Levels of Consciousness - Beyond Acceptance

[pokilty]

This post relates to Steve's article on Levels of Consciousness. Steve's descriptions of these stages (which are based on Hawkins' descriptions) are amazingly in-tune with what I've felt at these respective levels.

It seems to me like at every level of consciousness, there's some kind of realization that prompts the shift between levels. Here's my ideas, wherever I feel I've crossed consciousness:

Courage->Neutrality - I realized that a lot of the things I do today aren't very important for where I want to be in the long run. I stopped putting myself up to things like getting good grades in useless classes.

Neutrality->Willingness - At some point I felt like I was completely bored with life because I was doing everything and had everything that I wanted. While searching for answers, I slowly moved from neutrality to willingness over the period of a few months of thinking about things like productivity and finding blogs such as this one.

Willingness->Acceptance - I realized that I have control over my life and that at every moment I have an opportunity to make my own choices and therefore choose my own path. I started analyzing how I feel about where I am and actively made changes to get where I want to be.

After a powerful shift a few weeks ago, I feel very clearly that I'm now at the Acceptance level. I understand that where I am and where I will go is completely a result of decisions that I make and the way that I think. I'm much more honest with myself about where I need to improve and what's most important to me. I also feel more willing to change than ever before. I became vegetarian, eliminated TV/games/youtube from my daily life, started cooking, began exercising daily, adopted a sleeping schedule, among other things that I'm eager to change.

I'd love to hear about what you think you really came to understand that helped push you between levels. Personally, I feel very open to ideas and I'd appreciate any help or tips that worked for you to get beyond Acceptance

[Dusty]

Amazon.com: Transcending the Levels of Consciousness: Dr. David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D.: Books

[Cochonette]

For me it's not so clear-cut. I feel that I'm at Courage-Neutrality right now. It's hard to put myself in a single box because I fit into so many of them at any given moment. I've been to shame, and while it was courage that first lifted me out of it, I eventually fell back into guilt when my environment changed drastically... Likewise, unconditional love lifted me out of guilt and put me back and more firmly on the plane of courage and also introduced me to neutrality.... but I still have a lot of Pride to deal with... and I feel that anger is something I have only just started to really get over.....

and remnants of shame still reside in me. Actually, when I first started hating myself, I immediately developed a habit of saying to myself, "I hate myself. Die!" and I still often say "God I hate myself" out of habit, even if I don't mean it in nearly as deep of a way as I used to.

Courage is still a little shaky for me in the short-term, but I think I've got it covered in the long-term and that I will just keep coming back to it... so I can say I'm there. I'm also having to deepen my learning of neutrality, which I had learned before but lost because I was still driven by fear, anger, and pride. But I've experienced all the way up to love and shadows of joy... It's quite complicated. :P

Oh, btw, I wanted to ask... what is the difference between Peace and Enlightenment? "Blends with divinity" doesn't tell me much, but I suppose that whoever wrote these levels hadn't reached Enlightenment yet and couldn't describe it. Haha! Or maybe Enlightenment is just that ineffable. I'm not all that concerned about the concept of Enlightenment, as a student of Zen, and I think my Pride is making my reading of these levels a bit competitive... like now I must compete with my friends for Joy! What?! Must learn not to compare self with others, not to divide self and other.

Time.

I started thinking about the pride issue with me and this hierarchy, because everyone I've talked to so far puts themself in Acceptance (above) or Reason (everyone else)... and I also played a game once about socioeconomic privilege after which we were asked to put ourselves in box lower, middle, or higher class. I later realized that the less privileged people are, they less likely they will be to be able to stand up in the face of the world and explain that and why they are at such level of privilege. In that case I was surrounded by mostly upper class folks a few middle class, and I felt lower class but was too afraid to say it.

Well, I went and talked to a very depressed friend of mine who doesn't value his life about this article, and he started asking about how you can know these levels are really permanent... doubt, doubt, doubt. And I realized I couldn't help him, I couldn't really explain it for him even if I'm supposedly "above" him (in reality, that is only an illusion). The guy couldn't even believe in these higher levels and wasn't yet at the state of courage... more like guilt. And I've been there, so I'm just thinking... if a person trapped in the lower levels reads this, they won't necessarily get anything out of it. Because Pride is still a big issue for me, even though I'm starting to move beyond it, it bothers me a little bit reading this. But it's okay... I have courage, so I just remind myself that it's Pride!

[ArthurHung]

Originally Posted by Cochonette

Oh, btw, I wanted to ask... what is the difference between Peace and Enlightenment? "Blends with divinity" doesn't tell me much, but I suppose that whoever wrote these levels hadn't reached Enlightenment yet and couldn't describe it.

Maybe a person who reached enlightenment felt that he didn't need to, because another who got there would simply understand.

And even if it were explained to the "unenlightened", that person wouldn't understand, or even if that person would understand, that person wouldn't be at the essence of what can't be described. Do you think that the petty human mind can grasp something so great as life itself?

If a drop of water could understand, being itself dissolved in the ocean, it could choose to stay attached to it's individuality or to realize it's the ocean itself, and that within the ocean is the drop.

I suggest not being concerned with anything else, simply enlightenment. Drop all your issues, bad habits and bad thinking immediately and simply put super human efforts into following your heart, doing solid work and doing what results in either pleasantness or indifference to what life brings.

[Chris_1977]

pride -> courage: I realized that being a physics student and "very smart" was not going to cut it and decided to start listening to what I felt and by doing so try to figure out how I could avoid being terribly unhappy.
courage -> neutrality: I realized that I was actually capable of dealing with my emotions and with other people by accepting them and that nothing terrible was going to happen.
neutrality -> willingness: I became aware of the field of personal development and started to organize my life.
willingness -> acceptance: I started setting big goals to change major parts of my life and realized that I am actually capable of reaching them.

I am at acceptance at the moment as well, so I cannot say with any certainty what to do to get past that. I am quite sure, though, that I should still do something about emotionally charged thoughts. By my estimation around 5% of my thoughts are honestly what I think and the other 95% is emotionally distorted and therefore unreasonable and/or not helping me or anybody else.

[Chris_1977]

Originally Posted by ArthurHung

I suggest not being concerned with anything else, simply enlightenment. Drop all your issues, bad habits and bad thinking immediately and simply put super human efforts into following your heart, doing solid work and doing what results in either pleasantness or indifference to what life brings.

While this is indeed in a way the most "simple" thing to do, I think that almost nobody is capable of doing it like that. Actually it happens about every 1000 years and then everybody is so impressed that a new religion is born.

Also, at some point the description of the levels of consciousness will get increasingly inaccurate as we get higher on the scale, since I do not really believe that Mr. Hawkins is enlightened. One would guess that acquiring fake PhDs is an activity that falls somewhat lower on the scale of consciousness.....

[Cochonette]

I'm not sure I actually believe in the Peace and Enlightenment levels. I don't have a clue what "divinity" means. And "total transcendence" doesn't really tell me anything either.

But, up till Joy, I can say I've at least been able to imagine such existence.

[vartann]

i recently made the shift from Reason to Love
i love so much Humanity now, everyday more... that i am bent on BOTH giving Love and Happiness AND eradicating the cancer cells

translated in the vernacular: i feel a strong and deep connection with all of my Brethren (well myself actually so no need for erecting me a statue ) and a genuine urge to help - which i do - but won't turn a blind eye to kicking asses if say a guy is slapping a woman or mistreating a child

the level of Love is about deep connection... and RESPONSIBILITY

[ecky788]

Here's a few of mine
Guilt->Grief: I realized It wasn't worth obsessing about little things anymore (I was about 11)... and I started complaining about everything to get my very heavy negative feelings out there to get attention, but then I realized nobody liked so much negativity(I got bullied coz' of that) so I started keeping to myself and was kind of nostalgic all the time. (by the time of 13)
Grief->Fear: That's when I became really, really self conscious and people laughed at me quite a lot (13-14), and I was agoraphobic so I didn't go out except going to school, because I was scared of being punished so I went, so I was dependent on my friends, too dependent, even though they treated me like crap (normal, I was kind of asocial)...
Fear->Desire: I started playing video games to forget the crap I had to tolerate at school (agoraphobia and stuff). (I just turned 13)
Desire->Anger: I became kind of egocentric, paranoid, arrogant, and I hated the likes of everyone because I felt so scared at school and rejected. I didn't take responsability for my acts, and told everybody to f* off when they asked me something.
Anger->Pride: I started putting myself over others, feeling superior, said to myself I was more mature and stuff... Bulls*** (14 and a half)
Pride->Courage: I just turned 15, I was playing video games and getting obsessed with them then I asked myself... Look why are you being like this? You've got a better life to live just out there? I was scared of going outside (agoraphobia) but I didn't care, I put my shoes on and went to play football with other kids. And during these summer holidays I made plenty of friends: that's when my life really began...
Courage->Willingness: I started reading steve pavlina's blog and tried putting some of his ideas into my life, I'm one of the top pupils in my school... And started realizing if I wanted something I should just work for it

My life has changed so much with these changes in consciousness

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by pokilty

Personally, I feel very open to ideas and I'd appreciate any help or tips that worked for you to get beyond Acceptance

Based on what Hawkins says in Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, I believe reaching the level of Reason is actually a somewhat slower and gradual process than some of the lower levels.

In the book, at the end of the chapter on Acceptance, he has a paragraph about transcending it. He said something like "the emotional calm of Acceptance allows for the development of the intellect and Reason" (paraphrased but almost exactly).

Notice that he said "development" of the intellect, not something more tramatic such as "relinquishment" of emotions or negative positions, which is what the lower levels tends to feel like.


This sentence lead me to suspect that Reason is a product of reaching the level of Acceptance, then intentionally educating yourself to "develop" your intellect and awareness of reality gradually.

In my own life I have had one single, short experience of the level of Reason, which I feel was a glimpse of it but not an entire transition to it. I was reading a book on economics and was trying to comprehend it, then at one moment I had an "aha" and I said in my mind "I understand" - meaning I understood the concept that was presented.

I instantly recognized that in Hawkins' Map of Consciousness, "understanding" is the label of the emotional process that is occuring at the level of Reason.

The aha moment felt similar to other increases in consciousness that had occurred in the past. In fact, after that experience it became obvious to me that the path into Reason is one of educating yourself willingly and intentionally over an extended period of time.




So, if you are looking to develop your intellect and reach Reason, I would say get some classic intellectual books such as "The Great Books of the Western World" that Hawkins talks a lot about, and start reading and learning from them. (However, take note that works by Marx and Engels do not calibrate at the level of Reason).

Every other book in the list, besides by authors Marx and Engels, calibrates in the 400's. The highest levels of intellect are reflect by Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Sigmund Freud, who all calibrated at 499. Another more contemporary example is Stephen Hawking, who also calibrates at 499.

[Chris_1977]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Every other book in the list, besides by authors Marx and Engels, calibrates in the 400's. The highest levels of intellect are reflect by Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Sigmund Freud, who all calibrated at 499. Another more contemporary example is Stephen Hawking, who also calibrates at 499.

Although the idea of "levels of consciousness" has merit IMO, I have to wonder at what number the idea that a persons/a books level of consciousness is expressible "calibrates"? I bet not very high. This is just too naive to take seriously.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by Chris_1977

Although the idea of "levels of consciousness" has merit IMO, I have to wonder at what number the idea that a persons/a books level of consciousness is expressible "calibrates"? I bet not very high. This is just too naive to take seriously.

I don't understand exactly what you are asking but I suppose I have an idea.


A book can calibrate at a certain level based on the "position" that the book is written from. It is not the actual pages of the books themselves that are "conscious and aware" so to speak. It is that they convey a certain level of truth.

So, if I write a scientific dissertation concerning the double helix of DNA, that text will probably calibrate around the 400's which is the level of the intellect and science.

Similarly, if I write a text that says it is the duty of a white man to kill all black men, that would probably calibrate extremely low, at 150 (anger) or even as low as 20-30 (genocide and extreme hatred).

On the other hand, I could write a book about how to forgive your enemies, which might calibrate at the position of Love at 500.


So, I think it is all about the "position" that one takes. Hawkins mentions a few times in his book that often a politician, for instance, will calibrate highly but might take a "position" that calibrates lower than himself, because he is trying to either pander to his constituents or genuinely represent them. So at least in that area, a person's "position" can calibrate differently than their actual level. I am just assuming from that understanding that this is sort of the way that calibrations of books work. It is the position of the text that determines its level. I don't think these calibrations actually reflect the paper on which the words themselves are written, but the meaning that the text is trying to convey.



If you are asking at what level the process of "calibration" itself calibrates at, Hawkins has said that the calibration method itself calibrates at 605.

[James81]

LMAO @ the calibration discussion.

Didn't we have like an 80 page thread on that once?

[BillyTheAdult]

80 pages!! Wow. Where is that thread? And also... so!? I mean what's wrong with a calibration discussion.

Congrats on being a legendary member, I guess it happened like 140 posts ago, but I just noticed.

[sonde]

As far as I can see:

Acceptance is not something you can do or where you can be, it is what you are when you are 'at this level'.

Acceptance is not a choice, it is not a mind function of acceptance/avoiding or choosing, it is open to all that appears or is at any moment, without exception.

Thus it Understands, not in the sense of a choice such as understanding/not-understanding, ie not as a function of the personal mind, but at the conscious level of Reason.

And thus this is very close to Love, the unconditional variety.

It is somewhat incorrect to talk of these as levels, or as separate in any way, as they all are expressions of consciousness and as such are accepted as they are.

[Chris_1977]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I don't understand exactly what you are asking but I suppose I have an idea.

Well, I wrote a messed-up sentence, but I was actually attempting to say that I think the whole calibration method is utter rubbish and make a bit of fun of it. It seems more sensible to not take it seriously. By extension, it is unclear what the merit of this scale running from 0 to 1000 is if the method to determine values on it, is meaningless. Actually, maybe one could invent something meaningful by creating a questionnaire or something. Obviously, this could never be as precise as a scale from 0 to 1000 suggests. Also, there is a bit of a problem who is going to make the questions. A person can be expected by coming up questions to accurately pinpoint the levels below himself, but how is he supposed to do it for levels above him? That would seem to be extremely difficult because thoughts about that would get increasingly inaccurate as levels above the level of that person would be considered.

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

If you are asking at what level the process of "calibration" itself calibrates at, Hawkins has said that the calibration method itself calibrates at 605.

Well, Hawkins has to say something like that to remain somewhat credible. To me it seems that the calibration method would need to end up at the level of conscious is of attempting to sound scientific and failing badly at it. No idea what level that would be. Let alone what number to attach to it. Maybe it is what occurs if the higher levels of consciousness get mixed up with quite a bit of pride.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by Chris_1977

Well, Hawkins has to say something like that to remain somewhat credible. To me it seems that the calibration method would need to end up at the level of conscious is of attempting to sound scientific and failing badly at it. No idea what level that would be. Let alone what number to attach to it. Maybe it is what occurs if the higher levels of consciousness get mixed up with quite a bit of pride.

Well, have you read any of his books?