Episode 17: Transformation Through Peak Experiences

In this episode, Dr. Sally Adnams Jones and Dr. Jen Peer Rich explore transformative peak experiences.

1:42  Jen says last week's episode was about developmental models, and this week its about “Peak Experiences” – those experiences in life that are intense - psychologically, spiritually, or physically, that come with a sense of transcendence, joy, or peace. They lead us to profound changes in our values, and how we make meaning. They connect us to something much bigger than ourselves, and are catalysts for major changes in our lives. Abraham Maslow's “Hierarchy of needs” describes how these peak experiences are unitative. Jen then takes listeners into an exercise to remember when they felt joy of the purest kind. Her own experiences transported her into another dimension, of Unity Consciousness, right where the boundaries between her and her world dissolved, very different from ordinary states of consciousness. She realized she was not separate from the world, or nature. That was a mystical peak experience, which she continues to integrate today. Integration is vital to benefit fully from peak experiences, which are life changing, sacred, meaningful and fulfilling. We feel totally alive, our perceptions are altered, our senses are heightened. But these experiences can also be overwhelming. And without the proper support, they can become very confusing and painful, especially if you add mental health issues on top of that. Then there's a real possibility of destabilization and disintegration. So it's important to have support - family, friends, professionals, companion animals, nature, trees. We need to normalize them as part of the transformative experience.

8:18  Sally says experiencing altered states saved her life. There's a spectrum of well being - from deep funks and depressions, to oscillations between moods, to coming out of those, and stabilizing into high functioning. And then there are also states of ‘enlightenment’, which are permanent stages of ecstasy, that are not dependent on any external circumstances. These are a possibility for all, now, not just religious elites, and it changes everything. Kids can't imagine an orgasm because they've never experienced one. And it might not be ethical to tell them about such possibilities until they can conceive of it. So too these experiences were kept secret in sacred texts until practitioners were ready for them. We are now demystifying them and getting really practical. We now have MRIs that can show us exactly what is happening in the brain. Sally refers to Richard Davidson's books and videos. He had access to an MRI lab to study the brains of the Dalai Lama’s most attained Buddhist meditators, who were experiencing extraordinary states. We can stabilize high states into permanent structures of consciousness, so we are no longer victims of our own bad moods. Sally describes how in the 90’s, after her intense medical trauma, she went into a really bad depression, which medications could not help. Her psychiatrist suggested electroconvulsive shock therapy. Instead she chose to find other ways to recover, and found two psycho-technologies that changed everything for her – accessing her own creativity, and yoga. She slowly transformed from a deep funk (Doctors had suggested electrocuting her brain to reconfigure patterns); to oscillating between ecstasy and funk (which the doctors then incorrectly diagnosed as bipolar, but which were actually her first glimmers of ecstasy); to moving into higher functioning; and 30 years later, she’s mostly stable there, despite ongoing traumas and challenges. She has accomplished a measure of mastery of her own brain. Why would any one do this? It's because when you're in that higher state of fullness, you live optimally, and you can contribute to society. If you fill up your own well, you're no longer a victim of your circumstance. You're resilient, and in control of your response to life. Her book “Art-making with refugees and survivors : Creative and Transformative Responses to Trauma after Natural Disasters, War and other Crises” (available through Amazon and Jessica Kingsley Publishers) describes in depth how to move from trauma to optimal states through creativity. She quotes Thomas Hubl who says the top-down suppression of the body by the mind is itself a trauma defense mechanism, and not the right way to deal with trauma, because it creates more separation. But Art opens the heart.

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