QUOTES FROM ANNIE BESANT’S,
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS
A Book Review
By
Don Crawford

Annie Besant was the President of the International Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, (now Chennai) India for over 25 years, assuming that Presidency at the death of H.P. Blavatsky, the co-founder of the Society along with Heny Steel Olcott. She was a very spiritually advanced entity and had many psychic powers; clairvoyant, clairaudient, and with microscopic and macroscopic vision. She wrote over 300 books and articles on Theosophy which she had mastered and could easily clarify in her books and numerous speeches; all based on her achieved illumination of the concepts of the Ancient Wisdom. The book, A Study in Consciousness, was first published in 1903, and there is nothing to my knowledge anywhere to equal her acumen of this subject. Most all her books are readily available today from the (www.theosophicalsociety.org.). The American Branch of the TS is in Wheaton, Illinois.
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A careful reading of the two comments below can answer the quest of Soul Survival, (reincarnation) which is a higher level energy, or part of the Superconscioussnes. Both the sub and waking consciousensses do NOT survive our physical body deaths. It helps to understand these comments once the seven levels or planes of the solar Logos are realized. Each level is a level of vibrating energy and of consciousness. Remember the comment that LIFE is Conscious, and Conscious is LIFE. They are the same. When referring to UNITY, we are talking of eternal LIFE, or our consciousness turned Inward.
When talking of Multiplicity, we are talking Consciousness; turned outward.
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I offer her more quotes from Annie Besant’s A Study in Consciousness. “Consciousness exists only in and by change; …giving rise to consciousness of differences. From this an awareness of the Real and Unreal arise.” Regarding becoming Self-Conscious: “The external world grows into Reality as the Consciousness, separating itself from it, realizes its own separateness; changes from a vague “am” into a “I am.” There are three levels of consciousness: 1)Subconsciousness; 2)Waking consciousness; and 3)Superconsciousness.
Regarding number one: “It has been noticed that many activities of consciousness, once purposive, have become automatic and have sunken below the level of consciousness.” This is our Past. 2) Waking consciousness (present consciousness) working on the mental plane and seated in the brain as Self-Consciousness uses that brain and its connected nervous system as an instrument for willing, knowing and acting on the physical plane. 3) Superconsiousness “In the West, this is often referred to as ‘abnormal,’ ‘inconscient’ and as ‘dream consciousness.’ More advanced psychologists in the west are beginning to consider this level of consciousness as “a manifestation of conscious conditions not yet understood.” This is a level of consciousness which awaits the future of humanity and is referred to as the Intuition, which will come when modern day conditioned intelligence is transcended. “Superconsciousness includes the whole consciousness above the waking
consciousness.” “The higher consciousness knows the lower ones while the lower ones do NOT know the higher. “It is to be remembered that all is energy and planes of consciousness are energies with varying rates of vibration. To be cognizant of higher level vibrations, there must be something developed within the human entity that can resonate and find an infinity with such higher vibrations. This something can be developed and discovered through continued and serious Meditation, which fortunately is of growing interest in the West. This something is called by many the Soul, which is the vehicle for the Spirit, which is the LIFE-FORCE permeating the universe. The three major aspects of the solar Logos are: Will-Purpose; Love-Wisdom; and Intelligent Activity, which manifests within the human entity as LIFE -CONSCIOUSNESS- FORM/APPEARANCE. “In the future, the waking consciousness will ‘sink below the threshold’ and be subsumed into the
Superconsciousness, just as the Sub consciousness has be subsumed by the Waking consciousness.” Then, Intuition will be our only way of “cognizing” Truths. “We cannot transcend the Laws of Nature; we can only try to understand and utilize them.”
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A careful reading of the two comments below can answer the quest of Soul Survival, (reincarnation) which is a higher level energy, or part of the Superconscioussnes. Both the sub and waking consciousness do NOT survive our physical body deaths. It helps to understand these comments once the seven levels or planes of the solar Logos are realized. Each level is a level of vibrating energy and of consciousness. Remember the comment that LIFE is Conscious, and Conscious is LIFE. They are the same. When referring to UNITY, we are talking of eternal LIFE, or our consciousness turned Inward. When talking of Multiplicity we are talking Consciousness; turned outward.