Insight into the dynamics of human consciousness is very helpful to managing the resolution of conflict among all types of disputants. How does "consciousness" operate for you and me? Lets begin with some familiar experiences:
Have you ever been disappointed in a new friend when they didn't turn out to be the kind of person you had hoped for or thought they were? or vice versa? 
Have you ever been unable to complete a task or solve a problem because you didn't know how? Then did you suddenly have the answer? 
Did you ever try to operate or fix something and it wouldn't work, but when you let it alone for a while and went back to it, suddenly you could make it work? 
Ever get lost, confused and frightened, and unable to ask anybody or get help and just gave up, then suddenly were able to find your way back to a familiar signpost or landmark?

All of these are examples of a change in your mental consciousness. Nothing else changed. Your friend was always the same person, the problem always had a solution, and you were always in reach of your destination. By understanding your consciousness and how it works in such dilemmas you can more effectively develop it, solve problems, identify reliable friends, and make the right decisions for you.

CONSCIOUSNESS DEFINED AS APPLIED THROUGH MEDIATION~

Consciousness will be defined in these studies at three levels of attainment--at the level of:
Sensate consciousness--that which is admitted to our awareness through our senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
Mental consciousness--that which our mind labels and defines, and its construction of explanations of the impact on us of our sense data, and thus is limited to working with sensate data, even when constructing abstractions.
Spiritual consciousness--that intuition, insight and awareness which acknowledges a power greater than ourselves, and which seeks to approach a higher consciousness than our own. For example, success in the "12 Step" approach to overcoming addictions begins with the recognition that one must surrender to a "a power higher than ourselves." Spiritual consciousness has empowers our capacity which transcends physical and mental limits, and thus promotes wholeness over division, forgiveness over vengeance, healing over pathology, trust over fear, compassion over exploitation, in giving more than receiving. Spiritual Consciousness reaches for the larger frame of intelligence which informs us with Wisdom, and which demand integrity over deceit and manipulation, and which only tolerates harmlessness over aggressive force of any kind.

CONTENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS SECTION
The logical sequence of topics noted under the Consciousness Heading
[Strongly recommended that you study in sequence the first time through]

[Begin with] "Necker Cube" Demonstration of Consciousness
Unfolding of Consciousness
"Master Slave" Consciousness Differences
Dynamics of Consciousness
Invisible Constraints of Non consciousness
Research Implications of a Consciousness Factor in Conflict Resolution Dynamics (Optional Technical Section)
How the Consciousness Paradigm is Applied to Empower Mediators in Conflict Resolution

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Necker Cube Demonstration of "Consciousness
You already know what mental consciousness is. It is the "you" that wakes you up in the morning, takes you through the day, and offers you your thoughts and feelings about everything. It takes you home, "explains" things to you, defines and explains (correctly or incorrectly) what is confusing for you, takes you to food, and guides you how to prepare it. It stimulates you with "understanding" (correct or incorrect,) torments you with doubt, confusion and emotional reactions to everything, puts you to bed, and then occasionally from time to time offers dreams (which may only be feedback from your waking thoughts) to entertain or torture you.

Now examine the Necker Cube (Figure below.) If you quietly just look at it, you will suddenly experience an altered state of consciousness. That is, what you first perceive as the front and back abruptly appear to reverse or flip.

The adjacent Figure shows how the Necker Cube can model a major concept--our consciousness of a REALITY. In the largest possible reality or TRUTH in which we all exist, we are a basic element in a multi-dimensional spiritual realm of energy-intelligence. But though science has already demonstrated that there are these higher, invisible energy forces or order and regularity affecting us a part of our Real or Total Cosmos, these forces are mostly not in our consciousness. Therefore they are "out of mind." We can not consciously relate to them even though they may affect our well being, even though they could inform us of a larger more complete interpretation of Reality (as shown in the following Figure.)

The whole of each of us (both conscious and unconscious) is embedded in this larger realm of spiritual energy and intelligence. Even through spiritual consciousness admits only a tiny portion of that REALITY into our physical or mental consciousness, the remaining spiritual part can become accessible and potentially known by us. This spiritual realm in which we are embedded and with which we are seamlessly interconnected lies immediately beyond our limited mental consciousness. It is accessible to us only by means of a well developed spiritual awareness that is nourished by deep prayer and meditation. Our sensate awareness becomes informed of possibilities and warnings, sometimes labeled an "Ah Ha!" experience. The spiritual information that comes to us as intuition, sudden insight, and revelation comes through the energy links we have with that larger realm of energy and intelligence which defines a state beyond the limits of the conscious mind. The sacred scriptures of the great religions of the world all speak to this from differing perspectives consistent with the spiritual premise by which the religion is defined. I will develop the concept here from its scientific foundations.

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Suppose this Necker Cube were a "reality" in your life, say a room that you lived in and shared with someone. Suppose you were both unaware that what you call the front and back of that room might be reversed for your friend's experience of the same "Necker" reality as modeled in the adjacent Figure. Both of you might peacefully co-exist for a long time with this unknown discrepancy in your perceptions of your "reality." But, if you were asked by your friend, who lives in the "B" reality, to hang pictures on the "front" wall of this "room" (the wall you interpret as labeled "A,") you know immediately which wall that would be for you. Its the "A" wall. The possibility of an alternative reality is not in your consciousness. Think of the arguments that would suddenly develop with your friend who means by the symbol "front" in his/her mind the only reality or consciousness of "front" for her/him, the one labeled "B." The potential for conflict in this simplified micro cosmos is identical in principle to the major generative factor creating interpersonal, group, organizational/institutional and societal conflicts.

Now let us pretend that your relationship to these parts of the cube defines your total "reality," i.e. your present consciousness--all that you are physically, mentally and spiritually conscious of. You could live out your whole life relating to this limited "A" reality never even suspecting there was the "B" reality. Of course there is, always was, and always will ever be only ONE reality in this model that contains both "A" and "B" possibilities. That inclusive Reality is labeled "C." But when suddenly, once the hidden part or perspective is revealed to you, then without further effort, you are conscious of also having access to the "B" reality.

Now you have increased your degrees of freedom (DF). DF will be defined in more detail in a subsequent lesson, but it is a measure of the extent to which you perceive options and possibilities. The higher the DF, the greater the perceived options and possibilities in a given complex reality. Low DF can be an important contributor to conflict. Conflict is inflamed and perpetuated when limited consciousness (low DF) denies disputants the ability to negotiate a satisfactory solution to their dispute because the solution empowering portion of the larger reality is not accessible to one or more disputant. But once you become conscious of the world of "C" you can never relate to the familiar "A" reality in the same way ever again. Your mind forever must account for the newly discovered "B" component of the total "C" Reality. It is creating  this condition of expanding, unfolding or releasing into consciousness as a Mediator's goal that I refer to in healing our real world of conflict when mediating disputes with which you are involved.

The CR. implementation protocol you will learn from this Web Page can empower you to apply and implement a set of concepts, techniques and strategies for avoiding numerous mental traps and limits that block your access to the larger realms of empowering relevant consciousness. To heal the roots of conflict in any scenario, you as mediator must first transcend your own various limited realities (consciousness) in order to help the disputants learn to relate to each other from the Whole of their conflicted reality, the all encompassing "C" reality that can open the door to rational conflict solutions.

GO TO DETAILS OF DEGREES OF FREEDOM (DF)
NOTE: this link is for return students for their review purposes. A proper understanding of DF will be developed in sequence as a part of the HIP (Human Information Processing), concepts, the third "Overlay" on consciousness. First time visitors are encouraged to allow for the logical development of this topic before checking out the details on DF.

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THE UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS

We begin the unfolding of our consciousness even before birth. The figure at the left illustrates that this unfoldment, is based first on our neural capacity (genetic physical legacy,) and then on the nature of our nurturing experiences. "TRUTH" is symbolic of the total information existing in the cosmos beyond what our senses admit to our consciousness and to which we cannot relate. Unfoldment is greatest during the period of our youth assuming a favorable social environment for supporting this process. For some fortunate individuals, the nature of this influence leads to a highly expanded consciousness, for others less fortunate, a combination of influences defined by social and intellectual impoverishment, intimidation, fear and/or poor nutrition can seriously compromise its unfoldment. Effective coping with the stresses of life benefits from a heightened consciousness. We all learn to do the best we can with what we've got to work with! Even the most neurotic response pattern is simply a pathological way of attempting to resolve the stress, anxiety and confusion we define as our experience.
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This Figure illustrates how siblings in the same family will have their own unique definition of consciousness, but the genetic gifts at birth and subsequent social relationship in the same family create a significant degree of similarity. The potential of Spiritual Consciousness transcends the limits of any intellectual process or result that is confined to mental processing. The rational mind is limited to the data or information gleaned from your five major senses (sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.) It is the creative (intuitive) mind that responds to the higher intelligence in the realms of spiritual energy. Note: Larry Dossey, M.D., an important writer on the relationship among spirituality prayer and well being, has written extensively on the power and importance of prayer and meditation refers to this larger, cosmic arena of information as "non-local intelligence."

In this last Figure, we can see that one's relationship with persons' of divergent cultures, societies and life styles will have only minimal overlap in shared meanings from that part of their consciousness. Thus it ought be clear how ripe such a relationship is for conflict if their needs are frustrated, threatened or not met. But Spiritual Consciousness (capacity to gain access to the "non-local intelligence" that create wholeness and healing) originates as an embracing realm also labeled the COSMOS or TRUTH. In the first circle figure that exists beyond the range of these major senses. This concept of higher realm of informing Spiritual resources, intelligence and legitimacy (e.g., "The still small voice.") as a valid concept has been out of favor in western science. That legacy encumbers most western mind's ability to accept it. Some persons have labeled the capacity to derive benefit from accessing this higher Spiritual realm as a "sixth" sense or "Third Eye." People with a well developed sixth sense just seem to "know" when or how to do the right thing, seem to always make the right choice, be at the right place at the right time, avoid problems and danger and seem able to act correctly when others are lost in confusion. Access to this "sixth" or intuitive sense need not be a matter of chance, but a skill that can become as developed (through the discipline of prayer and meditation) as can a musical talent or intellectual gift. Further attention to the development of this skill will not be a part of this Web Page.

To see both sides of our symbolic Necker Cube Reality, your hidden larger Consciousness has had to empower your limited mental consciousness to perceive both. Your Spiritual Consciousness (access to the whole) had to expand your mental consciousness (limited to parts of the whole.) Unfolded consciousness expanded the freedom for your intelligence to function! You have been empowered to experience and relate to a larger portion of the total REALITY. In our example, you will get along more easily with your friend. Once expanded consciousness is triggered, your mental definition of the alternate Necker Cube reality has changed forever. You can never look at the familiar display in quite the same way.

And so it is in conflict resolution. The goal of a skilled mediator is to alter the limited consciousness of each disputant who is trapped in their limited view of their "Necker Cube" reality. Each disputant must make contact with the larger nature of the comprehensive reality that defines the issues for each of them. This approach to mediation will develop the fundamental elements that energize the dynamics of consciousness. These, called the "Overlays" of consciousness, include our basic agendas, our capacity to communicate, and the level of complexity from which we interpret our reality. Your awareness of these overlays and the nature of their dynamics will help you better understand and apply the interactive techniques that follow in the implementation section of these lessons.

MASTER SLAVE DYNAMICS

The nature of the Necker Cube "A" and "B"[revisit demo of Necker Cube phenomenon] realities can be conceptually re-labeled to represent a "Master" and "Slave" experience of the same "C" reality. Many conflicts can be recognized to derive from explicit or implicit MasterSlave relationships in the home, school, work place, larger community, or in national and international systems. The nature and dynamics of these MasterSlave realities are quite different even though both function within the same embracing human social system.

Personal Power is the linking concept that explains why issues are created in the presence of value conflicts energized by real or perceived threat to the disputant's needs as they relate them to the power equation defined by: status quo of personal power, DF or opportunity to choose and implement one's agendas. In the relationship of disputants to personal power, with respect to the human system at issues and the respective consciousness of the disputants, disparities of perceived or real personal power create the Master-Slave relationship.

Characteristics of the "Master" Consciousness 
The master derives his/her authority by being perceived to control the satisfaction of needs of those who must serve under her/his authority. The consciousness of the master in such a relationship does not have to include awareness of the needs of those over whom he/she dominates. The less conscious a master of the needs of others, and the less accountable a master feels to higher authority, the greater potential there for insensitivity in decisions affecting others, and in the extreme, ruthlessness in using and manipulating others to serve her/his needs exclusively. In order to accept and perpetuate this relationship, the master must define the salve as somehow deserving of their submissive role. Common tactics include defining the slave with one or more of the following characteristics: stupid and incompetent uneducable lazy clumsy an inept cowardly sickly and disease ridden not capable of self-sufficiency absent or inferior character or ethics (morals) potentially dangerous if not suppressed subhuman incapable of normal thoughts and feelings.

The beliefs provide the master with her/his license to dominate, use and abuse. Programs, policies and practices are put in place to validate, justify and perpetuate the myths that create the slave. If unchallenged, over time, the Master enters a state of presumed un-assailability at what ever level of misuse or abuse of others is required to satisfy his/her needs. At any level, the master presumes to dominate and exert authority over the slave to whom he feels no accountability. He orders and dominates the slave at will. In this process, the master is not obliged to enter into even a portion of the consciousness of the slave who may be suffering under her/his authority.

Characteristics of the "Slave" Consciousness 
The slave, unlike the master, feels little or no personal power in their shared reality. The slave is subject to any and all demands by the master and must serve the master's will. In this authoritarian atmosphere in which even the ability to even negotiate may be precluded, the slave's survival demands that in order to manipulate the master to get needs met, she/he must enter into the reality of the master and incorporate a portion of the master's consciousness into their own. As this integration is accomplished, the master unwittingly becomes vulnerable to manipulation by the slave. A "slave" can become a veritable "genius" at acts of passive aggression designed to offend, humiliate and cost the master his resources. The following examples can illustrate:

Ethnic slavery: an overt revolt against a plantation owner can lead to violence and death or maiming of the culpable slaves, or their being sold and separated from their loved ones. However, when slaves are defined as "stupid" and "lazy" they can burn down the Master's barns after harvest time with the justification that they were just trying to drive out the rats and the fire got out of control. The Master's inability to relate to a slave's intelligence and determination deny him the possibility even to understand how the fire was in fact a deliberate act of revolt.

Male-Female: prior to world war two, men uniformly dominated women to deny them their ability to function autonomously outside the home as professionals, other than as teacher or nurse. Woman could not be trusted to take responsibility, act bravely, or manage effectively. In exchange for being kept "barefoot and pregnant" and confined to housekeeping in their master's home, they were accorded special status. As justification for this depersonalization, they were placed on a pedestal where their men were expected to serve their every need. Thus when women are defined as weak, intellectually inferior and helpless, then they can freely burden their men with 100 percent responsibility for all income production, decision making, caring for them, doing heavy work and treating them to entertainment.

Doctor-Nurse (or professional-paraprofessional): in such subtle relationships, the physician or person of higher professional status can demean the importance of those upon who they must depend to carry out the actual work. Though often subtle, such conditions are insufferable to those who find themselves in the "slave" role, but who quickly perceive that they have competencies and qualities that define them as at least equal if not superior to the master lording it over them. Authoritarian physicians have often suffered professional embarrassments at the hands of their "inferiors" and never know that the nurse or paraprofessional was the actual factor. The scale of such passive aggressive acts can approach levels such that were they to continue, they could harm patients or clients.

The Appearance of Master-Slave Relationships in Conflict Scenarios 
The existence of a real or defacto MasterSlave relationship is demeaning and dehumanizing to both master and slave. How the slave is demeaned and exploited is obvious, but the costs to the master are less obvious. The cost to the master comes from: having to remain fearful of overt resistance lack of trust leading to excessive supervision of the salve being unable to delegate any decision making authority to a slave in order to relieve the master's work burden impossibility of developing a collegial or human friendship risk of escalating power maneuvering leading to the need to exert excessive force to continue control of the slave, inability to encourage, educate or market competent persons to willingly enter into the slave's role, increasing dependence on the presence and effectiveness of the slave in order to function and compete, and/or even survive.

Role of Mediator In Addressing Master-Slave Relationships in Conflict Scenarios 
The MasterSlave relationship is one of the most intransigent perversions that contribute to conflict in human relationships. In their most frequent manifestations, the relationship is subtle and such that neither victim would be able to recognize and label it. But if serious balances of power discrepancies are evident, then look for the signs. While the mediator must find ways to empower the victim in the slave role to build strengths to confront the victim in the master's role, the Master must be educated as to the ultimate costs to him/her by the chronic abuse or misuse of institutional, technical knowledge or otherwise derived authority they may have. The capacity of a mediator to address such relationship effectively will depend on their interpersonal skills in managing the disputants of feelings, needs and values.

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THE DYNAMICS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
INDIVIDUAL: As soon as our perception (the five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) begin to function through contact with the external world at birth, the nature of our individual consciousness becomes defined by our experience of our world. The nature of our world is given meaning by this experience. A major factor in shaping the meaning of these experiences (reality) is the combination of our genetic legacy (our body and nervous system) and the social environment which generates their influences.

SOCIETY: At the complexity level of the society, our consciousness of the cosmos unfolds in response to the individual contributions of scientists, writers, musicians, and artists. The most significant expansion that is easily understandable is the expansion of the presumption that the cosmos is a mechanical system to the awareness that the cosmos is a relative composition of interacting networks of energy fields whose appearance is defined by the nature of the observing system.

The initial scientific consciousness of the cosmos and our place in it was mechanistic in nature. The universe was a giant machines. The human being was a bio-mechanical machine that had learned to think and was given a soul. The above Figure shows how this "Newtonian" mechanistic era can be represented. The world of human consciousness was divided up into convenient compartments of concepts, each believed to be existing independently. This may be compared to the "Relativity" paradigm introduced by Einstein at the beginning of the 21st Century.  Yet in the last decade, an even more expansive vision of our cosmos has begun to unfold in human consciousness, the Non-Local Wave Theory model..

By integrating eastern philosophies with western science, Deepak Chopra, M.D., argues that we have the wrong model of the human body when we think of it as a biological "machine" that has learned to think when in fact it may be the other way around. The physical infant is a projection of Spiritual Intelligence into physical matter or flesh. Chopra quotes the great sages of the Ayru-Veda (Eastern Holistic Healing) who have described the human body as "a great river of intelligent energy." He cites intellectual history of the west. Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, also spoke of the "mystery of the river" which is a flow of unfolding Intelligence within which each of us is a mere eddy. This view is expressed here because it is consistent with cutting edge science in both state of art physics and astronomy that has begun to define the cosmos as networks of fields within fields within fields of "intelligence." , and the rapidly emerging psycho physiological science of consciousness. Any theological implications are not presumed and left to the reader to decide if or how this paradigm is relevant.

Chopra affirms that the body is not a machine that learns to think, but that the body is a Spiritual "thought" that reflects itself into form. It is one level in a hierarchy of coherent or intelligent energy Chopra (1990) states:

"Is the void made up of nothing, or is it a fullness of non material intelligence? And the Vedic scripture will tell us that in fact this is a fullness of non-material intelligence which interacts with its own self and creates both mind and matter, that we are not physical machines that have learned how to think, we are in fact impulses of intelligent thoughts that have learned how to create the physical machine, that consciousness interacts with its own self and ultimately creates both mind and matter. Matter is the epiphenomenon and consciousness is the phenomenon. It is consciousness that conceives, governs and constructs and actually becomes the physical body and ultimately, the whole universe. In other words, to think is literally to create."

Chopra offers examples derived from modern physics in support of the above ideas. He defines the dynamic energy exchanges between a system and increasingly larger fields of coherent energy (Intelligence.) As humanity improves our insight into this phenomenon we can trigger corresponding advances of our C/consciousness of the larger cosmos. He says:

"10 x 1022 atoms are inhaled in a single breath and become a part of the body. Exhaled are 10 x 1022 atoms per breath that were once part of the body. "These well defined edges to the body are merely artifacts of sensory perception. We are part of a cosmic body that's constantly in exchange with its own self Each person contains at least 1,000,000 atoms that were in the body of Jesus, Buddha, Tomas Torqemada, Ghangus Kahn... every being of a distant historical period..... We acquire a new liver every six weeks at the atomic level, a new skin once a month, a new stomach lining every five days, even the brain cells that you think with are physical atoms of carbon, nitrogen hydrogen and oxygen that weren't there last year In less than one year 98% of all the atoms of the body are replaced DNA which holds the memory of millions of years of evolutionary time, the raw material of it is replaced every six weeks. In four years we will replace entire body, 98% of it is replaced in one year." (Chopra op cit.)

One must then ask, what is the "IT" that holds all of this dynamic energy exchange into the stable appearance of form and behavior that is our daily experience in-the-world? This insight illiterates humanity perception that has moved human consciousness from thinking of the living body as a static structure, the Newtonian Model shown below, to one which is embedded in a relativistic and constantly moving structure This is the psychosomatic or Wave Theory model (shown above.) Now there is an emergent model that states that in fact we are not beings with a localized intelligence somewhere in our brain, but a kind of neuro-biological "transducer" that holds is wholly integrated and defines our experience in relationship to the higher energy forms beyond our normal consciousness capability. Larry Dossey, M.D., argues that our basic intelligence and intuitive potential are in fact derived from a SupraSystem of Intelligence in which we are embedded. He refers to this as a non-local intelligence. (See: Dossey, 1995)

We exist in our relationship with GOD (or higher energy intelligence field if you prefer) in the same relative position that the organ (e.g. heart) exists as an intermediate system between the cells of which it is composed and the living human body of which it is a part. To survive we ourselves, and our families, groups and institutional extensions must remain a faithful mirror of the higher Laws that unfold from the higher fields of Intelligence. Since we cannot "Know" (i.e., admit to full consciousness) the ultimate GOD ("No one has seen the face of God") we are fortunate to not need to Know. Without the Spiritual discipline to enter into the mystical states that can connect us with this higher energy , we must still cope effectively with the limited portion of the cosmos revealed to us. Mediators, by understanding this consciousness factor, can more effectively enter into the interactions of disputant consciousness to manage its interactive unfoldment.  [Note these concepts are significanty updated in the revised current version.]

INVISIBLE CONSTRAINTS OF NON CONSCIOUSNESS
What is not in consciousness cannot be processed by the intellect! The disputants to conflict act from guidance of which they may be unaware of at the conscious level. These include subtle cultural constraints. For example, consider the concept of "surrender." Does a disputant approach a position aggressively (define it as the "Master" Reality) or by surrender (define it as the "Slave" Reality?) There are many ways in which a disputant may be passionately devoted to the truth of an "A" or "B" aspect of the "Reality" they perceive affects them. But each consciousness of "reality" is less than the whole of it. In mediating the causal factors creating the dispute, are you doing so in ignorance of or with respect for the whole affecting the dispute? Current problems related to the growing empowerment of women in our society offers an opportunity to use the concept of surrender as just one timely example. Western men, compared to those of Asia and the far east, usually have more difficulty with the principle of surrender as a legitimate tactical act, especially when compared to women. Such differences can help to energize a conflict in which this is an invisible factor affecting apparently unrelated issues.

Letting go, a feminine trait, is defined by many men as indicative of personal failure because it is the reverse of their "dominance consciousness" which only permits an aggressive, attacking posture . The requirement to dominate a situation involving others is a masculine trait that has been incessantly promoted in western problem solving. "Winning is the only thing." Like an observer who initially is only conscious of one perspective of the Necker Cube, our cultural concepts do not always permit us to have an interpretation of an alternative realty.

To what extent do dominating male (female) concepts define and limit their consciousness affecting a dispute? In the 1960's, "Assertiveness Training" became kind of almost religious commitment for many women who experienced themselves as victims of male oppression. For example, "surrender" is a negative concept that reeks of failure in the western male's mentality. To complete in the male culture, a woman must transcend a consciousness that denies them competing as an undesirable trait. Even the common vernacular reflects a male dominated consciousness.

A man will say: "We will mount an aggressive approach to target and defeat this problem by finding a magic "bullet." We must conquer disease or the environment. We have to always beat (masculine) the problem, never accommodate (feminine) to it. We need to resist, overcome, or win. We have to hammer the truth home. We must win, not "wimp out" (surrender.) In this consciousness, "surrender" equals defeat, failure and humiliation. A woman who knows that in a particular case, accommodation is a better tactical or strategic solution may have her suggestion dismissed by an authoritarian male as incompetence. Thus a full consciousness of accommodation as a valuable tactic under some conditions is not accessible in his consciousness.

Do you notice the pattern? Finally, in the primal consciousness of the male intellect especially, a man can only feel safe when he has identified his enemy. Then he must control it, either by driving it off, or by defeating, humiliating, imprisoning or killing it.

When the strengths of the feminine approach to life (equivalent to surrendering to enable revelation of an alternative view, as in the Necker Cube) are defined as weakness in our male-dominated culture, all parties are losers to many positive actions that might otherwise be taken. Any accusation of femininity attributed to a male has traditionally been heard as a derogatory epithet, not a recognition of emotional or Spiritual strength. Consciousness then, always refers to our (or one person's) comprehension of a complex multidimensional quality which is constrained and limited when it appears to be the whole and complete perception of the relevant reality. Here are powerful sources for energizing conflict in our society.

A mediator can confront in disputants and themselves, visceral reactions to long held biases that require time to overcome and heal. When sudden success in problem solving occurs in complex life, scientific or business situations, it is often dismissed as mere "insight" or "inspiration" or "creativity." But the only function of mental activity in any secular successes is to lay the groundwork or "platform" of mental awareness. The mental freedom to choose (degrees of freedom) is a precondition for receiving an expansion of consciousness. But how to acquire or develop it?

Do your homework, use every mental device available, push your mind to its limit. Then release it. Accept the reality of being blocked for now and let it go. Americans are good at all but the last two. Success by surrender or accommodation can happen in meditation. First pose the dilemma in its mental form, then surrender it. Chaplain especially can go into meditation or prayer and there and pass your dilemma or problem to the Super Conscious. During your meditation, this intellectual surrender permits a alternative understandings and solutions to become accessible to you at your conscious mental level. This is the equivalent of a flip in the Necker Cube that meditation and prayer can promote on the reality plane of life's daily events. But many males remain trapped by resisting their capacity (strength) to surrender because it implies, in their consciousness, the humiliation of defeat.

Mind-Brain Resources (Virginia Institute of Technology)
On-Line Journals; On-Line Tables of Contents; General Information about Journals and Books; Technical Reports and Research Papers; Software Other Artificial Intelligence Links; Other Cognitive Science Links; Other Neuroscience Links ;Other Philosophy Links; Other Psychology Links Other Research Tools; Other Sites of Related Interest
Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
ASSC promotes research within cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and other relevant disciplines in the sciences and humanities, directed toward understanding the nature, function, and underlying mechanisms of consciousness. 
PSYCHE: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Consciousness
PSYCHE (ISSN: 1039-723X) is a refereed electronic journal dedicated to supporting the interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain. PSYCHE publishes material relevant to that exploration from the perspectives afforded by the disciplines of cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, physics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. Interdisciplinary discussions are particularly encouraged.
Epistemology, Consciousness, and the Mind 
This is a page entirely dedicated to linking to a variety of consciousness, mind-brain and related pages
A Guide to the Best Religious Studies Resources on the Internet
Some of the links have consciousness related discussions:
Western Religions:  Christianity, Islam, Jewish and Christian (Bible) Judaism
Eastern Religions: Buddhism, Chinese & Japanese Religions Hinduism Jainism Sikhism
Alternative Religions: Paganism, Shamanism, New Age Spirituality, Other Alternative Religions

NOTE:  this site is no longer being developed and links may not all work.  To find current information, you can go to the comperable YAHOO search site on Religion.

TECHNICAL DISCUSSION OPTION

Technical Discussion of Consciousness from a Research Potential in CR.

Students who are interested only in developing Mediation skills need not pursue the technical discussion of Consciousness. These details are intended for graduate students and researchers. Choosing the technical section will lead you to a discussion the current status of consciousness definitions and research. I then propose to research oriented scholars a means to scientifically (operationally) define and measure Consciousness that can be applied to investigating the mediator skills and the mediation Process. If you are personally interested in research, especially as a graduate student interested in this developing area of consciousness, the following is a proposed way to use currently available instruments to operationally define mental consciousness in behavioral terms, and thus create a measurable terminology.

Skip Technical Stuff~ The Consciousness Factor Applied to CR

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Current Theories of Consciousness have been elusive and while ignored by science as tantamount to superstition until the last decade. Consciousness has been a constant disturbing presence, a "Ghost in the Machine" (Koestler, 1958) ever lurking in the background of the behavioral (stimulus-response) psychologists' mechanistic approach to the dynamics of physiology as the beginning and end of understanding behavior. A comfortable definition for many is the idea is the human capacity to observe and consider the introspective dynamics of their own sensory processing, i.e. that we are aware of our "selves" as selves. Approaches to understanding consciousness range from the physical science of neuro-biology at the micro-level (e.g., is there consciousness in the micro-tubuals in the neurons?) to inquiries into Esoteric Mysticism at the macro-level. Only enough information can be presented in what follows to profile the scale and scope of current initiatives, and point the interested student to some primary resources.

Summary Background of Definitions, Concepts and Investigations into Consciousness

"Consciousness: The having of perceptions, thoughts and feelings; awareness. The term is impossible to define except in terms that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means. Many fall into the trap of confusing consciousness with self-consciousness--to be conscious it is only necessary to the aware of the external world. Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written about it." (Sutherland, 1989)

Since 1989, however, numbers of important books "worth reading" have been published on the topic of Consciousness as it moves steadily toward the forefront of the dominant paradigms in psychology. Current explorations into the definitions, mechanisms and dynamics of Consciousness have been reported by Chalmers (1996a) He asserts that consciousness as a serious scientific and philosophical topic can be approached from the perspectives of two major domains: The "Easy" Problem and The "Hard" Problem. These "Easy" approaches are generally reductionist in nature and focus on the tangible physics and neuro biological mechanisms by which our bodies process the energy-information in which we are embedded and through which we translate that matter-energy into the structure and processes of experience as we know it. The second domain, the "Hard" Problem, is much more difficult. This perspective examines the phenomenological nature of experience and the appearance of "Qualia," (that which is defined by our five senses.) These are the content of experiences entered through the senses and give holistic "meaning" arising as the mind. This approach involves defining a means to integrate the phenomenological experience of Qualia into a scientifically approachable paradigm.

Scientific Concepts (The "Easy" Problem)

Concepts at this level are found mostly in the cognitive sciences and supported by investigators working at the micro-level of biological mechanisms. The human brain has been examined as the "seat of consciousness (Pribram, 1971.) He considers the brain to function as a kind of holographic mechanism stimulated by changes in the structure of the invariance. Invariance, (Ashby, 1963,) is a systems concept that refers to the implicate order (Bohm, 1980) which is the regularity of the cosmos that underlies all universal phenomenon. The appearance and experience of regularity detected by our senses is defined as information when it answers a question about the current status of a system, or predicts a future state of a system as relevant to our needs. The decline of or disappearance of this order is defined as entropy and is the opposite of information. The individual's experience of entropy or the inability to detect information when needed is stress producing. Stress is defined as a threat to some aspect of our agendas and leads to defensive or assertive behavior. The stress experienced by challenged agendas leads to the issues which are the visible evidence of conflict and disputes within and among human systems.

Examinations into the appearance of conflicted communication behavior (e.g., epilepsy, schizophrenia) has been investigated by the examination of a "split brain" patient with the suggestion that consciousness is a dual phenomenon which is integration of both hemisphere's of the normal brain (Mark, 1996.) More recently, Pribram (1996) applies esoteric concepts such as transcendental consciousness as a phenomenon of the far frontal cortex and right hemisphere. However, he reduces all of consciousness to three major categories: (1) personal and extrapersonal objectivity via the posterior cerebral convexity; (2) narratives based on episodes and eventualities located in the frontolimbic forebrain; and (3) transcendent consciousness beyond the first two by freeing the microprocess entirely from their spatiotemporal constraints required for ordinary consciousness.

Metaphysical Concepts (The "Hard" Problem)

The nature of consciousness is easily handled at the phenomenological level of metaphysics and theology. William James (1958) proposed that human life can be phenomenologically defined as a "stream of consciousness." Numbers of hierarchical paradigm have attempted to organize the relationship of behavior to levels of consciousness (Wilber, 1980,) one version of which is applied to this mediation paradigm (the Maslow Hierarchy.) The concept of "Spirituality" exists at this level and all religions, particularly those of the east have enhanced their spiritual consciousness by the process of meditation. Jesus and other Christian mystics have healed the sick by transferring aspects of consciousness (of health) to those who were sick, Islam addresses the presence of mystical states of consciousness through participation in the activities of the Sufi sects. The practices of Transcendental Meditation have come out of the realm of Hindu and Buddhist theology. But such spiritual or mystical constructs of consciousness are not amenable to verification by the demanding protocols of western science. Nevertheless, such metaphysical concepts can be used to provide a conceptual framework within which science can work.

Efforts to integrate the easy with the hard models are emerging. Chalmers (1996b) proposes a nonproductive theory based on principles of structural coherence and organizational invariance, combined as a double aspect theory of information. The concepts supporting such a proposal are found at the core of General Systems Theory. His critique of the "Easy" approach lies in the limits of the scientific research paradigm which cannot be holistic in such models. Chopra (1990) has called "a superstition," the scientific belief that nothing is real unless it is detected either directly by the senses, or as they can be extended by technical prosthesis. Chalmers asserts that the mechanisms themselves, and even their dynamics are not "consciousness." Efforts to transcend these limits by researchers have proposed "extra ingredients," e.g., Non algorithmic processing (Penrose, 1994), and quantum mechanics (Hameroff and Penrose, 1996.) These approaches are criticized because they use consciousness as a given after which they apply their models to explain the mechanics. Finally there are approaches that attempt to integrate the objective with the subjective through hierarchical models beginning at the level of quantum physics such as that proposed by Scott (1996, 1995.)

This brief summary is a considerable simplification of the work being done with the construct of consciousness. Students who are professionally interested in this developing arena of study are encouraged to investigate these references as provided, and also the hyperlinks to consciousness related resources on the Web.

The following model as a proposed application for operationally defining a concept of consciousness according to personality variables. This model can be applied to define the relationships of consciousness to the success of mediators in training and in mediation assignments. Findings will suggest that predictions could be made of eventual success, and predict what kind of training contents and emphasis is required to achieve that goal. Those whose profiles indicate an inability to respond to training within an acceptable period of time can be rejected at the outset to save time in the training for those who have a reasonable chance to succeed.

By what means can one operationally define an underlying scientific construct of mental "consciousness" at the subjective level through qualitative methodologies? By operationally defining it the hypotheses that are built upon that definition can then be subject to scientific verification. Then the resulting paradigm can be investigated in conflict resolution practice. Both disputants and mediators can be assessed by such a model, and the dynamics of their mediation described systematically. The following body of literature suggests that "consciousness" can be assessed as the collective set of factors defining in operational ways as a continuum of low to heightened awareness of "self" existing in the context of either the larger order of perception and experience, or as focused or narrowed with respect to that realm of potential experience. Goalder (1990) found that advanced spiritual maturity links what I call heightened Consciousness with various other measures of life adjustment, e.g., with reference to scores on Beck (1961).

Likewise, "Consciousness" can also translate into the findings reported by Koenig (1988) in his use of the Springfield religiosity measures to assess health correlation among elderly and depressed patients. There is a consistent pattern of linkage among the following fields of inquiry that can be the underlying fabric of an integrating construct of Consciousness. Such studies include: 
(1) Schroeder et al, (1967) continuum of concrete (focused-limited)- abstract (expanded flexible) human information processing styles. These are consistent with 
(2) Adorno, et al, (1960) construct of "authoritarianism personality", 
(3) Rotter's (1966) constructs of external-internal control, (See also Lefcourt, 1976)
(4) Deci (1975), intrinsic-extrinsic motivation, 
(5) Hoge's (1961) intrinsic-extrinsic religiosity, 
(6) Goalder's (1990) application of Spilka et al's (1977) Intrinsic- Extrinsic religiosity, 
(7) Kohlberg's (1967) stages of moral development (accounted for in the 16PF scales) which demonstrates in a person's moral-ethical behavior the progression of "Consciousness" from wholly ego centered agendas through the highest human expressions of Agapic love and service to others, 
(8) in the "personal growth" subscale of the Quality of Life Questionnaire (Evans & Cope, 1989), 
(9) in Achterberg and Lawlis (1990) constructs in their Health Attributes Test, and 
(10) Cattel's (1989, 1992) personality factor traits yielding the 16PF multivariate measures (1995 revision.)

The 16PF serves to measures a number of factors that can contribute to an operational definition of Consciousness. These factor polarities include: 
(A) warm-cool, 
(B) Concrete- Abstract Intelligence, 
(C) Instability-ego strength, 
"D" factor is not used
(E) control-deference, 
(F) Exuberant-somber, 
(G) Moral strength, low/high super-ego, 
(H) Bold-timid temperament, 
(I) the Jungian construct of feeling vs thinking (also measured by Myers-Briggs), 
(L) alienated-identification in social orientation, (M) Intuiting-sensing (also in Myers Briggs), 
(N) self-presentation, as artless-shrewd, 
(O) Guilt, untroubled-troubled; and three undergirding derived constructs, 
(Q1) Change Orientation, 
(Q2) Self-sufficiency-dependence, 
(Q3) High self sentiment (discipline)-Low self- sentiment, and 
(Q4) Tense-relaxed temperament.

A new edition was published in 1995.

All of the above instrumentation can be used to assess the underlying "consciousness factor" in various expressions of conflict. These permit any study to define operational measures and outcomes of a construct of mental consciousness that may be operating in the mediation process. These become a surrogate for a quality or condition of consciousness operationally defined as being on a continuum from Expanded to Focused consciousness, the nature of which can be compared to a various measures of perceived and actual quality of life, personal empowerment or disempowerment, health and illness and strength and weakness. The more one functions from a posture of empowered and illumined consciousness (as measured by the above), the more one will live and present the empowering ends of the above scales, and the less likely they will appear, among those showing the more pathological health outcome measures. Thus one can evaluate any number of current models and findings in the behavioral sciences to determine whether the effects are related to levels of consciousness.

Do clues to designing a loving, compassionate (i.e. spiritually grounded) remediation become accessible if patterns of consciousness (defined by the above instruments) are revealed? In the context of the above pattern of reports, the spiritual health of chaplains, and the profiles of patients on the above measures ought correlate with the extent and scale of potency of intercessory prayer and its benefits if the effects can be detected. Current measures of personality such as the Myers-Briggs (1987), or as interpreted by Keirsey & Bates (1987), can also be used to assess the consciousness topology of the intercessor.

There is increasing human consciousness of the "implicate order" (Bohm, 1980) in the Holistic nature of our Cosmos. Science now defines unity via reference to the construct of the "Big Bang." In holistic medicine, Chopra (1989) suggests a unity paradigm is already described via the Vedic tradition of a master "Knower of the Fields" within which all other fields are contained. Qabbalistic Judaism proposes a tripartite unity of AN SOPH (ineffable source of spirit, ) Tikkun or the logos made manifest as mind, and Hell or the clothing of mind and spirit in dense matter (flesh). In Qabbalistic Judaism, the AN SOPH is the equivalent of the whole or Logos. In Christianity, in the logos is defined into the context of the Trinity, (Father, Son and Holy Spirit.) St. John (1:1) begins his Scripture from the unity point via his declaration, "In the beginning was the Word..." Such unity paradigms appear in diverse guises throughout the major expression of human thought (Campbell, 1987.) De Chardin (1959) speaks of an "Alpha Point" and Kenneth Ring (1984) builds a theory of the unfoldment of Consciousness culminating in an Omega point.

These precursors of a systematic investigation into the consciousness factor as it affects the dynamics of conflict and its resolution by mediation point the way to an entirely new line of investigations into the dynamics of CR.

Major Concepts of Consciousness Applied to CR

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MAJOR CONCEPTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS APPLIED TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION
In regard to the role of facilitator or mediator in group processes and Conflict Resolution (CR), the consciousness of the mediator or facilitator must incorporate all factors that are contributory to the conflict and the alternative solutions that can provide for its resolution. Given the premise that what is not in consciousness cannot be managed or considered by the intellect, the mediator must have a consciousness of the hierarchy and linkages among the energizing factors involved in the conflict. Organizing and managing this network and hierarchy of factors in order to bring them into the consciousness of the disputants is the goal of mediation. These goals are: 
first, each disputant must become conscious of their own feelings around all the individuals, factors and other conditions that are actually contributing to the conflict. 
then they must be able to recognize the evidence of feelings in those with who they are in dispute since feelings always arise out of threatened or frustrated needs, 
the mediator must be able to link the relationship of from what they express as values that are their resolution to their own needs as they define them. 
the next stage is to facilitate their awareness and appreciation of the presence of how the evident feelings link to the needs as expressed in the values held by those with whom they are in dispute. 
finally, the mediator must be able to recognize the systemic interactions of the actors in conflict scenarios in the organization of networks and fields of influence in which the conflict is being acted out.

In this context, the role of the mediator is to manage the CR process in the most effective and efficient manner to expand the disputants consciousness of all the parameters affecting their dispute. They can direct the disputants to the discover and acceptance their own solutions to their conflict. The following focus factors apply, first to "self, and then to "others"(the disputants and stake holders.)

CONSCIOUSNESS OF FEELINGS (SELF): Since conflict produces a release of emotional feelings as defined by the nature of the conflict, each disputant must be able to recognize these feelings in themselves when relevant to the conflict. The inability to fully recognize the presence of one's most relevant feelings in conflict are more typical than not. I have even been occasionally confronted by a furious disputant (or trainee) who has demanded in a loud and angry voice that I should accept that: "I an NOT angry! I do not EVER get angry!" Feelings of anger, fear and frustration are often so connected with the processes producing a conflict that these actors have actually become immune or even fearful to recognize or acknowledging the presence of these feelings. Therefore, the first step in the CR process is for each disputant to develop an awareness of their own relevant feelings. This is a pre-conditions to being able to legitimize them and relate to comparable feelings in those with whom they are in conflict.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF NEEDS (SELF): Once feelings have been identified, correctly labeled and acknowledged, the mediator can help each disputant to make contact with what needs are being frustrated. Needs are the generative sources of the emotion associate with the dispute. The ability to recognize their own needs in the context of their feelings is important to the eventual requirement that they also be able to identify and label the relevant needs of those with who they have conflict.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF VALUES (SELF): In all of life's activities, our feelings are the visible or felt indicators of how our needs are being met and how secure they are in the context of factors that serve their owner. As a solution to having our needs met and validated, each of us develops a value system to which we devote our energies. It is our values that are endangered or thwarted in that condition called conflict. The issues are simply the surface conditions which are the pawns and weapons of conflict. This is why conflict over issues may seem irrational to outsiders. In order to work out of the issue focused mental and emotional set of the disputants, they must be able to set aside the issues, except to relate to them to help recognize, label and describe how threats to their values (the means to needs being met) are energizing the issues.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF FEELINGS (OTHERS): Having empowered each disputant to become aware of and articulate as to the presence and nature of their feelings, the needs to which the feeling are attached, the link as to how their values serve those needs in the context of the conflict issues, the disputants must now have their consciousness turned toward recognizing, labeling and accepting the presence of these factors (feelings, needs, and values) as they are present and affecting the conflict in each participating disputant. First each disputant must be helped to develop a consciousness to be able to recognize, label and accept the legitimacy of feelings of anger, frustration, resentment, despair, anxiety or distrust in the other disputants around the conflict issues.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF NEEDS (OTHERS): Each disputant must be helped to link the identified feelings associated with the conflict in the other disputant(s) and helped recognize what needs of others are being threatened or frustrated to energize the conflict. In this phase, the mediator helps to facilitate the expression of, and sharing of the frustrated or thwarted needs of each party to the conflict. Conflict is frequently complicated by the formation of coalitions of disputants organized to protect or advance their values with respect to the issues.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF VALUES (OTHERS): Success in mediation can be expected once the mediator begins to help the disputants see how each one's needs are legitimate for each person, but how the feelings derived from threats to their needs are linked to frustrations or threats to the values of others. Linking frustrated needs and divergent values that are energizing the conflict creates a pre-condition required for any effective intellectual negotiation on the issues. In fact I will assert that experience will consistently verify that when the relationship among conflicted values ( relationship with needs, as expressed by feelings generated around the conflict issues) can be resolved the issues will vanish.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF INTERACTIVE LINKAGES AMONG VALUES: The more complex the conflict scenario with a multiplicity of issues among disparate disputants, the more important it becomes for the mediator to unravel the interaction of evident feelings, implied needs, and explicit or implicit values. The techniques and skills of mediation are to be directed toward this process.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF NETWORKS OF HUMAN ACTORS: At the more complex level, such as with organizations and social groups, there are networks or coalitions of actors defending what they believe to be common interests of turf. Management and employee unions are examples of this. Yet the underlying dynamic is the same, each member of a coalition is attached because they believe their needs and values will be served by that association. The value linkages within and among coalitions must be unraveled to identify how they energize the conflict. The value set of any coalition defines how their relationship to the issues and how they support, threaten or harm their collective interests. Any coalition is defined by the aggregation of individual member needs and values as they believe they are shared in common.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE DYNAMICS OF HUMAN SYSTEMS: At the level of large scale political groups and national societies, the same principles will still hold. But at this level the mediator must do considerable homework to recognize the interplay of complex cultural factors, norms, beliefs, recent history and the relevant matrix of social and political factors that form the issues around which these large groups are conflicted. Mediation teams must themselves first be together in consciousness as to the real structure of the conflict, and how they will "work" the conflict on the large scale that is required. Nevertheless, complexity notwithstanding, the conditions of identified needs, expressed values and the hopes and fears that are evident from the representations of the disputants must be identified, labeled and made relevant to the alternative solutions that can emerge to heal the conflict.

The techniques for managing conflict to achieve these goals are accounted for in the topics that follow. The consciousness of the mediator in understanding and applying the following principles and techniques must become sufficient to embrace and manage all of the limited or blocked consciousness of those actors, coalitions or groups who have been drawn into dispute.

Next in Sequence (Systems Factors in Conflict)

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