Dearly Beloved RFers.....
It's October! And you know what that means, right? That means the time has rolled around once again for Uncle Sunstone's 13th ever "ANNUAL OCTOBER RANT AGAINST THE TERM, "HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS"!
(Note for Pendants: This is actually only the second annual rant against the term, but I started numbering with 12 -- Twelve being my favorite number, of course, and because I can.)
Just so you know.
......
[rant] "Heinous"? "Abhorrent"? "Repugnant"? "Detestable"? "Loathsome"? "Naughty"? No. No, none of those words will do. None of them are strong enough, shocking enough, venomous enough to fully express the profound nausea and revulsion that any sensible person must feel when she or he hears the term "Higher Consciousness". By the grace of al that is sacred and holy about Colorado's nude hot springs, I swear that term grinds one's socks to smelly dust!
Consider! Please, please consider! Consider a few of the reasons that the word "consciousness" should not -- should never -- be spoken of in such a way as to fundamentally associate the nature of consciousness with the nature of mystical awareness. Gods, but doing so is a travesty, a crime, an outrage!
- Consciousness comes with biases, numerous built in, genetically-based, cognitive biases, such as the confirmation bias. Does mystical awareness come with cognitive biases? No? Then why on earth call the two things mere variations of each other? Huh? Huh?
- Consciousness is a lens through which the world is experienced. Like all lenses it at least somewhat alters, somewhat distorts what passes through it. For instance, the world as seen through consciousness contains ranks. Somethings are seen as superior to others. Somethings are seen as inferior to others. This perception of the world as involving superior and inferior things is not born out by physics. There is absolutely no natural property of matter that intrinsically ranks one configuration of matter as superior or inferior to any other configuration of matter. Yet almost the moment an object comes into consciousness, consciousness is on one level or another ranking it! How arrogant of consciousness to presume to rank an intrinsically unranked reality! How cheeky! Does mystical awareness rank things? Absolutely not! But then why, why on earth call mystical awareness a form or variation of consciousness? Why?
- Consciousness is essentially, fundamentally inhibitory. Information does not merely pass through consciousness, but is reduced in both quality and quantity as it passes through consciousness. Consciousness is, as Aldous Huxley called it, "a reducing valve". Is mystical awareness "a reducing valve"? Lands no! Mystical awareness is an expansion of awareness. An expansion! The very opposite of consciousness. But then why on earth call mystical awareness a species of consciousness?
We could easily, you and I, go on and on and on here about the differences between consciousness and mystical awareness. On and on. But already I have made my point. Already my blood pressure has exceeded the lawful limits for a fake, pretend rant. Already my Victoria's Secrets ladies lace-thong panties are twisted in a knot.
In sum, if there is any -- any -- term in the world's languages with more likelihood of stopping a bull elk in its tracks, stunning a black bear, or causing a soaring eagle to fall from the heavens, I am clueless of what that other term might be. To witness the use of "higher consciousness" is to witness a train wreck. Nay! It is to witness no mere train wreck, but rather the "Great Derailment of '89" when the Southern Pacific 109-car coal train out of Salida, Colorado skipped track off the Royal Gorge Bridge and plummeted 1014 feet into the Arkansas River far below. It is to witness
THAT train wreck.
Don't do it! Just don't use "higher consciousness" when you mean "mystical awareness". Think of the children! Think of the domestic animals! In your heart, you know I'm right. [/rant]
And Now -- in a futile effort to make it up to you for insufferably ranting at you... a tune
