INTUITION AND IMAGINATION: THE KEYS TO AWARENESS
by D.W. Webster ©1994-97
Intuition is getting a lot more play these days in the scientific community. One recent study concluded that the mind is situated within our emotions. Still it remains as illusive to professional analysis as it does within each and every one of us. Intuition may well be the very essence of communication as we know and understand it. It is from this state that ideas are born from an imagination fueled by a desire to know. Scientists have made the leap from this state. Artists have envisioned universes.
I was directly involved within the realm of fine art for nearly thirty years, first as a struggling painter and eventually as the director of a fine art gallery specializing in important 20th Century masterworks. I was fortunate to have been in the private company of such great masters as Willem de Kooning and Roberto Matta, to hear first hand their fascinating accounts of straddling the frontiers of Modern Art and therefore, Abstract Thought.
My prime function over this time had been to help various people to come to grips with their inevitable and enigmatic confrontation with Abstract Art. Perhaps the scariest terrain for any burgeoning intellect, most people either dismiss non-objective art [particularly paintings] entirely, or struggle helplessly in front of say, a Jackson Pollack drip painting. My job has been to help those I could, [those who wanted help], with understanding a way to interpret what they were seeing by opening up their own special blend of Intuitive Reasoning in resolving the issue.
I still consider myself a struggling artist, as it has been my purpose over this period of time to develop an acute sensibility for what I call, the Fifth Dimensional Sphere of Reference. It is where my art form exists. I christened it the day I left graduate studies and went into the gallery business. From my perspective, two-dimensional referred to paintings and drawings, 3-D was structural sculpture, and science had dubbed the Fourth Dimension as Time. So, I called this Fifth Dimension, the dimension of Communication. More accurately, it is the communication of intuition from one sentience to another. It combines all aspects of the other dimensions and produces a synergistic system called, Awareness.
HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS GOES BEYOND THE PHYSICALTo me, Art promotes awareness, but, ironically, Science cannot seem to grasp its scope, because it extends beyond the parameters of measurable Time & Space. Although there are reams of documentation as to the existence of awareness, no where is there any proof as to how it works.
Fundamental scientists, adhering to the sterile atmosphere of objective observation, are now confronted with the conundrum of the performance of sub-atomic particles, acting as quantum waves when they're not looking. Aren't we all guilty of looking out of the corner of our eye to see if it's real, just beyond? Artists, on the other hand, must face this issue straight on.
An Artist can be any individual in any walk of life, not necessarily a painter or sculptor. I've met a wide variety over the years. The one criterion for each is that they are performing with an enhanced level of awareness over and above the so-called 'norm.' They consciously manipulate their environment, whether its made of clay or words, musical notes or numbers. Not all are successful in their careers, but each is driven to do what they do by a compunction stronger that mere survival. Yes, we're all artists in our own way, because we've perceived awareness and have felt intuition. What separates us, however, is what and how we choose to do about it.
So, you may ask, how does one get a handle on it? For me, it is both as simple and complex as you can imagine. For one thing, logic must be checked at the door as we develop an Intuitive Body based upon experiential data. From this perspective, one can refine the way we experience incoming data, to have a direct affect upon our perception of all incoming experiences. In other words, we are what we create and we manifest our own realities.
Perception of this phenomenon is enhanced by exercising a powerful tool: the imagination.
Imagination is more important
than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited.
- Albert EinsteinPerception in this context, equals knowledge. Knowledge in this case, is different from intellect, in that we attain intelligence in measure, while knowledge is received in mass. Awareness can also equal knowledge, and therefore both perception and awareness can be seen as aspects of the same force of mind that may open us up to that most treasured of states, Knowledge of Self.
Knowledge of Self should be the most important criteria for existence, not survival! I believe it is the primary purpose of human consciousness, and the use of the human mind as its gathering tool. It is our most precious element; far greater than food, shelter, sex or power over others.
Intuition can be thought of as the key-note to Awareness.
Imagination then, is the sounding chord, that is struck to announce and punctuate its presence.True Awareness, as far as I'm concerned, is attained when the Heart [the right-brain emotional center and receptacle for Intuition] links together with the Mind [the left-brain intellectual processing center]. Together in perfect harmony, they may form a field of thought, and suspended somewhere within that field, the Realm of Awareness takes shape as a third point of reference. This alternate point is a perceived emotion or a felt perception that is both intuitively acknowledged and intellectually identified. It is the realm of the Soul.
BEHOLD THE WORLD IS MUCH MORE THAT WHAT WE SEE WITH OUR EYES...
Another way to understand the Awareness Construct is to see it metaphorically, as a classic pyramidal design, that when viewed as a cross-section, is comprised of five ascending layers from its base to its pinnacle. Five is considered by metaphysicians as the sacred number of Man and by ancient analogy, the Great Pyramid, with its five sides, [four ascending planes from a base], exemplifies the metaphysical qualities of the Human Consciousness. I'll call this the Field of Awareness for this description. Let me further adapt this construct to include a growth metaphor for descriptive purposes.
The base level of this Field of Awareness is comprised of the most complexly dense material that makes up the basis for the pure singularity of each individual Self. It can be thought of as the fertile earth of consciousness, primed for planting. Individual consciousness may then be viewed as a tree (as in Tree of Life). As we begin our life-cycle of physical existence, we are in effect, sprouting a new seedling, or new potential aspects from the base soil that is the Self. This Core Self, as it has been called, is Human Consciousness, beyond Time & Space. It is the sum total of all human experiential awareness, seen here as a mulched top soil, providing rich nutrients for growth.
Situated directly above that plateau in this scheme, rests the bi-polar definitive arena of contrasting elements: yes/no; positive/negative; up/down, etc. This highly complex and dense region can be defined in terms of Action and the verb To Be. Creative energy generated from the friction of physical existence, provides the nourishment for this growth system to continue its upward climb from four directions at once. Imagine roots and stalks pushing their way through heavy top soil.
From these two base levels of support and growth, the essential third aspect of consciousness, Perspective, begins to sprout as limbs. This third dimensional level, this initial triad, is the basis for all Consensus Reality. Situated at the very center axis point of the configuration, it divides the lower consciousness of Instincts from the higher realms of Intuition. Using this growth metaphor, it is the defining aspects of the species, structure and fullness of the individual tree.
The first level of this higher realm, the Fourth Dimension, has been identified by scientists as Time. It is an understanding among the learned, of the way our physical reality moves through space, and has been defined by Physicists in terms of vibrations of sub-atomic particles/waves in Quantum Theory. The volumes of words poured into the understanding of this dimension are many, though, only few among us can begin to grasp their scope. Metaphorically they can be seen as the leaves of the tree, reflecting the multiplicity of individuality, and the cyclic nature of existence. An understanding of this natural phenomenon provides, however, a doorway, as it were, to the next level: the pinnacle or capstone, the Realm of Awareness. The Fifth Dimension. The Flower of Consciousness.
The principle of the Tree within Five Dimensions as a basis for understanding consciousness:
- The first level of firmament supports the sprout of the singularity of mind from this rich soil of Human Consciousness.
- Second, is the realization of structuring outside of the self, as roots dig into this fertile earth.
- Limbs reach out into the third dimension, giving perspective to the first two and providing an axis point from which to measure 'Reality.'
- 'Leafing' into the fourth dimension of consciousness one can begin to recognize the shape, contour and movement through space, of the third dimensional consciousness.
- The blooming capstone is, as a matter of course, a fifth dimensional consciousness that has the capacity to further seed Awareness through Communication.
Awareness then can be seen as the capacity to recognize the flowers for what they really are: thought forms of expression of the essence of existence of Human Consciousness.
But wait! Thats only half of the equation. This pyramidal/tree paradigm only describes the domain of the explainable; what can be communicated via symbols. There also exists, the inexplicable dimensions six through nine, that defy our understanding (through the use of word symbols) but provide some hints of their existence. Since only a few among us have truly accessed this fifth dimensional consciousness, it is fair to say that only a fraction of us have begun to deal with these other dimensional aspects of our being. That is because the majority of people are slaves to their own symbols of the world they have created. They have become entrenched within their own conceptual limitations and fail to recognize the nature or even the significance of the reflection before them.
Dimensions six through nine exist as a mirror to the Cognitive Awareness of consciousness as defined by the initial five dimensional aspects. This other realm can only be defined in terms of our Intuitive Awareness. To begin to comprehend this inexplicable domain we have only to engage the most powerful tool of our awareness: Imagination. When we purposefully engage our Imagination with Intuitive Awareness, we can form the next vital aspect of this non-verbal realm:
Intent.
THE JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF WHO YOU ARE AND THEN BEYOND...So the question then becomes, How best can this new purpose for existence be served? Once asked from the inner core that is our human consciousness, answers appear where ever the human mind is present.
This clearly covers an area that is both physical and non-physical in nature.
THE NATURE OF THE NON-PHYSICAL EXISTENCE THROUGH
THE DOLPHIN GATEWAY OF UNDERSTANDING
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