Consciousness

Western science limits itself to the physical world: matter and motion within space and time. Scientific "proof" relies on the testimony of the five senses and various instruments designed to magnify the capacity of the senses to perceive various physical phenomena.

Western science does not deal with mental phenomena (ideas) or emotional phenomena (feelings). In the West, these are considered the realm of philosophy and psychology, rather than that of "pure science". This view is resolutely held in the face of the irrefutable fact that all creation -- human and otherwise -- clearly begins in the mind.

And, of course, science does not deal with consciousness, which can be defined as “pure awareness, independent of its content.” Scientists rely on -- indeed they could not exist without -- this attribute. But they don't study it. At times, philosophers have turned their attention to the subject of consciousness, but their discussion is muddled. They confuse consciousness with mind or the contents of mind: ideas and sensory phenomena. Of late, it has even become fashionable to seek an explanation for consciousness in organic chemistry or biology. These efforts are based on an ingrained and unexamined materialism, which results in what I call “cause-effect reversal”. These philosophers are like drunken men, wandering in a park, who wave their arms and think they have caused the wind.

“I think, therefore I am,” is exactly wrong. "I am, therefore I think", is closer to the truth (although I can also exist without thinking).

Awareness, or consciousness, is the primary and fundamental Fact of the Universe. Awareness is a mirror, that reflects whatever is held before it. Awareness without specific content can also be called Being. Awareness focused on itself is Self-Aware Being, which can also be called Self, as Self is nothing other than awareness of one’s own awareness or being.

The mistake Western philosophers make is in assuming consciousness is the effect of something else, when in reality it is the cause.

The great mystery of the universe is how the universe was (is) created. As I have suggested elsewhere, the universe is created first in intention. By that I mean, the intention within Consciousness to separate subject from object. In pure Self-Awareness, there is no separation. There is only Being. But, in the thought “creation”, the ideas, “creator” and “created” arise. Inherent in “created” is the idea of individuation. That which is “created” is separate both from the "creator" and everything else the creator has defined. Space and time are the “dimensions” of the created universe; individuation is the principle it comprises.

Within this scheme of subject and object, creator and created, another principle arises. To illustrate what it is, suppose you’re dreaming. In your dream, you’re in a bar talking baseball with a colleague from work. Your colleague (who happens to be a New Yorker) starts making disparaging remarks about your favorite team (which happens to be the Boston Red Sox). A heated argument ensues, and you wind up punching your colleague in the nose.

What does your colleague think about that?

He doesn’t think anything about it, does he? After all, he’s a dream colleague. He isn't real. He exists only in your consciousness. As the dreamer, you know all this this is true. But suppose you were to give your dream colleague the power of consciousness, do you suppose he would agree with you?

I have said that the first quality of consciousness is REFLECTIVITY; in other words, consciousness is like a mirror that reflects whatever it is focused upon.

As we have seen, the second quality of consciousness is PLASTICITY: its ability to assume any and every form.

A third attribute of consciousness, of which we, as individual parts of the creation, are both beneficiaries and -- for the most part -- unwitting victims, is its UBIQUITY. Consciousness permeates and comprises everything; it is all-in-all in the creation.

As God (or in other words, Eternal Self-Aware Consciousness) projects thoughts within the eternal mirror of Itself, each of those thoughts is also comprised of Itself, and is therefore conscious. But since each thought is apparently limited by it's nature (i.e., the character of its individuality) when that thought views its reflection in the mirror of Consciousness, it naturally assumes its “self” is the individual “self” of that thought and not the Universal Self of that which created it. Since each thought is limited in space and time, the "self" of that thought comes to believe it is similarly limited.

This mistaken notion creates the sense of egoity – “I” and “not-I”. A desire arises for the continuation of "I", which, in turn creates loves and hates, fears and desires. What is favorable to the continued existence of "self" is called "good"; what is unfavorable is called "bad", and so on.

The refinement and redefinition of egoity is behind the process of evolution; it is the essential magnetism, the fundamental polarity from which all the forces of the world are derived.

When I was a boy, I used to wonder, “If God made the Universe, what did he make it out of?”

The answer is, he made it out of Consciousness. Or more accurately, he became it.