Consciousness Doesn't Last

On the Amazon discussion of how to study the evolution of consciousness, a participant suggested that there is the internal approach, and the external approach. I agree with that broad distinction. The external approach, in turn, can be distinguished into several approaches - the semantic or etymological approach, the archeological approach, the geological approach, the biograhical approach.

The internal approach, in my opinion, is the most appropriate, and the most difficult. Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science is the only systematic exposition of this approach that I know of. Unfortunately, Steiner's spiritual science is also very complex and rigorous. At least the initial step is straightforward, if not easy: meditation.

I just recently had an idea: To test the interior approach against the exterior approach. One person studies the archeological evidence of a very specific, finite period of human pre-history, and another person does the same purely by meditation. Both would have to be given some preliminary data to start with - and that seems the catch. But then they would each be given one week to study, in their particular ways, and to present their basic findings.

Have you seen archeological artifacts that constitute only a very small part of a whole sculpture or building? There will be a ghostly, artist's rendition of the complete artifact, with the actual discovered fragment displayed on top of the whole, in its particular spot - like one puzzle piece highlighted in a very big puzzle. Like this.

I imagine the interior approach as providing the ideal outline of the whole; the exterior approach provides the occasional material fragments.