Conscious
The important fact about consciousness is that nothing can be conscious without
an
ego to which it refers. If something is not related to the
ego then it
is not conscious.
Therefore you can define consciousness as a relation of
psychic facts to the
ego.
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a
light in the darkness of mere being.
There are 2 ways in which Consciousness arises:
1. A moment of high emotional tension
2. A state of Contemplation
Differentiation is the essence, the
sine qua non, of
consciousness. Everything unconscious is
undifferentiated, and everything
that happens unconsciously proceeds on the basis of non-differentiation - that
is to say, there is no determining whether it belongs or does not belong to
oneself.
Consciousness
is an accomplishment which requires
energy. It can only maintain itself for
limited periods, after which a state of unconsciousness – sleep – is again
necessary in order to renew the used-up energy.
Consciousness
consists of something we think we know; it is an immediate awareness. Even
though we do not know quite what it is, we have a subjective feeling that what
consciousness is - is intimately known to us. But behind this conscious
awareness lies an unconsciousness; in other words, behind the
I and the whole phenomenon
of consciousness lies the
shadow, the
power-drive, and something demonic. TPoPA 220
We
must never forget the fact that consciousness has a demonic aspect. We begin now
to be aware that the achievements of our consciousness – our technical
achievements, for example – have destructive aspects. We are waking up to
the fact that consciousness can be a disadvantage and that it is based on an
unconsciousness. That which makes me so passionately want consciousness to
dominate my life is something
unconscious.
And we don’t know what that is. The need, the urge and passion for
consciousness is something
unconscious, as
is what we know as conscious tradition. TPoPA 221
The Human Brain (Triune) has 3 layers:
Reptilian
Brain
Mammalian Brain
Human Brain
Everybody
recognizes intelligence in animals and
sees that they too have the
four functions of the brain, but "consciousness"
is
what separates us from the animals.
For instance, an animal will never write a book, plan a birthday party, or
create art for art`s sake, and that difference is what consciousness is.
I
do not wish to waste time in proving this point, but will content myself with
saying that never yet has any reasonable person doubted the existence of psychic
processes in a dog, although no dog has, to our knowledge, ever expressed
consciousness of its psychic contents.
"And
when we observe the psychic processes in the higher vertebrates and
particularly in domestic animals, we find phenomena resembling
consciousness
which nevertheless do not allow us to conjecture the existence of an
ego."
... As we know from direct experience, the light of
consciousness has many degrees of brightness, and the
ego-complex many
gradations of emphasis. On the animal and primitive level there is a
mere "luminosity," differing hardly at all from the glancing fragments
of a dissociated
ego.
...
Here as on the infantile level,
consciousness is not a unity, being as yet
uncentred by a firmly-knit
ego-complex, and just flickering into life here and
there wherever outer or inner events,
instincts, and affects happen to call it
awake. At this stage it is still like a chain of islands or an
archipelago.
And
cats who are normally aloof towards anything but food,
will sense a person who can use some love and/or attention and will go over to
them (if only to be the object that gets petted)
and there are numerous
examples of animals saving humans or even sacrificing themselves in the
line of
duty.
All of their
instincts and
behaviours demonstrate intelligence, but they
do not possess
‘conscious(ness)’.
Energy lost by consciousness passes into the unconscious and activates its contents - archetypes, repressions, complexes, etc. … which embark a life of their own and irrupt into consciousness, often provoking disturbances, neuroses, and psychoses.
“All these moments in the
individual’s life, when the universal laws of human fate break in upon the
purposes, expectations, and opinions of the
personal
consciousness, are stations
along the road of
the individuation process.
This process is, in effect, the spontaneous realization of the whole man”.
“The
definiteness and directedness of the conscious mind are extremely important
acquisitions which humanity has bought at a very heavy sacrifice, and which in
turn have rendered humanity the highest service…
We may say in general that social worthlessness increases to the degree
that these qualities are impaired by the
unconscious.”
… Great
artists, and others distinguished by creative gifts are, of course, exceptions
to this rule. The very advantage
that such individuals enjoy consists precisely in the permeability of the
partition separating the conscious and the
unconscious.
- Modern brain
research assumes that consciousness expires at brain death.
“Consciousness is continually
widened through the confrontation with previously
unconscious contents, or – to
be more accurate – could be widened if it took the trouble to integrate them.”
Nevertheless, every failure to cope
with a life situation must be laid, in the end, to a restriction of
consciousness.
Conscious threshold
"If it is correct to
say that conscious contents become subliminal, and therefore
unconscious,
through
loss of energy, and conversely that
unconscious
processes become conscious through
accretion of energy, then, if
unconscious
acts of volition are to be possible, it follows that these must
possess an
energy which enables them to achieve
consciousness, or at any rate to achieve a
state of secondary consciousness which consists in the
unconscious process being
'represented' to a subliminal subject who chooses and decides. This
process must necessarily possess the
amount of energy required for it to achieve
such a consciouness; in other words, it is bound eventually to reach its
'bursting point.'
... If that is so, the question arises as to why the unconscious process does not go right over the threshold and become perceptible to the ego. p 46 - answer follows
But the more we become conscious of ourselves through
self-knowledge, and act accordingly, the more the layer of the
personal
unconscious that is superimposed on the
collective unconscious will be
diminished. In this way there arises a consciousness which is no longer
imprisoned in the petty, oversensitive, personal world of the
ego, but
participates freely in the wider world of objective interests.
If only a portion
of that lost totality could be dredged up into the light of day, we should
experience a marvelous expansion of our powers, a vivid renewal of life.
We should tower in stature.
(If)
the ego falls for any length of time under the control of an
unconscious factor,
its adaptation is disturbed and the way opened for all sorts of possible
accidents.
Hence
it is of the greatest importance that the ego should be anchored in the world of
consciousness and that consciousness should be reinforced by precise adaptation.
For this, certain virtues like attention, conscientiousness, patience, etc., are
of great value on the moral side, just as accurate observation of the
symptomatology of the unconscious and objective
self-criticism are valuable on
the intellectual side.
I
hope that we may sometime get to the point where consciousness can function
without the pretension of knowing everything and of having said the last word.
If consciousness could be reduced to a function,
a descriptive function, then people would cease to make final statements.
Instead, one would say that from the known facts it appears at the present time
as if one could explain it in such and such a way. That would mean giving
up the secret power premise that claims to have said all there is to be said, so
that now we know all about it and it is so. If that false pretension could
be eliminated, that would be a big step. But that supposes the integration
of consciousness by our becoming aware of its relativity and its specific
relation to the individual. (I must know that I know and that I have
especially that view.) it is not enough to have a conscious viewpoint; one
must know why one has it and what one’s individual reasons for having it are.
TPoPA 222
We
know today that the conscious mind consists only of those ideational complexes
which are directly associated with the ego. Those psychic
factors which possess only a slight degree of intensity, or those which once had
intensity but have lost it again, are “under the threshold,” that is, they are
subliminal, and belong to the sphere of the unconscious.
TDoP 51