I got little help or understanding, and am hoping to enable pastors to better deal with this issue. I would also like to start an organization for former cult members who are artists, seeking to express themselves on this issue in the avenues of music, dance, photography, sculpture, painting, writing, film, etc. I believe that together, perhaps we can create a different sort of voice than has been raised to this point. Trance states, derealization, dissociation, and spaceyness. By trance states we mean dissociation, depersonalization, and derealization.
All humans have some propensity to have moments of dissociation.
Even after leaving the group and ceasing its consciousness-altering practices, this habitual, learned response tends to recur under stress. For some former members this can be distressing and affect their functioning. When this happens, it tends to impair one's concentration, attention, memory, and coping skills. Many former members coming from groups practicing prolonged consciousness altering find that the intensity, frequency, and duration of the episodes decrease when they deliberately and consistently use the strategies outlined below. It is important to note that when one is tired, ill, or under stress, the feelings of spaceyness, dissociation, depersonalization, and derealization may temporally return.