Identification and fascination lead to the sleep of the consciousness.  For example, you are walking quite calmly down the street, you suddenly encounter a public demonstration; the masses vociferate, they talk about the leaders of the people, the flags wave through the air, people seem to be crazy, everybody speaks, everybody yells.

That public demonstration is very interesting. Because of it, you have already forgotten everything you had to do. You become identified with the masses; the speaker’s words convince you.  The public demonstration is so interesting that you already forgot yourself. You become so identified with that street demonstration that you can no longer think of anything else. You are fascinated. You now fall into the sleep of consciousness. Mixed with the shouting masses, you also shout and you even throw stones and insults. You are dreaming beautifully. You no longer know who you are. You have forgotten everything.

We will now give you a simpler example: you are in your living room, seated before the television screen. Cowboy scenes appear; there is shooting, lovers’ dramas, etc. The movie is very interesting. It has totally caught your attention. You have already forgotten yourself. You even shout with enthusiasm. You are identified with the cowboys, with the gunshots, with the lovers. The fascination is now terrible. You do not even remotely remember yourself. You have entered a very profound sleep. In those moments, you only want to see the triumph of the hero of the movie; you rejoice with him. You are worried about his fate.

Thousands and millions are the circumstances that produce identification, fascination, and sleep.

People identify with persons, things, ideas, and every type of identification is followed by fascination and sleep.

People live with their consciousness asleep. They work dreaming, they drive cars dreaming, and they also kill pedestrians who walk dreaming on the streets, absorbed in their own thoughts.

During the hours of rest of the physical body, the ego (the “I”) leaves the physical body and takes along its dreams wherever it goes.  When it returns to the physical body, when it once again enters the “vigil state,” it continues with its same dreams and, in this manner, spends its entire life dreaming.

When people die, they physically cease to exist, but the ego, the “I,” continues in the supersensible regions beyond death.

At the hour of death, the ego takes along its dreams, its mundane fantasies, and lives in the world of the dead with its dreams. It continues dreaming, with the consciousness asleep. It ambulates like a somnambulist: asleep, unconscious.

Whosoever wants to awaken consciousness must work here and now.  We have the consciousness incarnated and that is why we must work with it here and now.  Whosoever awakens consciousness here in this physical world awakens in all the supersensible worlds.

The one who awakens consciousness in this three-dimensional world awakens in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh dimensions.

The one who wants to live consciously in the superior worlds must awaken here and now.

The four Gospels insist on the necessity of awakening but people do not understand.  People sleep profoundly, but they believe that they are awake; when someone accepts that he is asleep, it is a clear sign that he is already beginning to awaken.

It is very difficult to make other people comprehend that they have their consciousness asleep; people never accept the tremendous truth that they are asleep.

The one who wants to awaken consciousness must practice Innermost-remembering from moment to moment.

This exercise of being in Self-remembering from moment to moment is in fact an intensive work.

A moment, an instant, of forgetfulness is enough to begin dreaming beautifully.

We urgently need to be watching all of our thoughts, sentiments, desires, emotions, habits, instincts, sexual impulses, etc.

Every thought, emotion, movement, instinctive act, sexual impulse, must be immediately self-observed as it comes forth from our psyche; any lack of attention is sufficient to fall into the sleep of the consciousness.

Many times you are walking on the street, absorbed in your own thoughts, identified with those thoughts, fascinated, dreaming beautifully. Suddenly, a friend passes near you, greets you, but you do not return the greeting because you do not see him, you are dreaming. The friend becomes angry; he assumes that you are a person without manners or that you are possibly angry with him. The friend is also going around dreaming. If he was awake, he would not make such conjectures to himself; he would immediately realize that you are walking around asleep.

Many times you knock on a mistaken door, believing it to be someone else’s, because you are asleep.

You are traveling in a city transport vehicle; you have to get off at a certain street, but you are identified, fascinated, dreaming beautifully about business, in your mind, or with a memory, or with an affection. Suddenly, you realize that you have passed your street, you cause the vehicle to stop and then you walk back a few streets.

It is very difficult to stay awake from moment to moment, but it is indispensable.

When we learn to live awakened from moment to moment, we then stop dreaming here and outside of the physical body.

It is necessary to know that when people fall asleep, they come out of their physical bodies, but they carry along their dreams. They live in the internal worlds dreaming, and when they return to the physical body, they continue with their dreams; they continue dreaming.

When one learns how to live awake from moment to moment, one then stops dreaming here and in the internal worlds.

It is necessary to know that the ego (the “I”), enveloped in its lunar bodies, leaves the physical body when the body falls asleep.  Unfortunately, the ego lives asleep in the internal worlds.

Besides the ego, that which is called Essence, Soul, fraction of a Soul, Buddhata, consciousness, exists within the lunar bodies.  It is that consciousness that we must awaken here and now.

Here, in this world, we have the consciousness; we must awaken it here if we truly want to stop dreaming and live consciously in the superior worlds.

The person with an awakened consciousness lives, works, and acts consciously in the superior worlds while his body rests in his bed.

The cognizant person does not have troubles related with astral projections; the trouble of learning how to project oneself into the Astral Plane at will is only a problem for those who are asleep.

The awakened person does not even concern himself with learning how to project himself in the Astral Plane; he lives consciously in the superior worlds while his physical body sleeps in bed.

The awakened person no longer dreams. While the body rests, he lives in the same regions where people usually wander about dreaming; however, the awakened person does it with his consciousness awakened.

The awakened person is in contact with the White Lodge; he visits the temples of the great universal White Fraternity, and has interviews with his Guru-Deva while his body sleeps.

Innermost-remembering from moment to moment develops the spatial sense. Then, we can even see the dreams of people who walk the streets.

The spatial sense includes sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, etc., in itself.  Spatial sense is a function of the awakened consciousness.

The chakras (of which occultist literature speaks) are to the spatial sense as the flame of a match is to the Sun.

If Self-remembering from moment to moment is fundamental to awaken consciousness, learning to use attention is no less fundamental.

Gnostic students must learn to divide attention into three parts: subject, object, and location.

• Subject: To not fall into the forgetting of oneself before any representation.
• Object:To observe everything, every representation, every fact, every event, no matter how insignificant the latter may seem, in detail, without forgetting oneself.
• Location: The rigorous observation of the place where we may be; ask ourselves, “What place is this?  Why am I here?”

Within this place factor, we must include the dimensional issue, since it could be the case that we are really in the fourth or in the fifth dimension of nature during the moment of observation; let us remember that nature has seven dimensions.

The law of gravity reigns in the three-dimensional world.  However, the law of levitation exists within the superior dimensions of nature.

Upon observing a place, we must never forget the matter of the seven dimensions of nature; it is convenient, therefore, to ask ourselves: “What dimension am I in?”  Then, it is necessary to verify it by jumping as high as you can, with the intention of floating within the surrounding atmosphere.  It is logical that if we float it is because we are outside of the physical body.  We must never forget that when the physical body sleeps, the ego with the lunar bodies and the Essence within unconsciously ambulates like a somnambulist in the Molecular World.

The division of attention into subject, object, and place leads to the awakening of consciousness.

After becoming accustomed to this exercise, to this division of attention into three parts, to these questions, to this little jump, etc., many Gnostic students’ consciousness ended up practicing the same exercise during the sleep of the physical body, when they were really in the superior worlds.When they attempted the famous experimental jump, they floated delightfully in the surrounding atmosphere; they then awakened consciousness; they remembered that the physical body had remained asleep in the bed and, full of joy, they were able to dedicate themselves to the study of the mysteries of life and death in the superior dimensions.

It is logical to state that an exercise that is practiced from moment to moment daily, that becomes a habit, a custom, is recorded so much in the different zones of the mind, that afterwards it is automatically repeated during dreaming, when we are really outside of the physical body, and the result is the awakening of consciousness.

Samael Aun Weor (excerpt from “Esoteric Treatise of Hermetic Astrology”)