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Altered and Extreme States

& the metacommunicator

About Altered and Extreme States

These are processes, not static entities. They are called “states” because people tend to get stuck in them. When viewed as processes, it can be observed that a person in a very extreme state of consciousness shows vestiges of a more normal state, while even the most normal-seeming person has little bits of more extreme states in their flow of experience and behavior.

The Role of the metacommunicator

The ability to meta-communicate is a defining feature in the specturum of states. The extent that someone can meta-communicate indicates whether it is an altered or extreme state.

The less able and/or willing a person is to metacommunicate about their experience, the more troublesome the associated state of consciousness can be. This is the difference between a person saying “I am experiencing paranoid thoughts,” versus someone who is in the experience of “they’re after me.”

“A principal goal of work with extreme states is to help the client metacommunicate about their states.”

~Arnold Mindell

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Altered and Extreme States

A spectrum of human experience

Altered States


Altered states are simply states of consciousness that differ from the ordinary, alert, talking-to-other-people state most of us spend our waking hours in. They're not unusual in the way they're sometimes made out to be. We move in and out of altered states all the time. For example:
  • Daydreaming
  • Falling asleep
  • The moment upon waking up
  • The blur of grief
  • Falling in love
  • Under the influence of certain substances
  • Being at an edge
  • Experiencing extreme emotions such as fear, shame, anger

Extreme States


Extreme states are altered states taken further. They are statistically rare in a given culture and they are the ones most cultures don't know how to be in contact with. What defines an extreme state is that the person in it can no longer easily move back to the consensus reality state and is not able to consistently meta-communicate about their experience. Some examples include:
  • Psychosis
  • Mania
  • Extreme depression
  • Coma
  • Entering a different identity
  • Hearing voices
  • Certain spiritual states

How the Metacommunicator Works

Consider a man who is frequently haunted by an image of his angry father who is preparing to strike him:

  •  If he is able to metacommunicate well about his experience, he may realize that the image is simply that – an image. He is aware that it is not the whole of his reality, which may free him to set it aside and do other things. 

  •  If it exerts considerable power over him, so that he cannot set it aside, he may still be able to communicate to others that he is “seeing an image of his father about to strike him” which ”meta”communicates to the others that he is aware that it as an image, and not as real as if his father were actually present. 

  •  If he cannot set the image aside, and also is not aware that it is but part of his reality, he will react to the image as though it were absolutely real. Since this image is not accessible to others in his vicinity, they will not understand his verbal or other behavior, which is largely in response to the image of his father. Therefore, his behavior will seem irrational. This corresponds to a low capacity to metacommunicate about the image. 

  •  Finally, if the image is sufficiently compelling, it will override input from others in his vicinity. He will lack a “feedback loop”, and will not react to input from others, leading them to judge him to be “in a world of his own” and not sharing a common reality with them. This is the most extreme case of missing metacommunication. 


By Maraya Karena, Dipl. PW

Maraya Karena is a Process Work Diplomate, Counselor and Consciousness Researcher based in Portland, Oregon.


“My passion is to study consciousness itself. To develop tools and models that support us to navigate everyday life. To make the reality we share more reflective of who and what we truly are. To find the pulsing, living heart of this life journey. And to engage with it fully and completely. I explore poetry, dance, embodiment, sex, social issues, futurism, philosophy, mysticism, joy and agony all to learn a little bit more about what is really going on and how we can most authentically express ourselves.”

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