As we focus our individual and collective attention within the ecosystems of consciousness, evolutionary processes begin to transform consciousness, generating diverse forms of consciousness. And different species of consciousness emerge from the general milieu of awareness.
Human consciousness, engaged actively in the observation, interpretation, and communication of inner states of being, continues to evolve in response to the challenges, changes, and pressures of our mental ecosystems. We are still up to our noses in our ongoing project of becoming human.
We observe our inner experiences and then with language we distinguish between them. Awareness of different states of consciousness leads us to map further thoughts and ideas. Language allows us to perceive the things we give names to. We become aware of myriad different inner states of being through the reciprocal interaction of thought, language, and observation.
Because of the continual escalating mutual co-creation of observation-language-thought, humans can build increasingly complex mental maps of interior universes of states of consciousness. It is this meta-level mental co-generation to ever more elaborated degrees that has given rise to another form of interior experienced reality, another environment of consciousness. Soul is that aspect of consciousness which observes body, mind, ego, and the multi-dimensional environments of consciousness itself, consciously integrating them into multiple arrays of consciousness.
Soul is not ego. Ego is the integrative function of the mind, found in both humans and other sentient animals, which provides a conscious sense of self. It is the ego which assimilates the flood of information, sensations, emotions, and perceptions of the left brain, right brain and the five senses. It aggregates and coordinates the various cognitive and biological functions of the mind and body as a unified entity.
Ego is merely one of the mental functions which soul observes and integrates into a higher level of conscious awareness. Ego exists at the stage of evolutionary development which is conscious of itself, but not conscious of its consciousness.
It is the soul aspect of consciousness which purposefully utilizes rational thought and creativity. It is with the emergence of soul as a function of conscious consciousness that value is perceived and attributed to the objects of awareness. Soul not only observes, analyzes, coordinates and integrates all the various levels of awareness of body, mind, and consciousness itself, but actively engages in valuing and prioritizing them.
Soul is that aspect of consciousness which values and seeks to discover and create meaning, truth, knowledge, and beauty. These have profound and intrinsic value to soul apart from and even at times in contrast to purely mental or biological pleasures and benefits.
Soul is that aspect of consciousness which has become self-consciously aware of and creates categories of thought around the concepts of morals and ethics. Soul, for the first time, consciously evaluates, differentiates, and articulates the vast area of human motivations, choices, actions, intentions and the outcomes and consequences of the same.
When we say that we are human, we mean our soul. It is the human soul which most profoundly and completely defines our humanity.
But we’re not to the end yet! Can we find something beyond body, mind, ego, and soul?
See the next blog on transcending the soul.
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