From a site visitor: “How about elaborating on the deep sleep, the dream state, and the waking state to help me understand what point Advaitans are trying to make with those terms.”
F.: First, let’s review the groundwork on which Advaitans offer their pointers around those three terms. Understand that electrical power (energy) emanates from the brain as that energy moves, vibrates, cycles, or circulates. One attribute of that energy is consciousness. Consciousness IS a measurable form of energy and everything is energy with that attribute. Even the steel girder, described as “matter” by those attuned to appearances, can be seen to be energy if observed through an electron microscope. To grasp more fully the attributes of that conscious-energy, consider the acorn:
An acorn has “within” the consciousness (actually, IS that consciousness) that guides all which energy allows the acorn to “do,” including rejecting its cap, germinating, guiding a tip out of its pointed end, pushing that tip into the soil, using that tip to absorb nutrients, transforming that tip into a root, transforming that root into a full root system, emerging into the light as a young shoot, and eventually becoming a space called a “tree.” It all happens automatically with no external assistance or guidance. The consciousness KNOWS and guides all processes independently. The same consciousness guides all seeds in the animal kingdom from ejaculation to the seeking of an egg to fertilization to the resulting “birth” of a salmon, a calf, a bird or a human baby. It all happens automatically as a result of the conscious-energy that moves through the universe. (Wherefore parental pride over having "made" a baby when every step after the act of friction is automatic?) Now, consider the cycling of that conscious-energy as it moves at various speeds in a brain.
In the brain the waves of energy referenced in the beginning of the post are called brainwaves. The activity levels of those brainwaves are classified according to the speed at which they cycle and can help you understand the facts around the three states that you asked about:
Delta Level: At 1.5 to 4 cycles per second, people enter a deep sleep state, so deep that it is dreamless. This is the state referenced by the term DEEP SLEEP.
Theta Level: At 5-8 cycles per second, this would be the state of a bored student who is daydreaming; or a bored person who has traveled several miles along a highway and suddenly realized that he can’t recall any of his travels over the last few miles; or a person leaving the deep sleep state and moving toward the WAKING state or leaving the WAKING state and moving toward the DEEP SLEEP. (See how everything cycles? See how all that cycles in one direction must cycle in the other direction, eventually?) While the state can prove hazardous if driving, if it is reached while conducting safe or routine tasks, then it can allow certain “awarenesses” to come. (My vision came while in the theta state). This is the state referenced by the term DREAMING.
Alpha Level: At 9-14 cycles per second, this would be the state of someone who is tired from a task and has stopped to rest. This is the state referenced by the term WAKING if leaving the DREAM state and moving toward the AWAKENED STATE. If in the AWAKENED STATE and moving toward the sleep state, this would be the first level entered into before the brain activity slows even more and the theta state is entered.
Beta Level: At 15-40 cycles per second, this would be the state of persons supposedly “awake” and engaged in a conversation. In fact, many persons engage in conversation while actually having no more brain activity than is typical of the alpha or theta state.
At 0-cycles per second, humans are considered to be “dead.” No electrical energy-consciousness is circulating. What has actually happened is that the consciousness has unmanifested, departed the space, is moving freely, and will eventually be re-absorbed into the pool of consciousness from which it originally manifested. [To understand how that re-absorption occurs at varying rates, see the entry from 23 December 2005.]
F.: First, let’s review the groundwork on which Advaitans offer their pointers around those three terms. Understand that electrical power (energy) emanates from the brain as that energy moves, vibrates, cycles, or circulates. One attribute of that energy is consciousness. Consciousness IS a measurable form of energy and everything is energy with that attribute. Even the steel girder, described as “matter” by those attuned to appearances, can be seen to be energy if observed through an electron microscope. To grasp more fully the attributes of that conscious-energy, consider the acorn:
An acorn has “within” the consciousness (actually, IS that consciousness) that guides all which energy allows the acorn to “do,” including rejecting its cap, germinating, guiding a tip out of its pointed end, pushing that tip into the soil, using that tip to absorb nutrients, transforming that tip into a root, transforming that root into a full root system, emerging into the light as a young shoot, and eventually becoming a space called a “tree.” It all happens automatically with no external assistance or guidance. The consciousness KNOWS and guides all processes independently. The same consciousness guides all seeds in the animal kingdom from ejaculation to the seeking of an egg to fertilization to the resulting “birth” of a salmon, a calf, a bird or a human baby. It all happens automatically as a result of the conscious-energy that moves through the universe. (Wherefore parental pride over having "made" a baby when every step after the act of friction is automatic?) Now, consider the cycling of that conscious-energy as it moves at various speeds in a brain.
In the brain the waves of energy referenced in the beginning of the post are called brainwaves. The activity levels of those brainwaves are classified according to the speed at which they cycle and can help you understand the facts around the three states that you asked about:
Delta Level: At 1.5 to 4 cycles per second, people enter a deep sleep state, so deep that it is dreamless. This is the state referenced by the term DEEP SLEEP.
Theta Level: At 5-8 cycles per second, this would be the state of a bored student who is daydreaming; or a bored person who has traveled several miles along a highway and suddenly realized that he can’t recall any of his travels over the last few miles; or a person leaving the deep sleep state and moving toward the WAKING state or leaving the WAKING state and moving toward the DEEP SLEEP. (See how everything cycles? See how all that cycles in one direction must cycle in the other direction, eventually?) While the state can prove hazardous if driving, if it is reached while conducting safe or routine tasks, then it can allow certain “awarenesses” to come. (My vision came while in the theta state). This is the state referenced by the term DREAMING.
Alpha Level: At 9-14 cycles per second, this would be the state of someone who is tired from a task and has stopped to rest. This is the state referenced by the term WAKING if leaving the DREAM state and moving toward the AWAKENED STATE. If in the AWAKENED STATE and moving toward the sleep state, this would be the first level entered into before the brain activity slows even more and the theta state is entered.
Beta Level: At 15-40 cycles per second, this would be the state of persons supposedly “awake” and engaged in a conversation. In fact, many persons engage in conversation while actually having no more brain activity than is typical of the alpha or theta state.
At 0-cycles per second, humans are considered to be “dead.” No electrical energy-consciousness is circulating. What has actually happened is that the consciousness has unmanifested, departed the space, is moving freely, and will eventually be re-absorbed into the pool of consciousness from which it originally manifested. [To understand how that re-absorption occurs at varying rates, see the entry from 23 December 2005.]
Now, before progressing, you’re invited to look over those brainwave categories and their traits and then see if you can determine on your own what points Advaitans are trying to make via use of the terms DEEP SLEEP, DREAMING and WAKING as well as AWAKENED. How do those states parallel the process that removes persons from knowing the perfect “rest” of the Absolute (and from being awake to the truth) to believing that "the Dream of the Planet" is real and to taking the roles they are playing in "the Drama of the Lie" to be who they are? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued tomorrow]
