Rational Mysticism?
At the conclusion of the post Three Principles, I wrote that there was nothing mystical about a mystic. I'm serious. If we're all living on a vertical scale of conscious experience, it's a perfectly rational position to state that those who arrive at the higher levels experience aspects of reality of which those on lower levels are currently unaware. Those on higher levels experience deeper feelings, and realize more insights. Those individuals that reach the very highest levels universally report exceptional insights, which are also extremely consistent across cultures. Those at lower levels can't grasp the higher perspectives until they reach those levels themselves. The Buddhist analogy of blind men describing an elephant is as apt as any. The blind man at the leg perceives a post, the blind man at the ear comprehends a winnowing basket, the man at the tuft of the tail describes a broom, etc. The man with sight watching them sees the elephant.
The thing is, a strict rationalist - Don Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and their ilk - would demand that for a theory of levels of consciousness to be considered rational, it would require a methodology to objectively measure levels of consciousness. Of course, since levels of consciousness are in the realm of the experiential, and thus entirely subjective, it's impossible to develop an objective methodology to measure them. So the pure rationalist dismisses a theory advocating varying levels of consciousness as unworthy of further study, and remains unaware that it is recognition of their own level of consciousness, not objective reality, that is capable of providing the proof they require. The proof, though, can only be realized by the individual, it can't be demonstrated objectively to someone else.
It occurs to me that among of the more significant realizations I had early on, long before my peak experience occurred, had to do with recognizing my own moods. George Pransky may have discussed it in one of the sessions I participated in in La Conner, but he definitely had a recording that explored moods. You may recall that I described myself as moody at the time, “up and down, mostly medium”. Recognizing my moods as my direct experience of my own levels of consciousness had the effect of weakening their power, and led to arriving at a higher level that I hadn't arrived at before. In my case, the effect was to continue to elevate to what culminated (so far) at an exceptional level.
We all live in moods, all the time. When we're in a good mood we're happy. We like our home, we like our friends, our partner and our kids, we like our job, we like our car. When we're in a lower mood, our house needs work, our partner and our kids are a pain in the ass, our job sucks, and our car is a figurative cavern we throw money into. We call them moods, but these are levels of consciousness. None of the assorted people and objects populating our reality are changing drastically moment to moment, the only thing that's changing is how we're looking at it. It's all based on our thoughts about things, whether we/re aware of the specific thoughts or not. We're usually not, we're just aware of the feelings, and when we feel low, things look bad, when we feel better, things look better, when we feel good, things look good.
I'm not talking about how we react or respond to significant changes that can occur at any time. I'm talking about how we see things moment to moment without any major changes.
We'll all respond or react to events differently, and events can effect our level of consciousness momentarily. A kid can get thrown in jail. A partner can have an affair. A job can be lost. A home can burn down, a car can break down.
Lacking any understanding of levels of consciousness can have a profound affect on us when things go sideways though. All of these events will become part of our memory, and as we tend to evaluate these things as life lessons, they become part of our personal mind, of our belief systems. If we don't understand levels of consciousness and the power of thought in the moment, all hell breaks loose.
We'll ruminate on a partner's affair, often long beyond the initial discovery of the affair. We'll fail to see that we're focusing on the thought of a past event once it has passed, and we'll fail to see that our partner's actions were a consequence of their own reaction to their own thoughts, and were ultimately informed by their own level of consciousness. It was their failure to see that the satisfaction the affair seemed to promise was illusory, because the satisfaction they were hoping to achieve could only be realized by arriving at a higher level of consciousness, and engaging in an affair not only provided just temporary relief, but the thoughts of guilt that arose as a consequence actually lowered their level of consciousness, which in turn can lead to other poor decisions, in turn creating other regrets, spiraling on down until the real source of the dissatisfaction is realized, which may take a lifetime. Or a million lifetimes.
If we don't understand levels of consciousness, our “life lesson” that becomes part of our belief system may very well be that it's unwise to trust anyone, and if we continue on with the partnership, or seek a new partner, we're likely to then view our reality through a filter of mistrust that we aren't even aware we have created. It just looks like we can't trust others, it's real to us. “Look what happens when I do!”, we say.
Once we understand levels of consciousness, the downward spiral can not only be stopped, it can be reversed. We learn not to make decisions from lower levels, and if we're in a relationship with someone who betrays us, we don't see them as evil, we see them as innocent, as falling victim to their own reality, created by their own thoughts. We may have to move on ultimately, but if we do, it's not with bitterness, and we may find that whatever feelings we entertain about our former partner end up being based on compassion arising from recognition of a lack of understanding of reality, not that they are evil incarnate.
From there, we can find other levels as we carry on with life. Some may be higher, some lower, but all we're ever experiencing is our own level. At some point, a few of us may arrive at extraordinary levels, at which point we'll find ourselves writing posts explaining that the mystics are the truly rational ones.