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In reading the Blake manuscripts, it came very clear that their religion was built around a notion of traveling to a spirit world.
It seemed the San believe that while you are still alive, your spirit could leave your body and visit the spirit world. It happens when you enter the trance or sometimes called an altered state of consciousness. And, this San tradition is still practised today.
I came to a village near Trumenque in Namibia, hoping to see it for myself. Here, I was introduced to the community's healer or shaman. I've been told he was the person who travels to the spirit world.
'Doctor, can you tell us why do you go into a trance? '
'Anytime somebody's sick, I'm asked by his family if I could help them because I'm the doctor. I go to help them in another world. And, when I come back, I find out if it has worked or not. '
I knew the community was holding a trance dance that evening. The shaman gave me his permission to stay and watch.
It all began with the women of the village creating a powerful rhythmic chant. Then, the dance began and orchestrating it was the shaman himself.
As the dance intensified, something dramatic seemed to happen to him. He seemed to lose himself in the rhythm, become detached from what was happening around him. He did indeed seem to be going into some kind of trance.
Then he fell to the ground, unconscious. I've been told that when the shamans enter a trance, they sometimes lose consciousness. And while in this state, they say they die and they visit the spirit world, and from there, they say, they can heal people.
Lewis Williams had discovered the vital role that trance played for the San people.
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word to remember:
orchestrate:
1. to compose or arrange music for the performance of an orchestra.为交响乐谱曲
2.to arrange or control the elements of an event so as to achieve a desirable overall effect. 使......协调在一起以达到某协调的整体效果
eg: orchestrate a successful political campain.
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