Do you believe in levels of consciousness?

Fyxe wrote: subject and object are not required for force level consciousness though. thats what Jedi try to get to right? the rising up through the levels to the point where all that dissapears, or at least so we can tell the difference that there is no difference. to say we are connected is one thing, to know that we are is different. this is a higher level. We start out a shattered pieces and our goal is to put ourselves back together. we can do this through pain or through ascention. one way or the other it will happen, so why not avoid the pain? This is what the force wants for us. to rise by knowledge and understanding, not screaming and kicking like a bad child!

Until we get this knowledge we recycle ourselves though the lower animal layers of the astral planes until they move on to guardian level where the spirit guides are. they are the ones that help us in the journey. after they do that for a while they get to shed even their energy bodes and become pure thought until they can ascend to master level where the teaching of the force come from. above them are the very planes of creation and beyond that is the infinite itself. the realm of pure force energy where all things are one and all other things come.

well, perhaps we recycle through the lower levels of human existence, searching for purpose, until we find it. Until we see that thing, that was there but we weren't aware or fully aware of. "its not the spoon that bends". This goes to your first point about knowledge vs belief. "Don't just think you are, know you are." Most religions have a system of repetition. You even see many prayers that specifically use repetition. It's all about reinforcing belief the same exact way that Trump will keep repeating "no collusion, no obstruction" because the truth doesn't matter when it comes to influence. It's all about what people will believe.

Of course does that we can actually bend spoons with our minds? We can't do things that are physically impossible. But belief can transform your life if you believe that you can obtain the obtainable and do the doable. We all have power that we limit strictly by our own belief that it is out of our reach; because we convince ourselves that it is and that we know it is when that negative thought is simply a belief itself that contradicts confidence.

Wow, interesting things proteus. thanks for posting such cool stuff. I wonder if that is a different kind of consciousness than I was talking about though. I wanted to really talk about levels of I guess like universal consciousness and not just consciousness that looks like more of a sort of an ability to understand things in our lives. so that chart divides stuff up by what I call understanding of an idea, understanding of yourself and understanding of the morals civilization. what woujld happen if the understanding of an idea is backwards to understanding of morals though? like what makes it have to be the way the chart shows?

Well, let's look at this from somewhat of a biological level.

Ants, birds, fish, cats, heck, even plants, have different senses, different brains (or none at all), different biological makeups, yet all have some sort of consciousness, albeit some much more simple than others, and it shows itself in different ways (hence the ant colony's "hive-mind" versus a more advanced mammal's individualistic, problem-solving, and emotional cognitive capabilities).

So, if we look at it from a purely literal angle, yes, there are different levels of consciousness, in terms of biological complexity.

However, I am sure this question is addressing specifically hypothetically differing human levels of consciousness.

Yet even so, when we speak in terms of shifting focus and perspective via mediums such as mediation and hallucinogens, would one consider these experiences differing levels of human consciousness?

Can one be aware of more than one thing?

Carlos.Martinez3 wrote: Can one be aware of more than one thing?

Oh wow, this one really stumped me.

Well, I'm not sure.

It depends on your definition of "one thing".

I mean, you may think, for example, by imagining the Universe, you are thinking of many things, but wouldn't you in reality only be imagining one concept?

Or practicing mindfulness, and being aware of only that which is present in the present, are you thinking of everything that is happening now, or simply just "now"?

This is an excellent question!

I am currently reading through The Way of Zen by Alan Watts, and in the first chapter, the very first thing he addresses is our natural tendency to only think linearly, as in, one thing at a time.
This is why language takes the form it does.
Yes, we understand what a runny nose is when we say it, the concept just pops into your head and you know exactly what I mean, but the language does not capture the essence of the thing itself, the complex biological and environmental systems that make the thing what it is, or even the evolution that led to the adaptation of noses secreting boogers/mucus to ward off dirt and bacteria and such!

What about riding a bike? Have to be aware of your balance, traffic or obstacles, the slipperiness of the gravel, steering and your hand/s on the handles, and the destination or route youre on. Pretty much all of this at the same time. Driving is similar. Heres a question then: are we aware of several things at once or do we cycle through single things so quickly that it only seems we’re aware of several things?

Yes you can be aware of 7 things at one time consciously but subconsciously you can be aware of like 200 or more but is not realised.

So the consciousness I was wondering about was an awareness of higher realms. Like ascension conscious.

Fyxe wrote: Yes you can be aware of 7 things at one time consciously but subconsciously you can be aware of like 200 or more but is not realised.

How do you know thats true?

So the consciousness I was wondering about was an awareness of higher realms. Like ascension conscious.

I gave some examples of “higher” levels of consciousness that we can validate fairly well back in this post . The problem with the idea of “ascension” is that it seems to be just a rumor. Today, we look back on people like Jesus or the Buddha and we say they had achieved a higher level of consciousness - they ascended - but thats not something we believe because we have any good reason (aka convincing evidence) to believe it; its something some of us choose to believe because we want it to be true. From what i have seen so far, all examples of “ascension” fall into this same category.

EDIT: tell you what, though; if higher levels of consciousness do exist, its probably going to take quite a lot of dedication to various kinds of meditation, visualization, and lucid dreaming in order to access them.

One of my favorite podcasts, the Partially Examined Life, recently did a series of episodes discussing the philosophy of mind (which includes consciousness) and it really solidified my functionalist leanings.

If you vaguely care about the discussion, people far smarter than I have written many books on the subject (what it's like to be a bat, etc.) and I'd be delighted to point you that direction. This is my final post in this thread, because it's too cluttered with presumptions for my liking.

OB1Shinobi wrote: ...Heres a question then: are we aware of several things at once or do we cycle through single things so quickly that it only seems we’re aware of several things?

Now that's an interesting question OB1Shinobi!

Our senses and mind work 24/7, so we're always having information delivered to our brain in a continuous stream. So in that sense, we're always 'aware' of everything that's going on around us. However, I personally think we can only focus on a couple of things at a time.

For example, it's possible to hear what someone else is saying whilst you your self are talking. I don't think that's a case of switching rapidly because no matter how quickly you switched you'd still only be able to say/hear 50% of what's occurring. So it must be possible to be aware of at least 2 things at once.

However, the more we take on, the more likely we are to overload our brains - hence when we may be saying one thing and thinking another thing and we end up saying a mix of the 2 that doesn't really make sense.

Thinking and acting linearly is clearly our most comfortable 'default setting'