The shamanic trance, an ability of the brain?| Corine Sombrun | TEDxParisSalon

Today a travel-writer, Corine Sombrun spent her childhood in Africa, in Burkina Faso. In 1999, she moved to London where she worked as a pianist composer and then as a reporter for BBC World. During a reportage in Mongolia in 2001, a shaman informed her that she was a shaman and that her "path" was to learn their secret art. After eight years of training where she spent several months each year on the Siberian border next to Enkhetuya with a shaman from the Tsaatans ethnic group responsible for teaching her their trance techniques, she decided to ask scientists and initiated the first research protocol in neuroscience on the Mongolian shamanic trance. Her latest book, "Les esprits de la steppe" (The spirits of the steppe) published by Albin Michel, gives a full account through Enkhetuya's life of this adventure of the Mongolian shamanism, from the 50s to the research laboratories.

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

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

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

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

I have to do a report
for the BBC on shamanism

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

He is going to do a ceremony.

The night comes, neighbors arrive.

They have numerous problems,

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

What I know about shamanism, at the time,

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

This spirit world
is constituted of entities

who are somehow responsible
for maintaining harmony in the world.

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

these spirits send you alarms
in the form of problems.

So when you really have
a lot of problems,

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

and that's where the shaman comes in.

He will enter into trance
with the sound of a drum

and will directly ask the spirit world

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

So the night falls,
the shaman wears his drum.

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

(Sound of drum)

The only problem
is that this drum's sound

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

I move more and more violently.

I start to howl like a wolf,

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

I am transforming into a wolf ...

And the worse is
that all this is happening,

but I have absolutely no control over it.

Then the drum stops, the trance stops.

The shaman turns to me, looking angry.

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

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

(Laughter)

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

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

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

it means you have the gift,

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

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

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

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

So now, well ...

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

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

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

you must have had
many problems in your life."

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

"Well, that's nothing, really,

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

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

you will encounter a lot more problems."

So I turn to Nara who says to me,

"Listen, this is a very secret knowledge.

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

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

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

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

to go there several months a year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by practicing trance."

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

Yes, that's me here.

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

to live in a tipi, without
water or electricity.

I am taught the rituals,
the practice of trance.

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

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

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

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

(Laughter)

Now I must admit that I deserve it ...

But anyway, Little Asshole continues

to go there several months
a year to learn trance,

until finally, after
eight years doing this,

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

which is a woman shaman there

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

produces changes in my perception.

So what are they,
objectively, after eight years?

Well, I loose the notion
of space and time.

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

My perception of pain
is lessened during trance:

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

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

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

I can hold this drum
at arms length for hours,

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

so I am stronger
than in a normal state.

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

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

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

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

places that are "disharmonious".

The most surprising is when I perceive
these disharmonious places,

I start to produce
chants, gestures and sounds,

speak in unknown languages,

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

exactly what it needs
in order to regain balance.

Now what is it all about?

Does trance modify
the behavior of the brain

and give me other abilities?

Why when I am in this state

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

I thought, "I will meet with scientists."

The first one to whom
I told my story said,

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

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

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

who is a former Head
of research at the INSERM.

At Princeton, he studied

the effects of hallucinogenic
substances on vision,

so he knows very well
the modified states of consciousness,

or of cognition in the matter of trances.

So he says "Give me a demonstration."

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

(Laughter)

Then I come out of trance
and he says,

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

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

we need to do an EEG of your brain.

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

so find a solution,

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

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

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

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

brings on these tremors
which I talked about earlier,

I try to reproduce them.

They may lead me to trance.

After a few attempts,
I did indeed succeed.

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

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

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

I do another demonstration,
and he answers,

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

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

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

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

He's in Canada, in Edmonton,

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

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

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

So I arrive there.

He ask me to do a demonstration

for the neuropsychiatric
and psychiatric researchers.

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

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

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

Uh!

... and another saying,

"It may even be
a multiple personality disorder,"

and another, "or maybe
a limbic encephalitis."

So they come closer to me and say,

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

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

And so do I!

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

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

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

Here is the beginning of the trance.

We can see something is indeed happening.

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

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

(Wolf cries)

Impressive!

(Laughter)

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

So just imagine the assistants

when they heard these sounds
in the research lab!

Now here is the EEG during the trance.

You can see that, indeed,
something significant happens.

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

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

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

There is no pathology, it's healthy,

However, during the trance ..."

Pierre Etevenon gives
this hypothesis, he says to me,

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

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

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

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

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

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

I say, "All three at once?"

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

That's already a rarity for a brain,

but what seems
even more unthinkable

and is in his view,a major
discovery about brain function,

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

bring about extremely pathological
states and come out of them,

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

These results led to a first research
protocol in neuroscience

on the Mongolian shamanic trance.

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

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

May not these trance techniques
practiced in Mongolia

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

Today, there is absolutely
no certitude and no answer to this

which is why this protocol
is still ongoing.

Professor Flor-Henry will make a few
scientific publications on the results.

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

But what does this adventure
tell us concretely?

What did it teach me specifically?

Well, I learned how to milk reindeer

by spending eight years
with a reindeer herder,

that's better than nothing.

I know that I can induce trance by will,

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

and many people
have already developed it before me ;

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

this different perception of reality
as if it was heightened,

this different way of seeing the world

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

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

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

what we see, is not the world,

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

(Applause)