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Liminal

Liminal is an adjective denoting a position at or on both sides of a boundary or threshold, often characterizing transitional states or spaces that exist between established categories or structures. In anthropology, the term is most prominently associated with the middle phase of rites of passage, where participants are "betwixt and between" prior social roles and future statuses, embodying ambiguity and potential for transformation.^[1] The concept originates from French ethnographer Arnold van Gennep's 1909 work The Rites of Passage, in which he outlined three universal stages of such rituals: separation from the previous social state, the liminal transition (or "limen," Latin for threshold), and reincorporation into a new status.^[2] Van Gennep observed this pattern across diverse cultures in ceremonies marking birth, puberty, marriage, and death, emphasizing liminality as a period of neutrality and inversion of everyday norms.^[3] Building on van Gennep, British anthropologist Victor Turner expanded liminality in the 1960s, describing it as a realm of "anti-structure" where hierarchical distinctions dissolve, fostering communitas—a spontaneous, egalitarian sense of community among participants.^[1] Turner highlighted its characteristics, including the neophytes' (initiates') lack of status, property, or name, their uniformity in appearance (often naked or simply clad), and a state of humility and teachability akin to a "tabula rasa" for cultural inscription.^[1] He likened this phase to metaphors of death, womb-like gestation, or invisibility, underscoring its potential for both peril and creativity.^[1] Beyond anthropology, liminality has influenced fields like psychology, where it describes ambiguous personal transitions such as grief or identity crises, and sociology, applied to societal shifts like migration or economic upheaval.^[4] In contemporary contexts, the term extends to liminal spaces—physical or virtual environments evoking unease through their transitional, unoccupied quality, as explored in architectural theory and digital media studies.^[5] These applications underscore liminality's enduring relevance in analyzing human experiences of change and ambiguity.

Etymology and Core Concept

Etymology

The term "liminal" derives from the Latin noun līmen (genitive līminis), meaning "threshold," "doorway," or "sill," evoking a boundary or point of transition.^[6] This root also informs related English words such as "limit" and "subliminal." The adjective form "liminal" first appeared in English in the late 19th century, specifically in 1870, within scientific literature on physiology and psychology to denote states or stimuli at the threshold of perception or response, such as the minimal intensity required to elicit a sensory reaction.^[7] The term's adoption into anthropological discourse began with French ethnographer Arnold van Gennep's seminal 1909 work Les Rites de Passage, where he introduced "étape liminaire" (translated as "liminal stage") to characterize the intermediary phase in rituals of transition—positioned between the preliminary separation from one's prior social status and the subsequent reintegration into a new one. Van Gennep drew on the Latin etymology to emphasize this phase as a metaphorical threshold, marked by ambiguity and detachment from everyday structures, though his analysis remained grounded in ethnographic observations of ceremonies across cultures. The 1960 English translation of his book further disseminated the concept in Anglophone academia. In the 1960s, British anthropologist Victor Turner built upon van Gennep's framework, profoundly evolving the term's application in his 1969 book The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Turner extended "liminality" beyond ritual contexts to encompass broader cultural dynamics, portraying it as a generative "anti-structure" that fosters communitas—a sense of equality and potential among participants—and enables social innovation. His work, influenced by fieldwork among the Ndembu people of Zambia, marked a pivotal shift, transforming liminal from a descriptive label for ritual phases into a theoretical tool for analyzing power, symbolism, and societal change in cultural studies. By the mid-20th century, these developments had catalyzed an etymological evolution, broadening "liminal" from its literal connotation of a physical or perceptual boundary to a metaphorical descriptor of indeterminate, transitional states across various disciplines.

Definition of Liminality

Liminality refers to the transitional or threshold phase within rites of passage, characterized by ambiguity and disorientation, during which participants are detached from their prior social status yet not yet incorporated into a new one.^[8] This middle stage, as conceptualized by Arnold van Gennep, forms part of a tripartite structure in rituals marking changes in social or religious status, where normal limits and hierarchies are suspended to facilitate transformation.^[8] In this phase, individuals exist in a state of "betwixt and between," neither fully belonging to the old order nor the emerging one, often experiencing a temporary equality that dissolves established distinctions.^[8] Building on van Gennep's framework, Victor Turner elaborated liminality as a realm of "pure possibility" where social structures are inverted or negated, giving rise to anti-structure—a momentary reversal of everyday norms that fosters creativity and renewal.^[1] A key attribute is communitas, a sense of undifferentiated equality among participants, where secular ranks homogenize and individuals connect as a rudimentary community unbound by hierarchy.^[1] This anti-structural quality underscores liminality's role in suspending categorical attributes, allowing for the emergence of novel social relations.^[1] Liminality is distinctly positioned between the pre-liminal phase of separation, which detaches individuals from their former roles, and the post-liminal phase of reintegration, which reestablishes them in a transformed status.^[9] Unlike the preparatory detachment of separation or the stabilizing aggregation of incorporation, the liminal phase thrives on ambiguity, with participants stripped of prior identities to embody potential change.^[1] Symbolically, liminality manifests through thresholds as portals to transformation, such as doorways that demarcate passage between worlds, evoking universal metaphors of crossing boundaries to access altered states.^[8] These elements highlight the phase's inherent instability, where the familiar gives way to the indeterminate, underscoring its foundational role in processes of becoming.^[9]

Anthropology and Religion

Rites of Passage

The concept of liminality emerged as a central element in anthropological theories of rites of passage through Arnold van Gennep's foundational work. In his 1909 book The Rites of Passage, van Gennep proposed a tripartite model for rituals marking transitions in social status, such as birth, puberty, marriage, and death. These rites consist of three phases: separation, where the individual detaches from their previous social role or group; the liminal or transition phase, characterized by ambiguity and transformation; and incorporation, where the individual is reintegrated into society with a new status. Liminality, as the core transformative stage, involves a temporary suspension of structure, allowing for the reshaping of identity and status. Victor Turner expanded van Gennep's framework in his 1969 book The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, emphasizing liminality's social and symbolic dimensions. Turner described the liminal phase as a period of "anti-structure," where normal hierarchies and distinctions dissolve, fostering communitas—a sense of undifferentiated community among participants. This egalitarianism challenges established social orders, enabling profound symbolic renewal and collective bonding.^[10] Turner's analysis, drawn from fieldwork among the Ndembu people, highlighted how liminality in rituals promotes humility and interdependence, temporarily inverting power dynamics to reinforce societal cohesion upon reaggregation. Among the Ndembu of Zambia, Turner's studies illustrated liminality in puberty rites, particularly the Nkang'a ceremony for girls. Initiates are secluded in isolation, stripped of everyday identifiers like clothing and names, embodying liminal ambiguity as they undergo symbolic trials that blur boundaries between childhood and adulthood. This phase, marked by communal instruction and ritual ordeals, cultivates communitas while preparing the novice for incorporation as a full social member.^[10] A historical parallel appears in the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries, initiatory rites honoring Demeter and Persephone from the archaic period through late antiquity. Participants underwent a process involving separation via a sacred procession to Eleusis, a liminal phase of secrecy and categorical confusion—blending life and death, human and divine—leading to temporary dissolution of identity through visionary experiences in the Telesterion. This structure aligned with van Gennep's model, transforming initiates' existential understanding upon return to society.^[8]

Sacred and Profane Transitions

In religious contexts, liminality manifests as transitions between the sacred and profane realms, often through rituals that temporarily suspend everyday structures to reveal divine realities. Mircea Eliade, a prominent historian of religion, emphasized liminality in myths and rituals as hierophanies—manifestations of the sacred irrupting into profane existence—particularly during festivals and pilgrimages, which create sacred time detached from ordinary chronology.^[11] These periods allow participants to experience the axis mundi, a cosmic center where human and divine intersect, as seen in Eliade's analysis of ritual cycles that renew the world through primordial gestures.^[12] A key example is the Hajj pilgrimage in Islam, where the ihram state induces liminality by requiring pilgrims to don simple white garments, symbolizing equality and stripping away social, economic, and national distinctions among participants.^[13] This ritual entry at designated miqats outside Mecca marks a threshold where everyday identities dissolve, fostering a communal focus on devotion and unity before God during the sacred journey to the Kaaba.^[14] Similarly, in Christianity, Lent represents a 40-day period of spiritual liminality, during which believers engage in fasting, prayer, and penance to transition from worldly attachments toward Easter's renewal, embodying a threshold of inner transformation.^[15] Profane applications of liminality appear in secular holidays like Carnival, which invert social norms and hierarchies in a temporary "time out of time," allowing revelers to experience freedom from daily constraints through role reversals and egalitarian excess.^[16] This anti-structural phase, akin to ritual margins, briefly disrupts profane order to reaffirm it upon return, as participants don masks and costumes to embody the carnivalesque suspension of authority.^[17] Twentieth-century anthropological studies, notably by Victor Turner, further illuminated pilgrimage sites as modern liminal zones that cultivate communitas—a spontaneous, unstructured sense of equality and solidarity among diverse pilgrims detached from societal roles.^[18] In works like Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, Turner described these sites, such as medieval shrines, as liminoid spaces where sacred transitions generate intense fellowships, bridging profane travel with profound religious encounters.^[19]

Psychology

Liminal States of Mind

In Jungian psychology, liminality manifests as a critical phase within the individuation process, where the psyche navigates the threshold between conscious awareness and the unconscious, often triggered by personal crises that demand confrontation with repressed elements of the self.^[20] This transitional state fosters psychological transformation by dissolving rigid ego structures and integrating archetypal contents, enabling a more holistic sense of self.^[21] In modern psychological frameworks, liminal states appear during periods of identity flux, such as adolescence or grief, where individuals experience ego dissolution followed by reconstruction. Erik Erikson's psychosocial stages describe adolescence as a liminal moratorium of identity exploration versus role confusion, marked by ambiguity in self-definition and social roles that propels developmental growth.^[22] Similarly, in bereavement, liminality traps individuals in a suspended "in-between" of loss and restoration, characterized by numbness, identity fragmentation, and an inability to reclaim normalcy, as evidenced in qualitative studies of widowed partners.^[23] Empirical research from the 2010s onward highlights "liminal hotspots"—intensified moments of psychosocial ambiguity and paradox that catalyze mental shifts—in therapeutic contexts involving near-death and psychedelic experiences. These hotspots, defined by enduring suspension and potential for pattern reconfiguration, mirror transformative ambiguity in psychedelic-assisted therapy, where substances like psilocybin induce ego-dissolving states akin to near-death encounters, yielding sustained reductions in death anxiety (e.g., 80% response rate at six months).^[24]^[25] Comparative studies confirm phenomenological overlaps, including mystical insights and decreased fear of death (88-89% across groups), underscoring liminality's role in fostering enduring psychological resilience.^[26] A core aspect of liminal mindsets involves the interplay of ambivalence and heightened creativity, extended through Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory, where optimal experiences emerge from balancing challenge and skill amid transitional tension. In creative processes, this ambivalence—oscillating between discipline and play, introversion and extroversion—fuels innovative breakthroughs by immersing individuals in flow states that resolve liminal uncertainties.^[27]

Therapeutic and Developmental Contexts

In narrative therapy, developed by Michael White in the 1990s, liminality manifests as a therapeutic process where clients enter transitional spaces to deconstruct dominant problem-saturated stories and re-author alternative identities. This "liminal time" allows individuals to suspend conventional narratives, explore new meanings, and integrate empowering self-stories, drawing on anthropological concepts of threshold experiences to facilitate identity reconstruction. White's approach emphasizes externalizing problems and collaborative storytelling to navigate these ambiguous phases, enabling clients to emerge with resilient personal narratives.^[28] In developmental psychology, liminal phases occur during lifespan transitions, such as the midlife crisis outlined in Daniel Levinson's seasons of life theory (1978), where individuals confront the polarity between youth and aging, prompting reevaluation of life structures. These periods of instability, akin to rites of passage, foster resilience by encouraging exploration of unfulfilled aspirations and relational shifts, ultimately leading to greater authenticity and adaptive growth. Levinson described the midlife transition (ages 40-45) as a normative crisis involving separation from early adult commitments and tentative commitment to middle adulthood, during which liminal ambiguity catalyzes personal reintegration.^[29] Clinical applications of liminality appear in trauma recovery, notably through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, introduced in the late 1980s and refined in the 1990s. EMDR facilitates transitional processing via bilateral stimulation, mimicking REM sleep to access and reprocess stuck traumatic memories, allowing clients to move from dissociation to integration without reliving distress. This method creates a safe threshold for desensitizing emotional charges associated with trauma, promoting cognitive restructuring and emotional resolution in conditions like PTSD.^[30] Post-liminal integration in these interventions often yields significant personal growth, with studies indicating reduced anxiety and enhanced well-being. For instance, art therapy frameworks incorporating liminal embodiment for cancer patients demonstrate decreased anxiety through sensory exploration and narrative reconstruction, alongside increased self-empowerment and acceptance of uncertainty. Similarly, developmental liminal explorations correlate with lower anxiety levels and heightened resilience, as individuals consolidate new identities post-transition. These outcomes underscore liminality's role in therapeutic efficacy, where successful navigation of ambiguity supports long-term psychological adaptation.^[31]

Philosophy and Literature

Philosophical Foundations

In Martin Heidegger's seminal work Being and Time (1927), the concept of Dasein—human existence as "being-there"—is portrayed as inherently liminal, positioned in a threshold state between inauthentic absorption in the anonymous "they" (das Man) and authentic resoluteness toward one's ownmost potentiality-for-Being. This existential structure emphasizes Dasein's thrownness into a world of everyday concerns, where anxiety reveals the uncanniness of its finite temporality, compelling a movement from fallenness into genuine self-appropriation. Scholars interpret this dynamic as a philosophical liminality, where being oscillates between conformity and disclosure, underscoring the transitional nature of human existence beyond static identity.^[32]^[33] Postmodern philosophy extends liminal concepts through Jacques Derrida's deconstruction, which dismantles binary oppositions such as presence/absence and identity/difference, revealing undecidability as a pervasive threshold in language, meaning, and subjectivity. From the 1970s onward, Derrida's analyses in works like Of Grammatology (1967) and Margins of Philosophy (1972) expose how signs defer meaning indefinitely (différance), positioning interpretation in a liminal space that resists resolution and challenges foundational certainties. This undecidability manifests in identity formation, where the self emerges not as fixed but as haunted by traces of the other, fostering a perpetual negotiation of boundaries in discourse and culture.^[34]^[35] Homi K. Bhabha further develops liminality in postcolonial theory through the notion of the "third space," articulated in The Location of Culture (1994), as an interstitial cultural hybridity arising from colonial encounters. This third space disrupts essentialist binaries of colonizer/colonized, creating a liminal zone where meanings are negotiated, translated, and reinvented, enabling subversive articulations of identity and authority. Bhabha's framework highlights how postcolonial subjects inhabit this threshold, producing ambivalent forms of resistance that question dominant narratives without resolving into fixed oppositions.^[36] Ethically, liminal moments challenge moral absolutes in Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy, particularly through the face-to-face encounter in Totality and Infinity (1961), where the other's infinite alterity interrupts the self's totality, demanding asymmetrical responsibility. This epiphany disrupts ethical complacency, positioning the encounter as a liminal rupture that exposes the vulnerability of the other and prohibits reduction to sameness or universal rules. Interpretations frame such moments as thresholds that unsettle absolute moral frameworks, prioritizing infinite obligation over calculative justice.^[37]^[38]

Narrative and Symbolic Uses

In literature, liminality serves as a narrative device to depict characters suspended between identities, realities, or social roles, often evoking ambiguity and transformation. Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis (1915) exemplifies this through Gregor Samsa's abrupt transformation into a vermin-like creature, thrusting him into a liminal state of existence that blurs the boundaries between human and inhuman, self and other. This crisis of identity highlights the protagonist's alienation and the fragility of familial and societal norms during transitional phases.^[39] J.R.R. Tolkien employs liminal thresholds in his Middle-earth legendarium to symbolize moral ambiguity and the perilous navigation of ethical boundaries. In The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), passages such as the Hedge, the Old Forest, and Rivendell function as liminal spaces where characters like Frodo confront internal conflicts and the erosion of clear distinctions between good and evil, mirroring the hero's tentative steps into uncertainty. These motifs underscore the narrative's exploration of choice and corruption amid transitions.^[40] Symbolic motifs in Gothic literature further illustrate liminality's role in probing the psyche's ambiguous frontiers. Doorways and mirrors recurrently appear as thresholds representing psychological liminality, as seen in Edgar Allan Poe's tales like "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) and "William Wilson" (1839), where they evoke the uncanny duality of the self and the intrusion of the supernatural into the rational mind. These elements create a narrative tension between stability and dissolution, symbolizing the mind's precarious position on the edge of sanity.^[41] Twentieth-century literary theory has formalized liminality's place in archetypal structures, particularly through Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism (1957). Frye's archetypal criticism frames the hero's journey as a cyclical quest involving liminal phases of departure, initiation, and return, where protagonists inhabit ambiguous realms to achieve renewal or insight. This model draws on mythic patterns to interpret liminality as essential to narrative progression, influencing analyses of transitional motifs across genres.^[42] In contemporary literature, magical realism amplifies liminality by blurring the real and the fantastical, creating realms where transitions defy conventional boundaries. Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) embodies this through the Buendía family's multi-generational saga in Macondo, where events like levitating priests and prophetic rains merge everyday reality with otherworldly ambiguity, symbolizing cultural and historical liminality in Latin American experience. This technique fosters a narrative ambiguity that challenges linear perceptions of time and identity.^[43]

Arts and Media

Visual and Performing Arts

In the visual arts, liminality manifests through works that blur the boundaries between reality and illusion, creating thresholds of perception and existence. René Magritte's The Human Condition (1933), an oil painting depicting an easel-placed canvas seamlessly integrated into a landscape, exemplifies Surrealist exploration of liminal realities by questioning the distinction between representation and the represented world.^[44] This juxtaposition evokes a transitional space where the viewer's gaze hovers between the painted and the real, underscoring the ambiguity of human perception. Similarly, Bill Viola's video installations delve into transitional states of consciousness and mortality, using slow-motion imagery and immersive environments to capture liminal moments between life and death. In Nantes Triptych (1992), a submerged female figure suspended in water symbolizes a threshold between birth and dissolution, drawing on Viola's personal experiences of near-drowning to portray existence as inherently fleeting and indeterminate.^[45] Works like The Veiling (1995) further employ translucent scrims to create spatial ambiguities, merging physical presence with ethereal intangibility and inviting viewers into contemplative limbo.^[45] In performing arts, liminality emerges in theatrical forms that emphasize waiting, ritual, and existential suspension, transforming the stage into a performative threshold. Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1953), a cornerstone of the Theatre of the Absurd, portrays protagonists Vladimir and Estragon trapped in an unending wait on a barren stage, embodying a liminal space of inaction and deferred resolution. This perpetual suspension between hope and despair critiques the human condition as a state "betwixt and between," where characters remain unable to progress or regress, as evidenced by repeated stage directions noting their immobility.^[46] Jerzy Grotowski's Poor Theatre in the 1960s stripped away scenic elements to focus on actor-audience encounters as ritualistic acts of transformation, applying liminal processes to evoke personal and collective initiation. By emphasizing physical and emotional vulnerability, Grotowski's performances created immersive thresholds where participants confronted inner boundaries, fostering authentic encounters beyond conventional drama.^[47] Later developments in his paratheatre phase blurred performer-spectator roles, heightening these transitional dynamics through participatory immersion.^[48] Key movements like Fluxus in the 1960s further embodied liminality through ephemeral events that dissolved distinctions between art, life, and audience participation. Fluxus performances, often involving everyday objects and chance elements, generated temporary zones of flux and ambiguity, as seen in works by artists like Shigeko Kubota, whose Vagina Painting (1965) used bodily gestures to disrupt fixed categories and evoke an oscillating, indeterminate state. These happenings prioritized process over product, creating liminal spaces of playful confrontation that challenged perceptual norms and highlighted the transient nature of experience.^[49] Symbolically, artists have employed shadows and fog to conjure ambiguity and evoke liminal thresholds, with roots in historical techniques that manipulate visibility and depth. In Renaissance art, linear perspective created perceptual gateways between foreground and background, fostering a sense of transitional space through graduated shading and atmospheric effects that implied unseen depths. Later, fog in installations and paintings serves as a liminal veil, scattering light to obscure boundaries and induce instability, as in contemporary works that blend the visible with the indeterminate to mirror psychological ambiguity. Shadows, similarly, project elusive forms that hover between presence and absence, reinforcing themes of existential in-betweenness across visual traditions.^[50] In recent years, liminality continues to inspire visual arts exhibitions. For instance, the 2024 Underrepresented Voices Art Gallery at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology featured works exploring liminal states, highlighting transitional identities and experiences among underrepresented artists.^[51]

Film, Music, and Digital Media

In film, liminality manifests through narrative structures that blur boundaries between reality and illusion, often evoking psychological transitions and identity ambiguity. David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001) exemplifies this via dream logic, where protagonist Diane Selwyn undergoes radical shifts in identity—from aspiring actress Betty to her tormented self—within liminal spaces like her cramped apartment and the foreboding Winkie's Diner, which serve as thresholds between conscious and subconscious states.^[52] These elements create unsettling ambiguity, reflecting Turner's concept of liminality as movement between fixed points.^[52] In the horror genre, haunted houses function as archetypal thresholds, destabilizing domestic normalcy and symbolizing cultural anxieties about family decay; for instance, in The Conjuring (2013) and its sequel, modern homes become sites of supernatural intrusion, where liminal hauntings erode boundaries between the living and the spectral.^[53]^[53] Music employs liminality to evoke transitional soundscapes that disorient listeners and facilitate ritualistic passages. Brian Eno's ambient works from the 1970s, such as Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978), generate indefinite, looping compositions that suspend time and place, creating a sense of betwixt-and-between immersion akin to liminal disorientation.^[54] These pieces prioritize environmental integration over traditional structure, allowing listeners to inhabit ambiguous auditory realms that mirror psychological thresholds.^[54] In world ritual traditions, music underscores liminal transitions by fostering communitas and anti-structure; during ceremonies like the 2008 Beijing Olympic opening, drumming sequences linked ancient historical motifs to contemporary performance, using sound to bridge past and present in a mediatized liminoid space.^[55]^[55] Digital media extends liminality through interactive and immersive formats that simulate thresholds between worlds. The puzzle-platformer Limbo (2010) immerses players in a monochromatic purgatory where a boy navigates perilous environments—from forests to urban ruins—crossing invisible thresholds like trapdoors and chasms that trigger disorienting hazards, embodying post-9/11 uncertainties of vulnerability and transition.^[56] These mechanics blend horror with exploratory play, requiring players to manipulate liminal elements such as corpses or barriers to progress, ultimately reinforcing a narrative of ambiguous return.^[56] Virtual reality (VR) experiences amplify this immersion by creating multidimensional liminal spaces; through portals, biofeedback, and adaptive environments integrated with EEG sensors, VR facilitates transitions between real and virtual states, drawing on pre-liminal preparation and post-liminal integration to evoke deep psychological shifts.^[57]^[57] The cultural impact of liminality in digital media is evident in the 2010s rise of memes and GIFs, which capture and loop fleeting moments to highlight transitional ambiguity. Animated GIFs, by isolating decontextualized snippets like a politician's subtle gesture, enable polysemous reinterpretations that emphasize liminal states of repetition and rupture, fostering shared cultural resonance in online exchanges.^[58] This format's infinite looping mechanic transforms ephemeral actions into enduring symbols of in-betweenness, influencing how users navigate digital narratives.^[58]

Architecture and Contemporary Usage

Liminal Spaces in Design

In architecture, liminal spaces are defined as transitional thresholds or interstitial zones that exist between distinct environments, facilitating movement while embodying ambiguity and potential transformation. These areas, such as hallways, stairwells, or airport terminals, are not intended for prolonged occupancy but serve as boundaries where spatial and experiential shifts occur, often blurring the boundaries between public and private or familiar and unfamiliar realms.^[59] This concept draws from anthropological notions of liminality, adapted to built form, where the design emphasizes layering, dissolution, and perceptual uncertainty to heighten occupant awareness.^[59] Historically, Gothic cathedrals from the 12th to 16th centuries exemplify liminal spaces through their naves, which functioned as intermediary zones between the profane outer world and the sacred inner sanctum. Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis, a key figure in early Gothic design, oversaw renovations that have been interpreted by modern scholars as creating a liminal realm bridging earthly and divine domains, with the nave allowing congregants to transition from secular entry points to the altar's holy enclosure via vast, light-filled interiors that evoked otherworldly elevation.^[60] The nave's elongated form and symbolic progression—marked by piers, arches, and increasing illumination—reinforced this threshold, transforming the act of entering into a ritualistic passage that mediated between mundane and transcendent experiences.^[60] In modern urban planning, Brutalist architecture of the mid-20th century often created liminal spaces through stark, ambiguous thresholds that challenge clear spatial hierarchies. Boston City Hall, completed in 1968 by Kallmann McKinnell and Knowles, exemplifies this with its elevated plaza and interlocking volumes, which form undefined public zones between civic functions and surrounding streets, fostering a sense of disorientation in pedestrian flow.^[61] Such designs prioritize raw materiality and geometric complexity to blur boundaries, reflecting postwar urban ideals of democratic accessibility while inadvertently producing interstitial areas that feel provisional and exposed.^[61] Psychological studies indicate that liminal spaces in architecture can evoke unease or anxiety due to their inherent ambiguity, potentially rooted in evolutionary adaptations to avoid unpredictable environments. Research on "creepy" built forms, including liminal zones like empty corridors or transitional plazas, suggests these reactions arise from deviations in expected spatial norms, triggering an uncanny valley effect where familiarity conflicts with subtle unfamiliarity, heightening vigilance as a survival mechanism.^[62] For instance, the isolation and transitional nature of such spaces may amplify feelings of vulnerability, as occupants perceive them as high-risk areas for ambiguity in social cues or threats, echoing ancestral responses to unknown territories.^[62]

Internet Culture and Modern Interpretations

In internet culture, the concept of liminality has manifested prominently through the "liminal spaces" aesthetic, a meme genre that gained traction around 2019 on platforms such as Reddit, Tumblr, and 4chan. These images typically depict transitional or in-between environments—like empty shopping malls, dimly lit backrooms, abandoned hotel corridors, or deserted waiting areas—that evoke a sense of nostalgia intertwined with subtle unease or existential disorientation. The aesthetic captures the transitional nature of such spaces, where familiarity breeds a haunting ambiguity, often reflecting viewers' personal memories of liminal moments in daily life. By 2022, communities dedicated to this genre had proliferated, with Reddit's r/LiminalSpace subreddit amassing over 526,000 members, and the hashtag #liminalspaces garnering more than 2 billion views on TikTok as of 2022, underscoring its resonance in online visual discourse.^[63] This digital interpretation of liminality draws on broader cultural theories, particularly Jean Baudrillard's notion of simulacra from the 1980s, which has been extended to analyze how social media creates virtual thresholds that blur the boundaries between reality and hyperreality. In Baudrillard's framework, simulacra evolve from representations of the real to self-contained signs that precede and supplant it, a process amplified in 2020s digital environments where user-generated content on platforms like Instagram and Twitter constructs perpetual simulations of experience. Applied to digital liminality, this suggests that online interactions—such as scrolling through endless feeds or navigating virtual avatars—position users in ambiguous zones where authentic identity dissolves into algorithmic echoes, fostering a sense of disconnection from tangible reality. Scholars have noted how this hyperreal threshold manifests in social media's ability to simulate presence without physicality, turning everyday digital navigation into a liminal exercise of simulated authenticity.^[64] The COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022) exemplified liminality in contemporary digital and hybrid experiences, particularly through quarantine measures that imposed prolonged states of transition on individuals worldwide. Lockdowns disrupted conventional routines, creating what sociologists describe as a "moment in and out of time," where home environments became ambiguous workspaces, blending personal and professional spheres in unstructured perpetuity. This was especially evident in the shift to hybrid work models, where employees oscillated between remote digital interfaces and sporadic office returns, perpetuating feelings of precarity and identity ambiguity as clear boundaries eroded. For instance, UK higher education teachers reported a loss of temporal structure during initial quarantines, with unstructured days amplifying emotional responses like anxiety while also enabling adaptive autonomy through self-directed online teaching innovations. Such experiences highlighted how digital tools, while enabling continuity, extended liminal ambiguity into everyday professional life, challenging traditional role demarcations.^[65] Sociologically, liminality in the gig economy further illustrates identity fluidity, as platforms like Uber position workers in constant states of transition between tasks, locations, and self-perceptions. Migrant gig workers, in particular, encounter "triple liminality"—spanning personal identity (as newcomers navigating cultural integration), workplace dynamics (mobile and unpredictable urban spaces), and organizational structures (algorithmic control without stable employment). This fosters a fluid sense of self, where drivers or delivery riders must continually adapt identities to platform demands, such as toggling between entrepreneurial autonomy and precarious dependence. Research on Sweden's food delivery sector reveals how these workers exercise "liminal agency" to mitigate uncertainty, such as by forming informal networks for mutual support, yet the overall structure reinforces isolation and role ambiguity inherent to gig labor. These dynamics underscore how digital platforms exacerbate liminal conditions, promoting adaptable but unstable identities in the modern workforce.^[66]

References

[1]
None
### Definition and Key Concepts of Liminality from Victor Turner’s Perspective
[2]
[PDF] The Rites of Passage, Second Edition
Few books in anthropology have had as much influence as Arnold van Gennep's Les rites de passage, originally published in. France in 1909.
[3]
[PDF] The Rites Of Passage Van Gennep
Arnold van Gennep identified three main stages in rites of passage: separation, transition (or liminality), and incorporation. These stages mark the individual ...
[4]
Liminality as a Conceptual Frame for Understanding the Family ...
This period is defined by the caregiver's loss of social connectedness and loss of future while navigating an uncertain and ambiguous illness trajectory. Post- ...
[5]
[PDF] An Exploration into Liminal Spaces and Their Effects on Player ...
Abstract. This thesis explores how liminal spaces can be used in video games by analyzing their design and impact on player tension.
[6]
liminal - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology. From Latin limināris, from līmen (“doorstep, threshold; doorway ... Adjective. liminal (comparative more liminal, superlative most liminal). Of ...English · Etymology · Adjective · French<|control11|><|separator|>
[7]
Liminal - Etymology, Origin & Meaning
c. 1400, "boundary, frontier," from Old French limite "a boundary," from Latin limitem (nominative limes) "a boundary, limit, border, embankment between fields, ...
[8]
Liminal and subliminal etymology and frequency
Jun 3, 2019 · Both come from the Latin word limen for threshold. Something is subliminal if it is below the threshold, typically the threshold of consciousness.
[9]
None
Below is a merged summary of the liminal phase in Arnold van Gennep's "The Rites of Passage," consolidating all information from the provided segments into a single, comprehensive response. To retain maximum detail and ensure clarity, I will use a structured format with a narrative overview followed by a detailed table in CSV format for key elements. This approach balances readability with the inclusion of all specifics, including definitions, transitional nature, betwixt and between states, thresholds, symbolic elements, quotes, and URLs.
[10]
[PDF] The Uses and Meanings of Liminality - Amazon S3
This article introduces the work of Arnold van Gennep and traces the intellectual history of the concept of liminality. After considering the relative ...
[11]
[PDF] Turner_Victor_The_Ritual_Proce...
Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structurej. Roy Wagner ... in the liminality of ritual. Communitas cannot manipulate re sources or ...
[12]
To lock up eleusis: A question of liminal space - ResearchGate
Having journeyed to the ends of the earth and the land of the dead, Heracles could therefore suggest closing down the Eleusian mysteries.
[13]
[PDF] Eliade - The Sacred and the Profane - Monoskop
Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, New York, Sheed. Ward, 1958 ... Every sacred space implies a hierophany, an irruption of the sacred ...
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The Dance of First Beginnings - BYU Studies
Mircea Eliade suggests that man always seeks to fix his abode at the “center of the world,” the point of first beginning. To lay out an earthly community ...
[15]
THE KAcBA, GENDER, AND THE RITES OF PILGRIMAGE - jstor
Liminality (ihram) began for the pilgrims at designated points (al-miqat) out- side of Mecca and continued for the duration of the pilgrimage. Men replaced.
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[PDF] University of Groningen The Hajj and the Anthropological Study of ...
Hajj rites, particularly those that comprise the Hajj proper, contain many elements that can be recognised as attributes of liminality: the bidding farewell of.
[17]
Lent with Richard Rohr: Liminal Space | Franciscan Media
Apr 20, 2019 · A "liminal space" is a crucial in-between time, a "handing over time" where soul and spirit rejoin with body, and a necessary "grief work".
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[PDF] In and Out of Time: Festivals, Liminality and Communitas
Liminality implies that the high could not be high unless the low existed, and he who is high must ex- perience what it is like to be low.
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[PDF] Carnivalesque, Liminality and Social Drama: Characterising the Anti ...
Oct 25, 2021 · It provides immense freedom and a feel of equality as part of the inversion of official values and social rules. A similar perspective is shared ...
[20]
[PDF] Liminality and Communitas by Victor Turner | Void Network
Victor Turner (1920-83), who taught at the universities of Manchester, Cornell, Chi- cago, and Virginia, is remembered as both a master ethnographer and one of ...
[21]
Sites of Pilgrimage, Sites of Heritage: An Exploratory Introduction
The great historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, considered a pilgrimage site to be a society's axis mundi, a place in which cosmological perfection pierces ...
[22]
Full article: Thresholds and Liminality - Taylor & Francis Online
Nov 2, 2023 · Liminality describes “the psychological process of transitioning across boundaries and borders” (Larson, Citation2014, pp. 1032–1033). A liminal ...
[23]
Murray Stein | Midway on our life's journey…: On Psychological ...
Jul 21, 2021 · In my book, In Midlife, I use the term “liminality” to speak about this phase. The term means “betwixt and between” or “in a threshold.” ...
[24]
Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development - StatPearls - NCBI
Nov 7, 2022 · It posits eight sequential stages of individual human development influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors throughout the lifespan.Missing: grief | Show results with:grief
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The role of liminality in advancing theories of grief and bereavement
Some bereaved partners describe feeling trapped between loss and restoration. This liminal experience is characterised by a feeling of 'not being anywhere'.
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Introduction to the Special Issue on Liminal Hotspots
Apr 5, 2017 · Liminal hotspots are characterized by dynamics of paradox, paralysis, and polarization, but they also intensify the potential for pattern shift.
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Psychedelic-assisted therapy for anxiety and depression in the face ...
Mar 1, 2019 · This paper explores the recent trials into psychedelics for death-related anxiety and depression, in the context of current medical and psychiatric ideology.Missing: near- | Show results with:near-
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Comparison of psychedelic and near-death or other non-ordinary ...
Aug 24, 2022 · Both psychedelic drug experiences and near-death experiences can occasion changes in perspectives on death and dying, but there have been few ...
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[PDF] CREATIVITY - University of Rochester
Csikszentmihalyi points out that creativity cannot be understood by looking only at the people who appear to make it happen. Creative ideas need a receptive ...
[30]
michael-white - The Dulwich Centre
**Summary:**
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Developmental crisis in early adulthood: A composite qualitative ...
Liminality is experienced when we make transitions between periods in ... midlife transition, and so are also predicted by Levinson's model. But the ...
[32]
An interview study on dealing with ontological shock and existential ...
May 5, 2025 · These liminal states challenge individuals' sense of self and ... Using trauma-focused therapies, like EMDR to process the psychedelic ...
[33]
Embodied and Sensory Experience in Cancer Care and Art Therapy
Jun 3, 2016 · This article discusses the relevance of liminality for art therapy and childhood sexual abuse. 'Liminality' comes from the Latin word limen ...
[34]
Martin Heidegger - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Jan 31, 2025 · In Being and Time, Heidegger reserves 'existence' (Existenz) as a term for designating Dasein's kind of being. To mark out the ontological ...Heidegger's Aesthetics · Heidegger and the Other... · Heidegger on Language · 108Missing: liminality | Show results with:liminality
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[PDF] Flirting as a Liminal Experience - Duquesne Scholarship Collection
In the literature on liminality, liminal experiences are usually defined in one of ... Dasein). In boredom, Marion says, the world has not yet claimed us or ...
[36]
Jacques Derrida - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Nov 22, 2006 · Beside critique, Derridean deconstruction consists in an attempt to re-conceive the difference that divides self-consciousness (the difference ...Basic Argumentation and its... · Elaboration of the Basic... · DeconstructionMissing: liminality | Show results with:liminality<|control11|><|separator|>
[37]
Jacques Derrida: The Double Liminality of a Philosophical Marrano
Jan 22, 2019 · Derrida houses his entire deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence as a project that cannot be disassociated from an exploration of Greek ...
[38]
Homi K. Bhabha: the Liminal Negotiation of Cultural Difference
Homi K. Bhabha attempts in his introduction to The Location of Culture to shed light upon the liminal negotiation of cultural identity across differences of ...
[39]
Emmanuel Levinas - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Jul 23, 2006 · The unfolding of dialogue expands the social relationship, and Levinas argues that social life preserves a residue of the initial “ethical” ...Missing: liminality | Show results with:liminality
[40]
Contemporary Trauma Narratives | Liminality and the Ethics of Form | J
Jun 27, 2014 · ... ethics of alterity inspired by Emmanuel Levinas, and the ethics of vulnerability. This approach makes Contemporary Trauma Narratives an ...
[41]
Kafka's Zoopoetics - OAPEN Library
... Kafka. Kafka's animals typically stand at the threshold between humanity and animality, fusing together human and nonhuman features. Among his liminal ...
[42]
Thresholds and Liminal Spaces in The Fellowship of the Ring
These transformations can be seen by looking at three particular thresholds: the Hedge, the Old Forest, and Rivendell.Missing: moral ambiguity
[43]
Exploring Liminal Spaces in Gothic Literature: The Role of Transition ...
Oct 26, 2024 · This paper explores liminality as a key thematic and structural element within Gothic literature, focusing on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's ...
[44]
(PDF) Reconfiguring the Hero's Journey - Academia.edu
... liminality that allows the hero to transition from one stage of life to the ... Northrop Frye at the vanguard.13 In the five stages described in ...
[45]
Gabriel García Márquez, magical realism, liminality, shifting realities
Jul 10, 2025 · Research Article, World Literature · The Magic of Liminality: Shifting Realities and Ambiguity in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Works.
[46]
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1344&context=masters
[47]
(PDF) Bill Viola and Liminality - Academia.edu
Bill Viola's artistic exploration focuses on the concept of liminality, examining themes of birth, life, and death through the lens of human experience.
[48]
[PDF] Dish and Pot: Scatology and Liminal Space in Samuel Beckett
Dec 1, 2014 · In Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon are forced to wait in a nondescript, alien landscape where the hope of anyone's arrival, much ...
[49]
https://www.bstjournal.com/article/id/6584/
[50]
[PDF] Jerzy Grotowski's Poor Theatre: An Analysis - IJCRT.org
This analysis examines the historical context, principles, methodologies, and lasting impact of Grotowski's Poor. Theatre. Grotowski's focus on stripping away ...Missing: liminality | Show results with:liminality
[51]
The Informe Body
### Summary of Liminality in Relation to Fluxus or Ephemeral Art
[52]
Liminality and the Fog Sublime - Academia.edu
The installation elicits a sense of the sublime through its enveloping fog, which blurs boundaries and challenges perceptions of self and surroundings, creating ...
[53]
(PDF) Liminal Lynchian Spaces: Colour, Interior & Fashion as Visual ...
Feb 25, 2025 · This article examines how Lynch's use of colour, interior design, and fashion function as a cohesive visual language, shaping the emotional and thematic ...
[54]
Liminality and the Hidden Aspects of The Conjuring
Jun 10, 2020 · This article explores how the modern family homes that are presented become the sites of liminal hauntings and ultimately the destabilizing of the family unit.
[55]
Listening in the Ambient Mode: Implications for Music Therapy ...
This theoretical paper explores the function, structures, and experience of listening to and creating ambient music, and encountering the ambient mode of being.
[56]
Music in Ritual and Ritual in Music: A Virtual Viewer's Perceptions ...
Aug 9, 2025 · The fascinating use of the ancient practice of liminal integration of music and ritual in a modern mediatized performance illustrates both ...
[57]
Post-9/11 Aesthetics of Uncertainty in PlayDead's Limbo (2010)
This paper explores the Gothic videogame Limbo (PlayDead, 2010) in terms of an aesthetic and conceptual precariousness and preoccupation with 'uncer- tainty' ...
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Liminality, Multidimensional Virtual Reality and Deep Immersion
Sep 1, 2025 · Building upon the concept of Deep Immersion, multidimensional virtual reality is explored utilizing personal narrative, portals and symbolic anchoring links.
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[PDF] analyzing the cultural significance of the animated GIF
In this article, we outline and articulate the GIF's features and affordances, investigate their implications, and discuss their broader significance for ...
[60]
Liminal Space in Architecture: Threshold and Transition
The limen is defined as the transitional threshold between two fixed states in cultural rites of passage or between two dissimilar spaces in architecture.Missing: interstitial | Show results with:interstitial<|separator|>
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Gothic Cathedrals: Architecture & Divine Light
Dec 8, 2020 · For Suger, the church occupied a sort of liminal space between the earthly and heavenly realms. The intentional use of light, therefore, was ...
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A Transformation of the Boston City Hall for the Public | ArchDaily
Mar 6, 2025 · Explore the revitalization of Boston City Hall, showcasing sustainable design and community engagement in Brutalist architecture.
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Structural deviations drive an uncanny valley of physical places
Creepy environments, deviating architecture, and “liminal spaces”. Some built environments, like abandoned buildings, can elicit feelings of horror, dread, or ...
[64]
The Eerie Comfort of Liminal Spaces - The Atlantic
Nov 1, 2022 · Liminal spaces are now an aesthetic in online parlance, meaning where like-minded people see compelling images and post variations on them.
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Jean Baudrillard in Cyberspace: Internet, Virtuality, and Postmodernity
experience within this simulated globe becomes an experience of the cybernetic real: no longer a reality, but a virtuality. Although we may associate virtual ...
[66]
A moment in and out of time: precarity, liminality, and autonomy in ...
Jan 16, 2024 · This paper explores tensions and ambiguities for UK HE teachers during COVID-19. It analyses changed behaviours and routines for existing hybrid workers.
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Triple liminality and liminal agency in the Swedish gig economy
Jun 1, 2023 · In this paper, we identify when and why migrant gig workers experience liminality in the socio-spatial context of food delivery in the Swedish gig economy.Missing: fluidity | Show results with:fluidity