The normal way we perceive and interpret information is through the five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. Our ordinary ways of thinking, which we consider “normal” ways of processing, include analysis, logic, feeling, and baser instincts.
In addition, there are what we might call magical states of consciousness. In these states we are able to perceive things beyond the normal range of human senses, and we process these perceptions through the form of intuition. In a wider range of sensations one can see, hear, smell, taste and touch things that cannot normally be perceived, or one can receive complete information. “downloads” of information in the form of inner knowing that can be extracted through language.
Increasing the range of perception
Experiences such as psychism, out-of-body travel, remote viewing, lucid dreaming, clairvoyance, or prophesying fall into the category of magical states of consciousness. These are called “supernatural,” but these experiences are merely the result of expanding the range or scope of the abilities we use on a daily basis. Magical states of consciousness include: broadening of perceptionin which the veils that have been placed over the mind are pulled back, revealing more of what is and has always been, but has not been understood before.
Nothing is added to the mind in a magical state of consciousness that is not a fundamental part of its essential constitution. Just as an Olympic bodybuilder can train his body to achieve feats that are prodigious compared to those of the average person, so an individual is able to train the faculties of his mind to achieve extraordinary feats of mental and perception.
Once we begin to explore the lesser-known faculties of the human mind, we discover that the parameters of what we consider the “normal” or “ordinary” world are quite arbitrary and have much more to do with the limits of our faculties. of perception and much less to do with anything intrinsic his-ness of the so-called material world.
We tend to define ‘reality’ by what we can perceive – yet we can only perceive within a certain range of frequencies. Expand the scope of perception and much, much more of existence comes into view. How much has our definition of “reality” changed since the invention of the microscope? How many aspects of reality do animals experience that are totally beyond our range of hearing, smell, or sight? Yet we cannot say that these phenomena do not exist just because we do not experience them.
So we see that it is difficult to separate What’s of ours perception or experience of what is; where does matter begin and mind end? The more we look, the more we discover that matter behaves much more like spirit than matter. So more things become real as we refine this instrument of the mind, and we begin to witness and experience directly what we would once have considered “unmanifested.” These are the states of consciousness that we call magical, as a better word would be extensive.
What are you looking at?
There are many different types of magical states of consciousness; they all have to do with increasing the scope of your perception and strengthening the muscles of the mind. If you want to experience out-of-body experiences, such as astral projection or lucid dreaming, you need to be able to stay awake in your mind while your body goes to sleep. If you want to be a medical empath, you must be able to see beyond the frequency band of the dense body and into the weaker layers of the auric field. If you want to channel information from higher realms, you must learn how to withdraw the ego from the body and allow another entity to temporarily take its place.
This requires a radical level of control over your attention. We are all familiar with the therapeutic benefit of “looking on the bright side,” or of purposefully aligning attention with what is wanted and withdrawing attention from what is unwanted. Magical states of consciousness require similar self-discipline, although in this case one trains oneself to look beyond that which imposes itself most powerfully on the physical senses into more subjective realms of light.
Once you have widened your perception, you have the choice of where to look and in which frequency band. Are you looking at the physical body, or are you feeling the emotions of the person in front of you? Do you write a poem based on your concrete lived experience, or do you let inspiration from the Universe flow through you and express itself? Where will you choose to focus your attention, and in what resolution will you see?
Blurring boundaries
Another way to conceive of expanded perception is that it is about eradicating apparent boundaries. We can consider an analogy of a lit candle. Normally we identify ourselves as a body (wax and wick) with a consciousness (flame). But when we enter a state of expanded consciousness, we ask ourselves: Where exactly does the flame end? Is not the flame also the light that comes from the flame? So we must also perceive ourselves as the light emanating from the flame. But where then does the light of the room penetrate with the light of the flame? Where does the light coming from the flame stop?
The higher the magical state of consciousness, the fewer boundaries appear. Instead, there are just layers: the flame layer, the flame light layer, and then the room light. Each layer is more difficult to discern, for as we move from the dense level of the material world to the more delicate vibrational levels, impressions become infinitely more subtle.
The perception of each outer layer requires a more expanded state of consciousness and heightened perception. But as your state of consciousness expands, the light that previously seemed dim becomes brighter and more sharply defined. The world is getting richer, more detailed, and we’re seeing life teeming everywhere we’d never noticed it before. We also see and feel the interconnectedness of all that is.
We could say that the whole quest of life is an extension of perception. Fatigue and entropy result when information is squeezed into too narrow a channel of perception. What should we do when we are overwhelmed by circumstances? We need to raise our awareness. We need to refine our perception. We need to change what we look at. We must note it with more subtlety.
When we do this, we not only solve our immediate problem; our successes in the future are much deeper and more profound because we live on more levels of being. The natural has become supernatural, the ordinary has become extraordinary, and more of the universe is visible to us. This is a magical state of consciousness.
