered-state scores comparable to, or in some domains exceeding, those reported in healthy volunteers under psychedelics. During drumming, practitioners also showed increased gamma power associated with elementary visual alterations.
Changes in beta and gamma connectivity, neural signal diversity, and criticality were also observed. Some of these changes correlated with complex imagery, visual alterations, and reported insightfulness.
The findings presented in the paper suggest that psychedelic drug-induced and non-pharmacological alterations of consciousness may overlap in their phenomenal traits while remaining neurologically distinct states.
Conclusion
Trance and psychedelic experiences may therefore share aspects of altered consciousness without being identical. The research presented here points toward overlapping subjective characteristics alongside different patterns of brain activity.
Repetitive rhythm, focused attention, and internally directed awareness appear as important elements in non-pharmacological trance, demonstrating that profound alterations in consciousness do not necessarily require psychedelic compounds.
The comparison between Trance and Tripping ultimately raises a broader question: whether psychedelic-like experiences are produced exclusively by external substances, or whether the human brain possesses intrinsic capacities that can be accessed through multiple pathways.