Every time anyone uses the higher stages of consciousness, they advance the state of human consciousness across the entire planet. People around the world share a mental atmosphere which has been called the collective unconscious or, simply, the mind belt. Because of this shared mental environment, whatever you think today affects everyone on the planet to some degree.

At any moment, you can move up or down through the 12 stages of human consciousness, which range from fear for survival to the ultimate stage of cosmic consciousness. You might be watching the news on television, thinking thoughts filled with understanding and Stage 7 unconditional Love for humanity. Suddenly, because of some danger being presented to you on the news, fear strikes and Stage 1 Survival become dominant. Then, slowly, you regain Stage 3 Courage and realize, through Stage 5 intellectual reasoning, that the story isn't really about a real threat. It's just a journalistic trick to make the news seem more exciting.

You have the mobility to move up and down among the stages of consciousness at any time. You may even notice how fear shrinks your mental awareness down to a very small field of consciousness, while each higher stage expands it to a larger field. That's because each progressively higher stage of consciousness employs a larger field of consciousness than the one preceding.

Stage 7 unconditional love is an expanded stage of consciousness compared to Stage 5 intellect. Stage 7 encompasses Stage 5 intellect and adds on much more. A calculating, Stage 5 intellectual might consider a heart-centered person to be displaying some kind of weakness by caring for others as well as themselves. In reality, the heart-centered person is wiser, because they see more of the true picture in each situation.

Unconditional love brings freedom from all of the limitations of material consciousness.

When people eventually pass on from this world and look back upon their lives, they never say, "I wish I'd schemed and plotted more," they always say, "I wish I'd loved more." From a soul perspective, such things become obvious.

As you venture into your inner being through meditation, notice how much more expansive the stages of inspiration and creativity are. These are the stages that progressive humans are opening up today so that the envelope of the mind belt of humanity is expanded further into the higher frequencies each time.

The more you develop these higher stages of consciousness, the more you become in touch with the source of joy which resides within you. The more joy you experience in your daily awareness, the more you will automatically attract good things into your life.

*Owen Waters is the author of The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness, available for immediate download here.

Owen Waters is a spiritual researcher and author.  For articles and books by Owen Waters, visit InfiniteBeing.com.