See The World As It Is - Example

Consensus Trance

At times something will extrude itself into our reality which is so bizarre and monstrous that there is an immediate, perhaps instinctive, response to deny it. And this phenomenon can affect whole communities so that each person colludes with his (her) neighbor saying tacitly, "Accept my version of reality, I won't challenge yours." Everyone falls into a conspiratorial trance.

One of the most interesting accounts of consensus trance is the appearance of Captain Cook's man-of-war, The Endeavor, in Botany Bay, Australia during the mid part of 18th century. Allan Moorhead describes the event as follows:

"It appeared out of nowhere like some menacing phenomenon of nature, a water spout or roll of thunder, and by ignoring it or pretending to ignore no doubt they (the Aborigines) had hoped that it would go away. As Sidney Parkinson wrote: 'The natives were so abashed at first they took little notice of us,' but when the small boats had put out from the ship it had been another thing: the English sailors had been instantly recognized as human, a palpable evil, and despite their clothes and pale faces, despite even their roaring, incomprehensible shooting-sticks, they had been courageously opposed."

(Allan Moorhead, The Fatal Impact, 1966)

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