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Trances 25000 years ago

solid~liquid onwards

20:22 / 22.02.05

Just watched an interesting documentary on UKTV history. It was the first in a series called apeman, looking at our more ancient heritage. This one was about cave paintings in south africa and france and there similarities. The program was saying that the general consensus among the experts was that many of the paintings in both caves represented trance experienced. They talked about research on trance (from hypnotism and people who did it spontaneously) which shows a universality in the imagery, mainly geometric shapes, grids, dots, tunnels and funnels and how this trance imagery is conveyed in the 25000 year old cave paintings in both france and south africa.

...its a bbc documentary (reruning on uktv) but the website for it no longer seems to exist

just thought i'd share. But id like to know about peoples trance experiences and if they fit into the imagery of geometric shapes, grids, dots, tunnels and funnels

21:16 / 22.02.05

I can imagine that. I mean, trance is an everyday occurence, by which I mean that it happens to all of us countless times every day in various different ways. It makes sense that it's happened for as long as the species has been around.

08:54 / 23.02.05

"Trance" is a bit of a curiously broad term isnt it... I'm not really sure what it means. It's a bit like the modern meaning of "gnosis" discussed in the other thread. I mean, the word trance could be used to describe everything from full possession experiences, to a light meditation, to the feeling you get after having played Grand Theft Auto for hours on end, to even the state of mind you go into when ironing or washing the dishes. All of these things are trances, to some degree or another. According to one model, we all go into trances constantly and it's nature of human consciousness to move from one "trance" state to another... the trance of mechanically doing your day job, the trance of falling in love, the trance of being down the pub with your mates, the trance of being really angry and wanting to hurt someone, the trance of watching television, etc....