From Library Journal
If you've ever driven a car and arrived at your destination without remembering the actual ride, if you've ever been so focused on the story in a book that you forgot where you really were, or if you've ever been so in love that your whole world took on a rosy hue, you've lived in a trance, according to psychotherapist Crabtree. Our lives, he suggests, are composed of a series of trances, which is not always a bad thing: trances help us to focus on tasks and relationships. But trances also cause us to lose the ability to experience life to the fullest, and so, he suggests, we should move toward "Trance Zero"Atranscending cultural, relational, and work-related trances by using our intuitive abilities. Not a "quick fix" how-to guide with exercises, this book provides a thoughtful and highly credible discourse on influences on the mind. Crabtree's multileveled theorizing will appeal to an array of students of psychology. Highly recommended for academic libraries.AMarija Sanderling, Rochester P.L.., NH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In rather a Zen-without-koans approach to living fully, psychotherapist Crabtree posits that we spend most of our lives in a trance, focused on one thought or object so intently that our awareness of the complexity of reality is dimmed. Some trances can be productive, such as creative trances, in which we fail to notice the hours that pass while we work. Some are pleasurable, like the trances of lovers centered on each other. Crabtree discerns various kinds of trances, including thought trances, in which we are so intent upon our inner world that we ignore the outer, and cultural trances (including those induced by the media), which exploit, often for commercial or political purposes, the acceptingness of the trance state. We can wake up from the enchantment of trances, Crabtree argues, and lead fuller lives, entering what he dubs "trance zero," when we are deeply conscious of each moment in which we live. Such deep awareness is essentially spiritual, a recognition of the immanent divinity that surrounds us.
Patricia Monaghan
