Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Religion
Going Berserk, Running Amok, And The Extraordinary Capabilities And Invulnerability Of Battle Trance, Jenny Wade
Going Berserk, Running Amok, And The Extraordinary Capabilities And Invulnerability Of Battle Trance, Jenny Wade
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies
Battle trance, which evolved from instinctive defensive and offensive behaviors for close combat, involves socially transgressive processes like becoming-intense and becoming-animal that produce non-ordinary psychophysical states useful in fighting. Berserkergang (going berserk) is one of the best attested types of battle trance and the latest in a long history of Indo-European ecstatic warrior cults, but the state has been identified cross-culturally in consecrated holy amok warriors and in juramentado. Colonial interpretations for centuries have tended to denigrate such fighting styles, even though they involve discipline, spiritual dedication, and altruistic self-sacrifice, especially by falsely attributing such states to intoxication or insanity. …
Going Berserk: Battle Trance And Ecstatic Holy Warriors In The European War Magic Tradition, Jenny Wade
Going Berserk: Battle Trance And Ecstatic Holy Warriors In The European War Magic Tradition, Jenny Wade
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies
Largely ignored in transpersonal studies to date, dark magic involves socially-transgressive processes called becoming-intense and becoming-animal that produce non-ordinary states useful in the arts, hunting, sex, and fighting. War magic, a form of dark magic that involves powers of destruction and invulnerability, is ubiquitous and universal, and one of its primary features is the production of helpful, nonordinary states in combat. Berserkergang (going berserk) is one such state, the latest documented in a long history of Indo-European ecstatic warrior cults. Berserkergang was the battle-trance of the elite consecrated warrior-shamans of Odin, god of magic, poetry, battle, and death. Distinguishing features …