We’re going through a transition stage between an old age and a new age and there are great and tremendous revelations ahead of us.
Robert: Welcome to Inner Sight. Inner sight is simply seeing that which is always present but not yet fully recognized. You have within you the ability to see yourself and the world around you in a new way with new eyes, so stay with us, and together we’ll look at the world and ourselves with inner sight. Our topic for today is Consciousness, part 4. Alice Bailey is the founder of the Lucis Trust organization which sponsors this show, and all of the dialogue that you hear emanates from her twenty-four volumes of literature, as does this thought: “What must be grasped is that all that is, is ever present.” Many people say that all we really have is the ever-present now, but this seems to contradict that. I’d like to hear Sarah’s point of view on the meaning of that thought.
Sarah: The idea that the ever-present now is all there is refers to the concept of time, but we’re told in the writings of Alice Bailey that time and space are both constructs of the brain and that if we didn’t have to work through a brain, if we were able to exist on the level of pure consciousness where we wouldn’t be impeded by time and space, we would realize that all is ever present. We “simply”—and I’m putting that in quotes—have to develop eyes to see it. On one of the earlier programs on this subject, I mentioned that wonderful quotation by Blake who said that “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” I think that’s another way of expressing this thought that all that IS, is ever present, but we don’t see it because we’re limited. We have blinders on, in a sense, which are created by our own assumptions, our own limitations, our own prejudices and self. Everything that keeps us from really opening up to the world and keeps us from identifying with the whole of life and focused on our own little narrow, tiny world is what impedes our realization of the wholeness and the perfection of life as it is now.
Robert: In keeping with what you’re saying too—it may sound very difficult for people to comprehend—but when I think of the time that I was on one of those propeller airplanes that was leaving for Puerto Rico and about to go to Saint Thomas, I was looking out the window, and I was sitting in a seat where I was being blocked by the propeller, and I couldn’t see anything. All of a sudden the engine started and the plane started to rev up and I looked out and the propeller was going a million miles an hour and all of a sudden it was as though I didn’t see the propeller, but I saw everything that was beyond the propeller. I was able to see what was there, and perhaps that’s similar to what you’re saying, Sarah. So, we’re not really geared mentally or with our psychodynamics, we’re not really wired that way to see certain things, but when something changes, when there’s some sort of paradigm shift, maybe everything opens up to us.
Sarah: I think so. They’ve done experiments with eyesight to show that as people go through an expanded awareness of their environment or they go through a profound awakening, often due to trauma or shock or wartime or whatever, that they are able to see in a new way. They have the same eyes they did before. It’s not that their vision changes, but something has gotten out of the way. Some veil has withdrawn and they’re able to see a bit further than they did before. It’s stage by stage; illumination doesn’t come overnight and totally. It’s incremental. That’s what the spiritual path does, it’s a process of opening up a longer and longer-range view of reality.
Robert: When we’re on that path, I guess the premise is that we reach new levels of consciousness. Does consciousness originate in the brain and are the brain and the mind the same?
Sarah: No and no. The hard part is trying to explain why I said no. A lot of people today seem to equate the mind with the brain, but the brain, as I understand it, is just the physical mechanism that enables the mind—which is consciousness, which is of the soul, which is nonphysical—to register its impressions and recognitions in a way that the human being living in a physical body can grasp them and give expression to them. How would you respond?
Dale: Well, it’s described in the Bailey writings that the mind is like an ovoid. It’s kind of a body; they refer to it as the mental body, the mind principle, which surrounds the person and interpenetrates the brain so that there is this subtle realm of consciousness that really isn’t the brain, but it works through the brain. The brain is necessary to make contact with the soul, and consciousness to make contact with the physical world. So, there is a great distinction there between the brain and the mind. It’s easy to confuse the two as being one because in scientific investigations and psychological investigations, they do get brain wave readings and that sort of thing so it seems that all of this is originating in the brain, but as far as I understand it, it is really the mind’s reaction with the brain cells that is causing the instruments to register.
Sarah: Well, wouldn’t a parallel be the computer in which the knowledge that you have put into it resides, but the computer is not the holder of the knowledge, not the creator of the knowledge, and not the originator of the knowledge. It’s just a means by which that knowledge becomes grounded in words, and in a way, it strikes me that maybe the brain works the same way.
Dale: Yes, I guess you could say the computer is like the brain and the mind is the person that operates it. It is a difficult concept, perhaps particularly for those in the scientific community that have worked with the brain and the psychological effects of consciousness. Their tendency is to be of the opinion that the brain and the mind are one and the same. But I think they’re not.
Robert: The most advanced human being to me is one who feels love in his heart, demonstrates love, has an attitude of goodwill towards his fellow man. I would like to think that mankind will evolve to what I think is that higher state of consciousness, but a lot of changes would have to take place for men to get to that point. What are some of the subtle ways that effect the change in human consciousness? It seems so impossible to happen, but can it happen?
Sarah: It’s happening all the time. Our consciousness is expanding all the time, and we can look back on the past century and say that humanity’s consciousness has made an incredible expansion. It’s just that we may think it should be like the cartoon where the light bulb comes on over the head of Dagwood when he got a bright idea. It doesn’t really work like that. It’s more subtle and slower in its progression—at least when you speak of the evolutionary expansion of consciousness, which means through life experience, through relationships, through suffering and achievement—that’s the normal way that consciousness expands, but it can also be forced, in a sense, through spiritual practices. Some of these are safe and some of them are not. Spiritually, the consciousness is correlated with the centres that exist in the person’s body along the region of the spinal column. Some of our audience may have heard of the word chakra, which is a Sanskrit term. In English we refer to them as centres, and there are seven centres along the spine and in the head that progressively open with the expansion of consciousness. They open in response to the expanding of consciousness, rather than one taking steps to force the centres open in order to have an expanded consciousness; that’s the wrong way to go about it, and it’s actually a very dangerous practice to do that. It’s said in the Ageless Wisdom that when the thousand-petaled lotus in the head is open, the consciousness is completely open and universal in its expression, in its registration. This “thousand-petaled lotus in the head” is something that may sound very strange to people, but it’s one of the fundamental concepts of the Ageless Wisdom, and again, I’m speaking about a centre in the etheric body, in the energy body, not inside the cranium.
Dale: You were asking about what subtle changes affect consciousness, and I sometimes think that a lot of changes come about by physical happenings like September 11th, which was a real awakening, I think, of human consciousness. Sometimes natural disasters will have an effect on people, particularly the effects of hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. It sets people back and makes a person think, and I think that perhaps there are subtle messages being given out in disasters like this. Then I was thinking the other day about a wonderful, really expanding experience when the first spaceships went up to the moon and we got that wonderful view of the Earth from the moon. That was a tremendously expanding experience for everybody on Earth because we could see ourselves from two angles and it really gave us a sense of the wholeness of the Earth. If one really took that in then that would make a tremendous impact on consciousness.
Sarah: Meditation is another way that you can effect a change in human consciousness. People may think that meditation is done for the relief of stress or for relaxation, but in fact real meditation is meant to gradually expand the borders of the consciousness. It’s also a means, interestingly, of radiating certain spiritual energies into human consciousness in general. This is a tremendous form of group service. Group meditation done to radiate light and love and the will to good into human consciousness is a way to expand consciousness without manipulation of people’s consciousness or overcoming their will. It’s not that at all. Those who are responsive to these energies will respond. Those who are impervious to them won’t be disturbed by the energies of light and love in the least. It’s a powerful means of expanding consciousness, the practice of meditation.
Robert: I’d like to think that consciousness continues to grow, continues to expand and continues to develop, and there’s no sign out there saying stop. I just like that idea that we continue to seek and gain self improvement. Does consciousness extend beyond the human stage, which sounds like a strange question, but if you know my beliefs, then it’s not so strange.
Sarah: Well, in the writings of Alice Bailey, there’s this amazing statement that says everything that lives on Earth has been, is, or will be human at some stage of its evolutionary development, and that includes absolutely everything from the minerals through the vegetable, animal, human and spiritual kingdoms. So yes, consciousness evolves, progresses. Each higher kingdom makes an impact on the kingdoms below it—using up and down words which really aren’t quite the right words but language is so limiting—and the human kingdom in turn is going to progress into the kingdom of the soul. That’s what the spiritual path is meant to effect.
Dale: Yes, and we’re in the process of moving into that kingdom now. That’s what the reappearance of the Christ is designed to help bring about: the founding of this new kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Souls, which will manifest in a whole new different dimension of consciousness. It won’t necessarily bring through a new species, but perhaps we’ll see a more refined human being, a more apt human being, one that’s more capable because this human mind will be more awake and have more capacity for greater spiritual demonstration. We know from the writings of Alice Bailey that she speaks a great deal about the Masters of the Wisdom that we’ve talked about before. These are beings who have gone through that human stage and have gone beyond and now exist in this other dimension, and if they have done it then the way is open for every human being to do it also.
Sarah: Another aspect of the progression of consciousness that I think is very noticeable today is the development of group consciousness. We see more and more the realization that people have to form a part of a larger whole, not only to attain their objectives, but to preserve and protect themselves. I think we realize we can’t stand alone. The old ideal of the lone pioneer, I think, is something of the past and the world in the present-day condition makes it clear that we have to stand together or fall completely. We need each other. People realise this and they are coming together in groups of all types to work for the betterment of their condition and sometimes to serve in a very selfless, open-hearted way. So, this again is a sign of the progression of consciousness and it’s an indication that humanity—among some of its members at least—is moving into the stage of the consciousness of the soul which is a higher level than the ordinary human consciousness.
Dale: That group consciousness tends to take one away from being centred on the self, on the little self, the individual, selfish, little self that wants only its own wellbeing.
Sarah: The one that says, “me, me, me, me, me.”
Dale: Right. The group consciousness enables this self-consciousness to look beyond itself, to reach beyond itself, and to work for some other, greater purpose beyond its own little individual purpose. As you say, the next stage which we’re moving into is already manifesting because in a global world that we’re moving into, not much can happen by individual effort. It takes a group effort to accomplish so much of the work that goes on at the global level, that it’s impossible for just one individual to do much by himself, I think.
Sarah: I suppose it is important, though, to point out that consciousness doesn’t pertain only to the human kingdom. It exists on all levels of life. It’s not the kind of consciousness we are familiar with, but the consciousness, for example, of the vegetable kingdom is progressing in the development of more refined and beautiful species of plants, trees and so on, and the animal kingdom too, is progressing. The writings of Alice Bailey say that each kingdom carries the consciousness aspect forward to greater perfection and demonstrates greater sensitivity and responsiveness to the divinity, the divine creator, than did the lower kingdom, so it’s an evolutionary progression from mineral to vegetable, animal and human. All of these kingdoms are expressing the consciousness aspect in their own ways and in absolutely needed and radiant, wonderful ways. What would our world be without the vegetable kingdom—without the beauty of the plants and forests and so on, and without the animals?
Robert: What you’re saying about humanity evolving to such higher states of consciousness: it’s hopeful, it’s optimistic, but there’s so much cruelty in the world today. Why do things look so discouraging today?
Sarah: Part of it, I think, has to do with the set of attitudes and experiences each of us brings to our view of the world. We are looking out at the world through our own attitude, in a sense. Our own doors of perception aren’t necessarily cleansed. They might be quite fogged in with our own prejudices, sorrows, bitterness, and regrets. So, that’s one reason that things look grim. Another is that we don’t always understand that growth and evolution happen sometimes through pain, and that can be a necessary spur to the expansion of consciousness.
Dale: Absolutely; as you say, discouraging is only a matter of perception and it seems kind of discouraging if one is focused on his own particular purpose or life circumstances which may be painful, going through a lot of pain, strife and struggle. But behind all of this, there is a much, much greater purpose working out. I think that’s the important thing. We have to look beyond and look underneath what’s really happening because a lot has to be cleared away, and that’s essentially what’s happening now. We’ve mentioned this before; we’re going through a transition stage between an old age and a new age and there are great and tremendous revelations ahead of us that are going to create a more vibrant and beautiful world. I’m sure of that.
Robert: Then too, maybe our progress or evolution is two steps forward and one step backward, and maybe we see the two steps forward, but we know the one step backward, so we get kind of confused. The way you’re explaining it, we are indeed progressing. Are there any more thoughts on this topic today?
Dale: Well, it all relates back to the opening thought: “All that IS, is ever present,” and I think we’re in the process of discovering that.
Robert: That’s about all the time we have for our discussion today. You have been listening to Inner Sight. Now we’d like to close with a world prayer called the Great Invocation. It’s a call for light and love and goodwill to flow into the world and into our hearts. Let’s listen for a moment to these powerful words.
Sarah: Closes the program by reciting the adapted version of the Great Invocation.
(This is an edited transcript of a recorded radio program called “Inner Sight.” This conversation was recorded between the host, Robert Anderson, and the then President and Vice-President of Lucis Trust, Sarah and Dale McKechnie.)
(Transcribed and edited by Carla McLeod)
(#105)