“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

Albert Einstein, Physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1921

“There's nothing in this world that you can't turn into heroin…”

During an unexpectedly moving scene in the comedy Get Him to the Greek (2010, Universal Pictures), drug-addicted rock star Aldous Snow (played by Russell Brand) tries to convince his ex-girlfriend (played by Rose Byrne) to get back together with him. She explains that she's drug-free, and that the past few months have been the happiest of her life. He protests that he was clean for seven years when they were together. She replies “And you did yoga for five hours a day. That's mental! There's nothing in this world that you can't turn into heroin.”

“Symptom substitution” is widely accepted in the world of traditional addiction treatment. The smoker gives up cigarettes but starts eating chocolate. The reformed cocaine addict becomes a workaholic. The alcoholic stops drinking and starts compulsively attending meetings. The surface behaviour has changed, often to something less damaging, but the habitual thought patterns (and the consciousness behind them) remain the same. By the same token, we can all think of examples of people who have had a sudden insight: a change of heart that dramatically impacts their life…

• The alcoholic who experiences a “moment of clarity”, stops drinking for good, and becomes a valuable member of their community.
• The smoker who suddenly decides that “enough is enough”, and easily gives up a habit that they were previously enslaved by.
• The workaholic businessman who has a heart attack, massively re-evaluates his priorities, downsizes and starts working a four-hour day so he can spend more time with his family.

These changes of heart are often regarded as psychological anomalies, sometimes labelled as “spontaneous remission” and given no further attention. Yet they are examples of a natural quality that we all have: The capacity for an increase in our clarity of understanding; a rise in our level of consciousness.

A rise in consciousness means a permanent increase in your clarity of understanding…

The infinite elevator

Imagine a sturdy, see-through elevator running up the side of an infinitely tall skyscraper at the centre of a crowded metropolis. When you first step into the elevator all you can see is the cars at street level and the buildings that surround you.

As the elevator begins to move, you start rising above the smaller buildings, and your sight line becomes less cluttered. The cars appear to grow smaller and smaller, and you can see the rooftops of the neighbouring office blocks. Soon, all but the tallest buildings are disappearing beneath you, and you can see far into the distance.

You admire the gentle transition as the population becomes less dense; from high-rises, to low-rises, to suburbs to countryside. As you continue your upward journey, the details of the city streets shrink into invisibility, and your eye is drawn to the sweep of the horizon. Eventually you start to become aware of the curvature of the Earth.

Your consciousness is like this infinite elevator. A rise in consciousness means an increase in clarity of understanding that brings you peace, perspective and greater clarity of mind.

The principle of CONSCIOUSNESS brings your thinking to life. When you experience a rise in your consciousness, the habits of thinking you previously experienced as a reality suddenly start losing their power. As your consciousness continues rising, you become more and more able to see your THOUGHT-generated experiential realities for the illusions that they are.

A rise in consciousness means a permanent increase in your clarity of understanding…

Penicillin for the mind

A rise in consciousness is like a kind of “penicillin for the mind”. Penicillin can help our bodies to heal infection by inhibiting the growth and spread of illness-causing bacteria. Similarly, a rise in consciousness can transform how we relate to (and can even eliminate) huge amounts of contaminated thinking. Just as penicillin acts wherever in the body it's needed, a rise in consciousness goes to wherever it's needed in a person's psyche. A person whose consciousness rises often experiences an “across the board” increase in well-being, with issues they'd been perceiving as problems suddenly reducing in intensity, or even disappearing…

Here's a way of thinking about it. Imagine two doctors living in London in the 1850s. Doctor A believes that illness and disease are caused by bad smells. He spends every available hour on a scheme to supply highly-scented flowers to every hospital ward in the city. He's totally focused on this achievement, because he wants the best for his patients. Doctor B is looking in a different direction. He's heard suggestions that illness and disease aren't caused by bad smells, but rather by tiny invisible creatures called germs and bacteria. He spends his time exploring this new understanding, because he wants the best for his patients.

Paradoxically, when you start to shift to an understanding orientation, it often “raises the bar” on what you're able to achieve. I've seen this in my own life, and in the lives of my clients: many of your biggest achievements come after you let go of an achievement-obsession, and start increasing your clarity of understanding.

Paradoxically, the things people have been perceiving as “problems” diminish in intensity or disappear. Mountains get turned back into molehills, and people find that they have the resources to tackle the things that do need dealing with, guided by their innate wisdom.

I realize that an understanding-orientation might seem like a counterintuitive choice for someone living in the “real world” of work, families, goals, businesses, mortgages, health and relationships. But as you follow your wisdom and keep increasing your understanding of the inside-out nature of life, you're going to be guided in living a life you love, no matter what.

So what do you need to do in order for that to happen?