THE ‘QUANTITATIVE’ AND ‘QUALITATIVE’ ELEMENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
In vibratory terms, consciousness is the aptitude of a system to respond to stimuli (information). This system can be complex (for example a human being) or very simple (for example a cell).
If we will hit an atom with a ray of energy, the atom will respond in a certain way. When we stop this stimulus, the atom comes back to its initial state. This response is a manifestation of the consciousness of the atom.
The same experiment can be done with a cell, an animal or a human being. Of course, the higher developed systems will react in a more complex way than the more primitive systems. The more complex a system is, the broader gamut of responses it will have.
Since the human being is basically a copy of the Universe, the number of possible responses increases enormously. We can say that the number of possible responses represents the ‘quantitative’ aspect of consciousness.
Maybe to some of you, all this will seem artificial, because most people associate the idea of consciousness with living beings only. This happens because of our limitations and ignorance.
We restrict the meaning of the term ‘living being’ only to those beings that can reproduce themselves. An intelligent person can see that this vision is totally arbitrary, because what we are doing is projecting our own behavior on to other systems and judging them according to our ‘standards’.
According to those ‘standards’, atoms, for example, are not alive, just because they do not exist and behave like us!
Thousands of years ago, eastern wisdom defined the concept of spanda (vibration or flash of the Divine Consciousness), as being the basis for the entire manifestation of the Universe.
In this vision, consciousness is everywhere, even in the most insignificant particle of matter. In other words, all of matter contains consciousness (therefore, life) in various proportions.
The power that hides, to various degrees, the consciousness of everything that exists, is called maya, the veil of illusion. The presence of consciousness represents the ‘qualitative’ aspect of consciousness, and this aspect is expressed by the frequency of vibration.
The ancient eastern sages, as a result of their personal experimentation with the deepest levels of consciousness, structured the human being and the Universe in seven octaves of vibration (corresponding to the seven chakra -s). These levels precisely express the quality of consciousness.
A system has an activity of energetic exchange with its surrounding world (metabolism) as well. This activity shows the intensity and range of energy exchanges between a system and its environment.
If this energetic activity does not extend over a certain range of frequencies, the reality corresponding to those frequencies ‘does not exist’ for that system!
Therefore, in nature, there are spectres of relative realities for every category of system that manifests a certain level of consciousness. We can now understand that even a stone has its own consciousness and therefore its own relative reality.
The beings from the superior levels of the Universe can interact with their surroundings to a much greater extent than the beings from lower levels. As we rise to a superior level of existence, the magnitude of the reality experienced and our freedom grows exponentially.