Occasional Glimpses

The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.
-- Gloria Steinem

"If we are to deal with the root cause of the crises now confronting us we must awaken from our trance and regain a fuller contact with our own inner wisdom. We need the cultural equivalent of dehypnosis. But while waking from ordinary hypnosis is a simple matter -- the hypnotist may count to three, click his fingers, and simply tell you to wake up -- awakening from our cultural trance is not nearly so simple.

For a start, there is no hypnotist standing by our side to awaken us. Most of our conditioning occurred long ago -- much of it before we could speak or remember. And it has come through many different sources: parents, teachers, friends, strangers, books, magazines, radio, television, films, advertising. It is part of the fabric of our society. No single person was responsible.

Another very important difference between clinical and cultural hypnosis concerns the depth of the conditioning. In his book, Waking Up, the psychologist Charles Tart shows that ordinary hypnosis is a voluntary and limited relationship between consenting adults. The power given to the hypnotist is limited by time -- usually to an hour or two -- and by various ethical constraints -- the subject does not expect to be bullied, threatened, or harmed. If the hypnosis does not work very well, the subject is not blamed. And, although profound changes may occur for a short while, no basic or long-term shifts in personality or “reality” are expected of the subject -- other than, perhaps, the relinquishing of some unwanted habit.

With our cultural conditioning the situation is the opposite.

Our consensus trance is not voluntary; it begins at birth without our conscious agreement.

All authority is surrendered to the parents, family members and other caretakers, who initially are regarded as omniscient and omnipotent.

Induction is not limited to short sessions; it involves years of repeated reinforcement.

Clinical therapists would consider it highly unethical to use force, but our cultural hypnotists often do -- a slap on the wrist, or severe reprimand for misbehaving. Or perhaps more subtle, but equally powerful, emotional pressures -- “I will only love you if you think and behave as I tell you.”

Finally, and most significantly, the conditioning is intended to be permanent. It may come from the very best of intentions, but it is, nevertheless, meant to have a lasting effect on our personalities and the way we evaluate the world.

This is why awakening from our cultural trance entails far more than a simple snapping of the fingers. There is a lifetime’s worth of extremely powerful induction to be overcome.

We would seem to be firmly stuck with our conditioning. Indeed, for most of the time we are. Yet there are occasions when we do wake up, and see things in a different light. In those moments we are given a glimpse of what is possible."

-- Peter Russell