5 levels of consciousness – level 3
Level 3: adaptability
The third level of consciousness has to do with our ability to experiment with alternatives. Our awareness arrives at a point that we realize that we cannot win every competitive battle. When the complexity of our surroundings and interaction increases we need to become smart rather than fast or strong. At this level of consciousness we become aware of tools that help us reach our goals. Growth and competition are still driving forces but our instruments, wit, creativity, diplomacy, manipulation, communication, etc become important tools for sustainable development and self interests.
Adaptability at individual level is seen as an adventurous virtue. Young people who free themselves from the authority of their parents tend to become true experimenters of life. They search the boundaries of their existence in every possible way. In this phase the learning process includes the letting go, accepting and introducing change while experimenting with new realities. This is important for our consciousness to reassure ourselves continuously as a self aware identity in the complexity that humankind represents as a species. We become aware of ourselves (the “I am” experience), ethics and responsibilities by experimenting with exactly the opposite.
Leadership develops and people follow and unfollow their idols and influential examples. The “alternative” tends to reign as opposed to conservative dogma’s imposed by the elders and surroundings.
This video clearly shows how level 3 interaction works:
5 levels of consciousness – level 2
Level 2: Competition
This level of consciousness arrives when we need to learn how to survive in a competitive world. A child will enter this phase as soon as he/she is relating to other children of a similar age “this is mine!!!”. The child compares the own abilities with those of others trying to emulate behavior, experimenting to do things too and trying to do it better. “Look what I can do!”
Entering the consciousness phase of competition does not stop the phase of growth. It simply adds a new dimension to it. Competition is a key vehicle of inner and group chaos that initiates the Darwinistic selection processes of the quickest, smartest, most likable, etc. Our consciousness evolves by learning how to find out about our own strength and abilities through interpretation and relativation. Life and survival become significant and relevant to the evolution of our understanding. At the level of childhood we do this under the protective guidance of adults. When we are adult we are expected to do it by ourselves. Establishing communities helps us by agreeing to common values and rules (culture), also for competition (You will not kill. You are faithful to your partner. Etc).
How we deal with the community and its functioning individually in a conscious way is level 4. Before that we deal with society as if it were the only reality of life without consciously questioning it.
This short video shows competition in the wild in a natural way. We see both growth and competition interact beautifully with different community cultures interacting and a courageous community driven outcome.
5 levels of consciousness – level 1
When we dealt with the blog series of the secrets of life the 5 levels of consciousness already appeared. I only did not explain them as such. In the STIR community I prepared a series of minors around consciousness. If you want to go profoundly into this matter or add to it from your own expertise, I advise you to become member of the STIR community.
Note: some confusion exists about the usage of the words “Consciousness” and “Awareness”. For me “Awareness” gives meaning to the sensory registration of inner and outer impulses (ie au, it’s hot!). “Consciousness” is the in depth interpretation of the complexity of multisensory impulses into the rational of understanding (ie It’s hot. It hurts, I know where it comes from, why, what it does to me and how to deal with it etc).
Consciousness level 1: growth
When we are conceived and subsequently born as a new member of the human population we grow physically through feeding. When we reach a point of maximum growth we enter a state of readiness to multiply. As a species we follow the traditional growth patterns of life in nature.
But the physical part is not all that grows. The many senses of our existence need to learn to interpret our surroundings to continue living a life. So our awareness grows through a learning pattern of experimental interpretation. Our perception enhances itself through repetition. We are triggered and informed by multi-sensory interaction between our inner awareness and needs with outside stimuli. In this way for instance a baby will find a breast to feed when it is hungry or cry when the breast is not there.
We grow in awareness and potential understanding when we sum up experiences through exercise. They may break through into our consciousness when they reach self aware reflective processes. We learn to interpret emotions, physical development, spirituality through rational thoughts. This is all part of growth too. It represents the level and experience we develop in interpreting impulses. This is extremely complex and the level of reliability of what we interpret needs continuous correction.
The following TED talk shows us how easily we are tricked just by interpreting colors alone. Just imagine what happens when we evolve the complexity of combining all our senses. We need to try to determine what is real, how it affects us (for instance “what can I eat?” or “what is safe?” and “to what extend can I trust my surroundings and myself?”), and how we use this interpretation for your own welbeing and sustainable development.
When we understand that we can be tricked by our own mind we can also learn to distinguish manipulation of reality that tries to influence us. Here is an interesting example about the true size of Africa in relation to the other continents. What political benefit do you think the USA or Europe would have over history to use the “traditional” but wrong perception of size of the Northern Hemisphere over the Southern?:
Con you imagine by now what level 2 consciousness brings us?
Sustainocracy, the new democracy 