Peak Experiences

The construct of a more proactive and prevention-oriented approach to healthcare involves attention to more than the absence of disease.  It includes adding things to individuals to make them better than normal and more capable than ever before as opposed to the more traditional approach of trying to identify and subtract diseases or abnormalities to try to get individuals back to “normal” or “baseline”.  It involves the recognition that health includes a balance of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being that allows an individual to live, learn and love, and to express the full range of that individual’s potential.

In his most recent book, Theory of Reality, Wiebers devotes considerable attention to Peak Experiences and several other core components involving the facilitation of higher understanding, greater overall effectiveness, and uncommon creativity, all of which are generally accompanied by greater happiness and fulfillment.

At the heart of such an approach is the emerging science which surrounds the concepts of resilience, equanimity and coherence.  Resilience is the capacity following adverse or stressful events to adapt to (and even thrive in) the resulting challenges and changing circumstances.  Such a capacity proactively insulates and protects individuals from a variety of adverse conditions such as anxiety disorders and depression.  Similarly, equanimity is the inner strength and stability to experience well-being and confidence in the eye of the storm-- enabling one to maintain a relaxed body and calm, balanced mind regardless of the circumstances.  It allows one to remain centered and to see the big picture with perspective and patience.  Coherence implies a form of order or focus—coherent thought implies very focused, clear, non-random thought as opposed to disorganized, haphazard, “noisy” thought processes that we are used to in our day-to-day living.  Going from random incoherent thought to coherent consciousness can be a powerful tool for increasing one’s effectiveness, understanding, creativity and intuition.   By achieving a highly focused level of awareness, individuals are able to tap into normally unconscious or latent abilities.

In general, factors that increase one’s resilience and equanimity also tend to increase one’s coherence.  Nutrition and exercise play underlying fundamental roles but a variety of other factors that are generally fun and compelling for individuals that can increase one’s resilience and equanimity include:  laughter; music; friendship and intimacy; spiritual exploration and understanding; and sleep.  Enhancing these factors can be a fun and compelling way to increase coherence, while optimizing brain and neurological function as well as psychological health.

Peak Experiences (PEs) generally involve seconds to minutes where one feels the highest levels of peace, connectedness, happiness, harmony and possibility.  They often are pivotal moments in a person’s life and are often associated with key insights, "waves of understanding", and/or instantaneous "thought balls” (large packages of thoughts/ideas that arrive spontaneously and unfold in real time as they are processed and expressed through our brains).  A variety of other related phenomena and techniques have been associated with producing or facilitating peak experiences or with otherwise deeply enhancing one’s creative, intellectual, visionary or integrative understanding and/or capabilities.  These phenomena and techniques generally involve focused (coherent) states of consciousness and have been remarkably important tools for all kinds of discovery and understanding—e.g. scientific, spiritual, musical, artistic, interpersonal.

The aspect of tapping into a higher level of subconscious or universal information (or Source consciousness) can be important in guiding all sorts of behaviors and decisions.  It can be incorporated into daily practices such as meditative techniques or can be experienced in less frequent (but often more pivotal) PEs.  Future healthcare paradigms will give greater intentionality to the process of having and creating PEs and related experiences that catalyze personal advances, and will place increasing emphasis upon coherence, resilience and equanimity as vehicles to promote optimal neurological and psychological function as well as overall health.