Trance Dance, The Dance of Life
The following sections are excerpted from Frank Natale’s book Trance Dance, The Dance of Life, which was first published in 1995. The book is out of print and these chapters are reprinted here by permission. This presenter guide covers the fundamental step-by-step aspects for staging a successful Natale Trance Dance experience. It is helpful to have an understanding of Frank’s approach.
I became consciously interested in shamanism in 1980, but at first dismissed it as pure superstition. I believed it was an ancient curiosity with little power, having no therapeutic or spiritual value.
While teaching the Skills for the New Age seminar series, I was too often out of my body and began to miss falling in love, hanging out with friends, being touched, laughing, and having sex. Old diseases returned to my body. Friends were offended by what they perceived to be aloofness. I felt neither pleasure nor pain, only the objective floating so many of my students called “bliss.”
Then the rebel within my soul began to speak, “Dance, move that body, heal it.” My rebellious Spirit, whom I have come to know as my passionate Energizer, continued to direct me, “Follow your passion. Follow the natural path.” I became fascinated by earth-grounded spirituality, especially Goddess worship and shamanism. With this new awareness the Goddess, the earth and shamanism were suddenly present everywhere. Through these I discovered timeless cross-cultural spiritual practices such as drumming, mandala and mask making, Trance Dancing, ritual dance, journeying for Spirit animals, “listening to the whispers of our ancestors,” soul hunting, power objects, chanting and psychoactive teacher plants. Don’t worry if you are unfamiliar with these ideas as I discuss them in this book.
Eventually Spirit’s direction became my passionate choice. The New Age community validated my choice, as everyone was recognizing the wisdom of our shamanic ancestors and the value of those spiritual cultures whose roots reached back more than 40,000 years. These were time-tested paths, which existed long before Mohammed, Jesus, Buddha or even Shiva. I returned home to my body. Health and ecology became priorities by choice. Out-of-body experiences became passé as I celebrated being wholly in my body. My eyes and skin began to clear and vitality filled every aspect of my being.
Of all the shamanic practices, Trance Dancing became my favorite, and it grew into an obsession. I have always loved percussion, dance and altering my consciousness. Trance Dancing became the open space through which Spirit celebrated its existence within me. Such an experience would not surprise shamans as they have used Trance Dancing as a healing technique for thousands of years.
Through Trance Dancing we alter our consciousness and enter non-ordinary reality or what I call “the World of Spirit,” that world beyond time and space where everything is possible.
Through ancient breath patterns, movement and rhythm the Trance Dancer begins to see with their senses rather than their eyes. Other times and other forms reveal themselves, and the Trance Dancer’s consciousness is filled with the magical world of Spirit. With time and experience, Trance Dancing causes you to think with your heart, as our ancestors did, not with your brain.
While your body dances, your soul travels and remembers, free of the limits of this life and free of the limitations of time and space. Spirit returns home and is embodied within you, the Trance Dancer. Tremendous energy is awakened, spontaneous healing occurs and you are filled with visions of power animals, Spirit guides and nature. The desperate need for enlightenment, bliss and out-of-body experiences fades. Instead your body is filled with your total existence. You are fully present, at last content and no longer need to escape the reality you have chosen. You are finally filled with love, energy, respect and the passion for being alive. You are finally satisfied being human.
The new paradigm everyone has awaited will not come from the heavens, as we have been promised, or from aliens from outer space, but from our original deity Mother Nature. Trance Dancing inevitably brings us to love, respect and passion, three essential aspects of spirituality. When Spirit enters us we shamelessly move our bodies with orgasmic passion for this is our true nature. We then begin to experience ecstatic healing as we consciously breathe and move from inside our hearts.
If we are to heal ourselves, and our planet, we must learn to live in our bodies and on our planet rather than constantly looking for ways to leave them. The best way I know to live passionately in my body is to Trance Dance, inviting Spirit to return home, to embody me and restore me to spiritual wholeness.
It is time to return home to our bodies and our great Mother Nature by celebrating them through dance as Trance Dancing Humans. I invite you to call home to your body all the power of Spirit you may have naively sent away. I encourage you to recognize our cultural separation from nature and the conscious betrayal of our planet whose soul we have collectively stolen.
This book will provide you with extraordinary information and time-tested spiritual practices that will empower you with the respect, love and passion required to heal yourself, friends, loved ones and our planet.
I celebrate with great expectation and excitement your first step into the “Dance of Life,” for more than you can imagine will be revealed.