Faculty and Staff: In many trips to Bali, Eric has filmed and interviewed healers and trancers. Betty Alice brings her unique perspective on trance experience. Her parents, Milton and Elizabeth Erickson, were colleagues of Mead and Bateson in their studies of Balinese trance. She herself is a highly regarded hypnotherapist. Our Balinese colleague, Luh Ketut Suryani, MD, PhD, joins and teaches us at healers and large trance rituals. We have a very experienced American-Balinese team of guides, led by I Made Dwi Sutaryantha [Dewey] and Kathy Bick. Together they have guided University Research Expeditions and Earthwatch teams as well as our 1999 and 2001 Bali trips.
The Educational Program: Most mornings of our trip we will meet for an hour or so after breakfast to orient for the day. If we will be going to a ceremony or healer that day or evening there will be an orientation by Eric, Betty Alice or a Balinese expert. Dr. Suryani will accompany us to healers and large rituals and she will orient us toward trance performance. Kathy and Dwi will discuss and demonstrate the importance of ritual offerings and we will have follow-on discussions of Balinese life and customs as well. If you are interested in Balinese psychiatric practices or public health, visits to the psychiatric or nursing services will be offered.

Trance Mediums and Other Healers: We will visit trance mediums and other healers, see them work with patients and interview them about their practices. Trance mediums speak in the voices of the ancestors of the patient to alert them to ritual lapses that can be corrected to influence family and personal problems. Ayurvedic and other healers use mantra, massage and other methods to help.

Trance Rituals: Odalon temple anniversary ceremonies are accompanied by masked dance performances [Topeng ] and trance dramas like Calonarang in which the Barong and Rangda battle and village trancers attack Rangda and themselves with kris knives. Participants in these dramas perform in trance accompanied by the music of the gamelan. Community wide trance rituals also occur at this time of year. We will attend Timbrah, a village ceremony in which the gods [their masks and effects] are carried on rafts down to the river, along a steep path. There, the men enter trance after bathing and race back up to the village carrying the gods, then run round the plaza before the temple in a frenzy of self-stabbing before reentering the temple grounds. The ceremony takes an entire afternoon.

Other Ceremonies: Cremations occur in the early afternoon and are immense ceremonies punctuated with wild gamelan sounds. Long ceremonial processions lace through the island during this time of year and there are cleansing ceremonies at the ocean and public prayers and blessings with holy water at the temples.

The Arts: Balinese artists, carvers musicians and dancers are justly famous. In the evenings when there aren't religious rituals to see, we will go to dance performances in Ubud. Both dance samplers of high quality and the Ramayana dance drama are presented in the Ubud palace courtyard. Mekar Sari , the woman's gamelan, presents dances by younger dancers and children. Kecak the monkey-chant and drama created jointly by Balinese and westerners will be performed at night and is a thrilling experience. Interested participants can also visit mask carvers, such as Ida Bagus Oka, batik artists and painters, see them at work, purchase art, and arrange to study with them if time allows. Dance lessons can be arranged for Legong or Baris, the classical women's and men's dances. We may be able to arrange a performance of shadow puppetry as well, and this art form can be seen evenings at the temple ceremonies,

Village Life: Dwi is a native of Peliatan, home of the most noted Balinese dancers. He is happy to discuss all aspects of life in Bali, the function of the banjar organization in village life, and customs and religious practice. Since Galungan-Kuningan is a great holiday on Bali, villages all over the island have events planned. Some have giant effigy contests [similar to our Hallowe'en in feel] and there are groups of child gamelan musicians and Barong dancers wandering in the village streets to play at every house and receive gifts.

Accomodations, Meals, Sightseeing, Shopping: We'll stay in or near Ubud in a homestay, or small hotel, usually having individual buildings or rooms around a central garden or courtyard. Breakfast will be taken at our rooms, lunch in town at some central gathering place and dinner at restaurants chosen for interest and cuisine by Kathy and Dwi. A day or two will be given over to possibilities of travel around the island by van, with Balinese driver-guides, and wandering and shopping in town. There are very beautiful places to see in Bali: mountains and seaside, temples and volcanic lakes. Beautiful art, fabrics, jewelry and masks can be bought at all levels of excellence and in a wide range of prices and we can advise about likely places to find what you're interested in.

Climate and Health: Bali is equatorial, therefore hot [@85%F during the days] and humid. Refreshing, full rains fall for short periods. Clothing and habits reflect the weather: Always wear a good, light, hat. Decorum requires sleeves on shirts and modest shorts or dresses; short sleeves are fine. Sunglasses and sunscreen are important, as are learning to enjoy moving slowly and enjoying „rubber time,‰ as the passing hours are called. Temple and ritual events require a costume of sarong and sash, shirt and open hat [for the men]. Kathy will take everyone to the shops early in our trip so that you can buy these and be welcomed at temples and ceremonies. Food is healthy and light: stirfry vegetables with rice, vegetables with peanut sauce, chicken, fish, wonderful varieties of fruits and fruit drinks. Water is not safe to drink, so we provide bottled water. Our accomodations will have hot water, showers, fans, electricity. Medical care is available and pharmaceuticals can be purchased, but we recommend that you buy travel insurance and medical evacuation insurance against emergency need. For the ordinary events of life, regular care is all that's needed. Mosquito repellant is a good idea, though mosquitoes do not seem to have been a great problem on previous visits to Bali. Vaccinations are advised as your physician determines, tetanus, cholera and hepA being often advised for any travel. US Public Health will advise any special suggestions. Again, there are usually not extra ones for Bali.

More: Good guidebooks are available, such as the Lonely Planet series, and there are wonderful photos in these books. We'll also be posting many Bali pictures on our website, www.miltonherickson.com. Dr. Suryani's book, "Trance and Possession in Bali" [Suryani and Jensen, Oxford University Press, 1993] is an excellent study of forms of trance and their relation to western categories of psychiatric thought. It also has photos of some of the people we will meet on our trip. Fred Eiseman's "Bali: Sekala and Niskala" [Periplus Editions, 1990] is a wonderful two-volume paperback tour of many aspects of Balinese culture and religious practice by a westerner who has lived much of his life in Bali. The anthropologist, Unni Wikan, has written "Managing Turbulent Hearts: A Balinese Formula for Living" [University of Chicago Press, 1990] a thoughtful and intricate psychological portrait of Balinese interpersonal life.

Bali 1999 Participants' Comments:

I thought all the leaders were excellent and you all exhibit great integrity. Of all the groups I've been a part of, this was by far the best - well-organized, attentive to detail, a variety of learning experiences.
Exposure to healers, religious practices, the arts, was wonderful. Lectures on anthropology and trance were enriching. I especially appreciated Eric's weaving of Eastern and Western concepts together. This experience was basically just what I was looking for.

Lecturers were knowledgeable, engaged and accessible. In vivo experiences were exceptional. I really appreciated the warm and relaxed atmosphere.

Excellent. The course offered opportunities that would be simply unavailable to the ordinary tourist. Talk with Banjar leaders, interview trance healers...the list goes on and on. It was truly an insider's view of Bali, which I can't imagine getting any other way.

Just the right mixture of didactic, observational and participatory learning.

I appreciate all the many touches and the obvious work that you did which helped to make my trip so enjoyable. My Bali trip was a wonderful trip I really enjoyed. So, what would I change if I could in my trip to Bali? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

It has been very special, very deep, very uplifting, very inspiring, very encouraging.

Bali 2001 Participants' Comments

Eric and Betty Alice