[Neurophenomenological analysis of the therapeutic relationship in ritual healing]

In this essay we examine some phenomena of community rituals, especially healing ceremonials, which are considered neurobiologically mediated, complex forms of attachment. Recent studies in medical anthropology have pointed out that the ritual therapeutic experience relies on the patients' own healing processes by means of various altered states of consciousness that healers are able to control. Ritual trance invariably occurs in social context, and the healer's personality and the expectations of the community are profoundly involved in the induction of altered states of consciousness. Trance state is regarded as a result of the mobilisation of endogenous opiates, as an activation of the organism's defensive mechanisms in face of the stress of ceremonial. On the other hand, there is a growing body of evidence that opiate mechanisms are involved in social behaviour as well, especially in symbiotic bonds. It is suggested that this is the neurobiological reason why attachment facilitates trance induction. The homeostatic role of social relationships as physiological regulators is also discussed.