Spiritual science: how a new perspective on consciousness...

Spiritual science: how a new perspective on consciousness could help us understand ourselves

Steve Taylor

Human shared fundamental consciousness means that it is possible for us to sense the suffering of others and to respond with altruistic acts. Since we share fundamental consciousness with other species, too, it is possible for us to feel empathy with – and to behave altruistically towards – them as well.

One of my main areas of interest as a psychologist is in what I call “awakening experiences”, when human awareness intensifies and expands and we experience a sense of oneness with other human beings, nature or the world as a whole.

I see awakening experiences as encounters with fundamental consciousness, in which we sense its presence in everything around us, including our own selves. We experience a sense of oneness because oneness is the fundamental reality of things.