Classic “Trance States”
— that’ll slowly Kill your Startup (Part 1)
Most entrepreneurs can instantly recall their first time dropping into a state they could only describe as “profoundly ON”, even before they knew what to name it. Most can also regale their epic crash & burn story, in which they found themselves in a radically OFF state with so much on the line, as if it were yesterday. Back before I’d ever even heard of “flow state”, all I could say after a few of those experiences was “wow, I guess I went into some sort of trance”.
I imagine most think of trance as either a state for deep relaxation, or as the only way in hell they could fearlessly embarrass themselves in front of a hypnotist’s audience. Early in my career I studied all manner of altered consciousness, in hopes of accessing some optimal trance from which I would find myself writing an epic guitar song, or at least quaking a little less while attempting to speak in public.
After twenty five years of coaching I find myself looking at trance differently, less as a thing to get into and more as layers to wake up from. Leaders who’ve most blown me away didn’t seem to be accessing a new state as much as continually snapping out of what I now consider to be layers of trance. Our infinitely subtle veils of automatic assumptions and responses…rigid ways of being that resist change, that omit information that doesn’t cooperate, that fail to fully respond to real time events and that make mastery of new skills far more slow-going. While always serving some purpose or other, layers of trance always seem to ultimately limit what’s possible as well. From this view, the actual trick is continually waking out of trance and learning to operate from increasingly clear open awareness.
What if the best hypnotists were actually helping us snap out of a particular mode, freeing us up to discover deeper intelligences that were always there under the surface, more so than influencing us towards new states!?
Next week I’ll publish Part 2 to flesh out the three most common types of trance I’ve noticed founders struggling with. Meanwhile hopefully I can clarify this more obscure topic with my very personal story of first waking up from a layer of trance — I used to laugh when I was actually feeling other emotions I was squeamish about, without even realizing I was doing it!
The first time I caught myself in a trance state was similar to becoming lucid in a dream…of course not only was I dreaming, I’d been dreaming for a long while before just then realizing it. Back in 2001 eight of us had co-founded a Transitional Living facility in San Francisco called Arkhouse, helping homeless young adults get off the streets long enough to establish themselves. I was a case manager there but with my military background as a medic my unique role was crisis response to overdoses, psychotic breaks, fights and suicide attempts…lets just say I was profoundly fulfilled in my work but also profoundly bottled up emotionally.
One fateful Friday I strolled into the facility for an overnight shift, the most incident prone night of the week, relieved to find the residents sweetly celebrating their hard work by watching the movie Legally Blonde on the big screen downstairs. Without even turning to look at me, a client diagnosed with schizophrenia called out his standard “Decker ain’t even trippin” greeting. Grinning, I stopped a moment to soak up their camaraderie just as the movie reached its climactic peak. The soundtrack soared as everyone apparently decided they loved Reese afterall, and in a matter of seconds I was shocked to realize…
I — was going — to cry.
It was the cheesiest of tear-jerker scenes, but it cracked me open just enough to open floodgates I didn’t even realize were there. I was going to cry and I was going to cry loudly. The intensity of emotion unlocking was such that there was no possible way I could choke it down, so I helplessly watched as a sound erupted from my lips BUT…
Just as I cried, some absolutely brilliant (and broken) part of myself kicked in and I LAUGHED instead. And as I urgently scuttled back to my office, I realized I had managed to transmute my crying into a bark of a laugh, as if I was simply bemused at the movie! Back at my desk I stood sobbing but also wonderstruck, soaking up a realization that would change my life forever.
#1 It wasn’t like I’d consciously thought “hmm, I’m about to express a vulnerable emotion in front of my clients…I know I’ll just make it seem like I’m laughing at their movie”. I was catching myself doing something very real, yet had no idea I was going to do it.
#2 As I basked in my “ah ha” moment, countless memories flooded me of other times over the years I’d laughed when there was actually a much more real emotion going on for me. I saw the ways this had helped me save embarrassment yet also profoundly limit the depth possible in some relationships.
#3 The deepest trance state of all is difficult to explain, but I was noticing my assumption that I knew everything going on for myself. In fact, “self-discovery” always sounded odd to me…”you can discover things about me, as I can about you, but how can I discover something about myself when I am myself!?” That cheesy movie helped me wake up to a new curiosity that is still going strong in me two decades later. If I’d been doing this auto-pilot schtick for all those years, what other unconscious trances might I be in right now? A new sense of wonder and humility lead to an attitude that helped me catch countless other layers, in myself and in co-exploration with clients, that enriches my life today.
Please share with me any poignant examples of waking up from trance states, I am loving all of your stories responding to my earlier posts and I’m happy to answer any clarifying questions on the topic as well.
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in seed-stage companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation and computing
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