A map of the world

Here is a very simple model I've been thinking about in an attempt to conceptualize different orders of consciousness. (Click image to enlarge.) The diagram is, of course, very crude, though it looked a little better before TypePad made me convert it to a JPEG file.

The large silver oval represents Cosmic Consciousness, a.k.a. the Ground of Being or the Mind of God. Every other level of consciousness exists within Cosmic Consciousness, and Cosmic Consciousness provides a shared environment in which these lower-level consciousnesses can function and interact.

Within the silver oval of Cosmic Consciousness, we find a blue circle labeled Personal Self. This is the totality of our own personal, individual identity, including (A) the mind limited by the restrictions of the physical brain and nervous system, (B) the unconscious, and (C) any past-life identities that may be accessible. (These could have been depicted as part of the unconscious, but some children, at least, seem to have conscious recall of these past lives. Adults seem to require hypnotic regression or some other alteration of normal consciousness to access the memories.) Only three past-life identities have been indicated, but of course the actual number could be much greater.

The unconscious is drawn as intersecting with the mind/brain because the mind/brain draws on the unconscious for inspiration. The unconscious occupies the boundary between the Personal Self and the surrounding environment of Cosmic Consciousness, in as much as there seems to be some exchange of information between the two. Pyschic impressions, premonitions, Jungian archetypes, etc. seem to bubble up from our unconscious; presumably their source is Cosmic Consciousness itself, or other minds operating in the matrix of Cosmic Consciousness.

At the top of the Personal Self, also at the boundary of Cosmic Consciousness, there is the Higher Self, a.k.a. the "Being of Light" (D). People who undergo peak experiences of a mystical nature, including people who experience full-fledged NDEs, apparently encounter this Higher Self directly. Although they may call it God (and sometime visualize it in terms of a particular deity, like Jesus), the Higher Self they encounter seems to be an expanded version of their own consciousness. It is in touch with Cosmic Consciousness but (at least in my model) distinguishable from it. The Higher Self or Being of Light typically introduces the "life review" in NDEs and functions as a wise, compassionate, attentive witness to the review, often reinforcing the lessons that need to be learned.

Elsewhere inside the silver oval of Cosmic Consciousness, we have other Personal Selves (E). These are the Selves of other people or any other conscious beings. Presumably there are billions of these, but the drawing represents them with only three blue circles. They are, of course, no less important than the Personal Self represented in the center of the diagram, and are drawn much smaller only to simplify the diagram and save space.

If this model were rendered in 3D, perhaps the Personal Self and the past-life identities would be depicted as separate circles all connected  by lines, like those ball-and-stick models of molecules, to suggest that the so-called "past lives" actually exist simultaneously with the so-called present life in a timeless reality. As it is, the drawing represents a snapshot in time.

There's nothing really new here, but sometimes visualizing an idea can make it a little clearer and point up areas where it needs to be rethought.

Comments

[Ross W]

Very thought-provoking, Michael. I wonder if it might also be appropriate to use concentric circles?
Mind-Brain in the middle, then Unconscious with Past identities, then Higher Consciousness, then Cosmic Consciousness (in which other personal selves float).

[william]

Michael P: very interesting model. As a consultant I loved using circular models to try and explain the concepts I was teaching. Kaizen and the Toyota production system were very far-reaching paradigms shifts.

Can we have past life identities ( C )? Or are out past lives just some type of hidden memories full of karma, desires, attachments, and cravings that are influencing this life at an unconscious level. We are an accumulation (law of progression) of all of our past experiences from our physical and astral lives.

I.e. many people suffer from symptoms of a physical pain or illness and nothing can be found wrong with them. And then sometimes past life regression removes those symptoms. Oprah just had a person on her show that was suffering from fears in his dreams of flying and in his regression he relived being shot down in a plane and blamed himself because as a gunner he failed to shoot enemy planes down. Or not.

In his regression he kept stating as the plane was going down “I don’t want to die” which makes sense but then after he died in the plane crash he stated “don’t be afraid of death” which makes sense as NDE’s tell us these same things about death.

And from my point of view the area outside cosmic consciousness (white space) is infinite and this is the pure awareness or the nothingness/emptyness that the Buddhists talk about. As long as we are in a cosmic consciousness or any conscious state we have not yet become/merged/returned/or whatever with that that is, which is pure awareness.

Cosmic consciousness is a peak experience. Pure awareness (God) has no experiences but expresses itself by the creation of Beings that lack pure awareness. Someone in this cosmic conscious state observes himself or herself as part of this cosmic consciousness.

There must be subject/object to experience therefore all conscious states must have some level of unawareness i.e. ignorance. Pure awareness IS: therefore there can be no subject object state.

Of course we are always that that is; that is the paradox of life. From my point of view awareness is primary and consciousness is secondary.

Ok just fried my mind got to go and take a cool shower and rake and pick up pine needles in my yard.

[Kevin]

Interesting stuff, Michael. As a primarily visual artist (and a symbolist at that), I can especially appreciate the uses of imagery to stimulate abstract thought. I've even found myself usuing visuals in music, imagining abstracted structures of diffierent colors, shapes and textures when playing an existing piano piece or improvising.I also like the caveat of removing the standard "time trichotomy" of past/present/future from the larger scheme, as that seems too bound to physicality. In the larger picture, we could perhaps think of a time-bounded sequence of events and reactions as a kind of higher order algorithm which produces changes in the mind/soul, the learning experiences of living. Additionally, I enjoyed the visual metaphors of the tree and the bonfire as you respectively employed them. What can I say? I'm a visual guy.

[Michael H]

It’s all pretty amusing when I think about how I would have reacted to these sorts of speculations twenty years ago. What would the twenty-something Objectivist-influenced Michael Prescott have thought of these ideas, I wonder?

Cartography of this nature is interesting, but it always will fall short for the ‘objective reality’ crowd. Consciousness itself has no form for example. How are we supposed to visualize formlessness? Or conceive of timelessness, which, as MP notes, is a relatively common testimony in mystical experience? We’re in a worse position than a flatlander trying to interpret a fourth dimension, let alone a third.

Nevertheless, I think this does point to solutions to perplexing problems. Michael’s mention of inspiration (such as the genius of an Einstein or Mozart) originating in a realm beyond the human intellect, is a good example. The possibly related ‘savant syndrome’ would be much easier to explain with this model as well, relative to reductive models of consciousness. Anomalies such as spontaneous remission of serious illnesses might be explained as a consequence of a poorly understood connection with the greater consciousness. MP also mentioned past life memories, but genuine medium communications could be interpreted as an interaction between two ‘self-conscious’ aspects of the greater cosmic consciousness communicating between what are entirely different realms from the perspective of the two participants.

If there’s anything that I’d quibble with here, it’s in the assumption that the brain itself limits our awareness of the greater consciousness. It seems to me that the brain is involved in all aspects of human experience, but that we have conditioned ourselves to use our minds in a manner that emphasizes active rationality at the expense of receptive intuition. If this (or a similar) cartography outlined here is to become widely accepted, I think it will be as a result of a critical mass of humanity reversing that trend.