What’s Behind Consciousness? Two Mind-Bending Concepts You’ll Never See Coming

You’ve been bamboozled.

Consciousness isn’t the big deal you think it is.

Sure, it’s the thing that lets you walk, talk, and convince yourself you’re awake, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Ask yourself: What’s behind all this?

What if I told you that consciousness is just a survival mechanism, and beyond it lies something far more unsettling? Something you can’t even experience with the tools you’ve got right now. Something unknown. And unknown in a way that’s so unknown, it’s unknowable…

…yeah, welcome to the great cosmic joke.

Consciousness: A Fancy Tool for Navigating Illusion

Here’s the deal: Consciousness is like an iPhone.

It’s slick, it’s evolved, and it gets the job done. But what if the iPhone only showed you the things Apple wanted you to see? Now, imagine your mind is that iPhone, and Apple is the evolutionary drive that made you need to function in this world.

The apps? Thoughts, emotions, perceptions. All programmed to keep you alive and reproducing. Consciousness lets you navigate, interpret, and make sense of a reality that, by the way, isn’t even real. It’s a finely tuned machine designed for survival, not for understanding the mysteries of the universe. Think of it this way: consciousness is like having a flashlight in a pitch-black room. It shows you just enough to keep you from tripping over the coffee table. But what’s beyond the beam of light?

You have no clue, and guess what? You’re not supposed to. The flashlight isn’t built to illuminate everything. It’s designed to keep you functioning in a limited range of perception, a little bubble of reality. Pretty convenient for evolution…

…but terrible if you’re after the big picture.

What’s Beyond the iPhone? The Unmanifested

So, what’s the deal with this “something behind consciousness” that people feel lurking around like a phantom in the attic?

Well, that’s the unmanifested. The raw potential of existence. It’s like the canvas before the artist starts painting—the ground zero of all possibility. The thing is, you can’t observe it. Consciousness can’t perceive what exists before and beyond itself because it’s only built to deal with the manifested.

It’s a tool, remember? And the unmanifested? It doesn’t play by the rules. Here’s where it gets sticky. As long as you’re trying to grasp the unmanifested with consciousness—using the flashlight to light up the void—you’re stuck. Because there’s no “observer” beyond consciousness. There’s no “you” back there waiting to peek behind the curtain. That’s an illusion, too.

The unmanifested isn’t something you can break through to; it’s not a higher state of awareness or some cosmic secret that can be unlocked. It’s just what is before the flashlight even turns on…

…no form, no experience, no observer.

Awareness vs. Consciousness: The Final Twist

So, what’s the difference between awareness and consciousness?

Let’s be clear: consciousness is the tricked-out smartphone of the mind. Awareness, on the other hand, is the empty space the phone floats in. It’s the void.

Consciousness is personal, tied to experience, a mechanism for interacting with the world. Awareness? That’s impersonal. It’s not interested in survival or your little dramas. It’s like the ocean, and consciousness is just a wave—a temporary, fleeting form that arises and dissolves. And here’s the kicker: you can’t get to awareness. You already are it, but you’ve been too busy playing with your apps to notice. Stop trying to “experience” awareness through consciousness.

It’s like trying to listen to silence by turning up the volume. You won’t find it by chasing experiences or understanding. Awareness is what’s left when the mind shuts up…

…like when the apps close, when the iPhone battery dies.

Drop the Flashlight

So, what’s behind consciousness?

Nothing you’ll ever find with it. It’s like asking a fish to describe water. Consciousness isn’t the ultimate reality, just a tool to help you navigate the illusion.

The real kicker is, you can’t experience the truth from inside the machine. You can’t “understand” what’s beyond consciousness because understanding itself is a function of consciousness. The best you can do is drop the need to know…

…and surrender the flashlight.