In a recent video, Eckhart Tolle reflects on alcohol not as a moral issue, but as a shift in consciousness. His central idea is simple but provocative: alcohol lowers awareness, and when awareness drops, unconscious patterns take over. He calls this the “pain body,” a reservoir of old emotional pain that can temporarily hijack behavior. Under the influence, people may feel relaxed or euphoric at first, but as consciousness diminishes further, anger, negativity, or even violence can surface. Many crimes, he notes, are committed under alcohol’s influence, not because people suddenly become evil, but because their fragile layer of self-awareness collapses.

One of his more striking claims is that the person who promises, “It will never happen again,” is not the same consciousness that later gives in to temptation. From his perspective, addiction is not simply a failure of willpower. It is a cycle in which a relatively aware self makes commitments, but a more unconscious state re-emerges when consciousness drops. The next drink feels justified, then another follows, and the cycle restarts. Anyone who has lived with alcoholism recognizes the pattern: remorse returns when awareness returns, but without deeper transformation, the pattern repeats.

Whether one agrees with Tolle’s spiritual framing or not, there is a psychological insight here worth considering. Alcohol clearly impairs executive function, reduces inhibition, and weakens self-regulation, all well documented in neuroscience. Tolle interprets this through the language of presence and ego, but the observable effect is familiar: when awareness narrows, impulsive and destructive tendencies gain ground. His conclusion is not moral condemnation but a call for deeper awareness, suggesting that lasting change requires more than promises. It requires raising the baseline of consciousness itself.

Find more from Eckhart Tolle (February 2026)