There are ten levels of awareness and consciousness growth stages. However, most people live their lives using only three. By limiting the bandwidth of awareness, they limit their full experience of life.
People get stuck in habitual routines when deprived of the knowledge that can open up other possibilities. Commercialism and organized religion, along with extremist politics, can consume your time. So, you may not realize you are missing out on experiencing other levels of reality.
So, come with us as we explore these other possibilities. Exploring the ten levels of awareness and consciousness growth stages will open your eyes. It will show you what you are missing and how to obtain higher levels of consciousness and awareness.
Ascending Consciousness Levels
Awareness is about being present and paying attention to what’s happening. For example, you can recognize that you’re feeling happy or sad. Consciousness is the bandwidth on which awareness resides. Consciousness is like the gears of a transmission. Awareness is gas and break peddles. You need both to drive a car.
As we engage in ascending consciousness levels, we will experience changes in perception and self-awareness. When the bandwidth of consciousness expands, we gain access to higher states.
Awareness and consciousness are part of the same energy. Awareness is the surface level, where we notice and pay attention. Our consciousness is the deeper level where we think, understand, and reflect. Consciousness and awareness help us navigate life and make sense of everything around us.
The Path of Consciousness Growth Stages
Initially, we become aware of our feelings and the world. As we progress, we develop self-awareness, recognizing our thoughts. Ascending consciousness levels start when we follow the urge to explore the unknown. This urge takes us on a journey of spiritual exploration. Here, we learn and practice various tools that promote growth and development.
Exploring the ten levels of awareness becomes a routine practice. Our intuition sharpens, guiding us with gut feelings and insights. Awareness expands, allowing us to think in new and innovative ways. We start to see how everything connects. We understand how different parts of life relate to each other. It gives us a sense of universal awareness. We feel linked to the universe and see our role in it. We realize growth is often incremental and subtle.
As we reach higher levels, we seek deeper meaning and purpose, pondering the big questions about existence. Toward the peak, we achieve higher states of spiritual awareness and enlightenment. This journey of expanding awareness is physical, spiritual, and psychological. Along the way, we learn valuable lessons that help us grow and connect more deeply with ourselves and the world. We realize how consciousness and awareness are not static partitions but overlap like the colors of a rainbow.
How Consciousness Is Like a Rainbow
Many people think consciousness has clear boundaries. This idea makes the complex nature of human awareness easier to understand. How we categorize daily experiences, like being awake or asleep, can influence this assumption.
This assumption is wrong. Consciousness is better seen as a continuum, not as separate states. It is how consciousness is like a rainbow.
Our awareness shifts seamlessly between different states of consciousness. The shift from being awake to sleeping is an example. We are generally unaware of these transitions. Practicing Japa meditation helps us reach the 4th state. Then, we can expand our awareness to notice these shifts. This shows how consciousness can grow to a higher level. However, growth is not the same as changing awareness.
Altered Awareness Versus the Growth to Higher States
To alter consciousness is to make a temporary change in awareness and perception. This can happen through meditation, deep breathing, or even daydreaming. When you alter your consciousness, you might feel different or see things in a new way, but it’s usually temporary.
Altered states of consciousness happen for many reasons. The use of alcohol or drugs changes perception and feelings. Injuries to the brain, like concussions, can also cause these changes. Some medicines, like antidepressants, can affect our minds too. Extreme stress or trauma can alter our state of mind, and certain medical conditions, like epilepsy or strokes, can also play a role.
Lack of sleep can change how we feel and think. Also, meditation and hypnosis can help change our awareness. Substances like Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew, which can also alter consciousness.
People are doing the best that they can from their own level of consciousness. ― Deepak Chopra
Thinking of consciousness like a rainbow of differing shades helps us recognize subtle changes. We can then appreciate the rich details and ever-changing nature of our thoughts and feelings. It also shows how important it is to think about individual differences and the context of these states.
Obstacles to the Growth of Consciousness and Awareness
When we enter the world, we have access to three default states: waking, sleeping, and dreaming. These three default states are important because they connect our bodies to consciousness.
Some people never venture beyond this level of development. It is a choice made by their lack of knowledge. The negative aspects of our culture reinforce this deficiency. So, ascending consciousness levels is something that is avoided. It runs contrary to commercialism and organized religion, which is fixated on the belief in myth and superstition.
Changing Your Perception of Higher States
It is common to consider these three partitions of awareness as completely separate entities. They view waking, sleeping, and dreaming as separate vertical silos. Many prioritize the waking state over dreaming and sleeping. However, we rarely perceive these three as being in a hierarchy.
Most people view dreaming as a part of sleep because we usually enter a sleep stage to experience it. However, this isn’t always the case. It is possible to go straight from the waking state into the REM state of dreaming. We can shift to the dream state when we daydream. Techniques like the Shamanic Journey also change our perception of reality though creative visualization.
The fact that you can go from one state of awareness to another seamlessly is an important finding. It tells us that consciousness is not hierarchical in structure, at least not with the default states. Instead, they are linked and possibly related, like the vertical silos on the bar graph. (1)
When we are in the waking state, our perception and awareness are fully engaged in this partition. Yet, we still have access to sleep and dream states under the right conditions. It’s simply that our awareness is not using either of these partitions. These subtle shifts in awareness help us understand how consciousness is like a rainbow.
Move Beyond the Default States
You are familiar with the first three; these are the default partitions that enable us to use this great mind, body, and spirit machinery. Many people never move beyond this default platform.
But as you will soon discover, there is much more to the experience. Nietzsche describes life as a series of questions and experiments. Consciousness is the apparatus through which we make this adventure.
The growth to higher states of consciousness is a natural progression. We are designed to evolve. It is our nature to develop ga greater understanding of ourselves and the world. This is a more permanent change. It involves expanding your awareness and thinking more deeply about life. As you reach higher states of consciousness, you become more connected to everything around you. This enhanced perception gives you a clearer understanding of your purpose and the meaning of life.
The main difference is that altering consciousness is a temporary change in your experiences. In contrast, shifting to a higher state of consciousness leads to lasting growth in understanding and awareness.
Exploring The Ten Levels of Awareness and Consciousness
The metaphor of how consciousness is like a rainbow helps us remember the partitions of awareness are not static but fluid. (2)
1. The Waking State
We concentrate most of our efforts on the normal waking state of awareness. It becomes the benchmark for ordinary reality, even though we know we experience everything within the mind.
We assume everyone “sees” the world exactly like we do. But we know this isn’t the case, even in practical matters. Several people can witness the same thing, but each gives a different account. Sometimes, the accounts are drastically different. EEG brain waves of 8 Hz and higher are typical.
The waking state is where exploring the ten levels of awareness and consciousness begins. Most people spend most of their time in this partition, which is not necessarily the most important, but we’ll return to this issue in a moment.
2. The Sleeping State
We spend almost half of our lives in the partition, yet most of us do not remember it. When we sleep, our cognition of reality shuts off.
When we sleep, we go through multiple NREM (no rapid eye movement) and REM (rapid eye movement) cycles. In normal adults, each cycle lasts for about 90 to 120 minutes. Most people cycle through 4 to 5 phases during a typical 8-hour sleep cycle. NREM sleep is maximum in the first part of the night, while REM sleep predominates in the second half. In the sleeping partition, the EEG is 12 to 14Hz waves with a range of 11 to 16 Hz.
3. The Dreaming State
Our dreams are proof of non-ordinary reality, yet most people discount this fantastic conclusion. When we dream, we enter the stage of sleep known as REM, which stands for rapid eye movement.
The dreamscape seems as real and concrete as our experience in the waking state. The EEG is the same for sleeping unless we experience nightmares. Dreaming can escalate respiration and heart rates into the waking state. Every time we slip in and out of the dream state, we experience how consciousness is like a rainbow.
This partition opens other avenues for expanding consciousness, outlined in the seventh state.
Sleeping and dreaming are two of the ten awareness and consciousness growth stages we overlook. These two states are portals that expand awareness. One of the easiest ways to increase the bandwidth of awareness is to use a lucid dreaming exercise.
4. Transcendent State of Pure Awareness
Without a doubt, the fourth state of consciousness changes things. It’s the beginning of what many Indian masters call the higher states of consciousness and with good reason. This marks the first state of ascending consciousness levels above the default stage.
It’s a partition of awareness with profound rest while the mind is active. When you arrive in this partition, you feel the change. The other significant characteristic of this partition is its absence of internal dialogue. You are awake and aware. Here, the brainwaves operate around 4 to 7 Hz in the theta-wave area. So, it produces lower but more coherent brainwave patterns than waking, sleeping, or dreaming.
Many people learn to reach the fourth state using meditation. We recommend Japa or Transcendental Meditation. After using this technique, many people report they experienced this state before but didn’t realize it. This state of pure consciousness is the silence between waking, sleeping, and dreaming.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi describes the transcendent state like the sap in flowers. Although colorless and shapeless, it feeds the firm stem, the green leaves, and the colorful flower. It’s the expression of consciousness manifest in different ways. Maharishi calls this portion of awareness bliss consciousness. Patanjali refers to it as Samadhi.
Many people report encountering this state after learning to meditate. Familiarity with the transcendent increases our awareness as we transition between states. The transition points between sleeping, dreaming, and waking is significant. It proves that the fourth state supports all default states. It is not a state of awareness alongside but below, holding them up.
5. The Shamanic State of Consciousness
We also have access to a 5th state, which Michael Harner calls the Shamanic State of Consciousness (SSC). We achieve this state through the Shamanic Journey.
This partition of awareness has some unique properties. It is an inward journey in an imaginary landscape, which is the home of our subconscious imagination. We need to access the subconscious when we dream.
Social scientists tell us exploring the ten levels of consciousness began with the Shamanic Journey. This technique opens one of the most significant doorways to non-ordinary reality. Ascending consciousness levels with this tool shows us that the pioneer spirit drove many ancient cultures.
6. Cosmic Consciousness
Next, we have the sixth state of consciousness, which combines the transcendent 4th state with the waking state. This partition of consciousness is known as cosmic consciousness and witnessing.
Many Eastern teachers refer to this state as witnessing. This is because you witness yourself from a second vantage point. This second vantage point is from above, but not always. You don’t stop experiencing reality through your senses. You hold both vantage points at the same time. It proves that consciousness is not bound by the body and that our ability to perceive is much greater than we realize. This aspect of witnessing is similar to experience in the lucid dreaming state.
7. Lucid Dreaming
Now, we come to the seventh state. Lucid dreaming is the combination of at least two or possibly three states of consciousness. It’s a most interesting experience. You are present and “know” you are dreaming, so it offers some control over what’s happening. This level of awareness is the same as the waking state.
While lucid dreaming, you are present and aware, just as you would be in the waking state. The more experience you have, the greater your control over what is happening. Lucid dreaming has similar qualities to the landscape of the spirit world in the Shamanic Journey. This is why many believe Lucid Dreaming is a separate seventh state of consciousness.
8. God Consciousness
This partition is where our own divinity is perceived as a part of creation. It is the second highest level of perception. One can comprehend the highest value of ordinary reality while maintaining the sixth state. “God Consciousness” as a label for this partition is a well-known oxymoron.
Consciousness and God are the same, although most do not understand them as such. They appear to be different before gaining the proper perspective. We finally grasp that we are as much a god as any other anthropomorphic being. We are just as much a god of creation as any avatar of religion. When we achieve the correct perspective, we realize we are the creator, the god, or the sap within the flower.
It combines the waking state and the fourth and sixth states, producing the ultimate physical perspective of reality.
There is a God part in you. The consciousness. The pure Self. Learn to listen to the voice of that Power. ― Amit Ray, Nonviolence: The Transforming Power
9. Unity Consciousness
In this state, one lives in the realm of oneness. We can get glimpses of oneness when we reach the fourth state or apply the correct process to remove bias and prejudice barriers. These glimpses of oneness are temporary, but show us what is possible. Unity is the highest state of awareness one can achieve in ordinary reality.
10. Unbound Awareness and Consciousness
With this state, we step into the realm of non-ordinary reality. There isn’t a good label for this partition. Yet, it exists in the stories of those who can move beyond reality. The closest example we have for this state is Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime. Carlos Castaneda’s astral projection time travel experiences also mirror this capability. Some call this state the essence of sorcery or alchemy.
In this partition, we combine four states. We start with lucid dreaming and add the Shamanic Journey. Then, we combine the fourth and tenth states of consciousness. You don’t achieve this state unless you’ve done serious inner work.
Summary
Exploring the ten levels of awareness and consciousness growth stages are the key ingredients for our life experiment. Examining how consciousness is like a rainbow can help us understand the beauty of our minds. For example, when you learn to lucid dream, the first step is knowing when you are in the dream state. But now, you do not yet have control over what’s happening.
Reflect on your thought life and internal experiences related to perception, beliefs, and values. Learn as many spiritual technologies as you can. Become more socially and spiritually aware by rejecting the consumer oriented culture. Don’t be enticed by extremist right-wing ideologies and conspiracy theories. Keep your focus on positive growth.
Those new to meditation only realize they reach the 4th state when they leave it. You don’t recognize it at first because it lacks internal dialogue, a state where time does not exist. As you become more familiar with this state, you’ll look forward to the peace while basking in the silence. This will help us understand the difference between a state of emotional enchantment and a genuine change in awareness.
References
(1) The Status and Future of Consciousness Research. The National Library of Medicine
(2) Assessing levels of consciousness with symbolic analysis. The National Library of Medicine