Dr. Pearson’s book, The Supreme Awakening: Experiences of Enlightenment Throughout Time—and How You can Cultivate Them, offers us a glimpse into the lives of people who have recorded their experiences of higher states of consciousness, as conveyed to us through their poetry, prose, letters and biographies.

The wonderfully unique feature of this book is that it documents the experiences of higher states of consciousness by dozens of people, spanning thousands of years, across all geographic regions, and in every culture.

The interview ranges from Wordsworth to William Blake, from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj to Eugene O’Neill and Billie Jean King. Pearson provides clear examples revealing that the development of higher states of consciousness is not a fanciful philosophy, nor a mere metaphor or belief system, but is a natural, and indeed vital, progression of human evolution.

As William James said, “Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake.”

We discuss the fact that knowledge is structured in consciousness and knowledge is different in different states of consciousness. Each state of consciousness is a world unto itself and our experience of reality is, and can only ever be, a reflection of our own state of consciousness.

Craig notes that people seem to have a glimmer, a spark, that tells them there is something more to life that lies beyond their day-to-day experiences.

He further explains that the development of consciousness is the key to knowing the full experience of happiness that we are capable of—the ultimate experience of bliss within, in our own simplest state of awareness.

Dr. Pearson also describes how the development of our consciousness can bring solutions to world problems which, essentially, are caused by collective stress, adding that a problem is just something to which we have not applied sufficient consciousness or creativity.

Music by Lesfm. Track “In the Forest”