Contemplating Our Role in the Universe

By Ran D. Anbar, MD, with Mac E. Lancaster, BS

In working with patients and their subconscious through hypnosis, I have learned about subconscious observations regarding the nature of our existence within the universe. Two recent interactions with patients from my counseling practice illustrate the intricacies of such observations.

In this post, I summarize my patients’ subconscious observations. I have previously written about both of these patients in previous PsychologyToday.com posts.

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Hallucinations After Dabbing

I worked with “Matthew” (not his real name) beginning when he was 13 years old with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Matthew learned to calm himself with hypnosis and interact with his subconscious.

Matthew’s first encounter with cannabis occurred in college when he was 18 years old. As described here, Matthew’s subconscious told him he needed to stop using cannabis so that it wouldn’t interfere with his aspirations to become a professional soccer player.

He did not touch cannabis again for the following seven years. However, at the age of 25, he went to a bar with some work friends and was encouraged to dab (inhale vapors from highly concentrated tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) extracted from cannabis). At first, he refused but then decided to go along.

Shortly after dabbing, Matthew said he felt ill and asked his friends to contact 911. They reassured him he would be all right, but then he lost consciousness and fell to the floor. When he regained consciousness, he was combative and talked about being in hell. He was taken by police officers in handcuffs to an emergency department until he calmed down. When his mother visited him, he asked if she was the devil.

When I talked to Matthew the following morning, he discussed visiting many different realities. He said I was speaking to his subconscious and that the subconscious was keeping his conscious mind calm because it was too excited. He said when he thought his mother was the devil, his consciousness felt as if he was in hell.

I urged him to stay grounded in this reality, even as he explored other realities, and he agreed. I spoke with him near-daily for the next week until he felt grounded enough to report he felt back to normal and returned to work. He did not require in-patient hospitalization or any medications to control his hallucinations.

It was important for Matthew to describe to me in detail his experiences during his period of psychosis. When I evaluated the level of his mystic experience using the MEQ-30 scale, he scored 150/150. I wondered if he could handle his experience reasonably well because he had learned previously how to allow his subconscious to calm him.

Matthew shared that he had learned that we are all one. He explained that the devil reflected God, but it’s all part of the same system. He said that God exists within each of us and that one purpose of life was for God to gain a greater appreciation of Himself through interactions between people. He talked about life being a loop in that we work on maintaining balance in ourselves. Still, as we scope out we can see that the world, solar system, universe, and then God also are working on maintaining balance, which loops back into each individual.

Matthew reported feeling much happier now that he had gained insight into how the world works. He said that his coworkers have noticed this, have asked him for advice, and have jokingly suggested that he be called Matthew 2.0. He also reported that his OCD symptoms had nearly resolved once he became in better touch with himself. He said he planned to avoid cannabis from now on.

Discussion

Many individuals with psychotic experiences similarly report experiences with other worlds, divine beings, and evil (Marriott et al., 2019). In these cases, positive religious coping, such as feeling a secure relationship with God, is linked to better patient outcomes (Mohr et al., 2010). Religion and spirituality are believed to be involved in psychosis reports as a coping strategy for such experiences or as an explanatory framework for why negative or positive experiences occur, such as involving bad vs. good spirits (Marriott et al., 2019).

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Psilocybin is being investigated as a treatment for depression, which is thought to be of benefit in part because of the mystic state caused by the administration of this drug (McCulloch et al., 2022). In this light, it is notable that Matthew’s mental health issues appear to have improved immediately after therapy for his THC-induced mystical experience.

A Subconscious Recommended Life Experience

I met “George” when he was 9 years old and presented with anxiety related to having seen an apparition of a woman in his room, as reported here. After learning how to use hypnosis and interact with his subconscious to help himself, George was able to calmly deal with and let go of occasional apparitions, of which he became aware over the subsequent year.

At a routine follow-up visit at the age of 10 years, George reported that he had been doing well. His subconscious was interviewed using finger motion, which he said he had advice for George. The advice was that George should walk into a shallow part of a body of water, such as the ocean or a lake, stand on the ground beneath the water, and look at the sky. The subconscious explained that he wanted George to recognize how the world worked, including interactions of the elements of earth, water, wind, and the energy that came from him.

Takeaway

Clinicians should assess and develop individualized therapy based on the impact of hallucinations on patients' lives rather than focusing on labels that may lead to stigmatization (Mohr et al., 2010).

Our spiritual beliefs may emanate from subconscious processes (Weinberger et al., 2020). Interactions with the subconscious through hypnosis provide glimpses of some thinking patterns underlying spiritual thoughts. Thus, interactions between research clinicians and the subconscious could lead to further understanding of how spiritual thoughts develop, including a comparison of reports of younger vs. older individuals in different life stages.

Mac Lancaster obtained his undergraduate degree in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience at UC San Diego.