Alan Watts
Ordinary Everyday Consciousness
The web of life
Let me try, from the first, to indicate the point that we’re aiming at
The point is this
That human consciousness is—at the same time as being a form of awareness, and sensitivity, and understanding
It’s also a form of ignorance

[Chorus]
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in

And because of this, it leaves out things that are terribly important
It leaves out things that would, if we did know them, allay our anxieties, and fears, and horrors
And if we could extend our awareness, you see, to include those things that we leave out, we would have a deep interior peace
Because we would all know the one thing that you mustn’t know

[Chorus]
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in
You know, according to the rules of our particular social game
The one thing you mustn’t know; that’s really not allowed
That is the lowdown on life and that the lowdown, on the one hand, means the real dirt on things
But the lowdown is also what is profound, what is mysterious, what is in the depths
And the something left out
And our everyday consciousness
Screens this out in the same way that, when you say you have weaving
You have say, on this rug here in front of us, when the black finishes here, the black threads will go underneath, and then appear again over here, then they’ll go underneath the white and they’ll appear again over here, you know?
So that the back will be the obverse pattern of the front
Now—the world is like that

[Chorus]
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in

Our sense organs are selective
They pick out certain things; they are receptive
For example, we have a small, small band of what you might call a spectrum of light, of sound, of tactile sensation, and so on, to which the human organism is sensitive
But we know that outside that small band there is a huge range of vibrations to which we have built instruments that are sensitive
Things like cosmic rays, ultraviolet rays, gamma rays, hard x-rays, and so on
They’re all outside the band of our spectrum
And obviously, there are things that are outside the range of our instruments
We may build new instruments someday, which will evoke
Bring into our consciousness, other orders of vibration altogether, that, as yet, we don’t know about them
So you could imagine, you see, the universe as a vast, vast system of vibrations
And has infinite possibilities
[Chorus]
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in

[Chorus]
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in
The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have
Leaves out – more
Than it takes in