QA154 QUESTION: I have two questions in connection with the last lecture [Lecture #154 Pulsation of Consciousness]. I don’t think I completely understand the concept of consciousness – whether it really means a fuller awareness of one’s own self and one’s reality. Does that mean that sometimes one has a fuller understanding and at other times a lesser understanding?
ANSWER: Consciousness is everything that is alive. The degree of consciousness depends on the degree of development. As I have said elsewhere, the consciousness of a mineral is so minimal that it does not even know yet that it does not feel itself as consciousness.
Consciousness increases as the life organism becomes more complex. We can also put it the other way around. The life organism becomes more complex as the degree of consciousness increases.
Now, an animal has a greater degree of consciousness than the mineral, for example, or the plant. But it does not yet possess self-consciousness in the sense of knowing it exists. It exists, it sees itself, but it does not know itself. Man is the first who possesses self-consciousness. His possession of self-consciousness again varies.
The very undeveloped, spiritually immature person has self-consciousness, of course, but he does not have it to the same degree. His awareness of himself, of what goes on in him, of what he sees and why he sees this, of how he responds to his environment and why he responds in certain ways, of the environment in its own right, of others, of nature, of nature’s laws – all of that depends very much. And again, beyond the human scope, the degree of consciousness is much more extended.
Now, since consciousness and life are one, pulsation must be a part of it. The vibration of the pulsation depends on the degree of consciousness. The lower the consciousness, the slower the rate of pulsation or vibration.
It is perhaps comparable to the turn of a propeller. When the propeller turns extremely fast, the blades cannot be distinguished, because the vibratory rate is so fast you cannot see the blades. It is the same in relationship to the human eye. The vibratory rate is very high of an entity whose degree of consciousness way surpasses that of the human, so you cannot see it – you cannot see the vibratory rate.
There is a direct connection between consciousness and pulsation, not only in the sense that they are both aspects of aliveness but also because they are interrelated by an interdependency.
QUESTION: But one is not really conscious of their pulsation; it is not something one notices that their consciousness varies, right?
ANSWER: The purpose of the last lecture was designed to bring you a certain amount of awareness, not on the pulsation itself but on that which causes the pulsation – and that is the soul movement. It is your relationship to life, to things happening to you, which causes the proper pulsation.
The pulsation is important in the sense that it is indicative of the health of a life organism, just as on the physical level a physician will check the pulsation of a patient in order to determine certain states of physical health. It is similar in regard to the spiritual health of the human being.
If you realize that the harmonious pulsation is an outcome of a harmonious soul movement, it gives you a way of checking yourself. You do not necessarily become aware of the spiritual pulsation itself, but you can become aware of the soul movement. And when you are aware of the soul movement, more and more, you therefore become more healthy because this awareness fosters health. You will then feel your spiritual self pulsates rather than be numb.
As you become more healthy, generally speaking, the interrelationship between your mind, your spirit, your emotions and your body unify. Your body and your whole self – everything – becomes more vibratingly alive. You even use this expression in your language, which is often very telling and very significant.
Now, this awareness of pulsation is something that actually takes place, that should not be done in an analytical and intellectually searching way. It is something that manifests in you by your feeling of aliveness, by your feeling of vibration in yourself.
