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  Switched-on Consciousness
Confusion about consciousness among those already engaged in its study often arises because people use the word to mean different things. Let’s begin, therefore, with a distinction that will help avoid what is probably the most common confusion whenever two or more people come together to discuss “consciousness”—the distinction between the philosophical (or ontological) and the psychological (or psychoanalytic) meanings of consciousness: Philosophical Meaning Here “consciousness” is used to mean an aspect of reality radically distinct from “non-consciousness.” Non-consciousness is the total absence of any experience, subjectivity, sentience, feeling, or mentality of any kind. The lights are totally out. There’s nobody home. Examples often used to illustrate non-consciousness are objects such as tables, thermostats, computers, or rocks. In contrast, any entity that is a subject—that feels its own being—possesses consciousness. “Consciousness,” in this sense, means the basic, raw capacity for sentience, feeling, experience, subjectivity, self-agency, intention, or knowing of any kind whatsoever. It feels like something to be a being with consciousness. The “lights” are on, there’s somebody home. Psychological Meaning Here, “consciousness” is used to mean a state of awareness contrasted with the “unconscious”—for example, being awake and alert instead of being asleep or dreaming. Here, the light of experience is always on, though the luminosity may vary from very dim to glaring brightness—ranging from being psychologically “asleep” to full spiritual awakening. Even the psychological unconscious has something psychic or mental going on. To be unconscious is still to be sentient (worms and sleeping people still feel), whereas to be non-conscious is not (rocks and computers do not feel). For some people, “consciousness” means more or less being awake, alert, aroused, aware—or, simply, being conscious as distinct from being unconscious. This is the psychological-psychoanalytical meaning. It is the kind of distinction we each encounter every morning—the difference between being asleep and waking up. But if we use this meaning, how do we account for the difference between a sleeping person and, say, a rock (or a dead person)? It doesn’t seem sufficient to say that both the sleeping person and the rock are unconscious in the same way. While it is true that neither the sleeping person nor the rock is awake, it is not true to say that both lack all psychic or sentient capacity. The sleeping person is unconscious, but the rock is non-conscious. The unconscious person’s body still responds to stimuli, it still senses and feels—it still has a psychic life—but the rock does not. In short, then, being unconscious is not the same as being non-conscious. Being unconscious, our lives can still teem with sensations, imagery, and dreams. Unconsciousness, therefore, has a form of consciousness of its own; a form of consciousness never available to a non-conscious entity such as a rock. Psychological consciousness, therefore, is merely one variety (being awake) of a much broader and richer spectrum of consciousness. Clearly, then, “philosophical consciousness” is more fundamental because no form of psychological consciousness would be possible (asleep or awake) without at least some trace of philosophical consciousness being present. Examples often used to illustrate being unconscious include sleeping, dreaming, a coma, and may include the normal living state of creatures such as worms, starfish, and plants. In contrast, psychological consciousness typically involves phenomena such as cognition, perception, emotion, or volition. Another way to think of these different meanings is to picture philosophical consciousness like a light switch. It is either on or off. If flipped up, the light is on and consciousness is present. If flipped down, the light is off and there is complete darkness, no consciousness at all. On the other hand, we could picture psychological consciousness more like a dimmer switch. Once the power is on, you can turn up the brightness (i.e. consciousness) from dim unconscious to sparkling consciousness, or “enlightenment.” In this case, the power is always on, it’s just a matter of turning up or down the dimmer. Which brings us to a third meaning of “consciousness” popular in New Age circles: spiritual consciousness. |
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