If the environment is in a state that has a burdensome effect on us for a long time and we cannot adequately influence it with our movement and behavior, it makes maintaining homeostasis difficult, if not impossible. So we are forced to change the criteria of what is acceptable for us and what isn’t, even if we don’t feel right. This condition affects the central nervous system more and more strongly, so it has to correct the patterns of normality, change them, and create a state of apparent normality.
The balance is not what we expect, and we do not feel it, so we cannot adequately influence it. Our subconscious patterns adapt to this and allow us to behave as if the way we are is normal when it is not and is only becoming more normal. The consequences are ever-increasing and permanent imbalances in the body and its systems, which we don’t perceive and consciously don’t influence, so we do not realize where the problems that plague us originate. For this, we lack the realization of what is out of balance, and we increasingly deal with the consequences while believing that we are dealing with the causes.
The state of apparent normality is caused by the distortion of a real imbalance, which we cover up and make an apparent balance, and it is unnatural because nature always balances the imbalance and does not pretend that something is as it really is not. Let’s take the example of different air pressure. This difference always triggers the movement of air and an area of higher to an area of lower pressure. Nature never says, “let’s ignore that there is higher pressure here and there is lower pressure there and keep this imbalance as it is.” It cannot do this because it goes against the laws of physics, which do not overlook error or go into apparent normalcy. If the difference is large enough, this triggers a reaction that reduces the difference to a sustainable level. The same thing happens in the human body because it is mandated to follow the natural and physical laws, even if the consciousness has to or wants to create a state of apparent normality to distort the perception of the real state in us or the environment in which we are. If despite the clear feeling that something is not as it should be, we cannot fix it, the only way out of this state is to create a process between consciousness and body that allows us to distort the truth.
In the AEQ method, I call this state the sensory-motor illusion (SMI). We create conscious patterns which distort or suppress the signals coming from our bodies. That way, we influence how we perceive ourselves and our surroundings. This way, we create a situation where we do not respond appropriately to the truth of relationships but rather inappropriately and harmful in the long term.
Aleš Ernst, author of the AEQ method in AEQ breathing
