Today's post is a section of Dr. Susan Nettleton's online Sunday talk, "The Power of Consciousness" (If you would like to be on our email list for future talks, email us at hillsideew@aol.com, or our website contact page at hillsidesource.com)
"So, what do I mean when I say consciousness? Loosely, we can say consciousness is a particular kind of awareness that includes awareness of ourself. Consciousness includes being aware and able to think about one's own existence, emotions, thoughts, and environment. The more I searched to find a concise definition of consciousness, the more I realized the cross currents of definition. Some philosophers and modern researchers view consciousness as the mind; your consciousness is your mind and your mind is a complex set of capabilities and processes interacting with your body and emotional states. Consciousness then, becomes a subset of the mind, representing our immediate awareness of our inner and outer experiences.
Usually, we consider consciousness as conscious activity of the brain, but modern research is re-defining what consciousness is--awareness is not so cut and dried. An essential factor is that we must use our mind, our consciousness, to define consciousness. We don't get outside of our mind. Or do we? Consider the wandering mind as opposed to the focused mind. Essentially we have come up with a term and a concept to pursue understanding of how human beings process and use awareness of our own experiences, and awareness of our own thoughts and feelings, and our interactions with other minds. Don't mistake what we name we give it, for this awareness of ourselves as living, thinking, planning, learning beings.
Then we have cognitive science as a 20th century construct, that explores the process of thinking, in the fields of anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. It sprung from the 1950 construct of the mind being like a computer with the adage: "the mind is like software, the brain is like hardware". This was a shift away from the 17th century revelation of Descartes, "I think therefore I am", and the idea that the mind is separate and different from the body (although there was some awareness that the brain could communicate with the body to some extent). We now know that cognition, as our process of thought and thinking, is not located in your head. Rather, it is described as a neural network of interactions with the body and its environment. The degree to which we are aware of that functioning, is an aspect of consciousness. As one of the articles from Cal Tech's consciousness exchange described, "We know that consciousness is inextricably linked to the brain, but a comprehensive understanding of this connection remains an open scientific question."
My intent here is a call to a practice that affirms the positive aspects of Life right now, as Life is, today, March 2026. My short review of these 20th century and 21st century constructs is to orient that consciousness of yours to where we are now, in this exploration and understanding of the power of consciousness. I accept the power of individual, conscious, positive affirmation to lift your sense of meaning and purpose. Research shows that positive affirmation and a positive state of mind supports health, including mental, emotional health, as well as physical health (more important now than ever in a time when our healthcare systems have fragmented). Positive affirmation as an aspect of spiritual practice, enhances your participation in the unfolding, collective, technological and environmental shifts of our times. The power of consciousness is really a call to you, to affirm the Highest and Best unfoldment for you personally, and for our world. There's a lot of room there for layers of the social order. The way of affirmation has been around a long time; really as long as prayer has been around. The psychology of affirmation blossomed in the 20th century, why not continue and enhance it in the 21st. Affirmation is prayer; it is faith in the Good of what we name as God, or the Universe, or the All. This is the power of consciousness.
Today's poetry: https://www.eugeniasalomon.com/blog/the-wind https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/1527532/apocalypse https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/A/AngelouMaya/ABraveand/index.html