by Joseph Goldfedder
In my experiences with ecstatic trance, crossing the threshold from the ordinary world into a non-ordinary state, Spirit was waiting for my participation. It’s almost as if Spirit was saying, “come on already, let’s get this party started.” And so, that’s when I would feel a descending energy. As a means to attempt talking about it, I like using the word energy as a workable term. It’s the energy I feel when the “trance-mitting” or transmitting begins. Energy is movement that’s free from physical limitation. Sensing this energy is a process of relaxing, stepping back and allowing. Or you could say, the energy of spirit fills us full. This energy, like breath, flows and moves in ways taking us on a journey of the unexpected. Moving in, out and between the ordinary and non-ordinary worlds, we become the observer. In the process of my creative work, drawing for instance, I don’t think of myself going into a trance, but I do feel a shift in my consciousness in ways similar to Ecstatic Trance. I am both aware of where I am and a world contained within the confines on my paper. There’s joy making lines on paper, energy moving through me with color, form, and communication in visual language that’s freeing. Drawing, like trance, is an attempt to manifest imagery from subtle planes of vibration by allowing my hands to guide me.
I have seen and touched ancient art in Egypt, Rome, India, Mexico. I think that after seeing ancient objects we carry an essence or memory within us. It’s a resource that we tap into. The visual language of surfaces, shapes, symbols come with us. I think it might be similar how we might talk about the artifacts used for the postures. The energy from the ancients is transmitted through time, space. I also think that we, as multi-dimensional beings tap into this knowledge (or memory?) when we get still enough – with trance or meditation and the creative process begins…..that joy you speak of….by putting our brain-ego aside to access the reservoir of information available to us when we shift out of our mundane world focus to more expansive multidimensional universes available to us.
I have included a few pictures of recent drawings. Hopefully, they convey some of the ideas I am trying to express.
