Lesson 7
We have been considering, for the past several weeks, becoming acquainted with the self, with the mechanical conditioning. Recently we have been disidentifying from the self, to be aware of the self as an “object,” and I is an observer reporting to X that which is going on in the self so that the self does not report in the name of I directly to X and set off all manner of unnecessary, unpleasant situations that are destructive or disintegrating to the state of being. To further aid our observation we will consider some levels of consciousness and some levels of being, and as we observe these it may be possible to make an aim. Now an aim is not a goal. A goal is to arrive at a certain place, to achieve a certain result. An aim is a direction to go. So possibly, we will consider that an aim might be, to be able to see differently than we have heretofore seen in our conditioned state, and that as we are observing we will see differently.
Now the greatest obstruction to man using the Teaching and possibly evolving into a different state of being, or having the ending of disintegration which means exactly the same thing, is that the self-improvement concept, the self-improvement suggestions since the earliest days of one’s existence is very, very strong — the urge to be different. As we observe the self and begin to be acquainted with it and we see some of the things in the self, a self-improving I attempts very strongly to get I, the observer, to identify with it and then start on a program of self-improvement. This is to fall back into the world. If one should discover that one has done so it is not anything to be ashamed of, to regret. It is to say, “I’m awake and back on the job” and to be aware of that particular bit of conditioning.
The Teaching says that there are four basic levels of consciousness and many levels of being. We will consider first the four general levels of consciousness:
1. The first is SLEEP. When one is asleep in the bed, under the influence of an anesthetic, under the influence of toxicity in the body from adaptation or in a state of coma, in this state of sleep, obviously, one is not responsible. One doesn’t do very much and only dreams go on, if anything. Some of the dreams are not recalled, some are recalled. They are merely the Not-I’s playing and are totally in sleep. I is asleep and I must sleep now and then. One finds that I uses tremendous amounts of energy in observing and must go to sleep now and then. However it does not have to sleep for years and it’s been in a hypnotic sleep for many years.
2. The second level of consciousness is called WAKING SLEEP. In other words the person appears to be awake, walks about, does all the daily chores, writes books, teaches college courses, performs surgery, repairs automobiles, cooks meals, builds buildings and all sorts of things. But this is a walking sleep or waking sleep because one is in a conditioned state and responds to the same mechanical responses; buttons can be pushed.
3. The third state of consciousness if called SELF-AWARENESS or AWARENESS OF THE SELF. It is paying attention to the self as an “object.” It is the one we have recently started on and it is a new state of consciousness. It is seeing the self, John or Mary, as an “object.” It is not condemning or justifying. It is an observer simply to be aware of the self. This is a new state of consciousness, a new state of looking at things, a new way of being, actually, from anything that we have ever known. We have always said I to everything.
4. The fourth level of consciousness is called OBJECTIVE AWARENESS or OBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS. One sees everything freely without identifying with anything, without having any ideal to compare it to or to look to. It is seeing everything objectively, reporting to X, and X does all the work. This, of course, is a state of consciousness that we may not experience for some time. These states of consciousness are not something one “can do.” They are something one experiences as the various Not-I’s, the bits of conditioning are rendered inoperative by X from the conscious paying attention to the self as an “object.” This is really the only thing one can do; the other states occur.
In the states of being which are existent in each of these states of consciousness, there is more the one state of being under each level of consciousness. Under the level of SLEEP there is coma which can be brought about by toxicity or injury. There is bed sleep without dreams. There is bed sleep with dreams and possibly the state of consciously being aware of being asleep, however still physically asleep. There are three basic states of being, coma, sleep without dreams and sleep with dreams in the sleeping state of consciousness.
In the WALKING SLEEP there are several levels of being. The first one is apathy. When one is totally under the control of suggestion and the particular type of suggestion that says, “What’s the use, everything will be miserable anyway.” If any of you have ever seen a demonstration of the hypnotic technique you will somewhat know a little more about this. A person can be hypnotized and brought into a certain level of sleep called somnambulistic which is not real easy and usually isn’t accomplished in the first many attempts of an operator to hypnotize a given subject. But it can be accomplished and the person looks for all appearances like everyone you see walking around. However, they are totally under the control of one operator. Whatever the operator suggests to the person, this is their state of being. If he suggest that they are paralyzed, they can’t move. If he suggested that they are a very strong athlete, they can do unusual feats that are not possible to him in their usual waking state when there is a conflict of interest. There are several hypnotists; all the Not-I’s working on him. As one could tell someone that they were in a very pitiful shape, they would sit down and be in a state of apathy, or one could say, “Your being terribly mistreated and you must defend himself,” and you would be very angry. The Not-I’s are hypnotists and they have hypnotized I, kept it sound asleep, and it reports to X whatever the hypnotists has to say.
As there are many there are ever changing states. The first state of being in the walking sleep, the lowest one, is called APATHY. You may have seen people in apathy; you couldn’t get a smile out of them no matter how hard you try. You cannot get them to be enthused about anything or interested in anything, they just moan. Even their flesh hangs. If they raise up an arm the skin and the soft tissue hangs below the bone. Their whole face has dropped, their eyes look sad and they are in a woebegone situation. Of course, the physical body is functioning at that level, very erratically, and nothing seems to be functioning, usually, in it
The next level of being in the walking sleep state is FEAR. In fear the person has come under the control of a Not-I that is suggesting every conceivable dreaded thing is going to happen to him. This person believes that all sorts of catastrophes are going to occur. Earthquakes are going to destroy us. Inflation is going to destroy us. Illness is going to strike me. I will probably come down with cancer or diabetes or a brain tumor or some other dread disorder. I am afraid we’ll be without a job and we won’t have enough food to eat. I am afraid the house will burn down. A Not-I gets one frightened and can put one in a state of panic. You may have experienced it. You more than likely have. It tells you that something terrible is going to happen and all of a sudden you seem to believe it. The heart races, the palms perspire; the person is in a state of anxiety from every direction. This is fear. The person who has been under the control of a fear-producing Not-I over a period of time is usually considerably overweight. This is very simple because it is being reported to X that a great catastrophe is going to happen very shortly, soon, so the appropriate thing to do is store up food and water so every particle of nourishment that goes into the body is stored by X in response. It is the appropriate thing to do if one is going to be attacked, in a very severe situation, and unable to have food. It is stored inside the body. Generally these people are quite overweight and they’re quite sick because all the many things are occurring in the adaptation because these terrible states do not occur very frequently. As our entire society becomes more under the control of the suggestion of fear we have more and more people decidedly overweight.
The next level of being in the walking sleep is HELD RESENTMENT. It really means HATE. It is a combination of fear and anger. The person is angry, feels they have been mistreated but afraid to do anything about it. This is a state of being where in one is continually seething inside, that one is constantly fighting “in imagination.” Sometimes there are violent killings in this imagination or producing all-manner of difficulties — it is “getting even with them.” In this state tremendous energy, of course, is being burned up in imaginary fights. But X does what from the information received from I that is hypnotized by the ideas of revenge and hate? This is continually drying up the body so it is burning all the excess. This person is usually rather skinny, somewhat wrinkled up. The face shows the signs of the attitudes that are working within. And, of course, they have all the symptoms that require adaptation from the continual state of preparing energy from the various hormones to prepare to fight or run, and it really isn’t being done except in imagination, so they have their share. These two states of being, fear and held resentment, make up most of the practice of any general practitioner physician. There is fat man and skinny man, whether it’s man or woman that fill up the doctor’s offices because they have the greatest number of ailments. Because in the imagination of the Not-I’s that have I hypnotized, it is constantly being reported to X that they are in a very severe condition, a great emergency, and X is preparing them, constantly, to fight or run and the adaptation takes place. So they fill up the doctor’s office.
The fourth level of being in this walking state is ANGER. That is a state where they are constantly sticking up for their rights in imagination, constantly feel that they have been mistreated and that they are “entitled” to revenge. They have no fear of getting it. They’re usually rather blunt and rude to most of the people around them. They are drivers and possibly what the world calls successful. They have signs and wonders that they have succeeded in improving their situation. They may accumulate properties because they run over everybody, they are entitled to, and they are angry with everyone. Everything they do is very easily justified by the Not-I’s that say, “We have been very mistreated and we have got to stick up for our rights.”
Incidentally, the angry person usually has a potbelly, otherwise they are the usual size and shape, have somewhat more of a ruddy complexion than the general run of people. They are subject to heart attacks and kidney stones. They don’t usually go to the doctor until forced to because they are angry with doctors like everybody else; the same as they are angry with their wife, children, compadres, partners, customers or whatever.
Above anger comes the fifth state of being in the state of walking sleep, that state of consciousness. This is called BOREDOM. This person has generally achieved a certain amount of comfort, pleasure, attention, approval, and has possibly had power over other people. But it did not gratify, it did not deliver what was promised by mammon so the person is quite bored. They’re really not very interested in anything and consequently they don’t do very much. They don’t get into too much stress, just enough because they are annoyed with things easily because “What’s the use, it’s all the same, I’ve heard all that before, I’ve done that before.” He’s looking for some specific excitement or something that will pull him out of this deplorable state. Sometimes he turns to drugs, to alcohol or other excesses. He just looks like life is not very interesting; life is a big disappointment.
The sixth state of being in the walking state of sleep, the waking state of consciousness, is that of CONTENTMENT. The person has recently gained certain pleasures, comforts and some idea of security and feels that everything is quite well. They look quite beautiful. They are not overly concerned with anything because they feel they have it made and, of course, they are not interested in being a student. They are not interested in anything except enjoying their wonderful state they have achieved. They are a success whether it is success in worldly terms or success in having attention, approval or whatever the term may be. They feel they are quite contented with their state and why do anything about it?
Of course, all in the waking sleep feel they are 100% conscious and that they have 100% free agency. This is why it is a dream. All are working towards is an ideal. Many times the person in contentment is there for a little while then they get bored with it because always there is greed; it comes back and says we should have more, better or different, or they get angry because something happens and they begin to fall from that place. The highest point in the walking sleep is still an illusion even though it is called contentment and the person feels they are happy. It is a very short-lived affair.
In the self-awareness level of consciousness there are three states of being. The lowest one is VITAL INTEREST, and you are possibly beginning to discover what a vitally interesting state of affairs it is to be able to observe self without identifying with it, without condemning it or justifying it. If you do condemn or justify, of course, that’s an indication that one has identified with it. But it is of such vital interest to be able to see it, to be able to see other people without condemning or justifying, without judging them, simply to be aware of them, to be aware that people are asleep. It is beginning to open untold vistas of understanding and being that one has never experienced.
The VITAL INTEREST state of being is the beginning of being a new person. It is the lowest level of it. It is like being a new person all over. The body begins to be alert, the face shines, one is vitally interested while one is in this state. Now admittedly, that at first, as one begins to be aware of the self as an object without condemning or justifying, it is short-lived. It is a minute here and a few minutes there, a few seconds here and quite blank spaces in between where one is caught in the identification process, gets identified and falls back into apathy, fear, anger, held resentment, boredom or possibly contentment. It is very easy to fall into contentment because one feels one has accomplished so much because one has experienced a state of enthusiasm or being vitally interested in something that one has never seen before in one’s life. With the old ideas of self-improvement it is very easy to feel that “I have obtained a sign and a wonder” and “I did this.” But I is only observing, X is bringing about the state of the inner being.
The next level of being above vital interest in the state of self-awareness, in the level of consciousness of self-awareness, is EXHILARATION. Exhilaration is another word for bliss. A state of being where there is no conflict, no obstruction. These are very short-lived generally speaking. If you experience it you will know why it is short-lived. It is beyond description except it is in a state of bliss, a state wherein there is no obstruction, there is no sense of conflict within and one experiences a state of being that passes all understanding. It is short-lived, it comes in places and then maybe one goes back to vital interest and observing self.
If one should identify with that state of being, one is apt to fall way back down the line because one makes it important to continue to have this state of bliss, or a Not-I gets up and says, “See, you lost it, you goofed.” You didn’t lose it, you didn’t find it, it happened. So the Not-I, as always, is a liar. If one accept that accusation from that self-improving Not-I, one identifies with the self-improving I and is already way back down the line, possibly even to apathy. We have seen such occur. Be aware that states of bliss or EXHILARATION do occur. They are not something one has done and when it’s gone one didn’t lose it. It was just an experience of a certain state of being in the level of consciousness called self-awareness.
The next level of consciousness has been referred to as being an ARTIST, experiencing being artistic. It does not mean one will start to paint pictures, play music, compose music or arrange things in a different way or be an interior decorator or what have you. It merely means that one sees relationships that one has never seen before, possibly relationships no one has ever seen. Again, it is something one experiences not something one can do. It is an experience of seeing relationships of all manners of things that one never saw before. After all, this is what an artist works in is relationships. This is called the ARTISTIC STATE OF BEING and it is the highest level of the self-awareness level of consciousness.
Beyond this level of consciousness comes, of course, OBJECTIVE AWARENESS, and there are several levels of consciousness that we will take up at a later date, we will not discuss at this time.
But all states of being one does not “do,” they “happen” as one is in a given state of consciousness and that includes the lowest one. Dreams happen in the states of consciousness called sleep. Anger, guilt, fears, resentments, apathy, boredom, contentment occur in the state of consciousness called WALKING SLEEP where one is identified with an ideal. If one doesn’t have the ideal one is apathetic, feeling that one can never gain the ideal or one is fearful that one will not gain the ideal or one is resentful because the ideal was in sight but “you interfered.” One is angry because one does not have the ideal. One is bored when one has achieved a level of the ideal but no more, and one’s greed then makes one bored with it. One is contented when one is gaining some degree of the ideal. It is in “sleep” that one believes in the ideal, the ideal of the four dual basic urges, the ideal of mammon, the ideal of the world, and that one can self-improve to the level of gaining these various things. That is a dream state, it’s a waking dream. One might say that it is a daydream or a hypnotic dream because it comes from suggestion, from within and from without and is being in a state of somnambulistic hypnosis.
Being aware and observing this from the point of I. I has awakened and arisen from among the dead ideas and is observing the self as an object. So we shall observe the states of being in self. You might write them all down and see how much of the time that one is in these states and how small amount of time one is in the state of awareness of the self. This gives one considerable material to work with. Sooner or later you will begin to notice, without condemning or justifying, just simply being aware of the states others are in and knowing that the way they behave in that state is the only way they could because they are in a hypnotic sleep from the hypnotic ideas of the world.
Copyright © 1973 by Rhondell. All rights reserved. This material is for an individual student’s personal use; it is not to be duplicated or loaned to another.
