Self-induced trance states are nature’s way of knowing more than reason, logic and thinking know. Entrancement takes us into a zone beyond the ordinary and open us to the realm of poetry, music and dance where we might engage the Muse and benefit from an association with More Than Words Can Say.
Thus, the Native American practice of stomp dancing and sweat lodges, and the Australian Aborigines walk-a-bouts, and self-hypnosis as a medium for deep awareness and knowing more than we know we know.
Hyper-knowing transports us beyond ordinary reality into the world of sensory abundance, realization and artistic inspiration. When we drop out of the ordinary world of reason and logic and into the extraordinary world of sensory perception, we know what the Gnostics knew with their “secret knowledge,” which is the source of artistic creativity worldwide.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 