Variations in Consciousness

In past articles, I presented conscious and unconscious parts of our psychologies in many different ways. Believe it or not, there are still many other ways to describe and discuss these critical parts of human nature. In this article, I thought that I would present some additional details about consciousness in response to a commonly asked question: Why are there such huge differences and tensions, or divided interests, in our country? Of course, the answer is complex but I want to present one major reason – variations in consciousness.

Remember from previous articles that consciousness is associated with a person’s awareness and sense of I-ness or identity. This means that many of our daily experiences “register” in our psychologies as an awareness and/or with respect to our identities. For example, when you go to the store, you know that you just went to the store. You also know it was you who went to the store. Both an awareness and identity are part of your conscious experience of going to the store.

As we learn and develop, we all form values and beliefs that make-up our conscious awareness and identities. Of course, each person differs from the next person in many ways, which is clearly evident just by looking at a person’s physical body, clothing styles, verbal expressions and so forth. Many of these individual differences are a result of a person’s consciousness—awareness and identity.

We also know that people become members of groups and that all groups are different. Groups form around interests such as: sports, auto racing, hunting, religion, politics, boating, skiing and on and on. Members of groups tend to be dedicated to the group and to what the group represents. This dedication and representation contributes to each member’s consciousness or awareness and identity. This is labeled group mentality or collective consciousness.

So, consciousness consists of individual and collective awareness and identity and each contributes to the tensions and divided interests in our country. That is, the variations in consciousness among the people in our country develop in individual and collective ways. Clearly, one person’s consciousness will be different from another person’s and one group’s collective consciousness will vary from another group’s.

One of our problem areas is that we expect other people to have the same awareness as us. This simply is not possible and aids in introducing tensions and divides among people. And, of course, everyone believes that their awareness is right and best!

There we have it! Conscious variations that underlie differences and dilemmas among people are significant contributors to our country’s divide.