What Is Consciousness?

I see the word all over these days. In studies of psychic abilities. In talks by UFO researchers. In meditation manuals. In neurology and quantum physics. In race relations. In psychedelic research. In animal rights organisations. In explorations of plant, vegetable and tree life. Its use has gone, as we say, viral.

Consciousness can be seen as, “all that we are conscious of”. Through our thoughts, sense perceptions, emotions and intuitions. Of course, each individual, depending on their level of openness and acceptance, is conscious a greater or lesser amount. As we grow in desire and ambition, we discover more and more in the world around us, more to be conscious of. And as we pursue those threads of interest, gathering knowledge and understanding as we go, and generally making use of that knowledge to better ourselves in one way or another, we come to a stage where consciousness would seem to be more than the objects, beings and systems that appear in our explorations.

At some point we may discover, as a theory, rumour or fantasy, that consciousness is much more than the driver of sentient beings, that it is, or could be, the actual life force itself, something beyond the molecular and subatomic particles that, through their bonding, allow perceptible forms to manifest.

Is consciousness the prime substance, the first cause, the ground of all being, the word of god spelling out the very idea of light? For me the answer would be an unqualified yes. What animates me is what animates you is what makes plants grow horses gallop and fish swim, fires the suns that render planets habitable and charges the gravitational force that keeps us all in place.

You might say it was the original miracle worker, that god which moves in mysterious ways to make the plan unfold. You might let fear categorise it as an imprisoning force, that which gives us just enough energy to appreciate the cage in which we are contained. You could, just as easily, let it liberate your need to expand and encompass, to better know the energies in and around you.

As we explore consciousness, for immediate gain or long term growth, we slowly uncover its greatest secret: that everything, including emptiness, is constructed of consciousness, that even vacuums and voids have pertinent advice. And that advice is: keep going for you have no other choice.

Why Consciousness?

Sounds like the annoyingly curious child going why daddy?  every fifteen minutes and the parent attempting the impossible: explaining every shred of existence the wondering child puzzles over. But it is a questioning pose we all slip into eventually. Usually after the why floods, why tornadoes, why war, why pointless suffering, why ruthless evil and even why good guys finish last.

As a metaphysical quester of many lifetimes and playgrounds of incarnation, I am occasionally tempted take the plunge, part the waters of the mystery and walk through. And when I do, walk through that is, what I find on the other side, whether galactic or sub-atomic, is that which comes before energy and its manifestations. You know, energy which propels planets in their orbits and people in their preferences, that force which pushes you into action and then pressures you into rest. The creative juice of the universes if you like. The mysterious drive behind the evolution of forms, mineral, vegetable, animal. That thing which keeps your fingernails and hair growing after you die.

That excitement which animates your refreshed or resurrected spirit once the fear of death has itself died. That pleasurable joy which finances your stay in the paradise of your choice. That fount of wisdom that seems so self evident when thought is unleashed from its belief systems. That immense power behind your many manifestations in this and other worlds. All those beings that are born of you, go about their business in time and space, and, as the blues song goes, bring it all back home to you.

Consciousness is what makes it all possible and renders it all useful. Useful for your education  in the cosmic game of being and not-being. For even when you’re absent from team practice, here on the planet, some other aspect of that greater you reigning over the family tree is here, hoisting its ego flag. Shouting here I am love me!

And when you’re not here, but languishing in heaven, relearning what you thought  you’d lost forever, you can look down and chuckle at all the marvellous silliness of egos shaping up to expectations, and know that it is consciousness that gives them the freedom to do so and you the freedom to watch them. You can present yourself above the torments, await the explosion and catch some startled falling soul like some falling star, and as the song says, put it in your pocket and saved it for a rainy day. Child’s play in the pit of hell, yes, but just another day in the shadow play of consciousness.

Exploring Consciousness

As we proceed on our inner journeys, employing whatever paths, traditional or innovative, that seem to fit our current needs, – prayer, yoga, meditation, running, sacramental psychedelics, – we arrive at the understanding that all is consciousness, matter, thought, emotion, that everything is alive and self-directed, aware organisms pushing the envelope of their potential.

When we arrive at this juncture it is often the fulfilment of teachings studied and practiced for years, concepts and theories that seemed to unravel the paradoxes and mysteries structuring the obstacle race that seems to constitute our lives. All those whys and hows uttered in frustration and resentment.

When our personal perceptions confirm the teachings we have studied and practiced there is usually a tremendous uplift of exhilaration that erupts in our hearts, or maybe charges down through our crown chakra, illuminating our earlier ignorance as some silly detour on the way to the destination that is here and now and always has been, had we not been distracted in some dalliance with the shiny baubles of temporary illusions.

That exhilaration, to be one with all that is, all the microbes, elementals, committees, transactions, beliefs, communities and tragedies, while invigorating to the aspirant, is almost commonplace for the archangel or adept, or any highly evolved being going about their business. To them we are like children in the playground who have found the gate in the fence is actually unlocked and the river beyond safely shallow and full of delightful little fish.

Our brief encounters with such cosmic consciousness are indeed a taste of the holy grail hinted at and sometimes promised in all the ancient teachings. Usually we cannot sustain the transcendence of self-consciousness for very long, such is the fragility of the new body built to experience it. It only gains strength and flexibility from repeated exposures to the bracing radiance that the elevation encounters. Our personal concerns and petty ambitions always reassert themselves with that familiar pride of attachment, anchoring our flight into the empyrean in the harbour of habit and neurosis.

But even these brief interludes in the line up of tiresome commitments that claim our time can be enough to show us that we are at one with the consciousness that is endlessly creating and recreating the universe as it expands beyond any horizon we devise for it. For we, as incarnate experiments dreamed up by Monads making adjustments to earlier templates, are endlessly creating and recreating ourselves in the various worlds available for the quenching of our thirsts. Those selves are never inactive, whether alive on the physical, alive on the astral or footloose and fancy free in the nirvanas of formless radiance, we never cease to participate in one fashion or another. Our slice of consciousness operates more or less exactly as the greater ones, like the fabled Amina Mundi, do, exploring expansion and contraction and self replication in any manner perceived as possible.

All this can be experienced in moments of meditation, consciousness projection or psychedelic intoxication. How much of it can be absorbed and retained for further use depends on the flexibility of the fragile ego, who much prefers the habit of forgetfulness, where blame can be righteously apportioned and responsibility playfully schucked.

Why did no one tell us the gate was unlocked? What was all that stuff about the river being too deep and dragging the unwary out to sea? When will authority release us from bondage? Why does society allow such injustice? What are you really doing god?

By Gordon Phinn
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