Has Anyone Ever Experienced the Absence of Awareness?

"You talked about deep sleep – that pure awareness remains while all objects disappear. But my experience is that I have no idea what this means. There’s no consciousness until I wake up. Do you make a different experience? Rupert says: ‘Have you ever been woken by an alarm clock from deep sleep? What is it that hears the sound? You agreed that consciousness is what hears it. Now: have you ever had the experience of the absence of awareness? No – and could anyone? No. So if nobody has ever had nor could ever have the experience of the absence of awareness, why do you believe so strongly that there is such a thing? You’re inferring the absence of awareness from the absence of memory. But we’re being scientific here – using direct experience, not inference. Billions of observers under all circumstances report: I have never had the experience of the absence of awareness. In my experience, awareness is ever-present – always present. You believe otherwise because you’ve been conditioned to believe consciousness is derived from matter. That belief has gone so deeply into your mind you consider it obvious fact. But nobody has ever found that substance called matter that supposedly exists outside knowing. Knowing is the only substance that has or could ever be experienced. Why do we believe there’s something other than knowing? Look at the state of the world – the sorrow, conflict, aggression. Could it be that what we have wrong is our fundamental paradigm of separation?’"

From event 27 February - 01 March, 2026 The Nature of Consciousness – Online Weekend Retreat at Home 27 February–1 March 2026

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