What's your Levels of Consciousness life story?

[openyourize]

Shame - Just a step above death. You’re probably contemplating suicide at this level. Either that or you’re a serial killer. Think of this as self-directed hatred.

Guilt - A step above shame, but you still may be having thoughts of suicide. You think of yourself as a sinner, unable to forgive yourself for past transgressions.

Apathy - Feeling hopeless or victimized. The state of learned helplessness. Many homeless people are stuck here.

Grief - A state of perpetual sadness and loss. You might drop down here after losing a loved one. Depression. Still higher than apathy, since you’re beginning to escape the numbness.

Fear - Seeing the world as dangerous and unsafe. Paranoia. Usually you’ll need help to rise above this level, or you’ll remain trapped for a long time, such as in an abusive relationship.

Desire - Not to be confused with setting and achieving goals, this is the level of addiction, craving, and lust — for money, approval, power, fame, etc. Consumerism. Materialism. This is the level of smoking and drinking and doing drugs.

Anger - the level of frustration, often from not having your desires met at the lower level. This level can spur you to action at higher levels, or it can keep you stuck in hatred. In an abusive relationship, you’ll often see an anger person coupled with a fear person.

Pride - The first level where you start to feel good, but it’s a false feeling. It’s dependent on external circumstances (money, prestige, etc), so it’s vulnerable. Pride can lead to nationalism, racism, and religious wars. Think Nazis. A state of irrational denial and defensiveness. Religious fundamentalism is also stuck at this level. You become so closely enmeshed in your beliefs that you see an attack on your beliefs as an attack on you.

Courage - The first level of true strength. I’ve made a previous post about this level: Courage is the Gateway. This is where you start to see life as challenging and exciting instead of overwhelming. You begin to have an inkling of interest in personal growth, although at this level you’ll probably call it something else like skill-building, career advancement, education, etc. You start to see your future as an improvement upon your past, rather than a continuation of the same.

Neutrality - This level is epitomized by the phrase, “live and let live.” It’s flexible, relaxed, and unattached. Whatever happens, you roll with the punches. You don’t have anything to prove. You feel safe and get along well with other people. A lot of self-employed people are at this level. A very comfortable place. The level of complacency and laziness. You’re taking care of your needs, but you don’t push yourself too hard.

Willingness - Now that you’re basically safe and comfortable, you start using your energy more effectively. Just getting by isn’t good enough anymore. You begin caring about doing a good job — perhaps even your best. You think about time management and productivity and getting organized, things that weren’t so important to you at the level of neutrality. Think of this level as the development of willpower and self-discipline. These people are the “troopers” of society; they get things done well and don’t complain much. If you’re in school, then you’re a really good student; you take your studies seriously and put in the time to do a good job. This is the point where your consciousness becomes more organized and disciplined.

Acceptance - Now a powerful shift happens, and you awaken to the possibilities of living proactively. At the level of willingness you’ve become competent, and now you want to put your abilities to good use. This is the level of setting and achieving goals. I don’t like the label “acceptance” that Hawkins uses here, but it basically means that you begin accepting responsibility for your role in the world. If something isn’t right about your life (your career, your health, your relationship), you define your desired outcome and change it. You start to see the big picture of your life more clearly. This level drives many people to switch careers, start a new business, or change their diets.

Reason - At this level you transcend the emotional aspects of the lower levels and begin to think clearly and rationally. Hawkins defines this as the level of medicine and science. The way I see it, when you reach this level, you become capable of using your reasoning abilities to their fullest extent. You now have the discipline and the proactivity to fully exploit your natural abilities. You’ve reached the point where you say, “Wow. I can do all this stuff, and I know I must put it to good use. So what’s the best use of my talents?” You take a look around the world and start making meaningful contributions. At the very high end, this is the level of Einstein and Freud. It’s probably obvious that most people never reach this level in their entire lives.

Love - I don’t like Hawkins’ label “love” here because this isn’t the emotion of love. It’s unconditional love, a permanent understanding of your connectedness with all that exists. Think compassion. At the level of reason, you live in service to your head. But that eventually becomes a dead end where you fall into the trap of over-intellectualizing. You see that you need a bigger context than just thinking for its own sake. At the level of love, you now place your head and all your other talents and abilities in service to your heart (not your emotions, but your greater sense of right and wrong — your conscience). I see this as the level of awakening to your true purpose. Your motives at this level are pure and uncorrupted by the desires of the ego. This is the level of lifetime service to humanity. Think Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. At this level you also begin to be guided by a force greater than yourself. It’s a feeling of letting go. Your intuition becomes extremely strong. Hawkins claims this level is reached only by 1 in 250 people during their entire lifetimes.

Joy - A state of pervasive, unshakable happiness. Eckhart Tolle describes this state in The Power of Now. The level of saints and advanced spiritual teachers. Just being around people at this level makes you feel incredible. At this level life is fully guided by synchronicity and intuition. There’s no more need to set goals and make detailed plans — the expansion of your consciousness allows you to operate at a much higher level. A near-death experience can temporarily bump you to this level.

Peace - Total transcendence. Hawkins claims this level is reached only by one person in 10 million.

Enlightenment - The highest level of human consciousness, where humanity blends with divinity. Extremely rare. The level of Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus. Even just thinking about people at this level can raise your consciousness.

I wonder where everyone sees themselves in the levels of consciousness, and what has your journey been through them?

For me, it hasn't just been from the bottom up. In fact, it can go all around the chart over the course of a week. But overall, here's how it has gone for me...

I spent a majority of my life in APATHY. Sometimes even dropping down to SHAME. My late teens and early 20's were spent in mostly DESIRE and ANGER. But it actually was kind of all over the board at that time, but no higher than PRIDE. But I once had a moment of the LOVE state when someone punched me in the face and i cried because I felt compassion for the pain and hurt they were feeling that made them so mad they wanted to punch me. That was an interesting feeling and I wanted to persue that mind state.

When I was about 22, I had an AH-HA moment and finally moved up to COURAGE and stayed there for a long time. I got really into personal growth, though I always had been at least a little since I was like 11. My dad always made me think about my life a lot........ During this time I moderately and steadily worked on my growth and felt genuinely happy. I even got to a point where I was able to experience JOY for short periods of time.

Then I got into a relationship where I now discovered I actually went to NEUTRALITY most of the time, but also spent a great deal of time in PRIDE. Only I thought PRIDE was actually "reason." I really thought I was above everyone. It was bad, I was unhappy and I lost friends. I thought everyone was stupid and I tried to shatter their dreams. Thank goodness I had a reality check and got back to COURAGE. NEUTRALITY was a popular one for me too, but I hated it. I began my most recent job which got me into WILLINGNESS, and distracted me from the NEUTRALITY.

After 2 years in a duo of WILLINGNESS / NEUTRALITY life, I had enough. I needed to be in ACCEPTANCE. Or at least steadily in COURAGE again. So I broke up with my boyfriend who was dragging me down, which put me in GRIEF for a little bit. But I very quickly met my new boyfriend who inspired me to be at ACCEPTANCE. He is definitely at the level of WILLINGNESS. My ex was always going around between GRIEF and PRIDE.

My job had gone through a lot of changes which also put me in the GRIEF state, so I was in a duo of ACCEPTANCE / GRIEF. well, ACCEPTANCE took over there, no way I was havin' any of that in my life! So I bit the bullet and quit my job. With nothing lined up, even though most people told me I was crazy. In a week and a half I found something I can be satisfied with for awhile, until I start to hate it. In the mean time I am working on my book and my weaving, maybe take a few classes like math or management (I like management) and see where the wave of the world takes me. Now I feel like I am surfing on the level of ACCEPTANCE and am even learning more about REASON. Of course I have my off days, but thats how it has gone for me.

How about everyone else? What's your levels of consciousness life story?

[Outline]

Good thread.

I spent a majority of my life in FEAR with a few short periods on the levels below it, especially SHAME but for a very long time i stayed in FEAR. Indeed it seems to be a tough level to escape from, but the levels below it are even worse. APATHY for example i think can be a really tough one for some people. To stay in life robbed of the sense of wonder and fascination is what APATHY and the levels below it are about, not good places to be in. I would say that for 4 years or so I wandered around in SHAME-GUILT-APATHY-GRIEF-FEAR, ocasionally DESIRE and ANGER, mainly centered around FEAR.

Somewhere in my 16's i think i just got so pissed off at the whole thing that i just moved DESIRE and then rapidly moved to ANGER, followed by PRIDE where i stayed for another long period of time, dropping down sometimes to ANGER and DESIRE some of the time. So for 3 years or so i wandered around in ANGER-DESIRE-PRIDE, centered mainly on Pride and Desire.

Coincidently at that time i started to take an interest in personal growth and have been at it ever since. So i landed at the level of COURAGE and was there for yet another 3 years. I guess it just takes a while to learn to be happy and content, not trying to control the world to do as you wish.

And now i've been at NEUTRALITY for the better part of 6-12 months. It's... comfortable. The definition of NEUTRALITY is exactly who i am. Mellow, i accept people as they are. Taking action has not yet taken form, and this is where i am for the time being.

[Kingston]

Yes, good thread. Allows you to talk about yourself (Yay!), while helping others (Yay, Yay!).

I have experienced every one of the lower states of course, but I've never been long in any state below desire. My base level was DESIRE throughout my childhood. DESIRE for approval. When I got sufficient approval, I moved to PRIDE, where I spend most of my teen years. Around the age of 17 I hit COURAGE after reading Zelazny and Castaneda, and never went back. This made me realize a lot of my potential in school and jobs.

In my twenties I went to NEUTRALITY and WILLINGNESS through studying science and business, tainted with a bit of PRIDE, but that never lasted long. My studies and job kept me WILLING. I started (and failed) my own business when I hit ACCEPTANCE, and started drinking less and eating healthy. I resolved to graduate faster.

I came to REASON at 25, with a book that changed my perspective of life on earth and it's history. I became more serious in my studies and went abroad to graduate at a top universtity.

During my twenties I started meditating more frequently. I'm 28, and experience LOVE regularly in meditation. I'm developing my intuition. When I have some lower levels 'cleaned up', I will stay there permanently. Looking forward to that! I'm also now capable of seeing my self ever reaching enlightenment, something I did not dare to imagine before.

I encourage everyone to look at raising consciousness as a part time job. It's really both that hard, and worth it. So put in the time.

Happy ascend!

[openyourize]

cool stories!! happy ascent to everyone as well!

[Liveformx64]

There is something that happens around the age of 16 to 20. It is almost that the weight of the world is put upon the shoulders of adolescence. A sort of revelation that what you do matters, and counts towards the higher good. It is not a conscious thought, but an underlying knowledge everyone has.

Is the rampant growth of teenage depression a sign of a higher sensitivity to the responsibility of human kind?

Sadly People like my mother have been stuck in the rinse cycle of Desire and Anger her whole life, and cannot get out of it. She has never acted on her true purpose, and has never climbed higher.

Does anyone have any insight on this idea?