What is the ultimate state, what is the highest level of matter? We might know the answer to these questions, because we may be in this...
It is a unique state. It may be a kind of emerged property, or a process of a particular structure of a special matter, the brain. We know a lot about how consciousness works, but we do not know precisely how it emerged, how it was born in the sea of cooperating neurons. However, we may safely state that matter, which is able to recognize itself, its existence is at the highest level among the levels of the matter that we know. (In this thought, consciousness is discussed as a product of matter, and not as a manifestation of a non-material, spiritual something.)
Can matter be on a higher level than consciousness? If there is a higher level, what would be the highest, the ultimate state of matter?
Even if consciousness is the highest state of the matter that we know of, or at least it is hard to imagine what can even be higher than self-awareness, consciousness can have levels.
Psychology recognizes levels of consciousness in a degrading sense, related to different illnesses. Brain injuries can produce different, less functioning consciousnesses in patients. Patients in these cases are less aware of the things as they would be in a healthy state. We can learn a lot about consciousness in these cases. All of these are degradations of consciousness, a kind of less functioning state of it. Is it possible to upscale consciousness too? Is there a higher level of consciousness? Can we have it?
We might. We may even experience it. This elevated consciousness may be the state of meditation or hypnosis. Consciousness is connected to awareness. Extended consciousness means extended awareness. Exactly what these special, meditative, or hypnotic states represent. We can experience a different, an extended kind of awareness during meditation or hypnosis, as we can "feel" such things that we cannot feel in our ordinary conscious state. Most likely, these exercises are capable of extending our consciousness to another level. Well-trained persons explain these states that way. If these exercises are really manipulations of our consciousness, then we can upscale our consciousness, our awareness, to a higher level. Extended consciousness may exist.
Consciousness is a communication process. It needs to be aware of something. It needs inputs, information, and facts to be aware of. Our consciousness in our brain is functioning this way too, even if we do not recognize it right away. Meditation or hypnosis can create a state in which we become aware of something non-existing, or rather we start to be aware of inputs that we were not aware of normally, making them look like they did not exist before. Consciousness needs input, needs to be aware of something. The extension of consciousness requires the extension of inputs.
Can we extend the inputs of our consciousness? Yes, we can. A racecar driver can feel the car as his extension, for example. That is an experience of extended consciousness. The driver feels like the car is his or her extended body. Another exercise of extending our consciousness is presented through a psychological experiment. In the outcome of this experiment, we feel an object, like an artificial hand, as a part of our body. In this case, the input is the visual appearance of this artificial body. The effect comes up by the simultaneous sensation of stimulation of our corresponding body part. We can actually reach an elevated consciousness where we can feel the pain that "comes" from the artificial body. This is one appearance of the extension of our consciousness.
Can we reach/extend our consciousness to the highest level?
In our case, there are limitations to extend our consciousness. We are limited to the possible inputs. We cannot extend our consciousness where we cannot receive inputs. This is, however, only practical, and not a theoretical limitation. If we could get proper inputs from other things, we could include it in our consciousness. By appropriate inputs, we could be conscious, aware of other objects and practically anything. And ultimately everything.
What is the ultimate state of the matter then? It is the consciousness ultimately extended, the consciousness extended to everything existing. If we would be in this state personally, we could feel everything existing, we could be aware of anything. And this is theoretically possible. This would be the ultimate state of matter.
Is this not the property of God? Is this not how God is described, who knows and is aware of everything? Is God an extended consciousness, the ultimate state of the matter, if "he" even exists? If God exists, is his consciousness extended into our consciousness? Isn't this religion and beliefs?
And what if consciousness is extended to another consciousness? Do they become one consciousness? Or maybe a new kind of property emerge from many appropriately interacting consciousnesses?
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