Expanding Perception to the level of enhanced awareness is about first becoming present in the moment and shifting your focus from the thinker to the observer.
The unconscious mind is always listening (receiving impressions from stimuli), filtering necessary, pertinent data and transferring it to our conscious minds as qualia. Qualia as defined by David Chalmers, are the “raw sensations of experience.” It is this process that affords us awareness, of both ourselves and of our realities. Qualia and the thoughts that come from bearing witness to it are subjective and therefore filtered through our own previous (and current) assimilation of the world around us. This subjective aspect becomes important to the degree of which we wish to interpret the impressions and I’ll speak more on that in a later post.
There are numerous factors involved that determine what makes it into our awareness and what is filtered out but the process itself is a sort of ‘conditioned reflex’ that can ultimately be re-conditioned.
As you sit there reading this, you are focused on the words on this page. You are following along and reading the words one after the other. What you’re also doing is filtering out simple noises and physical sensations that are not necessary to achieving the task of continuing to read. If I ask you to stop reading, close your eyes and take a deep breath, and as you exhale allow the room to settle around you, you may begin to become aware of multiple background sounds that you can’t quite remember hearing just a moment ago. You might also become aware of the room temperature, a slight breeze perhaps. You may notice the feeling of muscle strain from sitting in your chair. These things were most likely present when you were reading but until you consciously chose to override the degree of filtering done by your unconscious mind, they did not present themselves to you.
Like many people, I am of the belief that all people have some degree to which they perceive extrasensory impressions but for the majority those impressions never quite make it to your conscious mind or are lost in translation.
When we become present, truly present in the moment, and we allow the room and our minds to settle we are much more likely to become aware of subtle psychic impressions. When we step back as the observer we then put more emphasis on what we’re receiving versus what we think about it. When we think about it, especially in the beginning, we fall into the doubt trap. Doubt is like quicksand, steer clear of it.
This present state of enhanced awareness is what I refer to as ‘read mode.’ Many psychics will describe having an on/off switch allowing them to move between read mode and normal day to day functions to avoid becoming overwhelmed by too much stimuli. The specific techniques and processes used for training the brain to move in and out of this receptive state are vast but the simplest of those is meditation.
Many people who look to develop psychically mistakenly believe they are to receive psychic impressions while in a meditative state and while this is sometimes true, the point of meditation in this instance, is to teach the brain how to expand the level of awareness, while observing in a more controlled fashion.
Creating and maintaining a meditative practice will serve you well in more ways than you can imagine. If this is already part of your daily routine then fabulous, please by all means, continue. If meditation is new to you then my advice is to keep is simple. Begin with the mind-set that “you can do this and you will do this,” and then do it. Below you will find a very simple meditation that will begin to create a doorway in your mind to expanded awareness.
Understand that with this meditation there are no end goals aside from doing it and so you cannot fail. Begin with three minutes, once per day, and slowly work yourself up to 5-10 minutes as you get more accustomed to it. Sit comfortably with your spine straight yet relaxed. How exactly you sit is of no concern. In the beginning try to arrange a quiet space where you will not be interrupted.
Begin by slowly breathing in through your nose to the count of 4. Hold the breath for the count of 2. Then slowly exhale through your nose to the count of 4. Repeat this breathing process a total of three times. After this you can just allow yourself to relax into a slow, steady breathing.
As you breathe just focus on your breath, in and out. You’ve allowed the room to settle and now you’re just going to observe your breath. As other thoughts move into your mind observe them and then let them go by drifting back to your breath. Same thing with sounds; as you become aware of them just observe, let go, and return to your breath. During this meditation, you are simply observing whatever happens to show itself to you. When you are done slowly bring yourself back to your normal waking state.
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