It is a painting like this which certainly confirms the view that a large percentage of the rock art of Southern Africa relates to themes of shamanism and trance.

In the painting two therianthropes (half buck , half human) float alongside a spiralling vortex. One figure clearly bleeds from the nose and a fish dangles from his outstretched arm.

Anthropological research has shown that San medicine men begin to bleed from the nose when they enter trance. In addition, in the state of trance, normal boundaries melt away and the individual experiences physical transformation, the body taking on the form of an animal for instance. This would explain the recurring image of the therianthrope in Southern African rock art.

(Tracing by kind permission of Ben Maclennan)
[click for larger image]

Most dramatic is the swirling vortex in this painting. The vortex spirals inward, leading the viewer to feel the sensation of plunging through a passage into other realms. David Lewis-Williams has argued in his book The Shamans of Prehistory that the third stage of trance as described by subjects in modern research, is reached via a vortex or tunnel. Subjects feel themselves drawn into the vortex, at the end of which is a bright light. When subjects emerge from the tunnel they enter into the world of trance.

The appearance of all of these symbols, the therianthrope, the bleeding from the nose and the vortex, in a single painting, provides real evidence for the trance hypothesis.

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