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What It Means To Be "Conscious"

A description of "True Enlightenment".

By Josh GibbonsPublished 6 years ago 10 min read
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I am currently writing a book that describes 50 of my most life changing experiences on different psychedelic drugs, entitled (for now) "Trip Report: Five Years of Psychonautic Activity". This is the preface to that unfinished book.

What It Means To Be Conscious

Let's talk about "Consciousness".What does it mean to be “conscious”?

By current definition, it means "to be aware and responsive of one's surroundings; awake.". I feel this to be very broad, considering the grand holy immeasurable amount of things surrounding us. Most of these things we, as such a young species, haven't even discovered experiencing yet, nor we, as humans, will ever experience due to our extremely limited senses. Our experience of consciousness captures less than .0001% of all reality. So when someone calls themselves "conscious", "awake" or “enlightened”, what does that actually mean?

We all go through several stages of consciousness during the day, between states of asleep ("unconscious") and awake ("conscious"). We go to sleep every night, wake up every morning, and perceive things differently throughout that experience. Depending on the ratio between our level of attention, where it's being focused, personal thoughts/actions, and daily diet, the experience we have we define as "reality".

But is THAT experience ALL there is to define "reality"? Most would say that to be the likely case: “The grass is green.”, “The tree is tall.” These are objective truths. But what makes the grass "is"? What makes the tree "is"?

By literal definition, "is" is put as "third person singular present of be.", the literal definition of "be" is simply "exist", and "exist" is literally defined as "having objective reality or being.". My question then, is if we are subjective beings; our experience of one objective consciousness is had separately through the means of subjective ego, how can we experience an “objective reality or being”? In other words, if everything we experience is lensed by the mask of subjective ego, would it not be impossible to experience an objective state of being, while remaining able to subjectively talk about it? Is the experience of pure “is”, even possible for a being such as a human?

As humans, we have the ability to objectively observe the "is" in question, through the five senses; sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound. This is possible because these are the vibrations that we, as physically beings, can pick up on and associate with the physical world, in order to help our physical bodies survive in it.

Now, let's throw a few hypotheticals out there:

  1. In the first hypothetical, let's say a Creature without our five known senses were to come about, would the grass and tree still be "is", or would we just call that Creature unconscious or "asleep" to the objective truths, defining the grass and the tree? I believe most people would agree that in this occasion, the Creature is just unconscious of it, it is unaware or “asleep” to these objective truths. Just because the Creature cannot currently perceive and define something to itself, does not mean it doesn’t still objectively exist.
  2. Now, let's say that Creature has one (or more) totally separate sense(s) that allow it to be aware of it's surroundings (enough for it's survival), but it remains unaware that the grass is green and the tree is tall. In this occasion, is the Creature still "unconscious", or does it just experience "reality" on different level of "conscious" than we can understand, (and visa-versa, we experience "reality" on a different level of "conscious" than the Creature can understand)? I theorize that in this occasion, we are simply on different levels of consciousness. While we can perceive the world in ways that the Creature cannot, the Creature perceives the world in ways that we cannot.
  3. Finally, let's say that the Creature had the conventional five senses we know for survival, but then inexplicably gained said separate sense(s), expressed above in the second hypothetical. The Creature is now not only aware of the objective truths of "the grass is green" and "the tree is tall", but it's aware of things that we, as beings with only five senses, are not aware of (yet) ...whatever that may actually mean. In this occasion, the Creature is now truly at a "higher state of consciousness" ("more awake") than a human being. However, this does not mean human beings are unconscious ("asleep" or unaware) entirely, this just means that human beings are on a certain level of consciousness (awareness) that is lower than that of the Creature's. They are only “asleep” to the Creature’s reality, and beyond. Just because the human cannot currently perceive and define something to itself, does not mean it doesn’t still objectively exist.

If the theories presented in these hypotheticals are true, then that means there are an infinite amount of levels to consciousness (awareness to reality), ergo, an infinite amount of objective reality, to be discovered subjectively.

And so, I conclude that just because someone is more aware ("conscious") of a detail in a certain objective reality, does not mean they are entirely "awake" or “enlightened”. Calling oneself “enlightened” in fact defeats the purpose of being “enlightened”, for it would end one's strive for “enlightenment”. The point is to keep searching, keep learning, keep advancing, and keep evolving, if not for yourself, for the good of the human species. However I find it important to note, that the name of the game is not enlightenment, in the spiritual sense. The name of the game is happiness, and the best tool we have to achieve this is love. These are the fundamentals for true enlightenment: subjective happiness, and objective love.

No matter what any one of us says about how much we know about spiritual realms, alternate dimensions, the cause of existence, (etc.), be them guru or parental figure, religious or government official, it in fact does not mean much in comparison to all that actually "is". I find it important to remain humbly aware of this, especially while one is experimenting with psychedelic compounds. The human species is still so young, to individually claim that you are "awake" is very arbitrary, as collectively the human species is still "asleep" to the grand majority of objective reality.

The psychedelic community is plagued with this idea, that if you take massive quantities of, and/or consistently use, psychedelic drugs…

whether they be natural compounds, like THC, and other cannabinoids found in cannabis sativa and cannabis indica, salvinorin A, found in the leaves of salvia divinorum, mescaline, found in the buttons of the peyote cactus and certain members of the fabaceae bean, LSA, found in wood rose and morning glory seeds, psilocybin, and psilocin, found in many species’ of mushroom, or 5-MeO-DMT, found secreting from the skin of the Colorado River toad... compounds synthesized from a natural source, like MDA, from the bark of a sassafras tree, LSD-25, from the ergot fungi, or n,n-DMT, from a wide variety of plants, most notably the mimosa and acacia plants (also found in ayahuasca,which is a natural brew containing an MAOi causing the n,n-DMT compound to become orally active)or unnatural analogues, like MDMA, derived from MDA, 4-AcO-DMT, derived from psilocybin, 1-PLSD, and AL-LAD, derived from LSD-25, 2-CB, 2-CE, and 2-CI, derived from mescaline… or any other hallucinogenic, dissociative, psychedelic, or otherwise entheogenic substance…

...that you are suddenly "awake", as if the drug flipped a switch in your brain, while all others who haven't experienced such realities, or “levels” of consciousness, are "asleep”.

This is in fact very silly, when taken into account that awareness does not work like that; it is not so black and white. Consciousness (defined as "awareness") has an infinite amount of “levels”, and we are collectively JUST starting to "wake up" to realities outside the subjective. While the “Tree of Life” IS being mapped out by our species, our current science has still only gotten to the bark of the trunk. Mystical experiences, often induced by massive and/or consistent doses of psychedelic substances, I believe can help us speed up this process, when studied properly.

Do psychedelic drugs have the potential to make the user aware of a level of objective reality they weren't aware of before, effectively "expanding their mind" to a"higher state of consciousness" ?

Absolutely. BUT, if one is truly reaching toward an understanding of the Consciousness-ego, Death-life, Objective-subjective, Pull-push world we live in, they MUST do the work themselves, as psychedelics are nothing more than great tool, opening the door for this.

A psychedelic is to the mind, as a key is to a door. You cannot open the door just by holding the key. No matter how much fun you have while holding the key, you will remain inside with your door locked shut, so long as you ignore what the key is actually used for. You must use the key to it’s full potential. Unless you go push the key, turn the handle, push the door, walk through and confront the world, you will forever remain inside.

In a similar analogy; entering a classroom does not mean you pass the class. You must pay attention to the lecture and then later do your homework. And even then, you will never fully grasp the initial lesson presented by the professor.

So, Consciousness manifests itself infinitely through ego. I theorize that in doing so, the object of the "Universe" constantly communicates with the subject of the “I”. This is often what people actually mean, when they say use phrase "I have a personal relationship with God.". What they label as "God" is our collective consciousness, and what they label as "I" is their individual ego. A heightened awareness to this communication can definitely be brought on through the use of psychedelic compounds, however, one does not necessarily need drugs to become more aware of this, or for any greater “spiritual awakening”. Many spiritual practices, such as meditation, yoga, fasting, and prayer, taken as example from personal experience, can also improve one's general spiritual awareness, just at much a slower rate. Meditation and yoga both acknowledge that personal thought and action affects one’s spiritual and physical awareness. Meditation is the practice of spiritually-physically rebooting oneself through a lack of personal action, while yoga is the practice of spiritually-physically centering oneself through the act of mindful cognition and physical release of energy. The two practices go hand and hand, as the yogish postures were originally designed to release any energy built up from long periods of meditation. Fasting is the acknowledgment that personal diet affects one’s spiritual awareness. Similar to meditation, it is usually done over an allotted period of time, and is used as a spiritual-physical reboot; for the mind, body and self. Lastly, prayer, though unpopular in the scientific community, holds some significance in that is the opposite end of meditation. While meditation is the practice of objectively listening to the Universe, prayer is the practice of subjectively contacting the Universe. It can also act as a personal mind journal, that takes place only in the here and now, and only within oneself.

In the case of a substance induced spiritual realization(s), due to its abrupt nature, one should take time to integrate the experience, and actually apply the lessons to one’s daily lives. All too often, someone is flooded with outside information from a psychedelic experience, and instead of integrating the information, the user's ego is ironically blown up. They suddenly hold the belief, that just because they are suddenly aware of all this new stuff, that they are above all that is, instead of with all that is. They believe they are the "awake" ones while everyone else is "asleep", putting themselves on a pedestal. This is a common mistake for Westerners who “find God” (which is no different than “finding yourself”), as the common belief of God in the western world is that “He” is king of all things. People in the West like to put God on a pedestal, and so when they discover the reality of “God” being their own consciousness, they put themselves on that same pedestal. They confuse their limited individual subjective ego, with our infinitely shared objective consciousness, and associate it with their preconceived notions of “God” being king of all things. In doing so, they miss out on true understanding of their experience(s), by taking a subjective (or egotistical) approach. As awesome as I think this spiritual awakening is for our culture, and our species as a whole, I believe it to be important to not let it inflate our ego's.

If one is truly on a personal quest of existential understanding, one should be questioning EVERYTHING they think they know, which means dissecting everything they've learned through their experiences with the mystical, and the physical. As a species, we are still so young and ignorant to the vastness of “reality”, so to confirm in your mind that "this"your current idea of “reality”, is all that exists, only handicaps you from further advancing your understanding of the infinite amount of reality that exists.

“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend” -Aldous Huxley, "Doors of Perception".
Don't "Stay Woke". Stay Humble. We really aren’t conscious of much at all, yet.

psychology
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About the Creator

Josh Gibbons

I am currently writing two books, and trying to expose my work more. Most of my writing is centered around the study of consciousness, spirituality, religion, and how the use of entheogenic substances can help us understand these subjects.

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