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Very slowly, what unfolds is the realization that there’s only consciousness. You can’t even say consciousness and its contents because the contents of consciousness are actually patterns of behavior of consciousness itself. Therefore, the universe exists in consciousness as a perceptual experience. The body exists in consciousness as a perceptual experience, and the mind exists in consciousness as a mental experience. There’s only consciousness. If you were religious, you would say there is only God.
An Interview with Deepak Chopra, https://www.eomega.org/article/there-is-only-consciousness
I have been watching a ton of science programs as of late, particularly videos on YouTube for the World Science Festival. Life is absolutely amazing and science continues to astound me in terms of what they are researching and discovering. There appears to be a hidden door that needs to be opened before the next plateau of science can evolve. I believe that this new door is understanding consciousness which was even mentioned by some scientists. One such scientist is noted below.
I recall becoming intrigued with science while as long as I can remember. I would look up at the sky at night and wonder what infinity was and how it could go on forever. Science was a part of my “spiritual quest” as well where I sought to understand the meaning of life and how I fit in. It began with an OMNI magazine issue from August of 1991 with the title, The Search for God. It seemed that science was aligned with many of the spiritual principles I was learning. Reading about quantum physics was supporting what I was learning in my spiritual circles.
Great scientific minds such as Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, and so many more, stretched and challenge our understanding of things.
Stephen Hawking proposed “The Theory of Everything” referred to as:
The theory of everything is a proposed notion in the scientific community which states that there is one all-encompassing theory that proposes a framework of understanding of all of physics, combining the quantum mechanics and classical physics into a unified approach which explains the laws of the universe (click here for reference).
During this same time I was learning more about a profound concept known as “Consciousness”. From a spiritual perspective, it was helping me to connect the dots with what I was understanding about life itself. And then I listened to Michio Kaku. Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of string field theory, and is one of the most widely recognized scientists in the world today (segment from his bio – see link from quote below for reference). String theory was mind-blowing in itself, but then he shared the following…
In about 100 years, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku believes we’ll explore the universe as pure consciousness — traveling at the speed of light, looking at asteroids, comets, meteors, and eventually the stars. “All of this within the laws of physics,” he says.
https://bigthink.com/videos/michio-kaku-2639431116
This topic was explored in a recent article from Scientific American, “Does Consciousness Pervade the Universe?” by Gareth Cook on January 14, 2020. As he states:
One of science’s most challenging problems is a question that can be stated easily: Where does consciousness come from? In his new book Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, philosopher Philip Goff considers a radical perspective: What if consciousness is not something special that the brain does but is instead a quality inherent to all matter? It is a theory known as “panpsychism,” and Goff guides readers through the history of the idea, answers common objections (such as “That’s just crazy!”) and explains why he believes panpsychism represents the best path forward. When I studied philosophy, we were taught that there were only two approaches to consciousness: either you think consciousness can be explained in conventional scientific terms, or you think consciousness is something magical and mysterious that science will never understand. I came to think that both of these views were pretty hopeless. I think we can have hope that we will one day have a science of consciousness, but we need to rethink what science is. Panpsychism offers us a way of doing this.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-consciousness-pervade-the-universe/
And then I discovered an eBook titled, The Science of Consciousness.
By the Editors
How do neurons create feelings of sadness? Or the sense of a unique self? On the other hand, could conscious thought be an illusion? The nature of conscious experience is one of the most essential, enduring mysteries, and in this eBook we explore the diverse and sometimes contentious approaches to defining consciousness, research into its physical footprints, advances in measuring conscious awareness and emerging technologies bringing artificial intelligence systems closer to adapting and learning like a human brain. Reference
Humanity is indeed evolving. It is difficult to see this in the middle of a pandemic and amongst so much pain, suffering, anger, ego. Unfortunately we have been conditioned to see the negative and bad. Just watch the evening news and calculate the percentage of the news devoted to negative vs. positive. However, once you train yourself to look for the good, which is an act of consciousness, you see the miracles of life all around you.
A major ah-ha moment occurred. No it was not drug induced although my head was spinning. Everything in this moment made sense. Here are some of the thoughts I had.
What Is God?
I had long dismissed the religious interpretation of God many years ago. There was no figure in heaven with a beard that was judging me. Instead I discovered an all loving presence. I accepted that there was meaning to life and with this, that there is something larger than me, that is responsible for life and so much more. I referred to this initially as the “Universe” or “Higher Power”. Now I use the word “Consciousness”. It was enough for me to know that there was meaning to life, which became what I would describe as my faith and core belief. Attempting to intellectualize what this specifically meant, amongst a million of different speculations, was fun to listen to and consider, but in the end was only speculation. We are each on an adventure here, called life!
I focused on deepening my understanding of consciousness. My initial post in this series provided my attempt at understanding consciousness. The conclusions I have made thus far include that we are all connected and a part of the “universal consciousness”. This is a source of the energy for what makes our heart tick and allows plants to grow from a tiny seed, as well as source of all knowledge, that becomes a source of inspiration and ideas during our quiet moments. In effect, everything is consciousness! The feeling of those that develop higher levels of consciousness is that they are a momentarily a part of a much greater source of being and knowledge. Understanding this however meant that one had to first learn how to connect with their consciousness.
That’s it! God is the summation of all consciousness! As we grow in our consciousness, so does the universe and everything that makes up the universe. Our unique learnings, experiences and growth all help the entire universe or body of consciousness to grow. Multiply this times 7.6 billion humans (although we would need to also include plants and animals which may be difficult to grasp), and you can imagine how the body of knowledge grows in each moment. And from this, as we see in the case of Earth, how our civilizations have progressed and continue to progress. Despite all the setbacks and obstacles, we continue to evolve, often using these challenges as a launching pad for growth.
What is the Purpose of Life Here On Earth?
This has been a question I have been pondering since my early thirties which prompted me to take a sabbatical from my corporate life, exchanging a career for a backpack, and venture on a global quest to understand the meaning of life. I volunteered in some of the most challenging areas of the world. I thought I knew pain and suffering as a result of my traumatic childhood, but I was clearly not the only one. Pain and suffering is everywhere here and something most all of us experience multiple times in our life. My ah-ha moments from the many situations I experienced on this journey helped me to conclude that pain and suffering is a part of the human existence and has a real purpose.
We tend not to grow while everything is great in our lives, but when we are pushed into pain and suffering, this can become a major stimulus for growth. Hence the saying, No Pain…No Gain. It was clear that I was here in this life to obtain my doctorate degree in growth, since pain and suffering was a major part of my life. But it made sense now. I learned to use these experiences to grow, initially to heal my past, then to discover my true potential, and now to pursue enlightenment. This is what I had understood the Buddhist philosophy to be, that life is difficult and we can learn to grow beyond this pain and suffering.
Our goal is to learn to put aside our ego which serves only to create pain and suffering for ourselves and others, so that we can learn to connect to this consciousness. Imagine all ego put on the sidelines while we all live to grow and prosper all of humanity and by doing this, prosper the universe as well.
The purpose of life here on Earth as we know it is to grow, and with our growth so does God! We each make a difference with every step forward we take.
What then is my work, or growth, to achieve this?
Simple, to grow our consciousness. This is the motivation behind this series on Consciousness. To begin by learning how to operate more consciously by realizing that our lives are largely a result of our auto-pilot that is made up of our issues, beliefs, distractions, which can be best characterized as our ego. Our ego is the antithesis of consciousness, leading us to believe that we are singular and separate, better or worse than others, and prone to the distractions of fame, greed, power, control, and more. We are stuck with earthly realizations and beliefs that make up much of our physical life, until we choose to search beyond these principles to discover a greater existence, consciousness!
The one item that I am not sure how it connects with consciousness is love. This I also believe is a universal truth and is a key part of our work and growth. It also requires that we shed our ego which serves to create bias, prejudice and discrimination, along with placing greater importance on ME vs. WE.
If one operates from consciousness and with love, there is no hurting anyone or anything else, only a desire to help others grow since we understand that with their growth, we all grow and benefit!
Why were we not born with consciousness?
I believe we were. Just watch a newborn grow until we disrupt this with our own beliefs and actions which taints the innocence and wonderment of a child. Imagine if we could tap back into these traits, always asking “Why?” and excited to learn. Combine this with our connection to consciousness and away we go. We are in constant creation and progression, learning from everyone.
What would happen to life here on Earth as more of us become more connected to Consciousness?
Listen to John Lennon’s song, “Imagine” for the answer to this question. Imagine global peace where we work collaboratively to solve global and local issues as they arise (e.g. hunger, poverty, prejudice, health, inequality). This requires that we become conscious of our own actions and understand our intentions. The more we do this, the less prone we are to want to hurt anyone else, since we know that this is wrong, and instead an outcome that is driven by our own issues of fear, anger, bias, etc. There is less emphasis on competition, and instead collaboration. There is more interest in being selfless vs. selfish.
Consciousness and Love are the two ingredients needed to turn the song “Imagine” into Reality! (Note: once again I would presume that Love is a part of consciousness, but I just have not yet made the link)
Okay, Now What?
Begin with the lesson in Part 2 of this series. Then further your own understanding and application of consciousness so that you can teach me and others (-:
About Me
Michael is an award winning author, speaker, facilitator and coach on the topics of Personal Growth, Self-Discovery and Enlightenment. Visit my website for more information (growhumanpotential.com).
