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by macdjug-Paxvobiscum on November 2nd, 2007

macdjug-Paxvobiscum

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What really is a higher state of consciousness? Could it be an illusion?

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  • by Brand Y on May 2nd, 2008

    Brand Y

    The mind is a complicated animal, capable of generating many different states of consciousness. Normally when we speak of a "higher" state of consciousness (note the vertical metaphor is somewhat subjective), we're talking about "more awareness than usual".

    This kind of consciousness is definitely not an illusion, and it's easy to illustrate that -- if you've ever been driving down the road and suddenly noticed that you've been lost in thought for 10 minutes, with no awareness of the here-and-now presence of driving, that's a kind of higher consciousness: you "woke up" from the daydreaming and suddenly realized some presence -- "hey, I'm driving a car here!" :)

    It's probably impossible to catalog all the different possible states of consciousness, but I think the most important kind of higher consciousness is achieved by the discipline of learning to be present reliably -- much like waking up from the driving daydream, but on a regular basis throughout one's daily activities. If someone can do that reliably, they're much less likely to fall into the "lower" forms of consciousness which dominate so much of our lives: being lost in thought about things that don't really require thought, being on "autopilot" instead of responding authentically and spontaneously to life, being caught up in confused beliefs about life, etc.

    So an ordinary mind which isn't entangled in it's own byproducts is the kind of higher consciousness that interests me. There's nothing magical about it, it's about discipline and practice.

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