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I'm going to tell you the story
of how fate knocked on my door

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and most importantly,
how it led me to try to find out

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if the shamanic trance
is a faculty of the brain or not.

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So it begins in 2001,
in this region of Mongolia.

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I have to do a report
for the BBC on shamanism

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and Nara, a friend, accompanies me
to a shaman's home named Balchir.

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He is going to do a ceremony.

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The night comes, neighbors arrive.

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They have numerous problems,

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and some of them want
to know why they have them.

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What I know about shamanism, at the time,

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is that it's a kind of link between
the human world and the spirit world.

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This spirit world
is constituted of entities

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who are somehow responsible
for maintaining harmony in the world.

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Now when you do something
that "disharmonizes" the world,

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these spirits send you alarms
in the form of problems.

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So when you really have
a lot of problems,

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you know that you've upset a spirit
but not necessarily why,

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and that's where the shaman comes in.

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He will enter into trance
with the sound of a drum

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and will directly ask the spirit world

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in order to find out the cause
and the reason why they are angry.

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So the night falls,
the shaman wears his drum.

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I set up my equipment for the BBC,
and here is what we hear:

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(Sound of drum)

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The only problem
is that this drum's sound

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has a peculiar effect
on my body: I start to tremble,

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I move more and more violently.

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I start to howl like a wolf,

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I feel like my hands are becoming paws,
my nose is becoming a muzzle,

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I am transforming into a wolf ...

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And the worse is
that all this is happening,

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but I have absolutely no control over it.

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Then the drum stops, the trance stops.

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The shaman turns to me, looking angry.

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The Mongolian friend who came
with me translates as the shaman says,

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"Why didn't you tell me
that you were a shaman?"

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(Laughter)

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I say, "There is certainly a mistake,
I'm just here to do a documentary.

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It's a mistake, you're wrong, Sir."

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And he says to me, "No, if the 
drum had that effect on you,

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it means you have the gift,

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you have access to trance,
and thus to this spirit world.

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Well, it's simple,
now what we're going to do,

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is you're going to stay here with us
for three years, at the Siberian border,

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and we 're going to teach
you this knowledge."

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So now, well ...

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(Laughing) It wasn't really 
what I had planned in my career path!

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So I say, "But if I refuse,
it's not a problem, right?"

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He says "You shouldn't say that,
if you're here, it's not by chance,

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you must have had
many problems in your life."

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"Yes, my friend passed away,
five years with cancer, an absolute hell."

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"Well, that's nothing, really,

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compared to what will happen in your life
and what your life will become

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because if you don't do
what the spirits have decided for you,

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you will encounter a lot more problems."

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So I turn to Nara who says to me,

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"Listen, this is a very secret knowledge.

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It's really interesting and only
passed on from shaman to shaman,

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and the story of spirits' vengeance
is not rubbish down here,

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so if I were you, I'd listen."

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So I end up asking the shaman,
if it would be possible, by any chance,

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to go there several months a year.

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So I negotiate and he says
to me, "No problem,

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what's important is that you do what
the spirits have decided for you."

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That's how I found myself
with my shaman trainer,

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who is a reindeer herder - she's
part of the Tsaatans ethnic group -

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and she tells me that yes,
indeed, I have powers.

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I ask her, "What powers?
If I had any, I would know."

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And she says to me, "Yes, you're
going to discover these powers

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by practicing trance."

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And so, a drum and
a costume are made for me.

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Yes, that's me here.

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And year after year, I go back
to her, on the Siberian border,

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to live in a tipi, without
water or electricity.

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I am taught the rituals,
the practice of trance.

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And indeed, I transform
into a wolf, I howl like a wolf,

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I do have visions, yes,
but I think, "What is this for?"

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I ask so many questions
that she ends up giving me a nickname

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that is "Chichi cochconok"
which means "Little Asshole".

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(Laughter)

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Now I must admit that I deserve it ...

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But anyway, Little Asshole continues

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to go there several months
a year to learn trance,

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until finally, after
eight years doing this,

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I end up earning and deserving
the title of "Udgan"

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which is a woman shaman there

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and discovering that trance,
which they call "powers",

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produces changes in my perception.

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So what are they,
objectively, after eight years?

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Well, I loose the notion
of space and time.

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Now I just saw that it was
the psychological notion of time.

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My perception of pain
is lessened during trance:

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at first, I hit myself so many times
with the drum, it was a catastrophe,

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but being in trance, I didn't feel it,
although I did after coming out of it.

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The drum weighs about 8 kg
and measures 80 cm in diameter.

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I can hold this drum 
at arms length for hours,

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for two to three hours,
without feeling the slightest difficulty,

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so I am stronger
than in a normal state.

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And I have visions, kind of
access to other perceptions.

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It's as if, all of a sudden,
I'm in a black world,

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I have visions, perceptions that are
different than what I feel usually,

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and above all, I feel I have
the ability to perceive

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places that are "disharmonious".

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The most surprising is when I perceive
these disharmonious places,

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I start to produce
chants, gestures and sounds,

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speak in unknown languages,

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and I feel that these actions are
bringing to this disharmonious space

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exactly what it needs
in order to regain balance.

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Now what is it all about?

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Does trance modify
the behavior of the brain

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and give me other abilities?

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Why when I am in this state

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do I feel that l have
a different perception of reality?

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I thought, "I will meet with scientists."

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The first one to whom
I told my story said,

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"I have a psychiatrist friend,
he is very good.

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You can consult him, Miss,
that would probably be good."

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Luckily, they're not all like that
and I fall upon Pierre Etevenon,

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who is a former Head
of research at the INSERM.

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At Princeton, he studied

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the effects of hallucinogenic
substances on vision,

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so he knows very well
the modified states of consciousness,

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or of cognition in the matter of trances.

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So he says "Give me a demonstration."

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So I take my drum, go into trance,
transform into a wolf, etc.

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(Laughter)

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Then I come out of trance
and he says,

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"Yes indeed, it's interesting,
but there's a problem, your drum.

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In order to check if trance
modifies brain's function,

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we need to do an EEG of your brain.

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Well, with such a drum,
you'll break everything in a lab,

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so find a solution,

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either you trigger the trance by sheer
willpower or we just stop the research."

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At that time, I didn't know
if entering trance at will was possible.

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In Mongolia, they don't need
this kind of research.

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So I lay on the ground at home,
and since I know the sound of the drum

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brings on these tremors
which I talked about earlier,

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I try to reproduce them.

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They may lead me to trance.

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After a few attempts,
I did indeed succeed.

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So not only I am able
to enter trance at will,

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but I'm able to decide when it should
start and when it should end, perfect!

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So I go back to see Pierre Etevenon
and I say, "Now, I'm ready."

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I do another demonstration,
and he answers,

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"Now it's perfect! I officially
appoint you as a lab rat."

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Then he puts me in contact
with researchers among his colleagues.

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They don't all come rushing
to study my brain;

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only one is interested by this study
and it is Professor Flor-Henry.

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He's in Canada, in Edmonton,

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in a psychiatric hospital - 
yeah, I finally ended up there!

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He is a neuropsychiatrist who leads
the hospital's adult psychiatric ward,

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and he is also in charge
of the research lab's data input.

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So I arrive there.

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He ask me to do a demonstration

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for the neuropsychiatric
and psychiatric researchers.

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So I give a demonstration,
I lay on the ground and so on ...

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Then the trance ends,
and I hear a voice saying,

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"That's a rather violent
split of personality ..."

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Uh!

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... and another saying,

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"It may even be
a multiple personality disorder,"

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and another, "or maybe
a limbic encephalitis."

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So they come closer to me and say,

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"Miss, what's surprising
is that you seem to control it

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since you came out of this state.
Amazing! We'd really like to follow up."

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And so do I!

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So I enter the lab,
electrodes are put on my head.

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They take an EEG of my brain
in the resting normal state.

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You can see here how
it looks like, it's pretty calm.

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Here is the beginning of the trance.

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We can see something is indeed happening.

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Here, it's me in the lab
with the things on my head.

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Just to give you an idea, I will
make you listen to the sounds.

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(Wolf cries)

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Impressive!

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(Laughter)

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Here we go, I've made a fool
of myself for all to see.

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So just imagine the assistants

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when they heard these sounds
in the research lab!

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Now here is the EEG during the trance.

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You can see that, indeed,
something significant happens.

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So Professor Flor-Henry studies
these results, of course,

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and he comes back to me a few
months later and tells me,

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"Your brain is completely
normal, in a normal state.

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There is no pathology, it's healthy,

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However, during the trance ..."

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Pierre Etevenon gives
this hypothesis, he says to me,

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"Your results make me think
of a rabbit on LSD."

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Well, that's not a good start,
but what follows is even worse

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Pierre Flor-Henry compared these trance
results to three control groups,

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one suffering from intense depression,
the other from manic disorders,

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and a third for schizophrenia,
and then he says to me,

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"During the trance, your lines
are similar to all three pathologies."

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I say, "All three at once?"

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He says, "Yes, all three at once."

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That's already a rarity for a brain,

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but what seems
even more unthinkable

199
00:11:33,068 --> 00:11:36,279
and is in his view,a major
discovery about brain function,

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is that no one thought
that a healthy brain could at will

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bring about extremely pathological
states and come out of them,

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just like that, at will, and above
all without any damage.

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These results led to a first research
protocol in neuroscience

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on the Mongolian shamanic trance.

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Another question is
if a brain can go in and out,

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it means there is a way to come back
from these pathological states.

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00:12:07,923 --> 00:12:10,469
May not these trance techniques
practiced in Mongolia

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be a mean of potentially bringing
an answer to this kind of pathologies?

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00:12:15,113 --> 00:12:19,223
Today, there is absolutely
no certitude and no answer to this

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which is why this protocol
is still ongoing.

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00:12:22,106 --> 00:12:25,731
Professor Flor-Henry will make a few
scientific publications on the results.

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I wrote the details
of this adventure in my last book.

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But what does this adventure
tell us concretely?

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What did it teach me specifically?

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Well, I learned how to milk reindeer

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by spending eight years
with a reindeer herder,

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that's better than nothing.

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I know that I can induce trance by will,

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therefore it must be a capacity
of the brain we all have access to

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and many people
have already developed it before me ;

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and it must be that the visions
I have in that state,

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this different perception of reality
as if it was heightened,

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this different way of seeing the world

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is simply the result of a modification
in my brain's behavior.

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So we don't know yet why
and what purpose this serves,

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but we can be sure
that what we perceive of the world,

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what we see, is not the world,

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but truly a model of the world
created by our brain.

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(Applause)