The "Storylistening" Trance Experience

Abstract

This article addresses the experience of people who listen to stories, with particular attention to the trancelike quality of that experience. Interviews and observations at organized storytelling events provide the data, which are analyzed for content and theme. The results show that people listening to stories often do enter a qualitatively different state of consciousness. This article explores the character of and influences on this state and presents a theoretical model.

Toward the re-enchantment of psychotherapy: Stories as container.

“…A recent study examined the subjective experiences of adults listening to oral storytelling performances, confirming these effects and finding that listeners were specifically aware of pleasant and profound altered states of consciousness (Sturm, 2000). The reported characteristics of the storylistening trance included: (1) a sense of experiencing the story as real, identifying with story characters, plots, or roles ("I'm no longer sitting in a tent listening to someone tell a story, I was in those woods, I saw those animals.…”

“…A recent study examined the subjective experiences of adults listening to oral storytelling performances, confirming these effects and finding that listeners were specifically aware of pleasant and profound altered states of consciousness (Sturm, 2000). The reported characteristics of the storylistening trance included: (1) a sense of experiencing the story as real, identifying with story characters, plots, or roles (“I'm no longer sitting in a tent listening to someone tell a story, I was in those woods, I saw those animals.”); (2) stimulation of multiple sensory and emotional channels, including the creation of vivid mental visualizations (“evoked so many images”); and (3) physical relaxation at the conclusion of the story (“I feel like I've had a yoga class and I've stretched and every muscle in my body is both limber and alert and relaxed.”).…”

“…Stories work both by inducing a highly suggestible altered state of consciousness that permits the breaking of old frames while simultaneously offering tales depicting choices previously unimagined by the client. Resistance to new ways of being in the world may be overcome by the “willing suspension of disbelief” that characterizes storylistening trance states (Sturm, 2000). Stories in therapy allow for a “once removed” approach to the fears of the unknown.…”

The magic space. Once upon a time intergenerational storytelling and Mr. Neoliberalism

“…(Hutton et al, 2008, xviii). I'm going to tell you a secret, darling ... A story leads one into a different state of awareness (Sturm, 2015), one enters a kind of trance by engaging the "as if" ... It is like entering a magic space between reality and fiction.…”