Level of Consciousness
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Level of Consciousness
The phrase Levels of Consciousness refers to different phenomenological experiences of Consciousness as experienced by a Physical Unit. "Higher states" of Consciousness are associated with stronger and more permanent connection, while lower states are associated with disconnection and sleep.
Aspect of Consciousness
Aspect of Consciousness > Facet of Consciousness, Level of Consciousness, Structure of Consciousness
Related LP Terms
Non-LP Related Terms
Typologies of Consciousness
Notes
The Upanishads
Brant Cortright discusses "levels of consciousness."[1]
The Upanishads delineate three ordinary states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep. Each is real, but each has a higher order of reality. For beyond these three, the Upanishads say, is the unitive state, called simply “the fourth”: turiya.[fn]MacPhail, Jean C. “A History of Consciousness in Vedanta: Footprints of the Atman,” 2022. https://www.academia.edu/83411689.[/fn] Entering this state is similar to waking up out of dream sleep: the individual passes from a lower level of reality to a higher one. The sages called the dream of waking life - the dream of separate, merely physical existence – by a suggestive name, maya. In general use the word meant a kind of magic, the power of a god or sorcerer to make a thing appear to be something else. In the Gita, maya becomes the creative power of the Godhead, the primal creative energy that makes unity appear as the world of innumerable separate things with “name and form.”[2]
Scheme One - Travis et. al
Travis et. all note four "levels" of consciousness,
"a behavioral-centered self in which the person identifies with sensorimotor behavior: ‘‘I like to forge my own way;’’ or ‘‘I like to go out and experiment with new ideas.’’ As one de-embeds from behavior, one could have a more cognitive-centered self in which the person identifies with mental objects and ongoing mentation: ‘‘I'm open to new experiences.’’ In turn, one could become more affect-centered, in which one identifies more with feelings and interrelations with others and the environment: ‘‘I care deeply for other people;’’ or ‘‘I'm happy, caring, helpful. I like to help other people. This progressive de-embedding of self-awareness from mental contents and processes is a natural process that is shaped by ongoing experience"[3]
These levels are experienced gradually as one "de-embedds," which is a process of moving "a more expressed level to a more abstract level of self-awareness." [4]
Travis et. al. suggest a "fourth state of consciousness, distinct from waking, dreaming, and sleeping" where one is completely de-embedded from one's isolated individual self, and where "the self is only aware of itself, devoid of all thoughts, feelings, and perceptions." They refer to this, after the Maharishi, as "pure, self-referral consciousness."[5] They provide some statements describing the characteristics of this level of experience, but also presume its a biological state and not the experience of connection to The Fabric
Scheme Two
Disconnected Consciousness (low CQ connection, inattention to reality, guilt, shame, self, other directed hatred, isolation even in groups, addictions, anxieties, existential anxieties, lack of compassion,
Pathological Consciousness (almost total disconnection)
Scheme three
By CQ (0 to 100) at any given moment. Average daily CQ
Scheme Three
Christ Consciousness / Krishna Consciousness, God Consciousness
Normal Consciousness Christ / Krishna Consciousness
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Footnotes
- ↑ Cortright, Brant. “An Integral Approach to Spiritual Emergency.” Guidance & Counseling 15, no. 3 (2000): 12.
- ↑ Easwaran, Eknath, trans. The Upanishads: Introduced and Translated by Eknath Easwaran. Berkeley, California: Nilgiri Press, 1987. p. 28.
- ↑ Travis, Frederick, Alarik Arenander, and David DuBois. “Psychological and Physiological Characteristics of a Proposed Object-Referral/Self-Referral Continuum of Self-Awareness.” Consciousness and Cognition 13, no. 2 (June 1, 2004): 401–20. p. 402-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2004.03.001.
- ↑ Travis, Frederick, Alarik Arenander, and David DuBois. “Psychological and Physiological Characteristics of a Proposed Object-Referral/Self-Referral Continuum of Self-Awareness.” Consciousness and Cognition 13, no. 2 (June 1, 2004): 401–20. p. 402-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2004.03.001.
- ↑ Travis, Frederick, Alarik Arenander, and David DuBois. “Psychological and Physiological Characteristics of a Proposed Object-Referral/Self-Referral Continuum of Self-Awareness.” Consciousness and Cognition 13, no. 2 (June 1, 2004): 401–20. p. 403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2004.03.001.