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Scientific explanations and logic are reality at a certain level of consciousness. At some point language begins to break down and science goes out the window.

@legendary A direct knowledge of the stages is required since language will fail you. There is no reliable information past the 4th level. I suggest you focus on opening your heart and get self-realized instead of seeking theories The heart is the gateway into the 5th stage. After that you will lose "I am-ness" and divine knowledge will be revealed to you. That knowledge is reliable.

@Silvester Dimensions are not attributes of consciousness. They signify the qualitative differences in the subjective experience of consciousness. You are familiar with the notion that all life is God experiencing itself, right? That God has divided itself into parts to be able to see itself? The 12 dimensions are very crude way of describing God's experience of itself. It is also from the 4th dimensional perspective that we talk about them. Stage 1 is point awareness. The chemical world is at this level. The affinity that chemicals have for each other is at this level. Stage 2 is linear awareness. Stage 3 is 3 dimensional awareness of the world. Like how animals perceive the world as a 3D environment. Stage 4 is awareness of time. This is where matter comes into contact with time. This is the stage the typical human being operates from. This is the the domain of logic. Also, suffering only exists at this level. No other stage of consciousness actually contains any suffering. Stage 5 is what we call enlightenment. It is realization of your true nature as spirit. Language begins to fall apart at this point so there is no point whatsoever in trying to give an account of later stages. Also, bear in mind that his description is not even 1% of all the different stuff that operates at each level. Lastly, dimensions operate at the same time. Simultaneously. The notion that one evolves from one stage to another no longer makes sense after you enter the 5th dimension via self-realization.

Consciousness is very loosely categorized into 12 (and potentially more) planes or dimension. What most people are referring to when talking about "higher" consciousness (whether they know it or not) are stages 5 and above which are non-typical to human beings. Once a soul "enters" the 5th dimension we call them enlightened. Also as others have mentioned, language begins to break down at the fifth level.

@Monkey-man Having a closed heart will be a huge hindrance. A close heart will ground you in the body, which in contact with time causes suffering. Once the heart opens you'll realize your true nature as God or Spirit and it coincides with the death of the "I-thought". One could say that having an open heart is the key to the fifth dimension of consciousness.

Consciousness is constantly evolving. Bondage exists only at one level of consciousness - when time and matter collide. Liberation occurs when one finally goes past that level, which happens when you finally lets go of the "I am-the-body" idea.

Good answer. Rarely see "ignorance" be phrased as a literal feeling of being trapped inside a 3-4 dimensional understanding of consciousness. Usually its the opposite, but thats probably because that perception is everything most people have.

Here's an unorthodox question. Did you ever feel trapped in the third dimension? Was it ever part of your experience?

@Tony 845 You are already enlightened. Stop looking for it. The search itself is the obstacle. What do you think enlightenment is going to be like? Why do you believe that it is an even that is going to happen at the end of your search? You are enlightenment. All your practice should do is to get rid of the notion of being an "I".

I think it is a common fantasy of many seekers that enlightenment will give them an obedient super brain that will be completely under control. Such a thing may or may not happen, but the real benefit is liberation from suffering.

Well this is not directly connected to enlightenment but I would like to say something about the recent killings in New Zealand. I want to talk a bit about the kind of environment and society that produces people like Tarrant. The thing is that the environmental factors which shaped him to do what he did are quiet common. In fact, the way most human cultures are nowadays, the seed of tyranny is firmly planted in the heart of every man since childhood. As men, we are taught to detach. To literally become numb to the emotions, feelings, and emotional being of not just other people, but ourselves. We are taught that as men, we do not cry. That we are impervious to pain. That we are not allowed to feel jealous, weak, vulnerable, abandoned, or too attached. "Men don't cry" after all. But ignoring our inner experience is costly. Tarrant was only able to do what he did because he had no understanding of what suffering is. He was so easily able to kill dozens of people in the fashion that he did, because his senses were dulled to the point that they fed him no feedback. Our sons first experience his world through feelings, but then we teach them to ignore and repress them until they become dull. Then we feed them our thoughts about the world. WE teach them to killers. WE teach them to be ice cold and uncaring. WE teach them to hate their fellow men based on the color of skin. And above all else, WE teach them to hate others for the ideas they hold. Humanity must broaden their perception to see the simmering danger. The sad truth is that its not. I suspect much worse to come in the coming two years. Also this relates to "the path". As spiritual people we employ detachment as a tool for enlightenment. The realization is however, that there has never been ignorance. What does that teach us? That we should not be blind to the full richness of our direct experiences because it IS enlightenments. What we called thoughts is God. What we called emotions is God. What we called feelings is God. All the extra sensory information is God. Detachment is good until we realize our true nature. Afterwards, itself must go for God to be able to shine through ever brighter. It's time for a richer perception of consciousness.

@Truth Addict Good job. The truth will reveal itself in the form of there having never been any ignorance to being with.

@Markus Yes and racism is purely based on beliefs. It has no foundation in anything else. It is thoughts that enable it. Unfortunately, as you said, it is very common. The problem with the internet is that online communities are always fall into extremes. YouTube and twitter for example vehemently censor all sorts pro-white/pro-men content which only causes further resentment. On the other hand we have websites where racist/hateful thought is dogma. There is no middle ground for both sides to meet and reconcile their differences. The way to deal with hate and racism is not ignore and deny it. We should acknowledge it and work with the individuals to alleviate their fears. People don't hate others based on the skin of their color, they hate them because of the ideas they believe about them. These ideas always are based on common fears of men.

Life can certainly be downright cruel. You are not wrong to feel like this if your experience is really as bad as you say it is. I'd say forget about everything and try your best to feel happy. I know that sounds stupid at first, but literally, just forget about everything and go by feelings alone. Forget about the past, and the future and your plans for it and just literally do something that makes you happy, even if just a tiny bit. And the keep doing that until you regain a bit of your mental clarity back. From then you can redirect your life to gain friends, if loneliness is what's really bothering you deep down.

@lmfao Yes. The detachment involved in consciousness work is objectifying your direct experience to untangle the feeling of "I-ness" from it - with the sole purpose being to get rid of the ideas we hold about ourselves. The detachment taught to men is a denial of experience. "Men don't cry" is a denial of vulnerability. On the subject of Tarrant, we cannot dismiss him as mad or psychotic. Remember that no matter how evil the man might seem, he is still not separate from God. Its our responsibility to recognize how the environment which we make causes for people like him to manifest.

@28 cm unbuffed But aren't you actually doing something by not doing anything for a whole day?

@Aaron p Either there is an underlying cause for it, like repressed memories of trauma etc or not. Either case you should probably seek out a therapist. But, to tell you the truth, you don't need to go down this path for enlightenment. Although it would be very difficult to convince you why. The advice, just be, while the only real advice, will probably annoy you more than be of any help. I like this quote: "All suffering, all fear is illusion. Surrender them to God." On second thought, i don't feel that this is good advice. In your shoes, i would look into the nature of my suffering and try and find the inner cause for it. Then address that to the best of my abilities.

Well... anecdotal evidence at best

Amen.

What is the nature of your suffering?

You are on the path of defining enlightenment and that will not go anywhere. If you press me i'll tell you that the Self (your real, enlightened nature) is perspective 0, that is absence of perspective as an individual, but even that misses the mark. You are trying to have enlightenment fit your logical framework of perspectives, but it really doesn't belong here. The frame of reference (Enlightenment as a perspective, like how materialism is a perspective) will not capture enlightenment within, because the Self comes first, then the frames of reference. What you are doing is like trying to hold on to your "fist" and simultaneously opening your palm. It doesn't come from anywhere. It is the source from which everything else comes from. No. It has nothing to do with what you as an individual do or believe in. But it does end up in the notion of individuality vanishing in the end. Something like this. Because, like i said, it has nothing to do with belief to begin with. It has more to do with the fact that you exist. Your girlfriend can't deny her existence, can she? The fact of her existence is proof of the Self, which exists whether or not you believe in it. The problem is that people identify with their bodies, saying that "this body here is I" when in fact the "I" comes first, then the body.

@Tony 845 Shri Anandi Ma (India?) and Craig Holiday (US) are reputedly competent teachers.

@Tony 845 Get in touch with a qualified Kundalini master.

@ahmet sukru No psychedelic will enlighten you (not DMT, not Ayahausca), because you are already enlightened. All you have to do is to take away the doubts and false beliefs about your true nature. You need mental clarity for that. Psychedelics do not produce mental clarity. Quite the opposite. You might have amazing, transcendental experiences and trips, but at the end of the day, they are just beautiful phenomena. Nothing more.

@ahmet sukru My advice will not help you with your problems but it will certainly be of help for enlightenment. When tripping, become aware of how unaffected the basis of experience is. I mean you might be tripping really hard experiencing all sorts of phenomena, but at the background of your existence, YOU are still there like you have always been. This "YOU" that i'm talking about is not the egoic "I" but the primordial "I". It's the Self. It becomes really easy to perceive during an intense psychedelic experience, and later you can identify it in your everyday experience much more easily. You'll become aware of it while awake or dreaming. Heck, you could even sense in deep sleep after the fact, since in deep sleep the Self is directly experiencing pure void.