Comparison of Different Trance-Types

Comparative Study of Trance-States

In drumming circles and other discussions often the shamanic trance is being compared with other trance-states which are being encountered in one way or another. Roger N. Walsh developed a table of comparation of different trance-states to the shamanic trance.

The following table reveals that shamanism is having an own kind of trance-state in comparation to other traditions like buddhism. The tables Walsh showed in his chapter seventeen and eighteen are melted to one, which I am presenting you.

Parameter	Shamanic State of Consciousness	Shizophrenia	Buddhistic Vipassana-Meditation	Yoga (Patanjali)
Control - The ability of switching between normal and altered state of consciousness	yes: good control	extremely reduced. Disability to stop the process or to take control of the experience	yes	yes
Control - The ability to control the experience in its contents	partially	no	partially	some masters possess extreme control
Perception of the Outer World	weakened	weakened, most of it distorted	strengthened	extremely reduced sensual and bodily perception
Communication with Surrrounding World	sometimes	weakened, distorted	yes, most of the time	not available
Concentration	flowing, intensified	extremely reduced	flowing, intensified	fixed, very intensified
Mental Energy, Agitation	intensified	intensified - sometimes intense agitation	often reduced	heavily reduced
Quietness of Mind	reduced	reduced	mostly increased	extremely increases; deep inner peace
Affectivity, Emotion	positive or negative	often very negative, rarely positive, most of the time distorted and unsuitable	positive or negative (with more experience a positive tendency)	highly positive, supreme bliss
Identity, Ego	raised self-consciousness, could be the non-physical "soul"	disintegration, boundaries of the ego are fading. Inability of setting boundaries between self and outer world	self-consciousness is dissected and becomes something flowing: The "Non-Self"	transzendental, not changing self (purusha)
Out of Body Experiences	yes, controlled ecstasy	rare, not controllable	no	no; loss of the bodily consciousness: enstasis
Contents of the Experiences	organized and coherent pictures, determined by the shamanic cosmology and the intention of the journey	often fragmented and chaotic	dissection of complex experiences in its constitutive stimuli. The stimuli are dissected further into a continual stream	single object ("samadhi with support") or pure consciousness ("samadhi without support")