2: Four States of Consciousness
The lowest part of man is irrational and subjective and is related with the five ordinary senses. The highest part of man is the world of intuition and objective spiritual consciousness. In the world of intuition, the archetypes of all things in nature develop. Only those who have penetrated into the world of objective intuition, only those who have reached the solemn heights of Noetic thought are truly awakened and illuminated.
– Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
At any moment we can find ourselves in one or another state of consciousness. Overall, we all have a center of gravity within one state.
Ancient traditions tell us that consciousness can be divided into four broad strata:
Eikasia: brutality, cruelty, profound ignorance.
Pistis: opinions, beliefs, fanaticism, sectarianism.
Dianoia: dialectics, dialogue, conceptual synthesis.
Nous: profound objective spiritual consciousness.
Plato described these states in accordance with the time and place of his dialogues. Let us now clarify these terms of our studies today.
When we act at the level of Eikasia, instinct and impulse are taken as a blunt and complete truth. Eikasia is instinctual and sub-human. Large crowds charged with fear and anger, like a riot, are acting this way. Dreamless sleep is Eikasia.
Superficial people believe they could never act from the level of Eikasia, yet, at a moment of crisis, their instincts betray them. The desire to kill the enemy, to brutally punish the guilty, etc., come from Eikasia.
Pistis is the most common level of consciousness in the life of daily society.
Everyone likes to live under the protection of groups.
People look for a group identity to define their life. With Pistis, the intellect is used to justify behavior that produces a sense of emotional safety. Anyone who agrees with you is ‘good’, otherwise they are either ‘evil’ or ‘stupid.’ When acting from Pistis, everything seems to be understood as ‘this’ or ‘that,’ when actually nothing has been understood at all. Intellect is used superficially to justify emotions and instincts, but not to understand them.
In Dianoia, one does not identify with what is known. In Pistis, a person is always asserting what is known, defending what is known, being upset or anxious when others have a different view, etc. For Dianoia to be present, one must always see what is unknown. Pistis wants to grab on to ‘the known’ and reify it as absolute truth. Dianoia always sees the dynamic process upon which knowledge is known, and that all knowledge comes from the unknown.
To move beyond Pistis takes a lot of self-reflection. We must become interested in our psychology. To reflect about how one’s own mind works may appear boring. This is because it is difficult to make the connections between how our mind works and the situations of discontentment we find in life. When we are being naive, we think the world is providing all our problems, but this idea dissolves within the analysis of Dianoia.
In Dianoia, intellect is properly and completely utilized in harmony with emotions. Many intellectuals are inept when relating to life emotionally. Likewise emotional people, who can easily traverse the social and interpersonal side of life, often gloss over – by refusing to think analytically – many details in life, ultimately leading to repetitive failures. Such people are not at the level of Dianoia, even if they possess sporadic moments of Dianoia.
Exemplars in many fields of life usually operate from Dianoia to some degree more than the rest. These are quite rare individuals. This has nothing to do with the most ‘productive’ types either. We are referring to those who initiate authentically new things in this world.
Hearing this, boastful people in the state of Pistis always believe they are the rare ones, the best and the elite.
Having a superior education is a good thing. Yet, even if you graduate from the most prestigious academic institutions means little in terms of these states of consciousness. What we are concerned with is one’s internal state, which no academic degree has any relation with.
Everyone must aspire to achieve the state of Dianoia immediately. Everyone it seems, believes they are already at this state. Yet passionate ones and the sleepy heads, those who cannot resist a drink and a flirt, those who spend time fornicating, could hardly ever achieve even momentary Dianoia, let alone continuous Dianoia.
Dianoia requires tremendous comprehension of one’s own thoughts, emotions, and instincts. Otherwise, they beguile us, and we end up acting in lower strata of consciousness. Dianoia is indictive of the beginning of awakening consciousness.
Dianoia is difficult to achieve, while the state of Pistis is seductive. When your life is a constant struggle against enemies, against the ‘other’, your experience lies within Pistis. If you like to win arguments, you are in Pistis. If your outbursts of anger or bouts of sadness are because of what the ‘other’ did, you are in Pistis or Eikasia. If you need acceptance of the group, are working to be liked or to be part of a group, you are in Pistis.
If you identify with what you already know to be true, then you are in Pistis.
The state of Dianoia comprehends the synthesis of opposites. In Pistis, everything is in dialectical struggle, the struggle of opposing factors: self and other, us and them, thesis and antithesis, etc.
In Dianoia, so-called enemies are comprehended in depth, and therefore one’s own action is better understood. The one in Dianoia has no enemies other than ‘myself.’
In Dianoia, the point of dialogue is not to see who is right or wrong, not to battle for a win, but to discover the truth of the matter.
In Dianoia, the cascades of interpersonal and intrapsychic events are seen with clarity. Thus, instead of justifying anger, one begins to understand its causal substratum. Dianoia is curious for the truth. The state of Pistis deifies or demonizes behavior without understanding anything. The state of Dianoia asks, “Why is it that anger appeared in this moment, opposed to something more useful?” Pistis justifies itself, saying, “That guy is a jerk.”
In Dianoia, groupthink is rejected. Yet, anti-groupthink is also rejected because it is seen as just another type of groupthink (an opposite). Doing things based upon opposites reveals a lack of comprehension, and therefore could never be Dianoia. Until it is established, Dianoia is difficult to maintain. There are extremely powerful incentives to remain within groupthink.
Spiritual groups, social groups, political groups, etc., all provide some vague sense of belonging. If one has inner confusion, inner weakness, etc., the ‘group self’ provides something valuable.
We are not against groups; they are very necessary. Inevitably, we must discover our self within the group, because we are always a part of a group. But to know you are in a group, and the discovery of the ‘self’ within the group are two different things. We begin to discover our self by working for the establishment of our basis within Dianoia.
With proper ethics, a society with a center of gravity in Dianoia would be something like a paradise compared to our present condition. Today, those with the potential of even lower states of Dianoia most often use their conceptions to make money and usurp power.
Outstandingly clear, conceptual-emotional synthesis is Dianoia. People believe they are already in Nous when they are only in Pistis (belief).
The unknown is very frightening for those in the state of Pistis.
Dianoia reveres Agnostos Theos, the Unknown God, as the greatest good.
Nous, at its maximum, is completely awakened consciousness. This is a state of mystical joy where unobscured reality is experienced, and the nature of the experience is also completely understood.
Someone may have a mystical experience yet, not understand it. This is only a facsimile of Nous.
Nous is the ubiquitous intelligence of existence. Thoughts, even clear thinking, is not Nous. Nous cannot be apprehended as thought without some form of disfigurement occurring. Nous is beyond thought.
Many people, stuffed to the gills with refined thoughts, can perform the greatest evils in the world. Dianoia itself does not guarantee ethical conduct. Dianoia remains subjective and foolish without the stellar orientation of Nous.
The New Testament tells of three wise men guided by the North Star. The North Star is Nous, which is the intelligence of your inner divinity. Each of us has an inner light, an inner divinity, which is far beyond sentiment and reasoning.
Nous is legitimate intuition, abstract concept which directly apprehends something without reasoning. Nous is a state of awakened consciousness united with our inner divinity.
Without at least some inkling, some spark of Nous, the intellectual is a dry, arid wasteland of a person. Depression is often rampant, as is the use of drugs, alcohol, and pornography. Intellectuals too often sink the majority of their psyche into Eikasia as form of escape, because Dianoia, the ostensible promised land of the intellectual, can ultimately never apprehend the truth.
The exultations of Nous have a relationship with intoxication. Indeed, Nous can be experienced as a type of mystical intoxication. Let us not be deceived, however. This is not the inferior, subjective, confused states of psychedelia, psychosis, or delirium.
Many alcoholics and addicts are unknowingly searching for Nous – they believe the truth and bliss of the world arrives with the ingestion of chemicals. For the alcoholic, the ‘truth’ comes out when they have a drink.
Those enamored by lust believe the greatest good and highest truth is found is sexual exploitation of the other: men wanting to dominate women, and women wanting to be chased by men.
The one who drinks from the fountain of Nous yearns not for illusory intoxication of sex and drugs. Only the real thing, reality-intoxication, will do.
Mystical ecstasy is reality-intoxication. ‘That’ is Nous.
Nous has degrees and degrees. Anyone can have a glimpse of Nous, yet, to establish yourself in Nous is only possible through a great sacrifice and a great work. Honestly, it is a tremendous work to even reach Dianoia, and a superhuman effort to achieve Nous.
Rightfully stated, Buddhas and Christs are beyond human. They are truly super-human. Those who created the greatest religions of the world were completely established in Nous.
First, we must be established in Dianoia. This requires a lot of work. Just about everyone is too proud to see themselves for what they truly are. Dianoia is a state of consciousness within the illusions and projections of the mind, yet, they have been organized. To organize the illusion is necessary, so that you will not be deceived and sink into lower strata of consciousness.
In the end only Nous is truthful. Only Nous can be trusted absolutely. Nous is the illuminated void and beyond.
Nous is a direct experience or direct reception, a drink from the fountain of life. The Unknown directly reveals itself in some form, some experience.
In Nous, the Unknown is known little by little. Nevertheless, the Unknown remains just as Unknown as ever.
The Unknown is infinite potential.
Always, a great struggle must be made to achieve Dianoia. When this process begins, a reassessment of all beliefs and preconceptions occurs. A person starts to think for his or her own self. Nevertheless, this is just the beginning of Dianoia and it does not signify that one is established their mode of experience within Dianoia.
Dianoia can only be established by knowing one’s own self. Without self-knowledge, all the unconscious elements in one’s psyche sabotage efforts to achieve Dianoia.
In other words, you cannot achieve Dianoia just because you would like to. It requires much more than that. You must change; nothing else will do.
For this reason, we must understand and make use of gnostic psychology.
