An individual’s evolution from this stage onward involves increasing refinement of perception toward the ability to perceive Singularity or wholeness in the objects of perception as well as in oneself, to raise the objects of perception to the same infinite value as the subject. This is accomplished by elevating what we might call the “perceiving ability” of the Observer, through refining the process of observation. This is a very beautiful and rewarding phase of growth, in which the richness and splendor of the subtler realms of nature and creation begin to be perceived and enjoyed, and a sixth state of Consciousness unfolds.

Studies have shown that very many people, at some time in their lives, have enjoyed wondrous moments like this description by the nineteenth-century English poet William Wordsworth, when “meadow, grove, and stream, / The earth, and every common sight, / To me did seem/ Appareled in celestial light.” The most recent findings available from Pew Research Center show 49 percent of Americans say they have had such experiences.

These few lines of Wordsworth reveal much of the essence of what TM Founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi called Glorified Cosmic Consciousness or God Consciousness, in which perception of the subtle levels of nature becomes increasingly possible and real. If and when these glimpses give way to a lasting mode of being—perception of the deep beauty of creation along with inner awareness of Self at all times—this new and further elevated state of Consciousness is born.