Cultural Trance

The New Oxford Dictionary defines a trance as "a half-conscious state characterized by an absence of response to external stimuli." Such a state may be induced by hypnosis. It may also be induced by a cultural story field.

Every human community has a cultural story field comprised of the shared stories that define the community's shared values, understanding, and expectations. A cultural story field is essential to the coherent function of any community. Without it there is no community in any meaningful sense.

The term cultural trance refers to a situation in which the members of the community fail to recognize that the stories that comprise the cultural story field of their community are theories and therefore are subject to continuous testing and change.  The person who has developed the capacity to step back and recognize the cultural story field as a collection of shared stories subject to choice lives in a state of cultural awareness. The person who has not yet developed this capacity lives in a cultural trance, which limits their creative expression and leaves them subject to manipulation by advertisers and propogandists.

One of the most critical steps in the individual journey to a mature consciousness is the awakening of a cultural consciouusness, i.e., a consciousness or awareness of culture as a human construct subject to choice. It is both an awakening from the cultural trance and the awakening of our capacity to engage in the conscious birthing of authentic Earth Community cultures.