Have you ever had that feeling that you are being pushed toward doing something?  You read something about a topic here, hear something about it over there, have something occur in your life related to it at another time… it just keeps popping up.  Well, that’s been happening to me with regards to writing something.

That something is an article about the different levels of awareness.  Each one contains, but is far more than, all the previous levels.  I’m aware of, having experienced them, five different levels of awareness.  It’s possible that there are higher levels that I know nothing about, and if I find out that’s the case, I’ll write an update to this article.

But for now, here are the five levels of awareness:

1. Physical Awareness

   Everyone has this level of awareness.  Even animals achieve this level… it’s basically the awareness of your body, and awareness that it is yours.  You have toes, fingers, a nose, etc., and they belong to you.  This is the level of awareness where most of your instincts live, though some bleed over into the next level.

   At this level you identify with your body, considering your body to be you.  But you are not just your body.

2. Emotional Awareness

   Every person with any level intelligence even approaching being able to take care of themselves reaches this level of awareness, too.  In fact, I’m not certain that a human can survive without the intelligence required.  Emotional awareness is being aware of your emotions, and knowing that they belong to you, as well.  It means knowing that you are angry, or sad, or happy, and that that emotion is yours… ie it’s not the whole world, it’s you.

   At this level, you identify with your emotions.  But you are not just your emotions, either.

3. Intellectual Awareness

   Everyone but the severely retarded (and I’m not being cruel, I mean literally severely retarded people) reaches this state of awareness at least part of the time.  Intellectual awareness is where you move beyond emotions to thoughts.  You think about what is good for your body, what is good for your emotions, and quite likely about the “why’s” of things… why this makes you happy, that makes you angry, etc.  This is the state that most people are in most of the time, although a fairly high percentage of people descends to emotional awareness from time to time, with overwhelming rage, overpowering grief, etc.

   Great things can be accomplished at this level.  Most of science is accomplished here, as well as a fair amount of philosophy.  It is high enough for you to achieve quite a bit of success in most areas of life.  There is, however, usually a yearning for something more, though many people don’t really know what this yearning is, feeling only that something is missing from their lives.

   At this level you identify with your thoughts.  But, you guessed it, you are not your thoughts, either.

4. Spiritual Awareness

   I’m not really sure if “spiritual” is the right word here, and it definitely carries with it certain connotations that might make people react wrongly to it, but I can’t think of a better word.  This is the first level that is not reached by default in an average person.  Spiritual awareness is where you realize that your awareness is beyond your thoughts, that “you” actually observe your thoughts skittering across the surface of your mind.  You become aware that there is something more to you than a body with a brain.

   Your awareness generally starts to expand when you reach the point where you stay at this level most of the time.  It is also, unsurprisingly, the level where most deeper philosophy resides.  It is also the level where you can start filling in that emptiness that a lot of people at the level of intellectual awareness feel by finding your purpose in life, those things that drive you to create.

   Reaching this level does NOT require high levels of intelligence, although most people I’ve met who stay at this level of awareness do possess above average intelligence.  People who achieve and maintain this level of awareness are more likely to succeed, albeit by their definition of success, than those who seldom or never get past the level of intellectual awareness.

   At this level you identify with your awareness.  But there is still one more level left.

5. Connected Awareness

   This is the highest level of awareness I have achieved, and I have not yet managed to get to the point that it is my natural state of awareness.  Connected awareness is where you go beyond “you”, where you realize that the whole idea of “you” that you have built up over your lifetime is false.  It is as different from the previous four levels as intellectual awareness is different from emotional awareness.

   Connected awareness is somewhat hard to describe to someone who hasn’t achieved it yet.  When in that state there is no fear or doubt.  You are still aware of your body, emotions, and thoughts, but you are also aware that they are only on the surface, only a very small part of you.  You can feel that you are connected to everyone around you… you may “know” that intellectually, with six degrees of separation and all that, but actually being able to feel it is something else entirely.  It’s too much to go into in this article, so click here to read my previous article on the subject.

   At this level you identify with… well, to be honest I don’t know how to put it into words.  If any of you have reached this level of awareness and have the words I’m looking for, please post them in the comments.

Five levels of awareness… you progress from one to the next, although how long it takes for each level varies both from person to person and from level to level.  I don’t really know anyone, personally, who manages to maintain the fifth level, connected awareness, as their normal state.  I can guess as to a few famous people who have done so, like Mother Teresa, but again… that’s just a guess.

Okay, so I mentioned earlier that this had come up in several places, so I thought I would link to a few of them, with a tiny bit of commentary:

You are not your thoughts – Henrik over at the Positivity Blog wrote that line in his last post, and it was the final push to go ahead and write this.  I read everything he writes… he’s an excellent blogger/writer.

My previous article – My article on my breakthrough, and how to achieve your own breakthrough, to connected awareness.  I read everything I write, I’m an excellent blogger… just kidding.

I think, therefore I am – Peter at I Will Change Your Life wrote an article recently about Descartes, who is best known for clearly writing about things from the level of intellectual awareness.  I, personally, think it would be better to say “I am aware, therefore I am”… but I’m not quite as well known as Descartes.  Oh, and Peter is a good guy, a good blogger, and from his subscriber growth, clearly on his way up through the world of blogs.

Well, that pretty much wraps that up.  What level of awareness is your natural state?  What’s the highest level you have achieved?  Let me know in the comments.