Steve Beckow: Awareness and Consciousness

[Angel~a]

Written by Steve Beckow, the Golden Age of Gaia,http://goldenageofgaia.com/2014/03/awareness-and-consciousness/

A word is a symbol upon which we humans freely and arbitrarily bestow meaning.

The meaning of a word is not necessarily inherent in the word itself. Its meaning may be established by its usage.

If a community of usage arises around that meaning, then it may become established within its bounds. If no community arises, then the meaning of the word may not catch on and join other discarded meanings.

There are also contexts in which the meaning of a word may change.  A word’s meaning can change over time or vary from subgroup to subgroup. Fads and fashions may arise that change the meaning of a word.

I’d like to use the words “awareness” and “consciousness” in special ways. Until now the two words have been more or less synonymous.

But I’d like to reserve awareness for that form of knowledge that comes to us through an observer focusing attention. And I’d like to reserve “consciousness” for knowledge that comes to us from an internal sensing, intuiting, inspiration, or similar unfocussed or diffusely-focused attention.

I make this distinction for the conceptual fertility it may lead to, what used to be called its “heuristic” value (a word that has more or less lost its community of usage).  If no value arises from the distinction, then it’ll simply fade away over time and be forgotten.

It could be said that awareness involves an active process of bringing one’s attention to whatever can be made an object, whether internal or external, whereas consciousness is a passive process of relaxing focused attention and receiving information from sources known or unknown.

I observe myself (I am aware) of my using both processes in my writing. I observe, notice and make note of whatever I focus my attention on. I observe patterns in its structure or process.  I observe the changes in it over time. I observe patterns in its relationship, connection to or separation from other things.

At the same time, I open myself to and receive information from (am conscious of) thoughts that arise, feelings, hunches, urges, desires, etc. I may open myself to a flow of thought. I may receive thoughts one at a time and develop each thought before receiving the next.

As an actor or as an observer, I may switch from process to process – awareness to consciousness – depending on which seems to promise to take me the next few yards.

If I wish to raise my awareness, I may increase the number, range or magnification of things I focus my attention on. If I wish to raise my consciousness of things, I may relax myself, open myself more fully to subtle events or diffuse my attention.

If I’m engaged in work with others or work of an important nature, I may seek to raise my level of awareness of things or events around me or within me.  If I’m engaged in raising my vibration or opening to the love and joy that we increasingly feel these days, I may wish to raise my level of consciousness.

I think this distinction may help us in the times ahead to choose how we wish to relate to projects associated with building Nova Earth vs. how we wish to relate to the expansion in our state of being associated with the tsunami of love and, later, Ascension.  The more distinctions we make that make a difference, the clearer the road ahead becomes.