Trance und Schamanismus
Ich habe mich in letzter Zeit wieder viel mit Trance beschäftigt. Praktisch, wie auch theoretisch. Viele interessante und historisch belegbare Fingerzeige zur Verwendung und Auswirkung von Trance findet man in der Ethnographie und Antropologie.
Unter anderem ist der Schamanismus da ein breites Feld, welches leider (ähnlich dem Yoga) im letzten Jahrhundert eine unglaubliche Verwässerung und Entsinnung erfahren hat.
Bei den Tungus, einem der Völker der Kamchatka Halbinsel, denen auch der eigentliche Begriff des “Schamanen” entstammt, ist ein Schamane nur jemand der:
a) Selbst in Trance gehen kann – dokumentiert durch z.B. Kräfte, die er im Normalzustand nicht hat. So sind in dem unten stehenden Zitat Fälle dokumentiert, in denen alte Schamanen sich ihr 30-40kg schweres Kostüm anzogen und dann sitzend oder liegend auf die Trance warteten. Dann hüpften sie für die Zeit der Zeremonie darin herum wie junges Wild! :-)
b) Die Zuschauer mit in das Tranceerleben mit hinein zieht – also eine massenpsychologische Veränderung im Zuschauerkreis erwirkt.
According to the shamans, they feel an extreme lightness of the body during the extasy. This feeling is seemingly also communicated to the sick persons, for the Manchus assert that when during the performance the shaman steps on the person lying on the ground, the shaman is felt to be very light. In fact the feeling of lightness, or in other words, the increase of strength, is a common phenomenon. As stated, the costume may weigh over thirty kilograms. Such a weight is not easy to wear, though it be evenly distributed on the body. An old woman, I saw one day among the Birarchen, could not lift it up and was literally unable to move, when the costume was put on her. However, when the spirit entered her, she moved with ease and at a tremendous speed. In another case I observed a shaman of eighty-six years who was half deaf and half blind (he could not walk alone and, being blind, shamanized at daylight); he was so weak that he could not move without being supported and was usually helped to mount his reindeer. The costume was extremely heavy (the old shaman gradually gathered a great number of iron parts) — weighing about forty kilograms by my estimation — and the old man, when dressed, lay on the ground until the spirits came in. Then there was a sudden transformation: he jumped and danced like a youth, his voice was as strong as that of his niece who was shamanizing with him.
In a great number of performances I saw shamans leap without a running start, or from the spot where they were standing (the wigwams being too small), which cannot be performed by the most able Tungus sportsmen, even without the additional weight of the costume. The Tungus assert that the shamans sometimes touch with their heads the upper smoke aperture of the wigwam, at a height of over three metres. I have not seen this (and this may be mere hallucination on the part of the Tungus!), but I have seen them jump to the height of about one metre. Indeed, for doing so there must be an enormous tension of muscles. The weight of shaman’s costume is also an interesting fact which throws a special light. In fact, the weight of the costume must hinder the shaman in producing his extasy, so the shaman must make a special additional effort for neutralizing the inhibitive influence of the extra-weight. If the shaman cannot reach an extasy he cannot perform — the costume is too heavy; a heavy costume requires a further increase of extasy. In fact the shaman-beginners usually have light costumes, while the old experienced shamans have very heavy costumes. The Tungus say that a young shaman cannot wear a heavy costume. Among the Manchus, whose forms of shamanizing have been, especially lately, established, as well as among the Dahurs, the costume is not very heavy.
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