What Is Trance?

Suspended imagination.

This is my working definition of what “trance” is.

I was recently reading a discussion on a popular hypnosis forum. The discussion was about whether or not a trance state exists in reality, or perhaps it’s all merely degrees of suggestibility.

This was my contribution to the post:

I am completely convinced that trance states exist. If you’re observant, you can see it happen all around you. Walk into a jewelry store or an expensive shoe store or even a large food market and you can sort out the people who are intently focused on searching for and selecting a specific item from those who have drifted to a standstill, with an odd expression and a blank or far-away look in their eye as they imagine what it would taste like, look like, feel like to purchase something. You see it on public transportation, lifts (elevators), and any queue in a government office or bank.

Now, that is an observable phenomenon. Defining or evaluating the utility of that phenomenon and getting consensus on it is what is difficult. But it is an undeniable and observable phenomenon that we can see almost as easily as seeing someone yawn or sneeze and I believe it is just as common and ordinary.