A BALINESE TRANCE SEANCE

These four films [A Balinese Trance Séance, Jero on Jero, and two other films of the same series not yet available from the RAI, The Medium is the Masseuse: A Balinese Massage; and Jero Tapakan: Stories in the Life of a Balinese Healer] are wonderfully vivid shows and come across well in the standard one-time viewing. But they cry out for more careful study, for the sort of line by line textual analysis that we make of our best ethnographies ... H. Geertz

30 minutes Colour 1980 Film makers: Timothy Asch and Patsy Asch Anthropologist: Linda Conner

Jero Tapakan is a Balinese spirit medium. She goes into trance to allow clients to communicate with deities and spirits. Although Jero's ability has made her the major breadwinner for her family, she did not consciously choose mediumship as her profession. As the commentary by Linda Connor, who worked with Jero for two years explains, Jero became `sick' until other mediums convinced her that her only cure lay in becoming a medium herself. This film allows the audience to enter Jero's household shrine, giving an intimate view not only of the trance process, but of Jero as an individual.

The core of this film is a series of trances Jero goes into at the request of a family who wish to learn from their dead son the cause of his death and his needs for his cremation ceremony. Through still photographs and commentary by Linda Connor, an introduction to the trances explains the role of the medium in Bali. During the trance sequence, Jero's statements and the questions of the clients are subtitled, but intermittent narrative by Linda Connor explains aspects of ritual which would otherwise be obscure.  Between trances, Jero also explains the meaning of ambiguous messages from the spirits to her clients. During the séance, Jero is possessed three times, each time by a different spirit who gives instructions and information for the clients. In the final trance, the clients' dead son possesses Jero to give his family the information and direction they need. Jero is clearly comfortable being filmed, possibly because clients often tape record the trance sessions so that they and other relatives who were unable to attend the session can refer back to the statements of the spirits when they get home.

Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Séance Observed, where the Aschs and Linda Connor film Jero's reactions to herself on film, is suggested as an accompaniment for this film. A text of the narrative, given in the bibliography, is also recommended. Catalogue number (16mm): 3RA122 £9.

J. Belo, 1960. Trance in Bali. Columbia University Press, New York.

L.H. Connor, 1979. `Corpse Abuse and Trance in Bali. The Cultural Mediation of Aggression'. Mankind, Vol. 12, pp. 104-18.

L.H. Connor, 1982. `The Unbounded Self: Balinese Therapy in Theory and Practice'. In A.J. Marsella and G.M. White (eds.) Cultural Conceptions of Mental Health and Therapy, pp. 251-67. D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

L.H. Connor, 1983. `Healing as Women's Work in Bali'. In L. Manderson (ed.) Women's Work and Women's Roles: Economics and Everyday Life in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, pp. 53-72. Development Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra.

L.H. Connor, P. Asch and T. Asch, 1986. Jero Tapakan: Balinese Healer. An Ethnographic Film Monograph. Cambridge University Press.

M. Covarrubias, 1937. Island of Bali. Alfred A Knopf Incorporated.

C. Geertz, 1973. `"Internal conversion" in Contemporary Bali' and `Person, Time and Conduct in Bali'. In The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. Basic Books, New York.

H. Geertz, 1984. Review of the films. American Anthropologist, Vol. 86, pp. 809-11.

C. Hooykaas, 1974. Cosmogony and the Creation in Balinese Tradition. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.