Liminality (from the Latin wor līmen, meaning "a threshold") is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective, conscious state of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology (a "liminal state") and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, and others.[citations needed] In the anthropological theories, a ritual, especially a rite of passage, involves some change to the participants, especially their social status.