The logical mind is king in our culture. Law, economics, technology, intellectual pursuits, science, maths, medicine and more, all would have been lost to us without the mind.
However, the logical/rational mind gives us critical analysis and judgement and can only give us back variations of the data that we have already given it. Economists, lawyers, scientists, politicians, and so on, who do much of the talking in our society, use truth, logic and argument for finding ‘truth’, but not for ‘creating value’, and as such, this creates a huge defect in our thinking as many of the problems we face in our society today are recreated in a cyclical way.
Most regular people also use the ‘lower mind’, as it’s sometimes known, to discover their ‘truth’ through logic, backstory (memory with psychological influences) and applied learning (training, application, diversify, repeat), and the results are similarly restrictive.
In 1967, Edward de Bono coined the phrase ‘lateral thinking’ to mean a creative way to problem-solve not using a linear step-by-step implementation. While lateral thinking is an improvement on rigid analysis and judgement, and works to ‘create value’, it is still a form of thinking and relies upon the process of thought to arrive at a judgement.
An Alternative Perception
An alternative perception that is far superior to the usual thinking processes is to perceive through the acquired state of ‘knowing’. Lower mind and lateral thinking engage a ‘time and space’ process to achieve a result, whereas knowing simply ‘is’.
Knowing, as can be found in a person, can pre-exist his/her conscious search to find it. This means that on a higher level of awareness in our being, we are literally wiser than we think.
In fact, whereas the mind’s logic seems intelligent and the highest reach that we have, it is more true to say that our knowing requires a far more heightened level of consciousness to access and that, therefore, our knowing transcends the mind. Knowing far surpasses anything that the mind can offer, to the extent that we can say; knowing is divine and the mind is not.
Our knowing belongs in the body and the body is infinitely more intelligent than the mind. The mind, in this context, could be considered to be mortal, whereas the divine intelligence growing and maintaining the body and consciousness contained within it, is not mortal at all, but is instead vast and infinite.
Knowing pre-exists our seeking it, so it is not ‘developed’ as much as it is ‘discovered’. Certainly higher and higher levels of awareness will help us to access more and more vast and profound levels of knowing, but that is a development of us, not a development of ‘knowing’ per se.
As well as this, this expansive knowing exists both inside and outside of ourselves simultaneously. Residing inside our bodies, knowing is thereby easily accessible to us all. Residing outside of ourselves, as an objective consciousness, knowing acts as a doorway to divinity in the cosmos/universe/all that is.
Ultimately, the knowing inside and outside of ourselves is the same consciousness (divinity), but our level of awareness restricts or permits our access to it.
Accessing the Higher Intelligence of Knowing
So, how do we increase our access to this divine state of knowing as a means of perception? The fastest way to access our divine state of knowing is to increase our ‘light quotient’ in our bodies and to get the mind out of the way.
Getting the ‘mind out of the way’ means to have good mental discipline. Unless we control the lower mind, it will act like an unruly puppy that runs all over your house and pees on your furniture. The lower mind needs discipline. It needs to be taught how to be silent until called upon. Mental discipline can take the form of any type of meditation (clearing the mind, mantras, guided meditation, walking meditation, dancing meditation), or reading, physical exercise, yoga, knitting, listening to music; any activity that silences the ‘monkey mind’ chattering in your head. In shamanism, the practitioner often drums or rattles to give the lower mind something to latch onto leaving the higher awareness free to journey to other worlds and realities.
Once the mind is silent or occupied, we then can invite the ‘silent observer’ or ‘quiet awareness’ to come to the fore and be present. This level of awareness or perception simply observes and has no judgment for what it sees. Things just ‘are’. Practicing these steps brings about proficiency.
Next, increasing the light quotient in the body means consciously to raise the level of awareness from ‘low grade awareness’ to ‘higher grade awareness’. Effectively, this means to increase compassion in the self for all beings, but it can be charted on a spectrum quite easily, as the compassion increases.
Individuated Self v Collective Awareness
At the lower grade end of the spectrum, where little or no compassion exists, this level of awareness thinks in terms of an ‘individuated self’. This level of awareness thinks that the self is separate from everything and everyone else and that it is the most important of all and therefore must be prioritized. This individuated end of the spectrum is among the least evolved of human states. At the farthest end of this side of the spectrum, this level of awareness will even pit itself against others in the defense of itself as the ‘most important’, alongside others with whom that awareness identifies. The ‘individuated self’ model operates in hierarchies. All hierarchies cause exclusion and pain.
At the higher grade end of the spectrum, where compassion is in abundance, the self sees itself to be part of a ‘collective’ awareness, where all beings are equal and are equally respected. At the farthest end of the compassionate side of the spectrum, those beings deserving respect include seemingly ‘inanimate’ objects, such as rocks, streams, mountains, fresh air, etc. and these aspects of life here on earth are similarly revered and honored. This collective end of the spectrum is among the most evolved of human states. At the collective end of the spectrum, all beings (all life force) is part of a whole, to which we all belong and within which we all have vital and equal roles. The ‘collective awareness’ model operates in web-like structures. All web-like structures create inclusion and worth; belonging, purpose, value and joy.
To move along the spectrum is to increase in compassion, but it is also to increase the amount of light in our bodies and consciousnesses and to negate judgement. Other examples of how to increase our light quotient in the energy system (the self) are; being in a near-constant state of prayer, being alone in and ‘merging’ one’s energy field with that of nature/Helping Spirits, removing judgement, neutralizing the ego, clearing wounds, aligning with spirit and Source/whatever you understand the divine to be (engaging with spiritual practice), eating energetically clean food, staying physically healthy, disentangling from other people’s drama, maintaining good ethics, keeping good boundaries, etc. The objective of raising the light quotient is to keep the level of consciousness high.
Requesting that the Higher Self Comes Forward
Finally, once the level of awareness is within the ‘collective’ end of the spectrum, the light quotient is high and the mind is out of the way, we can request that our ‘higher mind/Higher Self’ or ‘true self’ comes forward. Remember that the Higher Self is divine and, therefore, will never override our free will. Any divine being needs to be asked to come forward and help us (even divine aspects of ourselves) as they will never intrude without invitation. Once asked, the higher self/higher mind/awareness will come forward.
Be sure to keep the lower mind at bay during this work as this task threatens the lower mind’s once-supreme power in the self and relegates it to that of an assistant only. The lower mind is good friends with the ego and any remaining wounding in the psyche, so mind-ego-wounds will get together and devise stories to subvert your efforts. Ignore all of it and stay focused on your intention.
Once the higher mind is present (with the lower mind at bay), notice how your awareness has shifted considerably. Yes, compassion has helped access this higher awareness but it’s the doorway to that consciousness, not the whole picture. There is a deep abiding wisdom that resides at this level of consciousness. That wisdom has surpassed judgement and only sees things as they are. It is alive, but mostly silent, except for a light hum. This level of awareness is ‘knowing’.
Working with the Higher Intelligence of Knowing
So, how do we ask this level of consciousness questions and know it’s telling the truth and how do we test it?
Doubt and testing using logic are lower mind pursuits but they can help, especially in the early stages, to test everything, including supposed higher levels of consciousness.
The key is to feel for what we ‘know’, not to ask for what we ‘think’.
Using the ‘know-not-think’ model, we can ask ourselves what is it that we do know, so that we can get a ‘feel’ for what that ‘knowing’ feels like, so that we will recognize it when we feel it again. For example, asking, ‘Am I doing the job I was meant to do in this lifetime at this time?’ and feeling for a yes or no in your body will get you in touch with the divine wisdom in your body and help you to learn how to recognize it when it speaks to you. Asking many different questions using this same method will help you to build a relationship with your higher self that will help you to make the communication process much faster, more efficient and reliable.
Characteristics of the Higher Intelligence of Knowing
Some of the defining characteristics of this level of awareness are easy to identify. It has no thoughts or judgements about anything it witnesses, only an understanding of why things are the way they are, and an allowing of things to be as we choose them to be. Its purpose is to steer our lives with truth and meaning in a way that threads through the collective; it simply ‘is’ but it belongs to us and us to it. This awareness is our divine selves and it is our divine right and inheritance to evolve enough to access it and live our lives through it as physical beings.
Living at this level of awareness on an ongoing basis brings peace, understanding, acceptance, allowing, generosity, peace and phenomenal guidance. It can be asked any question and the answers readily are given. It is divine, so it will never override your free will, meaning that it must first be asked for help. This vast awareness is available to anyone who wishes to raise their frequency enough to access it.
Seeing the World Differently
Once the higher intelligence of knowing is in your life, life is seen from a different perspective. Without it, using the linear mind, we see life as going forward from behind, living in the now, not necessarily seeing the purpose or meaning to things as they happen. The higher self perspective looks a lot like hindsight and foresight in one, while living in the now. Meaning is apparent as we proceed; things make sense even when they seemingly are awry. This level of awareness, I call ‘knowing’, because it feels innate, profound and true, and is quite separate from the more linear perception of ‘thinking’.
Transcending into a whole new capacity for awareness, moving out of ‘lower mind’ thinking into ‘higher mind’ awareness (or knowing) is the key to our evolution as a species and is, critically, available to all of us who have cleared the ‘mind, ego, wounds’ congestion from their systems, at this time. Once we are proficient in this work, we can then see the merging of our true selves with this divine consciousness that is alive everywhere in our universe. Living, breathing and being in that consciousness, as it loves and honors reciprocally with us, is a truly loving state within which to exist.
I would finally like to invite you all to consider moving out of lower mind thinking and into higher mind knowing on a permanent basis. There is bliss being in our true selves, operating as we were designed to do; as divine beings absorbing into our cells the love being sung to us in every moment by the loving universe around and within us, of which we are all indelible and vital aspects living out that Truth here in the world.
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