Everyday and transliminal experiences

Isabel Clarke’s model to understand unusual life experiences

Isabel Clarke has developed a model to understand unusual life experiences, and uses the term ‘transliminal’ to describe them. Clarke acknowledges the ways in which these experiences are both overlapping and at the same time quite distinct.

Clarke’s model (2011)

Clarke’s model, as described in 2011, emphasises the importance of accepting and finding ways to live with unusual experiences rather than attempting to eradicate them.

This approach acknowledges that all individuals have the capacity to have these experiences, but for some, they may present additional challenges or cause concern to others.

By understanding and supporting individuals in navigating these experiences, Clarke aims to promote mental wellbeing and overall life satisfaction.

1. Everyday Experiences: Clarke’s model recognises that everyone has everyday experiences, which are considered common and shared by many people. These experiences encompass a wide range of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that are generally accepted within society. They may include emotions, sensory experiences, and beliefs that are commonly experienced by individuals without causing significant distress or disruption.
   
2. Unusual Experiences: In addition to everyday experiences, Clarke’s model acknowledges that some individuals may have unusual experiences. These experiences can be thoughts, perceptions, or sensations that deviate from what is commonly considered typical or shared by the majority. Unusual experiences can include hallucinations, intense beliefs or ideas, perceptual distortions, or dissociative episodes, among others. These experiences can vary in intensity, duration, and impact on the individual’s functioning and overall wellbeing.
   
3. Transliminal experiences sit between the everyday experiences and more extreme or distressing experiences. They represent a continuum that spans from ordinary to extraordinary experiences. Transliminal experiences are more intense, vivid, or intrusive than everyday experiences. They usually aren’t a mental health condition. You can view them as part of the natural variation in human experiences, existing within a range that includes both normal and more extreme states.
   

Two currents

A way of understanding unusual experiences is to think of them as being a result of ‘two currents’ within the brain, or two ways of processing. You can see these below.

Reasonable and emotional mind

Reasonable mind manages emotional mind and enables it to function, but emotional mind is the ‘default system’ and takes off if reasonable mind becomes disconnected (a good analogy of this state is a computer in ‘safe mode’).

Good everyday functioning involves good interaction between the two. But at times of high and low arousal, emotional mind becomes dominant, leading to a different quality of experience (transliminal). Usually, this is positive because the two sides are still working together, so it adds something to normal everyday experience in a nourishing, enriching way.

But where communication between the two breaks down, emotional mind takes over and cannot find its way back across the line. Spiritual experience, therefore, is where you are able to move helpfully between the two. In a psychotic experiences you are stuck in the one part.

This may still have some positive aspects; for example, a ‘spiritual crisis’ may help people to recover from past experiences and encourage self-development. However, we would need to think about what could ground us, or what could bring us back over the threshold. Mindfulness can be an effective way of doing this.

Consider more:

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