Trunov, D. G. Altered State of Consciousness As a Factor of Identity Transformation in ‘Transition Rituals’

Abstract: ‘Transition rituals’ or rites of initiation mean special procedures that exist in a traditional society in the form of religious and social practices. These procedures denote the transfer of a person from one status (social, spiritual and etc.) to a higher status. In other words, transition rituals or rites of initation lead to transformation of personal and social identity. The three most important functional components of initiation (death, transition and birth) reflect a unique logic of discrete cogitation, in accordance to which identity transformation is not a gradual process but an immediate shift from one form of self-perception (Self conception) to another. Such a transit must be necessarily accompanied with the altered state of consciousness (trance, loss or break of consciousness and etc.). Otherwise, one’s experience of the Self remains continuous and consecutive. There are the following methods to create the liminal (‘transitory’) feelings: usage of psychoactive substances of vegetable and animal origin, trance dances, starvation, breathing techniques, tortures, deprivation of sleep, sensor deprivation and so on.

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