This study investigates forms of theatre/performance practice and training that can be seen to employ 'trance' states or engage the concept of 'states of consciousness' as performative practice. Trance is considered to be the result of sustained involvement with detailed information that is structurally organised, invoking imaginative and affective engagements that are maintained as interactions between the performer, other performers, the environment and audience of the performance. This thesis investigates trance performance through the conceptual lens of dramatic arts practice. In their respective cultural contexts, trance and theatre attain qualities considered as sacredness. Trance practice and performance, across a range of cultural contexts, are analysed as social processes - as elements of power relations that influence the performer, audience and environment of the performance. As performance traditions and events, this study will examine strands of praxis that can be drawn from Constantin Stanislavski to Lee Strasberg to Mike Leigh; from Antonin Artaud to Samuel Beckett and Jerzy Grotowski; from the Balinese trance performance form of Sanghyang Dedari in the 1930s to the 1990s; from the Channeling practitioners in the U.S. in the 1930s to Seth and Lazaris in the 1970s to the 1990s; and from traditions of military training, performance violence, and rhetoric associated with the attacks of the 11th of September 2001 in the U.S. and its aftermath.

A far-reaching and engaging overview of the role of narrative in dance and theatre performance, bringing together chapters written by an international range of scholars and subsequently creating a critical dialogue for approaching this fundamental topic within performance studies. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples of a variety of different performance genres, the book will provide a method for exploring the context of a particular form or artist and enhance students' ability to critically reflect on performance.

published in 1997, Culture and Psychopathology: A Guide To Clinical Assessment is a valuable contribution to the field of Psychiatry/Clinical Psychology.

Music exhilarates, enchants, fires, liberates, calms, comforts, heals. Like hardly any other medium, it lets us take off into a world beyond time and space. How does that work? What is the mystery of sound? There are theories, suppositions and hunches from the most diverse fields, but in no epoch has it been possible to lift the veil definitively. Tenaciously, playfully and at times ironically, Swiss musician and book author Richard Koechli searches for answers as to how and why music touches us and, in the sense of transcendence, even takes us beyond ourselves. What processes are going on there, in the brain and in the soul? How has all this influenced the history of humanity? Meticulously, Koechli examines explanations from musicology, natural science, psychology, music therapy, sociology, literature, philosophy, mysticism, spirituality and metaphysics. He passionately quotes legendary stars as they experience the magic. Worried, he also asks why, since time immemorial, the «drug» of music is often not enough for us, why we believe we can top the high with some substance or occult practice. Last but not least, Richard Koechli ends the 200-page book with a fascinating foray through the history of «Psychedelic Rock», because it was this music from the hippie era that taught him how to take off. And in his role as a multiple award-winning blues musician and singer-songwriter, he complements it all with a very personal album: «Transcendental Blues» (download link in the book), a complex musical trip through the ups and downs of being human. For anyone involved in music in any way. A relevant book because it multiplies respect for the mystery of sounds. A stirring one, because it takes the love for music to infinity.

Leon Rubin and I Nyoman Sedana, both international theatre professionals as well as scholars, collaborate to give an understanding of performance culture in Bali from inside and out. The book describes four specific forms of contemporary performance that are unique to Bali: Wayang shadow-puppet theatre Sanghyang ritual trance performance Gambuh classical dance-drama the virtuoso art of Topeng masked theatre. These culturally unique and beautiful theatrical events are contextualised within religious, intellectual and social backgrounds to give unparalleled insight into the mind and world of the Balinese performer.