I have been seeking for a while. Like probably since about age 5 or 6. I just forgot. I remembered about 13 years ago when I found myself at Wattle Hollow near Devils Den, bawling in the woods during a silent retreat with dear sweet Joy Fox. Fast forward, a decade + of dedicating myself to exploration, interaction, study, and discipline. The discipline wasn’t really as admirable as it sounds, it was out of survival and a desperate need to grow and to return back to my early seeking self.
As a young child I recall spending time in my “world”. I think most of us did that right? That quiet place where it was only you inside of yourself. No one else’s words or beliefs. I remember distinctly spending time in that space, and then coming out and asking the question “is life even real?”…”am I even real?” I remember thinking that everyone must know about that place, and have those questions. At Wattle Hollow I found it again. Underneath the noise were the tears and the trauma, and then I found the quiet. It was exactly like I remembered it.
A few years ago I discovered Transcendental Meditation for its simplicity. Through this mantra based technique I found myself again. And the bonus, the founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was a trained physicist dedicated to bring objective scientific thought to ancient teachings. My other favorite, Abraham Hicks, also describes processes that simplify connection. Connection to your highest self. To the life you have already defined for yourself but for some reason won’t let yourself in.
Today I don’t have the answers but I am beginning to see the simplicity of higher states. How to know when you are “in” or when you are “out” and how to help yourself in the in between.
Seven Stages of Consciousness (as I understand them)
1-3 Waking, Sleeping, Dreaming. Evolution of desires. Experiencing the full emotional range in response to life’s experinces.
Fourth - beyond the activity of the mind, silent pure awareness. Allows you to align with your greatest potential and that of the greatest support in creativity. Scientific markers include alpha brain coherence, decrease in skin conductivity, increase frontal blood flow, reduced respiration that pervade all higher states. Distinctly different from stages 1-3. Meditation can cultivate access to this stage. Life in turn responds to desire. Peace, joy, bliss felt naturally and easily during the stage.
Fifth - Duality, seeing your “normal” self living and experiencing life PLUS feeling your inner space of quiet, the inner silent pure awareness. Allowing awareness to have a constant presence. Occurs naturally after spending time in stage 4. Our opportunity to align with desire and life’s response. Peace, joy, bliss grow. The dual perspective allows us to consciously move up emotional scale.
Sixth - Union with the highest support in nature, that is always around, supporting the precious you. For the spiritual, experiencing God’s love for you. For the metaphysical, experiencing the magnetic law of attraction. For the scientific, change in metabolic rate that corresponds with changes of experiences in the environment. Getting really good at the alignment of our desire with life. Peace, joy, bliss stabilize even during diversity. Experience stability of higher emotional states.
Seventh - Maintaining union. Steadiness. Spiritual, metaphysical, scientific - whatever your belief about it is exactly perfect. Maintain the union between Self and guaranteed support. Embracing diversity because of the desire that is born. Deep appreciation for all manifest and unmanifest. Peace, joy, bliss stabilize during diversity. Experience permanence in higher emotional states.
Meditation is the number one way to reset yourself, to “remember” your quiet pure state of awareness. Once you find it, you can access it anywhere. You can feel it beside you all day. You can tell when you have gone away from it. You experience the support of nature when you maintain it. Your direct experience reveals your path toward it and with it. Your direct experiences determine your practice and dedication to it.
For my personal path, mantra-based meditations are the easiest. In February I’ll be certified to teach Primordial Sound Meditation with Chopra. The course will include 7 hours of scientific and spiritual lessons about consciousness to help you fine-tune the path inward and a personal mantra that you can use for the rest of your life, calculated to your Vedic vibration. Email me at sunnymlane@gmail.com to schedule your personal or group session. With so much love, Sunny
Presentation of the teachings on the Seven States of Consciousness, and how they unfold in our experiences in life and emotional responses.
