Largely ignored in transpersonal studies to date, dark magic involves socially-transgressive processes called becoming-intense and becoming-animal that produce non-ordinary

states useful in the arts, hunting, sex, and fighting. War magic, a form of dark magic that involves powers of destruction and invulnerability, is ubiquitous and universal, and

one of its primary features is the production of helpful, nonordinary states in combat. Berserkergang (going berserk) is one such state, the latest documented in a long history

of Indo-European ecstatic warrior cults. Berserkergang was the battle-trance of the elite consecrated warrior-shamans of Odin, god of magic, poetry, battle, and death. Distinguishing features of berserkergang include invulnerability to fire and bladed

weapons, shapeshifting, superhuman strength, laughing at death, and transpersonal identification with comrades and Odin. Cross-cultural interpretations have tended to

denigrate berserkergang, including modern arguments that attribute it to intoxication, genetic flaws, or pathology. Not only are such arguments inadequate to account for the data, but also the features of berserkergang are considered signs of spiritual attainment in various traditions up to the present day, and the techniques for achieving berserkergang remain in use in many spiritual traditions as well as on the battlefield.

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies22 Wade

anally rape them with the tail of an iguana or armadillo

until the intestinal wall is shredded and the rectum

sufficiently ripped to be stuffed with bags of astringent

herbs, bringing on a slow, agonizing death (Whitehead,

2002). The shamans later violate their victims’ corpses to

eat some of the liquifying remains for magical purposes.

Motives for such assaults are typically power, status,

jealousy, or revenge.

Not all war sorcery is as revolting as that of the

kanaimà shamans. In fact, a quintessentially Western form

of war magic, berserkergang (going berserk, the common

English rendering of Old Norse berserksgangr), a virtually

unknown bit of the spiritual heritage of people of European

descent, features practices and qualities utilized by different

religious traditions as signs of spiritual attainment. The

battle trance represented by berserkergang, which died out

during the Viking Age, was the last version of an Indo-

European ecstatic warrior cult dating back to the Bronze

Age (Speidel, 2002, 2004), yet the practices for cultivating

it remain in use by different religious traditions and on

the battlefield today. Berserkergang was a nonordinary,

transpersonal state that provided a combat advantage in

addition to its spiritual attributes.

The Origins of War Magic

People have always needed the power to survive

physical threat, so it is natural that magical practices,

inherently about acquiring power, would have coalesced to

cope with danger (limited to warfare for this discussion).

Humans share a repertory of aggressive displays with other

vertebrates for con-specific conflict designed to frighten the

opponent to the point of preferring to avoid confrontation

(e.g., MacLean, 1973, 1990). For Homo sapiens, however,

conflict frequently exceeds dominance displays to involve

mass killing of fellow humans. But even in bellicose

cultures it is not easy for humans to kill their own kind in

close combat, the predominant form of warfare for most

of human history, which employs bladed and blunt-force

weapons in addition to short-range projectiles, such as

slings, arrows, and throwing spears. The closer combatants

are physically, the greater their need to dissociate from their

humanity (Grossman, 1996). The opponent must be made

into “other” in the attacker’s mind, while the attacker must

also become “other” so that the prohibitions against killing

do not apply (Grossman, 1996; Roscoe, 2007).

Whereas religious forms of spirituality tend to

promote socialization and morality for civilized living, a

process called becoming-human (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004),

war spirituality promotes dehumanizing processes that put

people into a liminal, socially-transgressive state, referred to

as becoming-intense and becoming-animal. By dissociating

from his humanity and, therefore, society’s norms, the

combatant has no conscience and no guilt over killing. (War

is by no means the only venue for becoming-intense and

becoming-animal; these processes are invoked in numerous

activities, including hunting, theater, dance, sex, shamanic

trance, sports, and martial arts; Farrer, 2009, 2014).

Over time instinctive defensive and aggressive

behaviors became patterned activities to enhance becoming-

intense and becoming-animal when people fought, that

occur universally (Carlson, 2006; W. Miller, 1990; D.

Miller, 2000; Lincoln, 1991; Roscoe, 2007). Loud noises

and vigorous, threatening movements evolved into ritual

behaviors for combat (Ehrenreich, 1997; Gibson, 2011;

Jordania, 2011; Kogan, 1997; Nettle, 1961; Roscoe, 2007):

1) taunting and other forms of verbal aggression raise

the combatants’ anger before they physically engage; 2)

rhythmically-organized vocalizations, such as singing and

the battle cry, often amplified by horns and drums, invoke

the gods, inflame mood, unify the group, communicate

determination, and intimidate the opponent; and 3)

repetitive, rhythmic group movements, such as war-

dancing and marching, promote solidarity. War-dances

performed in advance of battle invoke the gods and ésprit

de corps, and when performed in front of the enemy blunt

the opponent’s will to fight. A familiar warrior magic

display that combines taunting, war cries, and dance is

the Maori peruperu haka, versions of which have become

the trademark of Pacific Rim sports teams (notably

the New Zealand All Blacks). The war haka involves

swaying, stamping, grimacing, sticking out the tongue,

widening the eyes, grunting, crying, slapping the body,

and brandishing weapons. Originally it was performed

in unison to loosen up the body, promote solidarity, and

invoke victory from the war god Tumataueng; it was also

danced on the field to intimidate the enemy.

Such practices, documented in ancient Greece

and Akkadia (Burkert, 1992; Speidel, 2002, 2004) and

enacted today (Pieslak, 2009; Rosco, 2007), can provide

a physical advantage in the field. For instance, since the

16th century, when rhythmic drilling became standard

training in some cultures, soldiers who drilled routinely

defeated larger forces trained without drills (McNeill,

1995). Jordania (2011) cited the 19th-century example

of the Imam Shamil, military and spiritual leader of the

Dagestanian people, whose warriors had withstood an

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies23Going Berserk

80-day siege by the Russian empire, with losses in the

thousands on both sides. The few surviving Dagestanians

were surrounded and overwhelmingly outnumbered.

Instead of surrendering or fighting to the last man, Shamil

began singing and dancing a traditional dance until all his

fellows joined him. Accelerating the dancing and singing

to a peak, the Dagestanians broke out of their stronghold,

swords flashing and screaming war cries. Despite the

odds, the shock and ferocity of their attack prevailed, and

most of Shamil’s troop fought their way clear.

Jordania (2011) has argued that prehistoric

defensive, rhythmic, polyphonic singing was ubiquitous

because a very specific harmonic style, which creates a

loud, piercing, dissonant sound, is found among isolated

peoples in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Pacific Islands, and

South America. He further asserted that its function was

“to put our distant ancestors into a very specific altered

state of consciousness,” the advantageous “battle trance”

state (p. 98) characterized by: analgesia that reduces pain;

fearlessness; the neglect of personal survival instincts for a

group goal; and supernatural strength. Jordania postulated

that the increase in endorphins and oxytocin during a life-

threatening situation blocks pain and fear while amplifying

group trust and exhilaration at being part of a bigger

unity, a transpersonal identification. People can go into

battle trance suddenly and instinctively in high-demand

conditions (such as when a parent sees her child in a life-

threatening situation) or through deliberate cultivation

using ritual means. Today American soldiers in Iraq rely

on rock and heavy metal music played at deafening volume

to generate warrior spirit (Pieslak, 2009; Roscoe, 2007),

but in traditional societies, ritual cultivation of battle

trance was—and still is—the purview of warrior-shamans.

Berserkergang is a Norse pagan battle-trance

tradition, the latest descendent of an Indo-European

ecstatic warrior cult represented in the Rig Veda, the Iliad,

and Assyrian and Roman sources, among others (Kershaw,

2000; Speidel, 2002, 2004). Price (2002) relates the berserk

tradition to a circumpolar shamanic war-magic culture

spanning the Pacific northwest, Siberia, and Baltic and

North Sea, including the Sami peoples based on material

finds and oral history traditions, but its roots are well

established in other cultures. Berserkergang per se is known

from hostile Christian writers describing events centuries

old and poorly understood by the time they were recorded

in the 13th-14th centuries. Only one fragment (Eyrbyggja

saga, 28) may be traceable to heathen times, but even this

is doubtful (Simek, 1993). Christianity was mandated in

Iceland in 1000 CE, and berserks were outlawed by 1015

in Norway and by the Grágás, the medieval Icelandic legal

code. No organized berserk war-bands existed by the

13th century when Christian historian Snorri Sturluson

(1987, 1990) wrote down what he knew of the pagan oral

tradition before it was entirely wiped out, nor when even

later Christian transmitters recorded the sagas of events

occurring from 200-500 years earlier. By this time—and

by these sources—berserkers were stereotyped as either the

elite bodyguards and front-line shock troops of famous

kings, in keeping with their traditional high status as holy

champions (e.g., Egils saga Skalla-grímsonnar, Vatnsdæla

saga, Hrólfs saga kraka), or as uncouth, brutal outlaws who

forced duels on weaker opponents and/or demanded their

women (e.g., Grettis saga, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks). Even

in the “outlaw” texts, scholars have discerned evidence that

the berserks were enacting ritual challenges to adolescent

males as part of a pagan warrior initiation ceremony,

including a death or ancestor cult (e.g., Blaney, 1972;

Danielli, 1945; Davidson, 1988, 1990; Hasenfratz, 2011;

Kershaw, 2000) misunderstood and distorted by Christian

transmitters. In fact, Indo-European sacred warriors had

been marked out from the rest of society by various means

for millennia, including by ritually distinctive grooming

(Kershaw, 2000; Miller, 1998) and being forbidden to own

land or farm (later confused with outlawry; Blaney, 1972;

Kershaw, 2000). Consecrated warriors were supported

by the community, especially the chieftain to whose

court they belonged, for centuries before the Viking Age

(Blaney, 1972; Kershaw, 2000). For instance, stories of

the berserk-style Irish heroes Cú Chulainn and Finn and

his warrior band reflect their right to take property and

women. Tacitus, writing of the Chatti tribe in 98 CE,

described sacred warriors’ duties and privileges:

Every battle is begun by these men. They are always in

the front rank, where they present a startling sight…

. None of them has a home, land or any occupation.

To whatever host they choose to go, they get their

keep from him…until old age leaves them without

enough blood in their veins for such stern heroism.

(Germania, 31)

The meaning of berserkergang can only be

appreciated within its culture, but given the bias of Christian

transmitters, earlier pagan observers of European battle

practices, like Tacitus, augment the record. Price (2002)

has argued convincingly for similarities among shamanic

traditions in circumpolar cultures ranging from Europe

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies24 Wade

to the Pacific Northwest, as Speidel (2002, 2004) did for

a Indo-European ecstatic warrior tradition in the heroic

mode from the second millennium BCE to the Viking

Age. Thus accounts and material finds from a variety of

sources support not only the ubiquity of this type of war

magic among northern European peoples but also provide

greater insight about how it was practiced.

Odin’s Warriors

Berserks were the warrior-shamans of Odin, god of

magic, poetry, battle, and death. His name comes

from the Old Norse óðr, which scholars have often glossed

as fury, after Adam of Bremen (a hostile missionary; Gesta

Hammaburgensis ecclesiae Pontificum 4.26), but which also

means mind, intelligence, or soul as well as poetry, eloquence,

and inspiration (e.g., Davidson, 1988, 1990; Simek, 1993;

Sturluson, 1987; from the proto-Indo-European root

*uat-). Odin is the god of mental powers and spiritual

awakening, not merely fury, which is only one form of

animating excitement.

Odin is a shapeshifter, as his numerous sobriquets

indicate, such as Many-Shaped, Swift-in-Deceit, and hard-

to-translate names that contain the root changing.

It was said that he understood such tricks of cunning

that he could change himself and appear in any form

he would….

Odin often changed himself; at those times his

body lay as though he were asleep or dead, and he

then became a bird or a beast, a fish or a dragon, and

went in an instant to far-off lands on his own or other

men’s errands. (Heimskringla, Ynglinga Saga, 6-7)

Limiting discussion to relevant portions of Odin’s

warrior magic for the scope of this paper, his powers

included: clouding the mind with fear and confusion, or the

reverse, instilling courage and mental clarity; weakening or

strengthening the body; magically constraining movement

(“the fetters”); breaking or strengthening weapons and

armor; and invulnerability magic. For example, Odin lists

some of his battle enchantments:

That third [spell] I know if my need be great

To fetter a foeman fell:

I can dull the swords of deadly foes,

That nor wiles nor weapons avail….

That fifth I know, if from foeman’s hand

I see a spear sped into throng,

Never so fast it flies but its flight I can stay,

Once my eye lights on it.

(Hávamál, 148, 150; Hollander’s translation)

Odin’s magic was shared by his warrior-shamans:

In battle Odin could make his foes blind or deaf or

terrified and their weapons were as nothing more than

sticks; but his own men went about without armour

and were mad like hounds or wolves, and bit their

shields and were strong as bears or bulls; they slew

men, but neither fire nor steel would deal with them.

This was called a berserk’s-gang. (Heimskringla,

Ynglinga Saga, 6)

Scholarly opinion (e.g., Blaney, 1972; Geraty,

2015; Price, 2002; Guðmundsdóttir, 2007) has remained

hopelessly divided about whether berserk means bare of

shirt (sark) for fighting without armor or completely bare-

chested; or bear-shirt for the donning of animal skins in

a shamanic rite of transformation. Odin’s warriors were

likened to bears (single-combat champions? Davidson,

1988, 1990; Speidel, 2002, 2004) and to wolves (ùlfheðnar,

wolf-skins often translated as wolf-warriors, who fought

as a group? Davidson, 1988, 1990; Price, 2002; Speidel,

2002, 2004), Odin’s totem animal. Both berserks and

ùlfheðnar represent the same battle trance, regardless of

combat style.

Berserkergang reflects a strong Indo-European

war sorcery heritage involving: stunning the enemy

with terror; rendering their weapons harmless; scorning

to wear armor; shapeshifting into predator forms; and

invulnerability to fire and blades (Speidel, 2004). (The

formulaic language referring to berserks, á þá bitu eigi

járn, translates as “iron would not bite them,” e.g., Egils

saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 9; Grettis saga, 2.) According to

Speidel (2002), the earliest description of this kind of war

magic occurred in a poem celebrating the victory of the

Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta over the Babylonians in 1228

BCE: They are furious, raging, taking forms strange as

Anzu [a magical bird-god].

They charge forward furiously into the fray without

armor, They had stripped off their breastplates, discarded

their clothing, They tied up their hair and polished (?) their…

weapons, International Journal of Transpersonal Studies25Going Berserk The fierce heroic men danced with sharpened weapons. They blasted one another like struggling lions, with eyes aflash (?), While the fray, particles drawn in a whirlwind, swirled around in combat. (p. 255)

Odin determines the outcome of battles, and

with the Valkyrie goddesses, selects the outstanding

heroes among the slain who deserve glorious afterlife

in Valhalla disporting themselves until they will fight

the forces of evil at the cataclysmic battle of Ragnarök.

Heroes were immortalized on the earthly plane by having

their deeds sung in poetry so that their memories never

perished. The desire for everlasting fame commemorated

in poetry was a prime motive for Indo-European warriors

(e.g., Duchesne, 2009; Fortson, 2010; Gurevich, 1995;

Poliakoff, 1987Speidel, 2004). Champions engaged

in conspicuous acts of bravery, laughing at danger and

scorning to protect themselves—especially in conditions

of certain death—to win immortality.

To fight in such a [berserk] style was a ritual, acting

out a myth. Groups of wolf-warriors and berserks had

their own weapons, tactics, and war dances….Their

excesses meant glory: Wolf-warriors, berserks…no

doubt won the “unwilting glory” held out by the

Iliad and the Rig-Veda. (Speidel, 2004, p. 193)

Berserks held the most valued and dangerous

roles in armed forces, serving in the king’s bodyguard

and/or in the vanguard. The earliest historical account

of berserks was written in the ninth century by Harald

Hairfair’s court skald (poet) Þorbjo' rn hornklofi

describing the king’s consolidation of Norway and his

deployment of berserks as shock troops. It is one of the few

contemporary accounts since most were recorded from

oral traditions centuries after the events they describe by

Christians to whom the old ways were incomprehensible

and anathema. In one section, the poet uses the device

of a dialogue between a Valkyrie, a warrior-goddess

associated with Odin, and a raven, Odin’s familiar and

battlefield scavenger. The Valkyrie asks the raven:

“Of the berserkers’ lot would I ask thee, thou who batten’st on corpses: how fare the fighters who rush forth to battle,

and stout-hearted stand ‘gainst the foe? “Wolf-coats they are called, the warriors unfleeing, who bear bloody shields in battle; the darts redden where they dash into battle and shoulder to shoulder stand. ‘Tis men tried and true only,

who can targes [shields] shatter, whom the wise war-lord

wants in battle.” (Hrafnsmál, 20-21) The later Icelandic sagas reflect the key roles of the berserks and their prowess on the field, although by this time berserks are stereotyped and demonized to a greater or lesser degree (Price, 2002). “Then the king cried on his bearserks [sic] for an onslaught, and they were called the Wolf-coats, for on them would no steel bite, and when they set on naught might withstand them” (Grettis saga,

2). Angrim’s sons “were all of them berserks…. And they

were never in a battle they didn’t win. Because of this,

they became famous in all the lands, and there wasn't a

king who did not give them what they wanted” (Hervarar

saga ok Heiðreks, 2). Elsewhere a band of berserks was sent

to eliminate enemy soldiers on a long ship:

[Kveldulf] then had a fit of shape-strength [i.e., went

berserk, involving shapeshifting], as had also several

of his comrades. They slew all that came in their way,

the same did Skallagrim where he boarded the ship;

nor did father and son stay hands till the ship was

cleared. (Egils saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 27)

Even taking into account the stereotyping of

Christian writers about berserks, the use of ecstatic warriors

as elite shock troops has a long heritage (Duchesne, 2009;

Speidel, 2002; Reid, 1998), so these late accounts retain

elements of truth. The Greeks and Romans by their

classical periods were beginning to abandon their own

sacred warrior styles for well regulated, massed fighting and

to distance themselves from battle trance as “barbarian”

tactics, which they viewed as restricted to the “blond

nations” by the sixth century CE (Speidel, 2004, p. 194).

Northern Europeans practiced it until technological and

strategic advances—as well as Christianity—rendered

it ineffective. But before then, these holy warriors were

greatly revered, and a vestige of this regard even survived

into a late religious romance, the 13th century Barlaams

ok Josaphats saga that calls Jesus God’s “young berserk”

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies26 Wade

(“hinn vgni berserkr guðs”) and his twelve disciples “his

berserks” (197). Berserkergang, even when rendered as

battle-fury or -madness, meant something hallowed:

being possessed by Odin (e.g., Kershaw, 2000). Berserks

were his consecrated warriors, dedicated to a life of

privation and the ultimate self-sacrifice to serve him and

their communities and attain everlasting life.

Going Berserk

The act of becoming berserk features the classic

dimensions of war magic. Taunting to work up

anger prior to an engagement was a part of a refined

flyting convention between opposing champions in pagan

European culture (e.g., Sayers, 1991). (Flyting is a ritual

contest of insulting an opponent in a way that displays

verbal virtuosity, such as rap today.) Greek historian

Diodorus Siculus (90-30 BCE) said of the Gauls:

It is also their custom, when they are formed for

battle, to step out in front of the line and to challenge

the most valiant men from among their opponents

to single combat, brandishing their weapons in front

of them to terrify their adversaries. And when any

man accepts the challenge to battle, they then break

forth into a song in praise of the valiant deeds of their

ancestors and in boast of their own high achievements,

reviling all the while and belittling their opponent,

and trying, in a word, by such talk to strip him of his

bold spirit before the combat. (The Library of History,

5.29)

In Brennu-njal’s saga (118), Skapheðinn insults

Skapti Þorodsson’s intelligence, courage, and appearance.

Beowulf (literally Am-a-Wolf, a typical berserker name)

engages in a flyting provoked by Unferth, who sneers

that Beowulf, who could not best a man named Breca in

a swimming match, will never prevail over the monster

Grendel (Beowulf, ll. 506-528). Beowulf, after saying

that he had slain nine sea-monsters during the swimming

contest, taunts:

Now, I cannot recall

Any fight you entered, Unferth,

That bears comparison. I don’t boast when I say

That neither you nor Breca ever were much

Celebrated for swordsmanship

Or for facing danger on the battlefield.

You killed your own kith and kin,

So for all your cleverness and quick tongue,

You will suffer damnation in the pits of hell [Christian

bowdlerization].

The fact is, Unferth, if you were truly

As keen or courageous as you claim to be

Grendel would never have got away with

Such unchecked atrocity, attacks on your king….

But he knows he need never be in dread

Of your blade….

He knows he can trample down you Danes

To his heart’s content, humiliate and murder

Without fear of reprisal. But he will

find me different. (ll. 582-601)

European pagan warriors routinely used noise-

making tactics alone or with dancing to bring on battle-

trance and frighten opponents. According to Livy (64?

BCE-17 CE), Celtic fighters sang and danced to provoke

fear: “Their songs as they enter into battle, their war-

whoops and dances, and the horrible clash of arms as

they shake their shields in the way their fathers did before

them—all these things are intended to terrify and appall”

(The History of Rome, 38.17). Tacitus referred to the songs

Germanic warriors sang before battle, especially a chant,

by which

they not only kindle their courage, but, merely by

listening to the sound, they can forecast the issue of

an approaching engagement. For they terrify their

foes or themselves become frightened, according

to the character of the noise they make upon the

battlefield; and they regard it not merely as so many

voices chanting together but as a unison of valor.

What they particularly aim at is a harsh, intermittent

roar; and they hold their shields in front of their

mouths, so that the sound is amplified into a deeper

crescendo by the reverberation. (Germania, 3)

Berserks not only held their shields in front of

their mouths, but also bit down on the iron rim of the

shield as part of their battle trance. Bears snort and clack

their teeth when on the defensive, and berserks made the

same sound by biting on their shields’ metal rims (Speidel,

2004, p. 45). “And as he came forward on the field to the

ground of combat, a fit of Berserk [sic] fury seized him; he

began to bellow hideously, and bit his shield” (Egils saga

Skalla-grímsonnar, 67). The rooks of a 12th century chess

set from the Hebrides are warriors biting their shield rims.

In particular, berserks were known for howling

like animals in battle trance: “Now bearserks'-gang [sic]

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies27Going Berserk

seized them, and they howled like dogs” (Grettis saga, 19).

Greek historian Leo the Deacon was an eyewitness of the

Byzantine emperor’s Bulgarian campaigns in 970-971

CE against Rus’ warriors fighting in berserk style. The

Rus’, whose culture is closely associated with the Norse or

Varangian peoples and whose name is retained in Russia

and Belarus, unnerved seasoned Byzantine troops by

“roaring like beasts and uttering strange and weird howls,”

according to Leo (History, 8.4), and their leader Sviatoslav I

of Kiev is described as “charging the Romans in a frenzied

rage” (History, 9.8). The earliest Norse record of berserks

commemorated Harald Hairfair’s victory at Hafursfjord

around 872 CE:

The berserks bellowed

as the battle opened,

The wolf-coated shrieked loud

and shook their weapons.

(Hrafnsmál,8; also cited in Heimskringla, The History

of Harald Hairfair, 18)

Archeological finds throughout northern Europe

have shown war dancing involving the ritual donning of

animal skins and masks and leaping with weapons prior

to battle as a shapeshifting device (e.g., Davidson, 1990;

Price, 2002; Speidel, 2004). Scandinavian, British, and

German sites have yielded ornamental plates from helmets,

scabbards, and buckles depicting warriors dancing naked

along with warriors clad in animal skins brandishing

swords and spears. For example, a die dated to about 600

CE from Torslunda shows a naked dancer, probably Odin,

wearing only a horned helmet and sword-belt waving a

spear in each hand followed by a man completely covered

by a wolf skin and mask except for his human feet and

hands, one of which clutches a spear while the other draws

a sword from its scabbard. The wolf’s raised head with

jaws agape seems to be howling. Tacitus (Germania, 6)

reported youths dancing naked in and out of spears and

swords pointed at them, and a legacy of weapon dances

persisted well into the 19th century in Germany and the

British Isles (Kershaw, 2000).

Dancing, singing, howling, and donning animal

skins in Norse war magic conferred the animal’s strength

and speed on the shamans. Transformation into beasts by

wearing animal pelts and masks has been well established

in Indo-European culture (Cebrián, 2010; Kershaw,

2000; Price, 2002; Speidel, 2002, 2004). It was inherent

in the terms berserk and ùlfheðinn, and in the personal

names of warriors, which included the element for bear

and wolf, such as Gunbjorn, Thorbjorn, Wulfgang, and

Hildulf, respectively (e.g., Kershaw, 2000). Berserks were

specifically called shapeshifters, eigi einhamr (not of one

shape) or hamrammr (shape-strong; Blaney, 1972, p. 39).

The degree to which their transformation was

regarded as psychic or physical is unknown. Ecstatic

dancing and fighting in animal skins seem to have

conferred certain supernatural and feral qualities on

berserks, but they seem to have remained essentially

human. Two marked exceptions exist in the earlier,

more legendary literature in which no dancing was

involved and people actually did become animals. The

celebrated hero Sigmund and his son Sinfjotli appear to

have become werewolves to avenge their dead kinsmen

in the Poetic Edda (Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, 36-37).

They found magic wolf skins, and when they put them

on, they could not get them off, during which time they

communicated in the voice and language of wolves and

hunted like them (Volsunga Saga, 8). Each could kill up to

seven men alone, and Sigmund forbade his son to attempt

more, but Sinfjotli once successfully killed eleven. After a

certain number of days, the skins came off. They burned

them and thereafter remained in human guise but with

increased lethal powers. The most famous bear warrior,

known from multiple sources, is Boðvar Bjarki, who, like

Odin, bi-located in a shapeshifting trance. His human

body was observed apparently sleeping in the hall while a

giant bear fought in King Hrolf Kraki’s bodyguard on the

battlefield, perceived not only by Boðvar’s comrades but

also by the enemy:

Then Hjorvard and his men [the enemy] see a huge

bear going before the King Hrolf's men, always

nearest to where the king was. He kills more men with

his paw than any five of the king's other champions.

Blows and missiles glance off him. But he bursts under

him both men and horses of King Hjorvard's army;

and everything that comes in his way, he crushes in

his teeth, so that panic sweeps King Hjorvard's army.

(Hrólfs saga kraka, 50).

When Boðvar was awakened from the trance,

the bear disappeared. As a man, Boðvar fought in

berserkergang, but less effectively than as the bear when

he was in the trance.

Consistently in the earlier literature, berserkergang

was cultivated through certain techniques prior to conflict

or evoked by highly emotional events. However, the later,

more Christianized sources began to suggest otherwise.

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies28 Wade

For instance, both Kveldulf, who was “very shape-strong”

and whose name meant Evening Wolf, and his son became

stronger and more belligerent as daylight waned, so people

avoided them then (Egils saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 1). In

another saga, a man named Thorir who felt compromised

‘“because a berserk fury always comes over me when

I would least wish it to’” (Vatnsdæla saga, 37) would do

anything to get rid of it. Prayers to the Christian god

and keeping a vow succeeded so that “a berserk fit never

again came over Thorir” (Vatnsdæla saga, 37). It is hard to

know how to take these sources because of their bias and

distance from the original events.

The Berserk State

In combat the berserk state was characterized by

supernatural strength, fearlessness, and invulnerability.

Even in a literature describing a time when fighters routinely

hacked one another with halberds, spears, swords, and

axes, it is possible to gauge extraordinary feats of strength.

They are reported with sufficient detail and in so many

records from different sources that they undoubtedly

reflect eyewitness accounts of real events, even if not those

ascribed to a particular actor. For example, Kveldulf

“brandished high his battle-axe, and smote Hallvard right

through helm and head, so that the axe sank in even to the

shaft; then he snatched it back towards him so forcibly that

he whirled Hallvard aloft, and slung him overboard” (Egils

saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 27). The Rus’ prince Sviatoslav I

of Kiev managed to escape capture by Byzantine troops in

971 CE even though he had “lost a lot of blood and been

stricken by many arrows,” according to hostile eyewitness

Leo the Deacon (History, 9.10). In 1066, the Anglo-

Saxons surprised the invading Norwegians at the River

Derwent and began cutting them to pieces as they fled

over Stamford Bridge to their camp. The Vikings sent a

single berserk to hold the bridge and buy time. The bridge

was wide enough for four men abreast, yet the champion

held it alone with his battle-axe for hours, slaughtering all

comers. William of Malmesbury (1847) echoed the awe

this hero inspired among the enemy:

Yet, however reluctantly posterity may believe it, one

single Norwegian for a long time delayed the triumph

of so many, and such great men. For standing on the

entrance of the bridge…after having killed several

of our party, he prevented the whole from passing

over. Being invited to surrender, with the assurance

that a man of such courage should experience the

amplest clemency from the English, he derided those

who entreated him; and immediately, with stern

countenance, reproached the set of cowards who were

unable to resist an individual. (p. 256)

As bodies choked the bridge, one of the Anglo-

Saxons realized it was useless to meet this juggernaut

head-on, so he launched a boat underneath the bridge, and

jammed his spear up between the boards of the bridge,

killing the hero. The lone Viking “stayed the advance of

the whole English army till the ninth hour,” killing forty

and wounding countless others, and even his enemies

believed that his “name ought to have been preserved”

(Henry of Huntingdon, 1853, p. 209)—alas it was not.

Stripping before or during battle signaled

fearlessness (Kershaw, 2000; Speidel, 2002, 2004). Fighters

would throw off their armor and even their clothes in front

of the enemy to demonstrate courage, disdain for the

opponent, and love of glory. In addition, it signaled that

the warrior had invoked powerful invulnerability magic.

According to Polybius (200-118 BCE), the Celts

“calculated to inspire terror” among the legions by tossing

their clothing away and moving into the front lines naked

except for their weapons (Histories, 2.28). Diodorus

Siculus observed of the Gauls: “Certain of them despise

death to such a degree that they enter the perils of battle

without protective armour and with no more than a girdle

about their loins” (The Library of History, 5.29). Germanic

berserks, barefooted and bare-chested except for animal

skin cloaks, are honored for fighting in the Roman

emperor’s bodyguard on Trajan’s column (Speidel, 2002,

2004). Norway’s king Hacon the Good was Christian,

but when surprised and badly outnumbered by an enemy

army in 961 CE, he took the berserk approach:

Flung off his war clothes,

Slipped off his byrnie,

Before he began.

The gladdest of fighters…(Heimskringla,

The History of Hacon the Good, 32)

Laughing at danger, like discarding armor,

especially when defeat and death seemed inevitable, was a

bid for Valhalla and fame. When Byrhtnoth, the Anglo-

Saxon leader of the battle of Maldon, was impaled by a

Viking spear, he pushed his shield hard enough against

it to break off the shaft, killed his attacker with a spear-

thrust through the neck, and then slew another by driving

his spear through his mail coat and into his heart:

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies29Going Berserk

The earl was the blither:

the brave man laughed then, said thanks to Metod

[Christian God]

for the day-work God gave him.

(The Battle of Maldon, ll. 146-148)

Similar to fighting bare-chested was discarding

one’s shield in battle or wearing it on the back instead of in

front (Speidel, 2002, 2004). In the Viking version of the

battle of Brunanburh in 937 CE,

Then Thorolf became so furious [berserk] that he cast

his shield on his back, and, grasping his halberd with

both hands, bounded forward dealing cut and thrust

on either side. Men sprang away from him both ways,

but he slew many…. He slew the man who bore the

earl's standard, and cut down the standard-pole. After

that he lunged with his halberd at the earl's breast,

driving it right through mail-coat and body, so that it

came out at the shoulders; and he lifted him up on the

halberd over his head, and planted the butt-end in the

ground. There on the weapon the earl breathed out his

life in sight of all, both friends and foes. Then Thorolf

drew his sword and dealt blows on either side, his men

also charging. (Egils saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 53)

Two-handed sword or spear work in the text

indicates that the warrior has discarded his shield (Speidel,

2004). For example, Asmund went berserk and sang,

“‘Now without shield let us ply our warfare bare-breasted,

with flashing blades….’ When he had said this, he gripped

his hilt with both hands, and, fearless of peril, swung his

shield upon his back and slew many” (Saxo Grammaticus,

The Danish History, 1). At Stamford Bridge, Harald

Hardrade “grew so heated [berserk] that he rushed

forth right out of the line and struck with both hands;

then neither helm nor byrnie could stand against him”

(Heimskringla, The History of Harald Hardrade, 92).

In battle trance, berserks were invulnerable to fire

and blades. Imperviousness to fire is attested in two forms:

the ability to swallow live coals and to walk through fire.

Sivald’s seven berserk sons “were such clever sorcerers that

often, inspired with the force of sudden frenzy [berserk],

they would roar savagely, bite their shields, swallow hot

coals, and go through any fire that could be piled up….”

(Saxo Grammaticus, The Danish History, 7).

Invulnerability to bladed weapons was sometimes

attributed to animal skins worn into battle. According to

one account of the battle of Stiklestad (1030 CE), Tore the

Hound (Thorir hund) and his band of berserks wore magic

reindeer coats made by the Sami, who were considered

master wizards, “and the king’s sword would not bite

where it struck the reindeer skin coat” (Heimskringla, The

History of King Olav, 228). But in an earlier version, the

Sami-crafted coats were made of wolf skins, “And men

say that Bjorn the Stout hewed with his sword at Thorir

that day. Yet wherever he attacked his sword refused to

bite as though its edge had been turned” (Heligasaga Ólafs

konungs Haraldssonar, 91, cited in Blaney, 1972, p. 86).

Usually it is impossible to tell what berserks

are wearing, but they cannot be cut. “When the roll of

Harold's army was called, many were they that had fallen,

and many were sore wounded…nor was there a man

unwounded in the king's ship before the mast, except

those whom iron bit not, to wit the Berserks” (Egils saga

Skalla-grímsonnar, 9). In one epic battle two berserks Egil

and Atli “went at it with a will, blow upon blow,” and

hacked their shields to pieces.

And when Atli’s shield was of no use, then he cast it

from him, and, grasping his sword with both hands,

dealt blows as quickly as possible. Egil fetched him a

blow on the shoulder, but the sword bit not. He dealt

another, and a third. It was now easy to find parts in

Atli that he could strike, since he had no cover; and

Egil brandished and brought down his sword with all

his might, yet it bit not, strike where he might. (Egils

saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 68).

So effective was this invulnerability magic that

berserks were said to blunt their enemy’s blades with

sorcery (e.g., Saxo Grammaticus, The Danish History, 7)

like Odin (Poetic Edda, Hávamál, 148). Nevertheless

its limitations were exploited by contemporaries, usually

with blunt-force weapons, at least according to Christian

sources. For instance, Halfdan, knowing that Hakon

could dull swords with spells, made a huge mace to club

him to death (Saxo Grammaticus, The Danish History,

7). Bludgeoning, Christian magic, and the limitations

of fire invulnerability were combined in a story from

several sources. An Icelander named Thorkell wanted to

kill two berserks who “walked barefoot on burning coals”

(Vatnsdæla saga, 46), and agreed to convert to Christianity

if Bishop Fredrek would help him do it. The bishop had

Thorkell build three fires on the floor of the hall, which

he hallowed in the name of the Christian god. He told

Thorkell to surround the fires with benches full of brave

fighters armed with clubs, “For no iron bites them, and thus you shall beat them to death” (Vatnsdæla saga, 46).

The berserks walked through the first fire unscathed, but

the second one began to burn them, and when they tried

to step out onto the floor the warriors on the benches

bludgeoned them to death.

When berserks fought each other in single combat,

they tried to bypass their opponent’s invulnerability.

Leading his berserk band on horseback and wearing an

unfastened helmet, Snaekoll challenged an old farmer

to give them his daughter. Grettir, a berserk, who was

accompanying the farmer, refused, found a way to wound

Snaekoll severely early in the trance state and then kill

him.

[Snaekoll] began to howl and to bite the rim of his

shield. He held the shield up to his mouth and scowled

over its upper edge like a madman. Grettir stepped

quickly across the ground, and when he got even with

the berserk's horse he kicked the shield with his foot

from below with such force that it struck his mouth,

breaking the upper jaw, and the lower jaw fell down

on to his chest. With the same movement he seized

the viking's helmet with his left hand and dragged

him from his horse, while with his right hand he

raised his axe and cut off the berserk's head. (Grettis

saga, 40)

Beowulf’s duel with Grendel was hand to hand.

“Not blade on earth, no blacksmith’s art / Could ever

damage” Grendel who “had conjured the harm from

the cutting edge / Of every weapon” (Beowulf, ll. 801-

804), so Beowulf, after a terrible struggle, dealt Grendel

a fatal wound by tearing off his arm, including part of

the shoulder (ll. 816-821). In the duel above, when Egil’s

sword would not bite Atli, he threw down his arms, “and

bounding on Atli, gripped him with his hands. Then the

difference of strength was seen, and Atli fell right back,

but Egil went down prone upon him and bit through his

throat. There Atli died” (Egils saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 68).

In the battle trance, berserks could not always

distinguish between friends and foes. In one account (Egils

saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 40), Grim, subject to wolfishness

toward evening, was playing ball late in the day, and in

the heat of competition, killed one of his opponents and

started to come after his own son in such a frightening

way that a servant-woman intervened. He killed her.

Except in the heat of battle, it took time to work

up to the battle trance, which did not last forever; when

the state wore off, warriors were unusually vulnerable.

It is said of shape-strong men, or men with a fit of

Berserk fury on them, that while the fit lasted they

were so strong that naught could withstand them; but

when it passed off, then they were weaker than their

wont. Even so it was with Kveldulf. When the shape-

strong fit went from him, then he felt exhaustion from

the onset he had made, and became so utterly weak

that he lay in bed. (Egils saga Skalla-grímsonnar, 27)

Not surprisingly, people waited for post-combat

exhaustion to overcome berserks before trying to kill them

(e.g., Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, 4; Eyrbyggja saga, 28)

Explanations of Berserkergang.

Berserkergang is so well attested in the historical and

legendary accounts that it has attracted a fair amount

of scholarly attention, virtually none of it transpersonally

oriented, to account for its unusual effects. Most

explanations involve the ingestion of psychotropic drugs,

with present-day touchstones being the superhuman

strength demonstrated by people resisting restraint,

commonly called excited delirium syndrome (EDS). EDS

is a controversial diagnosis because it is usually given post-

mortem. Neither the American Medical Association nor

the American Psychological Association recognize it as

a medical or mental health condition, but the National

Association of Medical Examiners has recognized it for

more than twenty years, especially in accounting for the

sudden death of violent individuals whose restraint did not

involve mechanical cause of death (such as asphyxiation

from a chokehold). The American College of Emergency

Physicians has also recognized EDS since 2009 (Flosi,

2011). EDS is characterized by bizarre, violent, and

agitated behavior; combativeness; altered mental states

and delirium; shouting; hyperactivity; extreme endurance

and unusual strength; and autonomic dysregulation,

including hyperthermia (raised body temperature)

and sweating (Gill, 2014; Ross & Chan, 2006) usually

followed by sudden death. Its precursor was Bell’s mania,

first described in 1849 (Benzer, Najad, & Flood, 2013)

among the institutionalized insane. Most modern

documentation comes from the autopsies of detainees who

died suddenly in police custody, and the post-mortems

typically show long-term use of drugs not available in

the ancient world, especially cocaine and amphetamine

in various forms (Flosi, 2011; Gill, 2014) often in

combination with alcohol, other recreational drugs, or

excessive pharmaceutical drugs.

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies31Going Berserk

A related but non-delusional state, hypomania,

is one of a range of poorly understood manic states in

which people exhibit extraordinary powers, whether

euphoric or aggressive, yet do not require hospitalization

or result in catatonia or death (Lee, Huang, Hsu, & Chiu,

2012). Hypomania is characterized by inflated self-esteem

or grandiosity, decreased need for sleep, talkativeness,

distractability, increased involvement in goal-directed

activities, and either elevated or irritable mood in the

absence of hallucinations or delusions (APA, 1994).

Hypomania, while far more congruent with aspects of

berserkergang, like EDS, is considered an involuntary

state, rather than one deliberately induced.

The dominant theory is that berserkergang was

produced by consuming the hallucinogenic mushroom

Amanita mascaria (fly agaric), an idea introduced

in 1784 by Samuel Lorenzo Ödman without much

evidence (Wasson, 1968). The hardihood of this falsity

is attributable to a canard presented at an American

Psychiatric Association conference and later published

by physician Howard D. Fabing (1956). While the

possibility of drugs cannot be dismissed in the limited

situations when such preparation was possible (prior

to battle), it is difficult to comprehend why Fabing’s

argument continues to be influential, despite glaring

flaws: 1) Fabing cited no primary Viking Age sources

and referred to a character named Berserk, who does not

exist in the literature; 2) he drew spurious comparisons,

noting that Siberian tribes used Amita muscaria

“orgiastically” (not in combat) and reported “prodigious

feats of physical strength” (1956, p. 232), as though

their behavior inexplicably bears on Norse warriors; 3)

Fabing cited research that Amanita mascaria produces

dilated eyes, convulsive gestures, visual and auditory

hallucinations, singing and dancing (Jochelsen, cited in

Fabing, 1956, p. 232) and “explosive diarrhea, profuse

sweating, excessive salivation and vertigo” as well as

complete disorientation, irrationality, and violence

(Drew, cited in Fabing 233)—all of which would

render a warrior unfit for combat; 4) he stated that

bufotenine, the active ingredient of some poisonous

toads, trees and seeds (none native to Europe or Iceland,

nor related to Amanita muscaria), also brought on

berserkergang because when he injected bufotenine into

subjects—a technology not available to berserks—their

faces darkened and they became “relaxed and languid”

with severely impaired spatial perception (p. 236),

symptoms contrary to those of fly agaric intoxication,

to berserkergang, and to combat. Fabing aside, all fly

agaric mushrooms are known for the unpredictability of

their effects, depending on the variety, habitat, amount

ingested, and individual metabolism (persons with the

same body weight taking similar doses have very different

reactions; Benjamin, 1992; Buck, 1963; Hoegberg,

Larsen, Sonne, Bang, & Skanning, 2008; Satora,

Pach, Butryn, Hydzik, & Balicka-Slusarczyk, 2005).

Symptoms include nausea, twitching, drowsiness, drop

in blood pressure, sweating, salivation, auditory and

visual distortions, mood changes, euphoria, relaxation,

ataxia, and loss of equilibrium. Large doses can

produce agitation, confusion, irritability, hallucinations,

and seizures. Even if ingestion selectively sharpened

perceptions and reflexes or heightened aggression—the

opposite of what is suggested—the extreme variability

and unpredictability in response would mitigate against

it for combat.

Other intoxicant arguments are similarly flawed.

Wernick (1979) suggested that berserks were drunk on

alcohol, which may have included bog myrtle (Myrica gale

or Gale palustris), a plant used in Scandinavia to flavor

alcoholic beverages. Drunkenness does not conduce to

effective fighting, and bog myrtle, an abortificant that

causes gastric upset and severe headaches in large doses,

would further reduce battle fitness. Drug arguments

are frequently used to rationalize outstanding warrior

feats by the losing side, with similarly little grasp of

combat demands, toxicology, and extraordinary human

capability. The British, for example, alleged that spear-

toting Zulu warriors defeated them at Isandlwana

because the Zulus ate dagga (marijuana), which rendered

them fearless and trancelike in the face of the imperial

forces’ technologically superior breech-loading rifles,

rockets, and small cannons (Booth, 2003). Marijuana is

not a stimulant, but even today confusion is propagated

by “forensic battle experts,” such as Ian Knight (2011)

who specializes in South African historical battles

and alleges that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the

most psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, produces

frenzy. THC may increase anxiety and reduce physical

discomfort, which would be useful in battle, but it also

impairs coordination, reaction time, and concentration

(e.g., Heishman, Huestis, Henningfield, & Cone, 1990).

The most intelligent arguments have ascribed the combat

ingestion of psychotropic substances to a desire to

obscure full realization of the horrors of battle (Roscoe,

2007) rather than to improve fighting capabilities.

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies32 Wade

Other explanations for berserkergang have

included self-induced hysteria poorly distinguished from

self-induced ecstatic states but described as a pathology),

epilepsy, mental illness, or genetic flaws (Byock, 1995;

Carlson, 2006; Foote & Wilson, 1970), but none accounts

for more than a fraction of the Norse data, much less for

historical accounts of similar pagan ecstatic warriors from

different cultures. Geraty (2015) advanced a theory that

“berserk behavior is due to heightened exposure to extreme

violence, otherwise known as post-traumatic stress disorder”

(p. 11), based on comparisons with psychiatrist Jonathan

Shay’s (1994) book Achilles in Vietnam, regarding his work

with American veterans of the Vietnam War. As brilliant

as Geraty’s analysis is in some areas, many comparisons just

do not hold up beyond universal behaviors seen in combat.

Her most cogent argument was that some of the later-

documented berserks and traumatized veterans exhibited

persistent hypervigilance and potential for explosive

violence when no longer in combat. Such a judgment is

somewhat difficult to assess owing to the bias of Norse

sources and a cross-cultural gap spanning a millennium:

given the unpredictable, ubiquitous violence of medieval

societies, aggressive hypervigilance was, in fact, appropriate

and highly adaptive, including for noncombatants.

The APA has confused and pathologized

berserkergang with comparisons to other poorly understood

states from different cultures. The last three Diagnostic and

Statistical Manuals (DSM; APA, 1980, 1994, 2013) have

listed a category called intermittent explosive disorder

(IED) likened to berserkergang and other “culture-bound

syndromes,” such as the Malaysian amok, with which

berserkergang is clinically compared (APA, 1994, p. 845;

i.e., “going berserk” and “running amok”). Culturally-

bound syndromes were dropped from the DSM-5 as

a category. IED, poorly defined (e.g., Ahmed, Green,

McCloskey, & Berman;, 2010; Parzen, 2003), is considered

a disruptive impulse control and conduct disorder

characterized by unpremeditated explosive outbursts of

rage disproportionate to the situation, which may happen

more or less chronically and frequently, or with relatively

infrequent, high-intensity outbursts resulting in injury

or destruction of property (APA, 1980, 1994, 2013). An

illustration given of the way the APA understands amok,

similar to the way it regards “going berserk,” was that of a

Filipino man who, upon learning that his wife was having

an affair, killed her parents, injured her and their son,

and then set fire to the house of his wife’s lover’s brother,

which killed two children living there (Parzen, 2003, p.

142). IED and the related culturally-bound conditions

as defined by the APA match little in the primary berserk

sources.

Anthropologists of war magic provide much more

valid insights for berserkergang, especially the spiritual

foundations of war magic in general. Southeast Asian

cultures, for example, have an ecstatic champion tradition

very similar to the Indo-European heritage. “Amok, far from

being an individual, disorganized and insane activity”—as

it, and going berserk, are now understood popularly and by

the APA—was a “coordinated, group form of violence…

unleashed through invulnerability rituals” (Farrer, cited in

Reid, 1988, p. 125). The Javanese, noted for ferocity in

combat, used a vanguard of amok warriors as shock troops

to intimidate, scatter, and kill the enemy in the opening

moves of a battle (Reid, 1988). Amoks, after cultivating

a trancelike state of invulnerability through elaborate

spiritual and martial arts rituals, furiously charged the

enemy, slashing with swords and krises. Even the Balinese,

whose strategies relied more on systematic formations, used

amoks, who wore white to symbolize their self-sacrifice, in

leading the attack. If these initial amok attacks succeeded

in killing the enemy leader, it was often enough to decide

the battle before the regular troops were engaged.

Although cross-cultural shapeshifting magic

lags in systematic research, the invulnerability claims of

berserkergang now have considerable backing. In fact,

invulnerability demonstrations have figured prominently

in almost all religions since ancient times (e.g., Boles,

1997; Kane, 1982; William & Hood, 2015). Fire-

walking, common to many religions as a demonstration

of attainment, is now a popular activity at Western self-

development seminars bolstered by intense group bonding,

singing, and dancing. Silat, the foundational martial art of

southeast Asia, retains its spiritual basis, as do most other

Asian martial arts. Invulnerability is considered a sign of

spiritual attainment, including fire-walking, eating broken

glass, climbing barefoot up a ladder of knives, and dipping

one’s hands into cauldrons of scalding water, boiling oil,

or molten tin (Crystal & Yamashita, 1987; Farrer 2009;

Waterson 1995). Public displays involve withstanding

blows from iron spikes, washing in sulfuric acid, slicing

one’s tongue with a machete without shedding blood, and

regurgitating live bats “without suffering any physical

harm” (Wilson, cited in Nilan, Demartoto, & Wibowo,

2014, p. 74). Silat folklore describes techniques that

allow the fighter to attack from afar using energy alone

without physically touching the opponent (Farrer, 2009),

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies33Going Berserk

similar to Boðvar Bjarki’s bi-location, something modern

athletes and martial artists attest (M. Murphy, personal

communication, October 8, 2015).

North African Isawiyya Moslem sects are noted

for “eating fire and cutting themselves in ecstasy” (Brett,

1988, p. 38). Adherents give public displays of trance-

dancing, slashing their torsos or heads as a sign of devotion

and personal relationship with saints (Crapanzano, 1973).

According to an early account, becoming-animal was also

involved:

Moreover, the human body can only endure

so much, as the overwhelmed berserks’ deaths indicate.

Zatsiorsky (2006) has calculated the theoretical

maximum an individual’s muscles, tendons, and bones

can lift or withstand, an absolute strength that cannot

be exceeded. The maximum an ordinary person can

lift, for example, using conscious effort (as in a gym)

is about two-thirds of his or her absolute strength,

but some professional athletes in intense competitions

have reached 92% of their body’s absolute strength.

Similar limits have been identified with tragic results in

extreme martial arts tests of invulnerability. In 2012,

students of pencak silat (an Indonesian form) died in the

course of progressively difficult tests of invulnerability

(Fointuna, 2012). A trio of men from one silat school

ingested rat poison, and when none sickened, they lay

down in the street while motorcyclists drove over their

bodies several times without causing injury. Then they

had a four-wheel vehicle loaded with passengers roll

over their bodies, which crushed and killed them. In

a separate incident the previous day, two other pencak

silat practitioners died from severe burns. They had

been testing their invulnerability to weapons and fire

but were unable to withstand being doused with an

unspecified acid. Reports of snake-bite fatalities among

Appalachian Christian snake handlers make headlines

with some frequency (e.g., Ball, 2015).

These few examples demonstrate the similarity

between apparently superhuman abilities to withstand

blades and fires demonstrated by berserks and the

spiritually-based invulnerability techniques from other

cultures that may be an unrecognized, universal human

capacity (c.f., Murphy, 1992; Kelley, 2007). The stories

of the berserks were not far-fetched, and if anything,

point to a significant gap in transpersonal and body-

mind studies.

Conclusion

Warrior-shamanism and dark magic are universal

phenomena in which becoming-intense and

becoming-animal are not only adaptive but also

productive of nonordinary states and transpersonal

identifications that take people out of their individual

concerns, rendering them willing to sacrifice personal

safety and even survival for a greater goal. Berserkergang

is a particular version of war magic, probably the best

documented of an ancient Indo-European ecstatic warrior

tradition celebrated in classic texts that remain influential

One of the Tunisian soldiers ... seized a sword and

began to lacerate his stomach. The blood flowed

freely, and he imitated all the time the cries and

movements of the camel. We soon had a wolf, a

bear, a hyena, a jackal, a leopard, and a lion.... A

large bottle was broken up and eagerly devoured....

Twenty different tortures were going on in twenty

different parts of the hall. (Littell & Littell, 1882,

p. 424).

According to Hall (2001, 2004, 2011), adepts

of the Sufi Tariqa Casnazaniyyah school, who pierce

their bodies with spikes, blades, glass, and the like, have

demonstrated such complete control over pain, bleeding,

and infection that their wounds heal within 4-10

seconds. Followers have been observed demonstrating

instantaneous healing of deliberately caused bodily

damage, such as jamming spikes and skewers into their

bodies, hammering daggers into their skulls and clavicles,

and chewing and swallowing glass and sharp razor blades.

Hall, trained in the practice himself, has reproduced it

reliably in laboratory conditions (2004, 2011; Hall,

Don, Hussein, White, & Hostoffer, 2001). He averred

that anyone could develop the capacity, as a transferable

ability (not the result of years of practice) “based on a

spiritual link…to the current Shaikh Master of the

Tariqa Casnazaniyyah Sufi School” (2004, p. 93), but

that the same phenomena have also been observed among

Brazilian trance surgeons. In such procedures, there was

“apparently no postoperative infection or pain, bleeding

is minimal” (Hall, 2004, p. 93). Based on EEG readings

of Sufi participants during the wounding process, Hall

claimed that these phenomena were not related to

“hypnosis, realization, altered states of consciousness, or

trance states such as relaxation or meditative states” (2004,

p. 93; 2001, 2011). However, the Sufi demonstrations

were a deliberate, planned activity; if adepts were wounded

accidentally, they did not experience rapid healing.

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies34 Wade

today, such as the Rig Veda and the Iliad. Part of the

largely unknown European pagan heritage, berserkergang

as a form of battle trance illustrates only a fraction

of the horizons war magic opens up for exploration,

especially transcendence through self-sacrifice, spiritual

trial by ordeal, different ways of understanding

transpersonal identification and existential meaning,

and supraphenomenal mind-body capabilities with an

emphasis on embodiment. Though part of a specific Indo-

European heritage, berserkergang is related to universal,

ubiquitous kinds of war magic, including martial arts

spirituality, spiritual invulnerability practices, and

identification with gods or seeking divine favor through

religiously-inspired violence. Berserkergang can provide

insights for effective battlefield preparation and recovery.

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About the Author

Jenny Wade, PhD, is a developmental psychologist

specializing in the structuring of consciousness and how

variations in awareness can expand human potential.

Her research of variations in normal adult consciousness

forms the basis of a leadership and organization

consulting practice, most recently designing a radically

transformative leadership program sponsored by the

International Peace Foundation and Prince Alfred of

Liechtenstein. Particular interests are prenatal and near-

death consciousness, naturally occurring altered states,

and an astronomical basis for ancient Indo-European

paganism. Author of Changes of Mind: A Holonomic

Theory of the Evolution of Consciousness, Transcendent

Sex: When Lovemaking Opens the Veil and numerous

academic articles, she oversees a wide range of doctoral

research projects, including developmental psychology,

normal and altered states of all kinds, intervention

studies, cross-cultural studies, spontaneous openings,

dreams, sexuality, men’s and women’s studies, leadership

and organization development, spirituality, and

spontaneous recovery.

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International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Volume 35 Issue 1 

Going Berserk: Battle Trance and Ecstatic Holy Warriors

in the European War Magic Tradition

Jenny Wade

California Institute of Integral Studies

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