Liminality

[Forest]

Hi everyone.

During the recent call-in event with Steve Ozanich, the topic of liminality came up. Coincidentally, it also came up in today's drop-in chat, and people seemed interested in it, so I thought I would do some research.

Basically, Liminality means that you are at the threshold of something new, but you aren't quite there yet. Instead, you are in a "null-space," a special state in between the new state and the old state.

The term originally came from anthropology, where it was used to describe rituals in tribal cultures. For example, adolescents might go through a rite of passage or ritual in which they transition from being viewed as a child to being viewed as an adult. Before the ritual they are children and after the ritual they are adults. But what are they during the ritual. During the the ritual, some anthropologists argue that they are neither children nor adults. Rather, they are in a special, liminal space of transition.

We can see the same thing in TMS healing. Before we understand TMS, our life is one way. After we are healed, it is another. But how about while we are healing? This is a period of real upheaval that is wonderfully transformative, but can also be scary. It is a time when peer support and connecting with others is especially important, to provide us some stability while so much is unfamiliar and changing.

Likewise, sometimes liminality can be what causes TMS. As we go through transitions, there can be a strong sense of disorientation and anomie (a weakening of social bonds and structure). This can cause a great deal of distress (dis=bad stress) and is a good example of the existential anxiety caused by freedom (for those who are keeping up with Dr. Zafirides' existential approach).

With that background, here are some quotes from Wikipedia's article on Liminality:

In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete. During a ritual's liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way, which the ritual establishes.

The concept of liminality was first developed in the early 20th century by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep and later taken up by Victor Turner. More recently, usage of the term has broadened to describe political and cultural change as well as rituals. During liminal periods of all kinds, social hierarchies may be reversed or temporarily dissolved, continuity of tradition may become uncertain, and future outcomes once taken for granted may be thrown into doubt. The dissolution of order during liminality creates a fluid, malleable situation that enables new institutions and customs to become established. The term has also passed into popular usage, where it is applied much more broadly, undermining its significance to some extent

It says the following about Arnold van Gennep on liminality:

Arnold van Gennep

Van Gennep, who invented the term liminality, published in 1908 his Rites de Passage, a work that is essential to the development of the concept of liminality in the context of rituals in small-scale societies. Van Gennep began his book by identifying the various categories of rites. He distinguished between those that result in a change of status for an individual or social group, and those that signify transitions in the passage of time. In doing so, he placed a particular emphasis on rites of passage, and claimed that “such rituals marking, helping, or celebrating individual or collective passages through the cycle of life or of nature exist in every culture, and share a specific three-fold sequential structure”.

This three-fold structure, as established by van Gennep, is made up of the following components:

• preliminal rites (or rites of separation): This stage involves a metaphorical “death”, as the initiate is forced to leave something behind by breaking with previous practices and routines.[10]
• liminal rites (or transition rites): This involves “the creation of a tabula rasa, through the removal of previously taken-for-granted forms and limits”. Two characteristics are essential to these rites. First, the rite “must follow a strictly prescribed sequence, where everybody knows what to do and how”. Second, everything must be done “under the authority of a master of ceremonies”. The destructive nature of this rite allows for considerable changes to be made to the identity of the initiand. This middle stage (when the transition takes place) “implies an actual passing through the threshold that marks the boundary between two phases, and the term ‘liminality’ was introduced in order to characterize this passage.”
• postliminal rites (or rites of incorporation): During this stage, the initiand is re-incorporated into society with a new identity, as a “new” being.

Turner confirmed his nomenclature for 'the three phases of passage from one culturally defined state or status to another...preliminal, liminal, and postliminal'.

Van Gennep considered rites of initiation to be the most typical rite. To gain a better understanding of “tripartite structure” of liminal situations, one can look at a specific rite of initiation: the initiation of “youngsters into adulthood,” which Turner considered the most typical rite. In such rites of passage, the experience is highly structured. The first phase (the rite of separation) requires the child to go through a separation from his family; this involves his/her “death” as a child, as childhood is effectively left behind. In the second stage, initiands (between childhood and adulthood) must pass a “test” to prove they are ready for adulthood. If they succeed, the third stage (incorporation) involves a celebration of the “new birth” of the adult and a welcoming of that being back into society.

By constructing this three-part sequence, van Gennep identified a pattern he believed was inherent in all ritual passages. By suggesting that such a sequence is universal (meaning that “all societies use rites to demarcate transitions”), van Gennep made an important claim (one that not many anthropologists make, as they generally tend to demonstrate cultural diversity while shying away from universality).

The Wikipedia article also review's Victor Turner's contributions, which I find to be a bit technical, so I won't excerpt it. However, I thought it was interesting that it mentioned that "However, liminal situations can be, and in actual fact in modern era, rather quite different: periods of uncertainly, anguish, even existential fear: a facing of the abyss in void." Certainly, we see this on the forums among some people who are going through TMS healing! Managing this fear is, of course, an important thing that we can assist each other in doing.

The Wikipedia article has a terrific list of examples of liminal spaces as well. It includes everything from puberty (between childhood and adulthood) to sudden events like divorce, family deaths, or illness (like TMS). For a society, it includes wars and other national tragedies like 9/11. You can see the whole list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality#Types

One final section that I thought was particularly interesting was one on the sense of community that can develop during liminal times. Distinctions that separate people can break down, allowing people from all walks of life to connect. This seems like a wonderful thing, and we definitely see it here at the wiki:

Communitas

During the liminal stage, normally accepted differences between the participants, such as social class, are often de-emphasized or ignored. A social structure of communitas forms: one based on common humanity and equality rather than recognized hierarchy. '"Communitas"...has positive values associated with it; good fellowship, spontaneity, warm contact...unhierarchised, undifferentiated social relations'. For example, during a pilgrimage, members of an upper class and members of a lower class might mix and converse as equals, when in normal life they would rarely converse at all or their conversation might be limited to giving or receiving orders. 'Such collapsing of classes and occupations in the new community...a full-scale "Communitas" of equal beings'

In terms of applying this concept to TMS, Steve Ozanich was the first person to discuss the term in a TMS book, so it seems only fair to use his words to draw that connection. On pages 328-329 of The Great Pain Deception, he writes,

Worsening Pain—The Edges of Truths

Be advised—pain may worsen during various healing stages, for no obvious reason. As the emotion rises to the surface—and it will if you’re healing—the pain must increase in order to prevent the expression or recognition of the unwanted. Pain tells us that we are on the verge of change—coming face to face with what we know to be true deep within, yet won’t admit to. Faith is then necessary to move forward when the other side can’t be seen—and isn’t fully known. TMS is a liminal effect (Latin, limina defined as “threshold”). Liminal space is that space where the first door has been opened but the second has not yet been entered. It is the space in between knowing and not knowing—the threshold of understanding…the space between the yin and yang….

He has an additional paragraph on the subject, but while I think it is good stuff, I won't quote it, in order to avoid pressing the boundaries of the "fair use" doctrine and irritating a valued member of this forum.

Anyway I hope you all find it interesting. Good luck in your travels through your own personal liminal spaces!

 

[njoy]

Fascinating, Forest. I remember Steve's: "Pain tells us that we are on the verge of change—coming face to face with what we know to be true deep within, yet won’t admit to. Faith is then necessary to move forward when the other side can’t be seen—and isn’t fully known." but didn't know much about liminality. In the wikipedia article there is quite a bit about the dangers of the "trickster" archetype. My understanding of how the trickster is viewed North American native cultures is more positive. Because he is always an outsider, he may see what we can't see which can help us to access new possibilities in the liminal situation. The downside being that we may mistake him for a real leader to help us through. That, he is not.

 

[Tennis Tom]

WOW, that's a lot of research Forest! I was an anthro major way back, Mazlow, Boaz, Margaret Mead and all that. I'll read it later when the Margarita's wear off, had a minor rite of passage myself this afternoon at ye' ol' club bar.