# Consciousness > Consciousness is what physical reality is made of and exists prior to any physical form. Bashar teaches that the brain is a recording medium rather than the source and that self-awareness is a narrower focus distinct from broader consciousness. - Canonical: https://sassani.app/topic/consciousness # Consciousness *A reflective tidal field surrounds varied forms while only a few pools reflect sharply* Consciousness, in Bashar's teaching, is not produced by the brain or by physical reality; it is what physical reality is made of, and it exists prior to any physical form. The linked transcripts develop three claims that together form the foundation: consciousness precedes and is the substance of every thing; the brain is a recording, storage, and transmission medium (like film or tape) rather than the source; and self-awareness is a narrower, focal phenomenon distinct from the broader consciousness that everything shares. ## Consciousness as the substance of all that is The session titled simply Consciousness states the foundational claim in the plainest terms: every idea is a projection, a diversification, a formulation, a rearrangement of consciousness. Consciousness is what every thing is made of. Objects and forms are variations in energy patterns impinged upon by consciousness — statues of consciousness that solidify out of a homogeneous background field. > — Consciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/consciousness) The later exchange reinforces this with a teaching on choice: there is nothing but consciousness; everything is made out of consciousness. A water molecule exists by choice, though not necessarily as an individual water molecule; the choice may belong to a greater being of which the molecule is a part. Choice operates at different levels of consciousness and individuality, including group agreements within group agreements. > — Everything Is Consciousness Everything Is Made Out Of Consciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/everything-is-consciousness-everything-is-made-out-of--607b44dc) ## The brain as medium, not source The opening of Communication With Higher Conciousness addresses the controversy directly. From Bashar's perspective, consciousness exists prior to physical manifestation. The brain is not creating consciousness; it is creating a type of expression of consciousness, just as film or electromagnetic tape is a recording, storage, and transmission medium. The images on the film are not the original people; the brain's electrochemical activity is not the original consciousness. > — Communication With Higher Conciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/communication-with-higher-conciousness) The film-and-tape analogy is precise and load-bearing. Scientists see the electrochemical and electromagnetic effects in the brain and ask whether those effects create consciousness; the answer given is no — those effects are responsible for creating the environment through which consciousness can express itself in the physical medium, without which it will not be capable of expressing itself with the same degree of precision or clarity. The brain is a medium, an in-between device, recording, storage, and transmission for a consciousness that originates far beyond it. > — Communication With Higher Conciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/communication-with-higher-conciousness) The same session extends the medium image outward: consciousness, when it decides to experience and express itself as a physical being, first creates an electromagnetic field — what is sometimes called spirit, or the etheric body. Because that field is the first level before physical densification, it is larger than the body. Your body is in your spirit; your spirit is not in your body. The refined level of that electromagnetic field surrounds the entire planet and interlocks with every other field, which is the physiological counterpart of the higher-level instantaneous connection you all share and the mechanism for telepathic communication within the mass agreed-upon reality. > — Communication With Higher Conciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/communication-with-higher-conciousness) ## Consciousness versus self-awareness A sharper distinction appears in the Consciousness session, where consciousness as substance is separated from self-awareness as a focal recognition. When Bashar says "consciousness," he is not speaking of mentality or analyzation. Objects and formed symbols contain consciousness as extensions of their creators without being independently self-aware; they are consciousness, but self-awareness is the product of a focal point created by All That Is within itself. > — Consciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/consciousness) This explains why a rock, a song, or a business can have a form of consciousness without possessing the motivated, progressive self-awareness that humans (and cetaceans) exhibit. Trees and rocks reflect consciousness back to you; they do not generate karma or progress through it the way self-aware beings do. Humans and dolphins/whales are described as the two species on Earth that create self-aware karma. > — Consciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/consciousness) ## Practical implications Treat consciousness as the ground of experience rather than as a byproduct of matter; the practical difference is that the brain can be trained, tuned, and examined as a medium, not worshipped or feared as the source. > — Communication With Higher Conciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/communication-with-higher-conciousness) Recognize that what you call "spirit" is the electromagnetic first level of physical materialization — larger than the body and interlocking with every other field, which is why telepathic and consensus-reality effects are even possible. > — Communication With Higher Conciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/communication-with-higher-conciousness) Distinguish consciousness as substance from self-awareness as focal recognition. Objects contain consciousness as extensions of their creators, but they do not all possess the progressive self-awareness that generates karma and growth. > — Consciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/consciousness) Allow that choice operates at many levels of individuality — a molecule, a group, a being — and that "everything is made of consciousness" does not require every thing to be individually self-aware. > — Everything Is Consciousness Everything Is Made Out Of Consciousness (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/everything-is-consciousness-everything-is-made-out-of--607b44dc) These are foundational distinctions. They ground the rest of the curriculum — beliefs create reality, the body is consciousness expressed, channeling is a natural state — in a single account of what consciousness is and how it relates to form. ## Representative passages Every idea is a projection, a diversification, a formulation, a rearrangement, if you will, of consciousness. Consciousness is in a sense what every thing is made of. … They are statues of consciousness, in a sense.— Bashar, The physical brain is not in a sense creating the consciousness. However, it is creating a type of expression of consciousness. … The brain, in that sense, is a recording, storage, and transmission medium, like your film, like your tape.— Bashar, There is nothing but consciousness. Everything is made out of consciousness. … It is still there by choice, but it might be the choice of a greater being of which that water molecule is a part.— Bashar, ## Related - [All That Is](https://sassani.app/topic/all-that-is) - [Higher Mind](https://sassani.app/topic/higher-mind) - [Body Consciousness](https://sassani.app/topic/body-consciousness) - [Reality As A Mirror](https://sassani.app/topic/mirror-nature-of-reality) Markdown twin of https://sassani.app/topic/consciousness. The HTML page is the source of truth.