Question For Members Who Experience Trances

[Ronin]

@Simply Simon, I tend to go with trances = different level of floatiness, dissociation plain = numbness, not being there, black outing, blanking out, being somewhere in the past, and the like, but without that feeling of just floaty, hazed, on the edge and not so caring, not jumpy at all.

Understanding that with cults way personally. I prefer to get angry at gaslighting / manipulation / obvious abuse and obvious recruiting tactics these days to not slip into my not-so-distant past.
Used to have a lot of that mess in my life, hence also why develop that categorization for different dissociation with such passion.

I don't know that it's correct, but it's been helpful to my recovery, so just sharing as a personal definition.

 

[Mercy]

I do go into trance states. Sometimes feeling starey or glazed over can allow me to veg out and go into a full trance state. When I come back to myself, I feel refreshed and rested. Whatever to stress was, I must have worked it out with a different part of my brain. I'm guessing that trance may be a forebrain activity.

 

[shimmerz]

For me, the difference between trance and dissociation is that normally when I am dissociating it is because I have felt a trigger that needs me to 'exit' or 'go deep inside' in order to escape something that I feel is unsafe. I see it as the 'place of safety' that I trained myself to go into when I couldn't protect myself.

Trance, on the other hand is not usually something I trigger into. For me it is more like a respite - a place that I go when I need to unhook from too many sensory issues, or when I lose track of my here and now and drift someplace else. I don't feel like I am escaping when I trance out, I feel like I am going there to be offline for a bit.

Not sure if that makes any sense to anyone else but me. Certainly not scientific.

What I do know is that trance is very powerful when one knows how to use it well enough to go in and out with intention. Shaman's use trances to exit their bodies to protect others on their journey's. Mediums go into trances to speak to those in a different realm. But they do it with intention. They know where they are going and they are fully conscious. Out there, I know, but I have experienced this numerous times vicariously, or myself. Trance is spiritual to me when taught properly how to do so.

 

[PTSDbegone]

Yes I go into a trance like state quite often. It can last a few seconds, to a few hours. I have no warning ahead of time that it's going to happen, and through therapy we have yet to figure out a way to bring me out of it. While in the trance I do not move. I have no memory of anything that happens when I am in the trance. My current therapist believe's I have Dissociative Identity Disorder, and I have child alters who are still too young or too scared to talk. I have no idea if that's what it is, or just regular dissociation.I have done it since childhood, but have found since starting therapy, and trying to work through my stuff that it is happening more often.

I often go into a sort of trance and was wondering if any of you experience this and if so, how long does i...

 

[katz]

I often go into a sort of trance and was wondering if any of you experience this and if so, how long does i...

Hi, Cj77
I'm not sure if this will help you any. I was diagnosed with minor epilepsy when I was young. I would dissociate for a few minutes, sometimes only seconds. I would feel it coming and then usually move myself to a safe spot. Often on the floor, so I don't fall. When I would start "going out", I would get a particular sensation, then I could prepare. I often would lose my ability to speak first, so I had a hand signal that I could give to my friends, so they knew that I might "step out" for a moment. As the years went on, I have often wondered which ones were seizures and which ones were dissociation.
Then, when I was in my 40's, my doctor had me check into a hospital for a special test. I was put on an EEG and watched by camera for one week. The doctor started taking away my medicines one by one. Then I was diagnosed with PTSD. When they told me and my parents this, I was relieved to know that it was not all my fault and that I was not crazy. I'm now on one medicine--not 6! And even better, I have not dissociated since then. That was 8 years ago. (I was aware of my past long before this, so it was not a surprise when she told me, but it was good to have someone else diagnose it and tell my parents, who had never believed me.)
I have always believed that when I stepped out, it was often due to the terrors of my past. Especially, since they came the most, during my monthly periods.
Now, I'm not saying that you do or you don't have a medical problem, like me, but if you still "step out" and don't remember anything during or after, it might be worth a trip to the doctor--to be sure. You don't want it to happen while your driving!