The Ecstatic Experience: Healing Postures for Spirit Journeys

by Belinda Gore

Trance-inducing postures for shamanic journeying, initiation, healing, divination, and transformation of the soul

• Provides practices from Mayan, Egyptian, African, Native American, Sumerian, and other ancient and indigenous traditions

• Shows how these practices can detoxify the energy body

• Includes 60-minute CD of trance rhythms to accompany the shamanic journeying exercises

The human need for ecstasy--the ability to be free of the limitations of ordinary consciousness--is as imperative as the need for food. Renowned anthropologist Felicitas Goodman claimed that being deprived of ecstasy was the fundamental cause of all forms of addiction. Indigenous cultures and the civilizations of antiquity were aware of this and developed specific rituals to induce and channel trance energies to detoxify and nourish the subtle body in order to experience the ecstatic reality that gives life to matter.

The body postures seen in ancient art from Mayan, Egyptian, African, Native American, Sumerian, and other ancient and indigenous traditions are a doorway to inducing this kind of ecstatic trance. People who assume these postures in a ritual context are able to experience expanded and transformative states of consciousness.

Following up on the groundbreaking introduction of this practice in her first book, Ecstatic Body Postures , Belinda Gore provides a new series of 20 sacred postures and exercises that allow for a deeper understanding and utilization of these shamanic practices. She shows how to use the energy awakened by these practices for healing, shapeshifting, initiations into the mysteries of death and rebirth, divination, spirit journeying, and restoring balance to the cosmic patterns disrupted by destructive human activity. To help reach these deep, ecstatic trance states, the author also provides a 60-minute CD of shamanic trance rhythms to accompany the journeys.

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 2009

Reviews

[Iona Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a unique book providing valuable both theoretical and practical information about sacred postures, including healing, divination, metamorphosis, spirit journey and initiation postures. The book is based on the work carried out by the late Felicitas Goodman, the anthropologist, as well as on the author’s own research over the years.

Ecstasy is a spiritual experience, and the author states that we have a collective longing for it. More than eighty ritual postures have been identified as doorways to altered states of consciousness in which “ordinary people have ecstatic experiences: seeing visions, undertaking spirit journeys, and, yes, sometime speaking in tongues”. These ritual postures were discovered by Felicitas Goodman from indigenous tribal people. They were documented in “core drawings, totem poles, terracotta figures, and pottery designs”.

A CD containing trance rhythms – rattling and/or drumming segments - is included with the book – good idea! These sounds are necessary to stimulate the nervous system and initiate the change in consciousness we know as ecstasy. We also need to prepare ourselves by setting up an altar, using a sage or cedar smudge stick to smudge ourselves in smoke, calling the spirits to us and feeding them with corn meal, tobacco or other herbs.

Those attending Belinda Gore’s monthly groups and workshops have practised these postures with amazing success. They made contact with the spirits, experienced specific healings and travelled into the lower and upper worlds.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to completely finish the book or even try any of the postures, as I had to return the book to the library. I will now purchase the book and try out these fascinating postures. I also have the problem that I’d never heard of smudge sticks, and must try to get hold of these as well in order to carry out the ceremony correctly.

This is a fairly short book, absolutely well and clearly written. Twenty different postures are described, a chapter being devoted to each one. Each chapter includes a portrayal of the posture and a clear description to facilitate its assumption.

This is a fantastic book, and I would recommend that you too purchase it, if you feel ready to experience these spirit journeys.

I will return and edit this review at a later date when I have been able to try out some of the postures.

[Lilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to review this book because one of the positions included was Cernunnos. But, wow, the scholarship behind it isn't that great. Even though it's not something I would use in my own Gaelic polytheistic practice, the Cernunnos position was interesting, up until the author claimed that Anu was the All-Mother of Cernunnos (page 91). [insert blink here:] Um, Cernunnos is Gallic and Anu is Irish. True, Anu could be a mother deity who made her way to Ireland via the migration of the Celts (after all, there is the Danube river) but it's too confusing to just lump it all together without pointing that out. I understand that's not the purpose and scope of this work, but still, it annoyed me.

People who are into neo or core shamanism will eat this book up, but I'm kinda 'meh' about it.

[Valeria Koopman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Ecstasy is essentially a spiritual experience. We are ecstatic when our conscious awareness transcends the ego but at the same time aligns with the body.”

The Ecstatic Experience: Healing Postures for Spirit Journeys is a healing guide to anyone ready to explore their inner world through ancient wisdom. It offers clear and easy-to-use methods. The body postures are amazing portals to ecstasy and transformation.

It was a wonderful experience to have had a conversation with Belinda Gore during a podcast interview! Her loving presence reflected her commitment to healing lives!