Story of Bali, Indonesia

The authors studied participants in an epidemic-like outbreak of a trance disorder, which they identified as possession and named kasurupan (see Appendix 2). In 1984 in a relatively isolated village in the mountains of central Bali, 45 schoolchildren were suddenly afflicted with a trance disorder with hundreds of attacks in the group. 'Me attacks were characterized by prodromal symptoms, trance, and recovery phases lasting from half an hour to five hours. After recovery, the children could recall and describe frightening and anxiety-laden hallucinations and dissociative phenomena during the trance phase. In these cases, the afflicted children's anxiety over having had an attack and the spectre of recurrence were considered to be the primary precipitating stressors. As a result of the epidemic, the entire village experienced intense concern and guilt over mistakes in their relationships with the gods and the supernatural.

Trance states are very common in Balinese culture, but are generally culture syntonic and occur in expected and socially accepted situations such as in theatre drama and ceremonies. In one village in Bali, with which the authors are familiar, about 25 per cent of the community inhabitants go into trance states at a twice-yearly ceremony.

The authors concur with Bateson and Mead that most infants experience a great deal of human contact and closeness in the early years. The Balinese child is in physical contact with the mother or her surrogate (child nurse) for most of the day and night for the .first three years of life. It is a custom that the child should not be left alone outside the home before he is 3 years old. He sleeps in his parent's bed until at least the age of 3. He is usually breastfed ad libitum for one to three years. For the first six months he is carried constantly and never placed on the ground or floor directly. After the six months' ceremony, the baby can sit on the ground and play by himself but he is always cared for carefully by a person and usually placed on the hip when moved or sometimes carried there as the mother works at home or in the fields. He spends much of his first few years of life being carried on the hip, often in a sling. In many respects he is treated like a god and he is never punished. He hardly ever hears a cross word. While it is not possible to provide substantiating data that all or most Balinese infants have these experiences, the authors' experience and observations indicate that they are common enough to be set forth as generalities.

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