What is Consciousness you wonder? Consciousness is a form of awareness. Only through our very subjective experience of consciousness and its different levels are we able to understand it.
Consciousness according to A Course in Miracles
Many gifted thinkers from all ages and continents have contributed to our today’s grasp of consciousness. Since Freud, every psychology buff knows that our mind can be defined by three levels of consciousness: the superconscious, conscious and subconscious mind.
My understanding of consciousness is inspired by A Course in Miracles (ACIM) which further defines the levels of consciousness into the realms of the human mind: the realm of knowledge, perception and love or fear.
How we define ourselves
We are consciously aware who we are in terms of our existence as humans, what surrounds us, of our past and present and what we want to experience in the future. We can each produce a long list of words which define who each one of us is.
Shifting our consciousness from one thing that catches our attention to another at will is child’s play. We have learned how to dip into our subconscious, undo some fears and reprogram it.
We can expand our conscious perception and most important of all we can train our mind to focus our attention on true Happiness and Joy. The first step is to understand how consciousness works.
So, what is consciousness?
With Hemi-Sync, developed by The Monroe Institute, I explored my own perception and different levels of consciousness. Participating in various courses of the Monroe Institute with a lot of other people I could also observe how they learned to observe their levels of consciousness. By studying A Course in Miracles really helped me understand in depth the different triggers of the human mind.
What is the mind? And, how does it work?
Scientific investigation observed that our brain emits different wave patterns or frequencies when we enter different states of consciousness.
Through the dedicated work of such consciousness explorers like Robert Monroe, we know now how to influence our brainwaves and how to balance the special functions of our two brain hemispheres.
The Hemi-Sync technology, for example, is a great aid for programming the mind and a very powerful tool for achieving brainwave entrainment.
Powerful Mind Training with ACIM
But, the most powerful mind training course, in my humble opinion, is A Course in Miracles, short ACIM. It teaches us how to recognize and activate the power of the mind.
ACIMs explanation of the conscious, the sub- and the superconscious mind, spreads across many different chapters of the ACIM Urtext version, and in my opinion is an important detail for understanding the whole concept of the human mind.
This illustration summarizes the ACIM explanation of “What is Consciousness?”
The Super Consciousness – Realm of Knowledge
The Superconscious is the Divine Mind, the Higher Self, the One forever connected to Knowledge and Truth or the Holy Spirit.
According to ACIM’s explanation of what is consciousness, “the individual mind of a human is split into spirit and ego. The Spirit is still in contact with God through the Holy Spirit.”
In other words the Self (note: Self written in capital S) which is the opposite of the ego is connected through the Higher Self or Spirit to the Divine Reality. The Self or Spirit knows.
The course goes on to say, when the mind replaced the will to know with the will to perceive, it made the ego as the perceiver of separation and the body as an instrument to perceive what the ego wished to see. The ego is the result of the will to be separate.
The Conscious Mind – Realm of Perception
The conscious mind or awake human state (when a person in not sleeping) became the realm of perception and the domain of the ego.
“In a sense, the ego was a man-made attempt to perceive himself as he wished, rather than as he IS …… The interpretive function of perception, (actually, a distorted form of creation), then permitted man to interpret the body as HIMSELF, which, although depressing, was a way out of the conflict he induced.” ACIM Urtext, pages 83 and 85.
The Subconscious – Realm of Fear or Love
The level of the subconscious and unconscious mind slipped below the level of the conscious or awake mind. Its contents of fear were safely tucked away from the immediate awareness of the conscious mind. It was one of Sigmund Freud’s greatest accomplishments to grasp the nature of the sub- and unconscious mind.
The subconscious is split into the levels of fear and levels of love. The level of fear is closest to the conscious level of the mind. The level of Love is called the miracle level in ACIM, and it is where the miracle impulses emerge. The miracle level is the Higher Self’s or Holy Spirit’s answer to the ego’s level of fear and is located BELOW the level of fear.
According to ACIM, the conscious – wakeful mind emits no impulses of itself, it only receives impulses from either ABOVE, where the super-conscious mind is or from BELOW the realm of the sub- or unconscious mind.
Recognizing the Impulses
If the conscious mind recognizes the impulses from above, from the superconscious, it has a revelation, a moment of knowing. The person enters into communion with her Creator or God.
When consciousness receives an impulse from below it is either from the level of fear or the level of love. If the person allows the miracles or love impulses to enter her awareness, she enters into a union with another person or spirit.
Spirit in this context here meaning any other life energy as it could be represented by another human, but also by an animal, a tree, the wind or ocean, anything which carries the energy of life.
The Art of Living a Happy Life
The art of living a happy and fulfilled life is to deny or ignore the impulses of fear and recognize the miracle impulses or impulses of love and follow them. The love impulses open up the channels necessary to receive the impulses from the superconscious.
It is also interesting to note the physically we perceive love and fear in our belly and heart, whereby the moments of revelation are perceived from beyond the body. I hope this article has given you a little insight on the question, what is consciousness. Contact me if you like to learn more.
Author: Judith Schjorring
Read next:
- How the mind works
- The Spirit-Mind-Body Model gives you a better idea how the three human aspects relate to each other.
- Find out how to Connect to the Power of the Mind
More related to A Course in Miracles
More related to A Course in Miracles
Thank you so much for reading my post. It means a lot! I would love to know your thoughts! You can leave a comment if you like, just scroll down below. I will answer it as soon as I can. I have put together some articles which might interest you. Otherwise come and join me on Instagram. Yours, Judith
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Thank you so much for reading my post. It means a lot! I would love to know your thoughts! You can leave a comment if you like, just scroll down below. I will answer it as soon as I can. I have put together some articles which might interest you. Otherwise come and join me on Instagram. Yours, Judith
Popular Content:
Hemi-Sync© related:
More on Lucid Mind Center:
What are your thoughts on this? I would love to know. Use the form to below to leave a comment.
Join me on the LUCID MIND CENTER Instagram for a daily dose of inspiration, live streams and motivation. Would love to meet you there!
