WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?
Consciousness is as hard to define as “religion” because it is used so carelessly and yet emotionally in so many ways. It is a concept arrived at through introspection, which is part of the problem. But also it is sometimes defined by its lack -- it’s “un” unconsciousness, its wakening. Then there is the Freudian complication which draws a mysterious distinction between things done on purpose, intentionally, and those that are controlled somehow by stored impulses and patterns we don’t even know are there.
Focus, attention, awareness, mood, attitude, frame of mind, receptiveness, inspired, “hot,” are only some of the synonyms and aspects of consciousness. Sometimes consciousness is only “feelings” or instincts and sometimes it is sharp and objective, factual, even mathematical. We are still fascinated by “FLOW, the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly.”
Part of the reason we are so interested in flow is that the study of it showed how to achieve it: merely do something you want to do that is at a level of difficulty right at the edge of your capacity to do it, whether chess or mountain climbing or surgery. The result is “absorption” in which one’s brain is so engaged and focused that there is no consciousness of time and even no awareness of pain. Knowing how to achieve flow is a combination of knowing one’s self in all it’s particularity and uniqueness (your style of strategy), and knowing the enterprise at hand in both a technical and participatory subjective way (the strategies of chess). We are sometimes yearning to be able to move from the consciousness of waking into sleep or in some cases, as when driving, to keep from doing that; the consciousness of uncaring to the eroticism that opens sex; the consciousness of fear into the context of bravery; from apathy to engagement. We prize media and events that can take our ordinary consciousness into passion, catharsis, extraordinary sharing. All of this is relevant to religious consciousness.
Surely part of controlling consciousness in oneself and others is the establishment or awareness of a boundary, that threshold/limen, maybe something like the division between Freud’s conscious and subconscious, though that’s a blurry division. I always think of it as a kind of water level, moving around with thoughts like fish leaping into one’s mind for a flash, then diving again. Sometimes there are things passing just under the surface, like a whale going under a boat, only a dark shape to those onboard.
Daily consciousness is a matter of habits, relationships, tasks, and time to reflect. What this manuscript (“The Molten Chalice”) hopes to do is to raise the awareness of ALL sensory inputs, even realizing that unconscious ones are recorded and guessing what they might be, both in the body (muscle tension, breathing, intestines) and out (temperature, smell, movement, other presences) and to suggest their use in the art form called “liturgy” to shift consciousness into a liminal state. Within that liminal state, once achieved, major changes in identity and belief are possible. Conversion, if you like. Visions, if you’ll allow more than sight. Realization, for a less threatening word. “Growth” maybe. More than words, more than any body of literature, more than devotion to a leader or icon, the sum of the body’s life and identity.
This is not a matter of words, but we must acknowledge that “word magic” like “number magic” is powerful and not to be ignored, whether it is Kyrie Eliesen, Open Sesame, Shazam, or Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo. A key to consciousness shifting may be a familiar phrase valorized by use at significant moments. Consider how the ventriloquist uses a magic word to bring a hypnotized person out of a trance.
POINT OF FOCUS
It is characteristic of brains (and eyes which are an extension of brains) that they actually only “see” a part of what they are looking at. Though the cell “pixels” in the retina are picking up information, the brain decides at either the level of whatever sub-part organizes ocular information or at the level of the “dashboard” neuronal workspace what is important. Then the point of focus is aimed at it. This is parallel to what happens with the whole brain: only what is assimilated and interpreted CAN be conscious and even only part of that might be stored in the unconscious or preconscious -- what I’d like to call the “underconscious” since it is not “un” at all. Maybe subconscious. (Actors use what they call the “subtext” which is the forces and information that are not in the script, but “under” the dialogue and action.
The brain can be trained to not see things, it can have damage at the point of transmission or assimilation that prevents awareness of phenomena. Since brains grow and constantly re-allocate cell resources, experience with the phenomena makes it more perceptible. So kids who are used to quick flash-edits in vids and popcorn movies can see MUCH more than adults, but adults who have learned to read faces and situations are far more patient with slow foreign films because they are processing a lot more information than a kid could perceive.
Things that are unimportant to us are simply not noticed. Some things are blocked for psychological reasons, like a new death, which will take time to sort through and assimilate. There is a now-famous experiment in which a man in a gorilla suit walks through an exciting ball game but no one sees the gorilla.
A religious event is no different. People can assimilate what they know, but they may grow if they are exposed to the unfamiliar in ways they can recognize. The expert liturgist knows how to manage both and to weave them together. High value is usually given to media that can take us from a tragic consciousness to a moment of comedy without compromising either one. Laughter in church can be revelatory.
DISSOCIATION
Dissociation is a whole category of states of mind that are outside reality. They could be frank psychosis as in the case of a brain that is not working or they could be a hypnotic state or they could be drug-induced or an out-of-body experience after surgery. Children and sometimes adults who are severely abused will enter this state. These states are coherent and real to the person experiencing them but not to others, who may not know how to react.
Religion has sometimes claimed dissociations like trances, speaking in tongues, having visions and hearing voices. It is always possible that a deeply moving liminal state might cause dissociation.
GROUP CONSCIOUSNESS
Talk to the sports people to find out about actual people grouped physically and sharing. Major coliseum and gymnasium events are among the biggest and most powerful groups, all focused on the game -- either by playing it or participating through mental and emotional sharing. Many of what used to be groups (theatre, classes) have been individualized by electronic devices. Much to explore here.
In general, people in groups pick up cues and energy from the people around them which could either carry them into the moment or possibly exclude them. Turner felt that a characteristic of the liminal state was an essential equality of every person present and the use of reversals.
THE GOAL
Thinking of “flow,” how does the liturgist take the congregation to a level of difficulty right at the edge of their capacity and awaken their consciousness to a new level? How do you learn how to cross the limen, kindle the liminal state, and then leave it? Much of it will have to be sensitivity to the worshipping group and even more will have to do with the ability to handle one’s own consciousness with clarity and stability.
No comments:
Post a Comment