THE SCIENCE OF VIRTUES

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THE POWER OF VIRTUES

Transformational Lectures On Virtuology

helping your team to achieve success
by means of virtues

Transformational Lectures On Virtuology

helping your team to achieve success
by means of virtues

Transformational Lectures On Virtuology

helping your team to achieve success
by means of virtues

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The primer on virtuology.
Everything you need to know to harness
the power of your virtues

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THE POWER OF VIRTUES

About Consciousness and How to Raise It

Featuring the method of raising consciousness that ensures success in anything

Consciousness IS not…

awareness

it is not mere awareness and wakefulness

ability

is not the ability to think and reason about the objective world

activity

it is not brain activity because the once brain-dead report having it

in the brain

it is not just in the brain but in every cell; it is omnipresent and non-local

The Consciousness Theorem states that
the degree of one’s overall well-being = the degree of one’s consciousness.
In other words, the level of our individual and collective success, prosperity, health and relationships, is equivalent to the level of our consciousness. What is the degree or level of consciousness and how to raise it so as to increase your well-being is revealed on this page and elaborated in the whole of virtuology program.

why

It is important to understand to some degree what consciousness is because only then you can consciously raise it and harness its power in reaching all your goals. Raising your consciousness is an essential prerequisite for raising your well-being, including success and happiness. A low level of consciousness causes a low level of well-being, and a higher level of consciousness leads to a higher level of well-being. Any significant progress or breakthrough requires a leap of consciousness.

Consciousness is tied more to virtues than to knowledge and skills since the highest modes of consciousness are in fact virtues (wisdom, love, compassion, joy, inner peace, etc.). Therefore, raising your consciousness is done by cultivating your virtues, i.e. by the process of virtufication, which is instructed by virtuology. The more you virtufy yourself (implement virtues into your daily life), the higher the level of your consciousness is and therefore of your well-being, which increases also your productivity and efficiency that are necessary for increased prosperity.

We can neither raise consciousness nor can we lower it, as we will explain it here by helping you expand your consciousness on what consciousness is in a broader sense. The expression of “raising consciousness” usually denotes raising awareness, which you can and should raise indeed. In Virtuology, we use that expression to denote raising the level of consciousness or raising own frequency. We also use alternative terms for it, such as consciousness calibration and virtufication. By “virtufication” we mean to emphasize the role of virtues in raising your consciousness.

Virtuology and Virtufication are all about raising consciousness through virtues, so consciousness is a key concept here, which is why we need to expound on that topic from the get-go.

It is not a light subject to articulate but it is very light to incorporate and, above all, it is essential for lasting and profound well-being, so bear with us till the end. You can’t expand and raise your consciousness unless you stretch your mind, which might require some effort on your part. Stretching your mind may not be all fun and games, but it is surely rewarding. One thing is certain, the rewards will be much greater than the energy invested in acquainting yourself with the whole subject matter.

Virtuology is the science of virtues and consciousness devoted to the study of the influence of virtues on happiness and success.

Virtues are constructive modes of consciousness.

Talidari

virtuologues,
founders of Virtuology

Consciousness

Consciousness is a many splendored thing. It is one of those enigmatic, phenomenal terms, like God, soul and spirit, that is hard or impossible to define due to its subtle, indefinite and extensive properties, which makes it the most fascinating aspect of human beings. Notoriously ambiguous, the abstract noun “consciousness” is an indefinable entity because it is impossible to specify what it is altogether and what it does.

None of us can perceive consciousness per se since we perceive through consciousness. Clearly, it is impossible to look at something while looking through it. Can you look at the eyes while looking through them? Can you look at the binoculars while looking through them? You might, but only partially; never entirely and essentially. Along the same lines, no one is able to fully grasp consciousness, truly define it, or pin down its essential properties, which is why consciousness has been forevermore a subject of spiritual, philosophical, psychological, scientific, medical, and moral speculations, as well as a conduit of some know-it-alls’ vanities and delusions.

The totality and the complexity of consciousness can never be fully grasped and articulated due to the limited nature of human perception and articulation, and because of the inherent disparity between the limited human perception and the limitless consciousness. We are yet to meet an enlightened, humble individual who could put the totality of consciousness into words. Even though some might claim to know what consciousness consists of, we should bear in mind that consciousness is more than the sum of its parts.

As to the limited nature of human perception that makes it impossible to grasp limitless consciousness, let us remind you that even while awake and conscious and aware of our surroundings, still none of us are conscious and aware of most events that go around and inside of us exactly because of the limitations of human mind and perception.

We don’t perceive all the microorganisms, objects, radiations, sounds, smells, feelings of persons present, etc. We also don’t perceive most of the things that go on inside ourselves, like the flow of blood, heart rate, pulse, and the activities of our inner organs.

Human perception is indeed limited, as well as subject to optical illusions, but as it turns out, consciousness isn’t. We can be conscious of things we don’t perceive, but not the vice versa. Since consciousness and perception are not the same, it is impossible to perceive something limitless with limited means. Our senses are good for awareness but not so much for consciousness.

The answer to the question of what consciousness is depends on who you ask. Scientists, doctors, academics, priests, gurus, philosophers – they all have their own quite different understandings and definitions of the consciousness. There are many among them out there who are brave and humble enough to admit that they don’t really have the true answer to the exact whatabouts and whereabouts of consciousness. Whether consciousness is located in the brain, or someplace else, or in every cell of the body, or beyond the human body, or in ether, or everywhere at once, and whether consciousness could be defined, we will leave it up to you to decide it for yourself. But most importantly, we will get you to rise above the limitations of the mind and its definitions, so as to harness the power of the higher modes of consciousness (higher than your current one) for your wellbeing and prosperity.

consciousness is not…

As Wikipedia puts it, despite centuries of analyses, definitions, explanations and debates by philosophers and scientists, consciousness remains puzzling and controversial, being the most mysterious aspect of our lives. As such a complex, mystical, multifaceted and ambiguous concept that eludes any universal definition, the most appropriate way to explain it, might be to elaborate on what consciousness is not.

Let there be no confusion, consciousness is not the same as conscience, which is linked to morality and defined as a sense of right and wrong that urges one to act morally, leading to feelings of remorse when one commits actions that go against own moral values, as well as to feelings of decency and integrity when actions conform to such norms.

awareness

Consciousness is not mere awareness. Most dictionaries define consciousness as awareness (of one’s own existence, sensations, thoughts, feelings, surroundings, etc.) but that is only one of many mechanisms of consciousness. Besides, our consciousness can be in a mode of which we might not be aware at all, although we are conscious, awake and aware of our environment. For instance, you might watch the news and get your consciousness into the mode of compassion for the reported victims, without being aware that you are actually being compassionate. Awareness is one of the consciousness’ mechanisms or components or activities, but not the consciousness itself.

To make it clear, let’s take the discoveries of modern science on consciousness through thorough studies of those who have woken up from the coma and those who have experienced a near-death experience, as well as those who had an out-of-body experience under the influence of psychedelic agent.

Comatose patients are characterized as having a complete absence of both wakefulness and awareness, yet upon coming out of a coma, most of them report being conscious of their surroundings, thoughts and emotions while in a coma. Besides, EEG and hi-tech scans can detect signs of consciousness in comatose patients as well as their signals to questions being asked. Their thoughts can be scanned, so by mere means of thinking they answered with suggested “yes” and “no” thoughts. As it turns out, allegedly unconscious people are conscious after all, suggesting that consciousness never really turns off or on but just moves to another dimension of reality.

consciousness is not…

Consciousness is not really the ability to think and reason about the objective world in the overall experience, as some dictionaries define it, for the same reasons we mentioned earlier. While we are in sleep or are in a coma, we are not capable of thinking as in contemplating, deliberating and reasoning, even though our consciousness is at play. We might be conscious of own thoughts but, while dreaming or in a coma, we don’t actually express ability to think things through.

intelligence

Consciousness is not mere intelligence. Intelligence is just one of many mechanisms of consciousness, which can either work to our advantage or disadvantage. As you know there is such thing as artificial intelligence (AI) which is devoid of consciousness altogether. We don’t have a machine that can replace consciousness, which is to say that consciousness is a biological phenomenon. Much of the disappointment of robotics derives from the fact that we don’t know how to make a conscious robot, which could also procreate itself as humans do. It is impossible precisely because intelligence, human or artificial, is not the same as consciousness.

You can have intelligence without consciousness (e.g., AI), but you can’t have consciousness without intelligence. A low level of consciousness is the reason for a low level of intelligence and creativity in a person. By raising consciousness, intelligence and creativity raise too. In other words, by virtufying yourself, you get more intelligent and more capable to construct your reality as you wish. The fact that robots have no consciousness, no conscience and no procreative capability suggests that consciousness is more tied to creation than to plain awareness and intelligence.

It has to be also understood that consciousness is not an act; it expresses itself not because you are doing something, but because you are not doing the usual consciousness-neglecting activities – you simply let consciousness be. It is not something that you can do or not do; you cannot turn it on or off, but you can alter its states and raise or lower its level.

wakefulness

Consciousness is also not wakefulness. We emphasize this because of those dictionaries that define consciousness as “a state of being awake in which we perceive, recognize and experience the inner and outer world.” However, consciousness also manifests in sleep, coma and in near-death experiences, so since in such cases, people are not awake, then this definition of consciousness is not valid.

The reports from people who came out of a coma, reveal us that consciousness has nothing to do with being awake, just as dream-interpretation experts confirm it, too. When we are not awake, it doesn’t mean that we are unconscious.

In dreams, coma and altered states of consciousness (hypnosis, trance, etc.), our consciousness only moves to another dimension of reality. People who woke up from coma reported that while in coma, they were aware of their surroundings, that they could hear sounds and voices, and even feel sensations. Some described it as being trapped inside their own mind or within their body, while some others had referred to it as living in an alternate reality. Being under heavy sedatives had surely some bearing on their understanding of what was going on, which is why such accounts had long been taken as hallucinations, but with all the advanced research and technology, they now take a whole new meaning. Nevertheless, the scientists of the day are pretty much in the dark when it comes to understanding consciousness.

Consciousness Theories

There is no universally accepted theory of consciousness. To most philosophers, the word “consciousness” connotes the relationship between the mind and the world, whereas to spiritual or religious pundits, it usually connotes the relationship between the mind and God. In any case, it is regarded as a relationship that extends beyond mere awareness and beyond the abilities of the brain organ.

What Is Consciousness Really

Consciousness Is More Than You Think

Developmental psychologists view consciousness not as a single entity, but as a developmental process. There is no viable reason to assume that consciousness is tied to any particular physical body or mind, or that consciousness cannot be transferred from one body or mind or soul to another. Countless studies verify that one’s consciousness may alter by a mere presence of someone else, suggesting that transformation occurs through transportation of consciousness, rather than just through learning or anything else. As you probably know, when noble and charismatic people grace you with their presence, you feel immediately elevated. Without saying a word, they light up the room, so to speak, and everyone in it.

Social psychologists view consciousness as a product of cultural influence, having little to do with the individual. According to them, consciousness is tied to the whole society or network, rather than to a person. For instance, different languages, religions and reality-shows formulate and express reality differently, which leads to differences in the perception of reality and in mentality, and therefore of consciousness. The same event is perceived and interpreted differently not only by people of diverse cultural backgrounds, but also of diverse demographic segments of populations (such as different age groups, races, sexes or income) and, mostly, by people of different levels of consciousness.

Whatever happens, it is never perceived as it is but as we are conditioned to perceive it. Ponder on that a little bit, because if you do it right, you will get rid of the many shared prejudices and other misconceptions that make you suffer like others. Also, that consciousness is more collective than a single entity, this makes it an extension or offshoot of the unified field, as termed by Einstein, or as ether by Tesla, or collective unconscious by Carl G. Jung, or as akashic records in Hinduism. This is not to say that it is formed only by external stimuli, but rather that both inner and outer consciousness are equally at play, and that experience is less tied to objects than to subjects of perception.

No one quite knows what to make of the consciousness but that hasn’t prevented many of us from trying to define it. According to Wikipedia, consciousness at its simplest is “sentience or awareness of internal or external existence”. However, do not limit yourself with the incomplete dictionaries’ definitions that reduce consciousness to sentience, awareness, wakefulness, alertness and such, rather become familiar with the broader concepts of consciousness:

broader concepts of consciousness

Consciousness is the capacity to experience...

Yuri Saalmaan
UW-Madison psychology and neuroscience professor

Consciousness is a fundamental feature of creation.

Princeton University PEAR Study

Consciousness is a force, which creates all matter.

various sources

I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.

Max Planck, Nobel laureate

Consciousness is a fundamental force in the universe.

Einstein’s colleague, the renowned physicist prof. John Wheeler

Consciousness is Matrix* is Godhead

(Consciousness is matrix of spacetime reality) – Advaita Vedanta

There are probably as many definitions of consciousness as the number of those who study it. Everyone has their take on this mystical entity. John Locke, a 17th-century philosopher, defined it as what passes through a man’s mind. Consciousness has been also assessed as a biological phenomenon like photosynthesis, digestion, mitosis, and, on the other hand, as a transcendental entity like an extension of God or Higher Consciousness. Furthermore, it has been compared to a stream — unbroken and continuous despite constant shifts and changes.

As you sift through all the competing claims, you are more likely to get confused and overwhelmed as to arrive at the understanding of what consciousness really is. No matter what consciousness actually means, all the definitions are nothing but a finger pointing to the moon. Don’t look at the finger, or you’ll miss out on the real thing. What truly matters is, what consciousness means to you and how you can harness the power of its constructive modalities (virtues).

In light of all that, we don’t intend to reduce consciousness to any definition for you. Most we can do is point out what it is not and that it is much more than mere awareness, as it is commonly defined and understood, or at least that when we are talking about consciousness in the context of virtuology, it is not meant as mere awareness.

What we refer to as consciousness is the irreducible stratum of all that exists, a subtle dimension of who we are, which, as a source of all creation and knowledge, is commonly shared by everyone and so is the “stuff” that bonds and unites us all into oneness, giving us the sense of union.

So, when we are talking about raising your consciousness, we are not talking about raising your awareness alone, but mostly about raising your consciousness to ever-higher modes of consciousness, which we call virtues.

To harness the power of your consciousness, you don’t need to know its definition and fully understand how it works or its inner workings, but you need to know how to operate it to some degree. Like with a TV, PC or smartphone, even though you might have no idea about how it works, about the inner workings of all their components, such as motherboard, processors, drivers and all the electrodes, wires, etc., nor about how the TV channels and internet produce images on the screen, nor about environmental or many other effects, but as long as you have some idea how to operate it, you can make great use from it. Likewise, if you don’t know enough about how to operate those devices, you can do much damage to yourself, what with viruses, loss of privacy, cyber-crime, overwhelm, fake news, false information, etc.

The same goes for consciousness. It doesn’t matter how we define it, but how we operate it, which is why virtuology is extremely beneficial since it helps you activate and run different high-impact modes of consciousness. In other words, virtuology is your consciousness manual. It gives you instructions on how to use or operate the different modes of your consciousness, particularly the virtues.

Although you don’t need to know the definition of consciousness and fully understand how it works to make the most out of your consciousness, still you need to know it to some degree in order to know how to operate it. If you continue to neglect the subject of consciousness or regard the consciousness as a mere awareness or as an intellectual activity, you will not be able to fully harness its power to shape your reality as you please.

All those things considered, consciousness can’t be reduced to a mere individual state of awareness, wakefulness or a sheer biological phenomenon, but also not to a brain activity. If we take all the aforementioned, rough definitions that consciousness is a primordial cause, matrix, a force, and a fundamental feature or source of creation, then it cannot be reduced to the human brain activity, as it is commonly done, because the brain is just a receiver and processor.

Where is Consciousness

Consciousness whereabouts have been as mysterious as its whatabouts.
As scientists discover more and more about the nature of consciousness and universe, we are finding ourselves at the crossroads of science and faith, with both paths merging as the road to truth. The old spiritual truths are being validated by new scientific findings evermore. One such truth is that consciousness is neither located in the brain nor does it originate from there. The old materialist picture of the body and brain as the producers rather than the vehicles of human consciousness has been cracked, never to be patched up again.

The new picture of reality will take a long time to put together. As it is, it always takes time for any advances to be embraced by people at large, as the sluggish masses can’t keep pace with the advanced groups, and are often inclined to keep the status quo and so rather rebuff any progressive ideas. But this should not concern you, now that you are in the know.

Don’t waste your time. The sooner you acknowledge the consciousness for what it is rather than what it is not, the quicker you can start living by it and enjoy the harvest. So, stay put and open yourself to the new paradigm explained here that will set the conditions in your inner world for a breakthrough in the outer world, raising to a new level of existence with the lightness of being, with pure joy, love, peace and freedom.

“I don’t believe that consciousness is generated by the brain. I believe that the brain is more of a receiver of consciousness.”

Graham Hancock

“The brain does not create consciousness, but consciousness created the brain.”

Eckhart Tolle

“Consciousness exists independently and outside of the brain as an inherent property of the universe itself. The brain does not create or produce consciousness; rather, it filters it.”

Dr. Peter Fenwick

neuropsychiatrist

Both reality and consciousness are too vast complex and mysterious for a full picture of them ever to be absolutely complete. But the least we can do is to give credit where credit is due, or at least discontinue giving credit where credit is not due. One such misidentified “creditor” is His Majesty the brain. For centuries, the brain has been granted too much credit for creating all sorts of phenomena that have very little to do with it in fact. This would not be bad if it were not for the fact that as a consequence the true creator hasn’t received enough credit, as it has been marginalized and disregarded by brain-specialists for too long. This is not to undermine the true value of the brain whatsoever, as this masterpiece organ has no rival in any other species on Earth.

It is important to recognize the dysfunctional paradigm on which you consciously and unconsciously base your life, or your beliefs, on which you act. Based on that established paradigm, you usually look for solutions by thinking, racking your brain or brainstorming, however, when you realize that consciousness, rather than brain or mind, contains all the right solutions, then you will open yourself to a completely different paradigm of life in which you calm your mind, follow less the creations of your brain, and more some other ones, which will be discussed here.

Most likely, you have already convinced yourself that often you are better off following your heart and intuition, and here you will find out what else you can use as a guide in life. Therefore, if you do not want to be further misled by the wrong guidelines, that is, if you want to always make the right decisions, find the best solutions, find the correct answers, and get the greatest ideas, then read on because you will discover a way to do all that, yet another organ beside your heart and gut.

The main reason why consciousness had been linked to the brain was the fact that people would go unconscious when something particular would be done to the brain. For instance, when people have the part of the brain called the claustrum stimulated by electricity, they immediately go unconscious. However, that could just be the on-off switch to consciousness, like anesthetic agents. One of the evidence for it being just a switch and not the seat of consciousness is, that region of the brain doesn’t control thought or emotion.

For most neuroscientists, the main function of the brain is information processing, whereas some others see it rather as energy processing. Whatever the case may be, the brain is a processor, rather than a creator. It doesn’t create thoughts, memories, information, or anything else of the kind; it just processes them. Very much like the CPU (central processing unit) in computers, which is commonly dubbed the brain of every device.

Its basic job is to receive input and provide the appropriate output. According to an operating system, CPU processes the basic operations that drive a computer and it is responsible for interpreting most of a computer’s commands. What is an operating system to CPU, to the brain it is the mind, most of all the subconscious mind – it programs the brain what to do. The four primary functions of any processor, including the brain, are to fetch, decode, execute and write back.

Computers are made by humans to serve humans and so they resemble humans. CPU is made to resemble the functions of the human brain and possibly to do better. Computers are faster and more precise, while humans have more creativity, prioritization ability, storage capacity and nuance in accessing memories. Also, the brain is ten times more energy-efficient than a computer. It requires less power than a light-bulb. The point is, just like the CPU, the brain also does not create information, ideas, solutions or memories, but only processes them.

Nowadays, the available artificial intelligence is evolving at a higher speed than the average human brain, which makes it dangerous because of its lack of consciousness and conscience. This is why it is crucial to combine technology with virtuology.

“Consciousness is not in the body; the body is in Consciousness. And you are that Consciousnes.”
– Dan Millman

The brain can interpret what it experiences in many ways, rather than as it is. And common people commonly hold onto whatever explanation makes the most sense to their preconditioned brain, or whatever is the most convenient for them, rather than to what is actually true.

As a processor, the brain filters everything through the prism of its existing neural paths – beliefs, ideas and interests, which makes it hard to realize the truth and easy to keep illusions. The brain itself is not interested in truth, it does not care about justice, enlightenment, education and such, but merely in substantiating and strengthening its existing neural pathways (created by the thousands of neurons that were triggered by the repetition of previous thoughts and emotions), which makes it then less relevant for truth-seekers and innovators.

The brain in and of itself has no means to distinguish truth from lies – there is no such thing as a lie detector inside our brains. For the brain, it is true what it already knows and contains. Anything new that opposes the existing neural pathways, i.e. information, is simply not true to the chemistry of the brain, because it does not fit into neural pathways. By the end of this chapter you will find out what else works like a lie detector in your body and so be equipped to recognize the truth at all times. So, stay put and rejoice in anticipation of that. It is a revolutionary finding that is a game-changer.

The traditional scientific notion, which many uninformed people still hold today, was that electrochemical processes in the brain led to consciousness, that all of our conscious states were caused by neurobiological processes in the brain. However, that link between the brain and consciousness no longer stands, because over and over again it has been demonstrated that those brain processes don’t go on after death, whereas consciousness does. We know now undeniably that the brain is “just” a processor and not a manufacturer of thoughts, ideas, memories, mind and all the other derivates of consciousness. This knowing is scientific and spiritual in equal measure.

The reports of after-death and near-death experiences (NDE) challenge the traditional scientific ideas about the nature of consciousness. The mounting evidence, which the medical researchers on resuscitation have obtained by now, have invalidated the old inaccurate misinterpretation of NDE as mere hallucinations, delusions or fantasies and established a new scientific theory that human consciousness does not die after death and that consciousness exists even when people are asleep, under anesthesia, in a coma and clinically dead, that is, when they are not awake, aware, or alive (when their brains are no longer functioning).

The resuscitated patients describe conversations people had, clothes people wore, events that went on and even conversations they had with the beings on the other side, as well as their whole life flashing before their eyes and feeling of bliss, all while they were in fact flatlined and had no brain activity as measured per monitoring devices. These numerous brain-dead, out-of-body experiences tell us undoubtedly that consciousness is no brain activity. There is no doubt, it does interact with the brain now and then, but is definitely not produced by the brain.

flatlined

As evidenced by revived patients, including a neurosurgeon, who’ve gone beyond the threshold of death but reported having thoughts while having technically no brain function at all, brain cells do not produce thoughts. Think about that and see where it takes you! If the brain doesn’t think, what does think then?!

When it comes to consciousness and brain, science can only confirm an association, not causation. Consciousness is indeed an autonomous entity, independent from the brain and its activities such as awareness, alertness and wakefulness.

Since consciousness is not a brain activity, it is clear it is not located in the brain, and as a matter of fact, neither it is found in any other particular organ of our body, which is why consciousness is said to be in a twilight zone – a conceptual area that is undefined, intermediate, or mysterious; a surreal region, where things that do not make sense seem to do so. Consciousness is also said to permeate every part of the universe. However, its omnipresence suggests nonlocality of consciousness.

As we will shortly bring up some of the evidence, all the mechanisms of consciousness, such as mind, attitude, intelligence, memory, awareness, perception, conscience and such are also not to be found in the brain, or at least not in the brain only, which further implies, consciousness is not located in the brain either.

If your consciousness is stuck in your head, you have a problem. That is, if you reduce your consciousness to the faculties of your brain, you reduce your potential, and so will you never harness its actual power and will always be very limited in manifesting a wanted life.

The lines between your fantasy and your reality will blur only when you take consciousness out of the confines of your head and expand it beyond the limitations of your brain-driven understanding. It doesn’t matter that your brain can’t fully grasp consciousness nor that you don’t understand how it works, because it is only important that you give wings to it so that it can take you to the heights from which you can have a better view of the world and your life so that you can know better which path leads where and which way is best for you to get where you want to go.

memory

Like awareness, memory, too, is a mechanism or component of consciousness. In the segment on subconsciousness, we will bring up the scientific proofs about memory being not located in the brain but in all the cells of the body (a.k.a. cellular memory) and beyond, which indicates its omnipresence and suggests nonlocality of the memory. Just like every bodily organ has its own intelligence that runs its functions, which means that intelligence is not confined to the brain alone, so is memory neither property of the brain, which is to say, same is true for consciousness.

We used to be taught that memories were stored in the brain. However, in the meantime, neurosurgeons removed every part of the brain in different patients and found the memories and thoughts were always still there. Memory loss due to some brain damage is mostly only temporary; memory recovers despite the brain tissues being destroyed. The prominent neuroscientists concluded that memory is not stored inside the cortex at all. We will explain cellular memory in the segment on subconsciousness, but when it comes to localizing consciousness, it is safe to say that since memory, thoughts and intelligence are not mere brain activities but extend to all the other organs and cells, it makes sense that the same is true as well for consciousness.

altered states of consciousness

Apart from the reports and studies of NDE, many other phenomena also challenge the traditional scientific theories, explanations and definitions of consciousness. These phenomena include extrasensory perception (ESP) and altered states of consciousness either produced by alcohol, drugs, psychedelics and psychoactive medicines, or induced by spiritual or meditative techniques, hypnosis, trance, dreams, mystical experiences or anything else. All these phenomena have been delivering testimonies that depict consciousness in quite different terms than what conventional science does. They shape our deeper understanding of psychic capacities and consciousness itself. It’s important to study those phenomena in conjunction with our pursuit of understanding consciousness.

What is modern science and ancient knowledge telling us about the mind-body connection and the role of consciousness in physical health and overall well-being is extremely important. With emerging scientific findings on how our consciousness is influencing and creating our physical world, consciousness has moved from being a mere passive “awareness” to being an active influencer or creator – it is, in fact, the very source of creation. This is a major distinction in the meaning of consciousness, one that shall not be taken lightly. This proves that there is more to consciousness than previously held by old-school scientists and dictionaries, and that we need to harness the power of consciousness whenever we strive to create something in our reality.

The fact that we can use our consciousness to consciously change our brain structures and other physical aspects of ourselves is particularly significant to those who suffer from some impairment. Various techniques of altering the state of consciousness have proven to be effective in treating a variety of illnesses, especially psychiatric disorders. In an altered state of consciousness, there is a high level of bio-energy flow in the body, which is a basic prerequisite for our health. This is how psychedelics, psychoactive medicines and spiritual practices fit into this new paradigm.

When it comes to psychedelics and psychoactive medicines, there is “psychedelic renaissance” taking place, while its propagators are riding a wave of latest scientific discovery about consciousness and its mechanisms. In an effort to get to the roots of our current understanding of consciousness and to bridge the gap between spirituality and science, in recent years there has been much new research of psychedelics and psychoactive substances, such as LSD and Ayahuasca in relation to consciousness, abiding strictly to scientific rigor.

What studies are showing us is that these substances are altering the consciousness, as well as presenting the evidence of transformation, especially in healing. As a result, more and more doctors and therapists are embracing the idea of a mind-body connection and recognizing that both psychoactive medicines and spiritual practices are a valid part of healthcare, and that consciousness does correlate to disease as well as to the recovery process. The idea that all chronic diseases are psychosomatic and the use of placebos in therapy dates further back but somehow the psychic dimensions of chronic physical disorders are still frequently overlooked in actual medical care, at the expense of patients and for the benefit of the pharmaceutical industry.

Steve Jobs: LSD Was One of The Best Things I’ve Done in My Life

Psychedelics and psychoactive medicines can evidently produce altered states of consciousness and major distortions of perception, including hallucinations. Many users even describe their drug-induced experiences as mystical or spiritual in quality. Here are some of their shared views of their altered states of consciousness: the experience of unity, spiritual experience, blissful state, insightfulness, disembodiment, impaired control and cognition, anxiety, complex imagery, elementary imagery, audio-visual synesthesia, and the changed meanings of precepts.

All of us can take advantage of these front-line scientific discoveries, without having to resort to any substances for altering the consciousness that may have adverse side-effects, because what counts for transformation is not so much the means as it is the process of altering own consciousness. Why resort to artificial methods when the natural ones are much better and without intrusive and adverse effects?! Besides meditation and autogenous training, the best natural way of altering your consciousness is to raise or calibrate it through virtufication – activating and cultivating certain virtues (which are high modes of consciousness). Whatever you hope to gain from drugs or psychedelics, you may gain it by virtufication. Many saints, gurus, yogis and others have achieved those altered states of consciousness with raising their consciousness by cultivating certain virtues. Who needs drugs, when there are virtues!

When it comes to the other phenomena termed as Extrasensory Perception (ESP) or sixth sense, concerning the alternative meanings and values of consciousness, bear in mind that a large proportion of the reported cases of ESP occurred while the percipients were in an altered state of consciousness. As you know, ESP is perception or reception of information not gained through the five physical senses but sensed with the mind or with the sixth sense. It denotes psychic abilities such as intuition, telepathy, psychometry, clairvoyance, foresight, precognition and retrocognition.

Almost all people with developed sensibilities for the supernatural have this ability to a greater or lesser extent. Most of them use altered states of consciousness as a means of gaining psychic information. These altered states of consciousness range from such phenomena as dreams, trance states, hypnosis, and states of creative inspiration to the use of special music and ingestion of psychedelic drugs.

However, the research in altered states points to other variables as well, which are essentially more significant for developing ESP, such as a congenial atmosphere and virtues.

Many people, especially in the scientific circles, take the ESP phenomenon as esoteric and therefore don’t take it seriously, or perhaps simply because they do not understand it. We will not expound this topic but simply indicate that it is about accessing the higher, collective, universal consciousness within a unified field, as Einstein called it, or what Tesla called ether, Carl G. Jung the collective unconscious, or Akasha in Hinduism.

The Power of Consciousness

So far, we have expanded the view of consciousness for you, from seeing it as a mere awareness to realizing it as a source of creation and transformation. Consciousness is not a mere quality because it is the source of all qualities and of all that exists. It is the source or essence of creation. It is the basis of your existence, your life and everything in it. Consciousness is still there whether you are in your body or you are disembodied. Everything that is created comes from consciousness through a variety of its mechanisms. Consciousness is the source or root of mind, attitude, intelligence, memory, awareness, perception, conscience and other its components.

So, it is not that your thoughts or mind have the power to manifest reality, as it is commonly claimed, but it is the consciousness, which is at the root of them, which explains why mind power doesn’t always work for you.

Your mind power or the power of your thoughts doesn’t really come from your mind or thoughts but from your consciousness. Your thoughts and mind don’t have the actual power to create; consciousness does. They are just mechanisms of consciousness. You can change your mind and thoughts all you want, you can focus them and use your intelligence all day long, but to no great avail if the source, your consciousness, is not altered and raised. Yes, with mind work you can make many beneficial changes (mostly short-term) but not the transformation. A change only modifies the old, whereas transformation discards the old in order to fully embrace or create the new. A breakthrough and transformation occur only with the leap of consciousness, and not by mere thoughts or mental effort. We cover the topic of transformation in the Virtuology book and course.

It is no secret why mind power or willpower as well as most self-help books, courses and therapy don’t work in the long run or at all: they don’t get to the source of the real problem. Everything that addresses symptoms is just coping, not true healing or solving. Repression and coping cause stress, which in itself is the root cause of all adversity, so that approach is the opposite of healing or solving because even if it reduces some symptoms, it creates even greater problems elsewhere.

Poverty is also just a symptom – of the lack-mentality, victim-mentality, slave-mentality and of not taking responsibility as well as not practicing (enough) generosity, to name a few (it depends from person to person). In other words, poverty is a symptom of debilitating modes of consciousness, as every other problem is. However, the source of all the underlying problems, as well as the solution, lies even deeper, in the subconsciousness or cellular memories, which we explain in the Virtuology book and course. Most of the relief and aid programmes are just coping mechanisms, not solutions.

It has to be understood that an altered state of consciousness and raising a mode of consciousness are not the same as mind power, because consciousness and mind are not the same. An altered state and raised mode of consciousness can do much more than the mind power because consciousness has more power than the mind since the mind is limited and mostly run by our restrained, never-satisfied i.e. grumpy ego, whereas consciousness is limitless and run by our almighty, bright soul.

The mind is a liar. It tells you mostly lies that derive from its limited perception of reality. Pure consciousness, on the other hand, it knows only truth. Consciousness is not a mechanism of mind, but the mind is a mechanism of consciousness. The mind is just one of the many mechanisms of consciousness. Awareness is of the mind, whereas consciousness is not, but if consciousness is either altered or raised, it clears and empowers the mind. While our mind is subject to duality (constructive or destructive thoughts and beliefs), our consciousness is prone to nonduality.

To understand the relation of consciousness and mind, ask yourself this: when you change your mind, what makes you do that? The mind does not change itself. There must be something higher or greater than the mind that changes your mind, right? Sure, there are external factors, as well as your ego, but there is something in you that chooses whether you are going to listen to external input, your ego or your soul, whether you are going to listen to your mind or your heart, and this something is your consciousness. You change your mind when you are in a different mode of consciousness.

So, to try to understand consciousness intellectually, with your mind, it is like a lesser component trying to comprehend the grand whole, like a rock trying to behold the whole mountain, or a drop absorbing the ocean, or a speck of dust grasping the cosmos.

Our limited and often delusional mind has no capacity to grasp the consciousness, so in its capacity it will further divide, because our intellect is like a knife, slicing things into pieces, embracing reductionism as a way of knowing, falsely believing that by examining or understanding the parts, it can understand the whole or the source. But this reductionist deconstruction leads to a misunderstanding of the whole consciousness because any whole is much more than the sum of its parts.

When your intellect dissects anything into the fragments, no matter how intelligent you are, you end up with the Humpty-Dumpty problem, whereby you trick yourself into believing that you understand a whole through the dissection, disassembly, and deconstruction of its parts. But this is self-deception. Like in the nursery rhyme, even all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put Humpty together again, after it has been broken down in pieces, so you can’t either put the pieces of consciousness together after you dissect it intellectually.

By intellectualizing, you are prone to look into different parts of something, pros and cons, and so take each piece away from context and neglect its relationships with other pieces to which it is intricately connected. This is not to say that you then have absolutely no understanding of the whole ensemble. Those who claim full understanding of something by breaking it into fragments and trying to put it back together again should reconsider.

The oneness of the source, the oneness of consciousness can’t be consumed with a dualistic mind, just as soup can’t be eaten by fork and knife. You can’t fix or piece together divided parts with a divisive intellect no more than you can use a knife to stitch things together. To fix and connect things, you need virtues; you need to raise your consciousness to a mode of some virtue, like love, or compassion, or valor, or faith, or inner peace. In other words, virtuology is the science of erasing boundaries, of blurring the lines of separations.

Having said all that, the mind itself is a very powerful mechanism of consciousness, particularly the subconscious mind. It is in charge of our beliefs and thoughts, which shape our view of the world and reality. The function of the mind is to create coherence between our beliefs and our reality. The physical expression is the consequence of the mind’s program — the program comes first, the physical expression second. The mind can both help us and hinder us, depending on how much we allow our ego to be in charge of it. Ego leads to ruin when it acts as our leader or advisor instead of as a security guard.

By harnessing the power of your consciousness, you can free your mind from the captivity of your ego.

The Classifications of Consciousness

To help you understand your consciousness and harness its full constructive power, we will now proceed to explain the variety of classifications of consciousness, so as to get to the calibration of consciousness and virtufication. This is important because, like with the process of calibrating an instrument, it will prop you and prompt you to keep rising or fine-tuning your consciousness so that you could “play your tune” at your best and be rewarded accordingly.

Apart from having various planes of consciousness (subconsciousness, consciousness and superconsciousness), we also have different states of consciousness (deep sleep, dream, wakefulness, alertness, attention, caution, transcendental, cosmic, divine, unity consciousness, along with those termed as altered, alpha, theta, confused, depressive, hallucinated, sleepwalking, coma, delirium, disorientation, denial…), and different mechanisms of consciousness (mind, attitude, intelligence, memory, awareness, perception, conscience…), as well as different modes and levels of consciousness, which are the subject here, as they determine the level of success and well-being each of us achieves.

Let there be no confusion, in regards to consciousness, a mode and a state are not the same. So, altering your state of consciousness is something quite different from raising your consciousness to a higher mode. That said, what all of those states, modes, levels and mechanisms have in common is that they are simple frequencies. So, you can alter a state of consciousness, raise its mode, switch to another level and expand its all mechanisms by simply subjecting yourself to the frequency associated with what you want.

Once more, in virtuology we make a distinction between four different classifications of consciousness and corresponding processes:

• you switch to another plane of consciousness

(subconsciousness, consciousness and superconsciousness)

• you alter a state of consciousness

(deep sleep, dream, wakefulness, alertness, transcendental, cosmic, divine, unity consciousness, along with those termed as altered, alpha, theta, confused, depressive, hallucinated, sleepwalking, coma, delirium, disorientation, denial…)

• you raise a level of consciousness or raise to a higher mode

(mindsets and emotions; virtues and flaws)

• you expand a mechanism of consciousness

(awareness, perception, mind, attitude, intelligence, memory, conscience…)

Understanding a concept is very different from integrating it into everyday life. This is because knowing and being are not the same. Why applying the knowledge in life doesn’t come easy, is because we are not run by our conscious but by our subconscious mind.

We explain how to make the most out of subconsciousness in our Virtuology book and course, but now let’s see how understanding consciousness better helps you harness its power for your ends. Integrating consciousness into everyday life is mostly about expanding it and raising its modes.

the scale of consciousness

The modes of consciousness are the modalities you shift to or pass through throughout the day, consisting of mental states and emotions that are either positive or negative. Those two types of modes, mental and emotional, when combined with the matching physical expressions are what we call virtues and flaws. So, the modes of consciousness are in fact virtues and flaws.

As virtuology doesn’t only tell you what you should do to achieve success, health and well-being, but also how to do it, so it offers a specific gizmo – a tool for raising your consciousness to higher, constructive and potent modes, which is called the scale of consciousness.

The scale of consciousness, which is shown on the right, was compiled by a team led by physician and psychiatrist Dr. David R. Hawkins, using kinesiology method. It is a calibration or virtufication tool, showing which modes of consciousness have more constructive power in the context of the attraction field.

Important: all the modes of consciousness that rank above 200 on this scale are constructive virtues, whereas all the ones below 200 are destructive flaws.
The more above 200 you are, the more you are tuned in to your soul, whereas the more below 200 you are, the more tuned in you are to your ego. In other words, the more you listen to your ego, the lower is your level of consciousness and well-being.

The higher your consciousness mode is on the scale, the stronger its attraction field and power are to attract and manifest positive living conditions. Constructive modes of consciousness have constructive power, and the destructive ones have destructive power. This means that when your consciousness is at a high mode of, say, gratitude, love, joy, or peace, then you are likely to attract the conditions for well-being, as opposed to the modes of consciousness such as fear, worry, anger, and such, which attract negative conditions.

Each mode of consciousness on this scale has its own grades, which is why some same modes are ranked differently.
For instance, love and unconditional love, do not have the same value. Likewise, full and partial responsibility do not rank the same. So, take these rankings conceptually and broadly and not as absolute values.

The point is to understand that the path to well-being is raising own consciousness and that the path to well-being is paved with virtues. The more you stay at higher modes of consciousness, the more well-being you have.

We suggest taking context into account. This scale refers to the attraction field. Therefore, if you disagree that some virtue ranks inferior to another one, take the context into account.

For instance, love can rank the highest in another context, but in the context of the attraction field, it doesn’t. Thereby, if you want to have a great relationship with someone, you will achieve more with cultivating love than, say, with practicing faith. But if you want to attract someone, the fact that you love a person it will not attract her or him to you.

However, regardless of the context, cultivating virtues is always more constructive than cultivating flaws.

The higher the level of your consciousness, the more soul power you have to attract what you intend.
The lower your consciousness is, the more you are governed by your ego, instead of soul, meaning you have less constructive and more destructive power, thus you attract that which you fear and worry about.
This scale is a map showing you the way to total well-being and enlightenment, which you can reach by raising your consciousness.

The calibrated levels of consciousness are measuring the prevalence of illusion and not reality. The levels primarily denote the resistance to one’s actual reality. Therefore, don’t look at this scale as a hierarchy of virtues and flaws, but as a map or chart or path to enlightenment and to freedom from suffering.

The purpose of this scale is to show how negative modes of consciousness (emotional and mental states) attract negative things and the positive ones attract positive things, and to use it to calibrate and raise your consciousness to attract or achieve any goals. What matters the most is that it can be used as a tool on the path of spiritual awakening that leads to living one’s life in bliss.

Throughout the day your diverse modes of consciousness go up and down countless times, as you are a bit in the mode of love, joy, compassion, courage, relaxation, gratitude, as well as in fear, worry, anger, frustration, pessimism, skepticism, greed, criticism, grief, guilt and so forth.

At the end of the day, the sum of all your positive and negative modes amounts to your average mode of consciousness or, in other words, your level of consciousness. The more positive your various modes of consciousness throughout the day are, the higher your level of consciousness becomes.

Your current mode and general level of consciousness act as the lens through which you see reality. You change your mind when you are at a different mode of consciousness, thus when you are, for example, in love, you suddenly love and tolerate certain things that you have not done before. Likewise, when in fear or worry mode, you become cautious of those, whom you usually trust. All your perceptions, views, attitudes, beliefs, mindsets and values are a reflection of your level of consciousness, rather than reality. The higher your level of consciousness, the less blurred is the lens through which you see reality and the truth and so more able are you to reject the misconceptions that bring you problems, difficulties and suffering. The higher you go up the scale of consciousness, the higher the clarity, light and bliss level.

Your level of consciousness or caliber is your character. Character is defined as the aggregate of distinctive qualities characteristic of a person (or of anything else, such as wine, artwork, place, nation, etc.). Your identity is tied to your consciousness level. Your personality, your interests and tastes reflect the level of your consciousness. Your interests and tastes reveal your level of consciousness and with it your level of well-being. To estimate the caliber of a person for yourself, you need only look at his or her interests and tastes.

An analogy may make this clear. Those who prefer rap music and those who prefer classical music have different levels of consciousness and are therefore people of a different caliber. Highly spiritual, developed and cultivated beings are unlikely to have a taste for harsh and badass rap or hip-hop beats and rhythms. Likewise, brute and unrefined individuals are unlikely to have taste for subtle spiritual and classical music and literature, so you will never see gangsters chanting a mantra or singing gospels, nor reading Dostoyevsky, let alone the Vedas. It is because everything, including music and literature, has its frequency, which corresponds to caliber or level of consciousness.

Frequency is key. Frequency defines matter and it alters it. Your consciousness emits a frequency. The frequency you consciously emit is what matters, as it affects matter, above all your body and everything you materialize and manifest in your reality. Every living cell in your body is conscious and can be addressed with the frequency of your consciousness.

How you spend your time, dress and fill your space reveals your level of consciousness, too. It is all related. So, by altering one, you alter the other, too. This is why subjecting yourself and others to the refined, high-caliber arts or frequencies works miracles. Transformation guaranteed. You know how different music, literature, movies, paintings and the sounds of nature put you in different moods – this is due to their frequencies, so you can use them to uplift you or to bring you down. Therefore, you can use them to raise your consciousness to a higher mode.

Let there be no confusion, even though consciousness is a matter of levels, this is not to suggest any rankings or hierarchy among men, as on the whole all people are equal and have the same overall value. Just as to every fair and loving parent all their children should be equally valuable, regardless of their interests, behavior and school score, also to any other fair and loving person should all fellow human beings be equally valuable. A person’s value and caliber are not the same. The level of consciousness only reflects the individual level of progress and wellbeing. A factory might find more value in the workers of a lower caliber than what, say, a consulting company would. Also, a person is not valued nor defined by their job, so the caliber of the person is measured in all aspects of life together.

Thus, on the whole, taking all aspects of being into account, all people are indeed valuable in equal measure. If they are not as valuable as some others in one area, they might be more valuable in other areas of life, so overall value is the same – each of us has the value of one. Regardless of the level of consciousness or caliber, everyone has the same amount of power, but that power can be either constructive or destructive, which is in proportion to the level of one’s consciousness. Rising or calibrating own consciousness is advisable in order to increase own constructive powers, inner peace and general well-being.

As your consciousness level raises, so does your constructive power and freedom. Your vibration or frequency is higher as you are at the higher modes of consciousness (love, compassion, joy, peace…) and that manifests conditions for lasting success and general well-being. The higher the level of our consciousness is, the easier it gets to grasp the truth necessary for achieving goals.

Your challenges and progress depend on your level of consciousness. Your success and well-being depend on the level of your consciousness, not on the level of your education or talents or possessions. The level of consciousness is not determined by one’s intellectual abilities, as one might think, but by virtues and flaws.

Raising Consciousness

To achieve all goals in business and private life, you need to raise your consciousness to an optimal level by raising it to ever higher modes, as the scale of consciousness indicates. The higher your consciousness gets, the easier or simpler it becomes for you to achieve your goals. However, for that, you don’t need to get more educated or more skillful but more virtuous. As you know, being more knowledgeable or educated doesn’t necessarily translate into more success or more happiness. Long-term, true and overall success and well-being are more tied to our virtues than to our knowledge and skills, which, nonetheless, are not to be neglected.

As you are very much aware, the most successful and prosperous people are not necessarily the most educated or most intelligent ones, neither are highly-educated and intelligent people by default successful and happy. We all have faced the type of situations in which we got frustrated because someone, who was allegedly less intelligent than we are, got ahead while we fell behind. This generally happens to those who rely on their intelligence and skills, not so much on their virtues, so they do not cultivate them to the extent that is necessary. Once again, by virtues, we don’t mean necessarily the goodness or righteousness, but all kinds of virtues, such as resourcefulness, enthusiasm, optimism, joyousness, perseverance, resilience, faith, confidence, love, authenticity, enterprisingness, proactiveness, self-initiative, self-discipline, courage, open-mindedness, and others.

Although, like anyone else, we can’t offer an exact definition of consciousness, nonetheless, we can and did identify and define modes of consciousness, which are relatively explicit. For that, as part of our virtuology program, we created a module for each significant mode of consciousness, where we not only offer a definition or what each virtue or flaw is, but also why exactly it is necessary to either cultivate it or free yourself from it, as well as how exactly do it. Therefore, by all means, help yourself with them.

Virtuology doesn’t only tell you what you should do to raise your consciousness, but also how to do it. It provides you with a precise system that you can rely on to get you to achieve all your goals. It is a psychophysiological program specifying how to harness the power of your consciousness and virtues to solve any problem, find the best solutions and answers, make right decisions and choices, get great, useful and profitable ideas, boost your morale, optimize your habits and be the architect of your destiny. This program that mobilizes all of your psychophysiological powers (mental, emotional and physical ones), offers a specific gizmo that you can turn to in every situation and count on it to make a needed transformation – a tool for raising your consciousness to higher, constructive and potent modes – the scale of consciousness

Although consciousness in itself is non-dual, throughout every day it finds itself in different positive and negative modes – specific mental and emotional states, from grief, fear, anger, skepticism, pessimism and arrogance to responsibility, kindness, honor, optimism, gratitude, wisdom and all the way to love, joy, compassion and peace. All these modes of consciousness are either constructive or destructive, helpful or harmful, empowering or disempowering, giving strength or weakness, causing progress or regress, and signifying either virtue or flaw.
That being said, it must be clear that consciousness is much more than the sum of its parts (modes, states, levels, components or mechanisms), the totality of which is incomprehensible to the human inherently narrow mind.

Consciousness may have various positive and negative modes, states and components, but itself is fundamentally neither positive or negative, but beyond any dualistic division. At its core, consciousness is, as any essence and source, at one with all its varying parts.

When attempting to understand the meaning of consciousness to make the best use of it, we invite you to expand your consciousness so as to view it in terms of the value of its modalities for your empowerment and progress. Different modes of consciousness provide you with different benefits or detriments. Constructive modes of consciousness lead you to constructive decisions, ideas and solutions, whereas destructive modes do the opposite. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that own consciousness is calibrated to “play high notes”.

Continue reading about how to raise consciousness in our module on Virtufication: