{"id":79274,"date":"2014-09-07T18:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-07T22:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=79274"},"modified":"2014-09-05T12:58:51","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T16:58:51","slug":"the-evolution-of-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/the-evolution-of-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of Consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Amanda Moreno<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a long-term fascination with the evolution of human consciousness. What better way to understand our current situation that by giving it the context of thousands of years of evolving thoughts and traditions? Nothing exists solely in a microcosm. <\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Eric Francis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Consciousness studies can be difficult to discuss, engage or explore in our present paradigm, however, due largely to claims that they are speculative in nature. And it\u2019s true — it\u2019s hard to categorize experience in any definitive way. But doesn\u2019t science exist to explore speculation? Our failure to acknowledge and explore consciousness limits the general population\u2019s ability to dialogue about these themes, and therefore the ability to imagine and implement possibilities.<\/p>\n

The scientific method is great. I\u2019m so glad science exists. What\u2019s more, I\u2019m so glad that people exist who actually want to and are able to study science. They make my job a lot easier — I can just let them do their thing over there while I do my thing over here. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been all that interested in \u2018empirically\u2019 proving the experience of my psyche. If I awake from a dream feeling anxious, out of breath and emotionally raw, you can\u2019t tell me that the dream \u2018didn\u2019t happen\u2019. My proof lies in the response. When an idea hits and is then brought to fruition, I\u2019m not that concerned with whether or not it was a burst of inspiration or a synaptic response — I\u2019m just excited that something came through that has value and use. Again — glad people will study the mechanics behind it, but not willing to dismiss it because current science can\u2019t \u2018validate\u2019 the experience.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What am I trying to say here? Well… I have felt my more nihilistic, cynical side encroaching in the past few days. Every once in a while, my faith in humanity threatens to abandon me completely. This time, it was due to a succession of conversations with friends who are practicing as or wanting to practice as counselors, healers, activists — general consciousness shifters — who are trying so hard to make a difference or lead a life with meaning. And they\u2019re struggling — with burn out; with bill-paying; with lack of recognition or gratitude. And so on. <\/p>\n

One of the cruelest tricks we ever played on ourselves was to invent a system in which you have to have money to have food, drink and shelter — three things absolutely essential to survival. That trick is right there alongside the decision to separate the mind, soul and body. Silly, silly humans.<\/p>\n

Bless the Scientific Revolution. But the concept that consciousness — which makes up about 2\/3 of the human experience — is irrelevant because it cannot be scientifically studied is absolutely maddening to me. My very basic understanding is that quantum physics is beginning to take this on, but the fact of the matter is that the collective by and large still buys into the idea that if you can\u2019t \u2018replicate\u2019 an experiment exactly, or strip something down to a mechanistic function, it is irrelevant. You know your emotions and instincts? Let\u2019s relegate those as pejoratively irrational byproducts of brain chemistry and then treat them with a pill. A pill that is extraordinarily helpful to some, but that just represses the vital creative energies of others. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never understand the idea that there is something wrong with someone who feels like they can\u2019t sit at a desk for 40 hours per week. Seems like a healthy response to me. But I digress. And I also realize it\u2019s not simple to find the balance of what works for someone.<\/p>\n

I think shifts in consciousness are occurring that can hopefully lead to a marriage of science and spirituality, or science and consciousness studies. When I\u2019m at my most cynical, I tend to lean on the work of Joanna Macy<\/a>, which has the basic premise that we are undergoing a shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. As part of that shift, there are three dimensions to keep in mind. We need people to participate in actions to slow the damage to the Earth and its beings, analysis of structural causes and the creation of structural alternatives, and shifts in consciousness in order to help all of this take root. <\/p>\n

I hope that science and consciousness studies start to merge even more in the days and years to come. There\u2019s a lot of wisdom in the spiritual systems that have been around for thousands of years, both of the speculative and non-speculative kind. It seems like the evolution of our consciousness could really use a marriage of the two at this point in time to determine how to use this wisdom in the most life-enhancing way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Amanda Moreno I have a long-term fascination with the evolution of human consciousness. What better way to understand our current situation that by giving it the context of thousands of years of evolving thoughts and traditions? Nothing exists solely in a microcosm. Consciousness studies can be difficult to discuss, engage or explore in our … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}