Understanding and Acquiring Peak States
Nov 17, 2014
Those rare but precious moments when the world becomes a wonderful place to live are called 'peak experiences'. When a peak experience is continuous we call it a 'peak state' of consciousness. The Institute developed a model of what causes them and techniques to make them relatively permanent. This is a major breakthrough in the field of health and healing. Our focus now is to continue our explorations and to simplify and speed up our techniques.
The trauma-healing approach to acquiring peak states of consciousness
Historically, there are several ways to temporarily acquire peak states of consciousness. Some you may know of, like meditation or yoga. But these approaches generally are usually not reliable, fast, or permanent - 'practice' is required. Our approach is quite different - we found that peak states are a person's birthright, but that they are blocked by trauma. Thus, if you know what and how to heal, you can acquire a stable peak state of consciousness relatively quickly and permanently. This is analogous to being a gifted mathematician who had head trauma in a car accident. Suddenly, you can't do math anymore. Rehabilitation includes trying to teach you math again, but this doesn't work very well; you get to the point you can do arithmetic, but that is about it. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to heal your brain injury to restore what he once had? This is what healing the blocking traumas is all about.
Subcellular biology and peak states
We discovered that all peak states of consciousness have a biological basis inside the cell. In general, a person experiences the feeling of a peak state if the corresponding subcellular metabolic pathway is working optimally. This includes relevant unblocked gene expression for protein synthesis and undamaged structures inside the cell that use these proteins. Essentially, the feeling of a peak state corresponds to an optimum physical, biological operation inside the cell. This is why trauma-healing will give people peak states - it repairs the damage inside the primary cell that inhibited that particular optimum function of the cell.
This webpage has several subpages that go into these concepts in more detail, such as descriptions of various peak states, questions and answers, and so on. A full description of our model and its applications, along with the work of other pioneers in this field who are not associated with our Institute can be found in our books Peak States of Consciousness: Theory and Applications, Volume 1: Breakthrough Techniques for Exceptional Quality of Life, and Volume 2: Extraordinary Spiritual and Shamanic States.
Turning a peak experience into a peak state
We have two approaches for acquiring peak states - turning people's momentary peak experiences into permanent states; or having people acquire a particular peak states from a list. Through experience we've found that for long-term client satisfaction the former approach is far superior. Thus, with two exceptions, we now only use the 'from a list' approach with our professional students who need particular states for their work.
If what you want is to turn one of your peak experiences into a full-time, present peak state, we refer you to Institute certified therapists who are qualified graduates of our training. Note, however, that many people want a peak state because they are trying to 'self medicate' - they believe if they just had a state of their choice, their particular painful situation would change. This rarely works - instead, they stay just as miserable as before but now they also have a nice feeling to go along with it. As this leads to very dissatisfied clients, peak states therapists will assist you in finding what you are trying to avoid or suppress and work with you to eliminate that first.
Suggested reading
- Peak States of Consciousness: Theory and Applications, Volume 1: Breakthrough Techniques for Exceptional Quality of Life (2004) by Dr. Grant McFetridge et al. Written for laypeople, this book gives examples of what peak states are, and describes our 'developmental event model for acquiring peak states'. It also has chapters by three other pioneers who work in this field but are not associated with our Institute. Available on Amazon in English or Polish.
- Peak States of Consciousness, Volume 2: Acquiring Extraordinary Spiritual and Shamanic States (2008) by Dr. Grant McFetridge and Wes Gietz. Written for therapists and professionals, this book covers the developmental events relevant to peak states, and the problems that can occur when regressing to some of them. Available on Amazon.
Other groups working with exceptional states of consciousness
- As a public service, we provide links to other technique developers who work in the field of exceptional states of consciousness.
...or visit our Forum
PeakStates news (RSS)Revision History
Nov 17, 2014: Entirely rewritten webpage, to include the relevant subcellular psychobiology.
Treatments
Australia
Danmark
Deutsch
Polska