Imagine a glass of water with a spoon of salt in it. Once dissolved, the salt seems to disappear, it becomes invisible, and the water turns salty. The properties of salt are blended with the properties of water, with the chemical identity of both substances still retained. By analogy, our consciousness dissolves in, or becomes identified with, our lower bodies. When the water evaporates, the spoonful of salt remains intact at the bottom of the glass, and its properties remain unchanged. A similar process happens to consciousness when someone passes away. However, refining the consciousness back to its initial state can be performed without the destruction of the physical and other lower bodies. To accomplish this task, one should develop awareness. Awareness is cultivated gradually as a person learns to manage his attention by keeping a portion of it on observing the mind, emotions, and physical body. Such observations, on the one hand, gradually change the lower bodies by eliminating health conditions and disorders and bringing their interactions into harmony. At the same time, such observations initiate the process of non-identifying the consciousness from the said bodies. This process promotes the crystallization of consciousness into a separate center.
Comment. I have borrowed the term “crystallization” from G. I. Gurdjieff, yet as of now, I don’t consider it as accurately describing consciousness. It is not crystallization that happens with consciousness; instead, consciousness becomes more and more present in one’s inner space as one’s channel of attention gets wider. The word “crystallization” denotes that “getting stronger” or “solidifying” is more relevant for willpower rather than individual Consciousness. Light is light—whether it is hidden or revealed. The more it is present in one’s inner space, the more self-aware one becomes.
* * *
Once consciousness is fully crystallized and its non-identification is complete, then it becomes possible for its qualities and capabilities to manifest themselves in all their genuine beauty and power. When this happens to a person, his level of being is perceived by others as something incredibly amazing and interpreted in various, but not always reasonable, ways. This happens because it is difficult to see and understand how divine the nature of the consciousness that we are granted is.