The Experience of  Consciousness and the  Ancient Initiation Mysteries

Still today we all know that  experiences of Conscious Awareness are not at all the same as hearing a talk on the analysis of Consciousness ( just as the experience of sex is not all the same thing as a talk about sex); the neuro-anatomical functioning of the brain or the emergent property of a complex information processing system, or even  the « qualia » that feeling process that leads to  the integration, differentiation and the synthesis of understanding, is  all far removed from our living intellectual, emotional and sensual awareness of being.

Consciousness for each one of us is, of course, that «  inner space » that converts a feeling of the world into meaning, perception, comprehension; into our  personal and subjective field of wakefulness which in certain moments as Abraham Maslow described, can become:

«  rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, even exhilarating, a mystical experience or the most meaningful flash of insight into a parallel universe »

 Long ago the Ancient Greeks and many other traditional cultures developed Initiation  Rituals to promote such experiences of reality, to stimulate, to educate, to discipline penetrating insight into the ultimate nature of the world. This entailed practices to open up an extra temporal consciousness, near death impressions, which often afterwards led to euphoria and finally ecstatic mystical experiences. At Eleusis the initiate was invited to descend into the underworld, a labyrinth of underground passages to be welcomed into the womb of the Great Mother ( the Goddess Demeter). There in secrecy they experienced the terrifying power of Nature, developed a form of clairvoyance, probably drank a psychedelic substance known as Kukeon, based on the ergot alkaloid, and apparently reached a depth of understanding which erupted into some form of ‘participation mystique’ with the universe.

Now we realise, through archaeological findings, that much of the knowledge and  ability to trigger heightened Conscious perception, was actually transmitted through imagery in our ancestor’s cave paintings, their  rituals and shamanic practices, and then developed further in the meditation schools and taught through a variety of philosophical literature and spiritual practices. We have come to realise how these ancient teachings  are very relevant to our understanding of those alternative patterns of experience, those states of elevated arousal that characterise the different and altered states of that Consciousness with which we live and die. Our ancestors seem to have known very well how to expand their hyper sensitive awareness and delve instinctively into a therapeutic process to heal trauma and depression,  giving attention and care to death and above all  stimulating  in themselves those extraordinary moments of  deep connection to the world around, in order to receive sudden profound revelations about Reality.