Levels of Consciousness

Consciousness can be defined as the awareness of the surroundings. A stone or rock is not aware of the goings on around it: An earthquake or forest fire cannot in anyway influence it.

Plants, on the other hand, have been proved to respond to external stimuli. A man with an axe with the intention to chop down a tree will send a shudder up the tree trunk. In trees awareness of external stimuli like light heat and sound are evident but consciousness is not developed to a high degree.

An organism has awareness of its surroundings only up to a degree that is essential for its survival.

In the animal kingdom, microbes that depend on air or fluid currents for propagation or locomotion can be considered to have zero dimensional consciousness. That is, it is unaware of its movement along the x-axis of the Cartesian coordinate.

Take the case of an earthworm or centipede. It crawls along a surface, and in its progress is aware of the linear distance covered by it. Suppose an earth worm in its progress in a particular direction comes across a pebble on the way. It cannot overcome the obstacle and therefore takes a deviated route. Although it is aware of the distance covered, it is not conscious about the space covered by the original and deviated directions. We can assume that the earthworm has a mono dimensional consciousness.

Consider the movements of a cockroach. It is aware of the distance and area covered by it during expeditions for food or mates. However, it cannot distinguish a man leaning against a wall and the picture of a person propped against a wall. In short, its awareness is two-dimensional. While the area covered by the x and y coordinates is understood by it, it cannot conceive the thickness of objects defined by the z coordinate.

Mammals including man have three dimensional consciousnesses. That is why you can distinguish a picture from the object. To define the position of an object in the space you need to apply x, y and z coordinates. If an animal can distinguish a picture from the object, it has three dimensional consciousness.

Although mammals have three dimensional consciousness like man, in the case of man, it is much more developed. Objective thinking, abstract reasoning, storing memories of past events or facts for future use etc are unique in man.

Man has three dimensional consciousness of the highest order known in the Universe. This does not mean that man’s level of consciousness is the highest possible level in the Universe. In the first place, three dimensional consciousness in man is of a greater order than in animals. Similarly, different men can have different levels of consciousness.

Is four dimensional consciousness possible in human beings? The fourth dimension is supposed to be time. If a man has four dimensional consciousness, he can see the future, which is hidden to common man. Such people who can prophesy the future are called prophets or seers. Some people are congenitally endowed with the faculty of perceiving things to happen. Some others may be able to acquire such gifts by meditation and spiritual practices.

If you cut a lime into two pieces, the cross section is a plane, a two dimensional figure. If you take the cross section of plane, for example a sheet of paper ignoring its small thickness, what you get is a straight line, a one dimensional figure. Further if you intersect a straight line with another you get a point which has no dimension. It follows that a point with no dimension is the cross section of a mono dimensional figure, and one dimensional figure is the cross section of a two dimensional figure and every two dimensional figure is the cross section of the three dimensional space. It can be argued that the three dimensional Universe as we see it and perceive is the cross section of a four dimensional universe to which a few have occasional glimpses. Similarly, worlds with any number of dimensions are possible. When we deny such possibilities, we are like cockroaches who would deny the existence of a three dimensional world simply because their brain cannot perceive it.

Teleportation, a technique by which an object in a locked up room is taken out without actually unlocking the room can be explained if we agree that a four dimensional world exists. The performer enters the four dimensional world which exists side by side with the three dimensional world. The lock and key apply only to the three dimensional world. So he goes in and comes out with the object and

re-enters the three dimensional world.

Heaven and hell, life after death, and many religious beliefs which atheists deny can be explained if we admit a four dimensional world around us. We reason, positioning ourselves in the three dimensional world, and refuse to admit anything which our limited consciousness cannot perceive. You are asked to measure the voltage of a power line and what you have with you is only a metre scale. Do not argue that that the power line has no electric current passing through it simply because you are not provided with a suitable instrument to measure it.