The Indispensable Role of the Spine in Human Conscious Development

Consciousness

Consciousness is a gift that we receive in stages as we go through life and become aware.  Becoming aware is not necessarily something that we all do.  Some of us are perfectly happy not knowing what is really going on and living in our blissful ignorance.  I suppose it really depends on where you want to jump off the awareness train!  It could take you all the way to the experience of your oneness or you could hop off at any stop along the way. 

Of course you can get back on, and there are lots of maps of the routes this train takes, however, not everyone chooses to go all the way.  That is because every stop has something for you to learn, gain and grow into.  How you live at each stop is different and if you try to use the strategies that you used at the previous station you will be out of luck.  So very often, people choose to hang out at a station they can handle for a while.  They master the level of awareness for living there.  Perhaps they even wonder if there is something for them at the next station, but they prefer staying comfortable where their experience of life feels familiar and comfortable.

The gift of consciousness is about the ability to observe. Some people choose to focus on their physical function and that is all.  Some put all their attention on managing and expressing their emotions.  Others spend their days trying to find their true sense of self.  We may continue to keep observing at a higher level of awareness, ask what lies in the space of possibilities and potential and choose new behaviours that explore and expand this innate potential to be “more”.  Finally, we can see what has been true all along… that there has never been any separation between ourselves, others and the world around us.  We are all one.

The gift of consciousness is fully received when we are able to observe at every level of awareness – function, emotion, sense of self, behaviour and connection.  From being aware of ourselves as an individual human body that is in some state of working order, to the paradox of being an individual soul and all of creation at the same time, the gift of consciousness takes several layers of awareness of observation.

You can observe whether or not your body works the way you want it to and the factors that affect its function.  You may observe your emotional range, the variety of feelings you experience and their effect on the function of the body.  Your mind, its limits and what it will allow you to feel and not feel as you define your sense of self may be observed.  Perhaps you find yourself watching the thoughts you are having from a place that must be from beyond the mind.  When you observe from beyond your ego, you can bring in the knowing of your soul.  But what then happens if you want to observe beyond the soul?

What is beyond the soul?  That would be the whole universe and all of creation.  It would be God if that is what you call it.  So how do you observe from the experience of being one with the fabric of the universe?  When you observe your mindless chatter, your upper mind asks why you do this to yourself.  When you observe who you are within your limits from a place of potential and possibilities, your soul is the observer.  If you observe your soul and how it weaves into oneness with the universe, there is no separation between the observer and the observed.  You are just one.

Every level of observation requires a higher degree of complexity and flexibility within the spine.  That is because the level of energy at each level of awareness is more concentrated, potent and intense.  If the spine is too rigid to support it, it will break down or the energy just will not transmit through it.  If the voltage is too high for a cable, it will melt down.  If the substance is just not a good conductor for the energy, the energy will simply choose another route.  When our spines do not have the integrity to support the concentrated energy of oneness, it either fries us or passes us by.  It is, however, always there waiting for us to be ready to transmit it.

Having a spine that is flexible and adaptable enough to transmit the energy at every level of awareness is critical to the evolution of your consciousness.  Every time you get off the awareness train at a station, the objective is to learn the lessons and develop the integrity to get back on and go to the next station.  At every station you must develop a new level of integrity in your spine; otherwise you will experience pain or need to go back a stop.  Are you hanging out at one station and not learning the lessons, or could you benefit from getting back on the train?  How well are you receiving the gift of consciousness, the Fifth Gift of the Spine?