Latest / Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast / Phenomenology of Everyday Trance

Transcript

Phenomenology of Everyday Trance · Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast

0:01
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Curious Mind
0:04
podcast. My name is Gabriel Ellis.
0:06
I'm a psychologist, psychotherapist and a researcher
0:10
of consciousness. In the last episode I described,
0:14
based on the work of a Steven Volinsky, how we live our daily
0:18
lives almost constantly under the influence of a more or less
0:22
strong trance. For example, we wake up, think
0:26
about the upcoming day with a certain mood, often not good
0:30
enough. Or we feel into the stiff, tired
0:33
body and spend the next 30 minutes in this mood until we
0:38
really have to leave the house. Or we go in lethargy to the
0:42
bathroom For the morning routine and all these simple examples.
0:47
Our focus is narrowed, for instance on thoughts or the body
0:53
or our moods, on feelings. And in our experience and
0:57
actions, we are largely on autopilot.
1:00
So all those kind of routines we go through, even the mood that
1:03
we wake up with is very habitual.
1:07
In most cases there is not much new competition there.
1:11
There is the morning autopilot, there is the leading the house
1:14
autopilot, they're going to work autopilot and so on.
1:17
So from this perspective of everyday trance, many of the
1:21
activities, thoughts and feelings that we have throughout
1:25
the day are basically the results of long practiced
1:29
trances. Bolinsky provides many more such
1:33
examples. And if you're interested, check
1:36
out the last episode if you have not done so.
1:39
And I can really recommend his book Trances People Live, and
1:43
you'll find a link to that also in the description below.
1:47
The problematic aspects of trans appear in mental disorders,
1:52
starting with, you know, the quite common anxiety and
1:55
depression and even more so in severe disorders like borderline
1:59
or narcissism. But that does not mean that
2:02
everyday trances only occur in disorders.
2:05
Quite On the contrary, and this is the contribution of Wolinski,
2:09
that he shows that those trances are a fundamental element of
2:14
normal everyday consciousness, which means that there must be
2:18
structures in the mind that all humans share.
2:23
Now, when we find those structures and mechanisms, this
2:28
knowledge about how everyday transits work has practical
2:32
implications both for self development and also for
2:35
psychotherapy. Because with such a knowledge we
2:39
can Hopefully this will help us to better address the real
2:44
causes of the issues that we are dealing with, both in our own
2:47
development or if we have to do that professionally.
2:52
The topic has also philosophical implications, especially for
2:56
phenomenology. This is 1 discipline within
2:59
philosophy which studies life as it immediately appears to us,
3:03
our real experiences in normal consciousness.
3:07
This is phenomenology. Unfortunately, the trance aspect
3:11
of everyday life has so far been very little explored and it's
3:15
and it's structure, it's not a really popular concept in
3:21
psychology or in philosophy. So that I hope that my
3:24
contributions will encourage other researchers and you as the
3:29
audience to engage with this topic and to get familiar with
3:32
this perspective. But in order to do that, I need
3:35
to delve into some more theoretical depths, and I hope
3:40
that you can follow me there. I will do that mostly in the
3:43
next episode where I really dive into kind of the mechanical
3:48
aspects of how it actually works, that we are daily in so
3:52
many trances. OK.
3:55
At the very basic level, there are two ingredients that are
3:59
necessary to create a trance. First, the immediate sensory
4:03
impression, which means the unobstructed perception of what
4:08
is there, what is present, primarily the unfiltered sensory
4:13
data. And this is, I will kind of
4:17
count all the sensory data that is immediately available to us,
4:20
which is mostly seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, the
4:26
sense of temperature, the experience of physiological
4:30
nervous pain, or a sense of balance or a sense of position
4:35
and movement in space. And the organ senses, for
4:38
example, hunger, thirst, and the urge to go to the toilet.
4:42
So this is the immediate, immediately available sensory
4:47
data that our Organism provides to our consciousness.
4:52
This is what I call what is there, what is present, what is
4:55
real in that sense. And besides this, besides what
4:59
is present, there is a second necessary ingredient, namely the
5:04
perception of what is not immediately there.
5:07
And this includes memories, expectations, hopes, wishes,
5:12
worries, fears, anticipation, thoughts, concepts, mood, and of
5:17
course, feelings. Now this dichotomy has a fairly
5:23
long tradition. It can be found first in the
5:27
works of Immanuel Kant, who wrote many of his works in the
5:34
second part of the 18th century, and more precisely in his
5:37
Critique of Pure Reason. What I casually call what is
5:41
there in quotes he refers to as sensory impressions, which he
5:48
then calls immediate perceptions.
5:51
Now there is an unfortunate English translation which is
5:55
quite common, that is called intuitions, and this is
5:58
misleading because what he actually means is what is
6:01
immediately perceived, and this comes out much more in the
6:06
German original. Now, on the other hand, he sees
6:10
that there are inner sensations, that there is a sense of
6:14
imagination and the ability to conceive, to understand.
6:19
This is what I call what is not immediately there, not in a
6:23
sensory way, and which Kant calls understanding and German
6:28
fechant. Hegel, immediately after Kant
6:32
and also inspired by him, later adopted and changed this terms
6:36
in his sense, but they're still relatively closely related.
6:40
So immediate perceptions represents, if you go into
6:44
literature, that what is present, what is actually there,
6:47
and understanding for the 18th and 19th century philosophy
6:53
represents what is not centrally present.
6:57
By the way, with this division between those two categories of
7:01
what is there and what is not there.
7:02
I'm fully aware that I make drastic simplifications.
7:07
For example, feelings and thoughts of course, have also an
7:11
immediate aspect. The unconscious is sending us
7:15
those thoughts and feelings, and they appear very immediate and
7:18
real to us, which is by the way, also very important in the
7:22
development of Hegel's philosophy.
7:25
So in the sense that we perceive them in the inner world, they
7:30
are indeed real. Much of what I discuss here
7:35
actually requires to be very precise and detailed discussion,
7:39
especially of philosophies of Kant, Hegel, Hussal, which I
7:43
will mention later, more Lacan and early Buddhism.
7:46
But for the purpose of this podcast I have to simplify and
7:52
in the context of everyday trans, it is really sufficient
7:56
to make this distinction, which is between the outer world and
8:00
the inner world. In the outer world, we encounter
8:05
objects or people, work, relationships, family, and this
8:11
outer world is available to everyone around me.
8:14
Basically, I can record the circumstances of the outer world
8:19
with a camera and then I can discuss with people about it.
8:22
So this is something that I can immediately relate to others.
8:26
So in that sense, it has a shared reality to it.
8:30
We can agree upon it, we can find a consensus of what we see,
8:34
what we hear and so on. So in that sense it is very
8:37
real, and it is, it can be shared among different observers
8:42
and people. And in contrast, I have a
8:45
private inner world available only to me.
8:49
And this precisely this inner world is responsible for the
8:53
trance. The very simple model is this,
8:58
that the objective outer world is more or less correctly
9:02
perceived by us. And this perception is always,
9:06
and this is what I emphasize is always overlaid by a goal and
9:11
purpose oriented interpretation, or with other words, with a
9:15
distortion. So there's real perception of
9:21
the outer world and this is then interpreted and distorted by my
9:27
inner world. The trick, so to speak, is that
9:31
my personal judgement, my distortion, which is not shared
9:36
by my outer world, becomes a perceived reality.
9:42
In other words, I do not understand that what I perceive
9:46
is a mixture of objective perception and my corrupted
9:50
judgement or my interpretative judgement.
9:55
I did not perceive them separately.
9:58
It's I don't get the ingredients for a cocktail, mix them
10:01
together and then enjoy the cocktail.
10:03
I always get a ready made cocktail and I don't get the
10:08
list of ingredients inside of it.
10:10
This is what I experienced at every given moment.
10:14
I only see the mixture and perceive this mixture as
10:18
immediate truth and that is precisely the trans effect.
10:24
In a trance, I believe that I perceive reality, even though
10:30
half of it, you know, to put it simply, of this perception is a
10:34
product of my inner world. Now the ones of you who are
10:41
familiar with psychology and psychological concepts, they
10:44
might know a term that is quite related to it.
10:47
It was introduced by Freud and this is projection.
10:51
So that I perceive an outer reality, which partly is
10:58
actually coming from my inside, means that I project
11:03
unconsciously, unknowingly, my inside to the outside world.
11:08
And so part of what I see is actually coming for me.
11:12
A simple example of projection is feelings of guilt, and there
11:17
are many more examples. So let's assume I did something
11:21
wrong and then I project this feeling onto my girlfriend.
11:27
And so when we talk, I constantly see signs of
11:30
accusations or criticism in her remarks.
11:36
If I were aware of this mechanism that I project this on
11:39
her, I could question and correct my perception.
11:44
But if I naively rely on the perception of reality in quotes,
11:49
I will objectively and really hear the accusation in her voice
11:54
or what she says. And I could swear if I was asked
11:59
that I really heard it. But her voice was different.
12:01
There was a sense of accusation in her tone, where in fact this
12:07
is a product of my projection. But I don't see it.
12:11
This is the mixture that I makes me, makes it difficult to
12:15
distinguish between what is real and what I project onto the
12:20
situation, onto people. OK, so I hope that the simplest
12:25
level has become clear. We always perceive a mixture of
12:29
objective sensory perceptions combined with a level of
12:33
judgement and interpretations which I do not recognize as
12:37
such. It's always, for example, in
12:40
therapy, detectives work, so to speak, to find out what parts of
12:44
my reality I have been unconsciously projecting.
12:49
Now, if that were all, then it would be a fundamental problem,
12:53
OK, But I should be able to manage well through my
12:57
experience, through talking to people, and let go of my
13:01
projections or false interpretations and to replace
13:05
them with more accurate interpretations.
13:08
So then, for example, my girlfriend would ask me if
13:11
everything is OK. I would tell her that I hear a
13:14
certain tone in her voice. She tells me very convincingly
13:18
that this is not so, and then I believe her and correct my
13:22
projections. This would be basically it.
13:25
But in reality, we see that many of our projections and false
13:30
interpretations are very resistant in in a pattern, and
13:35
even though we often have the opportunity to correct
13:38
ourselves, we still cling to our false interpretations.
13:43
For example, we mistakenly feel attacked in a very habitual and
13:48
pattern way. Or we mistakenly, mistakenly
13:52
think that, for example, when we are in a bar that someone has an
13:55
intimate interest in US even though I'm projecting my
13:58
interest on them. Or we mistakenly think that we
14:02
are not loved or liked even though this is not the case,
14:06
etcetera, etcetera. There are so many examples for
14:08
that. So why the persistence of the
14:12
false interpretation? This persistence, this rigidity,
14:17
it requires a glue, something like a mental psychological
14:20
glue, roughly speaking, which makes us more ignorant of the
14:25
reality, and as a consequence, which makes us stupider than we
14:29
actually are, and which blocks our access to reality.
14:33
This glue is convictions and feelings.
14:38
The two are in nature and the phenomenon.
14:43
They're quite different, but in fact there are two different
14:47
aspects of very much the same of our inner world, and they are
14:53
related to each other. For example, if I was raised
14:56
with a conviction that I have to earn affection and love through
15:00
achievement, if this was how my parents raised me and I then
15:04
internalized this mindset, then this conviction includes another
15:10
conviction, which is that I'm not fundamentally lovable.
15:14
So if I was raised with this attitude, I would walk around
15:19
making connections with people, forming relationships with the
15:22
assumption that I have to earn my, the sense of being loved,
15:28
that I have to earn to be respected.
15:30
And that it it's not my innate right, so to speak, as a human
15:34
being. And so this will continually
15:38
create fresh feelings, this conviction which has been
15:42
installed in me, which I internalized in my childhood at
15:45
this example, it doesn't always have to be childhood
15:47
convictions, but this conviction will like a fountain, produce
15:52
feelings again and again that feel very real, very real.
15:57
And that will I will project on to the outside world and I will
16:01
project that on people. And if I don't repeatedly check
16:06
if my fundamental assumption that I'm not lovable and so on
16:10
is actually true, I will simply assume that I'm not lovable.
16:15
And this will create again and again those feelings of reality.
16:20
I will see that. I will feel that I will be
16:23
confirmed by my experiences that oh, I got this criticism because
16:28
of course I'm not fundamentally lovable, I didn't get the
16:32
promotion because of that, my relationship is stuck because of
16:35
that, and so on and so on. It's not difficult to imagine
16:39
that I can easily find confirmation for such a
16:42
dysfunctional conviction inside of me.
16:46
In general, the deeper or older such a belief or conviction, the
16:51
more difficult it is to correct it and the more convincing the
16:55
trance that it creates gets. The more I cling to my false
17:00
interpretation, the more ignorant and stupid I become
17:05
because I don't allow new experiences to change my mind.
17:10
I am simply ignorant of this. So the glue of trances is
17:15
convictions and feelings, and here comes a specialty that
17:20
comes into place in therapeutical sessions,
17:24
convictions and feelings and includes suffering.
17:27
The worse people feel, and this is also the clinical experience
17:33
that I have for my therapeutic work, the more that I locked in
17:36
a bubble of the inner world, which means that I are in a more
17:42
rigid traps and the worse they can perceive the outer world.
17:48
It's as if they're locked in their dysfunctional convictions
17:51
and the fountain of feelings that this produces.
17:56
And the worse I can perceive the world as a consequence, the
18:00
worse I can question my fundamental assumptions because
18:04
I don't let in new information that could disprove my
18:08
convictions. And so this is the circle of
18:10
trans that is closed. Now, if intense suffering is
18:15
there and which makes those trances very stable, people who
18:21
are particularly under the spell of their trans, whether due to
18:25
acute suffering or for example, because of personality
18:29
disorders, are hardly able to let the outer world or other
18:34
people in the inner world then dominates the inner world with
18:39
its dysfunctional beliefs and the consequential emotions.
18:43
And people mostly experience their projections.
18:46
They don't experience the real outer world anymore.
18:52
And This is why I have an allergic reaction when I hear
18:55
and you know, self help contacts or sometimes even in therapeutic
19:00
contacts when people say that real suffering is necessary for
19:04
people to change. You know, mostly real suffering
19:08
makes people weak, vulnerable and being closed up in the inner
19:12
world of dysfunctional projections and being stuck in a
19:16
trance. This is most cases what intense
19:19
suffering does. There is an there are a few
19:22
exceptions who can really transform their suffering, maybe
19:27
in moments of grace, you know, insights and so on.
19:30
But this is by far not the common case.
19:33
Mostly suffering is really, really damaging to people.
19:39
So ideally for therapeutic work is when people have to quantify
19:47
the medium amount of discomfort and suffering, because then
19:51
they're still open to the conversation.
19:54
They're open to reframing, to questions, to question their own
19:58
belief, to see themselves from the outside, all this mental
20:02
flexibility that a therapeutic context requires.
20:07
They are able to do this. The stronger the suffering, the
20:10
more they need immediate, very simple help in order to get to a
20:17
place at all where they can do real therapy.
20:20
So in this sense, it's a shame when I see that people wait too
20:23
long until the suffering becomes so intense that they first have
20:27
in therapy to invest, you know, time and energy to dig
20:30
themselves out of the most urgent hole and then to stop the
20:35
therapy. And it's even more tragic when
20:37
people think that the therapeutic work is finished
20:40
once they have dug themselves out of the out of their hole,
20:43
but have not started to question the fundamental dysfunctional
20:46
beliefs and the emotions that come out of that.
20:49
So I hope that I could clarify kind of the position of
20:54
suffering in the connection with trances that it creates here
20:59
with this contribution. OK, So hope that I have made
21:03
clear the basics of everyday trance and to make it
21:07
understandable, a little preview of the next episode.
21:11
I will actually go, like I said, into the mechanics of everyday
21:15
trance. This has to do with Hussar's
21:18
phenomenology, where he describes how different layers
21:22
of fading experiences are overlapping in every single
21:27
moment. This will be crucial for us in
21:30
order to understand how those trances actually work.
21:34
And I will describe how we can reduce the influence of trances
21:39
in our lives. And like I said before, this is
21:42
baked into our minds, it's baked into our consciousness.
21:46
There are always those two parts.
21:48
So we cannot fully get rid of kind of the trances, but we can
21:54
minimize them. By the way, this is directly
21:58
related to Buddhism and it is no coincidence that Buddha, the
22:02
term Buddha literally means the awakened 1.
22:06
He is the one who managed to completely overcome the trans
22:11
programmed into human consciousness.
22:13
If you want to take this pop culture reference, he's the one
22:17
who could escape the matrix. He is the one that can only deal
22:21
with reality and who is not in danger anymore to be sucked into
22:26
a trance of an inner world that distorts his perceptions.
22:32
So this is the fundamental, this is the big aspiration of
22:35
Buddhism, that it does go beyond normal humanity, beyond the
22:40
normal mind, which is always this mixture of reality and
22:44
trance. So more on that next time.
22:48
TuneIn, if you're interested, do find the last episode if you
22:52
have not watched it yet. If you're interested, look up
22:55
Wolinski's book who provides many examples and also
22:58
therapeutic advices of how to get out of individual trances.
23:03
You can also find a link to a free introductory therapy
23:06
session with me, because of course I apply this knowledge
23:10
about trances also in my therapeutic work.
23:12
And until then, I thank you for your attention and hope to see
23:16
you next time.