What Does "Elevating or Expanding Consciousness" Even Mean?

I have gone to many different events, certifications, and programs, and I have met all sorts of different people.

Over time, I have found that many people use phrases over and over again.

One of the big ones I hear is "Elevating" or "Expanding" our "Consciousness".

Often in the same circles, I also hear things about "Energy" (not Mg-ATP which I often talk about, but some non-descript metaphysical concept that isn't explained).

I have come to a realization over time that when these phrases and buzzwords are used - they mean one thing.

The Technical Meaning Of Elevating/Expanding Consciousness

If we are being hyper-technical on what the phrases mean, it is a super simple concept.

Elevating/Expansion are words to mean growing or maturing in some capacity.

Consciousness is a complicated word for awareness.

When put together, it just means growing/maturing our awareness.

This is not a difficult thing to do at all.

We naturally do it as babies as we "learn" about the world.

As we identify what words mean, our awareness grows.

When we combine words into sentences, our awareness grows.

When we learn concepts from those sentences, our awareness grows.

New concepts are introduced to us, and our awareness grows.

In theory, we should do this throughout our entire life without issue (not everyone does, of course, but it is easily within everyone's grasp).

If we wanted to include energy, we could.

Energy comes down to the interactions between the micro-components of all existence (cells, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, etc.).

Again, not a difficult concept to grasp.

However, when most people use these terms, this isn't what they mean.

What Most People Mean When They Say This

I have found when people say these things, they aren't talking about "growing awareness" or the specifics of the micro-components of how things work.

Instead, these types of phrases are used to disguise the fact that most people have no idea what they are doing or why it has any form of help.

"Expanding Our Consciousness" sounds profound, amazing, and secretive!

But it isn't all that amazing in truth.

It's just growing our awareness.

The words used are just good (overused) marketing.

When you ask more deep questions - why does something work, or how it impacts people in the long term? - they aren't able to give good answers.

They tend to use circular language to talk about "good energy," "wellness," or "vibes".

When you press more deeply, they don't have any answers.

They just found something they "felt" helped them, and they are excited to share it with others.

Generally, these are good people - they don't intend anything bad - they just don't know more than "it feels good in the moment."

Sometimes, there is a bit of validity to what they are saying and teaching, but they don't know "why" it works.

Often they have learned something from someone else who was just trying to market something they learned.

But if you trace where these ideas come from - mindfulness, meditation, chi gong, etc. - they are basic practices taught in various cultures, resold as some form of "secret art".

However, there's nothing secret about them.

Mindfulness works because it allows us to see what is happening right now instead of being lost in the past or infinite potential futures, but you can get the same results from hiking or even bird watching.

Meditation works because it allows us to understand what thoughts we are having, but journaling or breathwork is the same.

Chi Gong is great, but the benefits are the same as crawling, rocking, balancing, breathing, and rolling on the ground.

Some practices may work a little better than others, or be explored more deeply, but there isn't really anything mystical about any of them.

Many of these practices have scientific research done on them - but most people teaching these things haven't read any of the science.

Even though there is deep (non-mystical) history and scientific research on these, the people who use the buzzwords and phrases don't know any of them.

The Deeper Problems

However, because there is a lot that isn't known, there are two major problems that arise.

➼ The Exemplar Problem

The easiest problem to see is that the people that use buzzwords and phrases aren't Exemplars of what they talk about.

Sure, they may have a great meditation practice.

Maybe they practice mindfulness daily.

They could start every day and end every night with a reflection practice.

However, they also make claims about the benefits of all of these practices but are struggling to gain any of those benefits.

They meditate every day, but their thoughts are still extremely scrambled and they struggle to gain clarity.

They are mindful when they force themselves to sit down and do the practice but fail to be mindful outside of that.

They talk about peace, emotional health, and even physical health while they don't have any of this themselves.

They feel their life is in chaos.

Their emotions fly out of their control constantly.

Their physical health is deteriorating, and they are trying to hide it.

These things may be "better" in their lives with these practices.

However, the scale is small - ie, from 5% overall to 10% overall (cool, it's 2x better, but 10% still isn't good).

➼ They Are Second-Order Consequences

This is the other problem with these practices.

They are just band-aids on the real problems.

It might "feel good" in the moment, but nothing is fixed.

The REAL problems aren't being fixed.

People seek these practices and get a "micro-dose" of feeling good, while overall their life is getting significantly worse.

They are getting addicted to false hope.

The practices are only tackling the "symptoms".

They are the "Second-Order Consequence" of much bigger problems.

But unless you "know" that, you will think that the answer is the band-aid.

The real problems go much deeper - our biological energy (Literally Mg-ATP), problems with Identity, Environmental issues, and more.

If you don't address the real issues, these practices will never get you to any "higher" truth or feeling.

You'll just slowly fall deeper into the problems, all while blaming yourself because if these practices "work" as everyone says, then you must be the problem.

It isn't true, though - you've just been misinformed by someone who was misinformed.

Find people that understand these things, and you'll have a better chance of getting to where you want to be.