There are many theories to explain what consciousness is, but none of the theory really explains it. Let us narrate a short story.

A son and father were watching a magic show, a lady was standing is inside a tall closed wooden box. Her smiling head was sticking out of the top of the box. The magician took the sword and stabbed through the center of the box. The father watching the show asked his son Jimmy, who was 6 years old “Jimmy how do you think the magician did it? The son replied, It is obvious. Really his father said. You are genius you figured it, so what is the trick? The son replied the magician makes it happen that way.

This expression, the magician makes it happen that way, sounds very charming and could stand as a summary for almost all the theories to explain the consciousness.

Let us look at some of the theories two thousand years ago Hippocrates, an acute medical observer noticed that people with brain damage tend to lose mental abilities including consciousness. So he proposed a theory that mind/consciousness is created by brain. Thus, through brain we think, hear and see so it is the source of consciousness. Does this theory explain consciousness? Not really, remember the line the magician makes it happen that way.

Two thousand years after in 1641 Descartes proposed that consciousness is made up of ethereal substance. This is stored in the receptacle in the brain. He searched very hard for the receptacle finally he found a small single lump in the center of the brain. Today we call this pineal gland. He deduced that this must be house of consciousness. But today we know that pineal gland is a gland which produces melatonin and nothing to do with the soul or consciousness.

Three hundred fifty years after in 1990 a Scientist named Francis Crick discoverer of DNA suggested that when the electrical signal of neurons oscillate in brain consciousness is produced. Thus, consciousness might be caused by the electrical activity of the neurons oscillating together.

Thus, to summarize, Hippocrates said the brain does it, Descartes said the magic fluid in the brain does it, Francis Crick said that the oscillations of neuron do it. Question remains how?

Remember the line the magician makes it happen that way is applicable to all these theories. We really don’t know how the consciousness produced. Modern theories stipulate that brain is a quantum computer and consciousness is stored at quantum level. Just like imagine a radio which is like our brain. When the waves come, radio can produce sound. Similarly, the brain can work with the consciousness. The consciousness exists beyond our senses. Since it is not part of the body it can survive after death.

Over the millennia philosophy, science, religion, and spiritual traditions have studied human consciousness and have distinguished ordinary from higher consciousness. The mind is said to be raised into higher consciousness when it transcends, but also retains its usual capabilities. Typically, self-awareness is transformed into unitive awareness and then into enlightenment. These states may occur for only a moment, or may last considerably longer. Sometimes spontaneously, but usually through disciplined practice, one’s mind and behavior become permanently changed, and remain in a higher state of consciousness.

There are four major forms of higher consciousness recognized in consciousness studies: psychic awareness, unitive awareness, formless mind, and enlightenment. Notably, these forms may combine in various ways and to various degrees.

Sometimes ordinary mind experiences reality without the usual restrictions placed upon it by time and space, or by the relationship laws of mind and matter. Colloquially, these are frequently referred to as psychic phenomena, extraordinary human experience, or supernatural phenomena. Whether occurring by chance or by intention, these events involve a subtle reality not usually seen or lived by the ordinary mind.

Unitive awareness occurs when one transcends one’s individuality and joins with another person, object, event, etc. Consciousness expands outward into the other, while simultaneously moving deeply into the unconscious, resulting in a profound feeling of oneness. If permanently in this state of consciousness one’s character is significantly more virtuous, altruistic, and unconditionally loving than average. One is said to be heart-realized, living in an ongoing compassionate union with the world.

The next form of higher consciousness is the formless mind that is without, and beyond concepts. It is consciousness without either a thinker or an object of thought, often described as no-thinking or emptiness. It is believed to be the direct apprehension of one’s true nature, a meeting of the absolute source of existence, the mystery second to none. When this consciousness becomes primary in the mind it is called self-realization, and recognized as the fourth type of raised consciousness, enlightenment.

Enlightenment is awareness resulting from the non-dual nature of all the other forms of ordinary and raised consciousness. This is living the “being” of the “not-two” self. A direct-knowing wisdom and immortal cosmology inform one’s existence, and one thinks, feels, and acts without conscious volition. There is the presence of beatific peace. Like the other types of higher consciousness, one experiences enlightenment more frequently over time until it remains a permanent state of mind.