Expanded States of Consciousness (ESC)

In December 2023, I attended my first week-long silent meditation retreat. During this time—immersed in lessons from the Vedas and meditating three times a day for sittings of up to two-and-a-half hours—I was first confronted by a profound awareness: the dominant presence in my waking mind, with which I had been completely and unwittingly identified, was not the only one.

For the first time, I could observe how the voice of my conscious mind constructed a seamless narrative flow to rationalise and direct a uniform sense of identity. To say this realisation was life-changing is inaccurate; it was not my life that changed, but a fundamental understanding of who I am. This new awareness of being—and the potential to de-identify from “myself” (my physical body, energetic body, rational mind, creative mind, or blissful layer)—created space for a different response to what emerges, both externally and internally.

Experiencing ESCs

Expanded States of Consciousness (ESCs) can be experienced through:

• Deep meditation
• Spiritually transformative experiences (including mystical states and near-death experiences)
• Psychedelics
• Holotropic breathwork

My First ESC

By the end of that first week of deep meditation, I realised I was experiencing the world differently. I had effectively entered an ESC and was “high” from the long hours of practice. I felt open and pliable, like a super-material that could be endlessly shaped and reshaped. I also had a heightened sense of receptivity to sensory inputs, including a strong sensitivity to artificial light and loud sounds.

I was barely able to sleep the first 2 days after I returned home. When I did, my dreams were filled with vivid images and sensations, as if I had stepped into an alternative dimension where things were just as “real” as in my waking life but simply worked differently.