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Ecstatic Practices
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Trance, possession and comparable altered states sought as part of religious life, distinguished from meditative practice nearby by aiming at an altered state rather than a calm or concentrated one. The line between the two is functional rather than doctrinal, and a single tradition can value both for different purposes.
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Overview
What Defines This GroupingPractices that induce or accompany an altered state the tradition treats as religiously significant - possession, trance, prophetic speech - usually through drumming, dance or sustained rhythmic movement. Grouping them by the state they are held to produce is an outsider's criterion: the traditions concerned classify them by who is invoked and on whose authority. 2 Origins
Whose Classification This IsThe comparative frame is I. M. Lewis's, from Ecstatic Religion (1971), which treats possession and trance as a single field and reads their social distribution - central cults upholding the established order against peripheral cults of the marginal, women above all. That is Lewis's analysis, not a category the traditions use of themselves. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryUsed, but its validity as a comparative category is disputed 2 Learn More
The Ecstatic Practices
This group gathers ecstatic practices: disciplines that seek altered, heightened or trance states of consciousness through means such as dance, drumming, chanting or whirling, in which the practitioner may feel union with, or possession by, the divine.
The browser will find ecstatic practices from various traditions. The entries describe each practice's form and aim, noting the tradition in which it is found.
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