#maskmaking or #going #deep #intothesubject “ “How it is that ritual performance employing ceremonial masks ("masking") creates transformation and moves the performers and participants to experience liminality is an important question. The human body and, in particular, the face are powerful symbols of identity because they figure so prominently in the differentiation of self. This study considers the influence of altered states of consciousness induced during masking on the belief states of performers and participants. It is the symbiotic relationship of the day-to-day material world with the spirit world in shamanic masking societies, embodied by related symbols, rituals and cultural indicia, that renders moot the question of whether a masked performer is conscious of the presence of a conjured spirit or whether the performer is held in the grip of an altered state of consciousness that would inhibit the performance of a complex ritual dance. As a consequence of the depolarization of boundaries separating self and other, conscious and unconscious, material and spirit that occurs in altered consciousness, ritual participants find themselves in a highly suggestive state in which they believe the shaman "is" the spirit or god represented in the ritual and that the ritual outcomes will be effective. The masking ritual, then, is the means by which performers and participants can, under the auspices of culturally accepted practices, safely step from behind their personae to reveal their essential self by immersing themselves in the mythic divine represented through the transforming power of the mask.” Masks, Metaphor and Transformation: The communication of belief in ritual performance Michael S. Merrill