The way spiritual people discuss higher consciousness puts most secular types on edge, but the idea isn’t crazy:
Ordinary life rewards practical, unintrospective, self-justifying outlooks that are the hallmarks of what we could call ‘lower’ consciousness. Neuroscientists speak of a ‘lower’ part of the brain they term the reptilian mind and tell us that under its sway, we strike back when we’re hit, blame others, quell any stray questions that lack immediate relevance, fail to free-associate and stick closely to a flattering image of who we are and where we are headed.
However, at rare moments, when there are no threats or demands upon us, perhaps late at night or early in the morning, when our bodies and passions are comfortable and quiescent, we have the privilege of being able to access the higher mind — what neuroscientists call our neocortex, the seat of imagination, empathy and impartial judgement. We loosen our hold on our own egos and ascend to a less biased and more universal perspective, casting off a little of the customary anxious self-justification and brittle pride.
In such states, the mind moves beyond its particular self-interests and cravings. We start to think of other people in a more imaginative way. Rather than criticise and attack, we are free to imagine that their behaviour is driven by pressures derived from their own more primitive minds, which they are generally in no position to tell us about. Their temper or viciousness are, we now see, symptoms of hurt rather than of ‘evil’.
It’s an astonishing gradual evolution to develop the ability to explain others’ actions by their distress, rather than simply in terms of how it affects us. We perceive that the appropriate response to humanity is not fear, cynicism or aggression, but always — when we can manage it — love.
I wouldn’t go quite so far with that last point. Our reptile-brain instincts aren’t always right, but they aren’t always wrong, either.
Jane Goodall twice had what she called the paranormal experience, a revelation that should be thought of as beyond the normal consciousness. Once while watching the chimps Jane describes a situation where she had for that brief instant and insight such as a shaman might have under trance or after ingesting certain pyscho-altering drugs. Was a spontaneous even and unexpected but nonetheless occurred.