Reflexive

self-consciousness Self-consciousness is a heightened sense of awareness of oneself. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. Historically, "self-consciousness" was synonymous with " self-awareness", referring to a state of awareness that ...

is a concept, related to that of enlightenment, formulated by

Eugene Halliday Eugene Halliday (10 December 1911 – 22 July 1987) was a British artist, writer, and teacher. For a large part of his life he lived and taught in Manchester and Altrincham, England, lecturing (in Manchester and Liverpool), running groups and g ...

during the 1940s-1950s in England. He set out his concept in his book, ''Reflexive Self-Consciousness'', which, having been circulated in softback format for many years, was published in hardback in 1989 by Melchisedec Press, . In his book, Eugene Halliday sets out a way by which we can develop the ability to respond adequately to the demands life makes of us, the ability to assimilate the shocks and blows of experience, so we can live a whole and balanced life. The way to this balance is through an understanding of the centre of our own being, our consciousness, and through this, finding our place in relation to the universe.

Meaning of reflexive self-consciousness

Eugene Halliday made a lifelong study of

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

. From his understanding, he formulated a coherent set of ideas. In his seminal work "Reflexive Self-Consciousness", he sets out the nature of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

and its relation to the world of phenomena, being, and mankind. From this, he explains how consciousness itself can become " reflexive". By this he means that consciousness becomes completely self-transparent and continuously aware of its own presence and nature. He says that when observing a thing or situation one can promote this reflexive state by turning our own consciousness back onto itself. "It is the self, which is consciousness itself which is observing this thing, this self I am, I return to the self." By placing our nature as observer at the heart of his work, Halliday sets out a method by which to liberate ourselves from object-identification, which locks us into a cycle of conditioned reflexes, pleasure pursuit and pain avoidance. He sees a complex structure of cells, such as the brain, as "a vehicle for the expression of the complex processes of consciousness" and not as the origin of that consciousness. No matter how complex the arrangement, consciousness cannot arise from the biochemical interactions of a large number of non-sentient particles.

Origin of being

Halliday posits that the ultimate source and origin of our being is sentience or consciousness. He sees this origin as an infinite field of sentient power. Halliday compares the activity of this infinite field of sentient power, the source of all beings, to that of the sea. Its internal movements, its waves, create vortices within it, which give rise to all the observable phenomena of the world.

Atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...

molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioch ...

cells Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s, mankind, human beings, all are formed within this infinite sentient field, and all are sentient. There is no non-sentient level of being. Thus agreeing with the philosopher

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

when he said "there are no dead gaps in Nature". This infinite field of sentient power, which is the ultimate source of the universe and all within it, is the Godhead of the theologians, the Absolute of the philosophers.

Involution

Before evolution, Eugene Halliday posits an "involution", whereby the motions of this absolute sentient power creates the universe and all the beings in it. Consciousness tends to fall into identification with beings, down to the grossest physical level of the mineral world. Through the process of evolution, sentience evolves through mineral, plant, animal and human to rediscover its true nature as Consciousness itself, at one with the infinite field of consciousness. This return of consciousness to its source, is the ''Reflexive Self-Consciousness'' of the title of the book.

References

* ''Reflexive Self-Consciousness'', Published by the Melchisedec Press, 1989,

External links

IHS - Study and Meditation Centre dedicated to the teachings of Eugene Halliday - founded by Eugene Halliday and Khen Ratcliffe">IHS - Study and Meditation Centre dedicated to the teachings of Eugene Halliday - founded by Eugene Halliday and Khen RatcliffeInternational Hermeneutic Society">International Hermeneutic Society

Eugene Halliday Association

Eugene Halliday .com

Eugene Halliday Artist - the Man and His Work

Reflexive Self-Consciousness NEW Edition (Kindle) by Eugene Halliday Publication from Melchisedec Press

Reflexive Self-Consciousness NEW Edition (Paperback) by Eugene Halliday Publication from Melchisedec Press

Eugene Halliday - The Collected Works

Reflexive Self-Consciousness by Eugene Halliday - Concordance Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reflexive Self-Consciousness Conceptions of self Consciousness studies