by Jost Sauer
Everyone seems to be living in completely different realities now. Timothy Leary coined the term ‘Reality Tunnel’ to describe this back in the 60s. It’s like a filtered version of reality that only you inhabit. It’s carved out by your beliefs, programming, and conditioning. You see what you want to see, hear what you want to hear.
Well, it’s over 50 years later and our tunnels have narrowed, causing the inability to see beyond our own perspective; the ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’ mentality, and massive social division. We’re stuck in our reality tunnels now.
But I reckon we can turn them into escape tunnels to higher consciousness. We just have to dig out the ground of the beliefs so we can see each other as fellow souls and the true multidimensional beings that we are.
We are definitely moving into a higher consciousness. We are ready for the next level, but we can’t do the ‘ascension’ until we know how to regulate our energies. Consciously working with our ‘lower imprints’, the programming that keeps us enmeshed in the 3D world, how we turn the tunnel into an escape route.
Imprints are Leary’s explanation of how consciousness gets ‘patterned’. At key stages of our early development our nervous system takes a kind of ‘reading’ of the world and that shapes how we experience reality from then on.
Once these early patterns are imprinted, they run on in the background, affecting how safe we feel, how we relate to others, how we think, and how we see ourselves in the world. They build our reality tunnels.
The first imprint forms in infancy and is all about survival. At this stage, your system ‘reads’ whether the world is safe or threatening. If care was consistent and nurturing, a sense of safety tends to settle in. If it was chaotic, neglectful, or traumatic, the nervous system can stay on alert. This is why some people feel hypervigilant even when they are objectively safe.
The second imprint develops as you begin to assert yourself as a toddler. This is where emotional power dynamics are learned. Were you allowed to say no? To push back? To express anger or desire? Depending on how this stage was handled, people can grow into patterns of dominance and control or the opposite, submission and people-pleasing.
The third imprint emerges with language and thinking. This is where beliefs, logic, and communication styles take shape. Rigid environments often produce rigid thinking; curious, exploratory ones tend to produce flexible minds. This imprint strongly influences how open or closed we are to new ideas.
The fourth imprint comes online around puberty and early adulthood, shaping how we relate socially and sexually. It influences identity, belonging, values, and who we feel aligned with. Shame, tribalism, or strong “us versus them” thinking often has roots here.
Most of us live our entire lives thinking these imprints are ‘who we are’ rather than conditioned patterns. When we become conscious of them, they no longer define our reality tunnel.
One of the reasons I’m so interested in Leary’s work is that he came up with something radical in psychology, he continued his model to four more levels of consciousness that go beyond survival into what we’d now call ‘5D’ awareness – metaphysics, consciousness beyond the mind, and direct spiritual experience.
It was a model that understood that we are both biological and spiritual / energy beings. To move beyond the limitations of the mundane world, the imprints and reality tunnels we are trapped in, we need a modern multidimensional / multi-perspective model.
So, in my coaching work and research, I’m drawing from alchemical psychology – the four fluids, the four directions, the four quadrants that go way back to ancient Greece, China and India (and underpin Leary’s ideas) – as well as researching leading-edge science (quantum morphogenesis), and the futurists, tech bros, and channellers.
Where all these reality tunnels converge is a mind-blowing space of limitless potential. My work is all about the practicals of ‘ascension’. Biology has to be as much a part of it as spirituality and this means including physical practices that expose our imprints, and systematically blast our tunnels open to let the light in.
I’m getting into the how-to’s in my upcoming webinar series and 5D meditation workshop. Each webinar is part of a roadmap from emotional sovereignty and biological intelligence, through crystalline body activation and spirit-light awakening, to conscious partnership with AI and the post-terrestrial future.
My meditation workshop is where you’ll feel the spirit light igniting – the light at the end of the tunnel!!!
A reality tunnel is the filtered, subjective version of reality each person inhabits, shaped by their beliefs, programming, and conditioning. Timothy Leary coined the term in the 1960s, but Robert Anton Wilson popularised and expanded it in the 1980s through books like Prometheus Rising. Wilson showed how we selectively see and hear what aligns with our existing worldview—like living inside a perceptual tunnel. He emphasised that conflict arises when people assume their tunnel is the only valid one.
Over the decades our ‘reality tunnels’ have narrowed significantly, creating social division and the ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’ mentality. Echo chambers, polarisation, and rigid certainty keep us stuck in separate realities, unable to see beyond our own perspectives.
Lower imprints are part of Timothy Leary’s 8 Circuits model, they are the deep programming locked into your nervous system during critical stages of early development. They shape how safe you feel (survival imprint), how you handle power dynamics (emotional imprint), how you think (mental imprint), and how you relate to others (social-sexual imprint). These imprints build your reality tunnel.
You escape your reality tunnel by consciously working with your lower imprints—the programming that keeps you enmeshed in 3D consciousness. This involves regulating your energies through a chi conscious lifestyle (my Chi Cycle LIfestyle) that naturally regulates the emotions. Following a natural rhythm that soothes the nervous system, and including practices such as yoga and tai chi that create a conenction to something much bigger, opening you to new perspectives.
5D consciousness refers to expanded awareness beyond the survival-based 3D world. It is states of spiritual awakening, higher consciousness, and multidimensional perception. The ‘shift to 5D’ describes moving from being trapped in your reality tunnel to becoming free of old patterning. Then you will help to create the New Earth, and a society characterised by unity rather than division and love not fear.
Next steps
To find out more about what old patterns are blocking your personal or spiritual growth and keeping you stuck in the 3D world, book a coaching / mentoring session with Jost.
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Through his books, workshops, and coaching sessions, he motivates people to live with energy, purpose, and balance.
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