In today's society, this entails people going to college as an example, the 'Liminal Period' of the time that is spent in college transforms the individual. Thus Szakolocai illustrates, "The five doors of perception constitute a delicate, liminal zone: the threshold of interaction between the outside world and the human self. True knowledge can only be gained through this juncture; but it is also a dangerous crossing where one can easily be misled"[Arp07]Liminality also can involve a permanent of liminality, such as disability or death. Liminality also can be discussed not only from the micro, but macro level also, but in the context of the trickster in a liminal 'state'.
Van Gennep examined micro societies, where changes in status were severely regulated, whilst also being accompanied usually by ceremonial ceremonies. These ceremonies differ not only from occasions, but also religiously and culturally, during liminality, a person's former status is effectively erased, creating a blank slate upon which expectations for the new status are imprinted. Because the liminal person must act submissive and humble, the society's values, norms, and relationships are easily absorbed. Van Gennep's first phase involves the person or persons to be in a state of incompletion, which is lost and must be ready to accept the rituals and maybe forced to comply. This stage could also be understood as the time of purification before being admitted into the sacred world and to remain there. This passage affects the individual concerned but it also affects the whole community. Therefore "Initiation coincides with puberty and that this physiological phenomenon is the point of departure for all such ceremonies"[Arn60]. In these rites, individuals are symbolically killed, reborn, and nurtured as they take on new social statuses, and then reborn into society as new and different persons.