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An empirical study using the example of „ritual postures“

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The study participants
The study involved 19 participants (14 ♀, 5 ♂) of the self-experience group “Travelling to the other reality” (leader: Sabine Rittner) in Heidelberg. The composition of the group ranged from 6 people without experience in the Ritual Postures to 6 people with a medium level of experience and 6 very experienced people who have been working with “Ritual Postures and Ecstatic Trance” for more than 5 years.

The investigated ritual postures
The ritual postures of the “Bear”, the “Olmek Prince”, the “Saami Shaman” and the “South Moravian Woman” were studied.

The research methods
A fundamental prerequisite for the research work was the comprehensive participation of the researcher Christina Hunger in the entire self-experience group. Thus she was able to experience the trance in the selected ritual postures very directly and was also directly involved in all other processes of the group.

In a self-developed questionnaire, the participants assessed their experiences with ritual postures, among other things. They allowed the author to write down the narrative reports on the trance experiences in the circle discussions after the ritual. After completion of the self-experience group, 4 newcomers and 4 people very experienced in ritual postures were available for specific interview questions.

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Questions, results and discussions

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Question 1: “EXPERIENCE SPECIFICITY”
Following the assumption formulated by Goodman (1986) that each ritual posture enables a specific experience, the first question is: Are the trance experiences of the participants during a ritual posture so similar that they clearly differ from other trance experiences in other ritual postures?

Result
In their narratives, the participants repeatedly report that they felt strongly physically in the trance and experienced many visionary experiences. However, the content of the trance – what was physically experienced or how the vision was – differs from person to person, contrary to Goodman’s assumption.
An example: According to Goodman (1993), the Olmek Prince enables many different experiences with the element water. However, only three of the 19 study participants address such perceptions. In addition, experiences with water are also reported in the other ritual postures. From a scientific and statistical point of view, the assumption of specific trance experiences of ritual body postures must therefore be rejected.

Discussion
In my opinion, however, it must be noted that in the present study the specific experience contents of the trance were not asked directly. Rather, the spontaneous narrative reports of the group participants following the rituals served to question the experience specificity. In this respect, I assume that the frequency of the experience elements would increase if they were directly questioned. Statements on the rejection or retention of the assumption of experience specificity could then provide a more accurate assessment than is possible based on statistical values alone.

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2nd question: “DETERMINANTS” and “CONSEQUENCES”
In the second part of the study, questions are of interest regarding a) the determinants (influencing factors) that affect the way the trance experienced and b) the consequences of the trance experiences, which possibly lead to changes in dealing with demands in everyday life.

Result

The results are so varied that the following presentation focuses on 8 selected aspects of particular interest.

The participants report finding answers to personal and transpersonal questions in their trance experiences of ritual postures. On the one hand, they describe an increasingly better understanding of their own personal processes and on the other hand an increased acceptance towards other people. In everyday life the group participants perceive their physical processes, e.g. a cramped posture after sitting for too long, more consciously. They also become more aware of personal childhood events. They describe a reflected approach to questions about their own biography. Participants from social and psychotherapeutic professions describe a more appreciative attitude towards the initially strange experiences of their clients and patients. They report that their horizon of understanding has broadened, e.g. regarding psychosis-related experiences on the part of their clients and patients.
The participants formulate difficulties regarding the verbalisation of their trance experiences. They also hardly share them with other people outside the circle discussions.

Discussion

I see the conclusion of these results in the suitability of ritual postures as a possibility for spiritual body and psychotherapy.

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Question 3: “DIFFERENCE IN EXPERIENCE”
In the third part, the study examines how the participants’ different levels of experience are reflected in their trance experiences: Do newcomers experience the trance of ritual postures differently compared to experienced persons?

Result
Group participants without previous experience in ritual postures describe in their trances having perceived primarily physical processes. Often these were accompanied by painful sensations. Experienced persons, on the other hand, more often report visionary trance experiences. As the trance experience increases, the newcomers also include visionary experiences in their descriptions and only physical perceptions become less.

Discussion
For me, the peculiarities in the stories of newcomers and people experienced in ritual body postures are explained within the framework of the basic assumptions of cognitive psychology. Participants without previous experience have little or no “trance knowledge” or “trance scheme”. They are looking for comparable situations to explain (assimilate) their trance experiences, although they are still little aware of the possibilities of ecstatic trance and visionary experience. Contrary to the newcomers, experienced people know how to classify their trance experiences very well and also develop (accomodate) new cognitive structures.

An example: A new participant reports such terrible shoulder pain during the trance that she felt forced to break off the trance. An experienced participant describes similar pain. In her further narrative, however, she assigns them to the claws of an eagle, which had sat on her shoulders to take her in the further trance in flight to another part of the shamanic world tree. When she returns from the trance, she notices that her shoulder pains have dissolved.

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Literature

Goodman, F. D. (1986)
Body posture and the religious altered state of consciousness: An experimental investigation
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 26 (3), 81-118.

Goodman, F. D. (1993)
Where the spirits ride the winds: Trance journeys and ecstatic experiences
Freiburg: Hermann Bauer.

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Project related publications

Hunger, Christina and Rittner, Sabine (2015)
Ritual Body Postures: Empirical Study of a Neurophysiological Unique Altered State of Consciousness
In: The Humanistic Psychologist, 43:4, p. 371-394. UK: Taler and Francis.
PDF Download

Rittner, Sabine und Hunger, Christina (2013)
Blood into the Earth – The Ritualized Use of Ecstatic Trance States in Psychotherapy – Research and Practice
In: Passie, Torsten (Hg.): Ecstasy: Contexts – Forms – Effects
Bibliotheca Academica.
Würzburg: Ergon Verlag. S. 311 – 325.
PDF Download

Hunger, Christina (2005)
Trance: determinants, contents and consequences. An empirical study using the example of ritual postures
Diploma thesis in psychology, University of Landau.

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The study is based on the assumption that various mental phenomena, which are subsumed under the terms “trance” and “vigilance”, can both vary independently of each other and can be induced simultaneously. The relationships between subjective trance experience, objectifiable trance depth, measurable vigilance and localizable brain activity in the topographic electroencephalogram were investigated.

The study focused on four different tested receptive procedures whose trance-inducing effects on the test subjects were measured and compared:

1. Body monochord (“Somasandawa” after H.P. Klein)
2. monochrome voices
3. Peruvian Whistling Vessels (old Peruvian pipe bowls, trad. after D. Statnekov)
4. a “ritual posture” with rattle stimulation (“The Olmek Prince”, trad. after F. Goodman)

With these procedures, both primarily trophotropic and primarily ergotropic altered waking states of consciousness can be triggered. The measurements were carried out in a ritual group setting (naturalistic design) appropriate to the research subject on one day in September 2002 at the Department of Medical Psychology at the University Hospital of Heidelberg.

In addition to the systematic variation of the above mentioned induction methods, written spontaneous utterances of the test subjects and group participants were correlated with the objectifiable physiological parameters. This is a multi-perspective research approach in which three different methodological approaches to the research object were chosen and correlated in the evaluation:

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2. Quantitative analysis
Two different questionnaire batteries were used: “5D-APZ” by Dittrich, Lamparter and Maurer, Zurich 1999 and “Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory” (PCI) by Pekala, 1982, 1991 in the German version by Ulrich Ott, University of Giessen.

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3. Qualitative investigation
The personal experiences of the test persons and the group participants, which were recorded in writing, were analysed in the form of a qualitative exploration of content, compared with each other and related to the results of the evaluation of 1. and 2.

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The aim of this pilot study was the scientific examination and foundation of receptive music therapeutic and anthropological treatment methods for trance induction and their embedding in findings from consciousness research.

The pilot study was funded by the Department of Medical Psychology at the University Hospital of Heidelberg (headed by Prof. Dr. Rolf Verres).

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Project related publications

Fachner, Jörg; Rittner, Sabine (2003)
Sound and trance in a ritualistic setting – two single cases with EEG brainmapping
In: Brain Topography, Vol.16, No.2, Winter 2003. S. 121. Human Sciences Press.

Rittner, Sabine (2003)
Brainmapping of different Tranceinduktion Methods in a ritual setting
In: Nauwald, Nana, Goodman, Felicitas D. (Hg.): Ecstatic Trance: New Ritual Bodypostures. A Workbook. Binkey Kok Publications.

Rittner, Sabine; Fachner, Jörg (2004)
Sound and Trance in EEG – Brainmapping with the whole body monochord in a therapeutic setting
In: Music Therapy Review, Volume 25, 1st Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht.

Rittner, Sabine; Fachner, Jörg (2004)
Sound and Trance in the EEG – Brain mapping of different trance induction methods in a ritual setting
In: Music Therapy Review Online, Volume 25, 1.
(www.musiktherapie.de)
→ PDF Download: Sound and Trance EEG (German)

Fachner, Jörg; Rittner, Sabine (2004)
Sound and trance in a ritualistic setting visualised with EEG Brainmapping
In: Music Therapy Today (online). University Witten/Herdecke, Chair for Qualitative Research in Medicine (Hg.). Internet Vol. V, Issue 2.
→ PDF Download: Sound and trance in a ritualistic setting visualised with EEG Brainmapping

Rittner, Sabine (2004)
Brain mapping of different trance induction methods in a ritual setting
In: Nauwald, Nana; Goodman, Felicitas (Ed.): Ecstatic Trance. Ritual postures and ecstatic trance. P. 39 – 40. Havelte / Holland: Binkey Kok.

Gesell, Daniela (2004)
Sound & Trance. Qualitative evaluation of sound-induced trance states in the context of a pilot study
Diploma thesis in psychology, University of Heidelberg.

Fachner, Jörg; Rittner, Sabine (2005)
Music and altered states of consciousness (ASC). Sound and trance in a ritualistic setting visualised with EEG Brainmapping
In: Aldridge, D.; Fachner, J.; Erkkilä, J. (Hg.): Many Faces of Music Therapy – Proceedings of the 6 th European Music Therapy Congress, June 16 – 20,2004 . Finland: Jyväskylä. S. 942 – 973. E-Book (PDF) available at: Music Therapy Today.com Vol 6, Issue 4, Nov. 2005.
→ PDF Download: Music and altered states of consciousness (ASC), sound and trance in a ritualistic setting

Rittner, Sabine (2007)
Trance and Ritual in Psychotherapy and Research
In: Jungaberle, H.; Verres, R.; Dubois, F. (Eds.): Rituals Renew. Psychosozial Verlag.

Fachner, Jörg; Rittner, Sabine (2007)
EEG brainmapping of trance states induced by Monochord and Ritual Body Postures in a ritualistic setting
In: Isabelle Frohne-Hagemann (Hg.): Receptive Music Therapy – Theory and Practice. Wiesbaden: Reichert Publisher.

Rittner, Sabine (2008)
Brain mapping of different trance induction methods in a ritual setting.
Published in Russian language.
In: Nauwald, Nana, Goodman, Felicitas (Ed.): Ecstatic Trance. Ritual postures and ecstatic trance. pp. 50 – 52. Moscow. ISBN 978-5-386-00703-4

Rittner, Sabine (2011)
Brain mapping of different trance induction methods in a ritual setting
In: Nauwald, Nana, Goodman, Felicitas (Ed.): Ecstatic Trance. Ritual postures and ecstatic trance. P. 43-45. AT-Verlag.

Fachner, Jörg; Rittner, Sabine (2011)
Ethnotherapy, Music and Trance: An Investigation into Sound-Trance-Induction
In: Dean Cvetkovic et al. (Hg.). States of Consciousness: Experimental Insights into Meditation, Waking, Sleep and Dreams. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, The Frontiers Collection Series. P.235-256. ISBN 978-3-642-18046-0

Rittner, Sabine (2012)
Sound – Trance – Healing: Changing states of consciousness between shamanism, science and music psychotherapy
Published in Japanese.
In Clinical Music Therapy. The Association of Clinical Music Therapy, Kyushu, Japan. Translation: Yukiko Mizokami. S. 10–30.

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“Voice is living biography” (Gundermann)

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The voice is a phenomenon which, as the primary expressive form of the human being, links the logical-rational content of speech to the emotional meaning. Like a prism, it crystallizes both manifold personality aspects and temporary moods. Beyond the interpersonal aspect of non-verbal communication, singing in particular can bring about complex psychophysiological and emotional change processes within the individual. The aim of this pilot study was to identify factors in which the importance of vocal expression in the therapeutic relationship (previously underestimated in psychotherapy research) is condensed.

Three functional levels of the voice were considered in this research project:

→ The voice as an indicator for therapeutic change processes. Here we investigated whether pre-, peri- and post-therapeutic differences in the phonation of patients can be scientifically proven.

→ The voice as a symptom. For acute or chronic voice patients we offered group psychotherapy on a music-therapeutic and systemic basis after thorough phoniatric, logopaedic and psychological preliminary examination. Based on a psychosomatic basic understanding of the existing voice symptoms, we examined the efficiency of our integrative therapeutic approach with regard to a future differential indication.

→ The Voice goes beyond as a language-free medium of communication,
as a way to train perception, to promote expression and to process unconscious conflict material for use (resource-oriented concept).

Three short-term group psychotherapies were carried out with a total of 32 patients over twelve sessions of three hours each. Two of these groups were aimed at psychotherapy patients with psychosomatic symptoms, one of the groups was offered specifically for patients with functional and psychogenic voice disorders. The evaluation was carried out with a standardised, quantitative set of measuring instruments as well as with various qualitative examination methods. In addition, imaging methods of voice analysis were used. Furthermore, in the context of a doctoral thesis, questions of metaphorical communication in the therapist-patient relationship were addressed. The study was financed from internal departmental funds of the Institute for Medical Psychology at the University Hospital of Heidelberg (headed by Prof. Dr. Rolf Verres).

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Project related publications

Rittner, Sabine (2008)
The voice as a factor in psychotherapy / music therapy
In: Music Therapeutic Review, Theme Booklet “The Voice in Therapeutic Dialogue”, Vol. 29, 3/2008, pp. 201-220 Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht.

Rittner, Sabine (1998)
The research project “Voice and Music in Psychotherapy” (StimMusTher) at the University Hospital of Heidelberg
In: Studiengruppe Musiktherapie Ulm (Ed.): Lecture collection on the “10th Ulm Workshop for Music Therapeutic Basic Research”.
University Hospital Ulm, Dept. of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine.

Rittner, Sabine and Jungaberle, Henrik (1998)
Development and objective of the research project “Voice in music therapy” (StimMusTher) – Investigation of a music therapy group with the focus voice (repertory grid technique)
In: Studiengruppe Musiktherapie Ulm (Ed.): Lecture collection on the “10th Ulm Workshop for Music Therapeutic Basic Research”.
University Hospital Ulm, Dept. of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine.

Rittner, Sabine and Jungaberle, Henrik (2002)
Sounding systems – Different Approaches to the Evaluation of Music Psychotherapy Groups
In: Aldridge,D. and Fachner,J.(eds.):Info CD-Rom iv. University of Witten Herdecke: Witten. (S. 1514-1543).

Jungaberle Henrik (2000)
Contributions to the theory and evaluation of a music therapy group treatment.
Music and metaphor
Dissertation on Dr. sc. hum., University of Heidelberg.

Jungaberle Henrik (2001)
New steps in musical meaning – metaphor as an organizing principle
In: Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 10(1): p. 4-16.

Jungaberle, Henrik (2007)
Evaluation of the metaphor analysis of a music therapy group treatment.
Music and Metaphors. Psychotherapy in transition. On the theory and evaluation of music as a therapeutic medium.
Berlin: Pro Business.

Veit, Ulrike (2004)
Change processes in patients with functional voice disorders under music psychotherapeutic treatment
Dissertation on Dr. med., University Hospital Heidelberg.

Klaar, Christine (1999)
Health education in transition
Analysis of the pedagogical relevance of health education using selected case studies from the research project “StimMusTher” at the Department of Medical Psychology of the Psychosomatic University Hospital Heidelberg.
Master’s thesis in Educational Science, University of Heidelberg.

Kraus, Wolfgang (1996)
The voice in the music therapeutic relationship – a resonance phenomenon.
Diploma thesis music therapy, University of Applied Sciences for Music Therapy Heidelberg.

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PDF Download

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Fachner, Jörg; Rittner, Sabine (2005)
Music and Altered States of Consciousness (ASC). Sound and trance in a Ritualistic Setting Visualised with EEG Brainmapping.
In: Aldridge, D.; Fachner, J.; Erkkilä, J. (Hg.): Many Faces of Music Therapy – Proceedings of the 6th European Music Therapy Congress, June 16 – 20,2004. Finland: Jyväskylä. p. 942 – 973.

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PDF Download

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Rittner, Sabine (2009)
Der Wirkfaktor Stimme in der Psychotherapie/in der Musiktherapie
In: Japanese Bulletin of Arts Therapy. Übersetzung: Toshiyuki Saitoh. Vol.40 No.2 2009 pp.7-20. ISSN 0916-6688

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PDF Download

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Hunger, Christina and Rittner, Sabine (2015)
Ritual Body Postures: Empirical Study of a Neurophysiological Unique Altered State of Consciousness.
In: The Humanistic Psychologist, 43:4, p. 371-394.  UK: Taler and Francis.

Jan. 23rd, 2002, pp.72-79

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Current clientele: psychosomatics, oncology, chronic illnesses, early traumatisation, dysphonia, general life crisis. 13 years of music therapy with children, adolescents, and adults. Since 1990, sole focus on adults.  Furthermore: music therapists, professional prospects, students, encounter groups, training and advanced training.

Experience in years (in 2002): 24

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What does “Listening” mean to you?
Contact. Both outwards and inwards – to listen within and to pick out – particularly in special moments it can also mean contact to the inaudible.

Listening to the intermittent sound of the whole body: tone color – tone movement – tonal structure… multi-sensory, synesthetic. In trance, everyone is a synaesthete.

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What is the atmosphere like in which you work? How do you create it?
During a therapy session or a seminar, I “forget” everything around me. I immerse myself into the depth of the moment, the encounters, the momentary process which I can hear, feel, and see. I often enter a trance-like state of focussed presence. It is a place of inner calmness and clarity, where knowledge, experience, and intuition merge …

In addition, since I started working in this area, I have always made sure that I bring a lot of variety to my scope of activities so that I avoid routine and continue to stimulate different sides of me and don’t get stuck. I love new challenges and experiences that expand my limits of consciousness.

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How does music therapy work?
The different parameters of music have very different psychophysical spheres of effect. To explain these properly would go beyond this scope. I have already written extensively about “the effects of our voice”. However, what works, or, at best, heals, are not therapeutic “techniques”, nor tones, sounds, rhythms, scales, or melodies per se. They also work under the influence of our biography, our social and situational context, the set and setting in which they belong, can be felt and experienced. The way in which they are absorbed and processed is the manifestation of a relationship: to myself, to someone else, and to the world.

Music, but also breathing, the voice, movement, a careful touch, visualisation, and sensory awareness function as a mediator, an endogenous consultant. With the inherent self-healing potential, it is a competent companion during the therapeutic process, oscillating between regression, stagnation and progression. That is why I call my methodological approach “body oriented music therapy”. It refers to the inclusion of various forms of direct and indirect physical contact both during the diagnosis and in therapy. In other words, body image, body posture, touch, figurative movement, breathing, voice expression, sound healing, and altered states of consciousness, as well as interaction with musical instruments. My main concern is the training of music therapists in the theoretical and methodical use of their voice, their body, and its boundaries, as well as in dealing with trance during music psychotherapy.

The only thing that truly “heals”, or rather re-establishes the way we react or experience things, how we stimulate change, is – and I am rather old-fashioned this way – the setting free of already existing resources so that we can re-experience a successful relationship based on love and respect. Each method can therefore only be the facilitator.

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Music can facilitate a lot during therapy; but what stands in its way?
Perhaps clarity, ascertainment, the transferability into our everyday life, structure, rational understanding. There are people, who are, for example, in a chronic so-called “problem trance” or who have survived by temporarily “leaving” their bodies, by dissociation. In addition to music, these people also need something that is identifiable, visible and to be able to stand back from the situation during a reflective conversation.

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What happens during a music therapy session without music?
Verbal or nonverbal processing, immersion, and breathing, vocal, and embodiment exercises. I also use various methods of trance induction, systemic structures, gestalt therapy, movement, painting … and silence. Music to me, both active or receptive – although I only use music I play by myself in my individual therapy sessions – is one of many possibilities for conflict management, next to many other very applicable approaches.

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During improvisation, how to you control the impulse between inside and outside?
Methodically, and I always double-check them by asking my body, which is my most reliable adviser.  I also control my impulses intuitively and reassess them afterwards. This usually happens in a fraction of a second. I try to influence the shape of each music therapy session in such a way – leading, whilst I follow – that it is completed, “round”, and if worse comes to worse, it can stand on its own.

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Where did you recently get important ideas for your work?
From the inexhaustible wealth of intense self-awareness with body oriented therapy methods, prenatal psychology, ecstatic trance, and holotropic breath work (Grof). I can only accompany my clients and seminar participants into inner abyss and flights into the sky as I myself am willing and able to go along without fear.

I also get important inspiration from my professional cooperation with other colleagues, e.g. by conducting seminars with them, inviting them to symposia, or discussing a specific case with them. In recent years, this has inspired me to develop a methodical concept for the integration of systematic therapy, Erickson’s hypnotherapy, and music therapy. Also from art and my own experimental performances originate new, crazy ideas for my work. However, I always get the most beautiful motivation and stimulation during the unpredictable, creative interaction with my clients or seminar participants.

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How do you deal with the risks and side effects that sometimes come with therapeutic work?
By trying to face them unvarnished and early enough, and by openly addressing them, as far as they are recognisable. I try to honestly define the limits of my abilities and, in some cases, to seek advice from more competent colleagues or transfer so. to more competent colleagues or more appropriate therapy methods. In addition, I make an effort to minimise “risks” through external supervision or advise from colleagues in my team of the Institute of Medical Psychology here at the University Clinic Heidelberg. I also seek advanced training on a regular basis. All of this doesn’t of course always prevent me from making a mistake or realising something too late.

A typical “side effect” of music therapy and working with altered states of consciousness – in training or in treatment – is the strong opening and transparency of highly sensitive people, which runs the risk of even more suffering. So, I give equal importance to learning how to deal with flexible boundaries and protective, structuring rituals.

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What does “playing” mean to you?
To be alive, to follow impulses untamed, curious, wild and delicate, loud and quiet, incredibly weak and incredibly strong, serious and cheerful, profound and superficial, masculine and feminine, to practice uncensored, to discard, to try again, to surprise myself, to leave the safe space of the familiar, to explore boundaries, take risks, with all senses, sensual, meaningful and meaningless, without concept or theory, just to BE.

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What’s your “private music” like?
Silence. Nature. My family. Singing. And of course painting.

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© Sabine Ritner, Personal Interview, Published in the “Musiktherapeutische Umschau” 2002 23, (1) 2002, pp.72-79