Chapter 2: The Awakening of Consciousness

It is necessary to know that humanity lives with its consciousness asleep. People work asleep. People walk through the streets asleep. People live and die asleep.

When we come to the conclusion that the entire world lives asleep, then we comprehend the need to awaken. We need the awakening of the consciousness. We want the awakening of the consciousness.

Fascination

The profound sleep in which humanity lives is caused by fascination.

People are fascinated by everything in life. People forget their Selves because they are fascinated. The drunkard in the bar is fascinated with the alcohol, the place, the pleasures, his friends, and the women. The vain woman in front of a mirror is fascinated with her own glamour. The rich avaricious person is fascinated with money and possessions. The honest worker in the factory is fascinated with the hard work. The father of the family is fascinated with his children. All human beings are fascinated and sleep profoundly. When driving a car we are astonished when we see people dashing across the roads and streets without paying attention to the danger of the running cars. Others willfully throw themselves under the wheels of cars. Poor people... they walk asleep; they look like sleepwalkers. They walk asleep, endangering their own lives. Any clairvoyant can see their dreams. People dream with all that keeps them fascinated.

Sleep

During the physical body’s sleep, the ego escapes from it. This departure of the ego is necessary so that the vital body⁠¹ can repair the physical body. However, in the internal worlds we can asseverate that the ego takes its dreams into the internal worlds.

Thus, while in the internal worlds the ego occupies itself with the same things which keep it fascinated in the physical world. Therefore, during a sound sleep we see the carpenter in his carpentry shop, the policeman guarding the streets, the barber in his barbershop, the blacksmith at his forge, the drunkard in the tavern or bar, the prostitute in the house of pleasures, absorbed in lust, etc. All these people live in the internal worlds as if they were in the physical world.

During his sleep, not a single living being has the inkling to ask himself whether he is in the physical or astral world.⁠² However, those who have asked themselves such a question during sleep, have awoken in the internal worlds. Then, with amazement, they have been able to study all the marvels of the superior worlds.

It is only possible for us to ask such a question of ourselves in the superior worlds (during those hours of sleep) if we accustom ourselves to ask this question from moment to moment during the so-called vigil state. Evidently, during our sleep we repeat everything that we do during the day. Therefore, if during the day we accustom ourselves to asking this question, then, during our nocturnal sleep (while being outside of the body) we will consequently repeat the same question to ourselves. Thus, the outcome will be the awakening of the consciousness.

Remembering Oneself

The human being in its fascinated trance does not remember the Self. We must remember ourselves from moment to moment. We need to remember ourselves in the presence of every representation that could fascinate us. Let us hold ourselves while in front of any representation and ask ourselves: “Where am I? Am I in the physical plane? Am I in the astral plane?” Then, give a little jump with the intention of floating within the surrounding atmosphere. It is logical that if you float it is because you are outside the physical body. Thus, the outcome will be the awakening of consciousness.

The purpose of asking this question at every instant, at every moment is with the intention of engraving it within the subconsciousness, so that it may manifest later during the hours given to sleep, hours when the ego is really outside the physical body. You must know that in the astral plane, things appear just as they are here in this physical plane. This is why during sleep, and after death, people see everything there in a form very similar to this physical world. This is why they do not even suspect that they are outside of their physical body. Therefore, no dead person ever believes himself to have died because he is fascinated and profoundly asleep.

If the dead had made a practice of remembering themselves from moment to moment when they were alive, if they had struggled against the fascination of the things of the world, the outcome would have been the awakening of their consciousness. They would not dream. They would walk in the internal worlds with awakened consciousness. Whosoever awakens the consciousness can study all the marvels of the superior worlds during the hours of sleep. Whosoever awakens the consciousness lives in the superior worlds as a totally awakened citizen of the cosmos. One then coexists with the great hierophants of the White Lodge.⁠³

Whosoever awakens the consciousness can no longer dream here in this physical plane or in the internal worlds. Whosoever awakens the consciousness stops dreaming. Whosoever awakens the consciousness becomes a competent investigator of the superior worlds. Whosoever awakens consciousness is an illuminated one. Whosoever awakens the consciousness can study at the feet of the master. Whosoever awakens the consciousness can talk familiarly with the gods who initiated the dawn of creation. Whosoever awakens the consciousness can remember his innumerable reincarnations. Whosoever awakens the consciousness can consciously attend his own cosmic initiations. Whosoever awakens the consciousness can study in the temples of the great White Lodge. Whosoever awakens the consciousness can know in the superior worlds the evolution of his Kundalini.⁠⁴ Every perfect matrimony must awaken the consciousness in order to receive guidance and direction from the White Lodge. In the superior worlds the masters will wisely guide all those who really love one another. In the superior worlds the masters give to each one that which one needs for inner development.

Complementary Practice

Every Gnostic student, after waking from their normal sleep, must perform a retrospective exercise based on the process of their sleep, in order to remember all of those places they visited during the hours of sleep. We already know that the ego travels a great deal; it goes towards where we have physically been, repeating all that which we have seen and heard.

The masters instruct their disciples when they are out of the physical body.

Therefore, it is urgent to know how to profoundly meditate and then practice what we have learned during the hours of sleep. It is necessary not to physically move at the time of waking up, because with the movement, the astral body is agitated and the memories are lost. It is urgent to combine the retrospective exercises with the following mantras:

RAOM GAOM⁠⁵

Each word is divided into two syllables. One must accentuate the vowel O. These mantras are for the student what dynamite is for the miner. Thus, as the miner opens his way through the bowels of the earth with the aid of dynamite, similarly, the student also opens his way into the memories of his subconsciousness with the aid of these mantras.

Patience and Tenacity

The Gnostic student must be infinitely patient and tenacious because powers cost a great deal. Nothing is given to us for free. Everything has a price. These studies are not for inconsistent people, nor for people of fragile will. These studies demand infinite faith.

Skeptical people must not come to our studies because esoteric science is very demanding. The skeptics fail totally. Thus, skeptical people will not succeed in entering the Heavenly Jerusalem.