Question and Answers on Peak States
Research
Revision 1.2,
August 25, 2007
Our thanks to all the workshop volunteers, and
interested people who have contributed questions. Please
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To understand some of the questions and
replies, we assume you’ve read the background
material on this website.
"Why have
you made progress in this area when so many other people
who have been working in this field have
not?"
This work did not happen
overnight - it’s taken over 20 years of focused,
continuous work from a lot of very bright and talented
people following a path that literally no one supported or
believed in. (And in the beginning we had no evidence that
this approach would work either.) A tremendous cost both
financially, socially, and in terms of life opportunities
sacrificed.
Additionally, in 2003 we
discovered that there is a core problem that blocks
people's awareness or willingness to see and eliminate the
underlying blocks to having peak states. We now have a
technique that addresses this problem - the Tribal Block
Technique™ - which is effective in eliminating this
problem.
"There are
many people with workshops and training claiming to have
found the answer for making life better - but they didn't
work for me. Why should I believe
you?"
The answer to this question
is a bit complex. First, there are two completely different
issues that both
need to be
addressed to make a person's life better:
1) The first is the presence of a problem or suffering
(that is directly or indirectly due to pre- or post natal
trauma). For example, a person might suffer from a physical
or emotional dysfunction, such as chronic pain, anxiety,
and so on, that we usually take to physicians or
psychologists for treatment. When the problem is
eliminated, the client will feel far better. Essentially,
this is like taking your car in to the service station,
getting it fixed and back to normal.
Unfortunately, there are
many different kinds of mechanisms that can cause
suffering, and most therapies or training programs usually
address only one or at best a couple of them. Worse, many
of the therapies still taught are only partly effective -
finding one that can swiftly and completely eliminate a
problem is not the norm - although this situation has been
improving since the introduction of power therapies in the
'90s. Unlike the training programs that we're aware of, our
therapist training is not 'technique' dependent - instead,
we teach the underlying biological mechanisms that cause
these problems, along with a number of constantly improving
and evolving techniques to eliminate them. This is one
reason our certified therapists only charge for results -
because they can
usually get
results. However, this field is not yet a 'mature
technology' - there are still mechanisms that nobody can
yet heal. Continuing our car analogy, most training
programs only train the mechanics on just a part of the
car, like the tires, brakes or transmission, may require
the client to return over and over to the service station,
and ignore the rest of the car as either not existing or
being intrinsically unfixable.
2) The second issue involves the absence of peak states.
Even though a person may feel OK, without any obvious
problems, most people have had moments when they felt far,
far better than normal (e.g., sensations of happiness,
peace, presence, and so on). Fortunately, it is possible to
turn most of these 'peak experiences' into continuous
states of being, or to acquire ones that most people have
never before felt (such as feelings of 'aliveness', the
sensation of sacredness radiating from one's body, and so
on). Many peak states are not just an a recovery or
extension of something a person has previously felt -
instead, they are often completely new and unfamiliar. For
example, in the 'Beauty Way' state, you experience yourself
and everything around you as having a quality of aliveness,
depending on the type of object - a tree feels much more
alive than a rock. This is just not something that can be
felt in normal consciousness. If these people are asked why
they are alive, the same answer is obvious to them without
any doubt or question. This is just not something that can
be done from average consciousness. Continuing our previous
car analogy, acquiring peak 'states' is like trading your
economy car in for a sports car or in some lucky cases a
private jet. Thus, healing will make you feel better
because of an absence
of
suffering, whereas acquiring a peak state will make you
feel better because of the presence
of
some feeling, sensation or ability.
Obviously, both kinds of
issues are important to address. Different workshops and
therapies in the market might address either healing, peak
states, or some combination of the two. Most workshops and
training programs only address healing, and any peak states
are just lucky accidents. For example, since peak states
have specific experiential qualities, they could be
discussed in the training literature - but almost no
workshops or training programs do, making it pretty clear
that they don't deliberately work with peak states.
The state of the art in peak
state processes still has a long way to go, and
unfortunately most peak state approaches currently on the
marketplace are intrinsically temporary. Hence, we often
hear of people who complain that they got a workshop
'high', but lost it sometime later. We directly address how
to acquire and stabilize peak states in our training,
although our techniques are not yet perfect - we cannot yet
help everyone we see.
"I’ve
learned all kinds of spiritual techniques that I was told
would give me the answer, but they didn’t work. Why
should I expect something different from you?"
What is totally different about our approach is
that we figured out what is actually going on in the
psyche, and what causes people to have or not have peak
spiritual or shamanic states. This makes techniques
developed from this basic understanding far, far faster,
reliable and effective than previous generations of
techniques. Thus, one could read about the basis of peak
states in one of our textbooks, or figure it out for
oneself and invent entirely new techniques on one's own to
solve the underlying problems we’ve discovered. This
is actually what we are doing at the present. We
didn’t start with a technique that worked, we started
by figuring out what was really going on and then invented
techniques to fix the problem. That’s why as time
goes on, we expect that we and other motivated people will
come up with entirely faster and simpler techniques.
People are complex, with a
whole variety of reasons that might cause them difficulties
in having peak states. Since we know what we are trying to
accomplish and understand most of the underlying
mechanisms, we can usually sit down and figure out a way
around that person’s unique problem. Or they can do
it for themselves, which I find very empowering and
wonderful. To give an example of this process from another
discipline, this is the approach that is used by engineers
in creating new products.
"How are
peak states and healing related?"
It turns out that a person
can have a peak state without healing anything. Life
circumstances, good experiences, and so on can cause you to
temporarily relax underlying traumas that normally keep you
from a peak state. In fact, a small percentage of the
general population were born with various peak states and
live in them most of the time.
Generally, a person acquires
a stable peak state by healing the underlying mechanisms -
originally caused by traumas - that block it. In the last
few years, new, even more efficient approaches that take
advantage of underlying subcellular mechanisms have allowed
us to avoid healing individual traumas directly, yet still
get the results we want.
"You mean
some people are in a peak state
normally?"
Yes. These are the
individuals that seem to be exceptionally healthy, happy,
and productive, even if it’s in areas that you
wouldn’t choose for yourself. One example some of you
might know is Gary Craig, originator of the EFT energy
therapy. In another example, the so called
‘invulnerable’ children in the psychological
literature are almost certainly in the ‘Inner
Peace’ peak state most of the time, which gives them
their characteristic resilience to their extremely
traumatic past. Finding simple and fast ways to bring the
entire population into this state has been one of the
driving forces behind our work.
Interestingly, people who
have had a peak state most of their lives have almost no
motivation to face the difficulty required to permanently
move into deeper and better peak states. For the rest of
us, our years of painful normal consciousness can actually
motivate us to go into better and better peak states once
we know what we’re trying to accomplish and how to do
it.
"What is an
unusual application of your work?"
The phenomenon of
‘spiritual emergencies’ is one. Helping to heal
people who are suffering from these unusual experiences is
greatly facilitated when one understands why the experience
is occurring. Another is in the applications to serious
mental and physical diseases, many of which are considered
incurable by conventional techniques.
"What are
the medical applications?"
Our approach to the recovery
of health that does not involve any physical or chemical
intervention, but rather uses state-of-the-art
psychological techniques. Our current applications are in
schizophrenia, addictions, autism, and other diseases.
Actually, many serious or 'incurable' diseases are
candidates for these techniques, but up to now we have been
limited by time, money, and priorities. We are now focusing
on streamlining our processes and discoveries in order to
create a pool of healers for our clinical projects. We are
also working on ‘holy grail’ of healing, that
of immediately regenerating almost any physical damage.
"What is a
peak state and how does that relate to various other states
of being or consciousness that I have heard referred to as
"enlightenment", and "self-actualization"?"
As you might imagine, our work is sometimes
very controversial among spiritual teachers and students.
To give an example, samahdi
is
considered the ‘ultimate state’ among some
traditions. (We use the Zen definition of the word, a state
of timelessness, unbelievable peace, and lack of virtually
any need to breathe.) Yet, now that we know what it is, we
find it actually a very dysfunctional state where the heart
and body brains are disabled, and qualities that those
brains have are missing from the organism.
To the best of our knowledge,
there is no definitive list of characteristics for the
'enlightenment' state that are generally agreed upon by
Western scholars. However, given our current understanding
of the phenomenon, we believe we've identified its
underlying biological basis.
"How come
the people who reach various levels of expanded awareness
(higher states of consciousness) don't seem to always agree
on "the truth"?"
There is a fascinating reason. It turns out
that there are a variety of completely different 'ultimate'
peak states (ones we call 'Realm' states), depending on
what aspect of consciousness you focus on. Thus, we get
Hindus focusing on the infinite, but dying of terrible
diseases. We get shamans healing diseases, and connected to
the planetary consciousness, but ignorant of the eternal.
Buddhists focus on the Buddha mind, but ignore physical
healing and the planetary consciousness. Christians focus
on the Creator, and ignore anything else. And so on.
Because traditional peak
state processes are so difficult to do, slow to work, and
generally ineffective, it often takes a lifetime to reach
one or these ultimate states. And because anyone who
experiences one of these ultimate states knows it is an
ultimate state from their own experience, there is a strong
tendency to ignore or downplay any other state. Thus, each
tradition tends to oversell their experience and discount
any other. Fortunately, because in the modern world we have
access to many traditions, we can spot this inconsistency
with some simple common sense.
This points out another
important issue. Even with an 'ultimate' peak state, a
person still has issues that need to be healed. Peak states
and trauma-driven dysfunctional behavior can co-exist.
Thus, we have well known, legitimate spiritual or shamanic
teachers with obvious and sometimes severe psychological
dysfunction. Peak states, even major ones, don't
necessarily eliminate these problems. Thus, when working
with a teacher, ask yourself, has he or she gotten their
act together both emotionally, physically, spiritually? Do
they have amazing personal and sexual partnerships? Do they
contribute, work, play, have fun? Do they get sick? Can
they do regenerative healing on others? And so on. Because
a teacher is expert in one area does not mean he or she is
expert in all areas.
"What is
the "higher self", especially as related to the triune
brains?"
This question is a bit hard
to answer because there are several totally different and
unrelated states that can be described as connection to the
'higher self'. For example, a direct connection with Gaia,
the planetary consciousness, can give an experience that
could be described as being a 'higher self'. Likewise,
connection to one's own 'oversoul', which involves a
continuous connection to all of our past lives, can also
give this experience.
The triune brains, which
make up the self-aware units of our subconscious, do not
give one an experience of a 'higher self.
"How do you
know that muscle testing is a form of communication with
the reptilian brain (the body)? How do you know that
it can't or doesn't communicate with different levels (or
brains) of an individual depending on their state or how
integrated their brains are?"
One of the states we can move into - the 'Brain
Communication' state - allows a person to directly
communicate with one's triune brains. With that awareness,
you can experience yourself answering ‘muscle
testing’ yourself as the body brain. In fact, you
don't need to muscle test at all - you can directly
'converse' with your body brain without using any indirect
mechanism.
"Can’t
we trust muscle testing, especially our own
body?"
Unfortunately we cannot
trust muscle testing. It’s fairly easy to demonstrate
the many limitations of muscle testing, such as the
unconscious distorting effect that the tester has on the
subject being tested. However, people often desperately
want to trust it, and so refuse to look at evidence that
indicates it has limitations and flaws. Most people are not
aware of the triune nature of the subconscious, and so
assume that they must be communicating with some sort of
'higher power'. We’ve all been brought up with the
idea that “The body doesn’t lie”, and
therapeutic processes of applied kinesiology are based on
this idea. Unfortunately, this simply isn't true. For
example, the phenomenon of ‘psychological
reversal’ in energy therapies illustrates how the
body is quite willing resist healing certain issues, as any
addict can well describe. People also get misled by the
literal nature of the body brain’s thinking
processes, and assume if it’s literal it must be very
precisely true. The fallacy is like thinking that just
because computers are literal and precise, they work
perfectly and never ever make mistakes like outputting
checks in the wrong amount!
The bottom line is that the
body brain is has been traumatized in the developmental
process, and responds in ways it feels will promote its
survival. And it can be very tricky and sneaky about it,
too! This brain often gets itself into trouble because it
thinks by associating sensations together, and usually
isn't aware of why it made the association. These
dysfunctional associations can sometimes be quite harmful
to the organism, and are often quite peculiar. Acquiring
the 'Brain Communication' state is an eye opening
experience in this regard, since one can directly
communicate with the body brain - and really see how it
often acts like a spoiled, hurt five year old with its own
dysfunctional agenda.
On the positive side, muscle testing is one way to get data
about how the body feels about certain issues - as long as
one keeps in mind that it is no more infallible than the
rest of ourself.
"If being in
one or several of these peak states expands a person's
awareness so that they are aware of more of the allness,
how come in that state they can't just figure out and tell
you the answers that you are stuck on?"
Unfortunately, this good idea doesn't usually
work in practice. To understand, one has to realize that
traumas, even ones we are not aware of, guide our behavior
to a great extent. We often unconsciously believe we need
to hold on to a trauma (either from psychological reversal
or a positive feeling associated with the trauma); our
consciousness will often avoid the pain involved in seeing
our various traumas; or both. Thus, in practice, no matter
what peak states we have, we find that we can't find new
states by accessing higher states like Gaia or the Creator
- because we 'blank out' when the relevant traumas are
pointed out to us in these states. Essentially, relevant
traumas are invisible to us.
However, there are cases
where we can take advantage of these exceptional states.
For example, if a therapist has a given peak state, this
means he doesn't have any direct, relevant trauma blocking
it. Thus, he can
perceive any
blocking trauma in his client, since there is no triggering
of similar traumatic material. This is a general result - a
therapist with certain advanced peak states can rapidly
help others identify and heal material, as long at the
therapist doesn't have similar issues, doesn't have
unconscious blocks to helping the person, and has adequate
skill and techniques available to him.
Of course, even being in
these peak states doesn’t mean you know how to use
them properly or understand what’s going on inside
yourself. People aren't born with operating manuals,
unfortunately!
"What is
the ego?"
This label is a historical
construct for a phenomenon that is not understood in the
field of psychology. The English translation of the word
‘ego’ is merely the word “I”.
We’ve discovered that two totally unrelated
mechanisms are misleadingly lumped into the conventional
definition. The first part we call the 'center of
awareness' (CoA). Judeo-Christian spiritual tradition
describes it as some eternal, spiritual part of ourselves.
(It is often called the 'soul' or the 'spirit'.) However,
it’s not something distant and mysterious, but rather
it’s actually the part of us that is the basis of our
self-awareness. In everyday terms, it is just you!
Dysfunction in this part of us results in the CoA being
restricted to a small area of our body. A healthy CoA
expands throughout the body and into the environment.
Another part of the ego is
the self-awareness of the genetic material itself,
something we call the 'directing self'. This part of the
ego is responsible for our ability to act and respond.
Dysfunction in this part of the ego results in multiple
personality disorder. This material is covered in depth in
Volumes 2 and 3 of Peak States
of Consciousness: Theory and
Applications.
"Are
emotions the underlying etiology of all illness? What about
genetic illnesses?"
No, stuck emotions (from trauma) are not always
the underlying etiology of all illnesses, although
they are
the
cause of a lot of them. For example, the EFT therapy
(www.emofree.com) which
focuses on eliminating stuck emotions has an amazing
track record for eliminating many, many different
physical illnesses. Interestingly, the presence of these
traumas with their stuck emotions has an impact on our
health even when we don't feel or in fact have any
awareness of them. For example, in the Inner Peace peak
state, one does not access the emotional content of past
traumas, but suddenly acquiring the state does not cause
the person to lose any trauma-based illnesses.
We've found that most
generational problems are not due to damaged genes, but are
rather due to a mechanism that is similar to that of simple
trauma. However, some problems are actually genetic in
origin, but in our experience they are very very few. In
our experience, most problems are epigenetic in origin.
"If you are
able to come up with a process or way to heal people of
virtually every disease, will people ever die, and if so
why?"
Our model predicts that
aging is reversible, but we wouldn’t bet our
paychecks on it. We know of no examples of this in any
mammalian species. On the other side of the coin,
we’ve found that people choose to die and actually
pick an age to do so during the birthing process. Healing
this problem has a distinct effect on people - we currently
suspect this reactivates optimal levels of human growth
hormone. We’re still experimenting in this area, but
the possibilities are fascinating!
Our model does predict that it is possible to heal
virtually every disease and bodily dysfunction using a
technique we call regenerative healing. We have
successfully demonstrated this process, but as of this
writing have not yet been successful in turning into a
technique that is reliable or can be taught.
"Why can't
everyone see aura's?"
One can 'see' aura's if one
has the 'peak ability' that allows one to do so. Like peak
states, peak abilities are blocked by traumas, so that
abilities such as this one are rare in the general
population. In fact, traumas blocks an incredible number of
typical or unusual abilities.
Interestingly, most peak
abilities are associated with particular peak states.
Unfortunately, even though one may have a relevant peak
state, one also usually needs to learn how to use the
abilities it confers. It is a bit like being a gifted
pianist without ever being shown how to play it, or even
realizing that pianos exist.
Techniques that employ
relaxation (such as meditation) can sometimes unblock these
abilities temporarily, which is the approach most shamans
use. Life circumstances can sometimes also allow us to
temporarily access these abilities.
"Can you
walk on water, and if not is there a peak state that makes
that possible?"
There may be a peak state
that allows it, but one common misconception is the
assumption that just having a peak state means that you
will know how to use it effectively. This is not the case.
Just because one has fingers doesn't mean that we can
automatically play the piano. One must have the right
state and
know how to use
it. Normally, our fetal self learns a lot by watching our
mom in
utero, and since she
wasn’t in a given state, we don’t learn from
her how to use it. So, no, we don't know anyone who walks
on water.
Revision History
1.2 August 25, 2007. Minor editing.
1.1 August 20, 2007. Left the questions alone, and revised the answers for clarity or with new data.
1.0 December 6, 1999. First draft.