Part 3: Doorways Into Consciousness
Glenn Bracey
Transformative Coach. Facilitator. Co-Founder of Future Vision. Designer. Embodied & Ai Integration
The doorways into consciousness are often hard to recognise, even though they’re right in front of us, open and accessible every day - like searching for car keys already in our pocket or looking for glasses on top of our heads.
Consciousness may seem elusive, but it's helpful to approach it by first understanding what it isn’t.
We often think expanding awareness comes from learning new skills or acquiring something we don't have. But it doesn’t. We all make that mistake at some point.
Consciousness isn’t a destination or a skill to master. It’s not something to "achieve." We can’t reach the end of it, but we can engage in practices that allow it to open and unfold through us.
Consciousness, often interchanged with the term "awareness," is the essence of being human. We're always within it, but we’re not always aware of it or able to operate fully through it - despite what we might believe.
Ask people if they consider themselves to be aware human beings, the majority answer “yes”. Or something like, “I’m reasonably switched on”.?
If we answer, “Awareness of what”?? It reveals another common misperception that consciousness is about a specific subject.?It isn’t related to any subject because consciousness isn’t knowledge. ?
Are you with me?? Consciousness, therefore, isn’t a skill, and it isn’t knowledge.?
Basic training might have taught us to be aware of our Attitude, Skills and Knowledge - You know that (old school) ASK model, and despite its good intentions, its limitations completely bypass the most critical thing - Awareness itself. This leads us to the third essential insight: consciousness isn’t a model. All models are limited; consciousness is limitless.
It’s a powerful force that doesn’t rely on specific knowledge or skills and isn’t confined to any structured model.
Despite the psychological and business worlds holding onto an overwhelm of models? - like junkies to a fix - this turns out to be very good news. Because once we get to this point in our realisation, we are closer to consciousness than we may know. Not by doing ANYTHING but by letting go of our misunderstandings.
If you are with me so far, then we know consciousness?
But not everyone likes this because once we take skills, knowledge, and models off the table, many outwardly successful people can feel confused, uncomfortable and sceptical about consciousness and its critical leadership role.?
Resistance To Consciousness
Resistance to consciousness is understandable as it’s not included in our standard or higher education. It’s tricky to grasp as an embodied experience, so we try to think ourselves into becoming it - but that can never work because thinking is a different intelligence to consciousness. Thinking appears in consciousness but isn’t consciousness.?
"As consciousness isn’t a skill, knowledge, a model, or thinking, then what the F… is it"?? You may ask.
It’s a deeper intelligence that operates in the gaps between these - In the space between thoughts, emotions, words, and actions.?
Just as innovation often arises in pauses between meetings or insights that come during a break in a busy day, this intelligence emerges when we allow space in our nervous systems and minds. It’s not the constant doing or thinking that brings clarity but the space and stillness in between. By creating space, we tap into a more profound intelligence that exists outside of the brain that drives better decisions, creative problem-solving, and clearer leadership ?
That may sound simple, right? Yet, the challenge lies in how difficult it can be to notice and create space in our lives to access this intelligence. We aren't naturally skilled at balancing our nervous systems and minds, pausing in the ever-present space, and allowing consciousness to inform us.
Countless studies show that we work too much, get overly stressed, become disengaged, lose our sense of connection and purpose, and even make ourselves sick. We reach burnout and find ourselves surrounded by drama, division, and conflict - all because we don't pause and create space to tap into the deeper intelligence that's always available to guide us toward the ‘right action’. Too often, we give up before this opportunity even has the chance to emerge.
All of these challenges are symptoms of our disconnection from consciousness. It's not surprising, especially in the workplace, where consciousness is rarely, if ever, part of everyday discussions. Many of us are so unpracticed or disconnected that we don't even consider it.
Out of our resistance and unfamiliarity with consciousness, we tend to dismiss it as unproven, unscientific, irrelevant or even more simply, “I haven’t got time for it”! ?
These reactions are understandable within the limited scope of the psychological mind and our tendency to avoid uncomfortable emotions. Beneath these responses lies an uncomfortable truth: we often believe we are more aware than we actually are, which is why we struggle to cultivate conscious leadership.
Exploring skills, knowledge, creating models and some aspects of thinking certainly have their rewards, insights, enjoyment, growth, and wonder. But these aren’t consciousness itself; they are events that happen within consciousness. It's a double-edged sword - on one side, offering great delights, and on the other, limiting our experience of boundless, unconditioned consciousness.
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The reality is, that there's more than enough space for both: skills, knowledge, and models can coexist with the experience of expanding consciousness. It's not an either-or equation. However, we’ve become so absorbed in one that we’ve lost touch with the other.
We’re so disconnected that it’s like having our heads firmly up our backsides and convincing ourselves we're seeing the light!
Teachings, now thousands of years old knew that consciousness is like the sky. It's vast, open, and always present. The clouds that pass through it are like our skills, knowledge, models and conditioning. They can be interesting to observe, useful, unhelpful and disastrous. They influence the weather of our lives, and sometimes they bring storms, destruction and drama - And the rain that nourishes us, but they never define the sky itself.
If we focus only on the clouds, we often think they’re all there is. And by re-arranging or gathering more clouds we will somehow make the sky better. But the truth is, the sky doesn’t need them. Just like consciousness doesn’t need, value or judge the absolute nonsense that floods through so much of human thinking.
It’s standing right next to us in the pause and allowing us to have free will. To either choose consciousness or repeat the same old, same old.
The clouds come and go, but the sky remains constant, undisturbed, and expansive. Consciousness is that sky: it’s not a skill to acquire or a model to build. It’s simply there, waiting to be noticed and expanded into, beyond the clouds.?
We’ve been conditioned to see the clouds and chase after more. But in doing so, we lose sight of the infinite space and untapped wisdom and power that holds it all. Only when we stop chasing can we recognise the sky for what it truly is - limitless and always available.
A Scientific View?
Quantum physics often occupies a central role in the exploration of the relationship between science and consciousness. It supports and builds upon insights that Buddhist ‘scientists’ reached over 3,000 years ago.
In modern times, nearly 120 years ago, physicists began to unravel the fundamental nature of our universe. Through the process of continually splitting atoms, they discovered that everything is composed of two fundamental elements: space and energy. (99.9% space)
Beneath what we perceive as solid- bones, skin, thoughts, emotions, and even objects like planes and trains - lies the same fundamental fabric of space and energy. This is because the interplay between space and energy occurs at such high velocities that it often eludes our human senses. For example, energy travelling at the speed of light can circumnavigate the Earth approximately 7.5 times in a single second.
What does that velocity look and feel like as we go about our day? It appears solid.
With this understanding, we can ask ourselves some transformative questions:
The answers to these questions are affirmative: Yes, there is something new to learn - specifically about how the concept of space can transform our lives, leadership, and collective existence.?
Yes, these insights can lead us to new practices and untold benefits as leaders. Such as how we can create more time in our lives.
Space and time are interwoven or entangled, and this means that if you want more time in your life, you can achieve this by understanding and connecting to space by utilising specific practices.?
These types of insight are not found in the rush of to-do lists or the clamour of external achievements. Instead, they reside in the spaces between our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and actions. It’s through the pause and the space that opens the doorway to expanded consciousness - a doorway that is ever-present, always accessible, yet frequently overlooked and rejected.
Consciousness represents a non-judgmental ‘intelligence’ that does not rely on thought to discern what serves humanity. Because it operates through space - It cannot be located within thought. Rather, it uses thought as a measure of how far we are from a state of consciousness.
Consciousness employs space, silence, and stillness in the intervals between thoughts, allowing us to exercise our free will. It takes exceptional leaders to step through these doorways because many of us have become addicted to the noise, data, and drama that fill our lives. Often we are so accustomed to our addiction that we remain in denial about it.
In the next article, I will begin to share with you ways to create more time - through opening up to the intelligence that is found in space. Helping you to become your own best scientist, and by providing bodily evidence to discern the difference between conscious and unconscious leadership.
Until then, stay spacious - Glenn :)