The model of consciousness presently offered distinguishes itself from the usual one employed by those who seek an outside-the-herd view of life. The latter pictures a man’s ordinary consciousness as being flawed, asleep, confused, and in need of repair, awakening and enlightenment. The instant one paints quite a different neural landscape, one in which there are two separate consciousnesses. One being man’s primary consciousness, the one everyone is equipped with; the one that answers directly to survival instincts. One that runs your everyday affairs and is the source of your vocal personality and sense of having a self, an ‘I”; the consciousness that men normally believe is in need of fixing.
In the routine world, the psychologically inclined diagnose man’s consciousness as having been damaged by social mishandling and in need, through therapy, to be rehabilitated. The religiously inclined say that man’s consciousness, (commonly labeled spirit, or soul), suffered a self-inflicted curse from which it now requires redemption. The other main group who show interest in the matter, (philosophers and mystics), have generally settled on describing man’s ordinary consciousness simply as not being fully awake and employed, but believe that through certain unorthodox efforts, can be aroused to a more expansive state of awareness and insight.
These and all other common models are based on there being but one consciousness in a man. Thus, if a man is disturbed by his, the proper course of action is to try to change it: psychiatric analysis and counseling; religious instruction and conversion; meditation and the various mystical disciplines. This primary consciousness, (taken by the above to be the only consciousness), cannot be altered; it is not broken, thus cannot be repaired; it is not asleep, thus cannot be awakened; it is not captive, thus cannot be freed, and above all, it is in no way ignorant and thus cannot be enlightened. The everyday consciousness you wake up with each morning knows exactly what is going on. If it did not, you would have killed yourself by now via accident.
This consciousness, being under the direct control of your instinct to survive, knows what to eat and drink; what to approach and what to avoid; recognizes which words and knowledge are beneficial to survival, and which are mere noise. This primary consciousness has one interest: keeping you alive, but has no interest in explaining life. This consciousness is committed –
thoroughly committed to your survival, while the other consciousness has no commitment that; to the few-with-the-hunger, is its entire attraction.
J.