01/31/2026
🔆Question about trance meditation experiences in a forum today: 🔆
✨✨“I had my first channeling experience last night after meditation, grounding, clearing space etc.. I entered the trance state but found myself feeling like my consciousness was trying to float away or becoming distracted. I had to keep grounding myself as well because I got nervous a few times and my hands je**ed once.
I did successfully start to channel a trusted spirit and as I could hear I was speaking and saying "It's okay, this is your first time doing this" And after a while I had to stop.
Any tips for better grounding? Also is this common?
I hear it is..” ✨✨
🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆
🌟My response:
Hello!! First of all, I just want to say it’s wonderful that you are venturing into the beautiful world of trance! I am halfway through my fourth year as a trance student, but I also teach trance and I’m a professional practitioner: speaking, healing, trance medium, and I do spiritual assessments, counseling, and immersive/transformative journeys. As a medium, I wish I had begun trance before I started my Mediumship, but I started when I felt called to begin, and I have progressed rapidly. Trance is so expansive and the possibility for transformative experiences and growth are limitless!
YES, all that you experienced is totally normal. I’ll go through each of your points and explain why to help give you some understanding about what is happening and why you are safe and everything that happened is totally natural and normal!
First, I’ll address the physical sensations. These are to be expected. I think you were just nervous because you were trying something new. We often fear what we don’t understand and this is something completely new, so nervousness is to be expected. That will go away after a few sessions and you realize that you are divinely protected and physically safe and there is nothing to fear. Contentment and relaxation company discipline in your trance journeys. With regards to the movement in your hands, there is actually a scientific explanation. Because you are going into a trance state, you are moving from a beta brain wave state (13-36 Hz) down through an alpha brain wave (light meditative) state (8-13 Hz) to get to the theta brain wave state (4-8 Hz). For the sake of explanation, theta is right above the delta sleep state. (0.5-4 Hz). In the delta brain wave state, this is where we experience our restorative sleep that repairs your immune system and tissues, where we release growth hormones, and experience physical restoration. However, REM sleep does not occur in the delta state. It actually occurs…in the theta state!! This is your dream state, and you are not actually fully asleep! Although during sleep stages, you do (naturally/physically) experience muscle paralysis that keeps your body at rest, when you go into a trance state purposefully for healing, you do often experience something kind of similar called catalepsy, which is a complete softening of your body. I can always tell when I’m teaching students if they have reached the trance state because their whole body softens and I can physically see their muscles relaxing, their head lowering, their shoulders slumping, etc. Just to clarify though, this isn’t something everyone experiences. Many people, especially those who have been doing trance for a long time, can actually reach that state with their eyes open - even while they are standing or talking. But especially in the early stages of your development in trance, you will often experience this gentle relaxation of the physical self. It’s totally normal and a part of the process!
Now, with regards to your hand movements, this is typical with entering that liminal space between waking and sleeping. There’s actually a name for this phenomenon. It’s called a hypnagogic jerk. ((Side note: the hypnagogic jerk occurs when you were going down into a sleep state, but if it occur occurs when you are coming out of a sleep, state, this is actually called a hypnopompic jerk.)) When you start to fall asleep, but your body kind of jerks you back awake, that’s what you experiencing. Remember that, as you are transitioning, your conscious awareness, your body is physiologically transitioning to a relaxation state, so this is just a normal adjustment of your body to these rapid shifts. You don’t always wake up after experiencing these, but you definitely have an awareness that it happened.
Speaking of awareness…when you are in a theta state, you have the capacity for conscious awareness, but depending on how deep you are in that state, you may not have conscious awareness (though you are 100% in a receptive state and still receiving- healing, awareness, intelligence, etc.). If you are going in from a beta state down into theta for trance meditation, you generally will have conscious awareness, but you may also drift off from time to time and feel a bit untethered. Just know that you are still receiving healing, which you receive every time you go into the theta state. You are connected to the universe of all things and all consciousness and you are connected to source, which is always healing every time you connect. If you are in a class with a teacher who is guiding you into this state or you’re listening to a guided meditation, you are still hearing that information and those prompts, even if you don’t have a conscious awareness of it. It’s very common to kind of fade in and out as you move through your healing and transformational experience. You will also notice that you are having multisensory experiences with visuals, possibly sounds, possibly sensations of smells and textures, etc. This is where your physical sensory nervous system collides with your emotional/spiritual sensory nervous system. If you are a medium, this is how you experience your “clairs!” You are experiencing all of your senses, but in your altered state, it is more clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairaudience, etc. (Yes, this is why you can easily connect with your loved ones in the spirit world or your spirit team or guardian angels, etc. while you are in this highly receptive state.)
This is where it begins to become an adventure! This is where all the journeys of exploration into different realms and dimensions occurs! This is really the fun part! I have had so many life-changing and life affirming experiences in trance! But, back to the science… You do not have conscious awareness in the delta state. That is your deep sleep state, and you may have a little bit or none at all when you are coming out of the sleep state and you are in the theta or a REM sleep state. But, when you go into trance purposefully, it may come and go, this consciousness, at first, but down the road you will have the awakened awareness most of the time, even though it may fade in and out occasionally. And sometimes, I will have an experience, especially if my teacher is guiding the class through a really deep meditation, where I feel anchored to his voice, but my consciousness is absolutely someplace else. I called this “blissing out.” It’s where all possibilities exist!
I just want to gently caution you that before you get too far into trance, that you do a couple of things mentally and emotionally. Make sure you set up boundaries with your Spirit team explaining what things you are OK with experiencing. If the idea of say massive butterflies or galactics/star seeds or the idea of aliens or beings that you’ve never encountered in your conscious awareness frightens you, you can set up a boundary so that you don’t experience those things or a boundary that allows you to experience those gently when you are with a guide with whom you feel safe. For me in my experience, I went all in. I knew that I was divinely protected when I’m in the trance state because I’m connected to source or the God force or whatever you wish to call it. I squarely announced that I am open and receptive to absolutely anything. And I have had those WOW experiences! I would recommend starting with some boundaries if you feel nervous. Those can always be amended later!
I don’t normally ground and protect my energy at this stage because I do have that belief that I am divinely protected, but there are some very simple ways to ground and protect yourself before going into this state if you prefer to do that. The simplest and most common I will outline briefly here. For grounding, you can do a quick body scan, imagining a white light entering through the crown of your head and slowly warming your body, going down your face and neck, shoulders and arms, your chest and belly, into your hips, thighs, and legs… down through your feet and releasing into the ground. At this point, imagine that you are growing roots through the bottom of your feet just like a tree down into the Earth. This solidly grounds you so you won’t “float away” during your meditation. Then imagine a gentle bubble forming around you and that white light that entered your body seeping through your pores out beyond your skin and filling up this bubble with safety and protection. Now you are gently cocooned and ready for your trance journey!
So, there you have it, the summary of what you were experiencing and why and how it’s completely natural. You’re doing everything right and I applaud your enthusiasm and desire to have the experiences that lie ahead of you. Know that you are always safe and loved and held by spirit and trust that they will always guide you to what you need and what is for your highest good. I implore you to meet your main spirit guide and your wisdom guide and healing guides so you have that foundation of support and then allow the other guides to come through when you are ready to meet them. Enjoy the experiences and be sure to try different types of meditation, music, nature sounds, etc. They will generally heighten the experience. Also experiment with meditating in a dark room or sitting outside in the sunlight to meditate as long as you are in a space where you are safe! I love to sit outside in the daylight with my face to the sun to meditate. During the winter months, I am just happy to be near a window!
I wish you love and peace and lots of joy for the trance journeys that await you!
💛 Beth
