Thought is Not Consciousness

Proponents of “positive thinking” think that thought can lead to higher consciousness. This is not possible. Thought is a function of language, which is a conditioned intellectual structure. Thought, whether “positive” or “negative” (it can never exist without dualism) is associative mental reaction. By nature of what it is…it is mechanical, confined, and pre-conscious, even in its most esteemed levels. There can be no new or original thoughts, only combinations of established ones within the context of language. There can be an expansion of consciousness beyond thought only for those who realize the limitations of thought and find a means to access real conscious experience. This does not automatically happen...yet it is possible because of the inherent human capacity for it. It is the next step in human evolution, and it can be achieved by intentional effort on the part of an individual who seeks for real knowledge, finds it, and is able to profit from it.

The projection of “positive thought affirmations” can be an entertaining pastime...can be self-soothing and self-calming, such as whistling-in-the-dark to ease fear.  It shuts out the small degree of reality that exists in ordinary thinking (deemed negative) and replaces it with a pleasant dream...a dream that is dependent on millennia of conditioned mental and emotional culture. Many people become satisfied with imagination rather than being receptive to real experience. That is admissible if one wants to sleep one's life away in peaceful and fanciful dreams. However, if one wants to awaken to one’s potential ---to real experience --- to real life ---one must put away the habits of fancy and fantasy, even if they are pretty, pleasant, and supportive of one’s conditioned sense-of-self ( which is itself false and was created to keep one locked in to "consensus consciousness"). To awaken, one has to leave one's dreams.

 A prerequisite to awakening to higher function is a break with conditioned "knowledge". This break must be accomplished by an objective method that prevents the intrusion of the imagination. Thought is not consciousness. Consciousness is not merely a cerebral function. Consciousness is a higher level of function than the intellectual process of thought. While the potential for higher conscious experience exists within each relatively normal person, it is almost completely blocked by the predetermined, mechanical, habitual functions that maintain the ego and its false sense-of-self.

Thought generates belief --- opinion, attitude, tribal collective identity, and often individual pathological perversity of mind.

Once a belief is adopted, the mind seeks for and finds confirmation of that belief, whether in the configuration of the stars, in scripture, in the liver of a sheep, in the entrails of a chicken, in stones or tea leaves, or in some symbolic system. The human imagination can find support for any possible or impossible projection.

People can and do believe in anything and everything. Imagination and belief systems may be satisfying to the ego-mind, but they do not lead to any real movement in the direction of higher consciousness. The next possible step in human evolution is a conscious one --- not one of imagination, dreams, “positive visualization,” traditional habit, or pseudo-spiritual games and canned new-age-psycho-babble romance. The next step requires an awakened conscience and consciousness by those few who are able to take it.