In order to sense resonance clearly, it is my belief that a mind should be able to achieve a state called Unconditioned Consciousness, if only for a moment (which at times is all that is possible). The conditioning of consciousness is necessary (that is a question) to manage the complexity of the physical and mental domains — the usefulness and utility of conditioning can be observed by how well we can achieve such a wide array of useful and varied functions in our daily personal and professional lives (sometimes simultaneously) while still having a large reserve of attention available for achieving so much more. I like Mihaly Csikzenthalyi’s classification of attention as psychic energy – and the organization of attention down coherent paths of consciousness as psychic order [whilst the opposite is considered psychic entropy]. As for ordering consciousness, a good percentage of learned behaviors (including reflexive reactions) order the flow of consciousness for a period of time and interestingly enough, reflexive reactions can likewise organize consciousness automatically to achieve goals (an often referred to example is that of driving a car between destinations without any awareness at all of the task at hand, while thinking about or attending to other things).
In order to describe how to achieve Unconditioned Consciousness, it is necessary to talk about the relationship between awareness, perception, and attention more deeply. For a first slice at a model and analogy, let us picture that attention is the currency of consciousness[1] (which gives new meaning to the phrase ‘pay attention’). Regardless of whether we are aware of the these transactions of consciousness, they are still occurring moment by moment. Awareness applied reflectively to the contents of consciousness can be thought of a sort of meta-attention, that is attention about the target of attention, or where attention is being absorbed. In order to suspend (and later rework) the automatic triggering of reflexive reactions, it is necessary to reach awareness of all reflexive reactions.
Early work on static pattern engineering examined two boundary conditions of interest: Unconditioned Consciousness and Complete Absorption of Attention Without Awareness. In the latter case, which takes many forms, I was most interested in cases of extreme depression and catatonia: In catatonia, attention is completely absorbed – none is available – and when questioned later, those that went through this state have no recollection (awareness) of what the contents of consciousness were nor what was external to them (thus attention wasn’t attached to perception). Nearly everyone would agree that this state is one of complete degeneration. Short of medication that alleviates or changes the state of consciousness, how do people in this state move out of it? The solution is a bit counter-intuitive: Awareness (which is completely or nearly nonexistent) is activated and then gradually expanded to encompass the content of consciousness[2]. Of course, the state of the content of consciousness is that nothing is moving – the economy of consciousness is completely frozen, attention is absorbed in apparently nothing, and not even perception is properly processed by attention[3]. Nonetheless, the gradual widening of awareness restores the flow of attention toward perception and gradually awareness detects the slow, painful flow of thoughts (which nearly always have a negative slant). Through this gradual expansion of awareness, the mind seems to reorder itself, allowing attention to work once again as the currency of consciousness.
I wanted to illustrate the extreme boundary case of Complete Absorption of Attention Without Awareness and the mechanisms that lead away from it to state quite simply what Unconditioned Consciousness is: Complete Absorption of Attention With Complete Awareness. Consciousness often operates with a mixture of reflexive reactions operating at a threshold below awareness (or at least only partially illuminated by awareness): to move toward unconditioned consciousness, it is necessary to follow the same mechanism of applying awareness as described above to expand awareness to the contents of consciousness. It is easiest to apply awareness to perception and then to expand it across the entire content of consciousness. Just as described in the previous post in this series, proprioception of thought (the sixth sense) is possible via invoking awareness.
In the next post in this series, I will continue the journey toward unconditioned consciousness (or complete absorption of attention with complete awareness) and talk further about reflexive reactions and dissolving, activation energy, sensing resonance, and finally resonant reactions.
[1] I know the skeptical mind will immediately transfer to this footnote: To answer any questions and to point out the immediately obvious flaws in this analogy, I will give the more expanded model for completeness sake: static patterns and reflexes are the currency of consciousness while attention is the current of consciousness (when it is causing an ordered flow of consciousness rather than just being absorbed). Nonetheless, the model used above effectively illustrates the intended point.
[2] Please note that I am not simply stating that the complex treatment of degenerative mental states can be abolished and replaced with ‘awareness therapy’ nor that this works in all cases; however, this is based on studies and cases where a reversal of catatonic states and extreme depression have been reversed by the application of awareness by the volition of the person suffering this state.
[3] This state is intensely interesting in the sense that is attention is completely bound. All of this is more completely described and diagrammed in the upcoming book (sorry title of the book is still pending).
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As I continue to work on the upcoming volume to be published, one of the opening chapters that has emerged concerns seeing the world in terms of patterns. This thesis (that the world can be perceived, modeled, and treated as an intermeshed collection of patterns) is central to establishing the entire field of static pattern engineering as well as orienting individuals toward the activities (patternsmithing, pattern engineering, and architecting) that arise from it.