doubts whether such a thing as an universal consciousness exists. The East
seeks the
universal consciousness, and, in those cases where its quest succeeds, individual
self
and
life thin away to a mere film, and arc only the shadows cast by the glory revealed
beyond.
The individual consciousness
takes the form of
Thought,
which is fluid and mobile
like quicksilver, perpetually in a state of change and unrest, fraught with pain and
effort; the other consciousness is not in the form of Thought. It touches, sees, hears,
and is those things which it perceives -without motion, without change, without
effort, without distinction
of subject and object, but with a vast and incredible joy.
The individual consciousness is specially related to the body. The organs of the
body are in some degrees its organs. But the
whole
body is only as one organ to the
cosmic consciousness. To attain this latter one must have the power of knowing one's
self separate from the body,
of passing into a state of
ecstasy
in fact. Without this the
cosmic consciousness cannot be experienced.*
All the subsequent writings of Carpenter, especially his book of free verse.
Towards
Democracy,
lead to the psychology of ecstatic experiences and depict the way by which
man
advances towards this
principal aim of his existence,
i.e. towards new
consciousness.
Only the attainment of this first aim will illumine for a man the past and the future;
it will be vision, awakening. Without this, with only the ordinary, sleep consciousness,
a man is blind; and he cannot hope to know anything except what he can feel with his
blind man's stick.
The psychological picture of the awakening of the new consciousness is given by Dr
Bucke in his book
Cosmic Consciousness.
I shall quote in an abridged form a few fragments from this book.
I
What is cosmic consciousness?
Cosmic consciousness, then, is a higher form of consciousness than that possessed
by the ordinary man. This last is self-consciousness and
is that faculty upon which
rests all of our life (both subjective and objective) which is not common to us and the
higher animals, except that small pan of it which is derived from the few individuals
who have had the higher consciousness above named. To make the matter clear it
must be understood that there are three forms or grades of consciousness, (1)
Simple
consciousness,
which is possessed by say the upper half of the animal kingdom. (2)
Self-consciousness,
which man has
over and above the simple
* Edward Carpenter,
From Adam's Peak to Elephanta,
2nd edn, reprinted 1921,
London, George Allen & Unwin.
consciousness, which is possessed by man as by animals.* (3)
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