The 8-Circuit Model Of Consciousness

Here’s a rundown of the first four lower circuits:

1st circuit: Survival/Security. Fight or flight or somewhere in between. Pure instinct. This is connected to the first source of this conflict: nursing at Mom’s nipple. It’s what’s known in developmental psychology as ‘oral’.

2nd circuit: Territorial/Emotional. This is a particular manifestation of ’emotional’- are you feeling up or down? Are you on top of the world or down in the dumps? This relates to the basic primate pecking order – who’s the big dog and all? This one is full of stereotypes – all the examples I have given are male, yet every female knows there’s just as much game-playing between women. Women traditionally have been made submissive to men, but in many cases that’s not the case, and in any case there’s a lot of passive-aggressive ways the tables are turned in each direction. This corresponds to the ‘anal’ stage, and the first imprints are taken during toilet training.

3rd circuit: Conceptual. This kicks in even before school starts – kids are hungry to learn. This circuit is the ability to make mental models helping you ‘figure things out’ and ‘be clever’. The imprint you take is whether you feel smart or stupid (which is different from BEING smart or stupid!) Note also that there are different KINDS of intelligence- verbal, mathematical, visual/spatial, musical, etc, etc… but as Robert Anton Wilson says, “…the people with the verbal intelligence have control of the language, so they call themselves the intellectuals.” A friend always mentions a particular basketball player (I forget who) whom he claims is a genius in spatial/motor intelligence, regardless of the fact that the guy probably reads at a 7th grade level.

4th circuit: Social/Sexual. Whereas 2nd circuit deals with who bosses who, 4th deals with who is cool. What this comes down to is that depending on whether someone is cool or not, you’d let them get close to you or not, running the gamut from snubbing someone to having sex with them with fifty shades of gray in between. It goes both ways- how cool are you? Are there people that you aren’t cool enough to talk to? The imprint you take here is how cool you feel, and how hard you have to work to feel that way.

The upper circuits deal with mystical, psychic, or paranormal consciousness. They are built on the foundation of the lower circuits, almost as ‘over-driven’ versions of themselves.

5th circuit: Bliss/Healing. When security in the 1st circuit reaches a high enough level, it becomes bliss, and you become aware of the sensation of pleasure and learn to generate those sensations at the source. This feedback loop gets going, and one may remain in this state indefinitely or until an outside influence causes a drop, altering this state. When this awareness is applied to others, the 5th circuit energy works to help the 1st circuit state. This is the principle of healing.

6th circuit: Psychic. This is awareness of the timeless information network in which we swim. It also relates directly to the territorial aspect of the 2nd circuit. Interaction is based on relative gravity and there can be conflict.

7th circuit: Mythical Intelligence. This is the realm of the shaman, of spirit animals, gods and goddesses. It is your dreams and your nightmares. 3rd circuit draws models of specifics in the conscious world. 7th circuits draws models of the patterns of archetype that make up the unconscious world. It does this by telling stories that illustrate the patterns that arise from these archetypes. When 7th circuit awareness is working, one realizes how these patterns are being played out, and instead of just acting in the world, one is at the same time coming into direct contact with the divine.

8th circuit: Alternate consciousness. This enters the far reaches of consciousness. Since 4th circuit has to do with letting others get close and even merging with them, it makes sense that the 8th might have to do with overcoming the obstacle of one’s physical boundaries. Imagination is your trusty companion in this endeavor. It is in this circuit that the puppet becomes the puppet-master. Time expands and contracts. Is that air you’re breathing?