religious trance
Noun: A state of profound mental absorption or altered consciousness, specifically induced by or associated with intense religious devotion, fervor, or ritual. It is characterized by a deep focus on spiritual experience and does not exhibit the reduced physical or autonomic bodily functions (such as slowed breathing or heart rate) typical of other trance states, like those seen in deep hypnosis or certain meditative practices.
The term is used to describe a specific psychological and spiritual phenomenon observed in various religious and cultural contexts. It refers to the state itself, not the practices that might lead to it. * The shaman entered a religious trance during the ceremony to communicate with the spirit world. * Anthropologists have studied the religious trance states achieved by participants in ecstatic worship. * Her experience was described not as fainting, but as a profound religious trance.
- Ecstatic Trance: A more specific term sometimes used interchangeably with or as a type of religious trance, emphasizing the aspect of ecstasy or rapture.
- The dancers sought an ecstatic trance through rhythmic movement and chanting.
- The state is often interpreted within its cultural framework as a form of divine communion, prophecy, or healing.
- Trance (n): The broader category. A state between sleep and wakefulness, characterized by altered consciousness and reduced environmental awareness.
- Ecstasy (n): A state of overwhelming emotion, especially rapturous delight, which can be a component of a religious trance.
- Rapture (n): A feeling of intense pleasure or joy, often with a spiritual or religious connotation.
- Ecstatic state
- Spiritual rapture
- Devotional absorption
- Mundane awareness
- Ordinary consciousness
- Sobriety (in the sense of not being in an altered state)
This term is distinct from pathological or purely psychological trance states. Its defining feature is its religious causation and context and the absence of the typical physical suppression found in other deep trances. It is a state of heightened, rather than diminished, internal activity focused on the sacred.
- a trance induced by intense religious devotion; does not show reduced bodily functions that are typical of other trances