ZERO POINT
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March 1, 2006
ZERO POINT
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March 1, 2006
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Book III:
Scientific and Mystical Views
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| 3. ‘Consciousness' has to be distinguished from
the cognitive processes involved in your 'minding' of the world.
Yogis call these the 'monkeys of the mind,' and describe them as an obstacle
to Self realization and the awakening of consciousness. Consciousness
does not consist in 'minding' self, construing your reality and such, as
you imagine.
Most consciousness researchers approach the study of consciousness with the mind and through the observation of external material processes. Further, they tend to simplistic patterns of dualistic thinking—distinguishing a mind and a body, the consciousness and the unconscious, and all of the other dualities of human existence postulated by different theorists. However, they do not explore the dynamics of consciousness through inner self-study, such as are the essential mystical and spiritual practices designed to illustrate the issues and illusions of consciousness and Self. Eastern and esoteric psychologies of consciousness are far ahead of modern concepts when it comes to understanding the inner dynamics of human consciousness, as it is only within the inner world that we have direct experience of what we mean by the term ‘consciousness.’ It is something that can only be studied within the inner world—like learning to separate the I and the me. Whereas modern psychology has been defined as the “science of behaviour and the mind,” in a dualistic mind-body way, mystical teaching depicts humans as having a three fold nature—functioning mentally, emotionally and physically. Roughly, the head brain can be taken as the intellectual centre, while the emotional centre is related to the heart and the autonomic nervous system, and the physical nature is related to the spinal column and brain stem, and to other organs. A human has three stories or levels, the head, the heart area, and the lower story in the abdomen and organs. In a sense, there are three semi-independent brains and minds within the organism. A catchy way of depicting the threefold nature of an individual is to speak of “head, heart and hands”—what you think, what you feel, and what you sense and do. In the Vedas, the three modes of nature are these three fold principles of intelligence/mind, energy and matter. There is the mind, emotions and the body; and a body, soul and spirit. From mystical perspectives, a human being even has three lower bodies—the mental body, the astral body and the physical body—whereas modern psychology only considers a person to have a physical body, but no such mysterious ‘subtle bodies.’ |
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Mystical psychologies regard ‘consciousness’
as something ‘other’ than the ‘psychological processes’ of the thinking,
feeling and sensations. All of these can occur with different degrees
of consciousness, or the functions can proceed unconsciously. But
thinking is not consciousness, nor is it feeling, nor sensation.
Instead, consciousness is ‘light,’ which illuminates these psychological
functions within these three centres, and within the three being-bodies.
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However, a myriad of data from everyday phenomena and as evident in self-study, suggest that consciousness is not confined to the brain at all. Consciousness can exist in relationship to other nerve plexus of the autonomic system—both the sympathetic and parasympathetic, and in relation to the electrodynamics of the heart and blood. There is no reason to limit the ‘consciousness’ as a something only to certain neurological brain processes, and to deny its existence elsewhere within the living being. The autonomic nervous system is centred in a series of major plexus within the body, and is involved as a neurological basis for emotional experience. For example, when a person is anxious they can experience this within the solar plexus directly. So why cannot your famous consciousness exist in relationship to the electromagnetic processes of the solar plexus, or of the heart plexus? Why is it that only neurological activity in the brain is considered to produce consciousness, but not neurological activity elsewhere--even if you assume that 'packs of neurons' produce consciousness, as mainstream scientists assume. The central nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, and the electromagnetic heart centre of the human being, must all be considered as to the role they might play in regards to what consciousness might be. If we consider a human being as a quantum system, the centre of that system would be the heart, whose electromagnetic volume is estimated at 5000 times that of the mind (Pearsall, 1998). The central fallacy of the head doctrine seems quite self evident in self-study guided by discerned analysis and self-awareness. Do you really feel in yourself that your consciousness is only up in your head? Sometimes it now all sounds so strange and silly, and clearly not evident within one’s own experience of consciousness. However, the human experience is not that consciousness is confined to the head, and the enlightened mystics and swamis, and Sufi poets, all seem to located the origins of consciousness and Self quite differently, where it has not been conceived by the head scientists. In the pointing game, hardly anyone ever points to their heads to localize the ‘I.” Instead, the natural impulse is to point towards the central area of the chest to indicate “I.” Of course, modern psychologists and brain scientists do not consider that there is such an “I.,” and do not even imagine what this conceivably could be. Esoteric psychologies do however elaborate upon such mysteries. |
| The idea of the relationship of consciousness
and blood flow can also be considered internally through your inner experience.
By simply trying to ‘be conscious’ in one’s feet, the blood flow is enhanced
to these areas, and the feet get warmer and become enlarged.
Similarly, if you eat a big meal, then the blood flow is to your abdomen,
and it feels inwardly that your consciousness is more centred within your
gut.’ Consciousness is more mobile than the fixed neural networks
responsible for varied cognitive processes, and it can also exist in relationship
to other activities within the body, and the emotional life—especially
the Heart. Don’t confine ‘consciousness’ to the brain, without some
pretty substantial evidence of some kind, which does not exist.
Of course, all the thinking does increase the blood flow to the brain, and consciousness become more 'intellectually centred,’ while reducing the blood flow to your feet, which go cold, and of which you are then more unconscious. However, the sensory-motor strip does not produce this ‘something of consciousness.’ However, even if one thinks that the neurology of the brain produces consciousness, what is it so special about this neurology, in contrast to that of the autonomic nervous system--which extends throughout the body and has major nerve plexus such as the solar plexus, and the cardiac plexus? And then we have the whole electrical system inherent to the heart, with its pacemakers and dynamics. Generally, psychologists ignore the tricky issues of consciousness and simply equate it with thinking, reasoning, and other mental and sensory processes. Unfortunately, scientists who regard these issues as having been resolved ignore the fact that they have been determined by fiat and methodological considerations, rather than on the basis of scientific evidence. Furthermore, the questions of the existence of the human spirit and soul are profoundly important, and the issues of consciousness are intimately linked to understanding these other mysteries. Science has not disproved the existence of a ghost in the machine, or of a soul, or even of a God Spark—an “I” which is not a molecular arrangement, or a pack of neurons. Consciousness does not consist in 'minding' self, construing your reality and such, as many scientists and intellectuals imagine. In fact, such processes are regarded as obstacles to the awakening of consciousness, within all of the mystical traditions. Consciousness is light, and it functions to 'illuminate' different parts of the body, emotional centre and mind. Just as there is light in the external world, which illuminates things which it is not, so also, there are forms of 'inner light' which allows awareness of thinking, or of a full stomach, the feet, or of one’s heart ache. To understand such possibilities we would have to explore the complex physics and metaphysics of what is 'consciousness,’ what is light, and consider the higher dimensional reality established within the spaces of the Heart, and underlying the material forms of the body. The fact that the body is represented on the sensory motor cortex, does not necessarily imply that our normal consciousness of these bodily area only resides up in the cortex. As different parts of the organism require energy, there is increased blood flow and consciousness to those areas. Consciousness is not simply confined to the head but circulates potentially through the whole organism. When a person does different cognitive task, these are ensouled and enlightened through the blood, and part of the brain lights up, providing contents for conscious experience. The modern neurological correlates of consciousness do not somehow manufacture the consciousness-and there is no scientific evidence that they do. It is simply an assumption that the brain produces consciousness, but the issues of consciousness remain the central unsolved enigma at the heart of psychology and science - or should I say, at the head of modern science? Modern scientists even focus on studying emotions in the head, as though love and compassion, hurt and despair, are all processes of the limbic system, and could not have anything to do with the heart, the central electromagnetic source of life in the body. Do you go home and tell your sweetheart that you love her or him with all of your limbic system, or midbrain processes, or with ‘all of your head’? She will send you to a psychiatrist. Psychology today has almost completely ignored the study of the heart, as the central organic computer in the human quantum system. Meanwhile, everyone is trying to find consciousness, and its neural correlates only in the head. Consciousness should not be confused with the functions of the mind alone.
Your consciousness can be in your head, your
heart, your hands, and elsewhere, even in your stomach, a primary centre
of conscious experience in many people. Think of consciousness
as being-self-awareness, and circulating through the blood, and
energies of the subtle bodies, and possibly as existing throughout the
whole of your organism. Consciousness is not simply confined to the
brain construing your self. What is often taken to be the nature
of consciousness--all the thinking and minding your own business--is the
exact mistake explained within the mystical and spiritual teachings of
psychology—of confusing consciousness with the mind. Mystic Blavatsky
writes, “The mind is the great slayer of the real.”
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1. “I think, therefore I am,” Descartes’
declaration epitomizes the dualistic errors of contemporary thought
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