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Author
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Topic: Levels of Consciousness
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Blackout
Actor Singer Writer Director Visionary Philosopher Magickian Skydiver Digital Hippie and all around Creative Artist
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Reprinted from Steve Pavilla:
In the book Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins, there’s a hierarchy of levels of human consciousness. It’s an interesting paradigm. If you read the book, it’s also fairly easy to figure out where you fall on this hierarchy based on your current life situation.
From low to high, the levels of consciousness are: shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, pride, courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, enlightenment.
While we can pop in and out of different levels at various times, usually there’s a predominant “normal” state for us. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re at least at the level of courage because if you were at a lower level, you’d likely have no conscious interest in personal growth.
I’ll go over these levels in order, mostly focusing on the ones between courage and reason, since that’s the range where you’re most likely to land. The labels are Hawkins’. The descriptions of each level are based on Hawkins’ descriptions but blended with my own thoughts. Hawkins defines this as a logarithmic scale, so there are far fewer people at the higher levels than at the lower ones. An increase from one level to another will result in enormous change in your life.
Shame - Just a step above death. You’re probably contemplating suicide at this level. Either that or you’re a serial killer. Think of this as self-directed hatred.
Guilt - A step above shame, but you still may be having thoughts of suicide. You think of yourself as a sinner, unable to forgive yourself for past transgressions.
Apathy - Feeling hopeless or victimized. The state of learned helplessness. Many homeless people are stuck here.
Grief - A state of perpetual sadness and loss. You might drop down here after losing a loved one. Depression. Still higher than apathy, since you’re beginning to escape the numbness.
Fear - Seeing the world as dangerous and unsafe. Paranoia. Usually you’ll need help to rise above this level, or you’ll remain trapped for a long time, such as in an abusive relationship.
Desire - Not to be confused with setting and achieving goals, this is the level of addiction, craving, and lust — for money, approval, power, fame, etc. Consumerism. Materialism. This is the level of smoking and drinking and doing drugs.
Anger - the level of frustration, often from not having your desires met at the lower level. This level can spur you to action at higher levels, or it can keep you stuck in hatred. In an abusive relationship, you’ll often see an anger person coupled with a fear person.
Pride - The first level where you start to feel good, but it’s a false feeling. It’s dependent on external circumstances (money, prestige, etc), so it’s vulnerable. Pride can lead to nationalism, racism, and religious wars. Think Nazis. A state of irrational denial and defensiveness. Religious fundamentalism is also stuck at this level. You become so closely enmeshed in your beliefs that you see an attack on your beliefs as an attack on you.
Courage - The first level of true strength. I’ve made a previous post about this level: Courage is the Gateway. This is where you start to see life as challenging and exciting instead of overwhelming. You begin to have an inkling of interest in personal growth, although at this level you’ll probably call it something else like skill-building, career advancement, education, etc. You start to see your future as an improvement upon your past, rather than a continuation of the same.
Neutrality - This level is epitomized by the phrase, “live and let live.” It’s flexible, relaxed, and unattached. Whatever happens, you roll with the punches. You don’t have anything to prove. You feel safe and get along well with other people. A lot of self-employed people are at this level. A very comfortable place. The level of complacency and laziness. You’re taking care of your needs, but you don’t push yourself too hard.
Willingness - Now that you’re basically safe and comfortable, you start using your energy more effectively. Just getting by isn’t good enough anymore. You begin caring about doing a good job — perhaps even your best. You think about time management and productivity and getting organized, things that weren’t so important to you at the level of neutrality. Think of this level as the development of willpower and self-discipline. These people are the “troopers” of society; they get things done well and don’t complain much. If you’re in school, then you’re a really good student; you take your studies seriously and put in the time to do a good job. This is the point where your consciousness becomes more organized and disciplined.
Acceptance - Now a powerful shift happens, and you awaken to the possibilities of living proactively. At the level of willingness you’ve become competent, and now you want to put your abilities to good use. This is the level of setting and achieving goals. I don’t like the label “acceptance” that Hawkins uses here, but it basically means that you begin accepting responsibility for your role in the world. If something isn’t right about your life (your career, your health, your relationship), you define your desired outcome and change it. You start to see the big picture of your life more clearly. This level drives many people to switch careers, start a new business, or change their diets.
Reason - At this level you transcend the emotional aspects of the lower levels and begin to think clearly and rationally. Hawkins defines this as the level of medicine and science. The way I see it, when you reach this level, you become capable of using your reasoning abilities to their fullest extent. You now have the discipline and the proactivity to fully exploit your natural abilities. You’ve reached the point where you say, “Wow. I can do all this stuff, and I know I must put it to good use. So what’s the best use of my talents?” You take a look around the world and start making meaningful contributions. At the very high end, this is the level of Einstein and Freud. It’s probably obvious that most people never reach this level in their entire lives.
Love - I don’t like Hawkins’ label “love” here because this isn’t the emotion of love. It’s unconditional love, a permanent understanding of your connectedness with all that exists. Think compassion. At the level of reason, you live in service to your head. But that eventually becomes a dead end where you fall into the trap of over-intellectualizing. You see that you need a bigger context than just thinking for its own sake. At the level of love, you now place your head and all your other talents and abilities in service to your heart (not your emotions, but your greater sense of right and wrong — your conscience). I see this as the level of awakening to your true purpose. Your motives at this level are pure and uncorrupted by the desires of the ego. This is the level of lifetime service to humanity. Think Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. At this level you also begin to be guided by a force greater than yourself. It’s a feeling of letting go. Your intuition becomes extremely strong. Hawkins claims this level is reached only by 1 in 250 people during their entire lifetimes.
Joy - A state of pervasive, unshakable happiness. Eckhart Tolle describes this state in The Power of Now. The level of saints and advanced spiritual teachers. Just being around people at this level makes you feel incredible. At this level life is fully guided by synchronicity and intuition. There’s no more need to set goals and make detailed plans — the expansion of your consciousness allows you to operate at a much higher level. A near-death experience can temporarily bump you to this level.
Peace - Total transcendence. Hawkins claims this level is reached only by one person in 10 million.
Enlightenment - The highest level of human consciousness, where humanity blends with divinity. Extremely rare. The level of Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus. Even just thinking about people at this level can raise your consciousness.
I think you’ll find this model worthy of reflection. Not only people but also objects, events, and whole societies can be ranked at these levels. Within your own life, you’ll see that some parts of your life are at different levels than others, but you should be able to identify your current overall level. You might be at the level of neutrality overall but still be addicted to smoking (level of desire). The lower levels you find within yourself will serve as a drag that holds the rest of you back. But you’ll also find higher levels in your life. You may be at the level of acceptance and read a book at the level of reason and feel really inspired. Think about the strongest influences in your life right now. Which ones raise your consciousness? Which ones lower it?
One thing I like about these levels of consciousness is that I can trace back over my own life and see how I’ve been moving through them. I remember being stuck at the level of guilt for a long time – as a child I was indoctrinated into a belief system where I was a helpless sinner, being judged according to the standards of someone at the level of love or higher. From there I graduated to the state of apathy, feeling numb to the whole thing. By high school I had reached the level of pride — I was a straight-A student, captain of the Academic Decathlon team, showered with accolades and awards, but I became dependent on them. I hit the level of Courage in my late teens, but the courage was very unfocused, and I overdid it and got myself into all sorts of trouble. I then spent about a year in neutrality and moved through willingness and acceptance during my 20s with a lot of conscious effort. At present I’m at the level of reason and getting closer and closer to completing the leap to love. I experience the state of love more and more often, and it’s guiding many of my decisions already, but it hasn’t yet stuck as my natural state. I’ve also experienced the state of joy for days at a time, but never with any permanence yet. That state is a pervasive feeling of natural euphoria, as if I’m exploding on the inside with positive energy. It literally forces me to smile. I’ve been in that state for most of this morning, probably because I haven’t eaten anything yet today (I find it easier to hit that state of consciousness when I eat lightly or not at all).
We’ll naturally fluctuate between multiple states throughout the course of any given week, so you’ll probably see a range of 3-4 levels where you spend most of your time. One way to figure out your “natural” state is to think about how you perform under pressure. If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice because that’s what’s inside. What comes out of you when you get squeezed by external events? Do you become paranoid and shut down (fear)? Do you start yelling at people (anger)? Do you become defensive (pride)? What happens to me under pressure is that I become hyper-analytical, but recently I just had a pressure situation where I handled it mostly by intuition, which was a big change for me. This tells me I’m getting close to the unconditional love state because in that state, intuition can be effectively accessed even under pressure.
Everything in your environment will have an effect on your level of consciousness. TV. Movies. Books. Web sites. People. Places. Objects. Food. If you’re at the level of reason, watching TV news (which is predominantly at the levels of fear and desire) will temporarily lower your consciousness. If you’re at the level of guilt, TV news will actually raise it up.
Progressing from one level to the next requires an enormous amount of energy. I wrote about this previously when discussing quantum leaps. Without conscious effort or the help of others, you’ll likely just stay at your current level until some outside force comes into your life.
Notice the natural progression of levels, and consider what happens when you try to short-cut the process. If you try to reach the level of reason before mastering self-discipline (willingness) and goal-setting (acceptance), you’ll be too disorganized and unfocused to use your mind to its full extent. If you try to push yourself to the level of love before you’ve mastered reason, you’ll suffer from gullibility and may end up in a cult.
Going up even one level can be extremely hard; most people don’t do so in their entire lives. A change in just one level can radically alter everything in your life. This is why people below the level of courage aren’t likely to progress without external help. Courage is required to work on this consciously; it comes down to repeatedly betting your whole reality for the chance to become more conscious and aware. But whenever you reach that next level, you realize clearly that it was a good bet. For example, when you hit the level of courage, all your past fears and false pride seem silly to you now. When you reach the level of acceptance (setting and achieving goals), you look back on the level of willingness and see you were like a mouse running on a treadmill — you were a good runner, but you didn’t pick a direction.
I think the most important work we can do as human beings is to raise our individual level of consciousness. When we do this, we spread higher levels of consciousness to everyone around us. Imagine what an incredible world this would be if we could at least get everyone to the level of acceptance. According to Hawkins 85% of the people on earth live below the level of courage.
When you temporarily experience the higher levels, you can see where you must go next. You have one of those moments of clarity where you understand that things have to change. But when you sink into the lower levels, that memory becomes clouded.
We have to keep consciously taking ourselves back to the sources that can help us complete the next leap. Each step requires different solutions. I recall when making the shift from neutrality to willingness, I listened to time management tapes almost every day. I immersed myself in sources created by people at the level of willingness until I eventually shifted. But a book on time management will be of little use to someone who’s at the level of pride; they’ll reject the very notion with a lot of defensiveness. And time management is meaningless to someone at the level of peace. But you can’t hit the higher levels if you haven’t mastered the basics first. Jesus was a carpenter. Gandhi was a lawyer. Buddha was a prince. We all have to start somewhere.
Look at this hierarchy with an open mind and see if it leads you to new insights that may help you take the next leap in your own life. No levels are any more right or wrong than others. Try not to get your ego wrapped up in the idea of being at any particular level, unless you’re currently at the level of pride of course.
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You are not your job, your titles, your possessions, your degrees, your lovers, your relationships, your place of residence, your social security number, your ID, your bills, your worries, your bank account, your age or your body. You are the timeless being that created & perceives itself through those things, and you have the power to play or not play that game. When someone asks me "what do you do?" looking for some title to pin me down, I laugh and say "EVERYTHING!" - Blackout
Posts: 7650 | From: New York City | Registered: Jul 2000
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Lamont Cranston
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Dear Blackout, I recently stumbled across this website and felt like I might have found a kindred spirit...or maybe a bunch of them. Although I don't claim to be an expert on many things, I am enthusiastically interested in such areas of knowledge as history, religion, philosophy, the lives of Jesus and other spiritual icons, utopian communities, the nature of consciousness, nature, music and a lot of other things. I can't say that I remember ever being a seeker of enlightenment or much of anything else, but as I've lived my life, I've discovered certain things that work quite well for me, and other that I should best avoid. The most important thing that I've learned is that in order to live with myself (and make my wife happy), I must do what I can to put a bit more love into the world.
Back in my philosophy class at the University of California, I first heard Descartes' words "I think, therefore I am." It has always seemed to me that there's a natural corollary to that statement...what we think and how we think determines the kind of life we live. I'm fascinated by the study of consciousness...how we perceive the world we live in...why we remember the things that we do...what is so-called "higher consciousness" all about?
In regard to the levels of consciousness that are described in Blackout's entry, I find myself considering how much of our consciousness is about decisions we make, and how much is it situations and experiences that happen to us.
Thank you for creating this venue! Here's hoping that we'll hear from people who are interested in this subject.
Posts: 3 | From: Hawaii | Registered: May 2008
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Blackout
Actor Singer Writer Director Visionary Philosopher Magickian Skydiver Digital Hippie and all around Creative Artist
Member # 7
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Welcome and thanks for your post. You've caught me at what one would call one of the very 'dark time of the soul' periods. I see you are from Hawaii though. What do you do there? Are you from http://theresonanceproject.org (I am considering going there) or perhaps this is just a synchronicity that you're from Hawaii. I'm torn because I have been in a hellish living situation here in New York and have been severely depressed for months and unproductive/uncreative when New York's supposedly the place (other than LA) to make talent things happen but insanely expensive and I don't think I even exist on paper legally, if you check my credit score the computer catches fire and blackhawk secret agents get sent out to find me. This makes NY difficult.
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You are not your job, your titles, your possessions, your degrees, your lovers, your relationships, your place of residence, your social security number, your ID, your bills, your worries, your bank account, your age or your body. You are the timeless being that created & perceives itself through those things, and you have the power to play or not play that game. When someone asks me "what do you do?" looking for some title to pin me down, I laugh and say "EVERYTHING!" - Blackout
Posts: 7650 | From: New York City | Registered: Jul 2000
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HighFidelity
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what are you doing to get recognized in new york? maybe you should take a bus into the city, it shouldnt cost much. go down to times square near broadway dressed was whatever character you choose and do some street performing. you could make tips from tourists and maybe someone would recognize you. people love triumph the dino pup. bring him down there. just do something to clear your mind and work towards the goal, the whole reason you are in NY.
Posts: 340 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Mar 2005
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Lamont Cranston
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Dear Blackout, Thanks for responding! I had never heard of The Resonance Project, but it sounds as if they're into some very interesting things. They are on the Big Island, and I live on the North Shore of Oahu about 5 minutes from Sunset Beach. Thanks for turning me on to them.
Awhile back, I'm not even sure when it began, I felt like I was coming into the most creative time of my life, and it pretty much has happened. That being said, I find that creativity is one of those things that's sometimes hot and sometimes not. As a writer, I love it when things just kind of flow out of me, and even I'm suprised at what I've written. When I'm in a creative lull, or whatever you want to call it, I try not to force the issue. For me, it works better to put my attention on other things, like volunteering for a local charity that feeds people or gardening or anything else that enhances my life and the world.
Also, I think that creativity is not about living in New York, LA or some other geographic location; it's about what's going on in our heads. If I'm feeling depressed, everything seems so much more difficult! If you should decide to come to Hawaii, let me know. I can help you find a good, reasonable place to stay and some good people to hang with. Aloha!
Posts: 3 | From: Hawaii | Registered: May 2008
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bunny_foofoo
Keeper of the great CORN
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yeah, and pink sweatered dogs too
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I rather go hunting with Dick Cheney, then go for a drive with Ted Kennedy.
Posts: 1085 | From: South FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Lamont Cranston
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Blackout, I was thinking about your post, and I realized that I had been pretty depressed too. Maybe it's catching! In the last few years, I've been involved in kind of a re-examination of who I am, what I believe, all that kind of stuff. I think it's part of my spiritual journey.
Anyway, I realized that I often get out of depression by being angry about something. I've spent quite a bit of time coming to grips with my anger, and I try not to do anything too stupid when I'm in that state. So, here comes along this depression that hits me hard. I know that, for me, being depressed and alone or angry at somebody are not the only options. What I keep coming back to is that other options, like putting love into the world, being grateful, doing good works, are also available.
That's about all I've got for now. This is most definitely a work in progress. Aloha
Posts: 3 | From: Hawaii | Registered: May 2008
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BAD MUTHA FUCKA
Blackout's Box Master
Member # 425
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holy fuck. that was long. i'm not even going to read that shit until you can express like a man in a sentence or two.
Posts: 956 | From: ... | Registered: May 2003
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HighFidelity
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quote:
Originally posted by BAD MUTHA FUCKA:
holy fuck. that was long. i'm not even going to read that shit until you can express like a man in a sentence or two.
wouldn't want to do that now, you might learn something and that would be bad.
Posts: 340 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Mar 2005
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bunny_foofoo
Keeper of the great CORN
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very bad
pink sweatered dog bad
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I rather go hunting with Dick Cheney, then go for a drive with Ted Kennedy.
Posts: 1085 | From: South FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Yvette38
Blackout's Box Genius
Member # 4879
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It is all here, I've just been to lazy or busy to go back and look for it. Thanks again.
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Sometimes you've got to specifically go out of your way to get into trouble. It's called fun. (Robin Williams).
Posts: 312 | From: Neverland | Registered: Apr 2009
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Blackout
Actor Singer Writer Director Visionary Philosopher Magickian Skydiver Digital Hippie and all around Creative Artist
Member # 7
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As always, you are very welcome, and as Bartles & James used to say - thank you for your support.
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You are not your job, your titles, your possessions, your degrees, your lovers, your relationships, your place of residence, your social security number, your ID, your bills, your worries, your bank account, your age or your body. You are the timeless being that created & perceives itself through those things, and you have the power to play or not play that game. When someone asks me "what do you do?" looking for some title to pin me down, I laugh and say "EVERYTHING!" - Blackout
Posts: 7650 | From: New York City | Registered: Jul 2000
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Yvette38
Blackout's Box Genius
Member # 4879
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posted
I think I love taking the shortcuts. I want to "see,feel" what the next level looks like before I decide to move forward/upward. There seems to be so many fun things at each level that I am afraid I will miss something if I leave it behind. I want to take all of the fun/good stuff to the next level with me. I know materialism is ego based; however if you have the means to spread joy through giving, how do you stop from craving MORE when the feeling of helping is a mutual (not just selfish) endeavor. Ultimately I realize that "stuff" even food, does not elevate the soul to higher levels. The act of kindness however, does. Do you really (leave) a level? Or just blend them all together into a masterpiece ?
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Sometimes you've got to specifically go out of your way to get into trouble. It's called fun. (Robin Williams).
Posts: 312 | From: Neverland | Registered: Apr 2009
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Blackout
Actor Singer Writer Director Visionary Philosopher Magickian Skydiver Digital Hippie and all around Creative Artist
Member # 7
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posted
Blend. In actuality - there ARE no levels, but we create them for fun.
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You are not your job, your titles, your possessions, your degrees, your lovers, your relationships, your place of residence, your social security number, your ID, your bills, your worries, your bank account, your age or your body. You are the timeless being that created & perceives itself through those things, and you have the power to play or not play that game. When someone asks me "what do you do?" looking for some title to pin me down, I laugh and say "EVERYTHING!" - Blackout
Posts: 7650 | From: New York City | Registered: Jul 2000
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