Our perceptions of a physical world, a world of matter, which results from our perspective or frame of mind that constructs or makes such a world, connotes consciousness and awareness. In the dance of “mind and matter” that takes place in the perceptual process, the levels of consciousness or awareness inside of us are the “mind” aspect of this dance, while the “matter” aspect is simply the quality or speed of thought that we have decided to project outward onto the blank screen of the world, and to perceive there. Our levels of awareness as described in the Course are the source of the thoughts that go into “matter,” and that thus determine our perceptions and experience. Accordingly, the level of perception (i.e., looking or seeing) that we experience depends on the level of our awareness or consciousness from which the thoughts arise that we send into the world. Being clear about these levels of consciousness is therefore essential in allowing us access to the power to freely direct our attention and to form our perspective.
The levels of awareness or consciousness are the levels of the split mind because the unified mind has no levels. They are “. . . the levels that came into place as a result of the separation . . .” “Consciousness and its levels was the first split that the separated ones introduced into themselves. The human being thus became a perceiver rather than a creator in the true sense.” “The mind did divide itself when it willed to create its own levels and the ability to perceive them. But it could not entirely separate itself from its spirit, because it is from its spirit that it derives its whole power to create. Even in miscreating, will affirms its Source. Otherwise it would merely cease to be. This is impossible, because will is part of the spirit, which the Divine created, and which is therefore eternal.”
The Course identifies three levels of consciousness or awareness in the mind or psyche and several sublevels of the subconscious.
- The conscious level of awareness is the level we’re consciously aware of, and from which we engage the world while awake. Logically this level of awareness has two sublevels. The lower sublevel, which is closest to the subconscious, is where the conscious aspect of the ego is found, i.e., that aspect of the ego that we are conscious or aware of. “Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain that the ego operates in.” The higher sublevel of the conscious level of awareness, which is closest to the superconscious, is where the conscious aspect of our spirit is found, i.e., that aspect of our spirit that we are conscious or aware of, though our spirit itself resides in the superconscious level of awareness as described below.
The Course indicates that our conscious level of awareness is the state of mind that produces our actions and therefore our behavior in the world, but only in response to what comes to it from the subconscious and superconscious levels of the psyche, because the conscious level doesn’t inspire the actions that are generated in it. In other words, inspirations from the superconscious, such as Guidance from Spirit, and impulses from the subconscious, such as miracle impulses or sexual or other impulses as well as external sense impressions permitted into consciousness, generate our actions on the conscious level of awareness in response to these inspirations, impulses, and sense impressions.
“The conscious level is that level that engages in the world and is capable of responding to both external and internal impulses. Having no impulses from itself and being primarily a mechanism for generating responses to impulses, it can be very wrong in what it identifies with.” It can be wrong because “the ego, residing in consciousness, can perceive but cannot know. It is the questioning compartment in the post-separation psyche that human beings made for themselves.” But fortunately for us, our spirit is also present in the conscious level of the psyche, and so we can also learn to perceive correctly.
While the “spirit” sublevel of the conscious level of awareness welcomes Spirit inspirations and miracle impulses into awareness, the ego sublevel tries to censor or control these and all other things coming into awareness, because it experiences everything as a threat to its existence. “Control is a central factor in what the ego permits into consciousness, and one to which it devotes its maximum vigilance. This is not the way a balanced mind holds together. The control of a balanced mind is unconscious because it has given control over to the superconscious.”
- The superconscious level of awareness transcends or is “above” normal consciousness. This is the level where the Holy Spirit and Divine Essence are accessible to us, and where our spirit – the true, unsplit, part of our mind – resides eternally with the Divine and with all other spirits. In addition, “Knowledge [as defined by the Course] belongs solely to the superconscious.” It can therefore be surmised that the superconscious is simply the Realm of Heaven as this Realm is currently accessible to us in awareness in the inner world of our psyche. Spirit’s Teaching and Guidance in all aspects of our lives comes to us from this level, as do revelations, which are intensely personal experiences of our mind united with the Divine. The appropriate control of all that would be helpful to enter our conscious awareness comes from the superconscious, as does the direction regarding which miracles should be performed through us.
- The unconscious level of consciousness is also referred to as the subconscious because it can be thought of as being “below” normal conscious awareness. However, it would be a contradiction in terms to call the unconscious a level of awareness, because “unconscious” connotes not being aware. Indeed, the Course speaks of the unconscious as being the “unwatched mind,” and clarifies that “the unobserved mind with its unattended thoughts is responsible for the entire content of the unconscious that rests above the deepest sublevel of the unconscious, the miracle-level of mind.” It appears that the unconscious becomes the subconscious through our penetrating it with clarity: “Miracles transform this subconscious level of awareness from one of unconsciousness to one of responsiveness.”
The Course speaks of the following sublevels of the subconscious / unconscious, which are important for us to become conscious of so that these sublevels can be brought into right relationship by Spirit, allowing miracles to be performed appropriately through us. The “highest” sublevel of the subconscious, in that it is the sublevel closest to actual consciousness, is the “preconscious.” Below that is the “individual unconscious,” then the “collective unconscious,” and finally the deepest sublevel: “miracle-mindedness.”
The preconscious sublevel of the subconscious, the most superficial sublevel just below the conscious level of awareness, is filled, as we choose, with “the impulses of this world,” including sexual impulses. Sexual impulses are the desire to deeply connect with our sisters and brothers, a desire that is truly fulfilled through miracles. The Course confirms that the psychic archetype of the “censor,” which pioneering psychologist Sigmund Freud identified, resides at this preconscious sublevel. The function of the censor, which the ego has assigned to it, is to keep socially unacceptable impulses from reaching consciousness, that is, at least from reaching the “public,” socially diligent part of the ego aspect of consciousness. However, the censor does allow such impulses into what we believe to be the secret “private” consciousness of our ego. These repressed or censored impulses are those that would bring us shame if they were known to others.
The “individual unconscious” sublevel of the subconscious contains all the content of perception that we have experienced in our lives, an incalculable number of sense impressions, the vast majority of which we have filtered or kept out of consciousness to prevent our conscious mind from becoming overwhelmed. Overwhelm can happen when that filter isn’t present or functioning normally, causing a glimpse or actual experience of madness. This sublevel is the “archive” of all our memories of the past. This sublevel also contains sexual and other impulses generated by sense impressions or by our fantasies based on these.
The “collective unconscious” sublevel of the subconscious contains the “content of archetypes” that we share with all other human beings, i.e., all separated ones. Archetypes are a sort of summary of various human personas (psychic masks) or ego personalities acting in the dream of this world, and include the “fool,” the “tyrant,” the “witch,” the “wise woman,” and the idealized feminine and masculine (known as the “anima” and “animus” respectively) that we project onto others and believe that we fall in love with. These archetypes are “collective” because they appear in the regular nightly dreams of people from all cultures, transcending cultural boundaries. This sublevel is also where our self-images arise, such as that of the “loser,” the “winner,” the “attractive” or “ugly” one, the “loner,” etc. Obviously our self-images are a major tool that the ego uses to keep us stuck in the world of illusions, being themselves illusions in that they have nothing to do with our true Self.
The Course acknowledges that one of pioneering psychologist Carl Jung’s great contributions to the understanding of the psyche was the clarity he gave to the world about the individual and collective unconscious sublevels of the subconscious. The Course acknowledges that Freud, too, had profound insights into the psyche, though he also got some things wrong. For example, “Freud gave a very graphic but upside-down account of how the divisions of the mind [i.e., the levels of consciousness or awareness] arose from the “bottom” level [i.e., the unconscious] up. This is actually impossible because the unconscious cannot create the conscious. . . . The ego did not arise out of the unconscious, though this is the way the structure of the psyche appears if pictured from the bottom up. Just as the unconscious cannot create the conscious, a lower-order perception – i.e., looking with the body’s eyes – cannot create a higher-order one – i.e., seeing with the spiritual eye – because the lower-order perception doesn’t understand the higher-order one. But a lower-order perception can come from a higher-order one when the lower-order one is understood in terms of misperception.”
The deepest sublevel of the subconscious is the miracle sublevel, called “miracle-mindedness” in the Course. “When miracles become natural reflexes to every situation, they come from the involuntary or automatic level of awareness underlying normal awareness, the subconscious.” The Course indicates that the field of psychology has not yet discovered or identified this deepest sublevel of the subconscious. This is because this sublevel doesn’t contain psychic “content” as do the other sublevels, and therefore is not really “discoverable.” This sublevel instead contains the ability for allowing miracles to be performed through the individual.
“At the deepest sublevel of the unconscious, below the sublevel of the collective unconscious with its shared content of archetypes, is miracle-mindedness, the content of which is the particular miracle that an individual happens to perform in a given situation, and this content doesn’t matter at all. Each miracle is, in fact, unrepeatable because the content of each one is different and unique [in contrast to the archetypes of the collective unconscious, all of which are universal and shared]. This is because since I [Jesus] direct miracles in Union with Divine Essence, I make a point of avoiding redundancy. Unless a miracle actually heals it is not a miracle at all, and each healing situation is distinctive and requires a unique miracle. The content of this miracle sublevel of the unconscious is not recorded in the individual unconscious, because if it were, miracles would not be reflexive, automatic, and involuntary, as they need to be. This is because in each miracle situation the individual would feel compelled to select from the recorded content of the unconscious – i.e., from the individual unconscious – between miracles that have worked in the past in similar situations. However, the content of the miracle sublevel [of the subconscious] is a matter for the Divine Record, which is not within the individual at all.
“All prominent psychoanalysts have made this one common error, which is that they attempted to uncover unconscious content [rather than unconscious ability]. Unconscious activity cannot be understood in these terms, because ‘content’ is applicable only to the more superficial subconscious sublevels to which individuals themselves contribute. These are the sublevels at which a person can readily introduce fear, and usually does.”
Yet though miracles, or miracle impulses, arise into consciousness from the subconscious, that is, from its deepest sublevel, miracle-mindedness, they must be under superconscious control. “For the miracle-minded, miracles are impulses under superconscious rather than conscious control. Consciously selected miracles are prone to errors in human understanding, which will cause some to be performed where not needed and others to be withheld where needed.” “Your abilities being developed that transcend time and space [such as the ability to work miracles, that is, to assist miracles in being performed] will be very useful when they come under superconscious control rather than unconscious lack of control.”
The Course describes “revelations” as being the complement of miracles. Revelations, which are highly individual, unite us directly with the Divine, and miracles, dependent on cooperation, connect and unite us truly with our sisters and brothers. Both are needed on our journey of awakening, though the Course indicates that miracles are more important at this stage of the journey.
“Revelations come from the level of awareness transcending normal awareness, the superconscious level.” “Revelation unites minds directly with the Divine. Miracles unite minds directly with each other. Neither originates from the conscious level, but both are experienced there. This is essential to remember, because the conscious level is the state that produces action in response, in various ratios, to the subconscious and superconscious levels, though it does not inspire these actions. You are free to believe what you choose to believe, to respond to the impulses you choose to respond to, and what you do – the way you choose to respond – attests to what you believe.”
“The Holy Spirit is the Bringer of Revelation, not miracles.” Revelations, which are timeless, highly personal glimpses of our true relationship with the Divine, are inspired by the Bringer of Revelation – the Holy Spirit – Who resides in the superconscious. Revelations thus come to us directly from the superconscious, and help us to remember who we are in Reality even as we journey home to our reality.
“By allowing miracles to be performed through you, the levels of your awareness: the conscious, subconscious, and superconscious, and the sublevels of your subconscious, are placed in their right relationship to each other.” In allowing Spirit to help us set the levels and sublevels of our consciousness in order, so that we become mentally healthy and fit, we become able to allow miracles to be performed through us. And by allowing miracles to be performed through us, we facilitate the levels and sublevels of our awareness being placed in their right relationship to each other. This has the benefit of allowing our perceptions to become refined because we learn to understand how our levels of consciousness or awareness operate in the perceptual process. The importance of setting into right relationship the sublevels of the unconscious as the process of “removing all barriers to Truth” within ourselves is indicated in a passage from the Manual for Teachers:
“Can the Divine be reached directly? The Divine indeed can be reached directly, for there is no distance between It and Its Children. Awareness of the Divine is in everyone’s memory, and Its Word is written on everyone’s heart. Yet this awareness and this memory can arise across the threshold of the unconscious only where all barriers to Truth have been removed. In how many has this been accomplished?”
In contrast to revelations, which inspire the awe of glimpsing the Realm of Heaven, miracles inspire action in the worlds outside the Realm of Heaven. When the various levels and sublevels of our awareness or consciousness, as described here, have been “placed in a right relationship” to each other through Spirit’s Guidance, that is, have had conflict removed from them, even if only temporarily, then the miracle inspirations we experience in our superconscious are responded to by us from the deepest – miracle-minded – sublevel of the subconscious, which has been awakened in us as a result of the healing of our mind that is taking place on our journey of awakening.
“The deepest sublevel of the subconscious always contains miracle impulses, but everyone has the choice to fill the superficial sublevels of the subconscious, which are closer to consciousness, with the impulses of this world, and to identify with them. This results in denying oneself access to the miracle sublevel underneath. If this is chosen, then in conscious actions one’s interpersonal relationships also become superficial, and miracle-inspired relating becomes impossible.”
This filling of the superficial sublevels of the subconscious with the “impulses of this world,” and identifying with them, is exactly what Spirit will help us clear in our psyches to allow miracles to be performed through us appropriately, if we invite It to help us with this. Bringing order into our subconscious / unconscious and its relationship to the other levels of our awareness thus becomes a major task that we undergo with Spirit’s Help from the superconscious level of our awareness, where It abides.
“This Guide [Spirit] is not attempting to force an alien will upon you. It is merely making every possible effort, within the limits you impose upon It, to reestablish your own will in your consciousness. You have imprisoned your own will in your unconscious, where it remains potentially available but cannot help you in a practical way while it remains imprisoned.”
Summary of the Levels and Sublevels of Consciousness
| Level | Sublevel | Function in Psyche |
| Superconscious | No sublevels: only Oneness | Gives us access to the Holy Spirit, Divine Essence (our true Self), Knowledge, Atonement, our spirit, etc. |
| Conscious | Our awareness of our spirit | Responds to Spirit’s Guidance and miracle impulses, and awakens the mind, heart, and will to their unified state |
| Our awareness of the ego | Public and private personas react to non-miracle impulses and sense impressions | |
| Subconscious / Unconscious | Preconscious | Filters, on behalf of the ego, what impulses and sense impressions are permitted into consciousness |
| Individual Unconscious | Contains the content of perception – the archive of memory – that we have experienced in our lives | |
| Collective Unconscious | Contains the collective archetypes and individual self-images | |
| Miracle-Mindedness | Holds the ability to allow miracles to be performed through us |