Have you heard of altered state skill acquisition?

Two things… We learn more quickly and retain it more reliably when we are in a state of heightened sensory arousal and lowered “thinking”, lowered conscious filtering. This is why people get things like PTSD. They learn the battle field behaviour of running for their lives.

Like if you study for a test while drunk, you need to take the test while drunk otherwise you can’t access the memories. You’ve summarized it quite well. Humanity learned a great deal that they couldn’t have while calm in their normal state of consciousness. The learning process is rather slow in the normal state, and they are even finding now… Well, have you heard the new findings about the drug Provigil? It heightens the wakefulness of those who take it and creates a state of cognitive enhancement.

I just watched Limitless last night. Yes, that was based on Provigil. Dramatized of course.

A drug that makes you super smart. Actually, no, it makes you super awake. They are finding in other research that this is proving true. The part of the brain normally targeted by Provigil acts as sort of a switchboard for almost the entire brain if not all of it. Thus my characterizing the normal state of consciousness as being in a rest state is not simply my opinion. It’s bearing fruit under scientific scrutiny as well.

Is today’s watered down battle trance ritual the morning cup of coffee? Ah indeed, distress in a cup. They have found that being intoxicated on coffee makes you more suggestible. It’s why the news focuses so much on distress signals. They aren’t providing you with useful information. It’s not what they are paid for. They make you suggestible.

News? CNN, any news broadcast. And then play commercials for you to buy. But they can’t do that to you constantly or your recall of commercial content will degrade so they pepper it with human interest pieces as well. Celebrity gossip and things like that, but again my point is not to go down this road. It’s too easy to talk about this and everyone is these days. You don’t have to have immediate contact with the media. You don’t have to put yourself at risk of any programming. You remain plugged in no matter what you do.

How often do you get uncomfortable in a public place?

Almost always. Like a mall? When in the mall, every time you get stressed out you are in a mild and involuntary battle trance. So your brain takes in all the human signals; want but can’t have, couldn’t find and frustrated, did find and hold others in contempt. So we see people are evil. It’s all too common to report that we don’t like people. Almost everyone says it these days, but we don’t actually see or experience the people.

There does seem to a lot of negativity going round. The people are not what we are reacting to. We are reacting to the state of the battle trance. At work, where they even teach employers from sources like The Art Of War. On the streets, where we are flooded with messages even from the advertisements around us, all about our duties, the things we must do, that our friends and loved ones expect of us, require us to do.

I have referred to this as the consensus reality before, and I ask you now, do you really believe you are outside of it? Free of it somehow?

No, but I think that I try to be. Everyone tries to be, and understandably so, and this is making it worse.

Not while we interact with people. That’s why I like to spend time alone.

Not at all. At best I may hit the bars from the inside sometimes.

The more you struggle against it, the more distressed you become and the more suggestible, the deeper rooted in your mind it becomes. So fortunately, it does have cracks and the edifice is built on a natural foundation. That ground isn’t entirely dead yet. When it dies though, so will we. Temporary rest is not enough. This just keeps your relationship to it static. You just don’t get any worse.

Having a viable and readily-available alternative seems to make coping with the public easier. A sort of pressing the “mute” button to all of it. Has retreat ever made it any better? Has it gotten any easier for you? It can’t actually. Your brain craves the human signals. What you won’t let it have, it will regurgitate and process again. You will be stuck processing old moments of human contact.

Should we dive in kinda like Jim Carey in the movie Yes Man? Actually yes, in a sense that is exactly what you should do, but with qualifications of course.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~