Consciousness Revealed?

Traditionally, consciousness was regarded as inappropriate for scientific study because it couldn’t be handily measured. In fact, it couldn’t be defined any better than we could precisely define life and death. We set arbitrary boundaries that were often proven to be inaccurate when some poor soul was buried alive or forced to breathe by machine for years after the brain ceased function. Debating when a fetus becomes a human being can ignite passionate arguments, the answers being widely divergent. The fact is, there’s much about being alive that we struggle to understand.

We once thought being alive was fabulously simple for animals, and we treated them as expendable in the extreme. Bison were slaughtered to near oblivion not to feed rail workers, given as the reason, but to starve out the indigenous peoples who were dependent on the herds to sustain their lives on their traditional lands. Few worried about cruelty to the bison…or cruelty to the native peoples, either. Consciousness may be strictly directed as though limited by blinders to exclude uncomfortable connections so those we perceive as lesser beings can be indiscriminately killed. In many circumstances, we don’t want to feel empathy, so we don’t.

Language is one marker that has been used to gauge consciousness. Are animals self-aware? Experiments to determine if dolphins could understand human speech as the “obvious” standard seemed cutting edge until more sophisticated study determined that many living species generate their own communication regularly, even going so far as to demonstrate emotion and individual names for one another. Consciousness seems to defy limits. Recent studies even suggest that species such as wolves and dogs can routinely communicate over great distances by what has been described as telepathy. In fact, experiments suggest the sensitivity of dogs may be increasing, a phenomenon owners may witness. Efforts to assess consciousness according to traditional human dictates seem to be inadequate.

In spite of purists who don’t want to complicate life study with invisible possibilities, since before history, people have claimed to have special telepathic bonds with loved ones…including pets. Numerous studies have concluded many are correct. The suggestion is that humans are only part of the web of conscious life around us, a web that can extend across species…and possibly to life forms we have yet to discover. Some suggest our consciousness is connected to the ultimate Source or Sources behind the universes and thus can stretch beyond what we know as physical life. We’re trained to read and write, not to explore the potential powers of our consciousness. We aren’t even good at talking with one another.

The invisible power of consciousness turned inward can impact physical health. We can choose how we’ll deal with difficult situations, seeing disaster or opportunity. We can kill ourselves with worry, loneliness, and despair or rescue ourselves with purpose and loving community. Some say we can manifest lives that reflect what we truly believe, but we don’t always get what we want regardless of how hard we try. I’ve proposed that we may be far different from what we thought we were. If we begin to understand, we may behave far differently—perhaps be the kindness we wish to see in the world. Kindness hasn’t been our priority. What if it will be?