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SHARED FIELDS
OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Your deepest roots are in nature.
No matter
what you are, where you live,
or what kind of life you lead,
you remain irrevocably linked
with the rest of creation.
Charles Cook
The river that flows in me also flows in you
Kabir
To understand what a shared field
of consciousness means, it is best to read chapters I. to V.
Most important to read beforehand is about the dark inner space.
It is also important to mention a paradox in the text to come. I
always use the word consciousness, but I could also, to some
extent, have written the whole chapter without mentioning the
phrase consciousness! In fact, the concept of consciousness here
has a similar function as a
square
root of a negative number.
However, what will be stated here is impossible to prove with
mathematics. It is an attempt to organize in meaning the
experiences I have had as a lifelong meditator. It is not me
trying to make up something in the ivory tower of a thinking
mind. I am trying to make something up in my thinking mind
rooted in actual experience. I am not the only one who has these
experiences, and hence there might be kindred souls out there
who will read this text in a state of resonance.
All references to quantum physics and mathematics are solely
meant as metaphors and not science. Let me, in this context,
quote Einstein:
Imagination is more important
than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and
understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all
there ever will be to know and understand.
Here we go!
Embark on a journey into the realm
of imagination as we explore the nature of consciousness.
The Thousand Petalled Lotus in the Human Brain
At its core, an individual human being shines in a shared
field of consciousness created by the confederation of billions
of cells in the body and brain. The cell-cooperative of a human
individual facilitates a contracted presence of consciousness.
The brain-body acts like a focal lens for the primordial
omnipresent pan-consciousness, where consciousness can fold into
itself in such a way that consciousness becomes self-aware and
shine in something the Eastern spiritual traditions have called
the Thousand Petalled Lotus. Consciousness folded into itself
most probably also
happens in higher primates and it might even occour in advanced
AI systems.
The merge of human consciousness and the omnipresent
pan-consciousness
The more complex and capable of
feedback a system is, the more consciousness it can extract from
the omnipresent primordial pan-consciousness that seems to
accompany all
wavefunctions that have collapsed in matter.
In this context, human consciousness acts as an observer in a
universe that is already observed by an incredibly powerful
entity, capable of maintaining a state of primordial
pan-consciousness. This pan-consciousness is subtle and
pervasive but lacks self-awareness. In contrast, human
consciousness is potent but localized, with the potential for
exponential self-awareness through feedback loops.
The human brain-body system, with its intricate complexity and
exceptional feedback capabilities, can harness and concentrate
primordial consciousness into a light much more intense than the
faint illumination of divine omnipresence.
In this sense, god is unconscious
consciousness, and man is his possibility to wake up.
This fundamental aspect of
divinity is mostly overlooked by atheists. However, Occam's razor
suggests the simplest explanation for the phenomenon of
humanity's obsession with various gods throughout history.
Instead of the atheistic viewpoint, consider the idea that the
concept of god is an imaginative and delicate mirror in which
humans project their highest potential for self-awareness. In
this perspective, god is an accelerating force of consciousness,
created entirely by humans.
As a child, I believed in Santa
Claus. Today, I consider myself a child of conscious consciousness, and so
are you! Meister Eckhart asserts that what holds true for Jesus
Christ also applies to every good and noble person. Only a noble
person can peer through the mirror of mirrors. However, such a
statement was considered heretical, leading to his
'cancellation' by the Inquisition. Thank god that
consciousness today not (yet) is a trigger word.
Collective Fields of humanized consciousness
Humans are capable of facilitating even greater pools of
consciousnesses when they bond in collectivity. From friendships
to families, clans, tribes, and nations, the cloud of
concentrated consciousness grows in circles of expanding
empathy.
The concept of the shared field of consciousness is
similar to Harari's concept of intersubjective reality,
but it is not identical. While Harari's intersubjective reality
is based on storytelling, the shared field of consciousness also
arises from various non-cognitive and non-verbal social
connections.
Clouds of greater consciousness happen in empathy and vice
versa. When two consciousnesses merge, the feeling of I am
you arises. This, I am you feeling, makes us
re-spons-able for the well-being of beings living inside our
expanded circle of awareness. We are genetically wired for this
to happen, and our cloud interface is still basically the same
as the one we had on the East African savannah. Our brains are
still tuned for the Stone Age life, designed to survive as
individuals, families, friends, and tribes. Beyond that, there
was no mercy before language arrived. As Harari has pointed out,
man is a storytelling animal. Through language, we were slowly
able to bond in larger fields than the tribal ones.
Creating an intersubjective reality within a group primarily
occurs on two levels.
Near-sense based collectivity
One level of this "reality glue" comes from pre-linguistic,
physical closeness among bodies living together in close
proximity. This tribal interface leads to synchronization, even
on micro-levels, as group members sleep, love, sing, walk, hunt,
work, and eat together. They smell, touch, and share the same
space, and in this closeness, they consciously and unconsciously
mimic each other's body movements, hairstyles, clothing, etc.
They even share the same microbiomes on the skin's surface and
in the intestines, making them live in a shared field of both
odor and consciousness. This close-sensed synchronization
process generates a powerful resonance within a smaller group.
Storytelling and Inter-subjective Realities in Groups
Larger fields of consciousness happen when we go beyond our
intimate circles of loved ones into our smaller,
near-sense-based circles. These greater fields are primarily
mobilized through shared storytelling. We narrate our collective
reality. We tell ourselves stories that unite us, and the shared
story optimizes our survival chance from a football match to a
nation.
The most potent fields combine these two intersubjective
components of the glue. They also use the spiritual power of
symbols and rituals and the military might of syncing soldiers
in physical exercises such as a march.
Newspapers, radios, television, and the internet, allowed these
fields to grow even more significantly. However, a peculiar
thing happened with the arrival of social media. It marked the
return of smaller tribal junk-DNA-wired rabbit holes of
consciousness to reappear. The smartphone creates a subjective
illusionary feeling of near-sensed intimacy that makes people
bond like stone age people in tribal communities on the net.
There are cuntless examples of this phenomenon, like teenagers
becoming nazis by ending up in a wired community sharing
pictures and information with nazi propaganda. In this way,
social media is fragmenting the globalized tendency towards a
gaia-consciousness by offering a digital illusion of tribalized
smaller rabbit holes of consciousness.
The re-tribalization of our
time
From my vantage point
in the lifelong cultivated ivory tower of consciousness, what
footprints do I observe, and in which direction are they headed?
I see consciousness collapsing into dark pools of rage,
polarization, and cancellation. As seen from this perspective,
the grand finale of our civilization takes the shape of a
widespread collapse in the intensity and quality of
consciousness's visible signatures of nobility, openness,
tolerance, and love. Without these correlates, people descend
into tribalized web pools of polarized and tribalized opinions.
In the same process, they cling to shallow outward-based
identities refusing to look deeper into the same soul we all are
expressions of. However, this is not the rabbit hole I want to
jump into now. Let us say goodbye to division by once more
returning to Meister Eckhart:
All creatures
contain one reflection: one, that is the denial of its being the
other; the highest of the angels denies he is the lowest.
God is
the denial of denials.
Quantitative and qualititative fields of consciousness
Group consciousness can be categorized into two different
types:
One type of field grows in intensity and quantity.
The other type grows in quality.
A qualitative field is a field that expands in
meta-consciousness. It gets aware of being aware that it is
aware, and so on.
The quantitative field expands in tandem with diminishing
self-awareness. Like Spotify's algorithms for pop music, it
seeks the lowest denominator.
The quantitative field can be observed from football games to
soldiers marching in sieg heil mode. The quantitative field
feeds in and by alienation. It lives only in dimensions ruled by
duality. It needs an opposite field where it, in a zero-sum
game, can steal the energy from the opposite field. The
qualitative field is, in its nature, non-dual. It does not need
enemies to blossom.
Fundamentally the two fields are inversely proportional. They
seem to be unable to coexist. Put on the edge, the quantitative
field is stupid but full of energy, and the qualitative field is
intelligent but weak. Furthermore, the quantitative field seems
to absorb the qualitative field on its descent to roaring
ecstasy.
This qualitative field can rarely be observed since it, as a
general rule, tries to isolate itself from the more gross fields
around it. It is also rare and is most often represented by an
individual or a smaller group of interfaced individuals passing
under the radar of media attention. The qualitative field can
recognize the quantitative field but not the other way around.
That is why we can all recognize the football game hype, but if
a superconscious being crossed our path, we would not take
notice.
THE HOLY GRAIL OF GROUP MEDITATION
The holy grail of a shared field of superconsciousness is a
rare field phenomenon that can accelerate both in quality and
quantity. I will describe how group meditation can create such a
super powerful and meta-aware field under certain circumstances.
Concentric circles of I am you
What meditation does is that it updates and strengthens our
ability to interface in empathy in I am you? When you close your
eyes, there is an immediate increase in body awareness. This
awareness centers you in your body in the first circle of I am
you-consciousness. You feel your body. You are this body. From
there, this consciousness expands in concentric circles, making
you aware of your surroundings, even with your eyes closed. In
this dark inner space, you can sense other people's presence,
especially if they are within a few meters' distances of you.
This close proximity-awareness of other people's company makes
us bond with them in a shared I am your field. This is what
happens among family and friends. This I am you interface is in
the tribal man out of good survival reasons conditioned to make
him bond with his family and tribe.
The lotus grows in ancient mud.
Hence, a mafia man can have powerful and noble feelings for
his siblings and, without remorse, kill his enemies' children.
We all have this ancient DNA in us so that at times of crisis,
we could go out as soldiers in a war and kill people from other
nations we, under different circumstances, could view as
friends. It is important here that it is only possible to create
a field of superconsciousness by cooperating with these dark
operative systems buried deep inside us. We need to be able to
dance in darkness with these ancient survival systems to get
enough energy for our cosmic rocket. That is the symbolic
meaning behind the lotus growing in mud.
Meditation epi-transforms these circuits of outdated DNA
clusters. When sitting together with people in meditation,
strong bonds form. They form even between people who do not know
each other. What otherwise would take years to develop can
happen instantly. I cannot prove what I say now, but at least on
a personal level, it occurs again and again when I sit in group
meditation. If I feel very secure in the setting, I can suddenly
find myself sitting in another body in the circle of meditators.
I can feel what the group feels. The same is the case in
psychedelic sessions. I am sure that almost everyone who has
participated in a collective psychedelic happening has similar
stories to narrate. This phenomenon even takes place when we
drink alcohol together. The Vikings were great at fighting
together because they were great collective drinkers.
Meditation is the denial of denials
In meditation, however, 'tribality' is nullified. I'll make
sure to repeat the Meister to clarify things. Meditation is, in
its ideal essence, the denial of denials.
All
creatures contain one reflection:
one, that is the denial of its being
the other;
the highest of the angels denies he is the lowest.
God is the denial of denials.
Meister Eckhart
In the Buddhist compassion
traditions, the monks are not praying for the well-being of
their football team. They pray for all living beings. Such is
the essential nature of consciousness: It expands in concentric
circles until it has conquered all duality. The final conclusion
is reached with this statement:
Tat twam asi -
You are that
Therefore Meister Eckhart says
that you
must be free from
naught. (not)
To be undivided you must be free from not.
In this state, the I am you
realize that it is everything, not even sentient beings but all
collapsed waveforms. This is why I kiss my fridge door when I
come home after a long journey. Then I say hello to the walls
and my sofa, and they all seem to respond in a glow. This
happens when the omnipresent pan-consciousness merges with the
stronger light coming from the torch of the human brain.
The mysterious glue of
love
All strife, every disagreement, every cancellation is based on a deep down
notion. It says:
I am not you.
In states of expanded Consciousnss, the first
fundamental realization is:
I am You.
That is why I say that
Consciousness is a glue. It allows the insight that binds life
together. A footprint made by consciousness is a mysterious glue
that binds everything together. Love is the footprint
of the invisibe thief. It is love that keeps the cells
in our body together. It is love that makes the mafia man
protect his family; finally, it is love that makes us transcend
all our denial of (its) being the other.
How can I say this with certainty? Allow me to share a story. A
close friend of mine was once filled with rage in his youth.
Fearless and possessing an imposing athletic build, he was
always prepared to confront any street fight, regardless of the
odds. At 18, he left Denmark to join a war against jihadists in
the Middle East. After two years and countless battle scars, he
returned to Denmark and became the leader of a criminal gang. He
eventually found himself in solitary confinement for over a
year. Shortly after being released, he stumbled upon a YouTube
video featuring a kaleidoscopic tunnel accompanied by a deep
voice proclaiming, You are that! You are the ultimate truth. He
was so ready for a shift in consciousness that even this simple
video clip triggered an explosion of unity awareness within him.
Unfamiliar with mystical experiences and thankfully free from
New Age conceptualizations of enlightenment, he realized that he
was one with the divine, omnipresent and that everything is
love. Initially, this divine rapture was so intense that he
could do nothing but surrender to ecstasy, oblivious to the
world and worldly affairs. As he gradually returned to a
somewhat grounded state, he began to view the world around him
as a manifestation of his own Self. The thought of fighting
anyone now seemed impossible.
He abandoned his previous life as effortlessly as changing
clothes and transformed into the most loving, compassionate, and
wise man one could imagine. Suddenly, all the energy within him
could be channeled through intelligent and expanded conscious
awareness.
In expanded states of
consciousness we become empaths
Consciousness serves as a unifying force, enabling us to not
only see but also become the viewpoint of 'the other.' In
Christianity, followers are taught to love their neighbors as
themselves. However, when filtered through the thinking mind,
this becomes a commandment to be obeyed like a traffic rule. It
turns into an action we believe must be done, and when we
forget, we feel guilty and revert to our collectively created
morality to correct our behavior. As consciousness expands in
quality and quantity, the astonishing revelation emerges that
our neighbor is, in fact, ourselves. Loving sentient beings then
becomes a natural and spontaneous consequence of consciousness.
As consciousness grows, the invisible Buddha steals away the
ego's narrow spotlight of awareness, revealing inherent human
qualities such as nobility, openness, tolerance, and love. These
qualities are the measurable neural footprints left by the
Buddha. While we cannot directly measure consciousness, we can
observe and study the levels of love. Highly conscious people
are spontaneously filled with love and compassion, making the
Greek depiction of a personalized Buddha highly significant. As
our wakeful self-awareness and humility grow, we no longer feel
compelled to argue or cancel others based on their opinions.
Every conflict, disagreement, or act of cancellation stems from
a deep-seated belief: "I am not you." In states of expanded
consciousness, the first realization is, "I am you." That is why
consciousness is a glue, binding life together like Lego bricks
in its expanding concentric circles of awareness.
THE SPHERIC EVERSION OF THE
SOUL
As Meister Eckhart once said, The body is much rather in the
soul than the soul is in the body. This sentiment is
perfectly captured by the image of a tennis ball suddenly
turning inside out - a spheric eversion that occurs when the
dark inner awareness space expands beyond the body's boundaries.
In this state, we transcend duality and find ourselves joyfully
present, first in our surroudings and from there expanding into
everything.
This sphere
eversion is exactly what happens when the dark inner awareness space
expands boyond the limits of the body. Suddenly you find
outside yourself. You do not longer experience yourself
inside your natural body boundaries but outside and present in
what before was percieved in duality. This eversive expansion was mentioned in the chapter about the
Ouroboros super consciousness.
It is exactly in this state that the smaller concentrated human
light of consciousness
merges with the dimmer light of omnipresent pan-consciousness.
Here you find yourself joyfully present in non-duality.
But the magic truly happens
in group meditation, where the eversion of souls leads to the
symbiosis of individual clouds of consciousness into a larger
field. It is in this extended shared space that meditators in
togetherness create a larger field of consciousness that is
highly self aware as well as powerful.
The first thing to happen in such a field is that each meditator
gets a strong empathic and intuitive insight in each others
souls. The social bonding that happens in such rare moments
often create deep friendships that otherwise would take years to
form.
The group meditation field is using the drivers from our ancient
tribal interfaces. However, it grows not only in expansive
intensity but also in meta-aware quality, and thus it transcends
the limitations of the archaic programming that in for thousand
of years have set us in duality in opposition to other tribal
fields.
In this blessed space we pray for all sentient beings. We merge
with everyone and everything while bridging the gap between
duality and non-duality with the help cosmic glue of love.
In the Pantheon of beautiful meditative phenomenons this is the
most beautiful.
Vulnerability and the Avatar
interface
A human being has so many skins
inside, covering the depths of the heart.
We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves!
Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or
bear's,
cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself
there.
Eckhart
Let us now look at the mysterious
glue that connects us in such a state of collective
consciousness.
There cannot be a merging of consciousness unless there is open
vulnerability on the level of bodily existence. We all have a
wound of exposure. As social animals, we are conditioned never
to show this 'weakness' to others. Hence we are covering the
depths of the heart. This is the job of the ego. It has to hide
us from others to protect us.
We protect ourselves from being eaten by stronger animals in the
group. There are also other thick skins used, like shame and
arrogance. These skins are described as the seven cardinal sins,
and they program the outer person as an actor on a stage.
Autencity is vulnerability
If the set and setting of the meditative space are felt
safe, we, in trust, begin to make our vulnerability known to
ourselves. The next step is letting go of the need to impress
others or play acting roles. We now sit in collective impersonal
vulnerability, which is equal to authenticity.
The Avatar plug
In the movie Avatar, the hero interfaces with his dragon of
pure power through a cable that connects both of them. The
symbolic meaning is obvious: We can only connect with our true
ancient kundalini power in nobility, honesty, and vulnerability.
This axis point is our stargate.
In an ideal group meditation, all
participants are in a state of letting go of the need for
protective defenses. We can only connect with our true power
through vulnerability. When the individual wounds are open, we
are in a maximum state of sensitivity too. In this sensitivity,
we all plug into each other in a collective state of
Ouroboros consciousness.
However, it is crucial here to distinguish between narcissistic
vulnerability and the type of sensitive openness in a meditative
field. The meditative openness is almost impersonal and not
followed up by storytelling made by the mind. In impersonal
openness, we 'aware' all
'aware' all inner sensations
without naming them.
This field is only as powerful as its weakest link. Just one
person's unwillingness to be vulnerable affects the intensity of
the whole field. If everybody in a meditative circle could let
the wound be open, the intensity of the field would grow
exponentially with the number of participants. However, a larger
number of individuals in the circle make people feel less safe,
and hence the field gets weaker.
The role of the guru
In fields arranged in verticality, where a leader has
authoritarian power, the participants can surrender their
defense mechanisms, their ego, to the 'higher' power of the
leader. Such fields have the potential to grow very strong in
intensity but in a trade-off with the fields of
meta-consciousness and intelligence. Since almost no humans can
be Kings without following a path of power corruption, it is
much better with a horizontal mandala of meditators. In such a
field, there can be inspirators, mentors, and teachers. However,
such conductors of mandala consciousness do not own the moon
because they know more about it. They should never ever tell
people what to do or not to do and the same should apply fo
'their' field. The job as an inspirator and a guide is in a
walk-the-talk mode, by own example, to inspire people to
and in total individual freedom. They can present new spiritual
software, and people around them are free to implement and
customize it so it will function on their own terms.
One of the most extraordinary spiritual inspirators I met was
Papaji. He said:
Don't listen to anyone!
Don't even listen to me!
Listen to your own Soul
A true Masters message can only be:
There is no teaching
There is no teacher
There is no student
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