by wqwqwqwq » March 18th, 2011, 2:09 pm
Yes, both of those things are trance. Nearly any altered state of mind (Sleep, meditation, hightend awareness, hysteria, possibly even depression spirals or some of the "happiest moments" of life) could be called trance. For the long answer, read on, for the quick and dirty answer, look to the bottem paragraph.
People meditate for different reasons. For intentional trance, the start of the procces is almost always the same. Relaxing, and clearing you mind. Clearing your mind is the fancy way of saying to stop the background thoughts in your mind as much as possible (Like killing tasks on a computer. Free up some mental RAM). From the clean slate, you can then do as you wish. Obviously, if you are using hypnosis files to help you trance, your skills are not at a high enough level to start picking what to do after relaxing. I have been meditating for over half my life, and can manage it now, but it takes practise.
Anyway... For most of the files on this site, the goal is "Meditative Qigong". That's the sort always played up in martial arts movies, with monks on top of mountains and such. Meditative Qigong is different from dynamic, in that you do not move or make gestures. If you have only heard of it from movies and the media, 99% of what you have heard is bull crap. The idea is "Lighting your candel and watching it burn away", that being the sort of slogan of asian practitioners (I am NOT Dao or Buddhist btw, thought I would put that out there lol). When you are in DEEP trance like that, you ARE STILL AWARE OF YOUR SURRONDINGS! You just don't care about it enough to give it any thought at all. If you have heard files on this site saying things lik "Outside distractions will only deepen your trance... let the world around you go ECT.) That's what they are talking about. If you are tottaly dead to the world to the point that you literaly cannot think, then it is more sleep then trance. If you can't think about the outside world because you don't want to hear it, then it is the desired trance state for triggers and the like.
As for ways to "know" you are tranced, again, trance varies based on what you are going for. Both of the things you descibed would be considered trance, although the one where you are aware but don't give a darn is usualy best for self-hypnosis (wich is what you are doing when you listen to a file. The hypnotist is there to help those who can't do it alone). Signs of such a trance have similaritys to R.E.M sleep. You may twitch (eyes, or limbs as well), possibly find you need to breath less, and when you wake yourself up (Or if you are using a recording, when you are helped to get up) you should feel VERY rested, similar to if you just slept for 10 or 12. Not for the rest of the day neccisarily, but for a while after being deep. Sometimes I trance instead of sleep at night, if I have things I need to do. For an hour or half an hour.
***Long story short, if you think you are tranced, you are. Trance is not some "magical" state where you start glowing and develop superpowers. During the course of the day, and night, we go through every stage of trance, including those in hypnosis/meditation. Aim for the slightly aware, blissful drifting one for best results on most files here.***