Many years ago, one of my books, (Trances People Live by Stephen Wolinsky ) contained a thought: what if the “normal” awareness of most people was a trance state. Hypnosis, peak experiences, states of bliss and other such states might be when we get out of that trance. A trance, many trances, created over a lifetime of experiences within family, social, and national groups. He called it “deep trance phenomena”. I think of this as personality or ego.
The idea that we are living in trance or trances always seemed interesting to me. In my research over the years, person after person, seer after seer, suggest that being aware of our own thoughts (as if we were some other part of ourselves listening in) is definitely a step into greater awareness and greater opportunity to choose our thoughts, words, and actions.It is suggested that this is a learned skill. In observation we can observe the trances we live in.