Awareness Without Consciousness Makes Jack a Sociopath

“All of the problems we face today as a society are the result of human activity. We are the cause of the destruction that we are doing to ourselves and to the planet. Our actions are preceded by our thoughts, and so the root cause of all the chaos in the world comes from our thoughts and beliefs about the world and about who we are. It is from our way of understanding the world that we relate to the world, which in turn determines how we behave in the world. With this understanding, we can see that the chaos in the world is but a reflection of the chaos within our own minds." (from "All Is Self" by Joseph P. Kauffman)

On the 14th of September 2023, a study was published in Science Advances Journal (summarising 2,000 pieces of research) indicating that - due to human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world - six of nine planetary boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity and therefore becoming increasingly uninhabitable.?

6 out of 9 indicators IN THE RED!

As is often the case, the study got a few minutes of headline attention and then receded into the background of our newsfeeds as swiftly as it has appeared. When that happens, there are often calls for “increasing awareness” of the issues, as if awareness alone were the solution.

It isn’t.

Awareness of an issue without an adequate level of consciousness (the ego’s different levels of manifestation) in the observer of the issue is worthless.

There are different concepts about levels of consciousness out there, like the three levels of consciousness by Philip Holder, the four levels of consciousness by Dr. Bob Günius Gibson, or the seven levels of consciousness by Richard Barret. But the model I find most useful in this instance is one developed by the late Dr. David R. Hawkins:

Moving up his consciousness scale is a process of learning how to respond to events in the world with better thoughts.

A process of awakening!

And a poignant illustration of vertical development if there ever was one. The map goes from guilt, apathy, grief through to courage, on to reason, love and eventually enlightenment. He makes it clear that the higher our level of consciousness, the more we can hold, the more spacious we are.

We need to be aware, but if we’re stuck in grief, apathy, fear or anger that awareness can’t get a foothold: awareness only translates into true wisdom, love and courage when we move up in consciousness.?

This is echoed by author and activist Joanna Macy. One of the three pillars of what she calls the “Great Turning” (the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization) is a shift in consciousness. According to Macy, this is where we do the work of inner spiritual and psychological transformation, what Joseph Campbell called the inward journey. Here we intentionally try and develop beyond our "skin encapsulated egos" and open into wider spheres of identity with the earth, cosmos, and the whole of humanity. This can happen through new forms of thought, understanding the Great Story of which we're a-part, and in particular, through the many spiritual traditions that have developed the methods for such transformation over the centuries.

It’s with this in mind that I sketched the diagram below.

Awareness without adequate consciousness keeps us in abstraction, indifference, obliviousness. Consciousness without awareness leads to lost opportunities. An absence of both leads to blindness, heedlessness. It is only when the two meet that we have the opportunity to be in the world with wisdom, love and courage - and reverse some of these 6 trends.

PS: How about we start measuring “Gross National Consciousness” instead of GDP?