Homelessness Seen Through 15 Different Sets of EyesHeather Callaghan In a fashionable neighborhood in a bigcity stands an old man in tattered clothes,alone, leaning against the corner of anelegant brownstone. Look at him fromthe perspective of various levels ofconsciousness and note the differences inhow he appears. From the bottom of the scale at a level of20, the level of Shame, the bum is dirty,disgusting, disgraceful. From level 30(Guilt) he would be blamed for hiscondition. He deserves what he gets; hesprobably a lazy welfare cheat. At 50(Hopelessness) his plight would appeardesperate, damning evidence that societycant do anything about homelessness. At75 (Grief) the old man looks tragic,friendless and forlorn. At a consciousness level of 100 (Fear)we might see him as threatening, a socialmenace. Perhaps we should call thepolice before he commits some crime. At125 (Desire) he might represent afrustrating problem-why doesntsomebody do something? At 150 (Anger)the old man might look like he could beviolent, or, on the other hand, one couldbe furious that such conditions exist.At 175 (Pride) he could be seen as anembarrassment or as lacking the selfrespect to better himself. At 200(Courage) we might be motivated towonder if there is a local homelessshelter; all he needs is a job and a placeto live. At 250 (Neutrality) the bum looks okay,maybe even interesting. Live and letlive, we might say; after all, hes nothurting anyone. At 310 (Willingness) wemight decide to go down and see whatwe can do to cheer up that fellow on thecorner, or volunteer some time at thelocal mission. At 350 (Acceptance) theman on the corner appears intriguing. He probably has an interesting story to tell;hes where he is for reasons we maynever understand. At 400 (Reason) he isa symptom of the current economic andsocial malaise, or perhaps a good subjectfor in-depth psychological study. At the higher levels, the old man beginsto look not only interesting, but friendly,then lovable. Perhaps we would then be able to see that he was, in fact, one who had transcended social limits and gone free, a joyful old guy with the wisdom of age in his face and the serenity that comes from indifference to material things. At 500 (Peace) he is revealed as ones own self in a temporary expression. When approached, the bums response tothese different levels of consciousnesswould vary with them. With some hewould feel secure, with others, frightenedor dejected. Some would make himangry, others delighted. Some he wouldtherefore avoid, others greet withpleasure. (Thus is it said that we meetwhat we mirror.) (Comment[Hawkins]: It has been my observation thatmost will see others from what their culturehas programmed into their memory rather itbe parents, relatives, etc. It is not until theyeither experience the same condition or find itnot true or true in other people especiallywhen visiting foreign countries or differentliving areas within our own country. [emphasis added] [] So much for the manner in which ourlevel of consciousness decides what wesee, the world we encounter as passiveobservers. It is equally true that havingplaced that construct upon the realitybefore us, we will react to it in a fashionpredicated by the level from which weperceive. External events may defineconditions, but they do not determine theconsciousness level of humanresponse. We can take the more literalscene of our current penal system as anillustration. Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work atNaturalBlaze.com and selfnewsPost.com. Like at Facebook. Read Other Articles by Heather Callaghan 