Multiple Consciousnesses

It’s convenient, even necessary, to limit our concept of a thing to that which is relevant only to our reality, and from an evolutionary perspective, what is relevant to our reality are very basic concepts like “will it kill me?”, “can I eat it?”, and generally maintaining a sustainable level of food, shelter, and reproduction. Yes, evolution is all about “me, me, me”. Appreciating the miracle of a tree or contemplating one’s navel is a luxury one can afford only after the necessities have been secured. Consequently, our understanding of many things is limited, through millions of years of programming (nature), and culture (nurture). It is from this paradigm that the concept of “I” emerged as a separate existence from everything “not I”. Consciousness, which we consider a fundamental prerequisite for the concept of “I”, suffers from this same limitation. From a perspective free of these conceptual limitations, it is not only easy to see, but hard to ignore that fact that we are not a single consciousness, but many consciousnesses embedded within each other. The only determining factor as to what what consciousness we are instantiating is where we choose to focus our awareness.