Understanding Consciousness – Part 6 – Summary

In this six part series we have looked at consciousness in a variety of ways. Many people look at consciousness as being awake without any other thought about it. We don’t think of it as something we have control of and in many respects perhaps this is true, because we cannot affect something we don’t know about. This series has been about awareness of consciousness, the second stage in learning. At the lower levels emotions tend to control our experience of consciousness.

One way to think about awareness is with a food example. Let’s say all you ate were hot dogs, corn, muffins and milk and that was all you really knew about food. You probably wouldn’t think too much about what other foods exist or the range of flavors that are possible, because you wouldn’t know about them. As you began to experience other foods, flavors and spices from other cultures you would start to gain an appreciation for the variety and contrast in textures, flavors, presentations, etc.. Perhaps consciousness is like this, we are unaware of the range or what other levels are like because we only experience our own level.

Being Present Mindfulness Quote 5 CWM Chris W Metz
“When we are unaware of what we are looking for, we will never appreciate what we find.” ~ Chris W Metz

According to Hawkins we enter life at a predetermined level of consciousness. This level is likely where we left off in our last life and most people only advance five points in a lifetime. If this is true then we would tend to be stuck in a certain level most of our life. From my own experience of knowing people close to me, this is probably an accurate statement. Very few people make radical jumps in consciousness unless that is their goal. The whole subject of consciousness is not discussed among most people. It is not promoted in school or talked about in the news. The fact is you have to seek awareness of it, and then you will find a great deal of information on it. So we could affect it more dramatically if we actually studied it and had a desire to increase it. 

There are a number of people who seek enlightenment and it is probably safe to say they stand a much better chance of rising more than five points in a lifetime. The desire to do something is what leads to its result. It’s fair to say not everyone aspires to become enlightened, but everyone wants to be happy and at peace. You don’t need to become fully enlightened to find much more happiness and peace in your life. In coaching various people I have seen dramatic improvements people have made in their lives with just a willingness to learn. Not everyone however has this desire.

Self Awareness Quote 24 Chris W Metz
In order to get anywhere, we must know with certainty where we are at. ~ Chris W Metz

You are here reading this so I assume as the reader you have some interest or desire. So the first step is to get a baseline starting point, in other words where are you at currently. Once we have established this then we can see how to make progress. This is where Hawkin’s map of consciousness is very useful. It is a comprehensive guide of how consciousness develops.

To understand consciousness better we need to figure out where we are on the scale and compare it with the levels below. By contrasting the range we experience we may get a better feel for our own experience of consciousness. Studying and becoming aware of the levels above our current level can give us a picture or goal of what we wish to reach. After all, without a goal it doesn’t matter which direction we go. Consciousness like other knowledge, grows and increases through learning and experience. When a person has no real desire to learn or improve themselves than this is all a moot point. Life itself will unfold as a learning experience and a person will hopefully gain their five points. When we become seekers of knowledge for the sake of growing, we can take an enormous jump in our level of awareness and level of consciousness.

The higher energy levels are so profoundly powerful that even brief exposure to them has a lasting effect. In other words once someone has had a taste of what these higher levels are like they will strive the rest of their life to attain it. This happens in meditation and in some ways is told of in the story of Shangri la. Perhaps you had exposure to someone at these higher energy levels. Every time you were with them you felt a sense of peace and love. People at the highest levels of consciousness teach only truth. You will not hear them trying to disparage the character of others. They will not promote gossip or incite your fear or insecurities. They only wish to teach higher principles. You can either seek this knowledge directly from them, or see them as an example of love, compassion, gratitude and peace. Either way you come away being lifted to a higher level. (This of course only happens if you have the wisdom to listen, observe and learn.) That’s the interesting thing about aligning with truth; it tends to resonate with something inside of us. It will always make you feel empowered and make you feel good about your fellow humans.

Let’s get back to a starting point of emotions. This summary focuses a great deal on these lower states because this is where most people remain stuck. It seems to be where most of the trouble starts and continues in life. There are many negative emotions we would prefer not to deal with. As a result we try to numb these painful emotions with drugs or alcohol or we live in a state of complete denial, or we suppress these emotions and just feel miserable. Awareness of the emotional body is necessary but it is easy to get stuck there. We need to be aware of our feelings and the emotional events in our life that have left scars. Without awareness we will continue to revert back to that pain in any moment those feelings come up. This causes us to have a visceral emotional response without conscious awareness of why we are reacting that way. Getting in touch with these emotions is essential to understanding where the scars lie in our past, only then can we heal them.

We can do this work by talking with someone who makes us feel safe; digging deep into our past, our childhood, our upbringing, our parents, caretakers, etc.. The goal is to discover the traumatic events or feelings we may not be aware of. Another way is to start journaling our feelings. The process of bringing these feelings up to the surface can be very therapeutic. We need to pinpoint where we feel hurt in our life and the source of that hurt.

Happiness Quote 4 Thich Nhat Hanh Letting go of emotions
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety or possessions – we cannot be free. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

At some point however the only way to overcome these feelings is to let them go. Forgiveness is the main avenue for this healing, but there is another way. This other way is to put situations into another context; in other words, to look at things differently. This mainly involves taking a different perspective and this can be done with any past event or situation. Almost every child feels they were not loved as much as a sibling or they feel their parents didn’t give them the love, encouragement and recognition they deserved. Almost every child, adolescent and adult feels a parent should have spent more time with them. This is not unique to anyone, we have all felt this way at some time or another.

There was a time in my life when I “hated” (oh how I dislike that word now,) my Father. He spent very little time with me during my life and was a very critical man. I can recall just one time when he made me feel good with a half-hearted compliment. As I grew older I started to look at my Father differently. For one, I know my Father was raised by an old world strict German man, who was probably very critical of my Father. Everything he learned about being a father he learned from his own father. My Father had two boys from his first wife who died shortly after giving birth to his second son. After he met my Mother (a widow with two girls,) they ended up having my brother and I. He had six children and I was just one of them. On top of this the dynamics of step children can strain any marriage. He also had a wife, he started a business, built a house and landscaped it and he also had an active social life with many friends. In this context I could see my Father had a lot going on in his life. He was not very loving or affectionate, but now I see that was his loss. He never got to experience love because he never experienced it as child. He never got to feel an emotional closeness to his children (or me) because he never felt it from his own father. In this way of looking at things, its no longer about us, we see the bigger picture.

Life Quote 26 Chris W Metz
“It’s never too late to experience a happy past.” ~ Chris W Metz

This is how we put things in a different context. Instead of “whoa is me,” we look at things outside of our own perspective and try to see the bigger picture. Instead of thinking of situations and how they affected us, we start to see its not just about us. As children it is too easy to think of the world as a place that exist solely for our needs. This is the mindset of a child, they don’t think in global terms. Yet we learn to consider other people’s feeling when we get older, but somehow we don’t apply this to our childhood experience. So we continue to feel like we were a victim.

My Father died when I was nineteen so I never did get to establish an adult relationship with him. Ironically we were scheduled to go on a week long Canadian fishing trip the week after he passed away. I was looking forward to telling him how I felt. Do I wish I was closer to my Father before he died at the age of fifty three? Yes of course I do, but now I am only filled with compassion for him for what he missed out on. I am also filled with a sense of gratitude and appreciation for growing up in a nice house and in a nice neighborhood. There are so many things that have been good in my life and it has created everything around me. If it were not for my Father those things as they are would not exist. Everything happens for a reason. Another way to look at it is he may have been my Father to give me a very specific set of experiences. (I did after all pick my parents, more on that in another post.) Considering I had an awakening experience at the age of 45, (which was the greatest gift I could ever receive in life,) everything had to happen exactly as it did for me to get there. So it’s all good.

When we take complete responsibility for our life, we can achieve our own happiness. Something happens when we reach the point in our life where we are happy and grateful. We start to look at our life with an appreciation for everything around us. Eventually we come to understand that if just one thing in our past was different, our whole life might not be what it is. If we come to a point in life where we realize we are unhappy, then we have to blame it on anything we can. We can’t take responsibility for being unhappy so we might as well blame our parents, our childhood, our wife, our husband, our boss, etc.. You’ll never hear someone blaming a person for their happiness.

Happiness Quote 22 Chris W Metz
“The road of Judgment, Entitlement, Anger and Hate will never lead to a happy life.” ~ Chris W Metz

If I had spent my life blaming my Father for being a failure (had I chose that route,) what good would that do me? He’s gone and it is now my experience to make of it what I choose. If we are willing to step outside ourselves and view things from a different perspective we can overcome any bad experience. If however we use a bad experience as a reason for not being happy then we put ourselves in a very weak position from which to live our life. If we blame our parents for anything, we are just weakening ourselves. It is always our choice how we react to life’s situations. We can take any experience in life and look at it differently so it doesn’t hurt. We can even turn a bad experience into a positive experience if we are willing to stop blaming the world for our self-induced suffering. The one thing that is true of all parents is they love their children. Some parents just have a different way of expressing it or they have a difficult time expressing it. Some parents become too embroiled in their own drama and emotions. (Sound familiar?) The point is every parent loves their children.

The reason I am highlighting the parent thing is this is where most people get hung up in life. Our parents become the people we blame for all our negative feelings and emotions. They’re the first people we look to as the reason for our inability to deal with life and our unhappiness. This is why we must get over it and take responsibility for our own life. We all have our “stories.”  “Dad was a gambler,” “mom was an alcoholic,” “mom loved my sister more than me,” “dad was never home,” “mom always yelled at me,” “dad was only proud of my brother,” “dad used to beat me,” “dad cheated on my mom,” “mom cheated on dad,” “my parents never cared about my grades,” my parents didn’t have the money to send me to college.” You get the picture, whatever it was it’s done and over, time to move on and take responsibility for your own life. Forgive your parents and just love them. Someday your children will be saying the same things about you. Learn forgiveness, compassion and get out of your small self and rise above to see the bigger picture. Your parents aren’t perfect, they did what they were capable of doing at their own level of consciousness. Anything and everything can be looked at positively as a learning experience meant to teach us something.

Another way to put things into context is to think about Karma. Karma requires that we experience what we have put out. In this way the soul is taught through experience that certain actions against others create pain. The only way to truly learn this lesson is to experience the same pain ourselves. Now we shouldn’t think of karma in terms of being a masochist. We don’t want to feel we deserve to be punished or deserve to have bad things happen to us. Instead we look at any situation and say “well, that didn’t feel very good, maybe I had to experience that due to my past life karma.” The way I put it to people is our evolution was fraught with barbaric behaviors that lasted for a long time in history. Its safe to say almost anyone who had lived a life in the last twenty thousand years probably at one time or another did some pretty bad stuff. Sooner or later we are bound to experience the other side of it.

In the emotional state we are so wrapped up in ourselves and our emotions that we fail to see the outside world objectively. Everything is happening to us and “making us” experience bad emotions. In the emotional state it is never our fault, it is always someone else’s fault. It is always someone doing something to “us” to make us feel bad. In order to feel better about ourselves we want people to validate us and tell us “it’s ok,” “its not your fault,” “your not crazy for feeling that way.” At a deep level I think we know we’re crazy for feeling that way, but we are too scared to admit it. It becomes easier to just have people tell us we’re not crazy, after all who wants to admit their crazy?

The way we avoid admitting we are crazy emotional wrecks, is to create stories around our life. There is always a story about why we are where we’re at. “My wife was cheating on me,” “my boss didn’t like me,” “that teacher didn’t like my opinion on her favorite subject.” On and on it goes, story after story about our life. Do we tell these stories to make ourselves feel better, or are we trying to avoid looking bad to others? The fact is we lie to ourselves and whenever we lie we have to make up a story about it. Our actions and behaviors create our life, but rather than admitting this we make up a story so we don’t have to take responsibility. It can never be truth which is short sweet and simple, i.e. “I screwed up,” “I really didn’t appreciate what I had,” “I took someone for granted,” “I was lazy and didn’t want to do it,” “I never paid attention.” No instead it’s some elaborate story how we were treated unfairly, and how other people were in on the plot to purposely hurt us, blah blah blah. Truth is simple, it needs no story, all it needs is personal responsibility.

Listen to the stories around you and you will marvel at the creativity of the authors. The stories take on such depth because each lie we tell ourselves has to be supported with more lies. “I couldn’t retire, I had to go back to work because my husband didn’t save for our retirement. Whenever I asked about our savings he just told me not to worry about it. I wanted to get a job after the kids were grown but I was out of my profession for so long I couldn’t go back to it. I was too old to go back to school and besides I didn’t know anything about computers. Then my Father got sick and I had to take care of him. My husband always wanted me to socialize and spend time with his friends but I didn’t really like going out that much and I had to take care of my Father. We got to a point where we didn’t really talk that much anymore. That’s when my husband started cheating on me and divorced me.” This same story could be told much simpler as just plain truth: “I should have insisted on knowing. I let him control me because I liked spending money and didn’t want to work. It is my fault.” “Time to move on and once again take control of my own life.” When we tell stories like this what we are saying is someone else has responsibility for our life.

Back to Emotions…

Early in our evolution emotions and feelings evolved in consciousness as a way to further protect us. If we had the feelings of being nauseous after eating something, we might protect ourselves by not eating it again. If the caveman neighbor seemed nice but then killed someone, we might start to develop feelings of paranoia. It is difficult to speculate how most feelings evolved and what their evolutionary advantages were but we can assume they ultimately aided in our protection or procreation.

Feelings and emotions have now evolved to an art form of neurosis for many of us. These same feelings and emotions are now themselves the threat as opposed to the evolutionary conditions that spurred their development. They have in essence created a sense of self, that at most times, is very weak and vulnerable. They have become an illusory trap of getting stuck inside ourselves; literally lost in our own emotions with very little awareness of our behavior.

When we start to tame the worst of these emotions we develop the courage to combat these inner emotional demons and begin to take on a sense of personal responsibility for our life. As we let go of negative feelings, there is a progressive movement up the scale to courage and then beyond, with increasing effectiveness, success, and more effortless abundance. Here we progress accepting more and more responsibility for our life and our reactions to life. Eventually we reach a very empowered state accepting that our life is truly what we make it. There is nowhere else to place responsibility for our life other than within ourselves. We face things head on, admit our faults and accept our frailties. We accept life for what it is and stop trying to control it, instead we understand we only control our self.

As we enter the level of reasoning we are finally able to put emotions aside and deal specifically with the outside circumstances. We don’t allow our emotions or feelings to cloud our judgment or distort our view. Here is where the most rational scientific work can be done. We can get down to business and produce great intellectual works, no longer hindered by the corrupting bias of emotions. As we progress through this process we are also “taming” the most primitive aspects of our ego. Here we teach our ego how to be nice to the rest of the world, (unless of course someone disagrees with our intellectual position on something, then maybe not so nice.) The price of this reason is we start to exist on a level which can lack a sense of empathy and caring for others. (There’s that emotion thing again.) We may get over our parental upbringing by just rationalizing our parents were neurotic. This however is still not the forgiveness and compassion we will afford them at the next level of love.

As we evolve to a more loving state, we bring back some of these deeper emotions. Now however, they no longer cloud our thinking, instead they are used to make others feel good. Love, compassion, empathy, gratitude, encouragement, peace, sympathy; all these emotions are meant to help others, to give peace to others, to encourage others, to “connect” with others. The emotions at the lower levels that made us feel bad about the world are let go. Now we only focus on the positive emotions by sharing them with others. As we progress upwards from here there is an attraction to things that are more spiritual in nature. We begin thinking of unity, of oneness; instead of rugged individuality. We start to learn and apply compassion. We begin to think and act in a way that is conducive to regaining our spiritual place as a co-creator with the universe.

At the lower energy levels the attractor fields are of a low vibration and very dense. In other words they are thick, heavy and very close in and around the body. Because of this, the energy at the higher vibrational levels has a hard time penetrating through these dark dense fields. The highest vibrational levels of light exist everywhere, always. No matter where we are at, if we align with the principles of the highest levels we can get pulled into that light. This is also why once you are at a high level you can almost see this dark dense cloud of energy that surrounds certain people. It is always very difficult to “get through to them.”

As we climb the ladder of consciousness we begin to see more perspective and range. We become less attracted to the lower levels because we clearly see their weakness. Weakness occurs as people take what little energy they have and use it to defend themselves and the stories they have created. What little they have left is dispersed around them as blame, as a result they leave no energy to left to themselves. Power holds all responsibility within itself, becoming a powerful energy magnet of strength. This magnet attracts people and whatever we desire in life. If a lower energy aligns with this “magnet” they will gain attraction to a new level. If they choose to resist against a powerful magnet, they will be pushed away by the negative polarity of their incompatible energy.

I hope you have enjoyed this series on consciousness and I hope yours was lifted higher as a result. Understanding your own consciousness and the people around you is just one more piece to a puzzle that once completed will uncover your own happiness and bring you peace.

Applying the Idea:

  • Can you see how people attract you to different modes of consciousness?
  • If you are feeling happy, confident and enthusiastic, who do you seek to validate your feelings?
  • If you are feeling anger, hatred, judgment or contempt who do you seek out to validate those feelings.?
  • Who, what or where do you go to lift you up or inspire you?
  • Who what or where are the environments that bring you down?
  • Can you see that everywhere you go and in everything you do, there are “attractor fields” that have an effect on your consciousness and/or feelings?
  • Can you see that being at a certain level is a powerful attractor field in and of itself?
    • In other words when you are feeling anger or hatred, you become consumed in that attractor field making it difficult to get out of?
    • Furthermore, can you see how you are an attractor field having an affect on those around you?
    • Do you have a positive uplifting effect on others by promoting love, compassion, forgiveness, encouragement, gratitude, tolerance or acceptance?
    • Do you have negative effect, inviting gossip, judging others, promoting someone’s fears or insecurities, promoting hatred or intolerance?

Please share if you found this information meaningful.  I would love to hear your comments.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

11 thoughts on “Understanding Consciousness – Part 6 – Summary

  1. Saulo Paiva says:

    This is one of the most enlightening texts I’ve read in my entire life. Thank you.

    1. Metroman says:

      Saulo, I am happy you found this post useful. We are eternal beings and require a long process of learning. Once the veil of lower consciousness has been lifted, truth becomes known and is universal. We are all connected, we are all one with the creator of life. If there is anything that I can help you with, please do not hesitate to contact me, I would be honored to further assist you. Thank you again for your comment and thank you for taking the time to read. ~ Chris

      1. Saulo Paiva says:

        Dear Chris,

        I appreciate your offer. I don’t think I need any particular help at this point in time, but I can offer you some background. If you could keep writing it would be great. =)
        I shared the link already with all my friends and acquaintances who need to read it, and I think I will translate it for my mom.

        I found your page actually looking for the chart from David R. Hawkings.

        I grew up, as my mom once told me, “the sweetest person she has ever known, and not because I am her son”. I believed in people, I believed in myself, I believed in God. I made wonderful friends, went through my teenager years smoothly. I devoured books with voracity, was always a very sensitive person, loving and caring. I was not afraid of anything, and just followed my heart.

        However, my relationships were never successful. Or, rather, I could not get into a relationship. At some point, I made a deliberate rational decision of dropping my values and behaving like the majority, and suddenly I ended up dating simultaneously two wonderful women. My fear of being alone drove me to do many mistakes. I hated the fact that to be “happy” I had to be a “worse human being”. To keep things running, I lied and manipulated my best friends, my grandpa (who is my best friend), and hurt many people. They all forgave me eventually, but the damage was done.

        I moved abroad in my early 20s, and fear took over my life. I dated women I should not have dated, just because I was afraid I’d be alone. I became an extremely materialistic person, financially irresponsible, unable to fully commit to anything, cold, arrogant, sarcastic, didn’t touch a book in years. I ended up marrying one of the ladies I dated before I moved abroad, it was a horrible disaster, emotionally and financially destructive. I developed obsession with a few women, went into relationships that didn’t have any purpose to be, and didn’t learn anything new in 10 years.

        Then I met the coolest woman I’ve ever met and that I will probably ever meet, but with my fears and obsessions caused our relationship to fail. Of course, she has issues of her own, but I surely would have been able to handle everything if I had stayed true to myself.

        One day she told me she started liking someone else. Instead of bursting out, I calmly told her that it was ok, that I would never judge her for something I’ve done myself. I had a kick of bizarre inner strength. She gave up of breaking up with me, but ended up leaving me 3 weeks later nonetheless. Somehow I felt that was the right thing to do and the best thing to happen to me in a decade.

        I ended up in a forest alone for more than 12 hours, without phone, and when I watched my own reflection on the surface of a creek, I didn’t recognise myself. When I came back home, the walls badly needed a fresh layer of paint, the place was surrounded by boxes of things I bought (I kept boxes in case I’d sell the things, unable to settle down), I had 7 computers, a lot of junk I never used, my books were in a box, I was a mess. My place was a mess (even though my ex-girlfriend put a lot of effort in trying to make it a home). My mind was a mess. My heart was a mess. My soul was a mess.

        But my friends propped me up. In a week, my flat was beautifully painted. In 3 days, I had a piano in my living room. I started devouring a book per week again. I learned 6 months of piano in 1, re-started learning languages, started meditating, and found my old loving self. I made new friends, and started finding my way.

        Her brother became one of my best friends. My relationship with her is the closest ever, even though she is dating someone else. I love her and try to help her as I can, and it doesn’t matter or makes me any less happy that she is seeing someone else. I just wish her well. I would talk to my parents only once a year, and now I call my mom and my dad every week. My brother should be moving in soon, and we are starting to work on our passion together (and with her brother), I sleep beautifully every night, and I’ve been able to help others get rid of their fears. I stopped watching porn, nothing more pathetic than a man holding his genitals in front of a computer. I got in touch with my sensitive artistic self, I’ve been photographing again, re-starting to write poetry. I contacted almost all persons with whom I had grudges and re-established bonds. I apologised. And I started seeing that I have all the love I need. Kids wave, the post lady always arrives with my books when I need them, and whenever my plans fail, the outcome is always better than what I had planned, because I follow my heart. Things just work out perfectly every time.

        The cherry on top of the cake was finding your article last week. It helped me connect all the dots, and made me realise that, yes, not everything is measurable, not everything can be placed on a curve and means and standard deviations found. I’m not afraid anymore.

        So here is my testimonial, and I thank you for putting everything down in words in the most beautiful and perfect way possible.

        1. Metroman says:

          Saulo, thank you for your authentic and genuine post. I respect and admire your introspective review of your life so far. It would seem that some people have a relatively easy life and some go through great struggle and turmoil. I too am currently facing multiple challenges which is the reason for my lapse in posting. You have given me great motivation however to continue in spite of my current load.

          I believe we have already picked a great deal of our experiences ahead of time as a means of teaching us certain soul lessons. It is natural for many to get caught up in the materialistic nature of life and indeed it seems to be part of the progression of consciousness. I often wonder if one must go through the experience of materialism and “success” (as defined by society) in order to renounce it or transcend it.

          If you view life from the standpoint of soul progression then every experience in life is meant to teach us something or we are experiencing a karmic balance. I too have found myself in relationships that did not seem to make sense but I was somehow drawn into them from a hidden force. These are karmic in nature, meant to balance out a previous life’s actions. We can never truly know the reasons for these encounters while in this physical life, only upon entering the spiritual realm will we fully understand the events in our life and the lesson we were meant to learn. However what we can do that is especially beneficial to our soul growth is to understand that every experience is meant to progress our soul. Very few people assess their life as you have done. By looking at your life objectively you are realizing the truths about your behaviors and actions in this life. This is the only way to grow. It is very difficult for the ego to admit fault or to see the negative aspects to ourselves. At the higher levels of consciousness one is able to take full responsibility for everything in their life, there is no one else to blame. At some point one becomes grateful for all experience as this is the only way to learn. The problem most people have is they refuse to take personal responsibility for their lives and therefor the blame lies outside themselves. When blame lies outside our self then we have no chance of ever correcting or changing the situation, (how can we change anything we have no control of?) Only when we have taken full responsibility for our life and experience are we able to change our life.

          Our life here in the physical is nothing more than a journey of learning experience. You sound like you have a variety of soulmates who are assisting you on your journey and you are no doubt assisting others on their journey. I highly recommend a few books on past lives and soul progression. Dr. Michael Newton has written several books on Soul progression and Dr. Brian Weiss has also written a number of books. These books along with the work of Edgar Cayce paint a picture of soul development that can help a person gain a new perspective on the purpose of life itself.

          Thank you again for your authenticity and sharing your personal life. We can all relate to others when they share the deepest aspects of their life. I always feel more deeply connected to people when they are authentic and genuine. Also thank you again for reminding me why it is so important to continue my writing. Please continue to provide feedback as I continue my writing. I wish you and those around you much happiness and growth. Thank you.

          1. Saulo Paiva says:

            Dear Chris,
            Thanks for your answer.

            I had developed lots of resistance towards anything spiritual or religious, again during my 20s, but then I had forgotten a basic premise of the whole ordeal: church is made of men.

            You point very valid points, so I will take the freedom to highlight what were, in my own experience, the crucial realizations:

            – The first one came a few years ago, but not followed by others. Gratitude. I always understood that what I possess doesn’t actually belong to me. If I managed to be successful in life, from the perspective most people see it, it’s because I had the opportunity to go to a good school, to study, and I was supported by relatives and friends whenever I needed. We can’t forget to be grateful to the ones that allowed us to get where we did. I have the best friends I could ever wish for, and even my messy family has its few gems.

            – I’ve always considered myself a fairly intelligent person to the point that, during my 20s, I became very arrogant. As you mention in your writing, happiness is not measurable. I spent a good amount of time trying to understand rationally why I was never satisfied. Good job, living where I wanted to live, always dating interesting women, traveling. And yet, I always seek more. My partners never satisfied me. I purchased expensive things to end up looking at them literally for 5 seconds. Almost losing what really matters was the wake-up call I needed to realize that. In one month, everything I owned that didn’t see use more than once per week was sold. And now I ask myself why did I ever buy all that junk. Owning things was mostly a way to distract myself of the poor state in which I kept my soul, so were my fears of committing to anything solid, to properly settle down in any way or form, or to turn my apartment into a proper home.

            I wholeheartedly hope we don’t need all to go through materialism and “success”, as you mentioned, though.

            – Assuming responsibility. If we would try to survey the number 1 thing that bonds us as humans, I’d say it is probably our tendency to outsource responsibility and blame. I can’t add anything to what you wrote. You put it perfectly. We promptly blame our upbringing, our fears or the actions of the others. I mostly blamed my fears. This is over, the buck stops here. What we feel, how we react, it’s all up to us. Fears, mostly the fear of assuming responsibility, almost got me destroying many beautiful things that I had in my life. Things that I so stubbornly refused to see, and now value more than ever. There’s no point in trying to lie to ourselves and, in the end, no point in lying to the others either.

            – Treating our parents, or any parent, the same way as we wish to be treated as parents, or when we become parents.

            – I thought people can’t learn, or can’t change, even though I had a few examples promptly available. And here I am. =) I actually was at the point that I’d assume the worst from every single new person I met.

            – Understanding that what you give comes back to you. It’s beautiful to realize it, see it, live it. I have managed to start loving for the first time in a decade, and what I’ve received back is just overwhelming. I can’t help myself but to smile, even though things are not exactly as my ego would have dreamed them to be right now. My ego bothers me little these days though, because I know the next point:

            – Understanding that things are what they are supposed to be right now, and that how we react to everything is our personal responsibility. Our feelings are our responsibility, so is how we treat the others.

            – Karma.

            It’s an indescribable feeling to be able to just love things as they are, and be able to have under your wings the ones closer to you and know that you can handle protecting, loving, caring for them, and helping them find their ways as well. And knowing that I’m strong enough, and there’s enough love in my heart, to handle it.

            As you well said, once we take full responsibility, we are able to change our life. The change is much faster than I could ever have expected. The journey matters much more than most people realize. Life is to be enjoyed and it is not supposed to be a constant sacrifice. There are ups and downs, but one can always keep the head above the water if things are done selflessly and with love.

            I thank you again for your words, for the long and detailed response. I will surely look into the authors you’ve mentioned and be able to contribute with more than just sharing my own experience.

            Love,
            Saulo Paiva

          2. Metroman says:

            Saulo my brother, you get it! You brought me an emotional tear with your response. I sense the happiness in you with the insights you have gained in life and this makes me overwhelmed with joy. I don’t know how old you are but you now have the rest of your life to live in a joyful state because you understand what life is meant to be. I just finished a coaching session and spent a great deal of time trying to explain that life is just an experience for learning, that is all it is. We take it all way too seriously and take it personally beating ourselves up with guilt. What we fail to realize is there can be no learning without the experience of making mistakes. We gain certain wisdom from every experience whether it is perceived as good or bad, in the end it is only meant to teach us. It’s all Good! And what are we meant to learn? LOVE, COMPASSION, GRATITUDE and PEACE!

            No one can truly learn anything until they take full responsibility for their experience in life.

            My favorite parts of your post:

            “– Understanding that what you give comes back to you. It’s beautiful to realize it, see it, live it. I have managed to start loving for the first time in a decade, and what I’ve received back is just overwhelming.”

            “It’s an indescribable feeling to be able to just love things as they are, and be able to have under your wings the ones closer to you and know that you can handle protecting, loving, caring for them, and helping them find their ways as well. And knowing that I’m strong enough, and there’s enough love in my heart, to handle it.”

            “Once we take full responsibility, we are able to change our life. The change is much faster than I could ever have expected. The journey matters much more than most people realize. Life is to be enjoyed and it is not supposed to be a constant sacrifice. There are ups and downs, but one can always keep the head above the water if things are done selflessly and with love.”

            “I always understood that what I possess doesn’t actually belong to me. If I managed to be successful in life, from the perspective most people see it, it’s because I had the opportunity to go to a good school, to study, and I was supported by relatives and friends whenever I needed. We can’t forget to be grateful to the ones that allowed us to get where we did.”

            I do look forward to reading more of your feedback and insight. Thank you for sharing…

            Love,
            Chris

  2. Saulo Paiva says:

    Dear Chris,

    On the subject of consciousness, I think I got a lot from a moment of epiphany but until I have more thoughts, some time must pass.

    I’m enjoying a pint the friend I’ve mentioned via Skype, and we are having a blast. I see you have a new article published, and I look forward to reading it tomorrow with a clear mind.

    Love,
    Saulo

  3. Saulo Paiva says:

    I’m almost done reading Power vs. Force, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone reading this. =)

    1. Metroman says:

      Saulo, thank you for your feedback. I too found Power vs. Force to be an extremely powerful book. Once I finished it I immediately ordered 10 copies to give away. To my knowledge there is nothing that exist which details so accurately the levels of consciousness. Looking back on my experience of life I can clearly see these various levels demonstrated in different people. I believe it to be a great road map for those wishing to consciously raise their level of self-awareness and consciousness. Thank you again for your interaction it is most appreciated and respected.
      blessings,
      Chris

      1. Saulo Paiva says:

        It is indeed powerful.
        The process is arduous, though. Sometimes I feel my ego pushes me down but every better day brings back enough motivation to move forward.

        I’m really curious about the calibration processes, I wish to see it performed live someday.

        I thank you, I’ve been learning a lot from you.
        Saulo

        1. Metroman says:

          Hi Saulo, I know there are areas on the internet that talk more about the calibration process in general. Dr Hawkins describes his process rather well in his writings. There are others however that have done there own testing but I really can’t lend anything more to the technique. What I find more fascinating is the actual description of levels. This resonates with me as truth, both because I have experienced many of lower to high levels. This has given me perspective based on experience. As far as an arduous process, yes if you think about the fact that most people only increase by 5 points in a lifetime, one can see how many lifetimes it takes to advance. I find the major barrier for most people to be the level of intellect (assuming they have made it that far.) With the ego firmly in control of most people, the logical mind does not like to deal with the unknowns in life. For most people it is far more comforting to rely on what can be seen, proven and touched. One can never enter the levels beyond 500 with this mindset. Faith is the catalyst for moving beyond the intellectual mind. Indeed I believe beyond the 500 level, one starts to live from a heart centered level of consciousness. Ironically quantum science is starting to lend credence to the spiritual world, (spooky action at a distance…) There is much we do not understand about science, but we are starting to understand we are helping to create reality by the very action of thought.

          Thank you as always for your comments. Blessings, Chris

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