The Structure of Indigenous Trance Language

The structures of trance texts used in healing rituals from five Indigenous cultures (e.g. Navajo) are compared in order to identify common factors that may be relevant to the effects of Indigenous trance languages. In contrast to modern trance languages that use continuous texts, the five Indigenous texts are completely segmented, consisting mainly of two-liners and multi-liners. Two-liners are used to construct an imaginary reality that serves as a context in which multi-liners deepen emotional physical experiences. While the Indigenous trance languages differ significantly from the languages of classical hypnosis (direct suggestions) and modern hypnotherapy (narratives, indirect suggestions), they show clear similarities to the epic and mythical texts of ancient civilizations such as those of Mesopotamia (e.g. the Epic of Gilgamesh), etc. Despite the comparability of the ancient texts with Indigenous texts, multi-liners are ten times more common in Indigenous trance texts, underscoring the importance of multi-liners for Indigenous trance languages. The mechanisms of action of two-liners and multi-liners are discussed with reference to concepts from cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics.