What do you mean by different levels of unconsciousness?
As you probably know, in sleep you constantly move between the
phases of dreamless sleep and the dream state. Similarly, in
wakefulness most people only shift between ordinary unconsciousness
and deep unconsciousness. What I call ordinary unconsciousness
means being identified with your thought processes and emotions,
your reactions, desires, and aversions. It is most people’s normal
state. In that state, you are run by the egoic mind, and you are
unaware of Being. It is a state not of acute pain or unhappiness but of
an almost continuous low level of unease, discontent, boredom, or
nervousness — a kind of background static. You may not realize this
because it is so much a part of “normal” living, just as you are not
aware of a continuous low background noise, such as the hum of an
air conditioner, until it stops. When it suddenly does stop, there is a
sense of relief. Many people use alcohol, drugs, sex, food, work,
television, or even shopping as anesthetics in an unconscious attempt
to remove the basic unease. When this happens, an activity that
might be very enjoyable if used in moderation becomes imbued with a
compulsive or addictive quality, and all that is ever achieved through
it is extremely short-lived symptom relief.
The unease of ordinary unconsciousness turns into the pain of deep
unconsciousness — a state of more acute and more obvious suffering
or unhappiness — when things “go wrong,” when the ego is
threatened or there is a major challenge, threat, or loss, real or
imagined, in your life situation or conflict in a relationship. It is an
intensified version of ordinary unconsciousness, different from it not in
kind but in degree.
In ordinary unconsciousness, habitual resistance to or denial of what
is creates the unease and discontent that most people accept as
normal living. When this resistance becomes intensified through some
challenge or threat to the ego, it brings up intense negativity such as
anger, acute fear, aggression, depression, and so on. Deep
unconsciousness often means that the pain-body has been triggered
and that you have become identified with it. Physical violence would
be impossible without deep unconsciousness. It can also occur easily
whenever and wherever a crowd of people or even an entire nation
generates a negative collective energy field.
The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with
life’s challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an
already unconscious person tends to become more deeply
unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious. You
can use a challenge to awaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into
even deeper sleep. The dream of ordinary unconsciousness then turns
into a nightmare.
If you cannot be present even in normal circumstances, such as when
you are sitting alone in a room, walking in the woods, or listening to
someone, then you certainly won’t be able to stay conscious when
something “goes wrong” or you are faced with difficult people or
situations, with loss or the threat of loss. You will be taken over by a
reaction, which ultimately is always some form of fear, and pulled into
deep unconsciousness. Those challenges are your tests. Only the way
in which you deal with them will show you and others where you are
at as far as your state of consciousness is concerned, not how long
you can sit with your eyes closed or what visions you see.
So it is essential to bring more consciousness into your life in ordinary
situations when everything is going relatively smoothly. In this way,
you grow in presence power. It generates an energy field in you and
around you of a high vibrational frequency. No unconsciousness, no
negativity, no discord or violence can enter that field and survive, just
as darkness cannot survive in the presence of light.
When you learn to be the witness of your thoughts and emotions,
which is an essential part of being present, you may be surprised
when you first become aware of the background “static” of ordinary
unconsciousness and realize how rarely, if ever, you are truly at ease
within yourself. On the level of your thinking, you will find a great deal
of resistance in the form of judgment, discontent, and mental
projection away from the Now. On the emotional level, there will be
an undercurrent of unease, tension, boredom, or nervousness. Both
are aspects of the mind in its habitual resistance mode.