From The Golden Thread Magazine Volume 1, No. 1, October 1986
Trance: The Only True Possession
by Rev. Eugene C. Larr
In the past few years, psychics and the various activities associated with them have increasingly come to be in the public spotlight. Of all the techniques that have been demonstrated, trance is perhaps the most spectacular, and quite possibly the most controversial. Recently, The Golden Thread talked with Rev. Eugene C. Larr about this intriguing subject. Rev. Larr has been a practicing clairvoyant, clairaudient, trance medium since 1949. His diverse academic background includes a PhD degree in both the field of Religious Science and that of Micropaleontology.
In 1972, with nearly 25 years of experience behind him, Rev. Larr founded the Chapel of Awareness Spiritual Church, in Encinitas, California. Since that time, the Chapel has helped many thousands of people to better understand the subject and to develop their own psychic and spiritual awareness.
TGT... First of all, would you please give us your definition of trance?
LARR...There are many different kinds of trance, as you know. To me, trance is when you yourself step away from your physical body and allow a high entity or teacher to use your body to speak; as a means of teaching, or just giving information to an individual. The various forms of trance occur on different levels. One level that people use is similar to inspirational speaking, where you are only partially aside and you are aware of what is going on. This is an easy kind of trance to get confused because you can change what is intended to be said. In the second form of trance, you are further aside but it’s as if you are nearby, watching what is being said, as if you were simply another observer in the
audience.
The highest form of trance, what I call stage 3C, is when you yourself are simply gone. You go someplace else to study, to learn, to further your development, while your body is being used by spirit. This, of course, is perfect possession and it follows the very basic laws of spiritual development. That is, it can only occur with your permission. Possession without permission simply does not exist. Trance is simply an easy way for a teacher to get a message across in his own words, or to teach in his own way, something that would be difficult to handle in any other form.
TGT... Are you saying that, in the highest form of trance, spirit is actually in your physical body?
LARR... Yes, absolutely, and they will match perfectly and completely. They are literally running your body. Their etheric body, if you want to call it that, or etheric aura merges within yours and takes control of the body. They can move it and they can make it function any way that they care to. Of course, they are very careful with the body and would never do anything to harm it, or anything of this nature. For all intents and purposes, in this form of trance, another entity is in your body while you have simply gone elsewhere.
And, incidentally, this shows up in the way the aura reacts and in the measurement of the alpha rhythms. It is quite easy, by observing the aura, to tell when another entity has taken over the body and is now in control.
I might say at this point, I disagree greatly with some of the newer, trendy people who call this state, or kind of communication, "channeling." This sounds like a tube through which water is being squirted and that is not the case because an entity is housed in your body and, by controlling your neural-muscular set up, can move your body. But, they will also use your memory banks to hunt for certain words, or certain phrases, that they might like to use and that would be more understandable to the audience. So, your body is not just a passive tool. It is being used and taking an active part in what is going on.
TGT... One of the more common observations made about people who are working in trance is that there is often a dramatic change in the sound of the voice. If spirit is using your body, why don't they sound like you?
LARR... I think possibly we better draw some fine lines here to start with. I’ve observed a great many people who are supposedly in trance but find that, unfortunately, the largest majority of them are simply putting on a show. As I have mentioned before, observing the aura will tell you very quickly if the person is really in trance or not and that, of course, cannot be faked. But, the voice change is done simply at the whim of the entity who takes over control. He can sound exactly like you do, or change it to be most anything. For instance, my teacher Tau Sing loves to speak in a sort of an Asian manner. Not a strict Asian voice but enough to serve as an identification, so that students that I work with, and people we work with in circle, simply know that it is Tau Sing. However, he can speak my own voice, or he can speak with any other intonation that he wants to, and it is totally up to him. The ability to do these things is a direct measurement of the developmental level of the entity involved. This matching of the entity to your body is a perfect and precise thing. So, anything that you can do with your body spirit can do, and will do, at times.
TGT... Considering what is involved, can just any entity, or spirit, work with you in this way?
LARR... No. I've talked to many entities who simply do not have the development on the spirit side to step in and handle a physical body on this side. I don't mean this as a put-down. Many entities simply are not interested in doing it. In the case of Tau Sing, he is a teacher, and has been for thousands of years, and therefore uses it as a teaching technique. Occasionally, a spirit will work through someone, in trance, simply to say hello, or give some small message. But, for longer periods of trance work, like for instructional purposes, you will always find it to be what I would loosely call a "high" teacher; one who knows what it is about and knows what he is doing.
TGT... You mentioned that Tau Sing has been a teacher for thousands of years. Just how long has the technique of trance been around?
LARR... It is very old. I suspect it goes back, certainly before the recorded history of man, where we have the so-called "witch doctor,” or shaman, or whatever you want to call him. It might have occurred where a friend of his who happened to be in the spirit realm, would work through him. This might have been either to give advice, like we see in some of the writings of the early American Indian, or to actually give teachings, as we see in the cuneiform writings
of Mesopotamia and of course in Egyptian work, too. There are even several hints in the Bible that we have entities working through other people, as voices from the beyond, or speaking in tongues. One form, at least, of
speaking in tongues. So it’s been around a long time and, as I say, the main purpose is to use it as a teaching technique. Just chit-chatting about the time of day, an entity can do with you without bothering to go into trance, and this kind of thing
TGT...Is this something that anyone can learn to do?
LARR...Yes, I believe so, and I think I would like to amplify the “can learn to do it." It does not come overnight. It is a gift that is granted. It is a gift you work for and you will learn it. The key part of the learning is twofold. You must have absolute control of your mind; in other words being able to get out of your own body and stay out. The other very important factor is a deep and absolute trust for the entity or spirit individual who is working through you. If those two criteria are not there, true trance is absolutely impossible.
I have probably seen 45 or 50 people working in trance and I would say less than 10 percent of them were actually in deep trance. You will easily get a combination of so-called inspirational speaking, where the person will parrot what is being said to them but then add their own interpretations along the way, To my estimation, thereby rendering the communication dangerous, if not totally invalid. One of the important things, as I mentioned before, is watching the aura, A person cannot fake a trance, if you are observing the aura,
because you can see their thought form images dreaming up what to say next. When an entity is working through a person, that thought form image will not be there because it is housed in the etheric mind of the entity, and is not open to your analysis.
I think the saddest part is, well, I can refer to a number of older mediums that I've known in the past, many of them now on spirit side, who started out pretending to be in trance. They would be getting inspirational messages from their teachers and be presenting it as if they were in trance. The key problem is, if you tell the lie loud enough and long enough, everybody will believe it, even yourself. In many of these instances they have forgotten that they were cheating.
TGT... You've mentioned that watching the aura was a good way for someone to determine if trance is really taking place. What about the person who can't see auras? How can they judge if the person, who they may be paying good money to see, is actually in trance?
LARR... That's a very good question, and of course it is one that has bothered myself, as well as people through all ages. We can go clear back to Biblical times where we get the warning in the New Testament that if someone is speaking in tongues, make certain there is someone there to interpret what is being said. The same thing occurs here. Just the content of what a spiritual entity might be saying does not connote, necessarily at least, the truth. All of you can say beautiful things. That takes no great brain work any mediocre actor can pretend he is in a trance.
A few things I would say that would alert me, outside of my psychic sensitivity, are of course the theatrics. Spiritual entities who are interested in trance for teaching are not going to play games with gyrations and jerking, and moanings and groanings, as they come in or out of trance. If anybody who is truly trying to trance is experiencing that kind of thing, then they have a lot of mental activity to straighten out first.
The ultimate answer of course, if you cannot observe psychically, is to see the results of what they are saying. Does what they are saying sound logical? Does it obey those laws that all prime directives carry? Remember, the truth is simple, It is not complex. Entities who are teaching and working in trance will never direct your life, and they will never tell you what to do. This lifetime is your own lifetime and you have got to make it succeed, or fail.
You mentioned the good money you might pay for it. I have never received what I felt was a good example of proper trance, where I paid large sums of money for it. I believe the medium should be paid, certainly. There is no question about that but let’s not get carried away with $50 or $100 a session. Not only is it not worthwhile but, unless you yourself are already psychic so that you can really interpret what’s going on, it may be a waste of money.
TGT... From what you have said so far, it would seem that the primary purpose of trance is that of teaching. Are there other reasons for working with spirit in this way?
LARR... There have been a few times when entities who have recently departed have spoken through me to convey their personal or, in some cases very intimate, feelings with someone they left on this side. I use trance in this way only occasionally. It is mainly used when
the departed person wants to tell their loved one something that is very private and very personal, and they do not want the medium to change the wording or inflection of what is being said. It's a rare thing, it doesn't happen very often, but it does happen in that case. For instance, here at the Chapel (the Chapel of Awareness), Tau Sing will be addressing a large group of people, to teach and answer their questions. It has been one of the most beautiful things for me, when I come back from trance, to listen to the tapes, because I of course remember nothing of what was being said during the trance activity. But, to listen to the tapes I notice the friendship, the camaraderie, the deep appreciation that the audience has for Tau Sing, and he for the audience; mutual feeling of goodness all the way around. People will ask questions that are extremely meaningful to them. We must remember that a question that might sound dumb to someone else can be extremely meaningful to the person who asked. And, my entities always look at it that way. They will help where they can and they are perfectly frank about saying when they can’t help, they simply won’t try to.
TGT... Okay, that's for others. Now, what purpose does it serve for you or, to put it more bluntly, what do you get out of this?
LARR... Well, of course, if we look at the thing in the general view, I think the biggest thing I get out of it are some of the studies I do while I'm in trance. While the body is being used by Tau Sing, for instance, I'm off at a different lamasery where I can read, study, and translate some information. This may sound high and lofty but is, nevertheless a lot of fun. Also, I've enjoyed my friends in the spirit realm that I touch while in stage 3C trance. I look forward to simply sitting around and talking with them. I am also basically a teacher. I have tried to teach awareness and understanding for many, many lifetimes. Therefore, I am very pleased this lifetime to use what I think is a very powerful tool: this form of trance and the work with high teachers. There are probably five or six high teachers that work with me over periods of time, ranging everywhere from extremely abstract teachings, to very earthy, right down to here and now, kinds of things. All of them impart, not only to me but I hope to the people that I talk to, a great feeling of well-being, a great feeling of comfort.
Incidentally, let me add here another thing that the non-psychic might use as a criterion for evaluating someone in trance. Proper trance will never make a medium tired. I've worked in trance for up to an hour, or an hour and half and came back so wound up I was ready to go for another 10 or 12 hours. The thing I have noticed is that it seems to make me crave sweet things. If I have worked very long in trance, I immediately crave ice cream, or a hot fudge sundae. This may be purely psychological, on my part. But, when I read a report, or hear someone talking, about how tired they were after trance, I automatically know they need some more training. What they were doing was not easy, it was not smooth, it was robbing them of energy and that is not necessary, and it is wrong.
TGT...You have stated that a medium need not go through any gyrations, or the like. Would you please explain what it does feel like when you are going into and coming out of trance?
LARR...Going into trance is much easier to analyze. Coming back from trance often occurs so quickly that the period of time is difficult to analyze. Going into trance feels exactly as if you are slowly losing consciousness. It's as, well, if you are one of these people who doesn't fall asleep instantly, you actually feel yourself drifting to sleep. It's that kind of feeling. It is relatively fast, a matter of a few seconds, but totally effortless. There is no stress to get out. No tugging, no pulling, or this kind of thing. It's a very gentle, very beautiful, flowing feeling.
TGT... Some mediums have claimed that least one of the entities that is working through them is actually an alien from another planet. Is this indeed possible, as strange as it sounds?
LARR... It is extremely strange. One of the problems you bump into is that of separating wishful thinking and imagination, from reality. I would like to say there is no communication with other life forms. And yet, I know for a fact that there is. I have around me an entity that is called an Ave Rex Avatar. This is an extremely highly developed entity who developed on another planetary system, other than our solar system. He simply came here to pick and choose who he wanted to work with and it is totally up to him. I've worked with him now for many years, off and on, and it appears he is more interested in helping in just abstract ways. He is not one to give you detailed teachings, or other things of this nature. They will be profound statements like, "You have the abilities, why don't use them?” Little, simple, short comments like this. I think over all the years, if I wrote down everything this entity had said through me, it would be maybe two or three hundred words, at the most.
So much of the time, we hear comments about communication with people from flying saucers and from other planetary spheres of influence, and other like stuff. My whole answer to that is, watch what the medium is doing. Make certain it is not their wishful thinking or their imagination. I have to go with what my high teacher, Tau Sing, has said. Namely that, yes, the Earth has been visited by robot type ships from intelligent sources, but true contact with people from other planets has not been achieved.
I think, here again, we have to look at this in a realistic way. If you were an alien and had mastered a spaceship that would fly probably faster than light, would you land in the middle of someone's backyard and discuss hot dogs and hamburgers? Or, would you land at the big rocket base in Florida or, for instance,Edwards Air Force base in the desert, where you could talk with someone who's mental equivalent would be like yours? It would be ridiculous for a highly developed entity to talk with a layman. It just simply wouldn't work. Really, the only reason to communicate would be to share knowledge.
TGT... Equally strange are the predictions that so many psychics and mediums put out each year. The majority of them seem to predict at least some dire future circumstances, if not seeming Armageddon-like ones. If the future doesn't already exist, how can they predict such things with such certainty? LARR...That's it, exactly. Future events are not preordained. We can look at the passage of time,
on the planet Earth, in a couple of ways. We can simply look at it in a geological way and I can tell you what will be the results two or three million years from now. But, I can't tell you that tomorrow is going to be the day for the San Andreas fault to let go and knock Los Angeles flat. In fact, Tau Sing tells us that that is not going to happen. In all probability it's going to be a whole series of small earthy earthquakes, which certainly we have seen in the last couple of years. I think the biggest share of this comes
from our early Judeo-Christian background; looking for Armageddon, looking for the end of the world, looking for punishment for the bad and hosannas in heaven for the good. It’s a gorgeous concept, but I think it's a fairytale.
I wish people who predict these great things, when the great thing did not come about, would step out of the limelight and admit that they were simply wrong. We see this all of the time, like the predictions that have just been made that within 18 months, Los Angeles is going to fall into the ocean. Well, it’s not going to happen. It is simply not in the cards, any way you cut it. If you want to push the earthquake theory to its limit, Los Angeles will eventually be a suburb of San Francisco, yes, but it will happen gradually, slowly, over several million years. So, don't be in such a hurry to sell your property and move east.
Man has been on the planet for at least a million years, in the sense of intelligent man, who could discern himself as being different from an animal. And, he is following a very predictable pathway, of one thing following another, and it’s going to continue that way. We often hear comments like, well, now man can destroy the world. True, he certainly can. But, even the most insane and stupid people know how dangerous that would be. One often wonders if the clash between us and the U.S.S.R. is not kept a clash, for the financial benefit of both sides. It’s hard to imagine what would happen if, as it has been preached and demanded by some people, peace should truly come about tomorrow morning. I think we would have an awful collapse of the economy
When we find people predicting these fancy events, I think the biggest fear factor is that it is to put a feather in their cap. This way they can say something impressive. They will say something that will impress the listener, to make the listener think that this medium is really right on top of everything. Unfortunately, that kind of medium is almost always wrong. The kinds of spectacular predictions that I like to see are the ones like Tau Sing gave last year. Someone asked him about the problem of AIDS, the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. He proceeded to describe the two viruses that are causing it and where they came from. He also said that the third virus would be found and that the main one was the leukemia virus found in monkeys. They have now isolated the viruses and, a year later, the little green man (Tau Sing appears small and wears a green robe) was right. Those predictions I really like!
TGT… Like the one you just mentioned, some predictions turn out to be quite accurate. How is it that spirit is able to see so much more clearly than we can, what might happen down the line?
LARR… Look at it this way. All coming events cast their psychic shadow before them.The closer the event, the sharper and more distinct the shadow. Let me give a couple of examples.
Let's say that I am holding a brick on top of a building, and there is a man sunbathing down on the sidewalk. If I let go of the brick, I can predict that the man on the ground, below, is going to get hit by the brick. But, at the last moment, he might open his eyes and move aside so that the brick simply landed harmlessly beside him. We can look at this in two ways. At point "A” while I still had the brick in my hand, certainly the intent for the future was to hit the man with the brick. The moment I let go of it, however, I no longer have control of it, and he has every opportunity to move. So, what we are talking about here is simply approximations. "C” is going to happen, if "A" and "B" continue to happen.
In the case I mentioned earlier, of Tau Sing talking about the viruses, we have a little different thing. Tau Sing can simply look at the AIDS virus complex, compare with other viral complexes that he can study using the Akashic record, and can tell us what they are. Now, he did not tell us that on April 19th, let us say, they were going to find the virus. But he knew the virus was there and by the proximity of the then current studies, he predicted that in the next year it would be found.
TGT… Regarding the kinds of information that spirit does give out, do you ever tell the entity you are working with what to talk about, or how to answer certain questions?
LARR… Not at all. Occasionally, if I want Tau Sing to do something like, if I want to get specific information, I will simply ask him, "Will you please address this or that question" or, "this or that problem, in this next session." There is absolutely no way I can tell him what to say. First of all, because much of what he says, I don't know anything about. But, the other important thing is that he is his own individual self, and I wouldn't change that even if I could. He of course, being a teacher, simply would not allow it. He is in control, in all cases, except when I want to get in or out of my body.
This might be a good point to again show the different kinds of trance. In inspirational speaking, a teacher will be feeding you words that you will parrot back. You can change those words. In this situation, if a teacher used a word that I would not approve of, it would be easy for me to change it. Let's take a simple case. Spirit says that this or that person "should not give a damn about what they are doing." Now, I may be tempted to change it to, "Give a darn" about what they are doing. And, of course, it is my prerogative to do that. But, I have cheated; I have changed what the teacher said. This is why stage 3C trance is so beautiful. They are in control. They are going to answer a question like they want to and there is absolutely no way you, the medium, can alter the words that are used. Incidentally, this is one good reason why you must trust the entity you are working with. They will not embarrass you nor will they do anything that would cause you to be sorry about it, later.
TGT...Do you always know who will be working through you or do other entities sometimes step in, too?
LARR...I would say, in 90% of the cases, you know exactly what is going on before you go into trance. For instance, in some sessions where I am working in class work, I will ask Tau Sing to address the group. Tau Sing knows the entities who normally work through me and, of course, will allow them to work through me, if time allows. If it is someone different, someone new who asks to work through me, Tau Sing will come to me, wherever I am, and get my permission. It is never haphazardly. Again, because it is total possession, it must be done, it can only be done, with the total permission of the person in trance.
TGT...In closing, is there anything else you would like to add?
LARR...Just that I would ask people to remember, like I said when we first started here, what looks like trance might not be. Walk carefully because there are an awful lot of people out there doing an awful lot of things. If you really want to know the truth of a matter, learn it for yourself. Develop your own sensitivity. Expanding your awareness not only puts you where you are supposed to be, but allows you to see what is going on around you in the light of absolute truth.
Copyright 1986 by Awareness Press (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chapel of Awareness Spiritual Church Corporation -a California non-profit religious and educational corporation.) The right to copy portions is granted to individuals who purchase and use a copy for personal use but not for sale or distribution. Chapel of Awareness, 560 Third Street, Encinitas, CA 92024. www.chapelofawareness.org.