[Nneka]

I'm not Steve, but here's my 2000 cents.

To start, I think of consciousness as all there is, was, and ever will be. In essence, it is God or Spirit.

* I always thought consciousness was a byproduct of the body, so I explained not being aware of anything before birth to not having a body. How does one explain "not having a beginning" within S/R? If I always were, then why don't I remember it?

Consciousness/God/Spirit does not have a beginning or end, but it chose to come into expression as you. Your body to consciousness is like you putting on your clothes in the morning and going out into the world if your clothes were integrated with your body. Like the suits in the movie Fantastic Four.

Some people do "remember", some of us don't. Different people remember to different degrees. Some people have a vivid memory of being pure consciousness, some don't. The other thing to note is that we are always pure consciousness in expression, it is who we are. The degree to which we are aware of this determines whether we "remember".

The other thing is that the word remember connotes a past, but there is no past. You are here now. Always in existence. I haven't figured out how to explain this yet, but it makes sense in my being.

* Consciousness controls the actions of all beings via the thoughts/beliefs it holds.. But it doesn't handle all the details? For example, if my consciousness intends peace, love and harmony for all, it doesn't have to spell out the procedure as to how this is going to be accomplished? Another aspect of this is, how does the belief of "people are untrustworthy" or "people are loving" manifest "exactly"? Who is handling the details? If the consciousness is handling them, then why am I not fully aware of all the details of what is being manifested?

Hmmm...it is not your consciousness that intends peace, it is you. Consciousness/God/Spirit is peace. What you are intending is to align yourself (your beliefs, your mind) with what already is. How much peace you manifest or experience is determined by how much you let pure consciousness express through you. AND you have a unique blend of experiences, skills, and talents that allow you to express and experience peace uniquely (the how). You are the filter, so to speak.

The same with love. Consciousness/God/Spirit is love. People are loving because they express Consciousness. Some people let it flow freely, some people block it. Some people are aware of letting it flow or blocking it and some people aren't.

I don't mean this in a doling out of inequities way or to sound superior. I truly mean that you might be coming into the awareness of consciousness at this time, but you may or may not have been a loving person. The difference is that now you are aware.

* I always thought the body experienced things which helped it grow. Now that this body is the same as all the other ones in a single unitary perspective, how can consciousness grow? Growth requires time and we just said time is within the consciousness container, so by definition, consciousness shouldn't be experiencing growth or learning... Why isn't the consciousness container all-knowing in the first place?

Ah, but it is! In fact it is all knowledge. Hence the saying, "there is nothing new under the sun."

You are here to express and experience Spirit. Growth the way we see it might be the progression of expressing more and more of it like Hawkins Power vs. Force scale.

I'm not sure that we have to progress in awareness, expression, and experience at all. It seems to me that babies express more of Spirit than adults. Some of us might realize that's what we want to do and how we want to do it, then start trusting, becoming aware, expressing, and experiencing gradually. But I don't think there's any rule that says that that's the way it has to be.

I'm grappling with that myself. My level of awareness, expression, and experience is determined by how much I trust or am open to it. Try as I might to be completely open, there are still parts of me that insist that it just can't be that way.

As a practical example, take money. I believe intellectually that Consciousness is infinite supply. However, I also harbour another belief, and I believe this viscerally because to me it is reinforced by my experiences. I believe viscerally that I have to put in a certain amount of work to get money.

I could have an epiphany and suddenly believe in my core that I don't have to any amount of work for money (I've done that a couple times in my life and it appeared from the ethers), or I could "grow" into the idea that there is indeed infinite supply.

It's not my consciousness that will be growing, it will be my capacity to express and experience it.

* Since I related my consciousness to a physical body (the brain to be specific), I kept thinking the body controlled what my consciousness could know/feel/perceive etc. If that is not so, then what does the "subconscious" have to do with anything? If the consciousness is all there is, then how come there are "background processes" that always run "seemingly outside of my consciousness" working against my intentions?

Nothing is outside of consciousness.