Now that the idea of memories and pattern recognition has been defined via the concept of the field of choice, you may notice there's an awareness missing.
- Choices and willpower are your chosen direction amidst the possibilities laid out in front of you.
- Pattern recognition is the ability to predict the result of different choices, or essentially "see" into the fifth dimension, in the future direction.
- Memory is the ability to see the path you've already taken in the fifth dimension.
What subject experience would involve the sight in the fifth dimension in the past direction? Can we even experience that?
Now that we've laid the groundwork, we can choose to look at our senses from an alternative point of view. Previously, we attempted to list each subjective experience and figure out how to define it in terms of an awareness of the universe and consciousness. Alternatively, we can now look at different potential "sights" and awarenesses of the universe, and determine if there's an associated subjective experience.
- We are aware of energy waves (via sound).
- We are not directly aware of gravity.
- We are aware of gravity's effects on the strong nuclear force (via touch).
- We are aware of the hormones associated with certain emotions.
- We are not directly aware of our white blood cells.
Are we aware of the fifth dimension in the direction of the past, outside of our memory? I believe we are, and I think that's the concept traditionally known as self-awareness.
When we think about the past and how we acted, we remember our actions and their consequences. For example, you may remember when you were angry and screwed up a career interview due to that anger. You may also have a memory of a time when you were optimistic and dominated an interview due to that confidence. Self-awareness is simply putting them together, and being aware how your mood could have completely changed the outcome of a negative situation (e.g. regret) or positive situation (e.g. "I almost gave up!").
Think about this in terms of the field of choice. You are using your brain to be aware of different potential paths you could have taken. Self-awareness is simply using your memory and your brain to imagine different possibilities in the past (the red arrows in the image above). Hopefully the result of increased self-awareness is to then use that awareness of past choices (or even past long term habits) to see different possibilities in the future (the cyan arrows in the image above).
A highly self-aware person is aware of their true underlying motivations and how different motivations could have led to different paths in life (the red arrows). Such a person is able to step out into the fifth dimension (seeing themselves from a third-party perspective) and visualize how their short term choices and long term habits have dictated their path. I alluded to this in my article regarding mind over matter.
Spiritual leaders talk about vague concepts such as "higher planes of consciousnesses". For example, the popular book from the 1970's "Master Game: Pathways to Higher Consciousness Beyond the Drug Experience", the author describes how meditation is the mechanism to achieve higher "planes of consciousness" (which, as an aside, he very poorly defined). I believe that concept can simply be categorized as increasing your sight into the fifth dimension. Being able to "step back" and see your life from an abstract, rather than concrete, perspective, and be more self-reflective. I believe this, because the method through which they describe achieving a higher plane of consciousness is by increasing self-awareness via meditation. Yet it's important that we as a species ground our concepts in logic and data, as I previously discussed in my article regarding the role of philosophy.
When you try to guess how past actions could have changed your current situation, your sight in the fifth dimension in the past is blurrier the further back you attempt to look. Just as it's difficult to predict the result of choices in the future (your sight along the cyan arrows is blurrier the further out you try to predict), the same applies to the past.
To increase your self-awareness (which incidentally is the goal of meditation and an important piece of the vague concept of enlightenment), you simply practice being truly aware of which choices led you to the present moment.
This allows you to make different choices going forward due to an increased sight along the fifth dimension.
Colloquially, "know thyself" and by being more mindful of how you've acted, and the consequences or results of those actions (both positive and negative), you increase your self-awareness muscle and make better choices in the future.
As usual, our senses list now looks like the following (I've slightly modified some of the wording):
| Sense | Awareness of... |
|---|---|
| Sight | Photons |
| Sound | Energy Waves |
| Touch | Nuclear Force |
| Taste | Chemical Structure |
| Smell | Chemical Structure |
| Emotions | Hormone Levels |
| Logic/Rationality | Mathematics |
| Empathy | Other Awarenesses |
| Memory | Past Choices |
| Pattern Recognition | Future Possibilities |
| Willpower | Present Choices |
| Self-Awareness | Past Possibilities |
