While Greek maenadism was of course a female affair, ecstatic behavior may also occur irrespective of gender, social class, and ethnic origin. Whatever their social or ethnic background, in the state of ecstasy, all men and women are equal and discover their shared humanity. One who utters prophetic oracles, receives and exercises the power of healing, or overwhelms others with glossolalic speech, may also acquire an acknowledged social status within the ritual community. Like psychotherapy, the intense experience of the spirit can give one s life new joy, a new meaning and direction. According to one anthropological theory, trance is a necessary precondition not only of psychological reorientation but also of many kinds of physical healing.
Trance helps the brain to overcome our status quo and to reorganize vital functions of our body.
Whether one agrees with such strong claims or not, one can at least assert its therapeutic value. . . . . . In addition to explaining ecstatic ritual as congenial to the oppressed, as a means of creating elementary solidarity, and as producing therapeutic trances, one can also ponder the merits of a fourth theory. People seem to be hungry for religious experience, and ecstatic rituals, like mysticism, promise that experience. The new experience, however, tends to be short-lived. People lose the ability to get into trances.