A SUPERCONSCIOUS MIND

In order to render them intelligible to our minds, in reality they

cannot be separated, each part being dependent upon the other

parts of the wholeness even when a part or parts predominate.

Further, under the Hermetic law of correspondence "As above, so

below, but in a different manner", we find that the subjective

spritual world is not projected, but reflected, into the objective

mundane world, and as such is a reverse image. Hence we are told

"that the first shall be last, and the last shall be first" (more

of this later), and will is the primal power working through moral

truth in the First Degree, life is the primal power in the Second

Degree working through beauty but verging towards the degree

below and the degree above infuses both -- the beauty of moral

truth and the beauty of intellectual truth, and intellectual truth

is the primal power in the Third Degree working through will to

eventually lead us, in the Holy Royal Arch, to spiritual insight

and grace in conformity with His Divine Will.

But Man is a much more complex being than is disclosed to him by

his senses those five modes of communication with the outside

world in which he lives and the unravelling of this complexity

unveils to our view the secrets of Nature, the knowledge of which

in regard to their source and operation constitutes the paths of

heavenly science. This knowledge has been known to mankind for

many millenia, has been taught in secret to those deemed worthy

after many trials and tribulations as is said in our ritual "to

worthy men, and worthy men alone" for a good and sufficient
reason: Knowledge breeds power, and power to those who have not

achieved stability corrupts. A classic yoga aphorism also states

this very clearly: Knowledge gives liberation to wise men, but

proves bondage to fools. Over the last half-century this arcane

knowledge has, to put it crudely, been hawked in the market-place

with a spontaneous outpouring from all sources, and has gained

steadily in momentum and acceptance from year to year through

spiritualism, healing groups, meditation groups, esoteric

fraternities, occult schools, yoga classes, a multitude of books,

and records and tapes many of which deal with ritual as practised

by certain persuasions and auto-hypnosis for a variety of purposes.

This heightening interest in the hidden side of our nature has

produced a sympathetic reaction to out environment along with an

increase of our understanding in the inter- relatedness of all

living things, known as ecology an understanding that was

instinctive and superstitious until man became more established in

his emergent rational faculty and it is running a parallel course

to the rapid advance in technical knowledge. In order to create the

correct perspective, and more importantly relate it to our Masonic

system so that we can the better be enabled to distinguish and

appreciate the connection of our whole system and the relative

dependence of its several parts, it is necessary to consider the

human mind, or that "knowing" part of ourselves by which we become

self-conscious integers in the Divine Plan.

Not a great deal is known about the workings of the brain in its
specific detail, but there are basic facts that have been handed

down to us that are being confirmed as our scientific knowledge

increases. It is estimated that we use less than 5 per cent, of the

brain's capacity, which is an indication of the wonderful

potential that will be ours to command in the proportion that we

are raised from darkness to light. It is known that the brain

generates or responds to several different wave forms, one of

which is peculiar to advanced stages of meditation and mystical

states of consciousness. And it has a three-fold structure

(cerebrum, cerebellum, and medula oblongata) with inter-connecting

links. The main brain is divided into two halves, or hemispheres,

the left half said to be related to logical thinking and the right

half to creative thinking but with a strange facility, in the case

of damage to one side, for the other side to develop "that which

was lost," It also has a "middle chamber" or cavity.

But the brain is only the physical organ through which the mind is

held to work in the

same way that life courses through our physical vehicle but is not

the vehicle itself, both mind and life having a threefold

classification that go hand-inhand to distinguish three levels of

consciousness: the sensuous life of the sentient being, the

aesthetic life leading from outward to inward beauty, and an

intellectual life above the realm of the senses. These three

levels are related to the conscious, subconscious, and

superconscious mind the superconscious mind being consciously

active in only a very few advanced souls. Yet intellect itself is

a unity, the apparent diversity being caused by the limitation of

the veiling forms of the conditions of existence encountered in

the descent of the Soul into manifestation.

The classification of the gnostic powers of the Soul are those of

the senses, instincts, estimation, reason and intuition. The first

three man shares with the animal kingdom, for man is animal in his

lower nature. There is nothing to be ashamed of in having an animal

nature for man could not exist in the phvsical world without his

"body of flesh" the "shame" (a stage in the process of learning)

comes about when man is forced into action by instinct when the

moral law or his conscience tells him his conduct is wrong. We will

come back to reason and intuition later.

The five senses, those doorways through which we contact the

physical world of sensation, constantly pass information to the

brain to be evaluated far more information than we are

consciously aware of and this is stored away in our near perfect

automatic memory. This record in our memory has been demonstrated

time ancl again by the use of hypnosis, under the influence of

which people have recalled events and situations buried below the

threshold of consciousness that they were not themselves conscious

of at the timc they occured because the attention was occupied

elsewhere, or because the ability to recall had not been

cultivated. There is a barrier or dividing line between these two

levels of consciousness that is the conscious and subconscious

which can be dangerous to erode if the attention is allowed to

move backward and forward from one to the other without the control

of the will, and indeed, some of those who do possess an

apparently infallible memory tell of how the mind will race

through chains of associated memories without reference to what is

going on in the world around them, which can prove to be a very

dangerous situation. Even with hypnosis -- the control of one mind

by another there is the danger of the weakening of the will and the

increase in suggestibility. This dichotomy is not so difficult to

deal with as it first seems, the problem being that we are

habituated to function in a way that is perfectly normal to us, and

until we realise that we can change our habit patterns of thought

and that there is a need to do so we will not make the effort.

The conscious mind is man'slatest acquisition and it is, at

present, in its infancy. By its use man can use discrimination and

his God-given birthright of freewill to exercise control over his

own affairs. Initially it is used purely for self-assertion,

selfpreservation, and self- expression with the controlling aspect

the nature will. At this stage man is a member of the "popular

world" in Masonic terminology or "the herd" to use the Platonic,

and his acceptance as a member of society depends on his

conformity to the moral law. The Platonic analogy of "the herd" is

a very apt one, for one of the secrets of Nature is the difference

between the human animal and the rest of the animal kingdom. To

unravel this secret of Nature it is necessary to consider concepts

of a basic, but very high order, by the use of words. Words are
symbols of ideas which, by assimilation (to bring to a likeness or

to conformity; to cause a resemblance between) on the mental plane

(which in itself involves the use of the mental vehicle) descend

through the desire nature or astral plane with its associated level

of mind or estimation to trigger off the appropriate emotion (a

function of the astral vehicle) which in turn stimulates the

physical body (through thc etheric vehicle) to be expressed through

sound. It is a matter of common experience how, in reverse order,

the subtle nuances of the human

voice can stir the emotions and stimulate the imagination.

The concepts to be considered depend very much on the content of

the mental vehicle itself and the plane of the astral worldon

which they are received by the hearer. This simple statement in

itself requires explanation as the word "hearer" denotes a stage on

the path of spiritual progression: we enter the Temple by virtue

of the tongue of good report, meaning that the feeling tone or

vibration we emanate is deemed sufficiently refined so as not to

disrupt the harmony of the Lodge, and then, after a prayer given to

attune the Lodge to the correct level, pass in view before the

brethren to show that we are properly prepared, which serves two

purposes, that of "showing our colours" to clairvoyant perception

and receiving the individual linkage with brethren as we pass by

in order to render the ceremony more effective. A prominent part

of the ceremony then dealt with the virtue of "silence", the three-

fold silence of heart, mind and will in their lower aspects and the
practice of virtue. This silence continues in the Second Degree

where we continue to learn to listen on a higher level of

consciousness. It is only after we have had the principles of

intellectual truth presented to us as a hearer, meaning not only

acoustically but also to gain knowledge or cognizance of (hearer

also means disciple) we were told in the Charge after Passing that

"in our private assemblies we may offer our sentiments and

opinions on such subjects as are regularly introduced in the

Lecture under the superintendence of an experienced Master who

will guard the Landmarks against encroachment. By this privilege

you may improve your intellectual powers . . . " Sentiments and

opinions are of the astral world level of the lower mind as

estimation and automatic memory.

To make the process involved a little clearer, the lower mind takes

information from automatic memory and joins the "bits" together

like a variable jig-saw puzzle of particularised incidents. The

higher mind, which is independent of the senses, dwells upon ideas

to slowly build up an alphabet of con cepts which are universal

principles and, as a result of the process of assimilation, draws

into them the light of ideas from above -- this is the true daily

advancement in Masonic knowledge that should, nay must if we wish

to advance spiritually, accompany the process of memorising the

ritual through which the real knowledge is expressed in the Lodge.