Linda Edwards - The Other Side of the Valley: Healing Through Altered States of Consciousness

First published by O-Books, 2019

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Text copyright: Linda M. D. Edwards 2018

ISBN: 978 1 78099 826 8

978 1 78099 825 1 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015937453

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I have been on a profound journey of self-awareness and self-healing over the last eighteen years as I have studied and researched as much as I could about altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and healing. I have been very privileged to experience all of the ASCs discussed in this book. Some of these experiences remain unfathomable to my logical mind; and yet, I have felt the very real benefits on the mental, emotional, and physical levels.

My concept of life has been changed forever. I am no longer sceptical of the inexplicable, however, far from accepting all of these concepts without question, I remain curious about the potential of using ASCs to achieve desired change. I know that in this work I have merely uncovered the tip of the iceberg and that this is the beginning of a lifelong quest to uncover more. Based on what I have discovered so far, it appears that as human beings, we have forgotten more than we can remember. We have become so involved with the material world that we have forgotten much of our innate nature, and hence many forms of healing that we can access through ASCs.

I started this journey as a fearful sceptic, someone who was afraid of any form of consciousness other than that which I used on a daily logical basis. I had originally trained in western allopathic medicine to be a podiatrist. However, by the age of 27 I had climbed to the top of my career ladder in this field and I was bored. So I explored other alternatives and by my early thirties had become a Chief Executive in the British National Health Service. To me, at that time, allowing myself to go into trance was akin to giving away my power to someone or even worse, something unknown. I was trapped in a web of reality where only the tangible and knowable was real, and even then, only when it could be scientifically proven.

My initial explorations into ASCs were through hypnosis where my intent had been to prove that this stuff would never be able to work with me. I had an iron grip on my conscious mind, and was far removed from my emotional and physical self; yet, something inside prompted me to start this exploration into the unknown, albeit under rather false pretences. I realise now that in order to get me to the point of embarkation, my conscious mind needed to feel safe. Little did I know how this would change my life so dramatically.

The journey so far, has taken eighteen years, and despite all I have learned, I still feel like a novice stepping into a world of the unknown. The more I learn, the more I realise how little I really know. It is my intention that this book, my experiences, and conclusions will help inform others about the benefits of entering into ASCs in order to facilitate their own health and well-being.

Linda Edwards 2012

Trance is often wrapped up in the mystique of eastern philosophy, and even the occult. It is seen as something mysterious and strange to be avoided at all costs. What many people do not know is that trance or altered states of consciousness (ASC) are naturally occurring states in our everyday existence. Some people have a greater conscious awareness or control over these states, however, despite our lack of awareness most of us will experience a new state every ninety seconds or so.

So what is it about trance or ASC (these terms will be used synonymously throughout this text) that causes so much anxiety and even fear in many people? In my experience, I would say that this fear is based on a lack of knowledge, a fear of the unknown, and a fear of things that appear intangible. This is the point at which I started on my own journey into understanding trance. I was ignorant about anything other than the tangible, provable things in life. I thought if you couldnt physically see it, hear it, feel it or scientifically prove it then it could not exist. However, my curiosity was piqued as I began to unfold through experience with the non-seeable often non-scientifically provable aspects of life. I soon became enthralled and excited about the full potential of life, combining the seen with the unseen. This segment of the paper is an exploration of the question, What is trance? It delves into recent research about ASC, and unfolds my own learnings and their impact on my life, and those I have worked with.

The advance of quantum physics and the work of neuro scientists over the last few decades are beginning to shine some light on the hitherto dark area of our other than conscious awareness. Trance and altered states of consciousness enable us to access the great repository of our knowing that is other than conscious. A statement frequently used in the scientific community is that 20 per cent of our mind is conscious, and 80 per cent is unconscious, however, this is yet to be proven. Nonetheless, it is evident that in our usual up-time state of consciousness we only have access to a portion of available information. So, the theory is that by beginning to train ourselves to enter ASCs with volition we are increasing the amount of consciousness available to us.

The work of brain researcher Benjamin Libet (2004), suggests that the conscious mind will not actually initiate an act, but will select and control the outcome. He states that other research indicates that although the conscious mind has a limited capacity, it excels in context sensitivity, internal consistency and serial processing. (It has been suggested by several scientists that conscious mind overload lies behind a number of psychotic illnesses.) The unconscious mind, on the other hand, is capable of engaging in diverse and highly specialised tasks, which may even be contradictory to one another.

An analogy that clarifies the relationship between the conscious and unconscious aspects of our mind is one of the captain of a ship (Overdurf & Silverthorn, 1994). The conscious mind is the captain, setting the course or direction. Whereas, the unconscious aspect of the mind is like the crew of the ship whose job is to carry out the captains orders.