How Consciousness is Structured and the Purpose of Shamanic Process

Disclaimer One: this is my perspective on reality, pulled from various sources, teachers, and lineages from around the world.This viewpoint does not represent any one group or people.

Disclaimer Two: due to the subjective nature of consciousness, this perspective is subject to change from day-to-day, moment-to-moment.

Oxford Dictionary refers to the term reality as the state of things as they actually exist, rather than they appear to be. However, being a student of Nietzche, I tread down the slippery slope of rejecting an objective reality. The study of consciousness suggests that knowledge is relative, conditional, and fluid. Let's take a look at how this may play out and its relation to the shamanic process.

All you know is consciousness. Consciousness is hard to define. Scientists, philosophers, and mystics have tried to pinpoint exactly what it is for centuries. I keep returning to Rene' Descartes for this problem, his Cartesian idea that there is a dualistic nature to reality:

• consciousness resides within the realm of thought, and 
• matter resides within the realm of extension. 

We can never really know matter in its purity. All we can know is our observation of it, which is filtered by layers of information that exists between the realm of thought and the realm of matter: tools of observation, individual experience, individual knowledge base, etc. For instance, you will never truly know the flower you are observing in its truest form. You will know it by how your eyes specifically receive the information of the photons bouncing off its petals, travelling through and integrating with billions of molecules in the air, then bouncing off of your retinas, travelling through your neural pathways, and being interpreted by a brain that categorizes based upon individual experience.

It's an idea of the flower, but not the flower itself.

Mystics have explored the realm of thought for centuries, whereas scientists have focused more on the realm of matter. They are both discovering that the realm of thought, or realm of mind, is not just located in the brain; mind exists throughout, within, and surrounding the entire body.

The term "aura" seems to be the common vernacular for this mind field, which can actually be observed and measured in the electromagnetic spectrum. In my particular shamanic lineage of study, it is referred to by the Quechua word "poq'po." Biologist Rupert Sheldrake refers to it as the morphic field, which is an information-carrying system running throughout the entire body. In short, the internet of our thoughts, emotions, etc.

In essence, this mind field is our reality.

Reality, though, is different from actuality (remember: realm of thought vs. realm of matter). To harken back to the Latin, actuality (actualitas) is "anything which is currently happening." There is something objective that is happening to all of us, we are all experiencing similar events (air, rain, trees, traffic, conversation) but our experience of them is quite different, sometimes extremely so. We will never be able to experience fully this objective actuality, but we can experience something of it in our own personal reality.

Energetic healer Rosalyn Bruyere and biologist Dr. Valerie Hunt performed a major research study at UCLA where they were able to read, map, and transform energetic signals within the human mind field (see Wheels of Light and Infinite Mind). Even though we can never fully know it, they call a healthy, continuous flow with this objective actuality an alternating current. It means we are participating, not rejecting or forcing, our experience. This suggests a give-and-take, reciprocal exchange with the world which is healthy, light, and freeing.

A direct current only goes one way, there is no return. This happens when one's current reality gets triggered.

A trigger is that energetic charge you feel when someone does you harm, brings up a source of pain, etc. It is usually based upon a past event, a past trauma, that has been reinforced through time by layers of similar experiences. The more it is reinforced, the more intense a charge it becomes. After years of reinforcement, sometimes it is difficult for those who are triggered to discern how they are reacting.

A trigger is like a puncture in the mind field. It interrupts that alternating current and creates a direct current to an alternate reality state. In our healthy reality state we can perceive a potentially stressful situation as an opportunity, focusing on the present moment and what it has to offer. In an alternate reality state (brought on by a trigger) one begins to live either from the past or the future (i.e. - "this is how my previous partner used to treat me," "I'm going to lose my job if I don't get this done in time," etc.). Working from the alternate state you are truly operating from something that is not currently happening in front of you, you are working within a false state of consciousness that does not actually exist. Therefore it has no basis in actuality, which is what we want to have participation with.

When one operates within that alternate reality you begin an unhealthy participation with the world in which your interactions are based upon an illusion. Our goal should be to rework this alternate reality state back to a healthy participation with our environment.

End Part 1

Part 2 of this article will describe how the shamanic arts provide a language and tool-set for resetting this alternate reality back to a healthy participation with our life experience.