# Does Eckhart Tolle have some form of DP?



## Surreal_Life (Sep 2, 2010)

According to The Power of Now:

1.) Before his "enlightenment" he suffered from severe anxiety and depression, as did many of us before developing DP.
2.) One night in his late 20s, after a night of severe anxiety, depression, and philosophical thoughts, he lost his sense of self. 
3.) Unlike most of us, he found this experience joyful.
4.) He was, by his own admission, unable to function for the next several years.
5.) He says that his "pre-enlightenment" life feels like it belonged to a different person, and that he "has no use for the past and rarely thinks of it."
6.) He has a glazed and dissociated look in his eyes and speaks in an eerie monotone.

So, what do you think? Is he really enlightened, or was his sudden "snap" a dissociative reaction to his severe anxiety disorder? Is he going to wake up one day and have all that pain come flooding back? Realize, a la Suzanne Segal, that it was all a defense? Or does the fact that he finds his ego death pleasurable rule out depersonalization?


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

I feel that it must be different than what many of us here experience because of the bliss he describes. I have wondered if he is in a dissociative state. He speaks of being more conscious rather than less conscious though.


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## Guest (May 17, 2011)

Surreal_Life said:


> 4.) He was, by his own admission, unable to function for the next several years.


That's not how I know it. He said he woke up the next morning in total peace and bliss.


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## TheGame (Feb 1, 2011)

First of all this thread is sick (and no im not an eckhart tolle fan i just seem to agree with his teachings)

A dissociative look in his eyes? how can you tell that someone looks dissociative?

And second of all if youd listen to what he teaches and watch clips and analyse carefully youll come to see that the thing he teaches is to the direct contrary of what DP is.


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2011)

Spiritual transformation, enlightenment, or "presence" is something you actually CHOOSE to "do", "have", or rather "be".

There's no way you experience "enlightenment" as an "illness", or a condition that is out of your control.


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## Midnight (Jul 16, 2011)

Surreal_Life said:


> According to The Power of Now:
> 
> 1.) Before his "enlightenment" he suffered from severe anxiety and depression, as did many of us before developing DP.
> 2.) One night in his late 20s, after a night of severe anxiety, depression, and philosophical thoughts, he lost his sense of self.
> ...


I don't think he has DP or any such thing. He lived in an unparrelled state of bliss where he would quite often go in and out of Samadhi (google it) and he realized that essentially we are undying and immortal. Not the same thing.


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## Matthew (May 21, 2012)

Eckhart Tolle describes his "DP/DR" experience in a recent interview regarding his own experience and journey. He didn't label it as "DP/DR" and instead chose to call it 'existential angst' or a 'dark night of the soul', in which the world and his own existence appeared 'foreign, unreal and without meaning', coupled with overwhelming anxiety to the point of panic and breathlessness. He even correlates his experience to Satre's "Nausia".

He has also stated elsewhere that the event that occured three years prior to 'the big event', when he followed a lady who was talking to herself into a university building and freaked-out when this catalyzed him into realizing his own constant 'mind-chatter' as being the first instant of being 'sucked into the void'. Tolle spent three years in constant anxiety and "DP/DR" and when the void opened up again, threatening to pull him into perceived annihilation, instead of resisting it through panic, he allowed himself to fall into it and made it to the 'otherside'.

From the perspective of Tolle's teaching, and many true spiritual teachings, particularly from other cultures, people with DP/DR are 'stuck' in the transition between death and rebirth. From Tolle's perspective, people with "DP/DR" are only a step away from enlightenment/self-realization. Consciousness has already withdrawn from form and is hanging onto the old by a thread.

Many here won't agree and prefer to pathologize their experiences, but in my view and experience, chronic 'DP' that produces existential angst, 'awakening', ego-death, uncued panic attacks and metamorphosis are all connected and form part of a larger acausal evolutionary process at work.


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## Midnight (Jul 16, 2011)

I'm inclined to agree but I don't think I'l ever be able to pass through that panic stage to the 'other side'. It's too terrifying.


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## Guest (Oct 14, 2012)

Surreal_Life said:


> According to The Power of Now:
> 
> 1.) Before his "enlightenment" he suffered from severe anxiety and depression, as did many of us before developing DP.
> 2.) One night in his late 20s, after a night of severe anxiety, depression, and philosophical thoughts, he lost his sense of self.
> ...


I think it's possible that he had anxiety beforehand and anxiety is well-known to cause DP.


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## Midnight (Jul 16, 2011)

Surreal_Life said:


> According to The Power of Now:
> 
> 1.) Before his "enlightenment" he suffered from severe anxiety and depression, as did many of us before developing DP.
> 2.) One night in his late 20s, after a night of severe anxiety, depression, and philosophical thoughts, he lost his sense of self.
> ...


Now that i actually re-read this I think it's quite insightful. Suzanne Segal is an obvious example of extreme dissociation, but the pain came back to her later in her life when she discovered repressed memories of abuse in childhood. It's really hard to know whether what Eckhart talks about is depersonalization, because as surfingisfun said - he talks about being MORE conscious of the present moment, being one with it. To me, that doesn't seem like DP/DR because if anything, I think most of us can safely say we don't feel connected & alive but cut off and dead.

Has anyone actually had any luck with connecting with past pain and emotion? For me, it seems like it's a short lived event. Every now and again something comes to the surface but it doesn't cleanse me, if that makes sense.


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## sunyata samsara (Feb 18, 2011)

Matthew said:


> Eckhart Tolle describes his "DP/DR" experience in a recent interview regarding his own experience and journey. He didn't label it as "DP/DR" and instead chose to call it 'existential angst' or a 'dark night of the soul', in which the world and his own existence appeared 'foreign, unreal and without meaning', coupled with overwhelming anxiety to the point of panic and breathlessness. He even correlates his experience to Satre's "Nausia".
> 
> He has also stated elsewhere that the event that occured three years prior to 'the big event', when he followed a lady who was talking to herself into a university building and freaked-out when this catalyzed him into realizing his own constant 'mind-chatter' as being the first instant of being 'sucked into the void'. Tolle spent three years in constant anxiety and "DP/DR" and when the void opened up again, threatening to pull him into perceived annihilation, instead of resisting it through panic, he allowed himself to fall into it and made it to the 'otherside'.
> 
> ...


This is true from my experience.


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## Matthew (May 21, 2012)

Midnight said:


> Now that i actually re-read this I think it's quite insightful. Suzanne Segal is an obvious example of extreme dissociation, but the pain came back to her later in her life when she discovered repressed memories of abuse in childhood. It's really hard to know whether what Eckhart talks about is depersonalization, because as surfingisfun said - he talks about being MORE conscious of the present moment, being one with it. To me, that doesn't seem like DP/DR because if anything, I think most of us can safely say we don't feel connected & alive but cut off and dead.


Hi Midnight,

Actually, there is nothing to prove that Segal had dissociation, other than the pathological interpretation at the end of the book and (allegedly) her own doubt as she decended into the next phase of her journey. Segal had more 'bus stop hits'. The spiritual journey will naturally and periodically shift you into different gears and surface more unconscious material once a certain phase of the journey is over - and nobody is without past traumas, fears and demons. There is no arrival point - awakening or 'enlightenment' is only the beginning.

As for Tolle - if you re-read my post and search for said interview, Tolle admits that he had "DP/DR" (he describes it exactly, and calls it 'existential angst' or a 'dark night of the soul') - when his big event occured, the state changed from fear to bliss, from contraction to expansion - just like Segal. It's just a shame that Tolle in an irresponsible act has marketed his books towards the "feel-good, quick-fix" and "happy ever after enlightenment" of pop-spirituality and not aknowledged that his fear prior to the event was also a part of the process and that his journey was initiated long before his ascent into bliss. But then, he wouldn't be nearly as 'successful' if he had.


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## braedonv (Jul 9, 2014)

I have gone through a serious depersonalization myself and interestingly enough, ET has actually helped me OUT of it. I think most people who are experiencing depersonalization are wishing to bring their life back to normalcy but are still seeking existential truth in the "beyond" based on concepts of this world which frankly I am not sure is even possible.

3 months ago I had a very bad marijuana trip and a subsequent existential crisis. I have had depersonalization experiences from smoking pot before, but usually I can just sleep it off and wake up the next day feeling back to normal. This time it was severe and it didn't go away after I woke up in the morning. I began to suffer from very heavy anxiety/panic attacks and continued to feel detached from my body, and not human. In addition to this I had very tormenting/disturbing thoughts about life's purpose, reality, right/wrong, eternal life, sin, etc. I was able to still function, but I was severely depressed and unable to focus at my job which prompted me to take some time off of work.

During my time off I still couldn't calm myself down and ended up seeking medical help for fear that I was going to lose control of myself, my mind, my soul etc. I started taking Lexapro which only seemed to help my anxiety but not my depersonalization and began seeing a therapist. Long story short, he directed me to ET and I was able to discontinue counseling (mostly because I couldn't afford it) and get back to work and my life again.

When I started reading Eckhart, I found him fascinating because he seemed to have the answers to all my "mental problems" I was having at the time. Every time I started listening to him he was able to resolve (albeit temporarily) whatever mental conflict I was having at that time within just a few minutes of reading so I could put my book down and get back to handling my life.

However like other people, I was still uncomfortable "living in the now" because I felt like it wasn't the same to how my life was before. If nothing "mattered" as he put it, then what was the point of anything. And like some, not worrying about anything but the present moment made me feel like my existence and my life were not only unstable, but useless and a unenjoyable. What I didn't realize was that I was actually still stuck in a form of unconsciousness. And I was trying to mentally block out the past and present instead of acknowledging them. My depersonalization was less severe which made me believe I was getting "cured", but despite all my efforts I was still seeing my sense of self objectively, as a soul, a witness, etc. and not able to get back into a full sense of reality. It wasn't until I had read a particular quote (along the lines of "Being can't be thought, it can only be felt.") that I "snapped" back into my life again and it felt back to normal (actually better), like being born again free of problems and wanting to go out and live life fully, with a new appreciation, consciousness and love for everything and an understanding of the blessing of life itself.

You will learn that over time ET figured out how to travel between these two mental/spiritual states with decreasing effort. The way I've interpreted it, going into the present/timeless mind state is good because it helps you put things in perspective; remove your worries/"demons" as you might see them and clear your mind. And when you come back to earth, you are "re-aligned". You are ready and excited to tackle everything and put all your joy and love and consciousness into everything you do, thus improving your quality of life and those around you. Life is fun; happy again. Like you were when you were first born into this world.

Hope this helps


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