Recently a research project asked me for my definition of consciousness.
Answering this enquiry philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists usually disappear down a rabbit hole of complexity. But I like a simple answer. I encountered it first in Vedic philosophy and the books of Alice Bailey.
I summarise it:
Consciousness is the innate capacity to respond to stimulation.
It is the capacity in everything to respond to stimulation.
Every time we see something responding to stimulation we are witnessing consciousness in action.
This applies to everything. I really mean everything — electron, atom, rock, plant, animal, human, planet, solar system, galaxy, cosmos, space . . .
Here are examples:
A rock responds to pressure and temperature. That response is an indication of the rock’s consciousness.
A plant may respond to temperature, gravity, sunlight, moisture and nutrients.
Animals may respond to many stimulations.
Humans respond to even more stimulations. Humans can respond to their own thoughts.
So the difference between a rock and a human is this. Human consciousness is more complex, more responsive to multiple stimulations.
Based in this interpretation we can suggest that consciousness is woven into the essential fabric of life and cosmos.
Expanding their awareness beyond the human realm mystics suggest that planets, our sun, stars, galaxies and the cosmos also have consciousness.
Space is consciousness.
This possibility can be a focus of enquiry in metaphysical meditation as human consciousness expands and experiences altered states. Sitting quietly it is the empty mind, like a receptive radar dish, that can garner insights. These insights are found in what one of the fathers of yoga, Patanjali, called ‘the raincloud of knowable things.’
Some meditators may reject the idea of any activity when sitting in silence. Others are very happy to explore inner realities, possibilities and dimensions.
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I have been building on this understanding of consciousness. In meditation I have been contemplating these seed thoughts and exploring their mysteries:
— Space is an infinite ocean of consciousness with an innate capacity to respond to stimulation
— Empty space is filled with matter, energy, electricity, vibrations, beings, ideas, plasma . . . some miniscule, some galactic
Like all mystics and meditators my consciousness expands further when I am in a soft mindful state of love and bliss
Ultimately our galaxy and all the dense matter we know will disappear. It will be sucked into the mystery of a black hole.
This event is billions of years away, but it is inevitable.
So here is an interesting possibility:
When all the matter of our galaxy disappears into that black hole, will human consciousness also disappear?
Perhaps only dense matter is sucked into the black hole. And the more subtle matter of our consciousness continues.
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This kind of enquiry posed in meditation is profoundly relevant to how we manage the current global crisis.
We can only conduct these contemplative enquiries if we are deeply calm, centred in our hearts and awake.
In that state we can truly see the bigger picture.
Waves and cycles of human history come and go.
There have been many plagues and demagogues. They pass.
Calm compassionate equanimity radiates.
It can balance, stabilise and heal the suffering, distress and anxiety of our times.
Humanity’s destiny is to be loving, conscious and connected.
Thank you so much William. I am grateful. I have been on a journey recently and certainly from the first breath of creation and I can say that today after listening to your talk ‘Stardust to embodiment: Humanity’s next step’ during the Embodiment conference. You put things into perspective, for me. Be kind and loving to your beautiful self. x
“God sleeps in the stone, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal and wakes in the human” (attributed to Ibn Arabi, the Sufi scholar).
For “God”, substitute “consciousness”.
So the progress of consciousness through organisms is gradually increasing complexity and self-awareness. The other side of the coin is gradually increasing isolation from other organisms.
Maybe the challenge for humans is to transcend the isolation, whilst retaining the self-awareness?
I love that insight. Thank you 🙂
Wonderful definition & explanations. Thanks William!
My comment disappeared. Here it is again:
I may be missing something here, and it may be you assume this anyway, but I have noticed a tendency in some of the newer spiritualities to talk about consciousness as though it could exist at the most advanced or fundamental levels of life without any Self. It is a truism in esoteric thought that the separate ego is an illusion and must be transcended. Part of what lies beyond ego is a Self which is not separate and ultimately one with the All. But this Self cannot lack an ‘I’ for such a lack would make relationship and love in the profound sense impossible. (I am reminded of a lecture I heard last year in which it was asserted that there could be a bliss consciousness wholly devoid of any identity at all. How then could there be love at a cosmic level? Who loves and who is in loving relation?) Also, if consciousness is the ultimate ground of reality it does not depend on any apparent physical reality for its existence. So human consciousness will survive black holes, etc.
Yes – you are absolutely on the right track. —- I did not elaborate. — Where we are going is: Consciousness is not only oceanic but also granular or atomised. It manifests in an infinity of different forms, such as grains of sand or stars. Each of these is a manifestation of consciousness, both oceanic and granular. We human beings are thus both oceanic and part of the whole, AND identities each in our own right.
What is the quote? Something like: the cosmos is Spirit becoming conscious of itself.
Much of this is beyond the human scope of intelligence.
We know some things. Equally, perhaps more so, we can be comfortable with unknowing.
I may be missing something here, and it may be you assume this anyway, but I have noticed a tendency in some of the newer spiritualities to talk about consciousness as though it could exist at the most advanced or fundamental levels of life without any Self. It is a truism in esoteric thought that the separate ego is an illusion and must be transcended. Part of what lies beyond ego is a Self which is not separate and ultimately one with the All. But this Self cannot lack an ‘I’ for such a lack would make relationship and love in the profound sense impossible. (I am reminded of a lecture I heard last year in which it was asserted that there could be a bliss consciousness wholly devoid of any identity at all. How then could there be love at a cosmic level? Who loves and who is in loving relation?) Also, if consciousness is the ultimate ground of reality it does not depend on any apparent physical reality for its existence. So human consciousness will survive black holes, etc.
‘Consciousness is the innate capacity to respond to stimulation.’ I love it! This definition provides a new way of viewing everything – there is no need to add anything. That’s it! Than you! ∞
Thanks William, your words trigger in me a deep outward breath, it helps❤️
Thank you William. Very cogent, thought provoking, educative and nourishing … as usual.