Throughout most of history, the trance produced by the medical practitioner was the medicine. The medicine was secondary, at best, because it was known that illness itself most often involves aspects of trance. So the healer was a trance-focus. The sources of healing were deep agreements and intimacies related to authorities such as powers or embodied forces and the people involved. They practiced trance like we practice surgery. Medicines were sometimes involved, but these were originally not as we understand them. They were transports of trance force that came into the body through various methods or ordeals. Only later did the medicines become mechanical and the trance state become latent. This is, of course, backwards. Trance is a crucial aspect of the healer’s art, and they must be able to enter, induce, and adeptly direct the resulting states. Throwing chemistry at disease as a first response is like beginning a discussion with gunfire. There are certainly exceptions where the mechanics demand it, but even these will usually benefit from the recognition and inclusion of trance in the healing context. The power of communion, especially in times of crisis, is immeasurable and has no metabolic cost — the power of chemistry is finite, and expensive. As we learn to more deeply understand the relationship between illness and the mind, we may discover that trance techniques represent one of our most powerful and least understood allies in the quest for healing, pain-relief, and transformation.