October 19, 2001.
 
 

(Note: a person born with that hunger to understand what is going on
beyond the routine speculations & statistical models
must realize that while men say that they have a soul,
a special spirit, etc, what really distinguishes them is their consciousness;
that operation of the brain commonly referred to as the mind;
the neural activity that produces what men call thoughts;
regardless of the metaphysical connotations inferred when the terms,
soul & spirit are used, physical, neural consciousness is in truth
what is being spoken of, for without it,
men could not even conjure up the notions of a supernatural soul or spirit.
It need not be seen as an attack on ordinary people’s beliefs,
but it does need to be as clear in your mind [as it is in reality]
that it is the consciousness produced in yours and everyone else’s brain that differentiates man and is alone responsible for everything he can ever say that he believes to be true which he cannot ever physically put his hands on,
including the idea that he has a soul, which is something different than --  other than  --
the consciousness that is stating the belief.
If you stay forever entangled in useless, oblique semantics about this, you will remain forever just around the corner from seeing what is going on in the main square;
the physical operation going on constantly --  and right this moment  --
is alone what produces any and all feelings you have of being “you,”
and if your ordinary “you” has dreams of things intangible & supernatural --
they are dreams of your consciousness and of nothing else:
there is nothing else in you or any man that can think-about or debate this matter except the consciousness in your brain.
This is not atheism, or any other kind of ism --  it is a simply a
literal fact, easily realized by anyone who wants to see and who calmly looks;
so always remember this when consciousness is referred to in these News dispatches.
Now back to today’s topic).
 
 

Twentieth century, western psychology is credited as the genesis of the idea that
man has two levels or kinds of consciousness,
(one of which he is aware, and the other of which he is normally not),
but the core of the notion, in one form or another, is as old as the self-recorded history of man, (which commenced with the appearance of consciousness);
all of the mythologies from the four corners of the planet
paint pictures of two levels of consciousness:
commonly represented as: the everyday world and then an underworld;
or anthropomorphized as: semi divine figures vs. mortals,
and on a more intellectual basis: a distinction between
the truth and error  --   reality and illusion,
but just as with the idea of a soul:
no matter what these two levels of consciousness are labeled,
remember that it is consciousness doing the labeling,
and what it is doing, be it acknowledged or not,
is making reference to the two different manifestations of itself that it knows exist;
this is the "something-about-consciousness” that
everyone is aware of but which no one pays attention to.

Get immediately clear on this:
one of these consciousnesses is not sub, nor non conscious;
they both manifest themselves as full forms of consciousness
with all of its usual attributes, but one rarely does manifest itself,
which is another way of saying that, "no-one-pays-attention-to-it"  (same thing).
 

Picture that in the layer of the cerebral cortex which wraps around and covers
the top of the brain (considered responsible for consciousness)
that there are two separate areas viable and operational;
one (let us call it the primary activity) endlessly produces what
everyone thinks-of and calls their consciousness, mind and thoughts,
and which is the sole source of the on going sensation in them of them having a self;
for the purpose of useful comparison, picture figuratively that this manifestation of consciousness is much larger or more active than the other;
it truly deserves the label: primary,
for when men think-about, or refer-to, consciousness (their own & everyone else's)
this one is the one they have in mind (or, to be precise: that their mind has in mind).
This consciousness is what is responsible for everything man does that is not directed by programmed instinct,
and it is this consciousness that has produced all of man's technology and progress,
it is this consciousness that runs all of his civilized and cultural enterprises;
this consciousness is the heart and engine of the singularity of human existence.
 

But there is this other consciousness;
seldom manifest --  hardly noticed  --  almost never sought out (at least profitably).
Its existence is known mainly to men via its avocational employ;
by way of what the majority of people dismiss as: parapsychology; occultism; mysticism; new age-ism, or just downright, weird-&-nutty-ism,
a view not ill founded, based on the only visible attempts men make to put this other consciousness into active operation.
Man's primary consciousness looks at such ideas as: talking-to-the-dead, or to
the creator of the universe; ESP and the like, as the groundless notions that they be,
(since it is wired to deal but with the tangible realities of life),
but there is more to the other consciousness that can conceive of such ideas
than is represented by its infantile exercises;
that other consciousness (for instance) in conceiving of a conversation with a gigantic faraway god is unwittingly revealing its potential to communiqué with
life up close, cellularly (same with speaking to the departed,
who are now atoms strewn about in a myriad of new visible forms).

Put simply: everyone is aware that this other consciousness exists,
for it exists in them  --  in their own brain,
but it is not required for everyday life, and only gets infrequent, minority exposure through its most inchoate and useless exercise (routine mysticism, etc),
and thus does its existence in men not only receive no attention by ordinary men,
but when it does appear in sight of their primary consciousness as forms of
parapsychology & new age-ism, it is dismissed out of hand (predictably & rightly so),
but this does not alter the fact that this other consciousness does exist and that it has potential to think of things that man's primary one cannot.

Those with that certain-hunger  have historically taken the view
(not because they are stupid, but because of the way thought naturally performs)
that what is needed to see more clearly is a remodeling of their ordinary consciousness;
commonly described: "Man's consciousness is asleep, but can be awakened:
is in ignorance, but can be enlightened" --  always based on the approach of
changing your present state or form of consciousness into a different one;
while, if pursued to its inevitable end, this perspective can yield the desired result,
more directly to the point would be to look at what goes on in your own consciousness as you attempt to alter its operations and see that an equally valid description of the situation in your head is that there are two separate consciousnesses
and that what you are after already exists in the non primary one.

An alternate and potentially more potent & immediate map of what the few want to do
is not to "raise, expand" or in any way change their present level,
or state of consciousness, but rather to shift over to the already-there, adjoining state.
Having that state as your primary one is what has been historically referred to as having your, "moment-of-enlightenment;"  as having, "waked-up;" having, "been liberated," and your efforts can be more quickly rewarded if you can find your own personal way of seeing for yourself what has been today described:
a genuinely grounded view whereby you are not trying to change the state of consciousness that you presently find insufficient for your interests,
but rather you simply need to remember that the state you desire is already sitting there in your brain --  unused --  just waiting to be used,
and all you have to do is remember it is there, and use it,
and as you do, it gets stronger and stronger and begins to replace your
previous primary one in a most gratifying fashion.

                                                                    J