Normal Consciousness
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Normal Consciousness
Normal Consciousness refers to the everyday waking consciousness of your "average," disconnected, Bodily Ego-bound modern citizen.
Syncretic Terms
Normal Consciousness > Dullness, Normalcy, Ordinary Consciousness, Paramount Reality, Rational Consciousness, Usual Consciousness
Related LP Terms
Non-LP Related Terms
Normal Consciousness > Matrix Illusion, Metaintelligence, Mindbody State, Multistate Theory, Practical Man, Singlestate Fallacy
Notes
Stanislav Grof: "In the ordinary or “normal” state of consciousness, we experience ourselves as Newtonian objects existing within the boundaries of our skin. The American writer and philosopher Alan Watts referred to this experience of one- self as identifying with the 'skin-encapsulated ego'. Our perception of the environment is restricted by the physiological limitations of our sensory organs and by physical characteristics of the environment."[1]
Peter Berger distinguishes between "paramount reality," which is the
"One would begin with an understanding of the ordinary everyday "life-world," the taken-for-granted world of commonsense which Schutz aptly called the "paramount reality." This is the reality that we apprehend when we are "wide awake," when we go about our various mundane project (Schutz also called this the .. world of working"), and which we presuppose as the common context of almost a1J social interaction. This is the reality that we massively bare with our fellowmen, and which therefore is the most massively plausible to ourselves: Almost everyone around us, almost all the time, confirms and reconfirms the basic contours of this reality. It is thus a domain of familiarity and of safety-indeed it is the principal domain of reliability in our experience."[2]
William James: "Our normal waking consciousness is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence, but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch and they are there in all their completeness..."[3]
Normal consciousness is not healthy consciousness. Normal consciousness is damaged consciousness. Normal consciousness is disconnected consciousness. Normal consciousness is limited consciousness. Normal consciousness is reflective of a physical unit and Bodily Ego damaged by Toxic Socialization.
Normal consciousness is a pathology characterized by an overactive/defensive Bodily Ego and an impaired/corrupted connection to Resident Monadic Consciousness.
There is nothing salutatory about normal consciousness. Normal consciousness, especially at the lower end of normal, is generally insufficient to the achievement of goals and basic maintenance of bodily and mental health.
Normal consciousness is veiled consciousness. Normal consciousness is a blindfolded Physical Unit. Normal consciousness is consciousness submerged in Maya.
Levels of Consciousness above normal are attainable up to the physical limits of the body and mind.
Transitory moments of strong Connection (e.g. Peak Experience, Pure Conscious Events, Transcendence, etc) may be experienced as a result of trauma, forms of meditation, the ingestion of Connection Supplements, rituals, etc. A more permanent expansion of Consciousness in the body may only be attained via a process of spiritual and psychological healing and connection.
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Footnotes
- ↑ Grof, Stanislav. “Psychology For the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research.” Spirituality Studies 2, no. 1 (2016): 3–36. p. 24. https://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume2-issue1-spring2016/#2.
- ↑ Berger, Peter L. “Some Second Thoughts on Substantive versus Functional Definitions of Religion.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 13, no. 2 (June 1, 1974): 125–33. https://doi.org/10.2307/1384374. p. 129.
- ↑ James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study of Human Nature. New York: Penguin, 1982. https://amzn.to/2l4UyR7