[I WROTE FOLLOWING ARTICLE FOR A DISCUSSION ABOUT DREAMS. I’M POSTING IT HERE WITH A NEW TITLE SINCE IT DISCUSSES MANY ASPECTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS THAT APPLY TO TOPICS ON THIS SITE.]
Dreams have long been considered a doorway to other levels of consciousness. But what is consciousness anyway?
The nature of consciousness has been debated by philosophers, scientists, and great thinkers for thousands of years. In that time countless definitions and divisions have been advanced, rejected, and rediscovered.
Awareness = Reality
For simplistic purposes, let’s consider consciousness to be a state of awareness of our inner feelings and thoughts, as well as the environment we perceive around us. Our consciousness changes constantly in response to new external stimuli or to shifts in our feelings or thoughts. Sometimes those changes are subtle and other times they are quite significant.
Your perception of consciousness can vary greatly even within the normal waking state. For instance, have you ever been so focused on something that you were scarcely aware of the world around you? It might have been a physical injury that caused so much pain that you scarcely noticed anything else, at least for a period of time. Conversely, you might have been so absorbed in your mental thoughts that you may not have noticed a new scratch your arm or leg. That is, until you happened to see it. At which point, it began to hurt.
The point is that our consciousness changes constantly as we shift our awareness. That change can happen intentionally or unintentionally. And it can move us far beyond familiar thoughts and feelings or the sensory perceptions of our five senses.
Significant changes in consciousness come in three primary ways: physical, mental, and spiritual. Physical things like pain, drugs, alcohol, sleep deprivation, fasting, yoga, breathing exercises, and music can all cause altered states of consciousness. On a mental level, meditation, day dreaming, intense concentration, and hypnosis can shift consciousness to one degree or another. On the spiritual level, our awareness of a Divine presence can immediately move us to Higher states.
Many methods for shifting your consciousness work best in combination. For instance, focusing on your breathing (physical) while meditating (mental) can speed the transition from one level of consciousness to another.
The most significant differences between techniques for altering consciousness lie in which levels of consciousness they take you to and how much control you retain over those new states. Certain drugs, for example, can heighten your awareness. So can yoga. But the yoga practitioner can shift consciousness at any time, while the drug user must wait for the ride to be over and in some cases endure lingering negative aftereffects.
Sleep – A Natural Shift in Consciousness
The beauty of sleep is that it provides a natural and nightly way to alter our consciousness. And the resulting aftereffects are positive—we wake up feeling refreshed and ready for a new day.
Still, if you’re like most people, you go to sleep without noticing the changes in consciousness that you’re going through. You simply lie down and drift off. You might notice that sometimes it takes longer to fall asleep than others, or that one night felt more restful than another. But you may not have spent much time paying attention to the mental states you’ve been experiencing.
And therein lays a great opportunity. Learning about the naturally altered states of consciousness that you experience every night makes it possible to use them to your advantage.
Measuring Your Mind
In the last 50 years the worlds of sleep science, psychology, and spiritual studies have come together to give us a good idea of what happens at various stages of consciousness—both while we’re awake and asleep.
By sticking electrodes to various points on a person’s scalp scientists can use a device called an electroencephalograph (EEG) to monitor brainwave activity. The electrodes detect discharges of electrical activity from the neurons of the brain. Your neurons fire in a rhythmic dance of pulses that can be measured by the number of discharges or cycles per second (cps). The more common name for this measurement is Hertz (Hz), named after Heinrich Hertz, the German scientist who defined the cycles.
Over time doctors and sleep scientists noticed that different states of consciousness are associated with certain brainwave frequencies. They also discovered that these frequencies were linked to certain physiological changes like your heart rate, breathing, etc, as well as to behaviors, feelings, and perceptions of reality, both while awake and asleep.
Four States of Consciousness
Researchers have traditionally divided human consciousness into four states, named after the Greek letters, B, A, T, D for Beta (14-27 Hz), Alpha (7-14 Hz), Theta (4-7 Hz), and Delta (0.5-4 Hz). Because the brainwaves overlap and merge into one another at the edges of these frequency bands, some researchers draw the line between states at slightly different points.
Beta
Beta is your normal waking state. You are simultaneously aware of your external environment and your internal thinking processes to one degree or another. Beta frequencies change depending on your mood and level of concentration. So even though you are awake, your EEG readings would show slightly different frequencies depending on whether you were intently concentrating on a task, pondering a decision, or feeling anxious about something in your life.
Alpha
When you close your eyes or simply turn your attention inward, your brainwaves begin to slow down and you enter into the Alpha level of consciousness. In the early stages (12-14 Hz) your body relaxes and your mind quiets down, but you remain alert to your five physical senses. This is the place of brainstorming, day dreaming, and reverie. It’s also an excellent point for balancing your logical left brain with your creative right brain, which can lead to flashes of insight and moments of genius.
Slightly slower Alpha brainwaves of 10-12 Hz mark the balance point between being awake and asleep. Your awareness of the outside world begins to fade and your mind comes alive with creative ideas and visions called hypnogogic images. Because the balance here is delicate you might quickly fall asleep or pop back awake. It’s a nether region, and sleep subjects who are awakened at this point, insist they weren’t asleep, but often admit they weren’t exactly awake either.
If you can maintain these brain frequencies in a waking state for a prolonged time, it’s a great state for light meditation, intuitive knowing, and hypnotic suggestions. If you fall asleep and then become aware again without fully waking up, you’ve entered the realm of lucid dreams—the state where you know you’re dreaming but you don’t wake up. This is the doorway to "altered states" of consciousness.
When your brainwaves slow to 8-10 Hz you’ve most likely drifted into a light sleep. But you might not realize it, since you’re still aware of sounds and voices around you. For those who remain awake at this stage, meditation becomes even deeper and creativity and intuition are further enhanced.
Theta
When your brainwaves slow below 7 Hz, you’ve moved from an alpha to a theta state. At this point your awareness of the outside world drops away and your conscious focuses on inner realms. Beyond this point is considered true sleep. However, it’s also possible to reach Theta states during very deep meditation (body asleep-mind awake).
Theta is the realm of dreams, great mental creativity, intuition, and spiritual connection. On this level of consciousness we can experience entire worlds that are so convincing to our five senses that we accept them to be as real as our waking life—even if it at times we perform seemingly illogical acts like flying or instantly changing locations.
Theta sleep is the time when our emotional bodies heal and regenerate. Some of our dreams help to process the day’s events, giving us a chance to consider what was important in our lives, even if we ignored it while awake. Other dreams bring up issues and experiences from our past, particularly those that relate to our current life circumstances. People who don’t get enough Theta sleep report being irritable, moody, and having trouble concentrating.
In a non-sleep state, Theta consciousness is associated with out-of-body experiences, spiritual visions, and shamanic journeys. It is also a state from which come great inventions, inspiring music and art, and deep personal insights.
Delta
When your brainwaves slow even further and roll along between 0.5 and 4 Hz, you’re in Delta sleep. This is the deepest part of sleep and when your body is completely relaxed. It’s a time when your physical body recuperates and regenerates for the next day. Your mind shows virtually no sign of mental or emotional processes, and you have no sense of passing time. It’s very difficult to wake someone up when they’re in delta sleep. Those who don’t get enough delta sleep report being fatigued and groggy the next day.
When delta brainwaves are present in combination with other brainwaves while you’re awake, they help you to access the deepest levels of your unconscious mind and provide access to long-term memories, as well as feelings of empathy, intuition, and a sense of knowing that doesn’t result from a direct thought process.
For those capable of reaching delta levels in meditation, this is an experience of either white light or total blackness, a welcoming and pregnant void where anything and everything are possible. It is the goal of many meditators to reach this level while remaining consciously aware of it.
But Wait There’s More!
More recently, some neuroscientists have recognized additional frequencies, above and below those previously identified. These are Gamma and Epsilon.
Gamma
Gamma brainwaves are higher than Beta frequencies. They start at about 27 Hz and go up from there. Gamma brainwaves of around 40 Hz are associated with a state of Oneness. Interestingly, at these frequencies the brain starts acting holographically, pulling together input from various areas of the brain and creating a more comprehensive and holistic point of view. Gamma brainwaves have been linked with psychic abilities, out of body experiences, and states of ecstasy and rapture.
Epsilon
At the other end of the spectrum are Epsilon frequencies which start below 0.5 Hz and are even slower than Delta brainwaves. Neuroscientists are only beginning to study Epislon brainwaves, but they seem to be associated with states of near suspended animation, like those attained by yogis and Tibetan monks, who can slow their bodies down to the point that Western medical doctors cannot detect a heart beat or any breathing.
Full Circle
Interestingly, subjects monitored in the Epsilon state have reported states of self-awareness, out of body experiences, and other psychic and spiritual experiences that are remarkably similar to those reported in the Gamma frequencies, leading to a theory that higher and lower frequencies might be somehow linked in a circular fashion.
For the most part, you’re unlikely to reach these levels in your dreams, but there are other ways that you can learn to attain these states without studying for years in a high mountain monastery. More on that in future posts.
© Higher Self Guides, LLC 2004. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed for any commercial purpose.
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