The Consciousness of the Atom
Some years ago I read about the consciousness of the atom in the Alice Bailey books. I was both surprised and then satisfied. Of course there is a consciousness there; not the self-reflective mind that we humans carry, but a consciousness nevertheless, — an intelligence. It is an intelligence that pervades everything.
Isn’t it clever of the electrons and protons to know exactly where to go in order to create the hydrogen atom? And isn’t it intelligent for two hydrogen atoms to find an oxygen atom with which to unite, and to form water. That’s intelligence, and it comes from somewhere. It inheres within the atom, but it is also part of the overall intelligence of the All which invades, or exists within everything, and surrounds, and interflows, and expands and contracts and creates. This intelligence of the atom is the intelligence of the All, the Creator. It is the Law which both orders us and gives order to us.
It is a loving thing at the same time, for it is, in its basis, a uniting, a drawing together, a union. But it is done is such a way that it is balanced by separation, so that things do not (yet) fuse together, melt together, lose identity together. There is a space between the electron and the nucleus. There is distance between the various molecules that comprise water. There is space and separateness that gives identity to our very cells of our body, as well as the selves that we are. And this is the consciousness of the atom; this is the consciousness of the All, this is the order of God.
All of that sounds pretty theoretical, I think, but it leads to practical ways in our lives. I have so long observed, in group psychotherapy (and I have mentioned this before I am sure) that as the group comes together, there is a union formed, a love that comes to exist between the members. It grows, and grows progressively. A family forms and each member of the family wants, is eager, to help the other. That is love. That is unity. That is the buoyancy of the soul. That is a rising to the surface of the inherent divinity and union that exists within us. It is the inherent godliness that exists inside and comes to surround. This matter of being inside and all around at once, is the holographic principle in which everything contains everything else; in which everything is a part of everything else. The Chinese have described this in terms of their organizational charts. In contrast to the West, it does not exist in lines that descend from the top and spread by division into lower and lower matter. Instead they draw a large circle that contains a yet smaller circle which in turn contains several smaller circles and so on and so on. Thus each constituent is ultimately a part of the whole.
Ken Wilbur has talked about the “Holon”. This is an entity, a unit, which exists and is distinct quite by itself. Yet it cannot exist at all except in relationship to a larger whole. An example would be the cell of the human body. It is a little civilization, a factory, a thing all in itself. But, without the surrounding plasma and serum and company of other cells that comprise the organ which in turn (with other organs) comprise the human being, it could not exist. And so it is with all of us.
There is the consciousness of the atom. There is the consciousness of each thing. There is the consciousness within us which can rise to higher and higher levels, until we realize the consciousness of the All, – the Law and Order which surrounds us, which has created us, and to which we ourselves contribute.
How do we realize this yet more in life? There is such an inherent goodness within each human being that is stifled by the learned and acquired beatings that have occurred to so many emotionally and even physically in their childhood and in their course of life. But once these things are understood, and relieved, released if you will, there is a rising to goodness. And how can we rise this way? We can rise by firstly knowing ourselves. And this requires meditation, introspection, the courage to find our faults and traumas, but with a good heart. It comes about when we recognize the power of intuition, for our intuition really is a signal from God Himself, from the Higher Regions. It is a wide and acute wisdom. It arises from letting go and letting ourselves be the power that we are. It also issues from recognizing the inherent goodness in other people. That doesn’t mean cultivating their ill manners or even evil ways, but recognizing that underneath there is something that can rise to the surface. There is an inherent talent and quality and goodness, that can be brought forth under the proper circumstances.
All of this is a part of the consciousness within each creation, including the atom itself. And this is a part of the Law which God has created, and which guides us. All of this is a part of the consciousness of the All.
Let me illustrate this with an example from my practice:
CLINICAL EXPERIENCES IN THE SUPERMIND This was a 58 year old woman whom I had seen in class for two years or more. She was very eager to learn, but so often off the point. There was something about her that made me feel empty. I finally suggested that we have a private session.
She began – she told me her story, and then I felt so empty, so bored. This inner feeling told me that she was detached from me, and I from her. It was a loss of contact. I told her that I think that she must have a very hard time making contact with people. Immediately that struck her. I had said, “You seem to be empty!” She agreed, and added that that was her problem in life, and went on to day that she did that because she was afraid of being hurt. She had been so hurt so man times in her life. She went on and on about that.
The fact is that she had seen other therapists, but nothing had breached the wall that existed between her and other people, and presumably her former therapists.
My Comment :
I was able to contact her in the Higher Realms by listening to my inner realms. In reflecting her state of mind and feeling, I reproduced it within myself, and then put it into a cognitive set. I could then offer it to her and she could validate it with her own Higher Self of Witness. This describes a meeting in the Superplanes. Again the wall asserted itself. At one point, however, when she was talking about the only nice thing her mother had ever said to her came when her mother was dying, “You always had stars in your eyes”. When she said that she reddened a little in her eyes. I caught that, and helped it to develop. She then began to cry and expressed bitter anger at her mother for always putting her down. Her memory was such that when she came home from kindergarten and told her mother she had missed her, her mother slapped her. Over and over again she experienced this kind of rejection.
It became very evident that she had sealed herself off from her feelings, a very thick defense. As she began to express herself, she became real and likeable in contrast to the boring person I had confronted before.
What does this have to do with the Superplanes? It is a matter a meeting people up there, and of invoking the higher mind called the Witness, in order to look at these things, to command the tolerance of the painful feelings of rejection, shame, of guilt over anger at your own mother.