Initiation Ritual as Intentional Trauma

What struck me when reading about initiation rituals in traditional cultures was the potentially traumatic nature of the initiation experience. Terror, isolation and pain are evoked from the initiate. Similar states are at least referenced in the initiations of masonic orders and college fraternities. So if isolation, pain and fear are consistent features of the initiation experience across initiatory societies, those features must serve a purpose in relation to the intent of the ritual.

I suspect the key is how trauma effects the brain. Memory of traumatic experience is different from non-traumatic experience. Traumatic memories tend to be more difficult to access clearly and tend to take on symbolic aspects. They also form into repetitive episodes and repetitive patterns of behaviour. For a good, if fictional, portrayal of this see Terry Gilliam’s film, The Fisher King. Traumatic memories encode the experience.

The primary intention behind an initiation ritual is to make the initiate a new person as they become a member of the group initiating them. The encoding nature of traumatic memory could be used to make the initiate ‘s new role a fundamental part of them. Traumatic ritual creates what Robert Anton Wilson would call a state of imprint vulnerability. While the initiate is opened to the imprint by the isolation and terror, the ritual trappings act as the set and setting which directs the new adult or membership identity that the initiate is adopting.

~ by Edward on November 12, 2012.