TRANCE, a term used very loosely in popular speech to denote any kind of sleeplike state that seems to present obvious differences from normal sleep; in medical and scientific literature the meaning is but little better defined. In its original usage the word no doubt implied that the soul of the entranced person was temporarily withdrawn or passed away from the body, in accord ance with the belief almost universally held by uncultured peo ples in the possibility of such withdrawal. But the word is now commonly applied to a variety of sleeplike states without the im plication of this theory ; ordinary sleep-walking, extreme cases of melancholic lethargy and of anergic stupor, the deeper stages of hypnosis (see HYPNOTISM), the state into which many of the mediums of modern spiritualistic seances seem to fall almost at will; all these are commonly spoken of as trance, or trance-like, states. There are no well-marked and characteristic physical symp toms of the trance state, though in many cases the pulse and respiration are slowed, and the reflexes diminished or abolished. The common feature which more than any other determines the application of the name seems to be a relative or complete tern porary indifference to impressions made on the sense-organs, while yet the entranced person gives evidence in one way or another, either by the expression of his features, his attitudes and move ments, his speech, or by subsequent relation of his experiences, that his condition is not one of simple quiescence or arrest of mental life, such as characterizes the state of normal deep sleep and the coma produced by defective cerebral circulation by toxic substances in the blood or by mechanical violence done to the brain.
If we refuse the name trance to ordinary sleep-walking, to normal dreaming, to catalepsy, to the hypnotic state and to stupor, there remain two different states that seem to have equal claims to the name; these may be called the ecstatic trance and the trance of mediumship respectively.
The ecstatic trance is usually characterized by an outward appearance of rapt, generally joyful, contemplation. The sub ject seems to lose touch for the time being with the world of things and persons about him, owing to the extreme concentration of his attention upon some image or train of imagery, which in most cases seems to assume an hallucinatory character (see HALLU CINATION ). In most cases, though not in all, the subject remembers in returning to his normal state the nature of his ecstatic vision or other experience, of which a curiously frequent character is the radiance or sense of brilliant luminosity.
In the mediumistic trance the subject generally seems to fall into a profound sleep and to retain, on returning to his normal condition, no memory of any experience during the period of the trance. But in spite of the seeming unconsciousness of the sub ject, his movements, generally of speech or writing, express, either spontaneously or in response to verbal interrogation, intelligence and sometimes even great intellectual and emotional activity. In many cases the parts of the body not directly concerned in these expressions remain in a completely lethargic condition, the eyes being closed, the muscles of neck, trunk and limbs relaxed, and the breathing stertorous.
Trances of these two types seem to have occurred sporad ically (occasionally almost epidemically) amongst almost all peo ples in all ages. And everywhere popular thought has interpreted
them in the same ways. In the ecstatic trance the soul is held to have transcended the bounds of space or time, and to have en joyed a vision of some earthly event distant in space or time, or of some supernatural sphere or being. The mediumistic trance, on the other hand, popular thought interprets as due to the with drawal of the soul from the body and the taking of its place, the taking possession of the body, by some other soul or spirit ; for not infrequently the speech or writing produced by the organs of the entranced subject seems to be, or actually claims to be, the expression of a personality quite other than that of the sleeper. It is noteworthy that in almost all past ages the possessing spirit has been regarded in the great majority of cases as an evil and non-human spirit ; whereas in modern times the possessing spirit has usually been regarded as, and often claims to be, the soul or spirit of some deceased human being. Modern science, in accordance with its materialistic and positive tendencies, has re jected these popular interpretations. It inclines to see in the ecstatic trance a case of hallucination induced by prolonged and intense occupation with some emotionally exciting idea, the whole mind beconiing so concentrated upon some image in which the idea is bodied forth as to bring all other mental functions into abeyance.
Science regards the mediumistic trance as a state similar to deep hypnosis, and seeks to explain it by the application of the notion of cerebral or mental dissociation in one or other of its many current forms ; this assimilation finds strong support in the many points of resemblance between the deeper stages of hypnosis and the mediumistic trance, and in the fact that the artificially and deliberately induced state may be connected with the spon taneously occurring trance state by a series of states which form an insensible gradation between them. A striking feature of the mediumistic trance is the frequent occurrence of "automatic" speech and writing; and this feature especially may be regarded as warranting the application of the theory of mental dissociation for its explanation, for such automatic speech and writing are occasionally produced by a considerable number of apparently healthy persons while in a waking condition which presents little or no other symptom of abnormality. When, as in the majority of cases, such speech or writing merely gives fragmentary expression to ideas or facts that have been assimilated by the subject at some earlier date, though perhaps seemingly completely forgotten by him, the theory. of mental dissociation affords a plausible and moderately satisfactory explanation of them.
But in recent years a new interest has been given to the study of the mediumistic trance by careful investigations (made, mostly by members of the Society for Psychical Research, with a com petence that commands respect) which tend to re-establish the old theory of external possession, just when it seemed to have become merely an anthropological curiosity. For this aspect of medium istic trance the article on Psychical Research should be consulted.