Higher states of consciousness

If the normal human condition, customary experience, is in two realms, sleeping and waking, then higher states correspond with reality which is finer and more subtle. The following of prescribed methods of a religious discipline, for example, may bring states characterized by enhanced faculties of attention, thought, feeling and sensation. Perception, awareness and experience all conform more fully and adequately to various levels of reality and truth as they exist in the universe.

These states cannot be considered the same as changes in mood or as other phenomena brought about through normal thought or feeling, nor can they be produced through refining of rational thought or the intense emotions, all these things serve only the egoistic aspect of human nature unless accompanied by spiritual development. Superior states reflect the arising of exceptional attention and awareness and generate new powers of the self. There are new feelings, sensitivities and cognitions, the development of "wisdom of the heart" with unmediated contacts with reality allowing comprehension and experience of life's meaning, value and purpose.

The journey from lower to higher states of consciousness is depicted in many philosophical and religious traditions. Plato refers to shackled prisoners in a cave, with limited vision of shadows on the wall and hearing only echoes, being freed to turn, to ascend, to hear and see true reality. The journey is arduous and confusing. Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi and Christian teachers all indicate stages on this journey, and in modern times psychologists have also looked at these levels.

William James refers to mystical states that are inaccessible to the rational mind but nonetheless impart exceptional meaning and understanding. Rational consciousness is only one part of what can be experienced, it is surrounded by entirely different potential forms. These different forms have four salient qualities: (1) There is a noetic or cognitive aspect, wisdom, a power of heightened intellectual discernment and relational understanding. Positioning, valuation and function are apprehended and apparently disparate facts properly ranked and organized. (2) The ineffability of the experience means that it cannot adequately be described in words. (3) The experience tends to be transient, and marked by an awareness of being in the present moment. (4) There is feeling of passivity, one's own will seems suspended and one is open to a superior or higher force. On is not one's self, another power, person or force seems to be operating through one.