An increase in consciousness leads to an increase in awareness of all else, including other people, animals and the environment. One becomes more sensitive to the needs of all others and of the environment as well, because one realizes that everything is interrelated and that any person's well-being is ultimately connected to the well-being of everything else in existence. As one gains more understanding of one's reality, the result is an enhanced social consciousness. An increase in consciousness increases one's sensitivity to the needs and importance of others. One intuitively knows that by helping others and perturbing the environment as little as possible one ultimately helps oneself as well.

This is more than just an intellectual understanding. It is an intuitive, all-embracing knowing. It becomes part of the very fiber of one's existence to the extent that it influences every conscious and unconscious decision. One accepts a greater measure of responsibility as it relates to helping the betterment of humankind and all else in existence. The greater the level of consciousness achieved and the accompanying enlightenment which results from it, the greater the responsibility perceived as it relates to all of existence. If you have more to give, then you must give more! There is a sense of obligation. With increased consciousness, there is a greater awareness of everything. Following the peak experience, my self-awareness seems to be the same; however, my consciousness of the rest of existence has increased significantly.

Itzhak Bentov suggests that there is both objective and subjective space-time, and that during an ordinary state of consciousness the two coincide. They become separated during altered states of consciousness and we then function in subjective space-time that can be expanded greatly. Bentov also suggested that a person's level of consciousness could be expressed mathematically as a ratio of one's subjective time to objective time.

Thus the greater the subjective time experienced, the higher the level of consciousness.⁴⁵

The existence of altered states of consciousness gives us an excellent opportunity to study to better advantage the properties of the ordinary state of consciousness, since the properties of the latter are amplified during certain altered states.

Almost everyone will experience some type of altered state of consciousness during their lifetime. At least one-third of all individuals will even have a peak experience. It is very natural to doubt the existence of this type of altered state of consciousness unless one has personally experienced it. For those who have, there is no lingering doubt as to its validity.

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