I firmly believe this universe is not the first of its kind. I think it is one in a succession of many universes that have appeared, disappeared, appeared, and disappeared. And my evidence for this is that it's just too perfect. I mean, the way the planets orbit and everything in nature interacts.

Look at the complexity of it, and you got to think that if God is also an evolving being that bases its evolution on our experience, then it would have been a progressive thing.

In the next iteration of the universe, things will be even more orderly and more intricate than this one. 

This assertion brings us to a couple of things. First, it begs the question of the point of consciousness.

Today we’re going to talk about three things. We will talk about our knowledge, understanding, and level of being, which form the triad of our conscious existence.

We will also talk about consciousness and its function in the universe. We're going to talk about the levels of consciousness and levels of being and so forth. Right! But what's the point? Why is there consciousness in the universe? Have you worked it out? 

With how it links into personality, if you weren't conscious of what was going on, what is the point in there being any personality if it was just an automatic thing?

Now, we're talking about design. But it comes back to the question of why people don't look at what it is that's going on in themselves. A significant reason why people don't look at what is wrong with their functioning is that they haven't had the perception that there is anything wrong with them.

So that's even one step further back than not wishing to be aware; they haven't perceived that they can be aware as a first initiative. That is an even more anesthetized state than a semi-conscious decision not to look at what is happening in them. 

There are three ordinary states of consciousness, which correspond to what is called unconscious, semi-conscious, and conscious. However, in humanity and the culture that we have today, there's also a fourth state which unnatural to humans; the fourth one, although it's hard to distinguish it from the unconscious, would be sleepwalking or waking sleep.

The instinctive-moving center (remembering they are two halves of the same thing) is primarily responsible for the unconscious and semi-conscious aspects of one’s inner life, respectively. This also implies that consciousness functions in the domain of the thinking and emotional centers. However, because all three centers (instinctive-moving, thinking, emotional) operate below the standard of their design, they are unable to transmit impressions and other stimuli to the soul, and thus the consciousness of a man or lady is almost entirely inert; which can only be described as sleepwalking.

In a previous lesson, we offered the exercise known as introspection. It begins with identifying various ‘I’s in oneself and categorizing them according to which center they come from. It must now be evident that this exercise is intended to increase one’s force of consciousness – for it is the soul that identifies the various ‘I’s. Efforts of this kind help fill the void of silence (or shock) between the various centers and the soul.

Pierce!