Higher consciousness
Higher consciousness (also called expanded consciousness) is a term that has been used in various ways to label particular states of consciousness or personal development.[1] It may be used to describe a state of liberation from the limitations of self-concept or ego, as well as a state of mystical experience in which the perceived separation between the isolated self and the world or God is transcended.[1] It may also refer to a state of increased alertness or awakening to a new perspective.[1] While the concept has ancient roots, practices, and techniques, it has been significantly developed as a central notion in contemporary popular spirituality, including the New Age movement.
"Christ consciousness" redirects here. For the Joey Badass song, see Christ Conscious.Philosophy[edit]
Fichte[edit]
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) was one of the founding figures of German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant.[2] His philosophy forms a bridge between the ideas of Kant and those of the German idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
Fichte distinguished the finite or empirical ego from the pure or infinite ego. The activity of this "pure ego" can be discovered by a "higher intuition".[2][note 1]
According to Michael Whiteman, Fichte's philosophical system "is a remarkable western formulation of eastern mystical teachings (of which he seems to have had no direct knowledge)."[2]
Schopenhauer[edit]
In 1812, Arthur Schopenhauer started to use the term "the better consciousness", a consciousness that "lies beyond all experience and thus all reason, both theoretical and practical (instinct)."[3]
According to Yasuo Kamata, Schopenhauer's idea of "the better consciousness" finds its origin in Fichte's idea of a "higher consciousness" (höheres Bewusstsein)[4] or "higher intuition",[5] and also bears resemblance to Schelling's notion of "intellectual intuition".[4] According to Schopenhauer himself, his notion of a "better consciousness" was different from Schelling's notion of "intellectual intuition", since Schelling's notion required intellectual development of the understanding, while his notion of a "better consciousness" was "like a flash of insight, with no connection to the understanding."[4]
According to Schopenhauer,
Religion[edit]
Schleiermacher[edit]
Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) made a distinction between lower and higher self-consciousness.[8][9] In Schleirmacher's theology, self-consciousness contains "a feeling that points to the presence of an absolute other, God, as actively independent of the self and its 'world'."[10] For Schleiermacher, "all particular manifestations of piety share a common essence, the sense of dependency on God as the outside 'infinite'."[10] The feeling of dependency, or "God-consciousness", is a higher form of consciousness.[9] This consciousness is not "God himself",[11] since God would then no longer be "an infinite infinite, but a finite infinite, a mere projection of consciousness."[11]
For Schleiermacher, the lower self-consciousness is "the animal part of mankind", which includes basic sensations such as hunger, thirst, pain and pleasure, as well as basic drives and pleasures, and higher self-consciousness is, in the words of theologian Dawn DeVries, "the part of the human being that is capable of transcending animal instincts",[8] and the "point of contact with God". Bunge describes this as "the essence of being human".[8]
When this consciousness is present, "people are not alienated from God by their instincts".[8] The relation between the lower and the higher consciousness is akin to "Paul's struggle of the spirit to overcome the flesh",[8] or the distinction between the natural and the spiritual side of human beings.[9]
19th-century movements[edit]
The idea of a "wider self walled in by the habits of ego-consciousness"[12] and the search for a "higher consciousness" was manifested in 19th century movements such as Theosophy,[12] New Thought,[12] Christian Science,[12] and Transcendentalism.[13]
The 19th-century Transcendentalists saw the entire physical world as a representation of a higher spiritual world.[14] They believed that humans could elevate themselves above their animal instincts, attain a higher consciousness, and partake in this spiritual world.[15]
Higher self is a term associated with multiple belief systems, but its basic premise describes an eternal, omniscient, conscious, and intelligent being, who is one's real self. Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Movement, formally defined the higher self as "Atma the inseparable ray of the Universe and one self. It is the God above, more than within, us".[16] According to Blavatsky, each and every individual has a higher self.[17] She wrote:
Cognitive science[edit]
Gerald Edelman distinguishes higher consciousness or "secondary consciousness" from "primary consciousness", defined as simple awareness that includes perception and emotion. Higher consciousness in contrast, "involves the ability to be conscious of being conscious", and "allows the recognition by a thinking subject of his or her own acts and affections". Higher consciousness requires, at a minimal level semantic ability, and "in its most developed form, requires linguistic ability, or the mastery of a whole system of symbols and a grammar".[26]
