Sages tell us that achieving higher states of consciousness or a higher level of consciousness is the purpose of life. All we need to do is use the right tools. Do you know what these tools are and how to use them?
It’s important to distinguish awareness from consciousness. Awareness can be defined as knowledge of something. Whereas consciousness is the bandwidth on which awareness resides. Some early developers of psychology used the terms consciousness and awareness interchangeably. So, it is helpful to know we see them as two different aspects.
Achieving Higher Spiritual Awareness
The goal of achieving higher states of consciousness is to grow and evolve. Through the process of growth, we can expand our consciousness and awareness. This expansion enables us to grow intellectually, physically, and spiritually. Expanding our awareness is what some call awakening.
Some people are born spiritually awake; we call them sages and enlightened beings. Most people awaken later in life when they answer the call Joseph Campbell calls the Hero’s Journey. However, many people remain asleep spiritually. They get sidetracked by religion or commercialism.
Higher spiritual awareness is about connecting with your higher self and the higher virtues of our nature. It is about recognizing there’s more to life than the physical world and becoming more self-aware. It has nothing to do with following religious beliefs.
Sigmund Freud defined awareness as consciousness. He divides consciousness (or awareness) into three levels: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Consciousness is the quality of thinking and perceiving thoughts and the environment. (1)
The preconscious is a memory’s latent, repressed, or dormant aspects. They are available when we recall things. The unconscious contains all subconscious brain activities regulating the mind and body. Here, we think Freud describes the bandwidth on which these levels of awareness or knowing exist.
A Higher Level of Consciousness or Awareness
We have different kinds of awareness: (2) social, self, emotional, environmental, and spiritual. Each partition of awareness can grow independently. You can have any combination of these attributes at varying levels. Growth is not guaranteed.
Achieving higher spiritual awareness is about increasing the spiritual aspect of awareness. Reaching higher states of consciousness is a transition to a higher partition of consciousness. (3)
We know these higher levels of consciousness exist because we can measure them with our current medical technology. For example, the fourth state of transcendental consciousness produces measurable changes in physiology. It lowers heart rate, respiration, and brainwave coherence compared to the default states. Similar changes occur with those who practice the Shamanic Journey. The Shamanic State of Consciousness produces an altered state where the heart rate corresponds with the drumbeat.
Awareness is the level of wakefulness and bandwidth of perception provided by consciousness. Without consciousness, you cannot have awareness. The conduit of consciousness is the vehicle, which provides all levels of awareness. You increase these by using techniques for spiritual evolution, not by becoming a follower of religion. — Guru Tua
Achieving Higher States of Consciousness
Our focus is on the spiritual aspect of consciousness and awareness. The spiritual aspect has a major impact on the filter of our worldview. If you are spiritually blind, it affects all levels of knowledge and thinking. It is how religious acolytes can ignore the science and facts that contradict their beliefs. It’s also how they can commit violence in the name of the love of their God.
Awareness is the conduit that governs our capacity for perception. It affects our ability to think and reason, so expanding awareness is vital to our overall health and wellness.
Whether we are asleep or awake depends on awareness. It has nothing to do with intelligence or education. Awareness is the capacity of our cognitive function. Some people have a more extraordinary ability to perceive, observe, and understand.
Many people live their lives with a narrow bandwidth of awareness. Others awaken. Some people awaken a little at a time, while others awaken in great leaps and bounds. The measure of wakefulness is the degree to which we are awake. We can determine the degree to which we are awake by “how we perceive” ourselves and the world.
The Process of Moving to a Higher Level of Consciousness
There are several things you can do to raise your consciousness. It starts with repairing and healing the body, mind, and soul. It will help you return to a positive path of self-development. To achieve the best results, we recommend the following progression. There are specific tools that can help you with each step:
1. Identify the negative programming and the source.
2. Remove the harmful programming and its source.
3. Repair the damage and replace it with positive thought scripts.
After you have identified, repaired, and healed the harmful programming, you’ll have room to add positive things.
4. Enhance your critical thinking skills.
5. Practice technologies that expand awareness.
6. Engage in consciousness exploration activities.
Techniques for Spiritual Evolution
To evolve spiritually involves the growth of intellectual knowledge, the heart, and the spirit. It means moving from the control of our basic instincts to the higher virtues of the spirit.
The first step is removing and eliminating the source of harmful programming. Next, you’ll need to repair the damage it has caused. Almost any method that expands awareness and consciousness will help to heal and return your mind to its original state of innocence.
After you remove the source, it’s time for research. Find one or more of the methods that will help you heal the damage. There are many techniques for spiritual evolution that are safe and effective. They are a part of an integrated blended learning approach. They include:
— Automatic writing.
— Emotional Check Process.
— Process for Delving into Memories.
— Holotropic Breathing.
— Learning How to Learn.
— Lucid Dreaming Technique.
— Self-Observation Tools.
— The Shamanic Journey.
— Using a Spiritual Journal.
— Third-Eye Awakening Process.
Here’s a link to these tools to get more details. These are the building blocks. Achieving higher states of consciousness or a higher level of consciousness is a process.
What Affects Achieving Higher Spiritual Awareness?
Our perception determines our reality. Everything we experience happens within our minds. What we perceive reflects the health of our awareness. Awareness is on a continuum, a bandwidth of perception. On one end are people who are asleep. They live controlled by the dominant cultural narrative. On the other end of the continuum are those we call enlightened. They live in their original state of being: happiness and joy.
Awareness expands or contracts depending on the clarity of your mind. We can develop it so that we can perceive more. For example, when most people dream, they do not realize they are dreaming. But people who learn lucid dreaming perceive that they are dreaming. Their perception expands the act of dreaming and their ability to see and control the dream. It is why awareness is such a precious commodity. Expanding our perception increases our measure of wakefulness.
How Culture Affects Awareness and Consciousness
The mind is like a wilderness. It stays in balance if you leave it alone in its natural state. If you damage it by introducing pollution, then it becomes toxic. You return the balance you need to clean up the pollution first. You can’t plant seedlings in a polluted environment and expect them to live.
In our analogy of the wilderness and the mind, nature cannot recover if we keep polluting the environment—the same with the mind and our awareness. The pollution of an unhealthy culture distorts the bandwidth of perception and cognition. We cannot repair this harmful mindset if we keep polluting it.
It is unhealthy if a worldview uses groupthink manipulation tactics to install bias and prejudice. Almost everyone is subject to massive amounts of this negative cultural programming. Most of the harmful programming comes from religion and politics. This harmful programming keeps us from expanding our range of perception. Believing in religious mythology is a roadblock to achieving higher states of consciousness.
Many people do not have the choice of what they believe. Our family and culture often indoctrinate children and those who are vulnerable. But we are responsible for fixing this programming if it contains bias and prejudice.
How to Determine Your Level of Wakefulness
The cultural narrative plays a considerable role in the health of thinking and values. If it supports freethinking, it can contribute to our growth and expansion of awareness. But if the cultural narrative promotes negative bias and prejudiced thinking, it will reduce our awareness. You can tell where you are on this continuum by asking yourself questions.
— Does the belief structure promote or cause you fear or anger?—Do you feel you need to defend your beliefs about spiritual reality?
— Do your beliefs contain elements harmful to you, others, or the environment?
— Do your beliefs include justification for harming or discriminating against others?
— If your belief system has a hierarchy, does this promote more value or human rights for specific classes, ethnicity, or gender? In short, does it value some people more than others?
— Do your beliefs place boundaries on what you can think, what you value, and what you can do? If so, are these boundaries applicable to everyone, or are some exempt?
If there are boundaries, are they around what you can believe about physical or spiritual reality?
— Are there boundaries for what is an acceptable spiritual practice? Are you permitted to create your path of spiritual exploration?
An affirmative answer to any of these questions means you are subject to structures harmful to your awareness’s health. You have two choices.
Vital Choices Are The Next Steps
You have two choices.
1) Ignore your conscience. Ignore the evidence that exposes the cultural narrative’s truth and then go back to sleep.
2) Answer the call to awaken and use the techniques for spiritual evolution.
Suppose you want to be more awake. That’s a great goal; good for you! However, you need to be prudent. Many cultures do not accept people who are awake and aware.
Sometimes, expanding awareness may need to be a private endeavor. Sadly, there are societies where it is unsafe to be a freethinker. Oppressive cultures exist around the globe. People think the West is a bastion of freedom and tolerance for all backgrounds. Perhaps this was the case long ago. However, even in North America, one must be cautious and prudent.
In Conclusion
Achieving higher states of consciousness is the natural desire to grow. The techniques for spiritual evolution open the door to this path of enlightenment. These mind hacks are safe and effective. All it takes is a little time and attention. Ask yourself the hard questions. Then, decide if you are willing to change your thinking. It starts with eliminating negative programming. Then, find other people who want to develop and expand their awareness. Be mindful of those who only want to hold you back.
If we nurture our ability to perceive correctly, we can increase it. Practice any form of seated or moving meditation that expands awareness. If we want to see ourselves and the world more clearly, we must increase our perception bandwidth.
References
(1) Sigmund Freud. Wikipedia
(2) Awareness. Wikipedia
(3) Higher Level of Consciousness. Wikipedia