Monday, August 1, 2011

level of conciousness

There’s a hierarchy of levels of human consciousness. It’s also fairly easy to figure out where we fall on this hierarchy based on our current life situation. From low to high, the levels of consciousness are: shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, pride, courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, enlightenment. While we can pop in and out of different levels at various times depending on various life situation and mood but usually there’s a predominant “normal” state for us. It’s like our blood pressure. It varies but there is predominate normal state which identifies us as high bp or low bp or normal bp.
Conciousness can be divided into 7 major levels where every one around you and you yourself notice clear change in how you perceive reality and how you react to it.

Level-1: shame, guilt, apathy, grief

Shame – Just a step above death. probably contemplating suicide at this level. or a serial killer. Think of this as self-directed hatred.

Guilt – A step above shame, but still may be having thoughts of suicide. one think of himself as a sinner, unable to forgive for past transgressions.

Apathy – Feeling hopeless or victimized. The state of learned helplessness. Many homeless people are stuck here.

Grief – A state of perpetual sadness and loss. one might drop down here after losing a loved one. Still higher than apathy, since one is beginning to escape the numbness.



Level-2: fear, desire and anger

Fear – Seeing the world as dangerous and unsafe. Usually one needs help to rise above this level, or will remain trapped for a long time, such as in an abusive relationship.

Desire – Not to be confused with setting and achieving goals, this is the level of addiction, craving, and lust — for money, approval, power, fame, etc. consumerism. Materialism. This is the level of smoking and drinking and doing drugs.

Anger – the level of frustration, often from not having one’s desires met at the lower level. This level can spur one to action at higher levels, or it can keep stuck in hatred. In an abusive relationship, one will often see an anger person coupled with a fear person.

Level-3: pride

Pride – The first level where one start to feel good, but it’s a false feeling. It’s dependent on external circumstances (money, prestige, etc), so it’s vulnerable. Pride can lead to nationalism, racism, and religious wars. Religious fundamentalism is also stuck at this level. one become so closely enmeshed in one’s beliefs that one see an attack on beliefs as an attack on himself.

Level-4: courage, neutrality

Courage – The first level of true strength. Courage is the gate way. This is where one start to see life as challenging and exciting. one begin to have an interest in personal growth, although at this level we call it something else like skill-building, career advancement, education, etc. one start to see future as an improvement upon past, rather than a continuation of the same.

Neutrality – This level characteristics can be understood by the phrase, “live and let live.” It’s flexible, relaxed, and unattached. Whatever happens, one don’t have anything to prove. feel safe and get along well with other people.

Level-5: willngness, acceptance, reason

Willingness – Now that you’re basically safe and comfortable, one start using energy more effectively. Just getting by isn’t good enough anymore. one begin caring about doing a good job — starting thinking about time management and productivity and getting organized, things that weren’t so important at the level of neutrality. Think of this level as the development of willpower and self-discipline. These people are the “troopers” of society; they get things done well and don’t complain much. If in school, then a really good student; who take studies seriously and put in the time to do a good job. This is the point where our consciousness becomes more organized and disciplined.

Acceptance – Now a powerful shift happens, and one awaken to the possibilities of living proactively. At the level of willingness one become competent, and now one want to put abilities to good use. This is the level of setting and achieving goals. It it basically means that begin accepting responsibility for role in the world. If something isn’t right about one define desired outcome and change it. start to see the big picture of life more clearly. This level drives many people to switch careers, start a new business.

Reason – At this level one transcend the emotional aspects of the lower levels and begin to think clearly and rationally. when one reach this level, they become capable of using reasoning abilities to their fullest extent. they now have the discipline and proactively fully exploit natural abilities. They reached the point where they say, “Wow. I can do all this stuff, and I know I must put it to good use. So what’s the best use of my talents?” take a look around the world and start making meaningful contributions. At the very high end, this is the level of Einstein and Freud.

Level-6: love, joy

Love and joy –It’s unconditional love, a permanent understanding of connectedness with all that exists. Think compassion. At the level of reason, one now place head and all other talents and abilities in service to greater sense of right and wrong , motives at this level are pure and uncorrupted . This is the level of lifetime service to humanity. Think Gandhi, Mother Teresa. At this level you also begin to be guided by a force greater than self. It’s a feeling of letting go. intuition becomes extremely strong

Level-7: joy and enlightenment

Peace & Enlightenment –The level of saints and advanced spiritual teachers. Just being around people at this level makes you feel incredible. At this level life is fully guided by synchronicity and intuition. There’s no more need to set goals and make detailed plans — the expansion of your consciousness allows you to operate at a much higher level. A state of pervasive, unshakable happiness . The highest level of human consciousness, where humanity blends with divinity. Extremely rare. The level of Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus. Even just thinking about people at this level can raise your consciousness.

I think you’ll find this model worthy of reflection. Not only people but also objects, events, and whole societies can be ranked at these levels. Within your own life, you can experience different levels at some parts of your life, but you should be able to identify your current overall level. You might be at the level of neutrality overall but still be addicted to smoking (level of desire). The lower levels you find within yourself will serve as a drag that holds the rest of you back. But you’ll also find higher levels in your life. You may be at the level of acceptance and read a book at the level of reason and feel really inspired.

Think about the strongest influences in your life right now. Which ones raise your consciousness? Which ones lower it?.. We’ll naturally fluctuate between multiple states throughout the course of any given week, so you’ll probably see a range of 3-4 levels where you spend most of your time. One way to figure out your “natural” state is to think about how you perform under pressure. If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice because that’s what’s inside. What comes out of you when you get squeezed by external events? Do you become paranoid and shut down (fear)? Do you start yelling at people (anger)? Do you become defensive (pride)?

Everything in your environment will have an effect on your level of consciousness. TV. Movies. Books. Web sites. People. Places. Objects. Food. If you’re at the level of reason, watching TV news (which is predominantly at the levels of fear and desire) will temporarily lower your consciousness. If you’re at the level of guilt, TV news will actually raise it up.

Progressing from one level to the next requires an enormous amount of energy. Without conscious effort or the help of others, you’ll likely just stay at your current level until some outside force comes into your life. Going up even one level can be extremely hard; most people don’t do so in their entire lives. A change in just one level can radically alter everything in life. This is why people below the level of courage aren’t likely to progress without external help.

Courage is required to work on this consciously; it comes down to repeatedly betting your whole reality for the chance to become more conscious and aware. But whenever you reach that next level, you realize clearly that it was a good bet. For example, when you hit the level of courage, all your past fears and false pride seem silly to you now. When you reach the level of acceptance (setting and achieving goals), you look back on the level of willingness and see you were like a mouse running on a treadmill — you were a good runner, but you didn’t pick a direction.

Up to the level -4 external environment influence most, external condition can make you sink easily into the lower levels and memory becomes clouded. As an rough estimate 85% of the people on earth live below the level of courage. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re at least at the level 4 because if you were at a lower level, you’d likely have no conscious interest in personal growth.

I think the most important work we can do as human beings is to raise our individual level of consciousness. When we do this, we spread higher levels of consciousness to everyone around us. Imagine what an incredible world this would be if we could at least get everyone to the level of acceptance.

Jesus was a carpenter. Gandhi was a lawyer. Buddha was a prince and were at different level of lower consciousness at beginning. We all have to start somewhere. Look at this hierarchy with an open mind and see if it leads you to new insights that may help you take the next leap in your own life. No levels are any more right or wrong than others. Try not to get your ego wrapped up in the idea of being at any particular level, unless you’re currently at the level of pride of course.

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