The phrase "herd behaviour" has acquired a certain currency in popular psychology, where the idea of a herding instinct is offered as an explanation of phenomena such as crazes where large numbers of people act in the same way at the same time. Such people are sometimes labelled with the derogatory term "sheeple." A craze is an excessive fad or collective mania due to herd behaviour. Some crazes have mild consequences (fashions). But others lead to the excesses of mass hysteria. Popular psychologists describe this as involving the dis ...

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Herd behavior, Herd behavior - Herd behaviour in animals, Herd behavior - The concept of herd behaviour as applied to human societies crazes, Herd behavior - Examples of the application of the herd behaviour concept, Herd behavior - Stock market bubbles, Herd behavior - Behaviour in demonstrations, Herd behavior - Religious and political affiliations

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Herd behavior - Stock market bubbles. In the case of stock market bubbles, the optimal behaviour for an individual may be to do what everyone else is doing, because even though everyone knows that they are in a bubble, until it bursts, most profit is to be made by staying in the market. In this case the term "herd behaviour" is relatively appropriate, because the "collective" behaviour emerges from uncoordinated individual choices. Interestingly, though the behaviour of the group is evidently irrational, the beha ...

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Herd behavior, Herd behavior - Herd behaviour in animals, Herd behavior - The concept of herd behaviour as applied to human societies crazes, Herd behavior - Examples of the application of the herd behaviour concept, Herd behavior - Stock market bubbles, Herd behavior - Behaviour in demonstrations, Herd behavior - Religious and political affiliations

Read more here: » Herd behavior: Encyclopedia II - Herd behavior - Examples of the application of the herd behaviour concept

In the public consciousness, much interest has been focused on comparing the brain with computers. A variety of obvious analogies exist - for example, the individual neurons can be compared to the transistors on a microchip, and the specialised parts of the brain can be compared with graphics cards and other system components. However, such comparisons are fraught with difficulties. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between brains and computers are that today's computers operate by performing often sequential instructions from an input ...

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Human brain, Human brain - Overview, Human brain - Anatomy, Human brain - Function, Human brain - Study of the brain, Human brain - Myths, Human brain - Brain enhancement, Human brain - Comparison of the brain and a computer

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Friedrich Nietzsche's explanations of human ethics and moral consciousness in Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morals posit a similar developmental path. The first humans followed a "noble" ethic, but their consciousness was shallow and limited at best. When the Judeo-Christian tradition turned the will in on itself, as Nietzsche claims, the human soul became complex and intelligent, although it lost the "noble" ethic, which was replaced by an ethic of "ressentiment." Although their ideas are similar, ther ...

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Bicameralism psychology, Bicameralism psychology - The bicameral state, Bicameralism psychology - Julian Jaynes, Bicameralism psychology - Breakdown of bicameralism, Bicameralism psychology - The case for bicameralism, Bicameralism psychology - Responses, Bicameralism psychology - Influence, Bicameralism psychology - Similar ideas, Bicameralism psychology - Miscellaneous

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"There are always two different consciousnesses in the human being, one outward in which he ordinarily lives, the other inward and concealed of which he knows nothing. When one does sadhana, the inner consciousness begins to open and one is able to go inside and have all kinds of experiences there. As the sadhana progresses, one begins to live more and more in this inner being and the outer becomes more and more superficial. At first the inner consciousness seems to be the dream and the outer the waking reality. Afterwards the inner consciou ...

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Inner being, Inner being - Quote, Inner being - Reference, Inner being - External link

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Active Consciousness

The ability of consciousness to let dynamis act through it. The self-active consciousness that becomes possible through evolution.

Having active consciousness the monads themselves initiate their consciousness expressions. In the vegetable and animal kingdoms this activation occurs in groups (through group-souls). In the human kingdom consciousness becomes more and more self-active

(See also: Active Consciousness, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

power

Realm of higher consciousness; active, impersonal force interacting with human existence

(See also: Power, Body Mind and Soul)

Bahishprajna bahisprajna (Sanskrit) (from bahish out, outside + prajna intuitive consciousness)

Also bahir-prajna. The present state of human consciousness.

(See also: Bahishprajna, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Consciousness (from Latin conscio knowing with, knowing together)

The active state of spirit or the supreme fundamental in manifested existence. Like light, consciousness can become manifest only by means of a vehicle, and it can have various degrees of manifestation according to the planes.

Individual consciousness originates in the Logos of any hierarchy. Every manifested entity is conscious to some degree, and is an expression of divine consciousness or spirit. Buddhi is said to be latent spiritual consciousness which becomes manifest intellectually in manas, so far as the human constitution goes (SD 2:275). Human consciousness is also closely linked to the senses.

The term consciousness is often used as alternative to spirit, as where it is said that consciousness and matter are the two aspects of parabrahman or that consciousness is the purest form of cosmic force; yet, strictly speaking, consciousness is an attribute of active spirit. It is sometimes called the universal life, the kosmic force-substance.

The relative use of the word enables us to speak of states or degrees of consciousness, according to the state in which the essence is manifested on one plane or another; or to call one state unconscious by contrast with another, as when we compare waking consciousness with the consciousness of sleep or trance.

See also SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

(See also: Consciousness, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Human Monad In the human constitution, the fourth monadic focus or center on the descending scale of individualizing consciousness. It is the basis or root of the human ego from which emanates the human soul -- a temporary or periodic appearance enduring for one incarnation, having for its range of consciousness the ordinary human consciousness of daily life.

At death the essence of the human soul is united to the human ego, which in its turn at the second death is reunited with the upper duad (atma-buddhi); and the human ego thereupon enters into the state of consciousness called devachan.

Having become at one with its spiritual parent, at least for the duration of devachan, the ego rests and digests its garnered store of wisdom, knowledge, and experience, and upon the completion of this period of devachanic recuperation it issues forth again when the karmic hour strikes, once more to become the human ego at its succeeding birth.

(See also: Human Monad, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Human Monad In the human constitution, the fourth monadic focus or center on the descending scale of individualizing consciousness. It is the basis or root of the human ego from which emanates the human soul -- a temporary or periodic appearance enduring for one incarnation, having for its range of consciousness the ordinary human consciousness of daily life.

At death the essence of the human soul is united to the human ego, which in its turn at the second death is reunited with the upper duad (atma-buddhi); and the human ego thereupon enters into the state of consciousness called devachan.

Having become at one with its spiritual parent, at least for the duration of devachan, the ego rests and digests its garnered store of wisdom, knowledge, and experience, and upon the completion of this period of devachanic recuperation it issues forth again when the karmic hour strikes, once more to become the human ego at its succeeding birth.

(See also: Human Kingdom, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Fifth kingdom

(of Souls) A new state of collective consciousness not yet manifested, although the model has been created as a divine potential by the Masters. When enough humans can sustain the collective energy the initiation will be granted and a leap forward in consciousness will be gained by many now in preparation. (The other four kingdoms are the mineral, the plant, the animal, the human.)

(See also: Fifth kingdom, Body Mind and Soul)

Kundalini yoga:

philosophy expounding the awakening of potential energy and inherent consciousness within the human body and mind.

(See also: Kundalini yoga, Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

CAROLE - dance circle in which participant hold hands and concentrate on linking with all humanity and raising human consciousness. (NAD)

(See also: CAROLE, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Carole

A circle dance in which the participants hold hands and concentrate of linking themselves with all humanity and raising human consciousness.

(See also: Carole, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Jagrat :

Jagrat

(Sanskrit) The state of consciousness when awake, as opposed to  svapna, the dreaming-sleeping state of consciousness, and different again from sushupti when the human consciousness is plunged into profound self-oblivion. The highest of all the states into which the consciousness may cast itself, or be cast, is the turiya ("fourth"), which is the highest state of samadhi, and is almost a nirvanic condition.

All these states or conditions of the consciousness are affections or phases of the constitution of man, and of beings constructed similarly to man. The waking state, or jagrat, is the state or condition of consciousness normal to the imbodied human being when not asleep. Svapna is the state of consciousness more or less freed from the sheath of the body and partially awake in the astral realms, higher or lower as the case may be.

Sushupti is the state of self-oblivion into which the human being is plunged when the percipient consciousness enters into the purely manasic condition, which is self-oblivion for the relatively impotent brain-mind; whereas the turiya state, which is a practical annihilation of the ordinary human consciousness, is an attainment of union with atma-buddhi overshadowing or working through the higher manas. Actually, therefore, it is becoming at one with the monadic essence.

See also: Jagrat, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

Sankucita-cetana - contracted consciousness. This refers to animals, birds, insects, and aquatics. Their consciousness is more de veloped than that of the non-moving entities, yet inferior to human consciousness. Sankucita-cetana is mainly limited to the activities of eating, sleeping, mating, fearing, moving about of their own volition, fighting with other animals over territory and possessions which they claim as their own, and becoming angry in the face of encroachment. Beings at this stage of consciousness have no knowledge of the next life and no tendency to inquire about God.

(See also: Sankucita-cetana, Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

consciousness: Chitta or chaitanya.

1)    A synonym for mind-stuff, chitta; or

2)    the condition or power of perception, awareness, apprehension.

There are myriad gradations of consciousness, from the simple sentience of inanimate matter to the consciousness of basic life forms, to the higher consciousness of human embodiment, to omniscient states of superconsciousness, leading to immersion in the One universal consciousness, Parashakti. Chaitanya and chitta can name both individual consciousness and universal consciousness.

Modifiers indicate the level of awareness, e.g.,

-       vyashti chaitanya, "individual consciousness;"

-       buddhi chitta, "intellectual consciousness;"

-       Sivachaitanya, "God consciousness."

Five classical "states" of awareness are discussed in scripture:

1)    wakefulness (jagrat),

2)    "dream" (svapna) or astral consciousness,

3)    "deep sleep" (sushupti) or subsuperconsciousness,

4)    the superconscious state beyond (turiya "fourth") and

5)    the utterly transcendent state called turiyatita ("beyond the fourth").

See: awareness, chitta, chaitanya, mind (all entries).

(See also: Consciousness, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Mukulita-cetana - budding consciousness. This refers to human beings whose consciousness is superior to that of lower life-forms, but who are devoid of morality and ethics. It also refers to those who have a conventional sense of morality, but who have no faith in God.

(See also: Mukulita-cetana, Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

BIOCOMPUTER - human consciousness principles; the brain or unconscious mind or the unconscious or subconscious mind operating like a computer to process, program and categorize information from the environment. (Lilly) (NAD)

(See also: BIOCOMPUTER, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Chitkara citkara (Sanskrit) (from chit thought, consciousness + the verbal root kri to do, make)

The thought-worker; the guardian angel in human beings.

(See also: Chitkara, citkara, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

New Age

Movement of emerging planetary consciousness devoted to more peaceful place to live based on respect for humanity's diverse traditional ways of life in harmony with the environment and the spiritual

(See also: New Age, Body Mind and Soul)