Our Multilevel Consciousness: the Mind or Psyche.
Whether we call it the mind, the psyche or simply our consciousness, this mysterious, unidentifiable and invisible sense of being and generator of thoughts determines who we are, how we experience the world and what we will manifest in our future. Our thoughts are the very essence of who we are as individuals and of what the world is to us.
The human psyche has been studied for a long time, in different manners and from different perspectives. Even though science has achieved great advancements in controlling or even seemingly curing some mental conditions, it is still very far from fully understanding what the mind really is.
Over time humans have approached the definition of the psyche from a purely spiritual perspective, to a very physical one based on the studies of the brain and the central nervous system. Only since the 19th century have we started to move away from this approach to find deeper levels of complexity within our psyche, to even name part of our mind "unconscious". Finally, New Age spirituality and the re-emergence of ancient knowledge about the chakras and the energy bodies are starting to claim (again) that the mind is energy. In fact, these theories state that all of our being is made of energies of different vibrations and therefore of different colours and with different properties. This multilevel energetic perspective reveals much more about the mind and how it influences our emotions, our bodies and our lives in various ways.
The waves of mental energy emitted from our beings are so powerful that they slowly alter the reality we perceive as solid and unmalleable. However, the physical world is just like a dream. Your beliefs and thoughts, conscious and unconscious, are creating opportunities, situations, obstacles, and even attracting specific people into your life. Unlike in your dreams though, physical reality isn't instantaneously created. Instead, it takes time, sometime a very long time, for thoughts and beliefs to manifest. This long manifestation process partly explains why we live in the illusion of powerlessness over what happens to us and around us.
The mind also filters and interprets what we consciously perceive of the reality around us. There are too many stimuli at any time for our conscious mind, linked to our brain activity, to pick up and analyse every single one of them. Instead, our minds use this incomplete data about our world to "create" our own version of it. In a very literal way, on the conscious mind level, we all live in a slightly different world and we all see what we do want to see. And this often is the source of tension and argument between people.
We are now at a very interesting time when science and spirituality are quickly moving closer to each other and starting to describe the same things with the same terms. For example many quantum physics theories, such as matter being nothing else than empty space and energy on the subatomic level, are exactly describing what spiritual teachers have always claimed: We all are energy, or rather energies, and everything starts from within as our psyche creates our lives and our beings.
This new understanding of who we are and what we are made of also renders plausible the possibility that, after what we call "death", part of our complex energy being remains and lives on. In this new energetic state, it is not impossible to believe that we can travel to other dimensions, and that in fact, we probably have to. When referring to the word "dimension" in this context, we are not talking about time travel dimensions or other possible presents. We are simply referring to a scientifically known concept of different frequencies of energy occupying the same space without affecting each other. For example, take an infra red lamp and a regular lamp lit side by side. The energy radiated by the infra red lamp will not be visible to us and will not affect the regular lamp's light either. It does not mean that the infra red light doesn't exist. It just means that our physical senses are unable to detect it and that we have grown accustomed to depend on and connect only with our physical senses. The infra red light here is an analogy for another dimension, or other world, probably with different physical laws but occupying the same space as the one we are living in while in a physical body.
The spiritual dimensions exist in different levels of energy vibration, or energy octaves, each of them connected to and affecting the ones close to it (the dimension right above – higher vibrations, and the dimension right below – lower vibrations). In other words, the world is just like our being: it is made of many worlds with different energies and properties.
While channelling a new energy healing and psychic development system named Ashati (www.ashati.org), new knowledge was received from the spirit world about the human mind. According to this theory, the complexity of the mind as we know it is created by the existence of three separate, yet linked, aspects or levels of the psyche.
The lower mind constitutes a vast part of our personality or ego as it dictates most of our behavioural habits and tendencies. It is also the source of our mental power and potential.
In very simple terms, the lower mind contains many of our memories, skills and knowledge acquired in this lifetime.
The lower mind's activity is based on logical analysis of data and often goes under the nose of the conscious awareness as it is mostly about our every day behaviours - the things that we regularly think, say or do without necessarily using much conscious mental effort or attention.
These behavioural patterns have been acquired over time, mostly through cognitive learning (intellectual and conscious learning using the middle mind) or through what psychologists call instrumental conditioning and which is based on "reward" and "punishment". In simple terms, whenever we do something which brings us rewards (of any kind), we have a natural automatic and strong tendency to do it again in the future. This link between what we do and what we receive becomes stronger and stronger each time and this is especially true with our subconscious actions as no higher mind reasoning is involved. Similarly, whenever our thoughts, words or actions result in psychological or physical pain, discomfort or in some sort of unpleasant result, we will naturally and automatically try to avoid them in the future and in similar circumstances (unless the higher mind intervenes). Even subconscious defence mechanisms are often acquired this way when one naturally tries to avoid unpleasant situations (here called "punishments").
In many ways, an important part of the foundation of our mental health in this lifetime, its balance, control and power lies in the lower mind.
A lot of clearing, "cleaning" and re-organising is often needed on this level for those who wish to heal and evolve personally and spiritually. This is what the level 1 energies of the Ashati system focuse on. Mostly mental, this work can also lead to a lot of emotional clearing as thoughts are often associated to emotions and these may need to be released before the thoughts can be too.
The lower mind is linked to the solar plexus chakra and the mental body.
The Middle (or Conscious) Mind – The Computer Screen
The middle mind is the conscious mind. It is purely the result of the brain activity "translating" mental energies into electrical and chemical messages. It is that little window of conscious sight we have of what goes on within our full consciousness.
However, not all of the brain activity constitutes the middle mind as only a part of it becomes conscious.
The middle mind is therefore only a small fraction of our consciousness. However, for a very long time, it was the only acknowledged part of the psyche. This partly explains why humans still understand so little about the mind and control it with such difficulties. We cannot try to understand, heal, control and develop the mind if we do not take into account and focus on all its parts.
The middle mind, and therefore the brain, can access and translate energies from the lower and higher levels of the mind at any time and at the same time (this is linked to the different brain waves recorded simultaneously in any brain).
The Ashati training will help you access more and more of you higher mind and understand, and even choose, what level of your psyche to mostly connect with and use at any time.
The Higher Mind – The Operator
The higher mind is an aspect of our consciousness that is quite different to the above. This much higher level of our psyche is part of our spiritual self and is therefore linked to our soul, our higher senses and our Higher Self. Its primary mode of communication is through pure intentions but also through images and symbols, just like in dreams. Each one of us will create our own symbols based on our own acquired knowledge and life experiences. Therefore, even though many general symbols are shared by all humans (archetypes), the only person able to fully interpret and understand a symbol is the person whose higher self created it or the person for whom it was created. It however does require skills in analysing symbols to fully understand these messages as the middle mind is naturally quite oblivious to symbols at first (in our modern societies at least). A new perspective must therefore be gained first.
This soul level consciousness is, for some people, almost disconnected from the conscious mind. Such people will feel cut off from their spiritual self. They will have little intuition or inner guidance. They usually won't sense that there is something else in this world than what their eyes can see. They will often think that they navigate alone in a sea of chaotic and random events which they call "life". Their upbringing, the beliefs they acquired then (which are now deeply anchored into their psyche) are often responsible for this.
For other people, this connection is already there and quite developed. They have always felt, at least at times, a spiritual meaning to their life and to life itself. They have felt guided as they have been able to "sense" the thoughts from their spiritual self or even from their guides or other higher energy beings.
The word used here is "sense" because the energy from that higher part of our mind is of a very different vibration. It is not received as a thought like those from our mental body which we can easily express with a corresponding word or expression from a human language. It is more like a subtle sense of knowing and a peaceful and rightful feeling when we act upon it. This is where the expression "following your heart" originates from. The heart being the connector between the human and the spiritual self, it is logical that the energy would flow through it when the connection is happening and when we see the spiritual meaning of our actions (consciously or subconsciously).
This higher mind is also our direct link to what is often referred to as our Higher Self. This is that even higher part of our being that is fully conscious of who we are, what experiences we have lived and what lessons we are still seeking to learn. This part of our psyche is conscious of our unconscious mind and is fully involved when one undergoes energy healing as it directs and controls the healing process. The Higher Self is the step between oneness and individuality.
The connection to this part of the mind is often only partial and is a matter of degree. Not the entire unconscious mind gets revealed to the human self, but only parts of it. However, each major energy attunement and milestone in your spiritual development will help you grow and strengthen this connection, therefore also bringing a little more of your Higher Self into this world and into your conscious awareness. This process slowly helps you become who you truly are and take back your power. The level 2 of the Ashati training will greatly and permanently develop this connection and give you tools to further increase it over time.
The higher mind is related the third eye and the crown chakras. The third eye is its main centre, translating pure intentions from our higher self into images and symbols.
Interactions between the Three Levels of the Mind
The three aspects or levels of the mind are always interconnected. Energies from the lower mind (mental body) are brought to the brain as required to be translated into electrical and then chemical messages. This brain activity is most likely connected to beta brainwaves
The higher mind, created by the crown and the brow chakras (and their respective energy bodies), is also directly connected to the lower mind and to the brain. The connection between the lower and the higher minds can vary from very small to very wide and strong. The latter will result in perfectly aligning the higher self of a person with his or her conscious and subconscious minds. This will help them easily and constantly receive inner guidance and knowledge, manifest their highest good and follow their heart in all aspects of their life.
The higher mind also determines one's perspective on life and level of wisdom and understanding. It therefore also controls what beliefs and thoughts one creates and develops in their lower mind (mental body). A developed higher mind (spiritual work having been done, leading to the expansion of the brow and the crown chakras and their associated energy bodies) coupled with a much larger and stronger connection between the lower and the higher minds will therefore help a person change and heal psychologically, further his or her spiritual development and manifest goals and desires in an easier and accelerated way.
The brain activity associated with connecting to the higher mind seems to be linked to the alpha brain waves.
The theta brain waves are linked to our connection with the Divine Mind which is not mentioned in this article as it exists outside one's individual psyche. The Ashati level 3 attunement connects initiates to the Divine Mind and enables them to access new forms of energy healing and new energies.
The middle mind creates our conscious awareness while in the physical body and is constantly linked to the lower and the higher mind. On an EEG (electroencephalogram) this translates with the continuous presence of at least both beta and alpha brainwaves.
The Subconscious, Conscious and Unconscious
In the Ashati Theory, the term subconscious is used to describe activities from the lower mind which are performed, partly or completely, outside the person's conscious awareness. It is therefore connected to the mental body and its solar plexus chakra.
The conscious mind is the middle mind and is created by the activity of the brain in translating energies into electrical and then chemical messages. The conscious mind is often linked to the use of language. This can however be "unlearned" and thinking can be done through images or pure intentions which is part of the Ashati level 2 and 3 training. Using a language actually slows down mental activity and forces us to think in a linear way, one idea at a time. Avoiding the use of words, sentences, and inner dialogs frees us from these limitations and helps us connect with our higher senses and Higher Self much more easily.
The unconscious is associated with the spiritual mind and all it contains that has not become conscious yet. Most of it is communicated through symbols or pure intentions and knowledge.
