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Sacred lotus - Nelumbo nucifera, sweet scent of sacred temples


Pink lotus - Nelumbo nucifera, sacred waterlily


Pink lotus - Nelumbo nucifera, sweet scent of waterlilies

 

Sacred Waterlily - Nelumbo nucifera, the fragrance of the sacred

What is Consciousness?
In order to demystify a term that is so frequently over used, I have found it useful to describe what I mean by the term consciousness. Ultimately consciousness is a mystery and our understanding of it is limited to our own levels of experience. Science loves to map consciousness by brainwaves but it is not limited to the brain. It is a learning environment, woven throughout the body and beyond, in all existence. It defines what happens inside of us, giving us the tools to both create and make sense of our experiences and it gives rise to our life's purpose.

It comes from the Latin words con (with, to be aware of) and scio (to know). It is usually defined as an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself, your situation and the environment. Awareness is the space, the feminine undifferentiated space of pure being and stillness. Consciousness is the masculine aspect of movement and differentiated things within that space. It is a learning environment in which we get to develop our selves. Self is the being which is aware of and able to create our inner and outer experiences by moving consciousness.

In the broader sense, consciousness is not just being awake and fully alert but being able to creatively respond to your body's sensations, to your feelings and thoughts in relationship with all that is happening in the world around you. It is the core of how you create your life.

On the mundane level, consciousness is used to describe group experiences of shared feelings and beliefs and sets of opinions such as in a tribal or national consciousness. It also refer to awareness of or sensitivity to a particular issue, for example health consciousness. There is that which we do not know about our selves, the so called unconscious and there is this mysterious vastness called the collective unconscious which contains the all that is unknown in humanity's existence.

The degree to which you can become conscious is only limited by how fully present you can be to all your body's sensations, your thoughts, feelings and all that is happening in the world around you any one moment.

  • How perceptive are you of your inner stimuli - your breath, your body's functions and sensations?
  • Where are the limits of your hearing, sense of smell and vision?
  • How dynamic are your learning processes?
  • Can you create new feelings and actions when confronted with old patterns, beliefs and hurts?
  • How spontaneous are you when faced with new situations?
  • Do you understand how you create your life?
  • Is your imagination able to go beyond the borders of that which you currently know?
  • Are you aware of the pulse of life flowing through all living things?
  • What kinds of images do you create when faced with stressful situations?
  • How far away from your mind and body does you awareness of the environment extend?

What are altered, expanded and non-ordinary states of consciousness?

There are many, many maps of how consciousness works and new models are frequently being developed. The popular perception of expanded or so called altered states of consciousness are states induced by psychoactive drugs, especially hallucinogens and alcohol. The expression altered state of consciousness was coined by Charles Tart in 1969 and describes induced changes in one's mental state, almost always temporary. It has been defined as any condition which is significantly different from a waking beta wave state, our normal brain wave pattern, which is when we are active, busy, anxiously thinking and actively concentrating.

What States?

Every one of us experiences a non-ordinary state of consciousness each night - when we sleep and dream. It includes even drowsiness, hypnosis, meditation, trance, euphoria, bliss, psychosis as well as premonitions and channeling.

Other heightened states happen during intense emotional times when we are around birth or death, experience traumatic events or accidents, during fevers, sleep deprivation, fasting, oxygen deprivation and nitrogen narcosis (deep diving) and in near death and out-of-body experiences. The intensity of these experiences heightens our awareness of our true feelings and of our body's reactions. Time seems to slow down, our priorities shift as our focus narrows. We find ourselves behaving in exceptional ways, for good and ill. The very meaning of life transforms at these pivotal times and our sense of identity may change forever.

Meditation and devotional practices including prayer, chanting, specific forms of singing, music and yoga, the use of sensory deprivation, isolation tanks or mind-control techniques and hypnosis also alter our brain waves as does the ecstasy of orgasm and deep tantric union.

For thousands of years medicine people and shamans in indigenous tribes have been rigorously trained from birth to enter into trance states. Among other things, they journey to the realms of spirit to bring back the person's soul or to effect healing for their people. They use herbs, smoke, crystals and other substances as tools, recognizing the interconnectedness of all life and that changes in one part of the field of consciousness affects other parts, namely the person needing healing or the focus of the ceremony. Shamans also access the spirit world to gain knowledge and insights into the past and the future, the environments in which they live, as well as food sources, relationship issues, rites of passages and conscious growth.

Specific forms of breathing also change brain waves, allowing you to access a wide range of expanded and intensely focused states of consciousness, including experiences of birth and death, archetypal identities, past and future lives, cosmic awareness of life on other planets and the geometric forms underpinning all life.

Another effective way to induce an expanded state of consciousness is using a variety of neurotechnology. Hemi-Sync, psychoacoustics, mind machines, light and sound stimulation and cranial electrotherapy stimulation induce specific brain wave patterns and specific non-ordinary states of consciousness.

So what is "normal" ?

The popular perception of what is "normal" only serves as a baseline for the initial awakening of Self consciousness. I encourage the view that each one of us has the potential for limitless connection and expansion, and in this view the "norm" is not the center, the Self is. What passes for normal is merely a beginning point for the possible and is a lesser state of awareness than that which we were born with. Children naturally have access to a wider range of consciousness states than average adults, including when asleep. Many indigenous cultures also retain access to a wider range of consciousness states than western peoples and perhaps this contributes to their inalienable connection to the Earth.

As we delve deeper and deeper into understanding the mystery of life, quantum physics now verifies the reality of these non-ordinary states of consciousness. What was once the province of the occult and esoteric is becoming recognized as "real" through scientific inquiry and the study of the physical laws governing life, the universe and everything.

Healing

There is a profound shift that happens when we become more conscious. For those who have been wounded by the lack of adequate care and love, the patterns born of being a victim drop away and there is a relocation of identity to the authentic Self. We get to create our identity anew each moment, mastering self dominion over our thoughts, feelings and actions, how we care for our body and the planet.

The process of incarnating different aspects of expanded consciousness seems quite extraordinary to our "normal" consciousness yet these experiences do provide extraordinary healing and growth. They add much to the richness of life, increase our tolerance of different people's cultures, religions beliefs and ideologies and they access a reliable source of wisdom to respond to life's challenges. Experiencing the wonders of the worlds within and without fires the imagination, providing access to greatly needed creative energies, opening the pathways for new solutions to many of our old, old dilemmas.

The journey of life becomes one of evolution rather than the devolution of our current culture. Expanded states of consciousness offer peace to the continually questing soul, remind us of the power of our connections and open us to the freedom of our true place in this world.

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