Perspectives on Levels of Consciousness

Two cool articles just popped into my life that I'd like to share. They both deal with the states of consciousness we experience and how we progress to higher states as we mature, but they look at the issue from different perspectives

The first is from the blog of my friend Adrian Cox, who runs the excellent Yoga Elements Studio in Bangkok. The Seven Levels of Consciousness deals with the different states of awareness we experience from kind of a conceptual angle. He classifies the states as waking, sleeping, dreaming, and four other states of higher awareness one can reach through meditation and yogic practices. He looks at the issue from quite an Eastern perspective.

The other article is from the speaker and writer Steve Pavlina, who does something similar in Levels of Consciousness, but approaches the topic from a perspective of our general attitudes as we progress through life. He breaks up the levels according to our general feelings: Courage, Pride, Reason, Joy, Love, Enlightenment, etc. This is quite a Western perspective.

Both authors holds that we generally stay in one to three stages most of our lives, and that to get to the next higher stage requires a good deal of discipline and conscious effort. I recommend both!