Consciousness

General description

In the Theosophical view consciousness is not a single faculty but it is the result of the interaction between the seven principles that compose a human being. As to its mechanism, H. P. Blavatsky wrote:

In the normal or natural state, the sensations are transmitted from the lowest physical to the highest spiritual body, i.e., from the first to the 6th principle (the 7th being no organized or conditioned body, but an infinite, hence unconditioned principle or state), the faculties of each body having to awaken the faculties of the next higher one, to transmit the message in succession, until they reach the last, when, having received the impression, the latter (the spiritual soul) sends it back in an inverse order to the body. Hence, the faculties of some of the “bodies” (we use this word for want of a better term) being less developed, they fail to transmit the message correctly to the highest principle, and thus also fail to produce the right impression upon the physical senses, as a telegram may have started for the place of its destination faultless, and have been bungled up and misinterpreted by the telegraph operator at some intermediate station. This is why some people, otherwise endowed with great intellectual powers and perceptive faculties, are often utterly unable to appreciate—say, the beauties of nature, or some particular moral quality; as, however perfect their physical intellect—unless the original, material or rough physical impression conveyed has passed in a circuit through the sieve of every “principle”—(from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, up to 7, and down again from 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, to No. 1)—and that every “sieve” is in good order—the spiritual perception will always be imperfect. The Yogi, who, by a constant training and incessant watchfulness, keeps his septenary instrument in good tune and whose spirit has obtained a perfect control over all, can, at will, and by paralysing the functions of the four intermediate principles, communicate from body to spirit and vice versa—direct.

Online resources

Articles and pamphlets

• Intuitional Consciousness by Francesca Arundale
• Man's Waking Consciousness by G.S. Arundale
• Emotion, Intellect and Spirituality by Annie Besant
• On Moods by Annie Besant
• The Self Is the Friend of Self and also its Enemy by W. Q. Judge
• The Subjective and the Objective by W. Q. Judge
• Dimensions of Consciousness by Dora Kunz
• What Is Consciousness? by Richard Smoley

Books

• Study In Consciousness by Annie Besant
• Theosophy and the New Psychology by Annie Besant

Audio

• The Nature of Consciousness in the Upanishads by Michael Gomes
• The Nature of Consciousness Part 1 by N. Sri Ram
• The Nature of Consciousness Part 2 by N. Sri Ram
• The Cosmological Aspects of Consciousness by Will Ross and Emily Sellon
• The Expansion of Awareness by Helen Zahara

Video

• What Is Consciousness? by Richard Smoley

Additional resources

• Bibliography on Consciousness from the Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library.