Starting To Understand Consciousness
The major challenge of this stage is to cultivate presence in the NOW. This moment, not the past or the future. It is a good challenge to have, but harder than it sounds. This stage is a beautiful and purpose filled place. The joy of acting on your newfound purpose is overwhelming. At the same time, you can feel guilty about this amazing life you are building. You can feel humbled by this gift of insight and connection. But you cannot end the suffering of others by joining them. You CAN, however, offer peace, joy and the example of a path towards a better life. That being said, do not preach. Just live your joy and shine bright.
Here is your homework…
- Connect to this moment
- Connect more completely to your partner
- Connect to the one consciousness
- Build skills to support your purpose
Here is how to do all of that…
Connecting To This Moment – Presence, Mindfulness and Intuition
Many traditions recommend being present in the now. If worry is about the future and regret is about the past, then being here in the present moment is one way to significantly reduce the worry and regret in your life. That is a great start. But this moment has so much more to show you. Being present in this moment, experiencing it fully, is an opportunity to connect deeply with family, friends, your children or your partner. Your full and complete attention and connection in this moment is the greatest gift you can give.
Further, being present in this moment, you can tap into vast information. Intuition or gut instinct is nothing more than your ability to connect with the infinite information and wisdom in this moment. In this moment, is infinite information about the present state of people, places and things. Anything you could want to know about what is happening right now, you can know: how someone is feeling, their intention, whether you are safe or not, the right thing to do, or what not to do, and more.
To tap into this vast and useful information, start by being mindful of your surroundings. That is, pay attention and observe your surroundings in a detached but focused way. What does that mean? You have already connected to the Silent Observer. Watch your surroundings as that Silent Observer. No devices, no distractions… just be here in this moment now, taking in the sights, sounds and feelings around you. Notice people, colors, textures, smells, and every detail. If your mind wanders towards thinking about tomorrow or last week, gently bring it back. This is an active mindfulness. If you are not used to it, it can feel a little intense. Stay with it.
Next, when you feel connected to this moment across all your physical senses, reach out with an intent to connect with the people here in this moment. This is just like connecting with other people individually, but this time with a group. Be open. Project your energy out from yourself, to each person around you, painting the group with your energy and presence in a general way as you glance around the space. If this is challenging, try connecting with each individual quickly until you have connected with the group. Our intent in this exercise is not to explore each person’s truth, but the truth of the crowd and this space in this moment. You are now connected to everything you can see.
Now here is the challenging part…. connect with what you cannot see. Imagine connecting with the energy and presence in the air. Imagine that the air itself is full of the energy of everyone here, of everything here, and of the place itself. Like static energy before a storm, it fills the air. You cannot see it, but you can feel it. This is the energy of the moment; pervasive and touching this moment, all over the world and beyond. Feel how your energy contributes to it, and connects to it.
Now ask your question. What do you want to know? Questions about the past or future are not going to be answered here. But anything you could want to know about the state of things right now, or the best choice to make right now, is yours. Remain detached from it – that is, be the Silent Observer, connected to this moment. Let answers come to you. This is your intuition.
Practice it to make it stronger. When you drive or walk down the street, stay connected to each moment. Read people, places and things in this way, and let your intuition guide you. The more you trust it and use it, the stronger it gets.
Your intuition can guide you on small things, like finding a great restaurant, and in big things like crafting your ideal life. When you are in this moment, fully connected, flowing with your river, your intuition is a constant guide.
Finally, for a more advanced challenge, when deeply connected to this moment, feeling the collective energy of everything and everyone in the space, can you feel how the people are all the same; just people, going through life, trying to figure it out, making mistakes, living in stages, all ultimately on the same journey? Can you see how the things in this space are all the same… just physical objects all made up of the same basic particles? Can you feel the sameness of the people, the things, and this space … all made up of the same particles and energies but taking various forms like pixels in a video game? They all look different but are all ultimately just bits of energy. Spend some time thinking about that and feeling it in the moment.
Connecting Completely To Your Partner
Few things are more fulfilling than romantic love. So how can we make it even better? Cultivating a complete connection with your partner, is a gateway to more love, more romance, more play, more fun, more and better sex, and more emotional intimacy. More than that, it is a mechanism to seeing and experiencing the humanity of each other, leading ultimately to both of you evolving further along the Cycle of Human Development, together, accelerating each other’s efforts.
To cultivate complete connection, work in order from the ground up to make sure you have a solid foundation and are not missing anything. The chakras make a perfect framework for this mini-cycle of development. Carry out each task any way you like. Get creative!
Root – Connect with your partner through trust, safety and grounding.
🔲 Build trust.
🔲 Build safety (including bodily autonomy).
🔲 Ground each other.
Sacral – Connect with your partner through sexuality, the infinite divine, and the infinite energy. (Note: it helps to be at peace when you come to bed so that you can be a place of peace for each other.)
🔲 Connect through sexuality.
🔲 Experiment, and be honest.
🔲 Feel the infinite silence and energy inside each other, allow it to rise and build.
🔲 Give of your energy to each other.
🔲 Give of this infinite peace to each other.
Solar Plexus – Connect with your partner’s independent will, power, individuality, uniqueness and strength of self. (Note: Be careful of arrogance and power trips centered in your own insecurities.)
🔲 Celebrate their uniqueness and quirks.
🔲 Encourage their strength of self.
🔲 Revel in their journey, how they enjoy their interests.
🔲 Take the time to listen without expectation of response.
Heart – Connect with your partner through love and compassion for self and each other.
🔲 Try eye gazing, snuggling, hugs, holding hands…
🔲 Give compassion for their current challenges – compassion is seeing their humanity as an aspect of yourself, not trying to solve their problems for them, unless they specifically ask for your help or ideas.
🔲 Play, flirt, give each other time, attention and priority.
Throat – Connect with your partner’s personal truth and expression.
🔲 Create an environment between you where speaking your truth is rewarded, praised and encouraged, never judged but held in love and compassion.
🔲 Play “Truth Or Truth” – ask each other questions in a private place. No judging. See their answers as an aspect of yourself.
Third Eye – Connect to your partner’s higher perception, intuition, and inspiration.
🔲 Encourage your partner’s development of perception and intuition (if that is their goal).
🔲 See your partner’s divine nature and purpose.
🔲 See them as an angel, god or goddess.
🔲 See the light inside that radiates through them.
🔲 Create a shared vision of a future that excites you both and has space for you both to grow, explore interests, and fulfill your purposes in shared support.
Crown – Connect to your partner’s wisdom, and to your shared oneness and transcendence.
🔲 Talk about how you think the world works and how the divine works.
🔲 Feel at one with each other.
🔲 See how you are the same.
🔲 Feel what it is like to be them, feeling what it is like to be you.
🔲 Experience shared transcendence by opening to each other and connecting completely along all of these aspects that you have now developed.
Above all, enjoy and have fun creating this deep and complete connection to your partner. Revisit it often to maintain this blissful connection.
Connecting To The One Consciousness
In this stage, you often feel like a consciousness trapped inside this body. You can feel the difference between your body and your consciousness. As you practice connecting to each moment, connecting within that moment to your intuition, and starting to feel the sameness in all things, reach out within that connection, and feel what it it like to be these other people.
Put yourself energetically in their place. What does it feel like to be them in this moment? It is a subtle feeling. It is not intense. But if you focus, and practice, you can feel within your gut, what it feels like to be them.
Does it feel confident? Insecure? Joyful? Playful? Sad?
Then, have an open mind here. This exercise has an important point… feel what it is like to BE that table, or that chair or that plant. Does it feel stable, heavy, low, tall, fragile, cold, warm, metallic? Can you feel the qualities of the wood or plastic or leaves without touching it?
Spend a little time looking around the room and FEEL what it is like to BE other people, places and things.
If you have completed the previous tasks, you will be surprised to find you can feel it. You can feel what it is like to be anyone, or anything. Previously you could IMAGINE what it was like to be them, or at least what you would feel like if that were you, but this is different… you can actually put your energy in their place and FEEL their truth in this moment.
It is time to question… how can you do that? How is it that you can place your consciousness into theirs? How can you step into their consciousness with yours?
Because it is the same consciousness.
Think about the oceans and rivers of the world. They are all connected. Rivers flow into oceans, which flow into other oceans, and connect to other rivers. It is all one big body of water. But, the Mississippi River looks and acts very different from the Caribbean Sea. Why? Local environments significantly influence the nature of these rivers and oceans. Local environments influence how they look, how fast they flow, what fish live there, how they are used and more.
It is the same with people. We are all one big consciousness, but our local environments (as a child and now) influence how we look, how we act, and what we do in this world. We are extensions of the same single consciousness, each influenced by our local environments, but one all the same.
Contemplate this. As you are deeply connected to this moment, ask your intuition if this is true. Ask if you are ready to allow this. This is a big step. Take your time.
The Big Bang And The One Consciousness (A Thought Experiment)
The idea that there is only one consciousness and we are it, can be hard to grasp but a bit of modern Quantum Mechanics and Astrophysics helps us to see how this could be so. In this thought experiment we aggregate various results to reach a profound conclusion.
Laboratory experiments have shown that both photons (massless) and electrons (massed) behave like waves until measured / observed and only then collapse into a particle, and that this physical existence as a particle is temporary, lasting only as long as observed. This “observation” is defined as, and has been shown to be, the concept being generated in the mind of a sentient human being.
Separate experiments on electrons in energy wells show that all matter is energy, existing everywhere all the time (according to a probability density function) until our observation collapses its wave function, forcing it to “choose” a location in which to exist in physical form.
Zeno noted that we observe, periodically, the location of things. Our minds take this series of observations, like snapshots, and string them together into a linear story in order to make sense of it (the arrow of time).
Therefore, sentient consciousness creates everything. Nothing exists until a sentient consciousness conceives of it. Everything exists as what we will call potential existence (energy), until a sentient consciousness manifests it (collapses the wave functions) into what we here will call kinetic existence (matter).
So here is the really interesting question: how and when did the FIRST sentient consciousness come into existence? The first sentient consciousness could not have come into physical existence (kinetic existence) without first existing as potential existence (energy). Let’s approach this logically.
Either:
(1) There was a time post-Big-Bang when NO sentient consciousness existed, or
(2) A sentient consciousness always existed since the Big Bang (and possibly before).
Let’s start with the first case. Suppose that there was a time, after the big bang, when this universe had no sentient consciousness (in energy form or otherwise). During this time, no wave forms would collapse from observation and thus everything would exist as energy (waves) everywhere all the time and physical objects would not have come into existence. It would be a universe of 100% potential existence (energy only). There would be nothing to manifest the manifestor or create the creator, and a sentient consciousness itself would never come into existence, much less planets, stars, and people.
You could argue that there are forces we don’t understand that could have brought the first sentient consciousness into existence and the fact that there are lots of things we don’t understand is certainly true. Another argument is that sentience was a byproduct of evolution here on earth, but in that case, there would have been no sentient being to manifest (collapse wave functions to create) the earth in order for evolution to get started.
Therefore, it cannot be true that, at the big bang there was not a sentient consciousness but that later there was. Thus, a sentient consciousness always existed, at least since the Big Bang, and maybe before.
What if the big bang was the BIRTH of a sentient consciousness? What if it is one of many?
What if, in the field of potential existence, consciousnesses springs into being – each a universe birthed by a big bang. This consciousness (if we think in linear terms – which is human to do) is consumed in creative play in a space of potential existence within itself, creating more and more complicated things: particles, forces, stars, planets, plants, creatures, etc.
Every religion in the world has a deity. This deity existed, they say, since the beginning and created everything. But what was there to create with? There was only the deity. Everything was therefore made from that deity, by that deity. This is the one consciousness. Here are some useful analogies… I can take a block of clay and make many different beautiful cups, bowls, plates, and statues, but they are all inherently the one block of clay. In this case, the one consciousness was both the clay and the artist and it created everything from itself. Similarly, a mother uses only one cell from the father to create a child. Her body creates the child from the materials available within herself, and then releases the child into the world. The child is an extension of the mother, made from the mother and by the mother. And so as we trace existence all the way back, we see that we (people, places, stars, etc.) are all extensions of the one consciousness, made by the one consciousness, from the material of the one consciousness.
This original sentient consciousness is within us – we are all part of the same whole that manifested us and we can also in turn manifest new things.
Similarly, we humans (and other animals, etc) are brought forth into physical existence in a singular ecstatic episode (a mini-big bang at the cellular level upon conception) and are drawn to play. We create things and we create other conscious beings that are drawn to create and play and manifest – and onward it goes.
We humans are part of the larger consciousness. We are physical manifestations of the original consciousness, and we are embedded with that consciousness, and as such can, and desire to, create and play and manifest. We are everything, everywhere, through all time. If there is a universal creator – we are part of it, and it is in us and around us… we are the part and whole of it.
We can manifest anything, not because we are special humans or somehow “chosen,” but because we ARE the universal consciousness. Any sentient being (any creation that has the consciousness, or any manifestation that the consciousness inhabits) can manifest anything, from the space of potential existence into the space of kinetic existence. That is, from energy to matter.
We create things and we create other things that can create things of their own. We manifest – and not all that creatively, actually. We tend to manifest evolutionarily, at every level: planetary, species, cellular, etc. rather than revolutionarily.
It begs the question, then… Why don’t we all know that we are the one consciousness? I think we do know it, but we are conditioned into believing that we are separate from each other and all things. We are conditioned to believe in deities that can create but we are told that they are separate from us. And not knowing (or not having confidence that we inherently know), we buy it all and so separate ourselves from everything. Because you can manifest anything: if you decide that you are separate, so you are.
What if everything we learn as small children is wrong? We learn:
- I am separate from mom and dad and everyone.
- I am just this body.
- My existence has a boundary which is these parts and not beyond.
- Object permanence – the object is still there, even if I cannot see it.
- There is a larger force or deity in the universe but it has no connection to me.
Maybe it’s time to trust our intuition. But if you are not ready to trust your intuition, trust the Physics instead.
Connecting To Your Intellect – Building Skills For Your Purpose
In Stage Eight, you found your purpose, or at least a good idea of what your purpose might be. Now it is time to gather the skills and knowledge you will need to forward your purpose. What skills and knowledge will you need to make the best possible effort towards your purpose? Do you need to learn specific software tools and apps? Do you need another language? Do you need physical skills or abilities? Do you simply need more knowledge about certain subjects? Write it all down. Even if these skills sound impossible, write them down anyway. Many things are easier than you think. And you are definitely smarter than you think. For extra inspiration, add in skills and knowledge you will need for anything on your list of things you have always wanted to try, do or experience. It is no coincidence that these things are related to your purpose.
As you list these skills and knowledge, there will be, guaranteed, a voice inside your head that tells you this is crazy, or you aren’t smart enough or it will never work. As humans, we all have this negative voice that works to pull us towards mediocrity. Any effort to forward yourself will be met with this negative voice. And the greater the effort, the louder the negative voice. Move forward anyway. Everyone you ever admired had it. Everyone who ever did anything great had it. The key is to tell it to shut up. Quite simply, make it clear that you are not going to listen. The more you dismiss it, and the more you feed your desire to carry out your purpose, the weaker that negative voice gets.
Now, make a plan to get those skills and that knowledge. For large or intimidating skills and learning, break it down into small parts that you can do each day. If you are learning a language, start with one word per day. If you need to read a big stack of books, start with one page or one chapter per day. Learning a new app or software tool? Start with one tutorial video per day. Starting with small efforts gives you momentum and progress that will build naturally. You will quickly have the skills and knowledge you need. Consistent effort is the key.