Crash Course in the Types of Consciousness

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Consciousness is our awareness. Jung taught of four functions of the ego, each engendering a distinct type of awareness. He also taught of a fifth function that will be dealt with at the end of the post.

Thinking: place yourself in an exam, one you’re well prepared for (no relying on any magical thinking now) and consider the process of formulating the correct answer. There you have an example of thinking consciousness. Or figure out what groceries you need to buy at the store.
Feeling: a bit harder to discriminate as we tend to jump to the emotions. The problem is that the emotions often act in us unconsciously. Anger can rage like a fire before we know what happened. By feeling consciousness, Jung was identifying that capability to recognize values. It’s the awareness that operates when you know you really enjoy one song more than another. Valuing this over that, in Jung’s terminology is your conscious awareness of how you feel about it.
Sensation: How our senses integrate physical reality for us defines this awareness. It easy to isolate its distinctness if you think of your awareness when making your way through the house in the dark.
Intuition: This is that future leaning awareness that discerns the patterns of what will be, the potential, the opportunities, the inspirations. Intuition is imaginative.

In Jung’s scheme, the four functions create a compass of consciousness. Thinking and feeling are opposites, just as sensation and intuition are. One of the functions is the primary mode that an individual uses for relating to the world. Opposite the primary function we find the inferior function, an awareness that will be unreliable or weak. The importance of the inferior function is fascinating. It is the place where the unconscious can greatly influence the ego. It is also the place where the unconscious can meet the ego. Such a meeting is the fifth type of awareness.

The Transcendent Function: this awareness develops if the ego is in relationship with the unconscious. It develops as an awakening to the the realities extending beyond the ego within the psyche. Different traditions have called this Atman, the god within, the higher self, a higher power. Consciousness in relationship to these realities tends to be described as numinous, or the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the fearful and fascinating mystery.

Zoe

Although it's not exactly related to the questions at hand, I can't help but think of how this relates to writing — how the most talented writers seem to appeal to these different levels of consciousness. I've never thought of these distinctions so concretely, and I think it marks something to strive for in one's own writing (or any communication)...

<abbr>Zoe´s last blog post..Push Ahead With What You Have: A Video</abbr>

ccseed

I so agree Zoe. Charles Olson the beat poet when he talked rhythm in poetry always took it to the rhythms of the body, the breath or blow...his little essay on proprioception, the knowledge of the body, its organs and ligaments, skin and bone, really takes the awareness of sensation to a very interesting place.

Ian Harris

Thank you Richard.What do you mean by the "Other"?
Do you mean that which we do not know of--- but just believe in?
Is it our higher self working in conjunction with 'higher forces'?
Or is it simply the notion that the universe is a friendly place and we will get what we ask for?
More advice and illumination sought.

ccseed

Hi Ian,
Well, I left it open because each needs to determine that for themselves. Jung teaches that the ego is not the center of the psyche, and that other forces, the archetypes move through so to speak and constellate within the psyche in relationship to the ego. As an idea, it can be either agreed to or discounted, but as an experience it becomes undeniable. All religious traditions seem to agree that the Divine is beyond definition, and in that way, the Other that is encountered, literally experienced, doesn't fit any tidy definitions. In many ways the Sufi tradition gives a clear expression to the uniqueness of each individual's revelation. And mystics of all traditions, from shamans to cloistered nuns, seem to be indicating a conscious contact with Other. Jung, with his framing of the transcendent function makes that reality a bit more accessible for modern man. So to that end, I would say it is not just a notion as you ask in your last line (and its not always a friendly world and we don;t always get what we ask for...or do we?).
Thanks again Ian for taking the time...Come back at me if this response only muddied the waters more.

Henie

I got it! The unconscious as the origin not the function! Perhaps, my ego was a bit manipulative in this process...thankfully, it's succumbed to bed for the evening! :~)

To further explore, what books might you recommend please?

Thanks!

<abbr>Henie´s last blog post..Sempiternal Glow</abbr>

Henie

Thank you, Richard!

This is absolutely fascinating and indeed numinous! So I digress! :~)

The distinction you enumerated sheds clarity and I feel that intuition is most likely the most neglected and ignored because it is closest to our core.

Consciousness, I would think, is the ultimate equalizer...giving way to all appropriately and incrementally, yes?

Now, if we are one with "Atman" or the higher self, would this not indicate that we have let go of ego?

I look forward to my ignorance being quelled and I thank you for this "cerebral massage," Richard! You are the best! :~)

(What started this thought for me was my admiration and gratitude for the physical objects before me i.e. I was caressing my camera and realized that it had to have started with someone's thought, then into physical fruition)

More please...

<abbr>Henie´s last blog post..Sempiternal Glow</abbr>

ccseed

Hey Henie,
Love you digging to sort out the origins. In as much as the intuition is about imagination I agree. What I would suggest by way of gaining a new perspective on this issue is to consider the unconscious itself as the origin, and not the functions. It is very much like the mythological idea of the Muses whispering into the ear of the poet.

To be at one with Atman is to let go. The transcendent function demands not losing oneself in, but standing in relationship with those realities.

Ian Harris

Is the Atman the experience of creating with your mind and sending white light and love to other humans? And does it include moments of revelation and insight that one experiences during meditation?And the feeling that the universe is working with you so that you can afford to let your defences down and roll with the flow?

ccseed

Hello Ian,
Let's see, you certainly describe a numinous type experience, and I guess I'd have to ask back this? Is the Other only our experience of it? Could be, experience can go no further, only faith can. It seems you describe Atman like encounters, but my sense is that the Other is always more than our experience of it, and that we do not control the creation of the encounters.

Kitzie Stern

Very interesting stuff, especially when I reached the description of the atman. It is indeed a fascinating journey, and fearful when learning to let go into the experience. Being rooted in Divine Love helps with the fear.
Namaste,
Kitzie

ccseed

Hello Kitzie,
I appreciate you commenting. Trust is the basis of all relationship, including what unfolds through the transcendent function. The psalms are wonderful expressions of the range and vacillation of experience around the issue of trust in this type of awareness...