Different states of mind

Today I want to give a short overview about different states of mind in the spiritual training. My intention is to provide some clarity for a better understanding and maybe a better work.

During the day the positive/male part of your mind is active, the so called normal consciousness. We can also say that there lies a focus of activity on the normal consciousness. This means you are awake and you know what you are doing. You are in control.

During the night your subconsciousness is in control, the negative/female part of your mind. So you cannot consciously make decisions.

Negative and positive have a neutral meaning here. It is an aspect of duality which shows up. The subconsciousness has female qualities and functions and the normal consciousness has male qualities and functions. The male part, the Ajna chakra gives impulses and the female part, represented by the back head chakra, receives these impulses and nourishes them, so that thoughts, wishes, etc. realize. In fact the subconsciousness is working 24 hours per day but is in real/total control only at night.

For the normal spiritual training we can differentiate between three states – concentration, meditation and Samadhi. Concentration is the continuous flow of attention towards one object. With the passing of time this concentration turns to meditation, where you are completely occupied with examining your object in all aspects, qualities, in its nature. This state turns with the passing of time to a state of Samadhi which means that you, the process of examination and the object become one. In other words you become one with your object. As a result you gain a deep understanding of the object as you take part in its nature. In its highest aspect Samadhi deals with the examination of God and the uniting with the divine being.

Then there is the term ecstasy. Ecstasy has two useful meanings. In the first one it means to unite with one or more divine virtues. When you do so you experience real ecstasy always analogue to the virtue you focus on. So indeed there exists a diversity of different forms of ecstasy. They are connected to different chakras, centers, also certain body regions and special feelings, sensations. It always concerns mind, soul and your energetic system. The second meaning of ecstasy is used for being out of your physical body. Especially when you practice mystical meditations where you want to unite with divine virtues, where you want to unite in deep love with God, then it can happen that you get out of your body as a “side effect” due to high feelings of love, devotion, happiness, etc. It is in main a matter of the heart chakra and the increasing of the air element. And in this sense ecstasy was used to describe what is happening.

Trance is another important term. Trance means that your mind with his senses is free from your body, your soul, your mental body. When you are free in this special way then you can perceive everything in a kind of Akasha mode. You are independent from time, space and form. You can connect to everything and every being. You can get all kinds of information. And you can perform magical operations from the center of something, the Akasha point, the place of the divine principle. For example Bardon asks the student to move with his mind into the Akasha point/center of his own body, his microcosm for full control and things like clairvoyance. But certainly you can move with your mind wherever you want to independent from your bodies. It is a strange experience as you are something without any form. This pure being belongs to the idea of Satchidananda, a state of pure being, happiness and awareness. In most cases trance is used to get information, to perceive special things with your senses.

Enlightenment is also a state of ecstasy where you unite with the divine spirit, – the divine spirit enters your temple through the crown chakra. This can be perceived as a powerful light entering you and making you shine. The more you refine yourself and the more you experience enlightenments the more you get a permanent connection to God, a permanent form of enlightenment. You become a temple of God, a form of the divine spirit.

Then we can differentiate between the degrees of meditative depth. Imagine a lake. At the surface there are big waves, the surface is really active but the deeper you go to the bottom of the lake, the more peace you will find and at the bottom there is total peace. Regarding this example, you can do the same, you can move from the high activity of your normal consciousness to the stillness of mind, to a deep state where you are able to perform imagination easily, where you are able to get special inspiration, special information, where you can use your senses on the higher planes. The stillness of mind is an aspect of Akasha. A main aspect here is that all parts of your mind synchronize, that they become one, that they work in the same rhythm – it is the unity which makes different things possible, it is also the fact that you have withdrawn yourself from the physical realms. So when certain things not work then try them in a deeper state of consciousness.

A special state of mind is the so called cosmic consciousness, where you do not experience yourself as a human being or as someone with a personality. Then you are one with the divine mind, respectively the divine mind has united with you and you think and perceive the world from the divine point of view. You think in a global, general, comprehensive way, not limited by your personality or anything else.

These are the main, the most important aspects regarding the mind and its states for spiritual training. I think that this overview is useful to know what you are doing and what is happening. The mind is somehow a mystery itself as it has Akasha nature, works with senses and has the four elements on the mental plane as a four-polar magnet which keeps the mind working. Creation is full of mysteries which want to be discovered by the true seeker.