In the garden of Eden, there were two trees. One was the tree of life, which granted the eater perpetual youth and life while they continued to eat it. The other was the tree of knowledge, which bore fruit that was forbidden by God to eat.
The tree of knowledge gave the eater a greater awareness of reality. Unlike the tree of life, which had to continue to be eaten in order to continue its effect, the effect of the tree of knowledge was in place immediately after one bite and stayed in place until death, which itself was one of its effects. Upon eating the fruit, Eve and then Adam both became aware of reality to a greater degree than they previously had been. The fruit opened the door to mortality—a state most clearly classified by its continual and varied exposure to increased awareness.
Prior to eating the fruit, Adam and Eve were perfectly reconciled to good and evil as they understood them. That their knowledge of good and evil was already existent is clear by the fact that they had some level of perception: they knew who God was, they had joy in his presence, they had enough understanding to name the animals, and they were capable of obeying or disobeying God’s instructions. Although they had knowledge, that knowledge was limited, as shown by the fact that they were not ashamed of their nakedness. They felt perfectly comfortable in the presence of God. This all changed when the fruit of the tree of knowledge was consumed.
Opening the door to increased awareness sets off a two-step cycle. In the first step, you are exposed to more of reality than you were previously. This exposure cuts you off from the presence of God until and unless you correctly parse this new awareness into good and evil according to the light given you by God. In the second step, you reconcile yourself to God through obeying your awareness of good and evil. This triggers a greater revelation of awareness, which starts things back at the first step. This cycle repeats until one of two things happens: either you choose to quit the process or you come to the point that you trust God so fully that you immediately and correctly react to any increased awareness that God provides.
Those few people who reach the point where they trust God enough to correctly react to anything he will reveal to them have made their calling and election sure. It is by them and them only that salvation is obtained.
Awareness is the revelation of things previously unknown to you. It is an increased perception of reality. It is the realization of the incorrectness or incompleteness of something you previously thought was true, whether external (in the world) or internal (in yourself).
Awareness is what is changed by more light. It is a decrease in darkness. Darkness is what is unknown or incorrect. Light reveals what is unknown or incorrect in your perception. It increases awareness.
Awareness is how your perception is advanced. The key difference between higher order and lower order truth is that higher order truth contains more details. It includes a view that is both broader and more detailed.
In the scriptures, awareness is described in conjunction with the word “eyes.” When Adam and Eve’s “eyes” were opened, it was not their physical eyes that changed, but their awareness of reality.
The Lord’s complete awareness is described by his saying that he “knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes;” (D&C 38:2) The Psalmist wrote: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3) What does it mean that the Lord’s eyes are in every place? It means that he is aware of all things. It is important to note that awareness includes both the evil and the good. Unlike God, our awareness is not complete. However far it extends, it must comprehend both the evil and the good, because there is opposition in all things.
The Lord’s mission is to extend our awareness. The Lord said the sign of his divinity was that “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Matthew 11:5) Why did the Lord open the eyes of the blind? It was a type to show that, as Christ, he is the key to opening our awareness. We are not all blind in sight, but we are all blind in awareness.