Trance

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

The English word, derived through the French from Lat. transitus , is the translation of the Gr. ἔκστασις, which means ‘standing out’ of oneself, or outside of one’s ordinary consciousness. It is used very loosely to describe the sleep-like state which is obviously different from that of ordinary sleep. Originally the soul was supposed to be temporarily withdrawn from the body; at the present time no such theory is generally held, but F. W. H. Myers would regard it as the abeyance of the supraliminal self, in order that the subliminal may be free to act. It is stated that Peter fell into a trance, by which is meant that whilst his body was probably in a cataleptic condition his spirit was engaged in beholding a vision (ὄραμα,  Acts 10:19;  Acts 11:5). St. Paul was in a trance whilst praying in the Temple, when he saw the Lord and heard His voice ( Acts 22:17). The second stage of trance mentioned by Myers may be said to be reached when visions, or ecstasy proper, are experienced. The third stage which he mentions embraces those instanced in the NT as cases of demoniacal possession. Trance states are said by E. D. Starbuck to be ‘the result of an over emphasis and irradiation of the relaxation and anaesthesia which begin in the higher centres, and work until consciousness is obliterated, and only the muscular centres are active, thus producing a cataleptic condition of the body’ ( Psychology of Religion , p. 168 f.). Ecstasy has in all ages been regarded as characteristic of periods of religious excitement, and the spectacle presented of a person in the condition of catalepsy has commonly inspired a sense of awe in the minds of beholders. It has been thought that ‘the thorn in the flesh’ of St. Paul was the physical accompaniment of his ecstasy. In the visions of Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 4:4-8) the bearing of the cords and the days of his boundness are considered by R. Kraetzschmar ( Das Buch Ezechiel , 1900, pp. v, vi, 45, 46) to be the functional cataleptic paralysis that followed, first on one side and then on the other. St. Teresa ( Life , Eng. translation, D. Lewis, 1904, p. 163) speaks of her body being perfectly powerless during her raptures and her limbs remaining fixed in one position. The ecstatic condition which frequently accompanies unusual religious excitement has often been deliberately cultivated by means of suggestion, fasting, music, and bodily contortions. The inner aspect of the phenomenon is treated more fully in the articleRapture.

Literature.-W. Morgan, article‘Trance’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols)  ; E. D. Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion 2, 1901; F. W. H. Myers, Human Personality , 1903, vol. ii. ch. ix.; F. von Hügel, The Mystical Element of Religion , 2 vols., 1908-09, ii. 45, 46.

J. G. James.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Trance. In the only passage -  Numbers 24:4;  Numbers 24:16 - in which this word occurs, in the English of the Old Testament, italics show no corresponding word in Hebrew. In the New Testament, we meet with the word three times -  Acts 10:10;  Acts 11:6;  Acts 22:17. The ekstasis , (that is, trance), is the state in which a man has passed out of the usual order of his life, beyond the usual limits of consciousness and volition, being rapt, in causes of this state are to be traced, commonly, to strong religious impressions. Whatever explanation may be given of it, it is true of many, if not of most, of those who have left the stamp of their own character, on the religious history of mankind, that they have been liable to pass, at times, into this abnormal state.

The union of intense feeling, strong volition, long-continued thought, (the conditions of all wide and lasting influence), aided, in many cases, by the withdrawal from the lower life of the support, which is needed to maintain a healthy equilibrium, appears to have been more than the "earthen vessel" will bear. The words which speak of "an ecstasy of adoration" are often literally true. As in other things, so also here, the phenomena are common to higher and lower, to true and false systems.

We may not point to trances, and ecstasies, as proofs of a true revelation, but still less, may we think of them as at all inconsistent with it. Thus, though we have not the word, we have the thing in the "deep sleep" the "horror of great darkness," that fell on Abraham.  Genesis 15:12. Balaam, as if overcome by the constraining power of a Spirit mightier than his own, "sees the vision of God, falling, but with opened eyes."  Numbers 24:4. Saul, in like manner, when the wild chant of the prophets stirred the old depths of feeling, himself also "prophesied" and "fell down" - most, if not all, of his kingly clothing, being thrown off in the ecstasy of the moment - "all that day and all that night."  1 Samuel 19:24.

Something there was in Jeremiah that made men say of him that, he was as one that "is mad and maketh himself a prophet."  Jeremiah 29:26. In Ezekiel, the phenomena appear in more wonderful and awful forms.  Ezekiel 3:15. As other elements and forms of the prophetic work were revived in "the apostles and prophets" of the New Testament, so also was this.

Though different in form, it belongs to the same class of phenomena, as the gift of tongues, and is connected with "visions and revelations of the Lord." In some cases, indeed, it is the chosen channel for such revelations.  Acts 10:11;  Acts 22:17-21. Wisely, for the most part, did the apostle draw a veil over these more mysterious experiences.  2 Corinthians 12:1-4.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Greek Ekstasis ( Numbers 24:4;  Numbers 24:16). Balsam "fell" (into a trance is not in the Hebrew) overpowered by the divine inspiration, as Saul ( 1 Samuel 19:24) "lay down naked (stripped of his outer royal robes) all that day and all that night." God's word in Balaam's and Saul's dusts acted on an alien will and therefore overpowered the bodily energies by which that will ordinarily worked. Luke, the physician and therefore one likely to understand the phenomena, alone used the term.  Acts 10:10, Peter in trance received the vision abolishing distinctions of clean and unclean, preparing him for the mission to the Gentile Cornelius ( Acts 22:17-21). Paul in trance received his commission, "depart far hence unto the Gentiles."

In the Old Testament Abram's "deep sleep and horror of great darkness" ( Genesis 15:12) are similar. Also Ezekiel's sitting astonished seven days ( Ezekiel 3:15), then the hand of Jehovah coming upon him ( Ezekiel 3:22). As in many miracles, there is a natural form of trance analogous to the supernatural, namely, in ecstatic epilepsy the patient is lost to outward impressions and wrapped in a world of imagination; Frank, who studied catalepsy especially, stated he never knew the case of a Jew so affected. Mesmerism also throws nervously susceptible persons into such states. Concentration of mind, vision, and hearing on one object produces it. Intense feeling and long continued thought tend the same way.

Muslim's visions and journey through the heavens were perhaps of this kind; so devotees' "ecstasies of adoration." In the Bible trance God marks its supernatural character by its divinely ordered consequences. Peter's trance could not be accidental and imaginary, for while meditating on it he hears the Spirit's voice, "behold three men seek thee, arise therefore, get thee down, go with them doubting nothing, for I have sent them." His finding exactly three men, and at that very time, waiting for him below to go to Cornelius who had also beheld a distinct vision, could only be by divine interposition. The English "trance" comes through French from the Latin transitus, at first "passing away from life," then the dream vision state, in which the soul is temporarily transported out of the body and abstracted from present things into the unseen world.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) A condition, often simulating death, in which there is a total suspension of the power of voluntary movement, with abolition of all evidences of mental activity and the reduction to a minimum of all the vital functions so that the patient lies still and apparently unconscious of surrounding objects, while the pulsation of the heart and the breathing, although still present, are almost or altogether imperceptible.

(2): ( n.) A state in which the soul seems to have passed out of the body into another state of being, or to be rapt into visions; an ecstasy.

(3): ( n.) A tedious journey.

(4): ( v. t.) To entrance.

(5): ( v. t.) To pass over or across; to traverse.

(6): ( v. i.) To pass; to travel.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Ἔκστασις (Strong'S #1611 — Noun Feminine — ekstasis — ek'-stas-is )

for which see Amaze , A, No. 1, denotes "a trance" in  Acts 10:10;  11:5;  22:17 , a condition in which ordinary consciousness and the perception of natural circumstances were withheld, and the soul was susceptible only to the vision imparted by God.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A state of the human system distinguished from dreaming and revery; it is one in which the bodily senses are licked up and almost disconnected from the spirit, which is occupied either with phantasms, as in trances produced by disease, or, as in ancient times, with revelations from God. Numerous instances are mentioned in Scripture: as that of Balaam,  Numbers 24:4,16; those of Peter and Paul,  Acts 10:10   22:17   2 Corinthians 12:1-4 . Compare also  Genesis 2:21-24   15:12-21   Job 4:13-21 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

Trance is descriptive of an experience in which a person received a revelation by supernatural means (  Acts 10:10;  Acts 11:5;  Acts 22:17 ). In these instances, the author of Acts, in reference to the experiences of Peter and Paul, seemed to be interested in showing that the trance was only a vehicle for a revelation from God. Luke illustrated that the trances that Peter and Paul experienced “happened” to them and were not self induced. The distinctions between “trance,” “dream” and “vision” are not always clear. See Ecstasy; Prophets.

James Newell

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The word is ἔκστασις, 'ecstasy,' in which, as it were, the mind is carried beyond the body. It is translated 'astonishment' in  Mark 5:42; and 'amazement' in  Acts 3:10 . It is rendered 'trance' when Peter had the vision of the sheet let down from heaven; and when Paul in the temple saw the Lord and heard Him speak to him.  Acts 10:10;  Acts 11:5;  Acts 22:17 . The same word is used in the LXX for the deep sleep of Adam and of Abram.  Genesis 2:21;  Genesis 15:12 .

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

TRANCE . A condition in which the mental powers are partly or wholly unresponsive to external impressions while dominated by subjective excitement, or left fres to contemplate mysteries incapable of apprehension by the usual rational processes. The word occurs in EV [Note: English Version.] only in   Numbers 24:4;   Numbers 24:15 [but cf. RV [Note: Revised Version.] ],   Acts 10:10;   Acts 11:5;   Acts 22:17 . See, further, artt. Dreams, Vision.

H. L. Willett.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Acts 10:10 11:5 22:17 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 Mark 5:42  Luke 5:26  Mark 16:8 Acts 3:10

King James Dictionary

TR`ANCE, n. tr`ans. L. transitus, a passing over transeo, to pass over trans and eo. An ecstasy a state in which the soul seems to have passed out of the body into celestial regions, or to be rapt into visions.

My soul was ravish'd quite as in a trance.

While they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened.  Acts 10 .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( Ἔκστασις , Ecstasy ) , a supernatural state of body and mind, the nature of which has been well conjectured by Doddndge, who defines it "such a rapture of mind as gives the person who falls into it a look of astonishment, and renders him insensible of the external objects around him, while in the meantime his imagination is agitated in an extraordinary manner with some striking scenes which pass before it and take up all the attention." He refers to some extraordinary instances of this kind mentioned by Gualterius in his note on  Acts 10:10 , ( Family Expositor, ad loc. note g). Stockius also describes it as "a sacred ecstasy, or rapture of the mind out of itself, when, the use of the external senses being suspended, God reveals something in a peculiar manner to prophets and apostles, who are then taken or transported out of themselves." The same idea is intimated in then English word Trance, from the Latin Transitus, The state of being carried out of one's self. (See Inspiration); (See Prophecy).

1. In the only passage ( Numbers 24:4;  Numbers 24:16) in which this word occurs in the English of the Old Test. there is, as the italics show, no corresponding word in Hebrew, simply נפֵל , falling," for which the Sept. gives Ἐν Ἕπνῳ , and the Vulg. more literally Qui Cadit. In the New Test. we meet with the word three times ( Acts 10:10;  Acts 11:5;  Acts 22:17), the Vulg. giving "excessus" in the two former, "stupor mentis" in the latter. The Greek word Ἔκστασις employed in these passages denotes the effect of any passion by which the thoughts are wholly absorbed. In the Sept. it corresponds to שמה , a "wonderful thing" ( Jeremiah 5:30), תמהון , "astonishment" ( Deuteronomy 28:28), and תרדמה a prophetic lethargy or "deep sleep" ( Genesis 2:21;  Genesis 15:12, etc.). In the New Test. it usually represents the absorbing effects of admiration ( Mark 5:42;  Luke 5:26;  Acts 3:10); of terror ( Mark 16:8).

2. Used as the Greek word is by Luke (Acts, Ut Sup. ) "the physician," and, in this special sense, by him only, in the New Test., it would be interesting to inquire what precise meaning it had in the medical terminology of the time. From the time of Hippocrates, who uses it to describe the loss of conscious perception, it had probably borne the connotation which it has had, with shades of meaning for good or evil, ever since. Thus, Hesychius gives as the account of a man in an ecstasy that he is Ὁ Εἰς Ἑαυτὸν Μὴ Ὤν . Apuleius ( Apologia ) speaks of it as "a change from the earthly mind ( Ἀπὸ Τοῦ Γηϊ v Νου Φρονήματος ) to a divine and spiritual condition both of character and life." Tertullian (De An. 45) compares it to the dream-state in which the soul acts, but not through its usual instruments. Augustine (Confess. 9:11) describes his mother in this state as "abstracta a prsesentibus," and gives a description of like phenomena in the case of a certain Restitutus (De Civ. Dei, 14:24).

3. We may compare with these statements the more precise definitions of modern medical science. There the ecstatic state appears as one form of catalepsy. In catalepsy pure and simple, there is "a sudden suspension of thought, of sensibility, of voluntary motion." The body continues in any attitude in which it may be placed, there are no signs of any process of thought; the patient continues silent. In the ecstatic form of catalepsy, on the other hand, "the patient is lost to all external impressions, but wrapped and absorbed in some object of the imagination." The man is "as if out of the body." "Nervous and susceptible persons are apt to be thrown into these trances under the influence of what is called mesmerism. There is, for the most part, a high degree of mental excitement. The patient utters the most enthusiastic and fervid expressions or the most earnest warnings. The character of the whole frame is that of intense contemplative excitement. He believes that he has seen wonderful visions and heard singular revelations" (Watson, Principles and Practice, lect. 39; Copland, Dict. of Medicine, s.v. "Catalepsy"). The causes of this state are to be traced commonly to strong religious impressions; but some, though, for the most part, not the ecstatic, phenomena of catalepsy are producible by the concentration of thought on one object, or of the vision upon one fixed point (Quart. Rev. 93, 510-22, by Dr. Carpenter); and, in some more exceptional cases, like that mentioned by Augustine (there, however. under the influence of sound, "ad imitatas quasi lamentantis cujuslibet hominis - voces"), and that of Jerome Cardan ( Vat. Rer. 8:43), men have been able to throw themselves into a cataleptic state at will.

4. Whatever explanation may be given of it, it is true of many if not of most, of those who have left the stamp of their own character on the religious history of mankind, that they have been liable to pass at times into this abnormal state. The union of intense feeling, strong volition, long- continued thought (the conditions of all wide and lasting influence), aided in many cases by the withdrawal from the lower life of the support which is needed to maintain a healthy equilibrium, appears to have been more than the "earthen vessel" will bear. The words, which speak of "an ecstasy of adoration", are often literally true. The many visions the journey through the heavens, the so-called epilepsy of Mohammed-were phenomena of this nature. Of three great mediaeval teachers, St. Francis of Assisi, St.Thomas Aquinas, and Joannes Scotus, it is recorded that they would fall into the ecstatic state, remain motionless, seem as if dead, sometimes for a whole day, and then, returning to consciousness, speak as if they had drunk deep of divine mysteries (Gualterius, Crit. Sac. on  Acts 10:10). The old traditions of Aristeas and Epimenides, the conflicts of Dunstan and Luther with the powers of darkness, the visions of Savonarola, George Fox. Swedenborg, and Bihme are generically analogous. Where there has been no extraordinary power to influence others, other conditions remaining the same, the phenomena have appeared among whole classes of men and women in proportion as the circumstances of their lives tended to produce an excessive susceptibility to religious or imaginative emotion. The history of monastic orders, of American and Irish revivals, gives countless examples. Still more noticeable is the fact that many of the improvisatori of Italy are "only able to exercise their gift when they are in a state of ecstatic trance, and speak of the gift itself as something morbid" (Copland, loc. cit.); while in strange contrast with their earlier history, and pointing perhaps to a national character that has become harder and less emotional, there is the testimony of a German physician (Frank), who had made catalepsy a special study, that he had never met with a single case of it among the Jews (Copland, loc. cit.; comp. Maury, La Magie et Astrologie).

5. We are now able to take a true estimate of the trances of Biblical history. As in other things, so also here, the phenomena are common to higher and lower, to true and false systems. The nature of man continuing the same, it could hardly be that the awfulness of the divine presence, the terrors of divine judgment, should leave it in the calm equilibrium of its normal state. Whatever made the impress of a truth more indelible, whatever gave him to whom it was revealed more power over the hearts of others, might well take its place in the divine education of nations and individual men. We may not point to trances and ecstasies as proofs of a true revelation, but still less may we think of them as at all inconsistent with it. Thus, though we have not the word, we have the thing in several clear instances in the Bible. Some, perhaps many, things recorded in Scripture belong to this supernatural state of trance, which are not expressly referred to it. See the long list of such supposed cases in Bp. Law's Consideration of the Theory of Religion (Lond. 1820, p. 85, 86). We notice here only the most marked examples.

In the Old Test. a state of supernatural ecstasy is evidently denoted by the "deep sleep" which fell upon Adam during the creation of Eve ( Genesis 2:21), and during which, as appears from the narrative, he was made aware of the transaction, and of the purport of the attendant circumstances ( Genesis 2:21-24). (See Marriage). A similar state occurs again in the "deep sleep" which fell upon Abraham ( Genesis 15:12), during which the bondage of his descendants in Egypt was revealed to him. Possibly all the accounts recorded in that chapter occurred in "vision" ( Genesis 2:1-12), which ultimately deepened into the trance ( Genesis 2:12-21). Comp.  Genesis 2:5;  Genesis 2:12, where he is said to have seen the stars, though the sun had not gone down. The apparent objection that Abraham was "brought forth abroad" to see the stars is only of the same nature with others explained in the art. (See Temptation Of Christ).

Balaam, as if overcome by the constraining power of a spirit mightier than his own,'" sees the vision of God, Falling, but with opened eyes" ( Numbers 24:4). The incident of the ass speaking to him, etc., is also understood by many learned Jews and Christians to have occurred in a vision (Bp. Law, Ut. Sup. ) . To the same mode of divine communication must be referred the magnificent description in  Job 4:13-21. Saul, when the wild chant of the prophets stirred the old depths of feeling, himself also "prophesied" and "fell down" (most, if not all, of his kingly clothing being thrown off in the ecstasy of the moment) "all that day and all that night" ( 1 Samuel 19:24). Something there was in Jeremiah that made men say of him that he was as one that "is mad and maketh himself a prophet" ( Jeremiah 29:26). In Ezekiel the phenomena appear in more wonderful and awful forms. He sits motionless for seven days in the stupor of astonishment, till the word of the Lord comes to him ( Ezekiel 3:15). The hand of the Lord" falls on him, and he too sees the visions of God" and hears the voice of the Almighty, is "lifted up between the earth and heaven," and passes from the river of Chebar to the Lord's house in Jerusalem ( Ezekiel 8:3).

As other elements and forms of the prophetic work were revived in "the apostles and prophets" of the New Test., so also was this. More distinctly even than in the Old Test., it becomes the medium through which men rise to see clearly what before was dim and doubtful, in which the mingled hopes and fears and perplexities of the waking state are dissipated at once. Though different in form, it belongs to the same class of phenomena as the "gift of tongues," and is connected with "visions and revelations of the Lord." In some cases, indeed, it is the chosen channel for such revelations. To the "trance" of Peter in the city, where all outward circumstances tended to bring the thought of an expansion of the divine kingdom more distinctly before him than it had ever been brought before, we owe the indelible truth stamped upon the heart of Christendom, that God is "no respecter of persons," that we may not call any man "common or unclean" ( Acts 10:11). To the "trance" of Paul, when his work for his own-people seemed utterly fruitless, we owe the mission which was the starting-point of the history of the Universal Church, the command which bade him "depart ... far hence unto the Gentiles" ( Acts 22:17-21). Wisely, for the most part, did that apostle draw a veil over these more mysterious experiences. He would not sacrifice to them, as others have often sacrificed, the higher life of activity; love, prudence. He could not explain them to himself. "In the body or out of the body," he could not tell but the outer world of perception had passed away, and he had passed in spirit into "paradise," into the third heaven," and had heard "unspeakable words" ( 2 Corinthians 12:1-4). Those trances too, we May believe, were not without their share in fashioning his character and life, though no special truth came distinctly out of them. United as they then were, but as they have seldom been since, with clear perceptions of the truth of God, with love wonderful in its depth and tenderness, with energy unresting, and subtle tact almost passing into "guile," they made him what he was, the leader of the apostolic band, emphatically the "master-builder" of the Church of God (comp. Jowett, Fragment on the Character of St. Paul).

Persons receiving this divine influence often fell to the earth under its influence, as in ordinary catalepsy ( Genesis 17:3, etc.;  1 Samuel 19:24, Heb. or margin;  Ezekiel 1:28;  Daniel 8:18;  Daniel 10:15-16;  Revelation 1:10;  Revelation 1:17). It is important, however, to observe that in all these cases the visions beheld are also related; hence such cases are distinguished from A mere Deliquium Animni. We find likewise in the case of Peter that "he fell into a trance" (or rather a "trance fell upon him, Ἐπέπεσεν Ἐπ᾿ Αὐτὸν Ἔκστασις ) , During which he "saw a vision," which is therefore distinguished from the trance ( Acts 10:10 comp. Paul's trance,  Acts 22:17;  2 Corinthians 12:2, etc.). The reality of the vision is established by the correspondence of the Event. The nearest approach we can make to such a state is that in which our mind is so occupied in the contemplation of an object as to lose entirely the consciousness of the body a state in which the highest order of ideas, whether belonging to the judgment or imagination, is undoubtedly attained. Hence we can readily conceive that such a state might be supernaturally induced for the higher purpose of revelation, etc. The Alleged phenomena of the mesmeric trance and clairvoyance, if they serve no higher purpose, may assist our conceptions of it. (See Vision).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

trans ( ἔκστασις , ékstasis ): The condition expressed by this word is a mental state in which the person affected is partially or wholly unconscious of objective sensations, but intensely alive to subjective impressions which, however they may be originated, are felt as if they were revelations from without. They may take the form of visual or auditory sensations or else of impressions of taste, smell, heat or cold, and sometimes these conditions precede epileptic seizures constituting what is named the aura epileptica . The word occurs 5 times in the King James Version, twice in the story of Balaam (  Numbers 24:4 ,  Numbers 24:16 ), twice in the history of Peter ( Acts 10:10;  Acts 11:5 ), and once in that of Paul ( Acts 22:17 ). In the Balaam story the word is of the nature of a gloss rather than a translation, as the Hebrew nāphal means simply "to fall down" and is translated accordingly in the Revised Version (British and American). Here Septuagint has en húpnō , "in sleep" (see Sleep , Deep ). In Peter's vision on the housetop at Joppa he saw the sail ( othónē ) descending from heaven, and heard a voice. Paul's trance was also one of both sight and sound. The vision on the Damascus road ( Acts 9:3-9 ) and that recorded in  2 Corinthians 12:2-4 were also cases of trance, as were the prophetic ecstasies of Saul, Daniel and Elisha, and the condition of John in which he says that he was "in the Spirit" (  Revelation 1:10 ).

The border line between trance and dream is indefinite: the former occurs while one is, in a sense, awake; the latter takes place in the passage from sleep to wakefulness. The dream as well as the vision were supposed of old to be channels of revelation ( Job 33:15 ). In Shakespearean English, "trance" means a dream ( Taming of the Shrew , I, i, 182), or simply a bewilderment ( Lucrece , 1595).

In the phenomena of hypnotic suggestion, sometimes affecting a number of persons simultaneously we have conditions closely allied to trance, and doubtless some of the well-authenticated phantom appearances are similar subjective projections from the mind affecting the visual and auditory centers of the brain.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Trance (, etc.), a supernatural state of body and mind, the nature of which has been well conjectured by Doddridge, who defines it—'Such a rapture of mind as gives the person who falls into it a look of astonishment, and renders him insensible of the external objects around him, while in the meantime his imagination is agitated in an extraordinary manner with some striking scenes which pass before it and take up all the attention.'