Where are you getting your trance? You might not realize it, but you experience it every day. Trance is a basic human need. It’s the way we let out steam and process information. That’s why doomscroll, go out dancing or get drunk. Our relationship to trance greatly impacts all aspects of our life.
ALTERING CONSCIOUSNESS
The body and the mind are one integrated system. The body is the material part, it takes stock of how we’re doing and what we need; at the same time, it takes in the world around us. The mind is our experience of it: the sensations, needs and decisions being made all the time. It is an overwhelming amount of information. In order to direct and filter so much, we focus on one small part of our mind, we call this “paying attention”.
When our attention is driven by consciousness it allows us to think and make decisions. It’s great at keeping us alive but it follows very strict paths. When it comes to healing, change and growth we need to follow different paths. Our mind needs flexibility in order to process information and reorganize itself. The rising therapeutic use of psychedelics is a testament to that. We’ll go over the ways we can alter those paths and reach “altered states of consciousness”.
DEFINING ECSTATIC TRANCE
We call it “trance” or “flow” states when our consciousness is not in charge of our attention. Our actions feel “automatic” or effortless, we feel at one with the world. It’s easier to achieve when our consciousness is altered.
The word ecstatic refers to extreme joy, pleasure and euphoria. It can also refer to a feeling of mystic or religious transcendence. These things are often related.
An ecstatic trance is, then, what happens when our consciousness stops directing our attention and lets itself be carried by intense feelings of pleasure, joy and euphoria. It feels fucking incredible. Note the poetic language used in the two stories before this article.
You get high on endogenous ecstasy. It’s such a powerful experience that it becomes entangled with our sense of purpose. That’s why people become so devout to rave parties, watching team sports and evangelical churches. It can be weaponized, and often is. But it can also be approached as a mindful practice, with a repeatable and learnable skill set.
FRAMEWORK: MIND, BODY, IDEAS
Throughout cultures and ages, people have found ways to alter their consciousness and focus attention away from it. I’m not a mystic, I’m a curious gooner with a medical education. I’ve come up with this framework through my gooning practice, conversations and stewing ideas from different sources:
Note that these are deeply interlinked. Sensations and ideas trigger the release of chemical substances which alter our sensations and behaviors. It is a beautiful and complex dance.
Most ecstatic experiences mix elements from each column, e.g., the long distance runner’s high: BODY (rhythm in running and breathing), MIND (dehydration, tons of metabolites and neuroreceptors firing), IDEAS (endurance). The diversity in bodies, minds and lived experience makes each of us attuned to certain methods over others.
1. MIND
The ways we focus or divert attention based on sensations.
Sensory deprivation or overload
Attention is diverted to other senses or is completely overwhelmed.
(Check out ‘Let Us Be Your Eyes’ and ‘Bator Locked’)
Focused attention
Our attention becomes completely absorbed with a sensation. Can come from any sense.
Tactile — Pleasure, ritual scarring/tatooing, sucking, getting fisted
Auditory — voices, music, bells, distorsions, echoes
Visual — looking at facial expressions, patterns, gleaming, any visual fetish
Olfactory — check out our Musk article
Taste — your favorite meal
Proprioception — our own facial expression, body position, Shibari articles by Shibrori (Zine 3) and Ho Yaku
Rhythm/Loops
Our attention is kidnapped by rhythm or repetition.
Repetitive body movement —Sufi whirling, breath work, “up and down your dong”
Sound loops — mantras, bator babble, audio sampling
Visual loops — TikTok, looking at someone’s balls bouncing up and down as they bate
2. BODY
The ways perceptions are altered by material reality (neurochemistry).
Endogenous
We can get high by altering our own biochemistry, no outside help needed. Some mechanisms include:
Breathing patterns: changes levels of blood oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH.
Metabolites: in the bloodstream in circumstances such as exercise (lactic acid), diet (prolonged fasting, keto) and dehydration (sweat huts).
Neuroreceptors: in our nervous system such as oxytocin (warm physical touch) or endorphins (exercise, sex).
Exogenous
Anything we put in our bodies that can alter our biochemistry. Food but mostly drugs.
Drugs push the “mind path” to different vectors. Each vector is more aligned to different activities: coffee is great for working, weed and poppers facilitate gooning, psychedelics are great for connection and creativity; meth is killing the gay community.
Note that drug legislation controls the vectors in which mainstream society’s collective trance can move.
3. IDEAS
The ways we defuse agency and social anxiety so our consciousness doesn’t snap into action.
Submission
Nullifies agency. You are helpless, you have no choice but to obey.
BDSM sub dynamics, hypnosis, extreme exhaustion, fetichizing addiction.
Endurance
A form of self-submission by looping on the idea of continuing.
“Keep going, don’t stop, can’t stop”. Usually linked to repetitive motion such as long distance running.
Affirmation
Deactivates social anxiety. You are accepted by your peers, no need to self analyse.
This is why a smile can be so fucking hot. Receiving compliments and being validated fits here too. Seen in many coaching styles, including all ‘bro’ coaching (Zine 4 Dick-tionary).
Embodiment
Changes the shape of your agency. Put on a mask and become something else through body language, sounds, make up or costume.
Seen in theater, dance and all gender performance. All roleplay, pup-play, etc.
Footnotes
This piece is the first half of the What is Gooning piece.
This framework comes from looking at different types of gooners and trying to understand how each of them did what they did. The framework comes directly from observing the differences.
Nick did a great job fitting my crazy chart into an understandable chart so I’ll share it below. <3
