Preoccupied consciousness

Those that are in preoccupied states may be concerned with reflecting on, or solving, personal or impersonal problems. They may also be involved in creative work. So engrossed or self-absorbed are they, that effective contact and response to external reality may be hindered. Preoccupation is more serious when it is habitual, or involuntary due to autistic schizophrenic tendencies, or when it is indicative of some underlying psychic or brain function disturbance. Continuous, difficult intellectual work, such as philosophical or mathematical analysis, may produce the sterotypical bumbler, or absent-minded professor. Some meditation exercises and related religious practices to induce a separation of the mind from everyday consciousness may also produce persistent preoccupation. In some monastic orders, community activities and manual work were early introduced to counter excessive introversion. Preoccupied states are necessary from time to time for some people; others may require hours of inwardness daily. Their need is to acquire a technique of alternation between the inner and outer reality.