What is the state of consciousness? It is the way we view, interpret, understand, and interact with everyone and everything around us. The state of consciousness can only be perceived from a first-person perspective and cannot be evaluated by a third party because of its subjective nature. Reality, in a sense, requires a perspective, or in other words, a state of consciousness, to exist. God holds space for and allows different points of view, but your perspective is always unique.
Our spiritual and personal progress doesn't occur in a linear fashion but rather in cycles based on our state of consciousness. In each cycle, we must learn specific lessons to release limiting beliefs and energy patterns that hinder our growth, thereby expanding our consciousness and moving to a new cycle. One large cycle comprises several smaller cycles. No cycle remains permanent; they evolve as we expand our consciousness, coming and going as we experience life.
Our progress is ultimately psychological because we already possess what we seek; we are simply unaware of our true nature.
Your perspective provides a reference point through which you see your reality. This perspective is based on your self-perception and determines your experiences. Therefore, we can say that you are what you experience, because your consciousness shapes your reality.
Hierarchical Scale of Consciousness
Richard Hawkins developed a "Map of Consciousness," which proposes a hierarchical scale of human consciousness. Human consciousness exists on a spectrum, ranging from low to high vibrational energies. Higher levels represent exponentially greater power and evolutionary advancement. These are large cycles, as we understand them. We must first learn the lessons of lower vibrational energies to move up the scale. Each energy level corresponds to states of consciousness ranging from shame to enlightenment.
We can use a unique muscle-testing method to calibrate these levels. This technique determines whether your current state is empowering or disempowering. Muscle testing involves another person assessing the strength of your arm. If your arm remains strong and doesn't move, your state of consciousness is empowering; if your arm weakens, your state of consciousness is disempowering.
These states of consciousness could be considered small cycles within the larger spectrum of human consciousness. Lower levels are characterized by fear, anger, guilt, and apathy. These disempowering states limit personal growth. Higher levels involve courage, forgiveness, love, peace, and enlightenment; these empowering states are conducive to personal and societal evolution. All states of consciousness are constantly changing and evolving; they rarely remain permanent.
The Higher Self perceives our three-dimensional world through character; therefore, our state of consciousness is perspective. To perceive reality and give it meaning, we need perspective. We perceive the universal substance, constantly in motion and flowing through space in different forms and at different vibrational levels. We can also perceive ourselves as mental states, bodily sensations (such as pain and pleasure), or energy centers in different parts of our bodies. Furthermore, we perceive the outer world in the form of constantly evolving people, things, events, and situations. All of these are constantly changing and evolving into different forms and vibrational modes.
There are three layers to the universal substance and God: the physical (matter), the subtle (mind and energy), and the causal (God). The universal substance is relative and exists within our space-time. While events appear to unfold in a linear order, there is no discernible connecting link between them, nor any inherent time difference. Events originate from the creative source of all.
The sixth Hermetic principle of Cause and Effect states that every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens according to law; chance is merely a name for law not yet recognized; and there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the law.
This principle recognizes that the cause originates within, independent of external circumstances; the causal element is God. Events unfolding in our 3D reality are effects. While one effect can influence another—meaning events can influence each other—this influence stems from the presence of God within us. We can be influenced by external circumstances, things, people, events, and situations. However, one effect does not produce another; this means that if we do not react to our external world but remain faithful to our true selves, nothing can harm us. An effect cannot harm us if we do not perceive it as separate from ourselves. The perceived distance and separation between the subject (us) and the object (the external world) is merely an illusion.