Applied Consciousness Sciences

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Applied Consciousness Sciences or ACS, offers a theory and practical tools to inquire into the nature of being and the world. It offers an open environment and a systematic view that a multiplicity of different holistic approaches can connect with. It attempts to show how these approaches are interconnected by offering a common basis from where they can be described as a single transparent field. From its common basis it offers to follow a holistic research method to investigate, from a greater connection, different aspects of being and the world, specially the relationship between subjective and objective experience. Because of this holistic or non-reductionist approach it is not considered a science as per the definition of the scientific community, which defines science as reductionist. This article describes the point of departure, the different objectives and the general approach by which one can recognize an ACS approach.

As a field ACS has a systematic learning from the subjective approach that guides each learner towards liberating discernment or awareness regarding the nature of being and the world. It relates with practices like Mindfulness and Vipasana but also with diagnostic and touch practices in Traditional Tibetan Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine. Its theory relates with modern Systems Thinking and Systemics. In the past decade ACS has grown into a contemporary field that offers various diagnostic and feedback practices and a view on how individuals, organizations and society can be guided towards wholeness. Its theory makes visible, interprets and simulates the dynamics behind creative, homeostatic, pathological, psychological, physiological and any other process. Besides guiding towards discernment, ACS helps to create clarity and understanding concerning change and transformation.

History

The systemization of ACS was started in 2001 in The Netherlands and it continues to evolve internationally. Organizations in The Netherlands, USA and India support the development of this relatively new field. Amongst the institutes that support ACS are the Men-Tsee-Khang Institute, which is the Tibetan Medical & Astrological Institute of H.H. the Dalai Lama, Aradne (USA), Stichting Business Universiteit (Netherlands), Stichting-Reis (Netherlands) and the my eyes Group (Netherlands).

Objectives

The main objective of ACS is to guide individuals, within organizations and communities, towards using their own awareness as a basis for personal, organizational and social transformation. Individuals can learn how to continually look at the complexity of life from where it originates in the present moment. Seemingly complex problems lose their complexity when seen from this point of departure. Central in ACS theory and practice are the individual learner's point of departure or point of view; level of discernment, subjective experience and unfolding transformational process. A Science of the Subjective !

Point of Departure

Our capacity to perceive reality as-it-is, largely depends on whether we are capable of perceiving past our own limiting convictions and engrained patterns. That, which makes us assimilate these convictions and patterns as our own, is identification. This is how our perception of reality is filtered or distorted . Identification makes us feel separate from others. Consequently we have this false sense of separation that we refer to as 'I'. This is where we mostly tend to look from! Identification or the lack thereof can respectively limit or free us. Different aspects of being that we normally identify with are:

• Roles - the roles and connected experiences, amongst which knowledge and skills that we normally identify with.
• Observer- the (universal) mind that intently perceives different roles and experiences, local (knowledge) and remote.
• Witness – from a bird’s-eye-view the witness mindfully receives all perceptions and is then presented with possibilities to choose from and explore through the "observer".

Identification, as opposed to mindfulness (an enduring state of being), keeps us from experiencing all of these aspects as holistically interconnected or as a whole. Identification makes us attach and assimilate. This keeps us from finding balance, makes us focus on the differences and miscommunicate. The countless roles that we act out, the observer and the witness are different aspects of who we are. Because of identification we assimilate and become a particular role. It then appears as though we are constantly shifting between different roles and in and out of observing. In reality everything happens at the same time. We are the witness who mindfully oversees the totality of what we experience; we are the observer that has access to different experiences; and we are the countless roles, connected with particular knowledge and skills that we use in different situations.

Aspects of Awareness

Different approaches can be used to raise awareness or liberating discernment about those mechanisms that keep us from feeling/being whole or mindful. These approaches aim at guiding individuals, groups and organizations towards using feedback to dynamically recognize patterns. This raises their level of discernment or awareness about their being and the world and allows them to let go of limiting convictions and engrained patterns that filter their perception and that create adverse effects in mind and body. The following aspects of awareness are enhanced when individuals, groups or organizations start using feedback to dynamically recognize patterns. These aspects of awareness enable them to continually grow, anticipate change, find balance and creatively develop the conditions by which they can cater to their (own) needs in the present. The aspects of awareness described below are slightly different from how these are described by the Consciousness Quotient Institute (CQI) . In addition to the six (6) aspects of awareness that the Consciousness Quotient (CQ) test describes, ACS also describes Feedback-Relational Awareness. We consider this aspect essential in all processes of self-learning and self-organization. Moreover, ACS goes beyond the challenges of describing consciousness by empowering learners to use these different aspects of awareness to holistically investigate their own consciousness.

• 

  Aspects of Awareness.

• Mental-awareness - clarity about what we think.
• Emotional awareness - clarity about what we feel.
• Physical awareness - clarity about what we sense.
• Self-relational awareness - clarity about how we relate to our individual self.
• Social-relational awareness - clarity about how we relate to others.
• Feedback-relational awareness - clarity about the use of information (feedback) for self-learning and self-organization.
• Meta-awareness – meta-awareness (witnessing), the bird's-eye-view, is simultaneous, un-filtering and the greater connection. It creates a greater connection amongst the other aspects of awareness.

• 

  IQ, EQ and CQ.

Channels of Perception

Different techniques for reading or biofeedback can be used by facilitators to help learners raise their own awareness about those mechanisms that keep them from being mindful. Within ACS, biofeedback focuses on continually and dynamically reading and feeding back information coming from the material substance and energy-informational substance levels, during an undetermined period of time. This is in contrast with differential-diagnosis, which focuses on making before and after measurements to evaluate quantitative changes at the material substance level. ACS biofeedback is qualitative and differential-diagnosis is quantitative.

A technique of particular interest is the biofeedback pulse diagnosis, which reads information at the energy-informational level within the mind-body as a whole. While the Genomic research conducted by Peter Gariaev and his team look at the regeneration processes at the DNA level, this form of diagnosis enables facilitators to stimulate the same regeneration processes, by making visible the speech-like patterns that emerge from high-level subjective experiences. Patterns of bio-responses (fearing, saddening and rejecting) that create adverse effects within the mind and body can hereby be recognized and transformed. By interpreting and feeding back the linguistic information that the energy-informational level reveals, the discernment and spectrum of perception of learners is expanded. This alone can transform the adverse effects experienced into healing effects. ACS researchers have noticed a correlation between the learner's level of discernment and the capacity to elicit healing effects at the energy-informational and material levels.

• 

  Energy Informational and Material Substance.

In ACS, reading or biofeedback is primarily used by the learner, to learn to continually witness the language-like feedback from the mind-body and recognize the unfolding dynamic patterns therein. This self-learning process helps make witnessing continuous, which enhances the above mentioned aspects of awareness. When witnessing is continuous, learning, awareness-raising and healing continually arise from within. Consequently all patterns of dependency (and connected bio-responses) gradually cease to exist. Most approaches that guide towards wholeness make use of one or more of the following forms of reading or biofeedback.

• Reading of external psychophysical characteristics, such as facial characteristics, build, movement and posture, allows the learner to become aware how the world outside sees him/her.
• Reading the nine forms of facial expression: love, laughter, anger, compassion, aversion, fear, heroic, wonder, peace; allows the learner to become aware how s/he reacts to the world outside behaviorally.
• Reading information from the sound and rhythm of speech and breathing allows the learner to become aware how s/he verbally communicates with the world outside.
• Empathic reading allows the learner to become aware how s/he communicates non-verbally through transference. Analogous to Peter Gariaev’s work on DNA phantom effects , transference is seen as a process whereby an individual’s energy-informational 'body’, the basis of non-verbal communication, (unconsciously) connects with and distorts the energy-informational 'bodies' of others, the receivers.
• Inquiry into the subtle psychophysical experiences (actions) in the mind-body allows the learner to become aware of how patterns emerge within the mind-body in the present moment.
• Biofeedback pulse diagnosis, unlike pulse-diagnosis in Ayurvedic, Traditional Tibetan and Traditional Chinese Medicine, is an energy-informational form of pulse-diagnosis, which allows the learner to realize, discern and recognize amongst others: 1) the information regarding traumas and conditioned patterns of bio-responses (fearing, saddening and rejecting); this is read from the prenatal period till the present; 2) the location, movement and changes in patterns of bio-behavioral responses and traumas within the mind-body; 3) to what extent the transformational process is active; 4) one's constitution; 5) one's personality type (Jungian).
• Touch biofeedback of 108 vital points allows the learner to become aware about the exact location in the body where subtle bio-behavioral responses at the energy-informational level manifest and act from. These can manifest amongst others as 1) tension (kinetic-electric), 2) burning (electro-magnetic), 3) heaviness (gravitation), or a combination of the same (pain, etc.).

Using the feedback from the above channels of perception, learners can learn to: 1) recognize bio-behavioral patterns underlying emotions, behaviors, communication, stories and the psychodrama; 2) discern between different bio-behavioral responses that make up these patterns; 3) understand how these bio-behavioral responses manifest, change location, shape-shift, et cetera. It is like discerning between the syntaxis, vocabulary and grammatical uses of different words (responses). Thus learners are empowered to perceive from a much broader spectrum of sensitivity. This enables them to independently raise their own level of discernment and breach their patterns of dependency.

Communicate & Grow

The learner can learn to witness feedback from the mind-body through his/her expanded perception and learn to dynamically recognize patterns therein. The clarity that arises in the learner stimulates him/her to continually readjust the way s/he relates to and communicates with the immediate world outside. The learner can gradually gain more clarity about how s/he can have access to different experiences, the countless roles that s/he can act from in different situations, including communication and dialogue, from a greater connection. S/he can also witness the dynamics by which witnessing, observing and experiencing are holistically interconnected. The energy-informational coherence between the Heart and Brain is one of the indicators of this interconnectedness. When in sync or interconnected the Heart enhances one's capacity to perceive reality.

While through the energy-informational Brain a learner can perceive the content of what is communicated verbally, through the energy-informational Heart the learner can perceive how this is communicated nonverbally. While the Brain perceives form, the Heart perceives presence. For example, we can sense danger or that someone is staring at us through the Heart. In activities like learning, communicating and dialoguing this energy-informational perception through the Heart can allow learners to cognize aspects which would otherwise remain invisible. For example: miscommunication and arguments are rooted in those aspects of communication, which aren't content related. Learners can thus become aware of reality as-it-is, when they go beyond what they think about that reality. They can also learn to understand how what they perceive from different points of view is mutually inclusive or complementary.

The above also applies to becoming aware of those mechanisms that underlie the development of disease and self-healing or homeostasis. The learner can constantly gain more clarity about unresolved trauma's and associated patterns of stress responses that try to 'protect' one from feeling pain. Learners can become more able to constantly recognize patterns and make use of feedback to more effectively find balance and turn adverse effects that are associated with personal transformation, into healing effects. In a healing crisis people may feel ill as a result of the mind-body releasing the conditions from the past. There is a notable difference between a disease crisis and a healing crisis. Learners need to be able to recognize the patterns associated with both. And only through dynamic pattern-recognition or discernment, can a learner continually guard the conditions for healing.

There is a lot more that a learner can discover experientially through autodidactism when learning is based on the trinity of witnessing, knowing and experiencing. This offers an enduring basis from where individuals and organizations can foster their capacity to continually align processes, anticipate change, find balance and live and communicate more compassionately.

Theory and Practice

While conventional Sciences focus on investigating and manipulating the content of experience (the parts), the Applied Consciousness Sciences focus on investigating and creating awareness about the point of departure or starting-point from where we perceive the whole of experience . The former departs from the point of view that a third-person can alter the content of experience for us, especially when we suffer, to prolong life and make it more enjoyable. The latter departs from the point of view that when we gain clarity about those mechanisms by which we suffer, we have the choice to refrain from feeding those mechanisms and create the enduring conditions by which we can enjoy life to the fullest. In the former we are dependent on others and in the latter we learn how to grow beyond our own patterns of dependency. This helps to dissolve our inner limitations. ACS aims at achieving this through liberating discernment. The basis for investigating one's own subjective experience.

ACS's views, theories and practical instruments for research, which are elaborately described in the Applied Consciousness Science, A Reference Guide, start from and aim at practically bringing individuals, groups and organizations, to a point where they can perceive from the witness, observer and various roles, all at the same time. Apart from empowering the learner, it also empowers a multitude of different approaches, theories, models and methodologies.

Research & Development

ACS offers to follow a holistic research method wherein the learner continually observes, senses, experiments, and systematically formulates, tests, and adjusts hypotheses. The learner's spectrum of perception includes witnessing, observing and experiencing, all at the same time. Within this spectrum of perception, the zeroth-person or the witness, is the point of view from where holistic research can be effectively conducted. This is opposite the third-person perspective assumed in modern scientific inquiry. This point of view allows the learner to perceive and describe experience that includes the zeroth, first, second and/or third-person points of view, all from a greater connection.

The research of the subjective, the formulation, testing and adjustment of hypotheses, have both a personal and general objective. The personal objective is to help raise the learner’s own awareness to recognize those patterns that create adverse effects and that keep him/her from aligning self with the environment. From the inside out! The general objective is to describe and formulate the dynamics, general recognizable patterns and characteristics, a ‘language’, by which these patterns can be recognized. Understanding this ‘language’ can raise the learner's level of discernment and capacity to recognize subjective experiences, which is the basis of self-organization, self-learning and personal transformation. ACS helps to accelerate this self-learning and awareness-raising through the biofeedback instruments previously described. The theory, which is a result of the combination of literary, fundamental research and systemization is validated through 'holistic research'.

Within an ACS context, ‘holistic research’ may be seen as a synonym of ‘learning from the subjective’. We believe that as we grow up we trade our capacity to learn from the subjective, for a learning that is externally imposed. By helping learners to restore their spectrum of sensitivity we wish to enable learners to recreate the internal conditions by which learning can be independent, meaningful, integrated, connected with real-life and transformational. A learner-centered environment strengthens this and can make educational transformation viable.

The following research activities have led to the development of amongst others the theories, biofeedback and other practices in ACS.

Phase I:

• Literary Research
• Fundamental Research
• Holistic Research

Applications

In the past decade awareness-raising programs have been offered in different environments, namely:

• Health care - Health care professional - offered to individuals with physical, psychological or psychiatric disorders.
• Education - Educational professionals - offered to learners with and without learning disabilities.
• Business - Business professionals - Designer and communication trainings; individuals and groups.
• Governmental - Officials - Consultancy and communication trainings.

NOTE: The application of ACS is not limited to the above environments.

Creative Commons

ACS is a Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0 development. The use of any aspect of ACS is free. It can be modified to suit different needs and environments and it can be incorporated in any field, discipline or program. It isn't attributed to one person or organization and can therefore not be monopolized. It can be used by academic, research or other organizations to make these developments available to learners and citizens, young and old, irrespective of religious or social background. This takes away any financial burden that might limit people in their capacity to engage in activities that support personal and social transformation.