Where you are in consciousness has everything to do with what you see in experience.

Eric Butterworth (1916–2003), a prominent Unity minister and New Thought writer, frequently taught that outer circumstances mirror inner states of mind and spiritual awareness. This line reflects the mid-to-late 20th-century Unity/New Thought emphasis on “consciousness” as the primary determinant of perception and lived experience—an idea Butterworth developed in sermons, lectures, and popular books aimed at practical spirituality rather than academic theology. In that milieu, “consciousness” typically means one’s habitual beliefs, expectations, and spiritual attunement; changing it through prayer, affirmation, and inner discipline is presented as a way to change what one notices, attracts, and enacts in daily life.

The quote asserts that experience is not simply received but interpreted and, in important ways, shaped by the level or quality of one’s consciousness. “Where you are in consciousness” points to the inner stance from which you meet life—fearful or trusting, resentful or forgiving, scarcity-minded or abundant. From Butterworth’s perspective, this inner position governs perception (what you notice and how you construe it) and behavior (what you choose and persist in), which then feeds back into outcomes. The significance is ethical and practical: spiritual growth is framed as a shift in awareness that transforms one’s world, not by denying reality but by changing the lens through which reality is engaged.