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Growth of Consciousness.
Consciousness in the lower animals Mere sensation at first; almost automatic Growth
Lower form of Consciousness The development of Self-consciousness Definition of Simp
le
Consciousness and Self-consciousness The first conception of the I
I on the physical
plane An animal happiness All his troubles before him The mental plane I as the
intellect Worshiping Intellect as God Different forms of mental development Psychic
development Man s suffering begins when he reaches the mental plane of development
Dissatisfaction and anxiety Hemmed in at all sides The eternal Why No answer to the
demands of the intellect The only possible avenue of escape. It is important to un
derstand something about the growth
and development of consciousness in Man the unfoldment
of the I consciousness within him.
In the lower order of animals there is a very small amount
of what we call consciousness. The consciousness of the
lower forms of life is little more than mere sensation the
subconscious plane of life is in the ascendant, and even that
upon only the grosser faculties, the higher faculties remaining
dormant and undeveloped. Life in the lower forms is almost
automatic. In the mineral world there appears to be no life at all,
so almost completely is the life principle smothered in matter.
And yet the occultists tell us that even in the mineral world
there is the first faint indication of life, and some of the more
advanced scientists are beginning to recognize that matter is
not entirely dead that there is nothing absolutely dead in
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Nature that intelligence is merely a matter of degree that
the mineral has its law of life which it follows.
There is in Nature an instinctive tendency of living organisms
to perform certain actions the tendency of an organized body
to seek that which satisfies the wants of its organism. It is a simple
form of mental effort, apparently wholly along sub-conscious
lines. In plant life this tendency is plainly discernible, ranging
from the lesser exhibitions in the lower types, to the greater
in the higher types. It is this which is often spoken of as the
life force in plants. In some of the higher forms of plant life,
however, there appears a faint color of independent life
action a faint indication of consciousness a faint exhibition
of conscious effort.
In the lower animal kingdom, we see a much higher grade
of consciousness, varying in degree in the several family and
species, from the almost plant-like forms of the lowest animal
forms to the almost human intelligence of the highest forms.
The degree of consciousness in the highest of the so-called
lower animals , almost approaches that of the lowest form of
the human race, and certainly reaches that of the young child.
As a child, before birth, shows in its body the stages of physical
evolution of Man; so does a child, before and after birth until
maturity manifest the stages of the mental evolution of Man.
As Man progressed in development and unfoldment, he
began to manifest the first indications of what is known as
Self Consciousness, which is higher in the scale than Simple
Consciousness. It is very difficult to convey in words the idea
of consciousness in its different forms, in fact many writers
on psychology state that, strictly speaking, it is incapable of
definition. To describe a thing it is necessary to compare it
with something else, and as there is nothing else in nature like
consciousness, we have nothing with which we can compare it.