You may have seen the animated gif above before or even the videos below. The little girl in these images is Ava Grace, her mother Rosie Cafarelli was shooting in-church video for a news story and caught Ava Grace in these worshipful moments.
Now, there’s no way to know for certain if little Ava Grace was indeed having a genuine ecstatic trance experience within the context of worship, toddlers may or may not yet have such experiences. We can see she’s learned sacred trance posture and behavior from her direct experience with a community that uses such methods and it’s likely with repeated exposure and practice she would eventually learn to directly access such ecstatic experiences fully.
Ava Grace Ecstatic Trance
Note her movements are to the music and that could very well be her primary experience here rather than the worshiping context the videos are most often noted for.
Ava Grace Trance Ecstasy
Now, while I am certainly not a member of the particular congregation or denomination that Ava and her mother participate in, I do believe it’s important for folks to develop a spiritual side to themselves and strongly advocate ecstatic trance as a means for connecting within oneself.
Seriously, there are a number of studies that show meditation and focused trance are very beneficial to one’s mental, emotional, and physical health and it’s very clear that those who experience ecstatic states within worship contexts are entering such an altered state of consciousness, a variation of focused experiential trance. Closing your eyes and daydreaming can be worthwhile but you genuinely will receive much more benefit if you enter into an experiential trance state rather than a simple light relaxed state. This does not have to be ecstatic and it certainly does not need to be religious in any way, but learning the processes can be very very beneficial.
This certainly does not mean one genuinely connects to a particular deity, but it does help us to make sense of our own experience. To connect ecstatically is to connect to life and to introspective understanding. Even folks who are agnostic or even those who are atheists can benefit from such methods . . . seriously, even the non-spiritual can use the methods of spiritual focused ecstatic trance for benefit. That’s one of the very premises within my own engineering experiential ecstasy and metaphysical (psychic) hypnosis programs which teach methods that have been used for thousands of years within spiritual contexts in a way that can be adapted to contemporary models with or without the spiritual dressing. If you check those products – listed below – you will find clear explanations and demonstrations.
In my own spiritual practice I use these very same methods as I admire those churches that are able to so fully integrate ecstatic experience and active trance into their worship. I may not share their particular path (my ministerial ordination does not limit me from admiring the value in the path of others) . . . and I may even disagree with the politics and beliefs of many who use these methods . . . but, I certainly see the advantage of the method.
If you’re in Taipei and interested in hypnosis, check the services page linked to in the top left sidebar. Not in Taipei, check the store for recordings in the same menu area as well as links to lots and lots of info and goodies.
Brian
www.BrianDavidPhillips.com
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