In actuality, there are no walls, and nowhere to walk to. There is only a field of vibrating energy, of which you are a part. This is not to say that trees and cats and rocks and walls don't exist, for they certainly exist. They are all patterns of energy. You have merely learned to distinguish them in a rather unwieldy and meaningless way. You have separated them from yourself, and separated them from each other. So, we are left with these inadequate descriptions of everything, and a dim intellectual sense, thanks in large part to modern physics, that our perceptions about the solidity of matter may be incorrect.
There is a survival advantage to this separation of forms and apparent solidity of matter. It affords you the opportunity to avoid things that might be unpleasant or harmful. That is why you were taught these perceptions in the first place. This protection is necessary, however, only as long as you perceive this separation and potential harmfulness. You may eventually learn that all of your perceptions and ideas about what you see around you are totally meaningless, and then the truth will begin to unfold before you. For in reality, there is only energy. And there is nothing truly harmful in the entire Universe. This sea of energy is entirely you. When you discover your true oneness with it, you can feel only bliss, and something even beyond bliss. Becoming one with this energy is the goal of all eastern religion, and many contemporary western practitioners. The truth however, is that you are already at one with the Universe, because there is no other way to be. You have merely made the simple error of believing that you are separate.
THINKING AND ACCURATE PERCEPTION
The way to remedy this is to understand a fundamental difference between two modes of operating your consciousness: thinking vs. accurate perception. We humans always seem to place accurate perception in second place to thinking. In fact, most people would rather read about the exciting adventures of explorers and foreign places, rather than actually experience them. Watching television and movies has replaced most of life's adventures for many of us. The average person does not in any way regularly attempt to accurately perceive the world. The problem is that most of us accept the notion that the world is simply there. There is no need to “attempt to accurately perceive” anything, since perception is an automatic function of being. In reality, this could not be further from the truth. What we call perception is nothing more than a series of patterns of judgment and modeling based on our long term relationships with the outside world from the conditioned reality of our past experiences.
True perception is utterly impossible in this scenario. When we see a rock, we are not seeing a rock at all; we are seeing a set of models that we call “rockiness” which we established for ourselves long ago. In truth, a rock is a beautiful and mysterious energy phenomenon that we know almost nothing about.
The way to eliminate our limiting models, and perceive the world with accuracy is very simple. We must simply stop thinking, and start being. But this is easier said than done. Our conscious minds are thinking addicts. But our conscious minds are not the totality of our awareness.
CHAPTER TWO
A Brief Theory of
Consciousness and Perception
“Altered states of consciousness are the key to magical powers.”
-Peter J. Carroll [1]
It is your own consciousness that is the key to unlocking your cosmic abilities, and by understanding your consciousness in new and novel ways, your magical capacities will quickly blossom. This is the beginning of our practical work.
The first thing that I really want to make clear is that all paranormal and/or magical experiences are subjective experiences in consciousness. Worrying about the objective validity of any experience is going to take you out of your experience, and this kind of validity is usually impossible to determine anyway. It is best to simply experiment, and judge any experience, if you must judge at all, only far in the future when you can look at it from a distance. Apparent failures can often produce very interesting results. I once conducted an astral projection experiment in which I asked a friend to place an object on the floor of a certain room of his house. I was then going to go there and try to identify the object. As I began the experiment, I quickly fell asleep. I woke up several hours later feeling a bit disgusted with myself, but I decided to try again. I couldn't quite get into the right state for a “full separation,” so I used a technique that I'll describe later called the “body of light.” I was basically just pretending to go, and when I entered the agreed upon room, I saw what seemed to be a “roundish” shape. But I couldn't really tell if I was making it up, so I returned to bodily consciousness, and wrote in my journal that it was a cylindrical object, perhaps either a hat or a drum. I went back to sleep feeling I'd failed. The next day when he called me, he told me that the object he'd placed in the room was a cooking pot. I immediately knew that was exactly what I'd seen. While “coincidence” could be argued, he could have placed a painting or a statue or a camera or any number of objects that aren’t round or cylindrical. I’ve had too many similar experiences to disregard this kind of synchronicity. So, don't be too quick to judge yourself. On the other hand, I've had very successful seeming astral journeys in which I've seen things that definitely were not there in the physical world.
THE FOUR-PART MODEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The easiest way to break up the elements of consciousness within us is with a four-part model. These parts can be called the subconscious mind, the conscious mind, the super-conscious mind and finally the universal mind of “the All,” which is beyond the other three, more a potentiality than a practical part of our awareness or work. This fourth part of your consciousness is the consciousness of the universe itself, and is not really something you really need to concern yourself with in this work. The Superconscious mind will interact with this ultimate part of your consciousness if need be, but you needn't worry about it. We will primarily focus on the first three components of consciousness in this book. Each of these parts of the mind represents deeper and deeper layers of energy, connecting us more and more fully with the totality of the energy world that surrounds us. This fits in very neatly with the four-part division of the world that I outlined in 21st Century Mage.[1] You can see this model outlined in Diagram One.
Now if we further break each of these four parts into two pieces, we then have Timothy Leary's eight-circuit model of consciousness that I have described in both of my previous two books. This is depicted in Diagram Two.
This eightfold division fits very conveniently with our topic and is worthy of further study, but is beyond the scope of our present subject. You must also remember that these are all just models, and even if they are useful, do not necessarily represent reality. Still, you will hopefully find the following descriptions useful.
The Conscious Mind
This part of our awareness is often called the intellect, the waking mind, the ego, in Qabala it is called the Ruach, and in the popular Huna system it is called the Uhane. This is obviously the part of our consciousness with which we are most familiar, since it is traditionally the part we call, “I.” However it is really only the tip of a very large iceberg of awareness that lies mostly under the threshold of our conscious mind's awareness. As I described above this is the part of
our consciousness that describes things, classifies them and helps us negotiate through the everyday world. It is this part of our consciousness that solves problems and makes decisions. But it is very dependent upon the subconscious to do so, because the conscious mind is really just the set of patterns and models we have been taught by the people around us, while the subconscious really runs most of the show.
The conscious mind is really just a point of awareness. Life's conditioning has artificially put all of the ideas that your conscious mind has about how great or how terrible you are, or how great or terrible the things in your life are. The subconscious mind holds onto all these ideas for you, but it is willing to discard any of them as soon as you are willing to. As soon as you start altering you
r state of consciousness, letting the subconscious take the reigns, most of your preconceived thoughts simply just don't get accessed anymore. The subconscious doesn't have the same ideas about the importance of your place in the world, how much money you make, or how attractive your sex partner is. It has its own ideas, which are quite possibly much closer to the real you, although the subconscious is also conditioned by outside forces.
The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious has been called many things, the soul, the anima, the Nephesh in the Qabala (although elements of the ruach constitute what we are considering the subconscious), the Unihipili in the Huna system, the lower self, the animal soul, the abdominal brain, the younger self, the unconscious, and of course the subconscious. These are all really names for one and the same thing. This is the aspect of your consciousness that is just below your awareness, running the physiological processes, storing and accessing your memories, and controlling your emotional energy. It is only through the subconscious that we can access connection to the next part of consciousness, the Super-conscious.
The subconscious is intimately connected to the superconscious in a way that the conscious mind is not. The reasons for this are not clear, but it is a simple fact that we can most effectively contact our superconscious through the subconscious. There are a number of theoretical models that offer explanations for this, Qabala, Vedanta, Theosophy and even Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. But we are going to concern ourselves primarily with the practical rather than the theoretical in this book. In order to experience higher consciousness, we must relax, slow down, and move within. When we do this, we are accessing the subconscious. Many of the techniques in this book will direct you to do just that. The subconscious tends to be very playful, almost childlike at times, but it is incredibly powerful and should be treated with the utmost respect. So take that attitude throughout your work, playful and respectful.
When doing any of the exercises in this book, it is really the subconscious that we are working with; the conscious mind is just going along for the ride. The subconscious mind is our energy mind, it is the feelings in our bodies, the emotions and the electrical impulses that travel through us. The subconscious mind has many abilities that the conscious mind does not, but it is neither all-powerful, nor all good. It can cause just as much trouble for you as your conscious mind. If you've ever had a bad habit such as drinking too much, smoking cigarettes, or eating too much, it is your subconscious that is actively keeping these bad habits up. The nice thing about the subconscious is that it generally listens, unless you've treated it very badly, so it is relatively easy to change habits if you firmly instruct your subconscious to do so, and you have a decent relationship with it.
The Superconscious Mind
However, it is really your superconscious mind that is in many ways the closest to what we might call “the real you.” It's funny to say this, because most of us don't even notice that we have a superconscious mind, so how can it be the real us? Well, it is this part of your consciousness that is directly connected with the universe as a whole, and directs the course of your individual life. This aspect of your awareness has been called the Higher Self, the God-Mind, the Holy Guardian Angel, The Neschamah, and/or Chiah in the Qabala, the Aumakua in Huna, the Great One, the Genius, the Augoeides, the Daimon, the Wise Self, the Spirit, the Inner Sage and many other things. It is your cosmic mind, your personal connection with infinity. We depend upon this aspect of our consciousness for inspiration, true creativity, and transcendence. All real power to transform our lives comes from the superconscious. Your superconscious is connected with the subconscious below, and everything else above.
- o -
These three aspects of consciousness can almost be considered three or more separate beings that all share your life. They can conveniently be viewed as occupying three distinct areas of your body. These are just metaphors, and do not necessarily represent physiological facts, but I have continually found them to be extremely useful for practical purposes.
The conscious mind can be seen to occupy your head, the subconscious mind the torso, belly and sexual region, and the superconscious the crown of your head and just above. The reasons for this are simple. Our conscious mind seems to center its operations in the brain. Our thinking processes seem to issue from the brain, and our sense organs for dealing with the outside world are primarily located in the head. So, it is convenient to think of our conscious self as occupying the brain. This is not really true, because our conscious minds have full access to every part of our bodies, but it is a convenient central location to place this aspect of consciousness.
Our subconscious minds on the other hand seem to issue forth from the middle of our torso, somewhere around the navel or the solar plexus. This is in large part because there are several large bundles of nerves in this region, and it is from this area that our physiological functions run. We also tend to feel many of our emotions in the area of the torso, fear, longing, desire, joy and many others. These feelings move and play over our whole torso like a musical instrument, and feelings are run completely by our subconscious mind. Our conscious minds can think of something, and feelings will result, but it is because of the interaction of the conscious with the subconscious. It must be remembered that the subconscious also has access to all parts of our body. Just think how often once we really know how to do something, such as driving a car or washing dishes, it suddenly seems effortless. We barely feel like we are doing anything. This is because the subconscious mind has taken up the task, moving our bodies through the intricate set of procedures effortlessly. The subconscious is truly a great friend and assistant to the conscious mind.
The superconscious mind is traditionally placed just above the head. This is largely a psychological phenomenon based on the idea that inspiration rains down on us from the heavens above. In Yoga, super-consciousness issues from the Sahasrara, the thousand-petaled lotus chakra at the crown of our head. In the Qabala, the superconscious is in Kether, which again means crown. In actuality the superconscious mind is just as intimately connected to each part of our body as the others. It is only a convenient place to locate it, for the reasons above, as well as a few other physiological reasons that we will get to later. At any rate, it is usually imagined to be occupying a field of light just above the head, with that light issuing down upon us and into us. This is a convenient way of imagining the superconscious, like a halo of divine light above us, and many exercises in this book will have you do just that.
Exercise 3 - Points of awareness
Time Required: 10 to 15 minutes
The following exercise will get you into touch with the areas of your body associated with the three personal parts of your consciousness
1. Stand with feet shoulder width apart.
2. Imagine that a string is pulling the top of your head toward the ceiling, making your spine stretch and align itself. Tuck your pelvis; let your shoulders fall down and back, relaxed.
3. Focus all your attention into your head, put all your consciousness into your head. Now walk around your house, keeping all your awareness in your head. See how this makes you feel. How does this affect your sense of self, sense of awareness and overall well-being?
4. Now focus all your attention into your stomach. Again, walk around your house, keeping all your awareness in your stomach. Lead with your belly. See how this makes you feel. How does this affect your sense of self, sense of awareness and overall well-being?
5. This time, imagine a globe of white light directly above your head, shining down on you. Focus all your attention up into this light. Walk around your house, keeping all your awareness on and in the light. See how this makes you feel. How does this affect your sense of self, sense of awareness and overall well-being?
6. When you are finished, write down your observations in your journal.
Exercise 4 - Imagination, Breathing and Feeling
Time Required: 5 to 10 minutes
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p; There are three main ways in which the subconscious directly links to the conscious mind. These are through your imagination, through your breathing, and through your feelings. The conscious and the subconscious minds can both access these things fairly easily, and it is through them that the two minds communicate in both directions. Keep this in your awareness. It is of great practical importance.
1. Find a comfortable place where you can relax for ten minutes or more without interruption.
2. Close your eyes, and imagine a leaf with your conscious mind. Notice the detail or lack thereof. Now, ask your subconscious to produce an imaginary leaf. This may only appear briefly, but it will appear if you ask.
3. Notice the differences between the leaf that you created with your conscious mind and the one that your subconscious mind created. Which seemed more “real?” For most people, the subconscious produces a much more realistic image, although it might only appear for a moment.
The Book of Magick Power Page 4