The levels of consciousness is a roadmap for people who are on the spiritual path and want to know where this journey of awakening consciousness is leading them. I am sharing from my own experience and use descriptions that are familiar to me. There are many different road maps out there, all describing the same thing, just different words are being used. The stages are a process that unfold over time in very different ways for each person. Some people experience rapid profound shifts, while for others, it is a more gradual process. All the Levels of Consciousness are experienced on the awareness level and need to be integrated into the everyday life experience so that they can be fully embodied, fully lived.
A very important part of awakening consciousness, which is a deconstructive process of oneself, is healing the human system. The clearer our understanding is of who we really are and the more aware we get, the more we see the falsehood in our human system. The human system is an energy structure, that we are building up through our whole life. Everything we learn, we experience, we belief, we are identified with. By awakening consciousness, the identification with all that falls away. What we need to do is, heal and clear the structure that was built over the lifetime. There will be a separate blog post about healing the human system.
Exploring the Different Levels of Consciousness
The following blog post contains information about the various stages of the spiritual journey:
1. Self Realization
2. God Consciousness
3. Unity Consciousness
4. Brahman
5. ParaBrahman
First, let’s talk about why people are starting to become interested in awakening consciousness. One major stop on this journey could be termed “dejection". The initial realization that material possessions, achievements, and worldly distractions are unable to render lasting happiness results in this state of dejection in some, desire for higher truth in others. People begin to question the meaning of life and their deep-rooted dissatisfaction. They start to look for something more, something that has more meaning and makes more sense than an ordinary human life. In this phase, people often start to become interested in Spirituality. They start reading about it, listening to audio books and start meditating or try some other spiritual practice. They may start going to retreats, or join a meditation group etc. They start to understand, that there is a whole new world out there, that they can explore, and they didn’t know about before.
1. Self Realization: The Observer Within
This stage manifests as the awareness of a separate observer or ‘watcher’ within oneself. The individual realizes, that is not the body, its thoughts, or emotions. It is the awareness behind them. Life is experienced like watching through a camera lens. The resulting freedom from attachment to thoughts and emotions generates a sense of liberation and spaciousness.
2. God Consciousness: Seeing the Divine in Everything
In God Consciousness, the individual experiences a heightened sense of awareness where everything appears more vibrant, radiant, and beautiful. It mostly unfolds in openings of God Consciousness for a period of minutes, hours, and sometimes days. It is called God Consciousness because it seems, that God is seen in everything. What happens is that consciousness is seen in everything that exists by the individual. Consciousness is reflected back at the individual who is watching. Everything seems so beautiful, divine, richer in color, vibrant like infused with gold. It feels like wow, how can everything I saw before look so incredibly beautiful now and why haven’t I seen this before?
3. Unity Consciousness: Dissolving the Boundaries
Unity Consciousness is experienced as profound change in how the individual experiences itself. Before, it was separate from everything and everyone. With the Unity shift, the boundaries of the separation dissolve. The individual is now one with everything. This is the experience of Oneness. The small self dissolves, which is also known as the ego death. It can feel like a death but what happens is that the ego is not any longer the center of experience and steps into the background. The individual starts to experience itself as the Self, as all that is. Over time, when this shift integrates into all aspects of the being, the Self gets fully realized, which is also known as full Self-Realization. The outer world experience fully changes into an inner world experience. There are no external experiences anymore, everything is just experienced internally.
4. Brahman: Stepping Beyond Creation
Brahman Consciousness is another very profound change in experience. The experience of the individual and of the Self falls away. While Self-Realization is experienced in creation, Brahman is the experience of stepping out of creation and experiencing life from there. The human structure completely dissolved. There is no sense of an individual or a human. There is just nothingness, a ghost like feeling. There is only the body with all its functions but there is nothing else there. There is no experience of emotions or feelings and there is no bliss. There is no experience of love, joy but also no experience of fear or anger. Life is experienced as if you are in a deep meditative state all the time. The recognition is there, that nothing really exists, it is all just a reflection of one's own consciousness. It’s as if everything we see is a reflection a 3D movie screen, and behind this movie screen is nothing. Everything is only experienced in the present moment, and all time collapses instantaneously. Everyone is experienced as the same, there is no one higher or lower, there are no differences between anyone or anything. On a consciousness level, Brahman is the last stage that can be experienced, it is also known as full liberation.
5. ParaBrahman: Returning to Creation
After spending some time in the Brahman, the individual can decide to “come back” into creation. The experience of the Brahman stays the same, but the experience of aliveness comes back. Everything has totally changed compared to the experience in creation before the Brahman shift. There is a full detachment from the world, while living in this world. There are no human desires, there is no human love, just unconditional Divine love. The body is just an experiential unit. It can experience emotions again, but they are just passing through an empty system and are experienced for a very short period, until they leave the system again. The system can’t hold on to anything, it can only experience in that moment until it collapses. Everything is perfect as it is, nothing needs to be changed. Whit this stage, Divine forces are taken back from beyond creatin into creation. The human system becomes a dynamic channel for these Divine forces that can help others to awaken higher levels of consciousness.
Endless Possibilities Podcast Episode #15: Eva and Gareth are talking about the Levels of Consciousness: from Witnessing Consciousness to Unity Consciousness