Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

How Alcohol Lowers Consciousness and Unleashes the Pain Body | Eckhart Tolle

13 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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In this short teaching, Eckhart Tolle explains that alcohol depresses the level of consciousness, weakening the individual's presence and allowing unconscious forces—specifically the "pain body"—to take control. When the pain body dominates, a person may act in ways that are uncharacteristic and destructive, such as shouting, attacking, or committing crimes. Tolle emphasizes that this phenomenon is widespread, affecting millions who temporarily lose the modest level of consciousness that normally restrains harmful behavior, and that alcohol can plunge them into a state of near‑unconsciousness where the pain body speaks through them.

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Many, many crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol. It lowers your consciousness. And when your consciousness is lowered, the unconscious gravitational pulls can manifest much more easily because your presence is lowered. And then suddenly you get taken over by your pain body. And then the pain body lives through you and speaks through you. And you start shouting and maybe even attacking people, becoming people wouldn't even recognize you. And this happens, it happens to millions of people. Periodically, they lose the perhaps relatively little consciousness that they had in ordinary life, but enough to not make them do dreadful things. But then they drink and they become totally unconscious.