Why Develop Higher Consciousness?

What are the potential advantages of moving into the higher state of consciousness? Let us look at a few areas.

Personal growth

The essence of personal growth is that you transition from the lower state of consciousness to the higher state of consciousness. The end goal is that you leave the lower consciousness behind so that you are permanently anchored in the higher consciousness.

By going through this process, you will:

Gradually find meaningful personal answers to all of your questions about life.
Gain a new understanding of who you are and why you are here.
Gain a new sense of meaning and purpose.
Attain an understanding that will empower you to solve your personal problems and put your life on a positive track.

Instead of going from one crises to the next, you will go through a series of positive experiences that build upon each other. Instead of spending your life defending your present beliefs, your life becomes a journey of discovery, and you are constantly embracing new ideas that enrich your life. Eventually you will begin to experience the true, inner happiness and peace of mind that all people (even if they are not consciously aware of it) are striving for.

Sounds too good to be true? Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so you can’t know until you try. The courage to try something new, to experiment, is the first step towards any kind of progress.

Resolving the conflict between science and religion

In the Western world, the major factor that prevents people from finding answers to the deeper questions of life is the war between orthodox Christianity and materialistic science. Is this war inevitable, or is it the direct result of the lower state of consciousness?

Let us begin by looking at the history of the Christian church. We have an organization that is based on the teachings of Christ, such as “do onto others as you would have them do onto you.” After several centuries, this organization commits a series of almost unthinkable atrocities, such as the massacre of the Cathars, the crusades and the inquisition. How can we explain that an organization based on the teachings of Christ can commit such acts? Clearly, few people in the modern world would argue that the teachings of Christ justifies such acts.

The logical conclusion is that the church perverted the teachings of Christ. How did this perversion come about? Isn't it obvious that it was the result of the lower consciousness which causes people to make everything relative? Therefore, even the teachings of Christ can become a tool in the “eternal human power struggle” which simply springs from the lower consciousness.

Science evolved as a reaction against this perversion. Unfortunately, science is not above the human power struggle. Today, many scientists have realized that materialism has certain limitations. Some even suspect that materialism is a dead and that it restricts scientific progress as much as the medieval church restricted spiritual progress. In today's scientific climate, voicing such ideas can be dangerous.

Many scientists fear speaking out against materialism, because they know it can damage their reputation and credibility and prevent them from getting jobs or research grants. While this state of affairs is more civilized than the medieval inquisition, it is nevertheless a modern inquisition, and it proves that science is not above the human power struggle.

The logical conclusion is that the perversion of science and religion is not due to some inherent flaw in either science or religion. In other words, we don’t need to reject science or religion. We simply need to realize that the lower consciousness can and will pervert any human endeavor and turn it into a weapon to be used in the ongoing power struggle.

Therefore, we cannot allow ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking that an endeavor is above being corrupted by the lower consciousness. Many religious people assume that because a religion was inspired by God, it could never be perverted by the lower consciousness. Many scientists assume that because of the commitment to objectivity, science could never be perverted by the lower consciousness.

Both of these assumptions are dangerously naive, and they must be abandoned if we are to resolve the conflict between science and religion. Either side must give up the idea that their side (for whatever reason) is incorruptible and infallible! Both sides must recognize that the lower consciousness can pervert and degrade any human endeavor. The only way to avoid this perversion is to constantly strive for the higher consciousness.

When you do strive for the higher consciousness, you realize that science and religion are simply two different ways of seeking to answer our questions about life. They are not mutually exclusive, in fact they could easily be seen as complimentary. Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses and none of the approaches is infallible. Obviously, a person in the lower state of consciousness will be extremely reluctant to give up the claim to infallibility, whereas a person in the higher state of consciousness has no use for this claim.

When you begin to look at the conflict between science and religion in terms of the lower and higher consciousness, it becomes clear that this conflict springs from the lower consciousness. It is this state of consciousness that causes people to become attached to certain beliefs and to close their minds to a higher understanding of the issue. Therefore, people in this state of consciousness are not looking for truth. They have adopted a particular world view, and they desperately seek to force reality to conform to their world view.

The war between science and religion springs from a conflict between two viewpoints:

One viewpoint wants to force reality to conform to a particular interpretation of the Christian scriptures.
One viewpoint wants to force reality to conform to the world view that there is nothing beyond the material universe and that everything has a materialistic explanation.

From the lower consciousness, there is no way to resolve this conflict. Because the two viewpoints are mutually exclusive, one must be right and the other must be wrong. From the higher consciousness, it becomes obvious that both viewpoints are incomplete. It is possible to find a higher understanding that will resolve the conflict.

Evolution and religion

As an example of this higher understanding, take the idea of evolution which has traditionally been a source of tension between science and religion. Based on the fossil record and many other scientific findings, it simply isn't feasible to hold on to the idea that the earth is only 5,000 years old or that all of the animal species appeared at once. The earth and the wide variety of living creatures are obviously the result of a gradual process. However, letting go of this particular interpretation of the Bible does not mean that we have to abandon all religion or the validity of the scriptures.

Science still cannot fully explain how an evolutionary process that is guided only by randomness and chance could produce an incredibly complex and highly organized universe.

As a possible middle way between creationism and evolution, one might suggest that there is indeed an evolutionary process, but that it might not be a random process. When you embrace a higher consciousness, you realize that there is something beyond the material universe. Therefore, it becomes highly unlikely that planet earth is the only place that houses intelligent beings. If there are other worlds or octaves beyond this world, they might well hold a variety of intelligent beings, and some of them could be involved with the material universe.

In other words, the evolutionary process might have been started by one or more intelligent beings from a higher world. The process might run its own course most of the time. However, once in a while it might receive a little help, which might explain the evolutionary leaps that materialistic science cannot account for.

It might even be possible that human beings play an active role in the evolutionary process. We might have the capacity to shape our world, not only through outer actions, but also through our state of consciousness. Therefore, we might have the capacity to create a world that is out of sync with the original intent. Which might explain many of the conditions that most people find it difficult to see as the creations of a benevolent deity.

Beyond religious conflicts

It is a grim fact that more atrocities have resulted from religious conflict than from any other single cause. Yet, virtually all religions state that it is wrong for people to kill each other. This discrepancy has caused many people to abandon religion as an inconsistent or hypocritical approach to life. However, we now see that there is an alternative.

The cause of religious conflict is not religion, but the lower state of consciousness which perverts religion and turns it into a weapon in the human power struggle.

The essence of religion is that an intelligent being from a higher octave brings forth a new religious teaching (often through a particular person). This teaching is given from a state of consciousness that is above and beyond the lower human consciousness. Therefore, the religious teaching is true and valid. However, to fully understand and embody the religious teaching, people must raise their state of consciousness to the same level from which the teaching was given. People must turn the dial of consciousness until it is tuned in to the particular level from which the teaching was released.

Unless you step up to that level of consciousness, you will inevitably attain an incomplete understanding of the religious teaching. In other words, instead of attaining a direct inner experience, you must rely on an interpretation. This interpretation will often (if not always) be affected by the consciousness of the interpreter. And the more a person is anchored in the lower consciousness, the more incomplete, perhaps even perverted, the interpretation will be. That is why some people manage to interpret Christianity or Islam in such a way that they feel their religion justifies the killing of nonbelievers.

When you embrace the higher consciousness, you realize that there could be more than one true or valid religion. Many people find it difficult to see why one God would bring forth more than one religion, but there are at least three good reasons for this:

Most religions are brought forth in a particular culture and at a particular time. For example, Jesus used images and metaphors that appealed to an agricultural society. Although all religions contain timeless teachings, it is possible that a religion can be designed to appeal to a particular group of people living at a particular time. Therefore, such a religion might not be intended for all people at all times. Whereas human beings become attached to a particular religion, God might have no such attachment. God can always bring forth a new religion when needed.
A brief look at humankind demonstrates that human beings are very different and that they are in many different states of consciousness. Perhaps God realizes that no one religion can appeal to all people, and therefore many religions are given. A central theme in all religion is that God wants to bring people home. Perhaps God is more concerned about bringing people home than about getting them home through one particular religion. Once you are in heaven (which is simply a higher octave) it doesn't matter how you got there.
If there is something beyond the material universe, there might be several levels of this higher world. For example, Jesus stated that “my father’s house has many mansions.” The Bible talks about the “seventh heaven,” indicating that there are at least seven levels of the heaven world.
Many religions originate from a spiritual or mystical experience. We can now see that such an experience is the result of a person tuning the dial of consciousness to a higher world. This might explain why different religions are based on different visions of the heaven world. The founders of those religions might have experienced different levels, different octaves, of the spiritual world. In other words, the different visions are not mutually exclusive. They might all be valid; they simply originated from different levels of the spiritual world.

Universality behind all religions

As you embrace the higher consciousness, you begin to see the futility of religious conflict. Behind all religion is a universal element which can briefly be described as follows.

Human beings have lost their original contact with the spiritual world (higher octaves). Our consciousness has become attuned to the vibrations of the material universe, even to the extent that many people have forgotten their spiritual origin. The goal of all true religion and spirituality is to regain that higher consciousness through which any human being can gain a direct experience of the spiritual side of life.

The overall goal for all spirituality is to help people attain the higher consciousness. We might say that religion is meant to be a bridge that helps us cross over the gap between the lower consciousness and the higher consciousness. Religion was never meant to be a source of division and conflict. Conflict only binds people even more to the lower consciousness, and therefore it works against the true goal behind religion.

People are different, and different people might need different ideas to come to the essential realization whereby they can let go of the lower and embrace the higher consciousness. The true goal of all religion is to take people to a higher state of consciousness. Fighting over which religion is better or which religion is the only true one is in direct opposition to that goal. Instead, all truly religious people should unite their efforts in an attempt to awaken people to the need for a higher consciousness.

What matters is that people cross the gap and enter into the higher consciousness. It really doesn't matter how they cross that gap or which vehicle they use to cross it. Once you are in the higher consciousness, it really doesn't matter how you got there. Therefore, you can begin to accept that there might be many valid religions or belief systems. Instead of looking at other belief systems with suspicion, fear or hostility, you can look at them with respect and acceptance.