Comments on: The Primacy of Consciousness

By: David Foster

David Foster — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:58:00 +0000

It seems that Mr. Russell has quite eloquently managed to put into words what I have been fumbling with for the past 40 years. BRAVO!

By: Andy Van Berkum

Andy Van Berkum — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:05:00 +0000

We are alive — what does that mean? To so many of us it seems like something to be taken as an emotional experience rather than a coldly logical one. There’s a disconnect there, because feelings can’t be described; they can only be felt. There is no science that can explain emotion because only the emotion itself is perfectly descriptive of itself.

By: John Taylor

John Taylor — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:24:00 +0000

This was not an explanation of consciousness, but rather a new hiding spot for the god of the gaps (who recently lost his job as the initiator of the big bang).
So, before accepting this new mega shift, I’ll just wait for the missing ingredient EVIDENCE, which never seems to show up in quests to make god real.

By: gsjikwblao

gsjikwblao — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:24:00 +0000

I have trouble myself understanding what he meant by that. So this may be wrong but I think he was proposing a fundamental nature of consciousness in all matter and not saying that all matter is conscious as we are. Clearly, a grain of sand does not have a collection of five physical senses as we do. However both we and the grain of sand respond to our environment. When the wind blows on the grain of sand it has no “choice” but to respond. We tend to see ourselves as having the capacity to choose but what is “causing” us to make the decisions that we do is itself “causation driven”. In this way we can understand that “free will” is an illusion born of our nature. It is no more then a perception. This is not to say that it is not real. A “perception” is very real. It just isn’t what we thought it was.
If this is true then it could be said that “causation” which determines all reality and all perception of it, is the most fundamental nature of consciousness. It may be a small step to then consider that the conscious “God” that created everything is “causation”. But this mechanical view is not very useful for a race of motivated consciousness occupying individual points of perspective. It is much more useful to understand that “love” through “causation” created everything else to form a necessary diametrically opposed motivation which, through the same “causation” subdues the opposing motivation (individual perspective) in an evolutionary process.
I think he may have been suggesting a new definition of consciousness by defining its most fundamental characteristic at which level we have much in common with everything else. This is because everything, including our “free will” is driven in its development by “causation”. This understanding does not elevate the dog terd to the level of human consciousness, it lowers, relative to God, human consciousness to the level of the dog terd.
This may be wrong because I was having a difficult time listening closely because the doc. moved so slowly.

By: gsjikwblao

gsjikwblao — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:37:00 +0000

Because we are more influenced, in the initial state of our nature by our individual perspective arising from the processing of information through our five physical senses then we are by a unifying perspective which arises in our convicting conscience. This will change when “Satan” which is a figurative reference to our perception of individual perspective, is cast into the prison by “Jesus Christ” which is a figurative reference to the unifying perspective of an increased conviction of conscience. Our heads are in the “prison” of our hearts when they can no longer escape the influence of our hearts. This will only happen when our hearts evolve into an increased state of motivation, on their way back to the single point of perspective from which they departed in the formation of a necessary diametrically opposed motivation, 13.7 billion years ago. This involves love withdrawing from all those who have been overcome by the necessary deceptive nature of individual perspective, and compressing stressfuly into others who cannot escape the inconveinent influence of their relatively strong convicting consciences. Without a significant conviction of conscience to question their fear-driven reasoning, those who reject this will be completely confident as they do so.
This evolutionary process is one of “natural selection” and is entirely “causation driven”. Inasmuch as we can understand that love,which is a binding motivation for consciousness motivated by the destructive nature of individual perspective, generated everything else to form a necessary diametrically opposed motivation, we can understand the new state of mind to be “The kingdom of God”.

By: Austin Slay

Austin Slay — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 07:01:00 +0000

Extremely to the point and easy to understand documentary! Light, matter, space, time, and the conscious of action of photons to atoms to molecules to small organisms to fish to dogs to man. It all makes sense. A+

By: Matt Kukowski

Matt Kukowski — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:18:00 +0000

Peter Russell is a lot like Alan w Watts. Except Alan would always go in so many directions, where as Peter seems to stay focused on topic with slides and just flow like water easily esplaining what Alan Watts and all the people of Mind were trying to tell us.

BRAVO to this man. Him coming from a Physics upringing really helped to keep things tight and on track, while trying to explain things that are impossible to put into works.

There is nothing that this man has said that I disagree with when comparing them with Alan Watts and all the other figures Mr Russel references.

BRILLANT.

By: CeilingCat

CeilingCat — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:19:00 +0000

It is documentaries like this that add to the sum-total of human awareness.

By: Rey Abad

Rey Abad — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:04:00 +0000

dat was a great eye opener.i think 8 s d scientific explanation of GOD.I was once a believer of scince like the richard hawkings explanations but now i think hes d one who s completely DELUSIONAL.Now,i will never be again be confuse with the existence of God .this one nails it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:01:00 +0000

wow…let me get this straight….you didn’t watch the video…but you summarized it for us. GREAT! now I will just stop watching it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:56:00 +0000

I’m getting to a point in my own consciousness where it seems that I am a very lowly NPC (for you role-players) in a grand video game conceived by a lesser person than myself….go figure. Maybe now the peons will stage an uprising and defeat the overlord….or maybe GOD (the video gamer) can just hit the reset button, and try again.

By: Patrice Berube

Patrice Berube — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:50:00 +0000

good stuff.

but next time maybe be aware of your feelings of impatience, ignore them for a little bit and take the time to watch the video first. ;)

By: Patrice Berube

Patrice Berube — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:49:00 +0000

you are smart enough.

just get the work done to get there.

By: Surf Reyes

Surf Reyes — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:53:00 +0000

I haven’t yet the time to watch the video, but clearly, this is about the unified field of pure consciousness, which is the foundation of quantum physics.

What people think is “reality” is really merely their perception of the images of reality…not reality itself. Reality itself is pure energy, pure consciousness…which is beyond the physical senses, which are the exclusive bases of intellectual perception. Reality itself cannot be perceived but only directly experienced. Reality itself is not a matter of perception through the senses but a matter of direct conscious experience…or, consciously BEING, yourself, the reality.

In the same way do you perceive the image of yourself in a mirror…while consciously experiencing, or being yourself the actual reality beyond the mirror. The problem of Man is thinking he is his image in the mirror, having lost awareness of the actual reality of who he really is beyond the mirror. In this delusion, he thinks the images of reality is actual reality itself.

So do many cling to the images of apparent movement, losing awareness of the infinite stillness within all apparent movement. They cling to sounds, without awareness of the reality of silence where all sounds arise and return. They cling to form, without awareness of space without which form cannot exist. They cling to the measurable, ever changing formal contents of consciousness, losing awareness of the immeasurable never-changing reality of pure consciousness.

The reality of the still, silent space of pure consciousness is the essential source where all apparent forms arise and return.

Still, ultimately, there is the Primacy of Spirit-Being…where pure consciousness arises and returns…

This discussion about pure consciousness is like talking about the reality of sunlight. Those who have uncovered eyes do not need the explanation nor proof. And those who are blindfolded-from-birth, not having the direct conscious experience of sunlight (though having so much purely intellectual knowledge of sunlight from reading books in Braille), can never reach the conscious experience by listening to explanations. They can only arrive at the direct conscious experience of sunlight…by choosing to remove their blindfolds, instead of arguing and debating about that which they have no experiential knowledge of. Ironically, the sun shines on all the blindfolded-from-birth who are all experiencing its light…they are simply not conscious of the experience!

The blindfold is attachment to, and consequently becoming confined and limited within, the intellectual mind, which can only perceive the formal contents of consciousness…not consciousness itself! So do I paraphrase the “Little Prince”: Only with the heart can one “see” rightly…what is essential is invisible to the intellectual mind.”

By: Surf Reyes

Surf Reyes — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 10:56:00 +0000

@NeuronFirestorm: You’re doing quite well trying to explain the unexplainable :-)

When you are trying to explain sunlight…those with uncovered eyes do not need your explanation, and those who are blindfolded from birth can never understand your explanation until they choose to remove their blindfolds instead of arguing with you :-)