Understanding Mysterious Consciousness
I am conscious; I not only observe but also think, feel, imagine, have intentions, and make choices. I sense the presence of an observer and what that observer observes. But who is doing it or observing it cannot be found in the neural network of my brain. One thing is certain: this consciousness has always existed from the beginning, even when I was a single cell, a zygote. That single cell was alive (with all the information to develop into a human being) and conscious before sperm and ovum fused to become an embryo; it had no brain at the time, but it quickly multiplied into billions of cells that would go on to become my various organs and, eventually, my brain. Now I am a conscious human being who is exploring the very essence of consciousness.
All living things are biologically conscious. All organisms use their senses to gather information about their surroundings, allowing them to perform vital functions such as breathing, finding food when hungry, protecting themselves when there is danger, reproducing, and caring for their offspring. Even the simplest living things show signs of the warm and caring relationship between a mother and her young child. The female ants will carry their eggs on their heads as they search for a safe place to breed. The spider uses its superior architectural skills to construct beautiful webs for protection. Silkworms spin hundreds of miles of fine threads to form cocoons for their shelter. So, consciousness is not just something that humans have.
Every single kind of living or non-living thing in this creation has its own peculiar or distinctive technique for breathing, ranging from those that take in a very short breath to those who take in a very slow breath. The plant as a whole is alive and breathing, from its leaves to its stem to its roots to its flowers. Consciousness is not visible in matter (but atoms decay); it is extremely limited in plants; it is more prevalent in the animal kingdom (giving animals the ability to consider their options and make decisions); and it is significantly present in the typical human being. This makes humans more logical and intelligent creatures on the planet compared to other things. Therefore, it seems that there is some form of life or consciousness present in all things, regardless of how simple or complex they may appear.
Max Planck, who came up with the quantum theory and won the Nobel Prize in Physics for it in 1918, says, "I regard consciousness as fundamental." He said, "I regard matter as a derivative of consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. But everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness''.
The most widely held scientific assumption is that consciousness cannot be separated from brain activity, that it is inextricably linked to neural activity in the brain, and that it evolves as an inherent feature of complex biological computation over time. But the mechanism by which the brain generates consciousness is still a mystery to science.
Science is the pursuit of knowledge that aims to explain how things are made and how things happen. But science has no idea:
Why things are the way they are?
Why are humans the way they are?
What makes animals the way they are?
What causes birds to be the way they are?
What does the appearance of the flowers mean?
Why did this universe come into being and evolve?
I shifted my focus to the spiritual realm in order to gain better insight into the nature of consciousness.
Sri Ramana Maharshi, a well-known sage from southern India, posits that consciousness is the only thing that really exists—not as an experience unique to any one person but rather as the ground upon which all other beings and physical phenomena rest and emerge. What we take in through our eyes is nothing more than a reflection of the mind of the beholder. The image appears on the mental screen and is taken as real, making us think that we are also a part of the projected reality.
Jiddu Krishnamurti, one of the greatest critical thinkers of our time, says that "our consciousness is the consciousness of all humanity" and that "our sensations, reactions, beliefs, pains, pleasures, and insecurities are common to mankind." Even if our names and external appearances are different in different parts of the world, humans everywhere experience the same psychological process. All human beings possess the same, universally recognisable form of consciousness. He claims that there is a stream of consciousness that is common to mankind. This vast stream, which has no beginning and no end, is continuously flowing, and we are all in it. Our consciousness is part of that stream. The stream exists within us, and we are manifestations of it. This is the common ground on which all human beings appear and disappear. It is the stream in which we live psychologically.
Therefore, each one of us is a representative of the entirety of that stream of consciousness. The waves are not different from the ocean; they may be high or low. He stated that my consciousness is the same as everyone else's. Therefore, there is no individual consciousness. He says individual consciousness is an illusion.
This is hard to observe and recognise because of our strong individual conditioning. Human consciousness, in its most common form, may be understood as relativity consciousness. Since in every aspect of life, there is always a context. Putting something into perspective with something else is the only way for a human mind to fully understand it. The different ways in which we interpret the world—through our religious, social, political, and economic perspectives—define who we are as unique individuals. But our mental contents are strikingly similar. At different points in time, we humans share nearly the same content of love, hate, greed, lust, competition, fear, pleasure, pain, hope, expectation, and imagination. In individuals, exaggeration of one aspect of love for humanity can lead to the emergence of Mother Teresa; exaggeration of another aspect, hate, can give rise to a Hitler. Both extremes are possible. Suffering, sadness, conflict, struggle, guilt, profound pain, loneliness, unhappiness, and confusion are universal human experiences. Only our belief systems, which include religious, social, political, and economic concepts, nurture and shape our individuality.
I have concluded that no one can explain consciousness to me better than myself since consciousness is my own sense of inner awareness of love, emotions, feelings, thoughts, intentions, and everything else. Nothing is possible for me unless and until I am conscious. Thus, I must delve even further into my own consciousness because I am already familiar enough with it to know exactly what it is.
For that, I have gone through various meditations. There are several approaches to meditation in various traditions, each of which has its own unique practices. The initial step in each of these meditation practices is to physically calm the body, and then the second step is to still the mind. The basic goal of most meditations, whether Zen, Hindu, Buddhist, or guru-led, is to control thoughts. For this, they recommend getting into a certain posture, breathing in a certain way, concentrating on a single point or object, chanting a prayer or repeating a mantra over and over again, etc. Concentration requires focusing on a single spot while ignoring all other potential distractions. Therefore, focus was on one thing to keep the mind from going off in other directions. They encouraged me to focus on a picture, an image, a sentence, or repeat certain words in order to control my thoughts. Initially, I used to think about something, but my mind kept drifting to something else. Thoughts were going everywhere and in every direction. Most of the time, my thoughts were aimless and directionless, and I used to try to pull them back to the point of focus. But teachers of meditation always insisted on concentration, practice, and control.
After some time, I realised that these meditations were not doing anything miraculous for me. Adopting a certain sitting position increases blood flow to the brain, and deep breathing results in increased oxygen intake. However, thoughts cannot be controlled. These meditative states were certainly soothing, but they were fleeting. I also experienced several visions while engaging in these meditations, which were according to the techniques I was doing. However, I later realised that all those experiences were the result of imagination or information already planted in my mind by their masters or followers. Further, I realized that the spiritual visions promoted by many gurus are nothing more than mental projections. They do this through various techniques. We end up seeing exactly what they want us to see because of their persuasive abilities.
The repetition of a phrase or mantra is shown to have a calm or soothing effect on the mind and to evoke a spectrum of feelings. But the words are nothing more than words. The word "god" is not God, and the word "love" is not loving. Furthermore, it is observed that constant repetition of words dulls the mind, destroys sensitive responses, and puts a stop to further investigations into the truth.
In the majority of these meditations, all perspectives were external, the focus was solely on quieting the conscious mind, and the inner processes of the workings of the mind were completely ignored. So, the benefits gained from all these meditation practices were only transitory. Meditation is of marginal value if life is not free from anger, jealousy, envy, greed, anxiety, and hatred.
Meditation without the foundation of righteous behaviour is only a form of self-hypnosis. Then I spent a lot of time figuring out how the brain works, how the mind is created, how thoughts connect, and other aspects of human life.
I started looking at the nature and workings of consciousness from different perspectives in order to understand what it is. When I am awake, it rises; when I am asleep, it falls to the level of body consciousness, where the nervous system and all other organs continue to function. I noticed that biological programming has its own kind of consciousness, which takes care of things like the flow of blood, the beating of the heart, the digestion of food, and so on, and lets my body exist. This is simply because every cell and organ is conscious, which keeps my entire organism conscious at all times.
In deep sleep, I am not conscious of my memories, experiences, possessions, worries or fears, health or wealth, relationships, or even my own body, but I still exist. The brain continues to receive impulses through the ears, eyes(some people sleep with their eyes partially open), and nose. However, because the conscious level of the brain is so low, these signals are not processed. Only when these sensations are extremely intense or unusual does the brain become disturbed, and the conscious level abruptly rises and begins processing information.
If I am conscious, the universe is here. If I am not conscious, the entire world disappears. For me, the world I experience is entirely the result of my own consciousness.
The consciousness at a given time may be defined by its contents. The consciousness level of a child differs from that of a young or elderly person. Since we all come from different backgrounds and have had different experiences, we each have our own method of encoding information into our brain cells. That is why each of us feels so unique and distinct from the others. In fact, the only real distinctions are those of contents, patterns, and individual conditionings. Asa matter of fact, the specifics of one's consciousness become both unique to each individual and dynamically change over time.
I followed the path of theoretical physicists who studied the nature of subatomic particles by removing all the particles from space (making a vacuum). They found that space is not empty at all but is instead a throbbing quantum field that creates matter, space, and time. In a similar way, I realised that I am not different from my consciousness or the contents of my consciousness (mind).Every action, every response, every thought, and every intention can be explained based on my mind alone. My mind shows my beliefs, myths, ideals, gods, pleasure, romantic ideas, pain, violence, fear, and my ultimate worry about dying. Further it is very clear that consciousness is what causes the brain to produce my mind. So I decided to empty my mind of all its contents in order to have the total perception of consciousness.
So, the only way for me to get rid of the contents of consciousness was to open up my mind, which was the only tool I had. This made it abundantly clear to me that the mind, which is accessed through the brain, is nothing more than the memories, programming patterns, and conditioning that are stored in brain cells.
I slowly learned to move my brainwaves from the normal, awake beta range to the calmer alpha, theta, and delta ranges. This made it possible for me to see the patterns in the way I used to think, and as each new layer came to light, unnecessary contents started to fall away.
Then something strange happened to me. It was February 7, 2018, the last day on the ship Costa, and it cruised southward somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean at that time. We were there to celebrate the achievements of our company. A ceremony to bestow awards on members of the organisation who demonstrated outstanding performance began in the theatre, along with creative performances by international artists. I also received an honour, and we proceeded to party together afterwards. People were in a celebratory mood and added to the evening's unique atmosphere by getting out on the dance floor and showing off their best moves. From nowhere, a thought struck me: being the last night on the ship, I must spend the night on the deck. It was already past ten o'clock at night when I began making my way up the steps to the deck. A few attendants were busy washing the deck, and I moved to the rear to witness the ship's tail slicing through the waves. The lulling sounds of the ship sailing through the sea, the crashing of the waves, and the howling of the wind left wonderful impressions on my mind. The scene was incredibly wonderful and romantic. Soon after that, I was the only one left on the deck. The ship moved steadily through the night sky, making a pleasant roaring sound. After savouring it for an hour, I lay down on a bench to take in the breathtaking view of the sky above me. I was looking for Alpha Centauri, a triple star system closest to earth, and I found it quickly. As soon as I thought about how far away it was, I had the sudden realisation that the light that had reached my eyes must have come from four light-years back intime. I was experiencing the immensity of the sky in my mind and was consciously observing it. My eyes tried to penetrate the sky, creating more and more space around me. Thoughts emerged, but I was too distracted by the natural beauty and tranquillity to pay them any attention. Soon I felt that the space between two thoughts increased with every new thought. Then I had the sensation of being completely alone in the universe, staring at the sky, absorbing it svastness, and merging myself with the space. A searchlight from a nearby ship briefly distracted me; I checked the time and saw that it was 12:30 am; and then, after a while, I found myself once again at one with the immensity of space. I felt myself disappearing into the vast, limitless space that had no centre. The body, the mind, the heart, the nerves, and the whole organism became space. I was weightless, without a body, without a mind, without thought, and without any centre. I melted into the space, becoming the space, and experiencing the utter silence, perfect tranquillity, and ultimate peace. The only thing that existed was awareness without consciousness, as I was not conscious of anything. It was a state of being in which there was no being. Then, from the opposite direction, a ship with a bright searchlight and a roaring sound interrupted me, and I looked at my phone to see that it was 5:30 am. Then, I became conscious of everything around me and myself.
My curiosity quickly overwhelmed me. What was that experience when I was fully awake, attentive, and aware but had no thoughts for about five hours straight?
My mind remained preoccupied with this occurrence for many days. I repeatedly attempted to comprehend how it is possible to be fully awake for hours without having a single thought. One thing that was quite clear to me was that I was not in deep meditation, deep sleep, or a dreaming state. And I reached that state of mind without making an effort, without conforming to any particular pattern, and without being instructed.
Finally, I realised that it was the pure presence of being-ness, without mind or neuron firing in the brain. This was unquestionably a condition of infinite space, not physical but psychological, full of life and vitality but without the past, future, or myself. It was the natural perception of consciousness, which at the time was neither the mind nor the function of brain cells because both the mind and the brain were completely absent or silent. I feel that this is the true nature of existence, awareness, or consciousness, as well as the actual state of being.
After many sleepless nights of thinking about this strange event, I was able to come to the following conclusions:
1. Consciousness is just being-ness.
2.Consciousness is not "I-am-ness" or "Mine-ness," which is nothing but my mind alone. Consciousness is still there when the mind is not operating at all.
3.My mind is made up of my past experiences, upbringing, patterns, habits, feelings, intentions, greed, fear, pride, aspirations, and thoughts.
4. Although I ownmy own mind, I do not own consciousness, which is beyond the mind.
5.Consciousness is more like an infinite space, a screen, or a phenomenon inwhich the brain works and creates the mind.
6.Consciousness is similar to a quantum field, a gravitational field (discoveredby Newton), and an electromagnetic field (uncovered by Michael Faraday). Afully active and dynamic field that influences all forms of life and theirsurroundings. It is the vacuum, nothingness, or emptiness postulated by the greatBuddhist scholar Nagarjuna. It is extremely subtle and exists outside ofmatter, space, and time. It is possible that this field predates the Big Bang.
7.Since consciousness is not a memory, piece of information, or thought, the onlyway to connect with it is to quiet the mind first. The mind must have immensespace or openness, free of fragmentation, conflict, and confusion. There mustbe a boundless space that is free of me, the ego, or the self. It must be asclear as glass, allowing one to see things as they are without reflection,refraction, or distortion. Only when the mind is free of all conditioning,particularly religious conditioning, is it possible to have a true perceptionof consciousness.
8.There should be no excitement, no sadness, no emotion, no passion, and no useof the imagination, but there should be a sense of wholeness, depth, quality,vitality, and harmony with "what is," as opposed to "what shouldbe," which creates conflict. Then, and only then, one can see the wholetruth of "what is." For this, one needs a serious interest inlearning about oneself, a considerable drive, and energy flow to delve into thestudy of consciousness. There needs to be a strong feeling of energy that hasno goal or cause and should be extremely silent.
9.It is possible to delve into the interior of the mind and find out what hasbeen stored there for millions of years through evolving DNA. We don't know ofany other way to understand, realise, define, characterise, quantify, ormeasure consciousness.
10.Normal human beings are incapable of achieving this stage simply because they are unable to stop thinking, hold a wide range of beliefs, are insatiably in search of pleasure, and end up consuming a significant amount of energy by engaging in constant conflict with their inner selves or other people.
This experience can be recreated by anyone; however, a pure and clean mind is required. Once the contents have been removed or neutralised, only then will one have access to the entire stream of consciousness, or pure awareness, which exists outside their mental sphere. There is nothing religious or mysterious about this.
Consciousness, like quantum fields, electromagnetic fields, or gravitational fields, is a type of field, but it may not be subject to physical laws and may exist outside the matter-space-time continuum, as I have understood and learned. It would appear that consciousness is the fundamental element of reality and that matter is merely an expression of it. The double-slit experiment confirms this: when a device is used, even without conscious observation, the results are affected.
The hard truth is that my consciousness is the cause of both my existence and the world I live in. Consciousness creates reality on both the physical and psychological levels.
Excerpts from the book
Hard Truth of Everything Matter Life Death Consciousness
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