My next talk will be at the Kloof Country Club in Durban, South Africa

The four stages of consciousness

‘The higher self struggles to find its way through the web of human thought.’

J . Henderson

Instinctual consciousness 

The first stage has to be Instinctual consciousness. This is the mark of early man who had not yet achieved self-awareness and acted purely on instinct. The brain structures of embryonic homo-sapiens had not developed the complexity to support language or to reflect on itself and become self-aware. At this point there was no real thinking and consciousness was probably limited to moments of crude realisation based on associations. For instance, imagine a cave-man being cornered by a sabre-tooth tiger and realising its association with death from his early learning experiences (having seen it kill others). This would give rise to an instinctual response of fear.

Schematic consciousness  

The next stage of the evolution of human consciousness would be linked to the development of those areas of the brain associated with self-realisation, language and thinking. This would allow for self-awareness, but with an ego-driven mentality, a schematic consciousness in which people think only in terms of themselves and learnt mind-programs (schemas and scripts) built up from rigid beliefs without any real independent or creative thought. Sadly, many people are even now, still stuck at this level of consciousness.

Cognitive consciousness 

The third stage of evolution would be a cognitive consciousness, when, as the result of education and mental development, a person begins to think less selfishly and more independently and is able to come up with creative and helpful ideas and discoveries.

Intuitive consciousness 

Finally, the stage of intuitive consciousness, in which pre-programmed thinking and reasoning give way to an implicit knowledge of natural universal principles which are then used to understand, or at least explore, the mysteries of life and the universe. This can be seen as the level of philosophy and metaphysics. When this happens we find a more general attitude of love and benevolence towards all of humanity, a desire to help and be more compassionate. Unfortunately, many of us are still lagging behind and have not reached this intuitive stage.

Hopefully, the rapid moral advancement taking place now is heralding a new global consciousness or awareness. People are becoming significantly more aware of human and animal rights and are calling for ecological change. Sometimes these changes are painful, but metaphorically, birthing pains are never pleasant but inevitable. And they bring with them a new life. There is also a new interest in post-modern thinking. People are beginning to feel more connected to others and the relationship between us and the cosmos is also being seen as more important.  

‘Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.’

Eckhart Tolle

Self and spiritual development

My article in the latest edition of Odyssey magazine 

Contemplation

Contemplation

 Dr. Jimmy Henderson

‘We normally keep our minds so busy that we fail to hear the passing whispers of angels’

 J. Henderson

Contemplation is a technique in which we open our minds to incoming impressions, inspirational guidance or answers to problems or questions which we set ourselves.

It is similar to meditation, but in this case we only need a quiet, relaxed, introspective state of mind in which we can allow our thoughts to flow, similar to free association. This is explained as allowing your mind free reign to explore all impressions, thoughts and ideas that spontaneously enter.

Through contemplation we connect to the creative power of our subconscious minds and are able to gain answers, new insights and inspiring thoughts and ideas. This can be useful in business as well as in our personal lives. It can also be used simply as part of your mental development, as it helps you build a working relationship with your subconscious mind. Bringing a certain sense of peace and connectedness, contemplation can also help one heal emotionally.

Although it can be used anywhere, I have found that contemplation works particularly well outdoors during a slow walkabout or nature ramble. In this case I would liken it to a ‘walking and talking’ meditation, combined with a process of free association. Contemplating Nature also brings a sense of presence. When we focus intently on various aspects of our natural surroundings, from the colour of leaves to the smallest insect, we increase our mindfulness of the present moment, of the ‘now’.

Contemplative thoughts can be easily distinguished from day-to-day thinking, as the ideas presented are often philosophical and generally quite poetic in form. 

The process

Find a suitable quiet place to sit indoors or take a walk outdoors in your garden or in a nature reserve. Strive for a relaxed state of mind.

  

Decide on what you are contemplating. It can be a specific problem, an object, a verse or an idea, such as the beauty of Nature. Set an intention to engage deeply and then pose your question to your subconscious mind.

An intention is a precise thought which represents a sincere request or instruction, without any hesitation or doubt, as to exactly what you want from your subconscious mind. It must be simply worded and unambiguous.

          

For example;

‘I open myself to inspiration on the aspect of beauty in Nature.’

Once you have phrased your question and set your intention, let go and move ahead with your next action with the belief that it will be carried out as requested. It is this confident, powerful state of mind that ensures the co-operation of your subconscious mind and which will open you to inspirational guidance from within, or even outside of your own mind.

Now simply relax and allow a free-flow of impressions, thoughts, symbolic ideas and even images relating to your question and set intention to pass through your mind. Initially speak your thoughts out loud. Describe what you are thinking or feeling. This usually comes out as deep and colourful words or possibly even further questions.

For example; ‘I can see the beauty of Nature, but from where does it come?’    

As you continue to express your impressions feelings and thoughts in words, let your subconscious mind take over. You may begin to utter strange words out loud without even thinking.

For example, ‘I see this beauty, it is all around me.’

                      ‘This beauty comes from its source’.

                      ‘There can be only one source to all things’.

                       ‘I am part of this source’

And so on…

Notice how your thoughts become deeper and more philosophical. If they are at first, strange and incomprehensible, write them down and interpret them later.

At the end of the contemplation give thanks and acknowledgement for the guidance received. Once you have practiced contemplation for a while, you may find that you begin to receive messages and revelations much quicker. This means that you have built up a good relationship with your subconscious mind and it is spontaneously releasing information to you.

MIndfulness

                                   

  Mindfulness 

Dr. Jimmy Henderson

Most of us go through life making decisions based on our past experiences without being really mindful of all the issues involved. This can lead to the stereotyping of people and situations and us not always taking the best course of action.

          

          What exactly is MINDFULNESS?

Mindfulness is being fully aware or conscious of what is happening around you and what you are thinking and doing in the moment, in the ‘now’. Simply put, you are mindful when you know the thoughts and feelings you are having about a person or situation and are then able to pause, think and make a more conscious decision.

If it is still not clear, let me describe it as a blend of pure openness, pure observing, and most importantly, ‘a pure feeling of self ’ without any real thinking at all.

          Let us do a little experiment which may give you a better idea   

          A moment of mindfulness

Clap your hands together suddenly, or snap your fingers

At the same time, shout out ‘I’m alive!’

Now be very quiet for a few seconds and focus on your feelings

What do you feel? A little shaken, disorientated or even confused?

What you did was to be briefly, fully mindful of your experience of ‘being alive’.

The sudden clap or snap also opened your subconscious mind for one split-second to allow you to experience this at a very deep level and produce the strange feelings that you may have had.

Now imagine a situation in which you are able to create this experience at will, increase it further, and keep it going for long periods of time.

How is mindfulness useful? 

Mindfulness improves your thinking by giving you better mental focus and attention to detail. It also improves your intuition by connecting you with your subconscious mind and you become more aware of the real issues as well as hidden agendas. This helps with understanding human behaviour and improves problem-solving. You are able to make more conscious and rational decisions in your business as well as private lives.

Mindfulness also empowers one with a sense of well-being and increases moral, human and animal-rights awareness. Mindful people are less judgemental, more empathetic and compassionate, more aware of the consequences of their actions, and able to consciously take steps to avoid hurting others.

It is good for your mental and physical health, relationships and success in business dealings and essential for reaching your full mental, emotional and spiritual potential.

In fact, new forms of therapy try to raise your mindfulness to the point where you can see and deal with past and present issues holding you back and re-connect with your authentic self, that pure childlike part of you before it was ‘programmed’ by your past experiences and squashed by the demands of the world.

Sound good?

How do I become more mindful?

The problem is that most of the time our minds are very active, filled with chatter that takes all our attention and stops us from becoming more mindful and living fully in the present moment.

If you wish to be more mindful, you have to lessen this clutter and clamour going on in your minds and shift gears to a more relaxed state. Brainwave patterns for normal active minds are about 12-30 cycles per second (cps) (the Beta state). You will have to learn to lower it to the Alpha state of 8-12 cps second or even further, to the Theta state of 4-7 cps. This slows down your normal thinking until your brain is just idling or ticking over with no actual thought, but you are still fully aware of what is happening.  

This lowering of your brain activity allows your subconscious mind to become more dominant and you will feel a greater sense of self or ‘presence’.

Exercise

Sit comfortably, close your eyes and consciously begin to relax your body. Move your focus to your breathing. Allow all thoughts to slowly leave your mind. This is a process of ‘letting go’ rather than trying to force it to be quiet. 

          Begin counting in your mind as you breathe in slowly for a count of 5

           Hold your breath for a count of 5

           Breathe out slowly for a count of 5

           Hold your breath again for a count of 5

           Begin the process again, breathing in to a count of 5

           Do this for about a minute. Your mind will soon settle down and you should feel more relaxed. 

                                  

A powerful experience of mindfulness

           Hold your hands in front of your chest palms facing you, Look down at your hands and move your fingers slowly, repeating to yourself slowly over and over:

           ‘I am alive’

           ‘I am alive’

           ‘I am alive’

           Now stop moving your fingers and turn your palms towards your chest. Move your focus to the area between your hands and chest. At this time, change the words to ‘I am’, repeating it slowly and deliberately over and over again.

           You should feel a second shift to an even deeper level of mindfulness (the ‘I’ consciousness). 

           Finally, change the words ‘I am’ to the word, ‘I’ and also repeat this slowly and deliberately a number of times, still focusing on the area between your hands and your chest.  

           Breathe deeply and try to be fully mindful of what it feels to be ‘I’.

          Carry on until you take a sudden, deep spontaneous breath and for one exhilarating

          moment become fully mindful of the fact that you are alive.    

          Do these exercises from time to time. They will certainly quieten the frenzied activity of your minds and increase your mindfulness.

Projecting your consciousness

The projection of consciousness  

‘The birthplace of success for each person is in his Inner-Consciousness. The Inner-Consciousness will use whatever it is given.’
Sidney Madwed
American Speaker, Consultant, Author, Poet

During my many years of inner work with my subconscious mind I have found at a very deep level, a universe of inter-connected consciousness structured in layers, dimensions or spheres in which we can see and experience reality in different ways.

These levels may not even exist at all as a result of our inability to process this inner universe as a whole. However, this approach of discovering the levels one at a time,  makes us able to deal with it in manageable chunks until we are able to fully awaken and grasp the ‘big picture’ of universal consciousness.

Strictly speaking, this is not astral travelling, but rather a conscious projection of our consciousness to any place in the world or the universe which makes it possible to explore different spheres and dimensions in an attempt to raise our consciousness and build up our psychic energy for world service.

This process is similar to exercising our bodies. Huge amounts of psychic energy are needed to keep focus and control over our inner experiences when working with our consciousness at these deep levels, and moving in-between the different spheres of reality as if it were all only a lucid dream. This effort and practice certainly builds up our psychic ‘muscles’ for even deeper work. .  

Energy portals

’Energy and persistence alter all things.’

Benjamin Franklin

We use visualisation during meditation to create, open and enter ‘doorways’ from one dimension to the next or from one part of the world to another. For the purpose of this article, I will call these multidimensional wormholes energy portals.

As our subconscious can be extended indefinitely in all directions, we use the power of our minds to pass through created doorways or portals to bring about profound shifts in our perception and experiences of reality. Using the analogy of a computer, this would be like keying in different commands in order to pass from one level of the programme to the next.

However, at this level of the mind there are a number of important rules that you must remember:

First, once you begin the exercise, never stop it suddenly, as this could lead to confusion in your subconscious mind and you could become completely disoriented. It is also not a good idea to shift your consciousness rapidly between scenes, as you are working at a very deep level and could also short-circuit your neural pathways.

Second, after creating an energy portal or doorway, you need to keep it in sight, as you will have to pass back through it once again to return to normal consciousness. If you do not do this you could also become confused. As with all imagery, the scene you create should always have a sort of ‘storyline’, a logical beginning and end. In other words, if you visualise yourself in a house passing through a door to another level or even historical time, (yes, you can use this method to travel to other times as well), always see yourself coming back into the house through the same doorway before you return to normal consciousness.

It is easier to keep your eyes closed until you are used to this advanced process. After that you can try to open and close your eyes slowly to allow the images to superimpose themselves on the room in which you are sitting.

Finally, this process can be very demanding on your psychic energy and you need to cut it short if you start feeling drained or weak.

Let me take you through the whole process one step at a time.

You need to activate spontaneous imagery (visualisation) during meditation to move your consciousness around inside your created scene. If you do not know how, please read my article on spontaneous imagery before you tackle this advanced exercise.

          To begin, you need to sit comfortably and enter an altered state of consciousness (meditation), one in which you have the full co-operation (and protection) of your subconscious. The reason for this is that you need to set an intention beforehand that any doorways, stairs or portals you create, will lead to another place or a higher sphere of reality. Your subconscious needs to accept this as a command.  

           Once you have created a suitable scene in your mind, create a doorway or a portal and set an intention as to where it will lead, either a sacred place on the planet or simply a higher level of consciousness and reality.

           In the beginning I would recommend a simple doorway or portal which you intend to pass through into your own backyard. Decide beforehand what form it will take and use the finger of your right hand to trace its framework directly in front of you. Using your breath and blowing slowly helps when creating a portal. See it as a shimmering silver mirror-like frame, as if you were looking up under the water at the surface of a swimming pool.

            Now put your hands out in front of you until you think you can feel the energy on your palms. Using only your mental intention and movements of your hand draw the doorway or portal towards you until it is a meter or two in front of you.

            For this example, set your intention for this portal to lead out into your backyard. At this point you need to let go of the scene and allow it to unfold of its own accord (spontaneous imagery). Now using only your willpower (controlled intention), slowly move the portal towards you and allow it to pass through your body. As it passes through, your imagery should shift and you should begin to see images of your yard.  

            Glance around in your visualisation and try to identify the features of the scene. Note the portal behind you and try not to lose sight of it. Try to move around in the scene, looking through projected ‘eyes’ and using projected hands in front of you. Try to touch the walls and objects you see. If you have been successful, you will actually feel something and notice that the walls or objects can be touched or else your hand will simply pass through them, depending on your intention. If you can see images and ‘feel’ objects in your yard, you have been successful in projecting your consciousness. Well done!

            As soon as you begin to tire, stand with your back to the portal and allow it to pass back through you once again. If you do this properly, your perception should come back into the room and you can exit the meditation to find yourself back in your chair. Always leave the meditation slowly by moving your fingers and feet and returning to normal awareness.

Practice with simple familiar settings before trying to project your consciousness to more exotic locations or higher levels of reality. I have found projecting to sacred sites to be very powerful as you can actually feel the energy. It is as if you were actually there.