As a young man growing up in Newfoundland, an island Province in the easternmost part of Canada, my first awareness of the existence of different levels of consciousness came through reading various books which I had difficulty comprehending with the rational mind. There was one book in particular called Mount Analogue by Rene Daumal which is an allegorical adventure story about a group of people setting out on an expedition to discover a mountain said to exist somewhere in the South Pacific and which could only be reached at a certain time of the day because it existed on another dimension in time and space. When the adventurers finally reach the island after careful mathematical calculations which enabled them to break through normal time-space limitations, they learn that they need to find guides to take them to the base camp and that they cannot leave the base camp until they in turn bring others to that level. Only then can they move up.
I first read this book as an adventure story, but upon re-reading it, I discovered that it was written on many levels of understanding and that it contained many mysteries veiled in esotericism which awakened me to my own inner search for higher consciousness. It was a little like Jonathan Livingston Seagull discovering the vast potentials of flying. I began to believe, like Jonathan, that our process and that our own bodies are nothing but thought in form and by expanding the thought one could make the form anything one wanted to be. Then, Ouspensky's book The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution led me further from my hitherto accepted philosophy into the realms of self-discovery and a study of my form.
There had been nothing in my education thus far that had even hinted at man expanding his limitations, which I began to see were self-imposed. It was a further revelation to me to learn that man is so structured that he has to first create the tools within himself in order to unleash the power to think, and that a man simply cannot comprehend new information or new knowledge until a corresponding vibratory brain cell has been willingly prepared to absorb it. This was explained to me in India where I talked with various holy men and gurus and which I subsequently verified through my own inner experiments. Then for the first time did I understand why it was so difficult to accept or even appreciate an entirely new idea.
This suddenly explained the dilemma presented in The Greening Of America which talks of the first three levels of consciousness. Having no brain cells capable of receiving new knowledge, man is naturally incredulous and simply does not believe. Worse still, man rejects new information and so becomes crystallized at his present level of consciousness.
The idea of having the ability to create new brain cells and thus expand one's consciousness was the key out of a prison for me. Suddenly my ears were hearing of the law of attraction and the scientific method by which it can be put into operation. We never learn in schools and universities that every cell in the body is conscious and will respond to our conscious direction; nor are we told that the cells in turn are creators and the destiny of their pattern is also within our control; nor are we told that the quality of the brain is governed by our state of mind or our mental attitude, which depends on the quality of our energy and the fitness of our body, and that if undesirable mental attitudes are conveyed to the mind, they will, in turn, be transferred to the body. It is therefore obvious that if we wish the body to manifest health, strength, and vitality, these must be our dominant thoughts. We must at all times refuse to entertain negative thought.
to be continued...
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Wow, you are the first person I've met who has read Mount Analogue (or at least who's talked about it)! That book had a lot of formative thoughts for me, too. And so did Ouspensky! Neat. Please do continue your story. 
Greg
OVE alone is eternal and unconquerable.
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