Waking Up From Our Consensus Trance

Consensus trance is a term first used by Charley Tart, an American professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, back in the 1960s. He is perhaps best known for his book, Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential.

From a young age, Dr. Tart was fascinated by his vivid dreams.

When he woke up and shared these magical dreams with his parents, he was told they were not real, and that he should ignore them.

He could not fathom how something so detailed and rich in his sleeping mind could not be seen as important and worthy of remembering and sharing. This inspired him to study psychology, and to experiment with altered states of consciousness.

Of course, he may have been nudged along by beginning his career during a time when altered states of consciousness were a cultural phenomenon.

Dr. Tart came to the conclusion that we all share what he originally called a ¨normal waking consciousness” or a story of our reality. Later, he began to refer to this as ¨consensus trance,¨ and explored using hypnosis to create or dissolve strongly-held beliefs.

His research suggested that the process of de-hynotization, or the awakening from a trance state, could be enhanced by altered states of consciousness.

Of course, Indigenous cultures around the world developed their own ways of opening to new levels of consciousness through the use of rituals and plants.

The current research into psilocybin as a treatment for a range of mental health issues, including depression and PTSD, only underscores the knowledge long held by humans over thousands of years.

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in "magic mushrooms" that produces hallucinations as it is converted to psilocin by the body.

Supervised use or careful micro-dosing can lead to what many describe as an enhanced awareness of our reality.

I started experimenting with mushrooms when I was in high school in the 70s.

But it wasn´t the typical teenage experimentation. I was looking for healing.

At 15, I had lost the will to live.

I had been in a tragic car accident. The driver and other three passengers had died on impact.

But moments before, I had been feeling sick…and scared. The driver was taking the curves way too fast on a rainy night. The others laughed at the squealing tires. My stomach was clenching.

I was sitting next to a window, so I rolled it down to get some fresh air. The others laughed and protested as the rain spattered us in the backseat.

A minute later, I was ejected when the car hit a tree. I had a sensation of being caressed, held. Then, nothing.

I woke up with flashlights shining in my face. I was uninjured except for a bruise on my shoulder.

Later, once my parents arrived at the police station, everyone told me how lucky I was. Both the police and my parents convinced me that I did not need to tell anyone back in my town (25 miles away) about the accident. They believed it would only make things harder for me.

They made me promise not to tell anyone.

I didn´t say a word about it—not even to my siblings—for years.

So, when I heard that taking mushrooms could make people feel a sense of oneness with the universe, I was captivated. I thought mushrooms might ease my silent suffering, my utter loneliness and despair.

And that is exactly what happened. I had one trip that opened everything.

I wanted to duplicate that feeling, but I had no money. I tried meditation, but it just made my suicidal ideation get clearer.

So, instead, I made up a mindfulness game that I couldn´t wait to play. (Many years later, I taught my playful, eyes-wide-open approach to everyday awareness to thousands of people around the world.)

I have done mushrooms maybe seven times in my life.

It is a lot more regulated and understood now, but doing ´shrooms still gets you suspended from high school if you show up in an altered state at the homecoming dance…especially when you are the homecoming queen. 😐 (That happened.)

And while everyone responds differently to psychedelics, and I would never issue a blanket recommendation, for me, each time has felt like opening a new door, with insights that compound over time.

Whether it is mushrooms or yet another momentous tipping point in our terrible news that may be opening our eyes to things as they are, we are experiencing a collective awakening.

We are getting closer to the shift from trance to transformation.

But it will require changes in our beliefs and our behavior.

PROMPT:

Anything that takes us out of our day-to-day life—stretching our ways of seeing and relating or pushing our physical boundaries—can shift our awareness and potentially alter our consciousness. And a combination of several consciousness-enhancing activities can be especially useful.

So, here´s my question for you:

What has led to your most recent or most memorable experience of consciousness shifting? 

Was it meditation or mushrooms?

Breathwork or Burning Man?

Sweat lodge or cold plunge?

Hiking or hypnosis?

Running a marathon...or giving birth?  

How might you enhance the development of your consciousness as well as your capacity for inspired action in new ways?

And also: what elements of our consensus trance may be limiting your ability to see clearly, despite your collapse awareness? 

How can we determine what remains as residue, and how might we dissolve it?

Spend some time considering what might be locking you into a trance that limits you, and what tools and experiences might serve you as you seek greater clarity.