What is Spiritual Consciousness?
Have you ever wished someone would put together a simple explanation of consciousness? What is consciousness? What are the different levels of consciousness and how do they interrelate?
How about a simple explanation of how one traverses through different levels of consciousness, or a step-by-step approach to travel from lower consciousness states to higher consciousness states.
For centuries scholars have tried to present a universally accepted model to represent consciousness. What is it? How does if function? Is it in the mind? Is it outside the mind? Is it the mind?
Despite these ongoing efforts there remains no single unifying explanation of consciousness. Rather, it appears that each culture, science, religion, or faith has decided to define and teach consciousness as it relates solely to their own belief system.
Buddhists define Buddhist-related consciousness. Hindus define Hindu-related consciousness. Christians define Christian-related consciousness. And each thinks their definitions are correct.
There does, however, seems to be at least one consensus regarding consciousness and that is whatever consciousness is, it is inextricably interconnected to the mind.
Consciousness Defined
Simply defined, consciousness is the state of awareness by human beings that creates the ability to interpret internal as well as external stimuli. This interpretation can be in the form of the physical, the psychological and/or the spiritual.
According to the Oxford dictionary- consciousness is “the state of being awake and aware of one’s surroundings”. Synonyms for consciousness include self-actualization, awareness, wakefulness, mindfulness, realization, recognition, sensitivity, cognizant and perception.
Multiple scholarly disciplines, psychologist, philosophers, scientist, theologians, and the like, have offered different explanations to describe or clarify consciousness.
Ancient civilizations, such as the Mayans and the Incans proposed existential concepts of consciousness centuries before modern science.
The Stages or Levels of Consciousness
One of the more popular ways to describe of consciousness is by explaining consciousness in terms of stages, or levels.
These stages or levels usually offer some form of bidirectional travel or movement from one stage or level, to another stage or level, to achieve different states of consciousness, particularly higher consciousness.
Some of these proposed descriptions are simple while others are more complex.
There have been a series of unsuccessful attempts to validate either one or more of these theoretical interpretations of consciousness as being comprehensive enough to represent a universal concept.
Moreover, some have even tried to merge different perspectives into new theories by integrating specific aspects of one theory with other aspects from another theory to create an improved definition.
But to-date there has yet to be one unifying definition or concept accepted as all-encompassing.
What is Spiritual Consciousness?
Over the three decades of my life, I have become particularly drawn to the term spiritual consciousness. I deemed both these words, spiritual and consciousness, to represent a concept of higher than, or outside of the norm, larger than just the physical or the body.
My interpretation of spiritual consciousness meant that man had the ability to transcend above and beyond his or her physical limitations and achieve a level of higher consciousness thought or expression that related more to the spiritual man than the physical man.
During my journey to spiritual enlightenment and higher consciousness, I sought to better understand the differences and the similarities between the specific theories regarding consciousness. Why the Aztec civilization saw consciousness one way and the Incas another way?
I sought to comprehend the explanations of how one could travel, or traverse, the different levels of consciousness as described by the different theories.
I became somewhat disheartened with the inability to interrelate many of the theories I studied. Some theories had 3 levels of consciousness, others 4 levels, some had 7 levels, and some as many as 13 levels of consciousness.
This desire to better understand the different theories surrounding levels of consciousness finally solidified as I began to apply a greater degree of focus on not just consciousness teaching (under the constructs of mind, body, and soul alone), but also the concepts of spiritual consciousness as it related to the spiritual teachings of Christian theology and the Word of God.
Specifically, I began to better understand how the Word of God and the gospel according to Christ Jesus, consistently relayed the message that a focus on higher consciousness was required to achieve spiritual awakening.
How so?
Christianity Explains
Jesus taught us that we were not of this Earth, we are not from this Earth, nor are we in this Earth. Instead, He taught that we are of God, we are from God, and we are in God. And when our earthly existence has ended, we will return to God.
There exists within the Christian religion a standard teaching regarding the difference between the mind, the body, and the soul, in terms of spirituality. That teaching simply states that “we live in a body, we have a soul, but we are a spiritual being.”
This and other explanations of mind, body, and soul, never really fulfilled me but rather left me hungering for a more in depth understanding of these relationships.
Moreover, how did man as a spiritual being relate to consciousness? How specifically does man’s mind, body and soul relate to God and God consciousness? And, once again, what is consciousness?
As I pondered the mind, body, and soul concept, I began to see how the spirit of man related to the inerrant word of God.
I began to better understand that the gospel teachings of Christ Jesus, particularly through the books of Paul.
The understanding of these teachings offered me insight and passage, or grace, through Christ Jesus to understand that if I desired spiritual enlightenment then I would have to live in the Spirit.
A Shift in Consciousness- Spiritual Consciousness
In the order to achieve spiritual enlightenment, through the grace of God and from the salvation of Christ Jesus, I would have to be reborn.
I would have to denounce my physical being and embrace my spiritual being.
Then and only then could I receive the internal dwelling of Christ Jesus and the dwelling of the Holy Spirit living within me and I within them.
The concept of spiritual consciousness believes that we are all vibrational energies of consciousness.
We have our being in the same existence of the Source of all spiritual energy that is God.
We exist within that spiritual energy originating from Source and from that energy we manifest the existence of our physical body.
That physical body is made up of pure energy that can exists in different dimensions or in different realms, including the spiritual realm.
I had always perceived the words “spiritual” and “consciousness” as representing multi-dimensional realms, rather than simply levels.
Therefore, the term realm, became the best way to define the concept of spiritual wellness over any other defined spatial construct.
The realms of spiritual consciousness are based on the concept that when we focus our spiritual energy (focused prayer) and attention (scriptural meditation) on the transcendental reality of our spiritual being-ness, we conspire with God to bring ourselves closer to the I AM.
And thus The 7 Realms of Spiritual Wellness was born.