Higher or Wider Consciousness ?

It could well be due to a "feet-on-the-ground" Earthy Grand Trine in my natal chart, but concepts such as transcendence, spirituality and higher consciousness bug me more than a little. An article by Norman Solomon, "No, Higher Consciousness Won’t Save Us", caught my eye a few years ago, when it had appeared on Common Dreams website. Back then, and there, a stream of comments by some erudite guys and gals proved to be as interesting than the article itself. Two clear camps emerged. The "feet-on-the-ground" types to whom I related most easily, and those who support the idea that higher consciousness (and there were differences in perception of its definition) could be a component in what might "save us", politically and/or physically.

The meaning of words, often a matter of individual perception, can sometimes cause huge frustration and misunderstandings. "Socialism" and "socialist", for instance. Higher consciousness is an expression similarly open to a variety of definitions or perceptions, meaning different things to different people. While no perception of it is quite as bad a misunderstanding as arises in relation to "socialism" in the USA, the differences can still cause problems.

Many who study astrology have aspirations towards what they see as higher consciousness. Articles relating to the end of the Mayan long-count calendar, in 2012, often referred to the likelihood of "a change in consciousness" supposedly due to happen around that time. One hoped that it would be an upward change rather than a downward one! As it happened nothing of that nature seemed to occur.

Higher consciousness, for some of us, can simply mean being more keenly aware of what is going on around us, putting less focus on self and more on the common good. That's my simple definition which, come to think of it, might be better expressed as "wider consciousness". Other definitions of higher consciousness can begin to sound uncomfortably elitist. As one commenter at the article mentioned above, described it: an attitude that "my consciousness is higher than your consciousness". This kind of thing can happen when an expression hasn't been clearly defined by those using it.

To be perfectly honest, I have no wish to send my mind elsewhere, higher or lower. There are more than enough problems to solve in the here and now plane of existence. Aiming for a more esoteric plane described in eastern philosophy might be satisfying on a personal level, but what exactly does it do for the world at large?

There's no getting away from the fact that there'll always be differences of opinion and perception of this subject. None is more correct than others. There is, in my opinion, space and a place for all.