’The
most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind
to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the
midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage
far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us
little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up
such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that
we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into
the peace and safety of a new dark age.’
Howard
Phillips Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
From
the perspective of the psychology I am presenting here, consciousness signifies
the very essence of life, or light. Everything that exists, whether as a whole
or as a distinct entity, has consciousness, or rather, is consciousness. One
could argue that this view is somewhat animistic, if we equate consciousness
with the soul, although many might disagree. The definition of consciousness I
present here is broader than the usual one, as it is primarily of an esoteric
nature. Form and extension are manifestations of total consciousness, products
of the creative synthesis of light and darkness. This means that consciousness
exists both in pure light, whether visible or invisible, and in all its
derivatives. Remember how everything that is now solid, liquid, gaseous, slimy,
beautiful, cold, or dark was once pure light. Light produced such forms through
interaction with the dark matter of nothingness. Light only became form through
its contact with darkness.
Let's
allow the possibility of the existence of some form of dark consciousness,
which represents an "ancient" consciousness that no longer possesses
a luminous aspect. This is a consciousness devoid of brilliance, whether it has
lost it or never had it to begin with. In its essential aspect,
consciousness/light is something formless and extremely abstract, almost
non-existent. In a more concrete sense, consciousness is perception. It
perceives and reacts. Consciousness is like a universal substance that is not
homogeneous but is rather particulate, simultaneously divided yet unified in
its totality. The segments of this universal substance, differing from each
other in brilliance, the amount of energy they contain, color, and shape each
projects, create the diversity and variety of embodied forms in the universe.
In a
narrower sense, consciousness is an autonomous and interactive supra-energetic
entity that forms shapes through its creative interaction with the substance of
nothingness. This is how the universe was created. Manifested light, in its
interactive symbiosis with the dark substance of nothingness, creates forms
while simultaneously generating an operational, formatted consciousness, i.e.,
content that fills and gives purpose to the given form. Thus, a being is
formed. A being possesses consciousness, the radiance of consciousness, energy,
shape, and structure. This means that every form has an appropriate
consciousness, a "soul," whether we consider it living or non-living,
regardless of its aggregate state, whether it is in solid, crystalline,
mineral, or organic structures, fluids, or energetic waves and fields.
Consciousness without brilliance, without energy, without form, is passive
consciousness. Only as a being does consciousness become active and functional
in the universe. How and why a particular particle of consciousness transitions
from passivity to an active state and back again is a different question. In
any case, given that it manifests in a universe whose imperative is the
dialectic of decadence, manifested consciousness/light is subject to those
laws.
The primary form of self-determination of consciousness in humans is reason. Reason is a mechanism based on associative chains, logical algorithms, and imagination. In the context of a cultural, symbolic, and civilizational environment of living, at the expense of an intuitive mechanism suited for a non-cultural way of life, reason has the task, supported by culture, socialization, habits, and memory, to maintain and deepen the order of the world, or consciousness. The order of consciousness is an organized representation or series of representations that an individual acquires and develops (or deepens inherited representations), which concern themselves and the orientations available for survival and navigating the world. These orientations include the subject's identity, time, space, body, society, elements of the cultural universe, etc. It is essential to have stable and clear representations of all these aspects (and many others not listed) to ensure that an individual's life (as we know it and which we all more or less play a role in) is balanced, stable, and meaningful.
In a narrower sense, reason is a process, a continuous activity of mental software. The result, but also the cause of this activity, is the sense of ego. The primary function of the ego is to act as the guardian of reality, enhancing its "realism" and persistence. However, it is evident that for the civilized person, the ego becomes an end in itself, as it represents the subject's identity, being tied to their name, surname, family, family lineage, broader community, society, nation, faith, customs, tradition, gods/God, or major identification codes. The ego has become highly valued and important in social and interpersonal relationships, thus becoming self-important and self-serving. In this way, rather than consciousness itself, the ego has positioned itself as the center of the subject, the center of being, adorned with the signs and insignias of reason and identification meant to legitimize this usurper. As a consequence, a person begins to identify with their constructed ego throughout their lifetime, which has had tragic consequences.
