Testing the ‘Three Stages of Trance’ Model

In October of 2002, Patricia A. Helvenston and Paul G. Bahn published a paper entitled ‘Desperately Seeking Trance Plants: Testing the “Three Stages of Trance” Model’. That paper presented a critique of the ‘Three Stages of Trance’ model as proposed by J.D. Lewis-Williams and T.A. Dowson in 1988 to account for mental imagery as perceived by people in ‘certain altered states of consciousness’ that they believed inspired Palaeolithic cave art. Helvenston & Bahn chose to publish their paper privately, but supplied the following summary of their argument. It is accompanied here by comments from a neuropsychologist (John L. Bradshaw) and a rock-art specialist (Christopher Chippindale).

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Visions of Dynamic Power: Archaic Rock-paintings, Altered States of Consciousness and ‘Clever Men’ in Western Arnhem Lane (NT), Australia

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774300000032 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 63-101 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Christopher Chippindale ◽

Benjamin Smith ◽

Paul S.C. Taçon

Keyword(s):

Strong Evidence ◽

Rock Art ◽

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

Altered States ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

Arnhem Land ◽

Tropical Australia ◽

Human Animal ◽

Animal Images ◽

Men’S Knowledge

The Dynamic figures are a distinctive component in the earlier rock-art of western Arnhem Land, north Australia. They include therianthropic (hybrid human–animal) images. Recent vision experience ethnographically known in the region, and the wider pattern of Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) in hunter-gatherer societies, are consistent with elements of the Dynamics. One key feature is the use of dots and dashes in the Dynamic images, explicable as a depiction of some intangible power, of a character comparable with that in the ‘clever men's knowledge’ of modern Arnhem Land. Tropical Australia thereby is added to the number of regions where a visionary element is identified in rock-art; the specific circumstances in Arnhem Land, permitting the use together of formal and of informed methods, provide unusually strong evidence.

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Embodiment, Transformation and Ideology in the Rock Art of Trans-Pecos Texas

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774315000505 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 217-241 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jamie Hampson

Keyword(s):

Rock Art ◽

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

Altered States ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

West Texas ◽

Important Interaction ◽

Somatic Transformation ◽

The Veil

Present in the Trans-Pecos rock art of west Texas are many motifs intelligible within hunter-gatherer ontological frameworks. These motifs—including human figures missing heads and limbs, figures with disproportionately large eyes, polymelia and pilo-erection—are concerned with somatic transformations and distortions experienced in altered states of consciousness. Ethnographic analogies also demonstrate that other Trans-Pecos features—smearing, rubbing and chipping of pigment and incorporation of natural inequalities of the rock surfaces into images—are evidence of kinetic experiences or embodied processes, including the important interaction with the ‘veil’ that separates one tier of the cosmos from others. By exploring the related concepts of embodiment, somatic transformation and process within non-Western ontologies, I offer a unified but multi-component explanation for the meanings and motivations behind several Trans-Pecos rock-art motifs. I also address the consumption of rock art in west Texas—how it was viewed and used by the original artists and subsequent viewers to shape, maintain and challenge ideologies and identities.

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Shamanism and Cognitive Evolution (with comments)

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774302000045 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 71-101 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Michael Winkelman

Keyword(s):

Social Relations ◽

Social Evolution ◽

Mental States ◽

Natural World ◽

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

Altered States ◽

Upper Palaeolithic ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

Natural Module ◽

Cave Art

Shamanic referents in Upper Palaeolithic cave art indicate its pivotal role in the Middle–Upper Palaeolithic transition. Etic models of shamanism derived from cross-cultural research help articulate the shamanic paradigm in cave art and explicate the role of shamanism in this transition. Shamanism is found cross-culturally in hunter-gatherer societies, constituting an ecological and psychosociobiological adaptation that reflects the ritual and cosmology of early modern humans. Shamanism played a role in cognitive and social evolution through production of analogical thought processes, visual symbolism and group-bonding rituals. Universals of shamanism are derived from innate modules, particularly the hominid ‘mimetic controller’ and music and dance. These induced altered states of consciousness, which produce physiological, cognitive, personal and social integration through integrative brain-processing. Shamanic altered states of consciousness have the cross-modal integration characteristic of the emergent features of Palaeolithic thought and facilitated adaptations to the ecological and social changes of the Upper Palaeolithic. Cross-modular integration of innate modules for inferring mental states (mind), and social relations (self/others), and understanding the natural world (classificatory schemas) produced the fundamental forms of trope (metaphor) that underlay analogical representation. These integrations also explain animism (mental and social modules applied to natural domains); totemism (natural module applied to social domain); and guardian spirit relations (natural module applied to self and mental domains).

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Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774300000494 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 89-113 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

David S Whitley

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Great Basin ◽

Rock Art ◽

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

Late Prehistoric ◽

Altered States ◽

Western North America ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

Ethnographic Data ◽

Art Production

Ethnographic data on the production of rock art in far western North America - the historic hunter-gatherer cultures of California and the Great Basin - are reviewed and analyzed to identify widespread patterns in the origin and, in certain cases, symbolism of the late prehistoric/historical parietal art of this region. These data, collected in the first few decades of this century by a variety of ethnographers, suggest only two origins for the art: production by shamans; and production by initiates in ritual cults. In both instances, the artists were apparently depicting the culturally-conditioned visions or hallucinations they experienced during altered states of consciousness. The symbolism of two sites, Tulare-19 and Ventura-195, is considered in more detail to demonstrate how beliefs about the supernatural world, and the shaman's relationship to this realm, were graphically portrayed.

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Seeing and Construing: The Making and ‘Meaning’ of a Southern African Rock Art Motif

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774300001165 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 3-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

J. D. Lewis-Williams

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Rock Art ◽

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

Altered States ◽

Archaeological Data ◽

States Of Consciousness

The construction of archaeological arguments is a continuing source of concern. In comparatively recent years archaeological data have come to be seen as a text that can in some sense be ‘read’. Rejecting this approach in favour of arguments constructed by the intertwining of disparate strands of evidence, this article explores the possible meanings of a southern African rock art motif. Variations in the art itself, nineteenth- and twentieth-century San ethnography and studies of altered states of consciousness combine to suggest that this motif, though idiosyncratically depicted by different artists, was associated with the ways in which San shamans broke through into the spiritual realm.

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