Of course, it is another state of Consciousness, but not just another state of Consciousness in which we have just another perspective. Consistent with our theory that Consciousness is all there is, and as a necessary corollary of that theory, we’re going to say that Unity Consciousness, far from being just another way to see the self and the objects of perception, is the way to see allthings in existence. It is the only truth about existence or reality itself. All the other truths are relative, and they are valid in their own domains. They are belief systems, based on limited perception. You can have different limited perceptions of reality, one more expanded than another, and another more glorious than the first, and another so absolutely glorious that it is divine, and we call it God Consciousness. Yet each is relative, an incomplete state of Consciousness from which to view the world.

The one state of Consciousness that is absolutely true in terms of how things actually are is Unity Consciousness. You never know Reality as it truly is until you are in Unity Consciousness. All the other states of consciousness are kinds of perceptions, styles of functioning of your nervous system, modes of experiencing that do convey a more complete assessment of the full range of how things are at every step of growth. But you only come to the true, all-inclusive Reality in Unity Consciousness.

In the process of transcending, the ever-active mind settles, quiets down, and then slips beyond the boundaries of thought and perception, yet remains awake within itself. This pure wakefulness, awareness without an object other than itself, the unified state of Observer, Observed, and process of Observation, is our essential nature, our Self. It becomes accessible to us when we transcend, and we find that always-existent, unbounded, pure Being that is our Self, nonchanging, always equal to itself irrespective of time and space.