What is your preferred method for acheiving a trance/altered state?

[ulfrdyr]

As someone who suffers from anxiety and intrusive thoughts, shifting away from my 'regular mind state' to hold ritual or do magic is really important. Otherwise I get stuck on all of the details, spiral into unpleasant thoughts, and/or allow my inner critic to run wild. That said, I've had mixed results over the years and have not found a consistently successful technique. I'm interested in hearing about how others achieve entering a more receptive state (or however you would personally define it!).

 

[IllusiveOwl]

To Trance, there are two big battles to be won: 1) Getting control of the mind 2) disconnecting from the mind and body.

In order to win victory over the mind, you'll have to act as a dutiful housekeeper. At first, anytime a thought pops up, you must put it in the bin outside your chamber thoughtlessly and return back to your meditation. This can be aided with ritual, I posted a cleansing tutorial in the appropriate section, to dissuade the mind from getting distracted. Over time you will witness your stream of thoughts and see it veer off, distracted, and be able to guide it back to your intention as the master of yourself. You will focus because you will to focus on the meditation, which is enough. It is critical to be able to control your psyche without the use of words.

In order to disconnect, you will need to first win victory over the mind. I enjoy employing sensory deprivation as well for this later stage because it enhances the disconnection in a visceral way, I use ear plugs, a gas mask, and a ritual mask overtop it, sometimes a blanket draped around me too for body-numbing warmth. With the mind disregarded, and the body's senses disregarded, you will be able to focus into a Trance state.

It's taken me many many hours of meditation and sensory deprivation to remain coherent & aware while in this state, because it closely resembles the pre-sleep stage, but the rewards are worth the efforts.

 

[Anziel_Merkaba]

I wrote an initiatory primer for mental skills that has the meditation I used to use to get the feel for clearing my mind and centering myself before a working. It's a pretty solid method, and everyone I've taught it to had immediate results. It is a bit of a dirty hack in the sense that it uses a focal meditation technique to achieve the same state as void/zen mediation, but it's a lot easier for people who have a hard time clearing their mind.

 

[Ziran]

What is your preferred method for acheiving a trance/altered state?

Favorite method for entering a trance state:

Watching it burn...

Spoiler: from the lair

 

[Amur]

Favorite type when not doing CM is the shamans' drum. Gets you deep very quickly and healing process can begin.

 

[RoccoR]

RE: What is your preferred method for achieving a trance/altered state?
SUBTOPIC: Practical Attempts
⁜→ ulfrdyr, et al,

(OPENING) (To insure we are on the same sheet of music.)

Altered State of Consciousness: Altered state of consciousness refers to any number of states that allow a person to “dissociate from the normal waking state,” and which are “sometimes induced deliberately by means of meditation, drugs or hypnosis” Some knowledgeable believe that an altered state of consciousness is a central component to such phenomena like extrasensory perception (ESP).

Trance: Trance refers to “an altered state of consciousness" induced I a set of controlled conditions .” It is associated with external figures isubjecct under te influence of trance medium (AKA: mediumship). Conditions sometimes induce a state similar to hypnosis and channels to a supernature plane of entities.

---

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𓅂 The six principal ways to achieve an Altered State besides unexplained accidents and trauma are:

Hallucinations: Such appearances that differ from events that are induced by separate psychological and physiological effects.​

Hypnosis: The most effective hypnotherapeutic is when the patient becomes the most significant person in the experiments, as opposed to the hypnotherapist and the particular technique being in play. It should be the case that the therapist adopts a planning consultation before the patient is put under the state of hypnotic suggestion in which the manner (creating a state of openness and receptivity) of the suggestions are approached and introduced. No suggestion should be poised as a command.​

Meditation: This should be the first choice.​

Psychedelics; Not Recommended • In my opinion is very dangerous.​

The Mind-Expanding Drugs : Not Recommended​

Relaxation: A very good approach if the SUBJECT can be in a place where the it is conduciv​

Most Respectfully,
R

(1) Copyright © 2022 by Courtney M. Block Published by Rowman & Littlefield An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

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2) Berger and Berger, The Encyclopedia,
3) THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES TO ALTERED STATES Copyright © 1981 Ernest L. Rossi 740 Broadway, NY NY 10003

 

[Killersmurf]

As someone who suffers from anxiety and intrusive thoughts, shifting away from my 'regular mind state' to hold ritual or do magic is really important. Otherwise I get stuck on all of the details, spiral into unpleasant thoughts, and/or allow my inner critic to run wild. That said, I've had mixed results over the years and have not found a consistently successful technique. I'm interested in hearing about how others achieve entering a more receptive state (or however you would personally define it!).

 

[Taudefindi]

Anything that can hold my attention into a single point can help.

I mostly do it through listening to music and/or just moving the body around(swaying, circling around, walking, etc.).

 

[The God-King]

I like to vibrate Sacred Names like a mantra to get into an altered state. I've played around with ritual/shamanic drumming to help get into trance but I prefer vibrating Sacred Names.

 

[ulfrdyr]

Wow! I just wanted to say, thank you for all of the replies. I have much to reflect on or try out!

 

[AlfrunGrima]

One of the biggest hurdles I had to take is to overcome the feeling of attachment to my normal life, the daily tasks and thoughts where I was feeling highly attached to. I tried every method but couldn't reach a trance, no matter how much I practiced and tried. I just couldn't leave my normal life and body and just go to other worlds and experiences. From the moment I started to examine those feelings I was able to fall into a deep trance state and even astral travel. From that moment every method I tried, worked. I am a big fan from the KISS principle, so I like to Keep It Simple and Stupid. I just sit down on the couch when nobody's at home and start rocking my upper body a little while relaxing... In the period I lived with my younger brother I was able to use a rocking chair. I don't have one of my own and it wouldn't fit where I am housed now, so it is a couch thing now.

Jan Fries talks in his book Seidways a lot about swaying, trembling, and rocking. It is worth to read, althought I doubt a little if he is very accurate on seidr. (but I am not so educated on seidr)

Another thing that was a hurdle sometimes were the unexpected sounds in my surroundings like a passing car or the dog sneezing That could kick me out my trance. I trained myself to deal with it during my weekly train travels. Or I choose a place to sit somewhere in a busy public space. I always took a little object with me and kept concentrating on it while not reacting to the sounds around me, while not having thoughts in them or get attached to those sounds in one way or another. When I forgot my object I just stared outside the window and was doing the same thing. That object was often a very mundane thing like a pencil or so. I think these kinds of training often get overlooked while they are worthful.

 

[r2magooo]

Effective meditation generates specific effects.
Whatever "method" used the effects are specific and obvious , blatantly obvious , subjectively , and observable by others.

A very simple to do method , that generates very profound effect is one that is probably very familiar with most people, but its rarely done effectively.

Every day in every way I am getting better and better

say that out loud to yourself 100 times will be (approx 2.5 to 3 mins give or take)

say it as fast as you can

make sure that you say each word clearly

AND place a deliberate gap between each word

as fast as you can.

then and here is the test ...

pay attention to what is going on in your mind ..

If you have done the technique effectively you will have little or no "chatter of self talk self comments / emotions going on"

An interesting way to start a ritual.. to tune out the world .. and tune into a focused clear state

And for the curious , you can change the statement to one that "resonates " with any rituals that you might be working.

Bespoke statements such as affirmations can also be used as a general theme.

 

[djcullgirl]

MAKIN BEATS

i have said this before, possibly even in this thread (bad memory, low attention) but man.. its just mind blowing how quickly and thoroughly music can bring me in to that state.... ive also been messing with some live VJ stuff... its crazy how deeply zoned out i can get and for such a sustained period of time.
but the real power lies in my ability to soothe my nervous system, from parasympathetic to sympathetic (?? i always mix the two up) - i can be in the deepest, darkest gloom, the most triggered of ptsd spirals, and if i can get myself to focus on the music making its just like... a parts and all of a sudden im in a golden meadow, with a drum machine. it never ceases to amaze me. its like, no matter how bad things are i can just pick up my groovebox and put my headphones in and hang out with god.... i dont think it will ever cease to amaze me how instant and consistent it is