Bewusstsein

• The Self (pure Formless Awareness) is the Pure Witness of the three states: Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep. assigned to Ramana Maharshi

• That which is not present in deep (i. e. dreamless) sleep is not real. assigned to Ramana Maharshi

• The reality that you're looking for is just prior to thinking; it's not between thoughts. Prior to the moment of a thought, there's a nothingness. That which you are is there before the thought. Thought is form. If you use form to try to catch form, it's not fast enough. From the witness-observer, you see that thought arises from silence. David R. Hawkins, Sedona Seminar Identification & Illusion, offered by Consciousnessproject.org, 14. August 2004

• There exists a continuum of consciousness uniting individual minds that could be directly experienced if the psychophysical threshold of perception were sufficiently lowered through refinement in the functioning nervous system. William James, Essay, 1898

• Mystics, contrary to religionists, are always saying that reality is not two things – God and the world – but one thing, consciousness. […] The problem with science has always been that most scientists believe that science must be done within a different monistic framework, one based on the primacy of matter. […] Quantum physics showed us that we must change that myopic prejudice of scientists, otherwise we cannot comprehend quantum physics. So now we have science within consciousness, a new paradigm of science based on the primacy of consciousness that is gradually replacing the old materialist science. […] the new paradigm resolves many […] paradoxes of the old paradigm and explains much anomalous data. Interview with Amit Goswami on Healing Journeys, presented by Insight Directory, Suzie Daggett, 2005

• Consciousness is a singular the plural of which is unknown. Erwin Schrödinger, quantum physicist, Vienna, Austria

• Consciousness is part of our universe, so any physical theory which makes no proper place for it falls fundamentally short of providing a genuine description of the world. Roger Penrose, Shadows of the mind, Consciousness and computation, pg. 8

• Living consciously involves being genuine; it involves listening and responding to others honestly and openly; it involves being in the moment. Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man. A Spiritual Autobiography, Oprah's Book Club, Harper San Francisco, 26. January 2007

• Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better [...] and the catastrophe towards which the world is headed – the ecological, social, and demographic breakdown of culture – will be inevitable. Vaclav Havel, Club of Rome executive member, President of the Czech Republic, conference in USA, 1999

• As I began to love myself, I refused to continue to live in the past as well as to worry about my future. Now I only live in this moment, where EVERYTHING is taking place. In this way I am now living every day and call it consciousness. Charlie Chaplin, excerpt of a speech at his 70th birthday, 16. April 1959

The Western bias

• The use of mirrors became widespread during the Renaissance which is characterized by the reappearance of consciousness. Tor Norretranders (*1955) Danish author of popular science, The User Illusion. Cutting Consciousness Down to Size, pg. 320, Penguin Press Science, 1. August 1999

• Any development, at any stage, that strives toward patriarchal consciousness, toward the sun, looks on the moon spirit as the spirit of regression, as the terrible mother, as a witch. Erich Neumann, The Origin and Evolution of Consciousness

• The awareness of being aware is the essence of consciousness. Ian Xel Lungold, time researcher

• To divide or multiply consciousness is something meaningless. There is obviously only one alternative, namely the unification of minds or consciousness.... [I]n truth there is only one mind. Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel physicist

• If you get into these spaces [non-ordinary states of consciousness] at all, you must forget about them when you come back. You must forget you're omnipotent and omniscient and take the game seriously so you'll engage in sex, have children, and participate in the whole human scenario. When you come back from a deep tank session – or a coma or psychosis – there's always this extraterrestrial feeling. You have to read the directions in the glove compartment so you can run the human vehicle once more. John C. Lilly and E. J. Gold, Tanks for the Memories. Floatation Tank Talks, Gateways, Nevada City, CA, 1995

• [We are] always already in a shared context. […] The question of whether a person is in fact a conscious person is always a moral question before it is a question about our justification to believe […] A detached perspective […] is incompatible with the more intimate, engaged perspective that we actually take up to each other. […] For what we bearers of consciousness are […] depends on where we are and what we can do. Alva Noë, cognitive scientist and philosopher, University of California, Berkeley, Out of Our Heads. Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness, Hill & Wang, 1st edition, 17. February 2009

• Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of. Anne Lamott