Modifications of Consciousness: The One and Only Capacity of Perception, Ever Analysing and Reflecting upon Itself

H.P. Blavatsky, compiled and edited by Dr C.A. Bartzokas, MD · Integrative Theosophical Studies, Series 2 — Cosmogenesis · 42 pages

The earliest of the Major Works, first published in 1994 and revised through 2019, this is the Cosmogenesis volume of the series. Its subject is the one question on which the rest of the library depends: what consciousness actually is. The abstract states the position without preamble — we are dual, manifested aspects of an ultimate state of Unconsciousness — and the chapters that follow work outward from it rather than towards it.

The sequence runs: Absolute Unconsciousness as the fount and sustainer of all consciousness; the Fire of Unconscious Intelligence reflecting upon itself through sparks of self-conscious mind; the claim that the whole world is nothing but consciousness; then the plainer questions — what exactly is consciousness, how does it differ from self-consciousness, what is meant by the downfall of self-consciousness, and can Absolute Consciousness ever be regained. It closes on the injunction from The Voice of the Silence that gives the argument its practical edge: the mind is the great slayer of the real, and the disciple must slay the slayer. Forty-two pages, and the most concentrated of the six.

Read the full text (PDF, 2.9 MB, 42 pages)