During this period that we have labeled as belonging to the dreamers, certain subjective actions take place as the “structure’ of earthly tuned consciousness formed the phenomena of “the self.”
What was needed is a highly focused, precisely tuned physical self that could operate efficiently in a space and time scheme that is being formed along with physical creatures — a self, however, that in one way or another must be supported by realms of information and knowledge of a kind that was basically independent of time and space. A knowledge indispensable, and yet a knowledge that could not be allowed to distract the physical focus.
In one way or another, that inner information had to connect each consciousness on the face of the planet. Earthly creatures must be able to react in a moment, yet the inner mechanisms that made such reactions possible were based upon calculations that could not be consciously kept in mind. In our time scheme, for example, we could never move as quickly as we do if we had to consciously work all the muscles involved in motion — or in speech, or in any such bodily performance. We certainly could not communicate on such a physical level if we first had to be aware of all of speech’s mechanisms, working them consciously before a word was uttered. Yet we had to have that kind of knowledge, and we had to have it in a way that did not intrude upon our conscious thoughts.
Basically there are no real divisions to the self, but for the sake of explanation we must speak of them in those terms. First of all we had the inner self, the creative dreaming self — composed, of units of consciousness, awareized energy that forms our identity, and that formed the identities of the earliest earth inhabitants. These inner selves formed their own dream bodies about them, as previously explained, but the dream bodies did not have to have physical reactions. They were free of gravity and space, and of time.
As the body became physical, however, the inner self formed the body consciousness so that the physical body became more aware of itself, of the environment, and of its relationship within the environment. Before this could happen, though, the body consciousness was taught to become aware of its own inner environment. The body was lovingly formed from electromagnetic energy units through all the stages to atoms, cells, organs, and so forth. The body’s pattern came from the inner self, as all of the units of consciousness involved in this venture together formed this fabric of environment and creatures, each suited to the other.
So far in our discussion, then, we have an inner self, dwelling primarily in a mental or psychic dimension, dreaming itself into physical form, and finally forming a body consciousness. To that body consciousness the inner self gives “its own body of physical knowledge,” the vast reservoir of physical achievement that it has triumphantly produced. The body consciousness is not “unconscious,” but for working purposes in our terms, the body possesses its own system of consciousness that to some extent, now, it separated from what we think of as our own normal consciousness. The body’s consciousness is hardly to be considered less than our own, or as inferior to that of our inner self, since it represents knowledge from the inner self, and is a part of the inner self’s own consciousness — the part delegated to the body.
Each cell, then operates so well in time because it is, in those terms, precognitive. It is aware of the position, health, vitality, of other cells of the face of the planet. It is aware of the position of each grain of sand on the shores of each ocean, and in those terms it forms a portion of the earth’s consciousness.
At that level environment, creatures, and the elements of the natural world are all united — a point we will return to quite often. Our intellect as we think of it operates so clearly and precisely, so logically, sometimes so arrogantly, because the intellect rides that great thrust of codified, “ancient,” “unconscious” power — the power of instant knowing that is a characteristic of the body consciousness.
Thus far in our discussion, we still have only an inner self and a body consciousness. As the body consciousness developed itself, perfected its organization, the inner self and the body consciousness together performed a kind of psychological double-entendre.
The best analogy I can think of is that up to that time the self was like a psychological rubber band, snapping inward and outward with great force and vitality, but without any kind of rigid-enough psychological framework to maintain a physical stance. The inner self still related to dream reality, while the body’s orientation and the body consciousness attained, as was intended, a great sense of physical adventure, curiosity, speculation, wonder — and so once again the inner self put a portion of its consciousness in a different parcel, so to speak. As once it had formed the body consciousness, now it formed a physically attuned consciousness, a self whose desires and intents would be oriented in a way that, alone, the inner self could not be.
The inner self was too aware of its own multidimensionality, so in our terms it gave psychological birth to itself through the body in space and time. It knew itself as a physical creature. That portion of the self is the portion we recognize as our usual conscious self, alive within the scheme of seasons, aware within the designs of time, caught transfixed in moments of brilliant awareness, with civilizations that seem to come and go. That is the self that is alert in the dear preciseness of the moments, whose physical senses are bound to light and darkness, sound and touch. that is the self that lives the life of the body.
It is the self that looks outward. It is the self that we call egotistically aware. The inner self became what I refer to as the inner ego. It looks into that inner reality, that psychic dimension of awareness from which both our own consciousness and our body consciousness emerged.
We are one self, then, but for operating purposes we will say that we have three parts: the inner self or inner ego, the body consciousness, and the consciousness that we know.
These portions, however, are intimately connected. They are like three different systems of consciousness operating together to form the whole. The divisions — the seeming divisions — are not stationary, but change constantly.
To one extent or another, these three systems of consciousness operate in one way or another in all of the species, and in all particles, in the physical universe. In our terms, this means that the proportions of the three systems might vary, but they are always in operation, whether we are speaking of a man or a woman, a rock or a fly, a star or an atom. The inner self represent our prime identity, the self we really are.
“Earth is a nice place, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” a twist on an old quote, I believe — but the fact is we are physical creatures because we do not like to live on earth, we do like the conditions, we do enjoy overall the particular kind of challenge and the particular kind of perception, knowledge and understanding that the earthly environment provides.
That environment, in our terms, certainly includes suffering. If joy has always been one of the characteristics of earth experience, so has suffering, and the subject will be covered in future blogs. Here, however, I only want to mention one facet, and that is the importance of physical sensation, of whatever kind — for the life of the body provides us, among all things, with a life of sensation, of feeling, a spectrum that must include the experience of all possible sensations within its overall range.
Now as we will see, all creatures, regardless of their degree, can and do choose, within their spheres of reality, those sensations that they will experience — but to one extent or another all sensations are felt. We will later discuss the part of the mind and its interpretation, for example, of painful stimuli, but I want to make the point that those attracted to physical life are first and foremost tasters of sensation. Outside of that, basically, there are all kinds of mental distinctions made among stimuli. The body is made to react. It is made to feel life and vitality by reacting to an environment that is not itself, by encountering what we might call natural stress. The body maintains its equilibrium by reacting against gravity, by coming in contact with other bodies, by changing its own sensations, by glorifying in the balance between balance and off-balance.
The body consciousness is therefore given a superb sense of its own reality, a sureness of identity, a sense of innate safety and security, that allows it to not only function but to grow in the physical world. It is endowed with a sense of boldness, daring, a sense of natural power. It is perfectly formed to fit into its environment — and the environment is perfectly formed to have such creatures.
The entities, or units of consciousness — those ancient fragments that burst into objectivity from the vast and infinite psychological realms of All That Is — dared all, for they joyfully abandoned themselves in space and time. They created new psychological entities, opened up an area of divine creativity that “until then” had been closed, and therefore to that degree extended the experience and immense existence of All That Is. For in so abandoning themselves they were not of course abandoned, since they contained within themselves their inherent relationship with All that Is. In those terms All That Is became physical also, aroused at its divine depth by the thrusting of each grass blade through the soil into the air, aroused by each birth and by each moment of each creature’s existence.
All That Is, therefore, is immersed within our world, present in each hypothetical point, and forms the very fabric from which each portion of matter is created.