Last night one of my pets was killed by a wild animal.
I was thinking about this, and my thoughts were led to the conversations on this thread, and to one train of thought
which I would like to share.
I think we would agree that there are different levels of consciousness, understanding, thought, and awareness among sentient living beings.
-An insect has a higher level than an amoeba.
-A bird has a higher level than an insect.
-A cat has a higher level than a bird.
-A dog is similar to the cat, but in my experience the dog has more potential for sympathetic interaction with humans than cats do.
-And human beings have higher levels than cats and dogs.
-Even with humans there are vast differences between individuals, and between children and adults.
(Though a child may have a clearer perception about certain things than most adults do. )
The lower level beings are incapable of comprehending what the beings of the higher levels
can comprehend. This is a truism, because we are speaking of levels of consciousness.
Of course there are other capabilities that a lower being might possess, that are not possessed by the higher beings; for example, the hearing and smelling of a dog exceeds the capabilities of men; birds may unique abilities of instinctual navigation, and so on; but I am referring to "intellectual" capabilities of consciousness, thought, critical awareness, etc.
No matter how you try, you will never be able to make a dog understand Newtonian physics, or have a conversation with it about
the failures of government social policies, or the textual problems in the New Testament.
As this relates to the present conversation, I suggest that it is not absurd to assume that higher levels of consciousness exist
above the level on which most human beings operate.
It is also logical to admit the possibility that human intellect is incapable of comprehending fully whatever the "content" might be of the higher levels. We may not be able to even perceive the "evidence", or existence of the stuff about which the beings possessing higher consciousness are occupied with.
With our systems of reason and logic and scientific method, there is no reason at all to rule out the concept of higher consciousness, because it has as a starting a premise that evidence for it cannot be perceived by ordinary people.
So absence of "normal" evidence above our own level is going to be lacking, because beings with a lower level of consciousness are inherently unable perceive what the beings with higher levels are able to perceive.
As a matter of fact, we do have evidence of different levels of consciousness that everyone can see and that most people would agree with. I detailed five levels, there could be many more, if one applied oneself to consider it.
There is no reason to presume that our human level is the highest level. It is just the highest level that we are capable of perceiving, based on our inherent limitations.
One suggestion I have to make, is that there there are and have been beings that have greater abilities, qualitatively, than ordinary humans. This would explain for the appearance and teachings of the great spiritual figures that have appeared from time to time in human history.
They may have had the ability to recognize, express and transmit things that ordinary people cannot perceive or recognize on their own.
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One should consider one's own limitations, even in the sphere of human activity. I was a good student, I enjoyed learning, did great on all the tests, got admitted to top universities, etc. etc.
But when I got to a certain level in physics or biology, there were just limits to what I could understand and comprehend.
The truths in those subjects at advanced levels were just beyond my capabilities, and these subjects are within the sphere of human reasoning.
I see nothing illogical about thinking that there are other beings have greater capacity to perceive and understand reality, even beyond the areas of molecular biology and physics.
I also consider it an open question as to whether a human being, created figuratively out of clay, is even capable of understanding everything about his own creation and the stuff he is made of. So far, the evidence is not conclusive.
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