Varying Levels of Conscious Awareness in Physical *AND* Non-Physical

[Xanth]

A realization hit me this week.  It’s the realization that “awareness” is a property of consciousness and not a result of the reality you’re experiencing!

There are a lot of people who see all the different experiences (dreams, lucid dreams and astral projection/obes) as being all separate and different experiences. Well, “awareness” is a property of consciousness… and we can directly view it in relation to our physical reality as well as when we’re non-physical.

Some people believe that dreams, lucid dreams and ap/obes are different. They give the reason that they’re different because they “feel” completely different. Let’s compare our varying levels of awareness in this physical reality? Why don’t you take a look at your “awareness” when you first wake up in the morning? It feels groggy, drowsey and unclear. Now compare that to how your awareness is after your first coffee? And then again a couple hours later? They’re all varying levels of awareness within our physical reality… and the key point is that they all FEEL very different. They all feel like UNIQUE experiences. However, nobody really pays much attention to it because they KNOW better, right? We KNOW when we wake up it’s the physical reality… and throughout the day, we KNOW what is going on.

Well, all of those varying levels of conscious awareness take place in the SAME reality. I experience these same varying levels of consciousness awareness in the non-physical as well. Everything from the “Groggy, drowsy” (dream awareness) feeling, to the “just had a coffee” (lucid awareness) feeling to the “wide awake” (astral awareness) feeling. This tells me that “Awareness” is a Property of Consciousness and NOT a result of the reality you find yourself in.

http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/08/23/the-muliple-consciousness-awareness-levels-of-physical-and-non-physical-realities/

[Stookie_]

You have no idea how many times over the years I've tried to explain this here (except for the maybe 15 times in the past year alone). Concentration and focus play a big part in this, and single-minded, focused meditation helps immensely in bringing this into daily and astral life. The longer you can keep your awareness focused where you choose, the more lucid and clear all your experiences will be, physical as well.

If I don't have a clear and lucid experience, then I don't consider it a success. I want the best and that's what I work towards, I'm not happy with dreamy/hazy/hard-to-remember (dream awareness) stuff. When I have those I think, "dang it, I was almost there if I would have just taken advantage of the situation", and use that for the next attempt. I normally don't care what type of experience I start out in, because if I can bring in full awareness, I'm good to go.

[Summerlander]

They give the reason that they’re different because they “feel” completely different. Let’s compare our varying levels of awareness in this physical reality? Why don’t you take a look at your “awareness” when you first wake up in the morning? It feels groggy, drowsey and unclear. Now compare that to how your awareness is after your first coffee? And then again a couple hours later? They’re all varying levels of awareness within our physical reality… and the key point is that they all FEEL very different. They all feel like UNIQUE experiences. However, nobody really pays much attention to it because they KNOW better, right? We KNOW when we wake up it’s the physical reality… and throughout the day, we KNOW what is going on.

Exactly!  Likewise, when someone takes a psychedelic substance and the world gets severely distorted or enhanced, they have not gone to a different dimension, they are experiencing the same reality in a different way.

Bingo! 

[blis]

It’s the realization that “awareness” is a property of consciousness and not a result of the reality you’re experiencing!

I'm confused. What did you previously think awareness was?

[Summerlander]

It's not what he thought, blis...

It is what certain people seem to think and Xanth is merely pointing that out to them.  As Stookie also said and has tried to explain before.  Just because a phase experience is dull in sensory input, it does not mean that one has gone to the lower realms, for instance.  Likewise, a deep phase state where the environment exudes hyper-real definition, does not mean it is a higher realm.  In fact, the environment can change with the power of your mind.  You can deepen the phase using sensory-amplification methods, you can become more self-aware and more conscious of what is happening and the reality that surrounds you.  None of the superstitious or supernatural crap.

It is all about perspective.

[Xanth]

I'm confused. What did you previously think awareness was?

Your question leads me to believe you're saying something to the effect of, "Well no duh Ryan!  What are you smoking?  Because it's OBVIOUS!"  LoL  <-- the over-dramatic inflection of the response is my over-dramatizing it and is not to reflect your actual tone. 

What's obvious to me is that this idea/theory/whatever isn't so obvious to everyone... otherwise we wouldn't be having the constant discussions of "was this an astral projection?" or "what's the difference between a lucid dream and an astral projection?".  If it's something that's a no-brainer to you, then I salute you wholeheartedly, Blis. 

For me it wasn't a realization of something new, but a realization in how to explain it better to people who might be asking those above questions.

A fellow Astral Pulse member showed me a really great diagram they created showing how all of this relates... I'm hoping he decides to post it soon.   Cause it's *REALLY* good and I'm dying for everyone to see it!

[blis]

lol now I'm even more confused.

You're saying we have varying degrees of awareness in both the physical and non-physical. We agree.

Awareness is a property of consciousness. I kind of look at them as the same thing but the word consciousness can encompass more than just awareness so I agree on that aswell. Its the alternative you're supposed to be countering that I dont see. What else has anyone said awareness is?

Well, all of those varying levels of conscious awareness take place in the SAME reality.

I agree. There is only one ultimate reality. We distinguish between the different levels of reality though. You seem to want to divide it up into here and not-here. If thats what you want to do thats fine - it's not incorrect, just one way of subdividing the whole. But people who choose to make more subdivisions are equally justified.

[Xanth]

Blis, I'm sorry, but you have completely missed the entire point of my post. 

I really can't make it any more clearer than is already posted.  My apologies.

What I'm saying is that the varying levels of consciousness are a property of consciousness and not the result of the reality you find yourself in.
I'm not saying there's "one ultimate reality"... there are MANY realities.  I'm saying that you can experience any of them with any of the varying levels of awareness, because it's a property of consciousness. 

My simplistic division of "here" vs "there" doesn't come into this thread what-so-ever.  This post is only about conscious awareness.  When I use the word "consciousness", I mean our true natural.  That which we are.  Consciousness.  I guess I didn't make that clear enough.

[blis]

What I'm saying is that the varying levels of consciousness are a property of consciousness and not the result of the reality you find yourself in.

lol do you ever read something and you know what all the individual words mean but at the end of it you're like, "what "

Taken literally I agree with those words(how couldnt I lol). I just dont get what you're point is or what it counters.

Stookie and Summer seem to get what you're saying though so it must just be me. Please dont explain it any more lol. My head hurts. You win. I surrender lol

[Xanth]

LOL  It's okay.. it's probably my lack of being able to make it understandable.

Read those many recent threads about "LD" vs "AP".  That might shed some light on it. 

[Stookie_]

lol do you ever read something and you know what all the individual words mean but at the end of it you're like, "what "

Taken literally I agree with those words(how couldnt I lol). I just dont get what you're point is or what it counters.

Stookie and Summer seem to get what you're saying though so it must just be me. Please dont explain it any more lol. My head hurts. You win. I surrender lol

We've seen over and over on the forum where people view level of awareness based on what area of consciousness that's being perceived. Something like this:

dream = slightly aware
lucid dream = even more aware
daily activity = normal awareness
OBE/AP = very aware

But the argument is that you can have an OBE with little awareness or a lot. How aware you are can vary no matter the area of consciousness, but many don't see it like that. That is what Ryan means.

[blis]

Wow, I didnt know people thought that.

Stookie to the rescue lol. Thanks for clearing it up.

[pondini]

i used to think of awareness as just lucidity, and lucidity was the benchmark i used to try differentiating lucid dreams from OBEs. the problem i now see with that term is that it implies a level of clarity that is related to the physical experience. but as many of us here know, our non-physical experiences can be much richer, reaching levels of awareness that surpass physical lucidity. to me, this seems to indicates the point of ryan's post, that 'awareness' is a property of consciousness, not the result of synapses firing in a physical brain. at least that's what i understood his point to be.

[Xanth]

Wow, I didnt know people thought that.

Stookie to the rescue lol. Thanks for clearing it up.

Stookie is like my white knight in shining armor. 

[Summerlander]

Actually, I wouldn't go that far pondini.  Awareness can vary according to neural activations...

Anyway, in reference to what Stookie said above, this is why I abide by these terms:

waking state = not asleep and perceiving the physical realm (mostly)  
dream state = non-lucid dreams (both NREM and REM)
phase state = OOBEs and lucid dreams (one is conscious and self-aware in mental space and is aware of being physically asleep)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2737577/figure/F4/