Ecstatic Trance Postures – Feminism and Religion

This is part 2 of a blogpost based on an interview I did with Laura Lee at the Cuyamungue Institute. Yesterday’s post concluded with the concept of natural body positions and how these inspired the founder, Dr. Felicitas Goodman. She was also inspired by yoga postures. Laura describes Dr. Goodman’s thinking.

With yoga postures, even sitting in them for five minutes, we can note some interesting physiological reactions. Non-invasive tests were done such as galvanic skin response, breath rate, motility of the intestines, with just sitting in a yoga posture. Interestingly, many of our postures that we see from around the world look like yoga postures. These can be sitting cross legged or kneeling with your hands and arms in a specific configuration in your lap. Goodman had the idea, ‘I should add that to my ritual.’ She started to experiment with postures. And indeed, that pushed it from, let’s have a trip with some drumming, to, oh my gosh — now here we’re touching the hem of something larger than ourselves.

Director Paul Robear in a pose based on this artifact from Chichen Itza

The Cuyamungue Institute was founded in 1978, in Santa Fe New Mexico by Dr. Felicitas Goodman. It is based on work that Dr. Goodman was doing with ritual trance poses as a means to encourage ecstatic states, gain knowledge, and have otherworldly communications and experiences. The poses Dr. Goodman studied are based on early statues and images found in various cultures. She became aware that these poses of ancient sculptures and drawings were often ritual instructions that people could replicate. By holding these positions in a ritualist manner, she found that people had these common or related experiences which she characterized loosely as healing, divination, metamorphosis, and/or spirit journeys. This 2-part blogpost is about her journey and what she discovered. It is based on an interview I did with Laura Lee, who along with her husband Paul, are directors of the Cuyamungue Institute.