Raising Consciousness Lecture Extract
Extracts from a recent lecture:
Raising Consciousness – The New Story.
© Julie Soskin 2018
Development and growth are integral to our world; from child to adult, from bulb to plant, from caterpillar to butterfly. Development and change is ever present, and human development has accelerated considerably in the last 50–100 years. What does that mean for society, religions and us?
The world is becoming our tribe, and there are early signs of humanitarian feelings, to help and work together with our global neighbours. However, looking at any news programme might seem to suggest otherwise, yet we also see the shoots of empathy, compassion and even some love for humankind. Does this mean we are analogously reaching towards the Heart-loving unconditional levels in evolutionary energy terms? Acclaimed biologist Alister Hardy, drawing from the fields of psychology, animal behaviour, psychic research and anthropology, suggests that spirituality is natural to the human species and has evolved because of its biological survival value. If this is true it also suggests that we have an even greater need to be spiritual for the continuation and survival of humanity.
Continuously we are hearing that scientists have discovered the gene for various illnesses and congenital diseases. Recent knowledge has altered the very food that we eat, and through these enormous discoveries it is now perfectly feasible to feed the world. It might not be too long before we can order the child we want. This is playing with nature on a grand scale, and the implications are enormous. I suppose one could argue that as we are part of nature, and it is we who are implementing these changes, it is in one sense natural, although many would disagree.
Also, there are an increasing number of articles telling us that ‘the code of life’ has already been discovered by scientists, leading to major breakthroughs for cures of hundreds of illnesses. There can be little doubt that our world is on the brink of perhaps the greatest evolutionary leap in human history. We stand, therefore, at perhaps the most exciting, and some would say alarming, brink of massive changes; none more so than those from new revelations in genetics. These discoveries will quickly change us and our world to the very core; already work is underway to complete tests on a pill that, if taken every day from middle age, will not only enable us to live much longer, but many diseases that now take our lives will be eradicated. Scientists believe this pill can be on the market within the next 10 years. When such drugs become available, they will be gobbled up by most of the West, so what does this mean for the rest of the world? Due to modern medicines we already live longer and there are now thousands of people reaching 100 years of age! No more will we live to just the biblical three score years and ten. What will we do to accommodate people living, not just to 100, but maybe 200 to 300? How will society cope with this?
For thousands and millions of years we have evolved, developed and grown, step-by-step. During this time, nature has advanced pretty well at its own speed, allowing us to gradually incorporate the changes into our physical, mental and emotional state. Now, with the ability to actively manipulate our genes, will we force changes at seemingly unnatural speeds? How will we cope? Most people resist change, yet we live in a constantly changing world, every minute of every day: The passing of the sun, the planets and even now as we are here, the earth is hurtling across the sky at thousands of miles per hour. Stasis creates stagnation, and stagnation creates disease, or to put it another way dis-ease. Often people kick and buck against what they feel is a change to their status quo. This is pointless, as life will, if necessary, force changes.
It has been suggested that we are analously around 18 years old in our evolution and energy. So, had we not better grow up fast? For these reasons alone, it is vital that we shift our consciousness very quickly indeed. We will need higher mental faculties, stronger emotions and a heart-felt intuition to do what is right, what is good and what will bring us into perhaps the greatest step in evolution that man has ever trod.
Some form of self-awareness is vital for the next stage of human evolution and to really reach into the depth of our being, at some point there must be some deconstruction of self. By looking deeper, one begins to see through their own thoughts and habits, becoming conscious, very often for the first time, that there are profound splits and paradoxes inherent in their thoughts. In doing this they can become aware of the ego’s skilful ability in self-preservation and with that knowledge they are likely to be shocked by their own, sometimes devious and artful, defensive excuses. At some stage the ego must be revealed and then we must consciously uncover and face their negative mind-sets and habits that may have originated from past experiences and possibly a whole lifetime of reinforcements.
When self-awareness deepens, we will have greater access to intuition. Intuitions then become active tools and they can then direct them for their own development. In effect our own intuition becomes our own personal teacher. If a period of uncertainly is almost inevitable for spiritual transformation, and intuition is of help, then using intuition throughout the spiritual development process might seem preferable and desirable. Gradually, through the unpeeling of self, the individual becomes conscious of a ‘knowing state’; a state of being, in the present, when our intuitions will serve us most. Intuition, by its very nature, is immediate.
Modern psychology has assisted us greatly, as we can now realize why people do bad things, and why they are held in the prison of their previous experiences. We can, sometimes just by knowing we can, alter the negatives that do not serve us and keep us from seeing clearly the way ahead. Every thought has energy, every emotion has energy, and every part of us emanates energy. Fear is an energy that brings dis-ease. It is just as much a disease as any physical one. We acknowledge our physical ailments; perhaps we could now put every bit as much emphasis on our other ailments.
Christopher Fry in his wonderful poem A Sleep of Prisoners, so often recited by Sir George Trevelyan who was perhaps the grand daddy of the New age says ‘… wrong, comes up to face us everywhere’, this is a very pertinent description of events in terms of what we are discovering from the television, internet and phones that have become our personal computers. There are fewer and fewer places for evil to hide, and for atrocities to go unnoticed. Will we, as Fry’s verse asks us, ‘wake up’?
Things that would never be made public in the past are there for all to see. We therefore cannot ignore the difficulties of peoples in other parts of our world. In so many ways the world has already become a global village and we now understand more and more that what is done in one place, affects others, particularly in the case of the environment. Let us hope that with all the information we have to hand, that information acquired is not, in itself, confused with wisdom.
Advancement in the science of the brain reveals that most of our patterns are set during the period from birth to seven years. This gives new meaning to the saying ‘give me a child until he is seven; he’s mine for life’! In the brain there are neural pathways, which are a programming chain for neurons and synapses. The brain plots a course with these neural pathways. With an intense emotional experience the brain invests a lot more energy in the recording of that experience. In response it will release neurotransmitters to deal with the experience, including endorphins, which reduce perceptions of pain and stress, and dopamines, which give us pleasure and improved nerve conditions. Intense experiences in our lives mean we are more likely to revert to the saved response mechanisms created at an early age in the brain. Primal hard-wired responses are much stronger than learnt ones. Imagine for a moment all those pathways in your brain and all those experiences that could have cemented themselves within you from an early age. When we are in heightened states of fear, these pathways and experiences are automatically revisited. We can then begin to understand how difficult it might be to un-learn and create new responses. Scientifically we know that is possible, for instance, in a stoke victim where a large area of the brain is damaged, the brain learns to create new neural pathways around the non-functioning damaged area. This is achieved chemically and electrically. Through implementing our minds and physical being we strengthen these new pathways by constantly reinforcing the actions and intent. This maybe is how affirmations can assist us, by putting different and more positive notions into our brains, however, it is only in the action of doing that the brain makes new and better pathways. Repetition creates habits. Our recent knowledge of neuroscience tells us that when we act in a different way, we are creating new connections in our brains that support that particular new behavior. Repeat the behavior and the neural connections are strengthened. And each time we act or think in that way the neural pathways become a little more established. We then develop new pathways new habits of mind, which will lead to new ways of thinking and living.
Whenever I ponder this, I think of the small roads in SW England, Devon. The roads are winding and roll over hills and valleys, often in a spurious and roundabout fashion. They are there because once, a long time ago, one donkey forged a path. Then the next donkey found it was easier to follow this path, then another then another. When concrete and tarmac were put down it was on the path of the original donkey track. And so it is with the pathways in our brains. One action, one emotion, one thought was re-inforced, causing the hardening of that path until all the energy naturally follows it. Now, with conscious knowledge, we can choose new ways of being and create for ourselves more proficient pathways, void of fear that in time will become the norm. We can only succeed by doing it. A master potter knows he can make a pot; he may design the pattern in his mind, he may think on it and he knows it is possible, but the pot is not brought to actuality until he puts his hands in the clay and makes it.
Changing ingrained mind-sets for most is hard and requires intent and will. This change is only possible by the individuals themselves. We can choose to keep helpful beliefs, and we can choose what we feel and think, despite the apparent fixed notions from the past. We can, however only do this by becoming aware.
In my observations I have observed that the hardest thing for anyone to cope with is not bereavement, separation or even death. It is the realisation that we have been deluded. So hard is this to cope with many people when faced with the possibility go into complete denial making all kinds of bizarre rationales to save them from confronting the truth. Haven’t we all found some form of delusion in our lives at some time? It’s hard when you consider you may have lived a lie, and so very hard that most people don’t go there. This was graphically illustrated to me by one of my students some years ago.
At the start of every spiritual awareness class, I always ask the students to start practising Detached Loving Observation of Self: detached to remove the little self, so one can begin to see oneself devoid of the cloaks and clouds surrounding us; loving because this exercise is not one of being critical; and observation to acknowledge ourselves as we truly are. On the second week of one of my courses, I asked the group how they had got on in their observation of self. ‘Well!!’ said one student, ‘in my observations this week, I have realized that everything that comes out of my mouth is a lie.’ The whole class was shocked. This sounds rather extreme, however, if you consider how we are all conditioned to speak and live by other people’s constructs, one can see how this statement could be more prevalent than it might sound. This particular student was brought up in a family who told her from an early age to be ‘nice’ at all times. She only came to class a couple more times, and then told me how sorry she was to leave but at this time of her life she just could not bring herself to change her life and her lifestyle. I completely understood. Many years later she emailed me to say she had given up her job in England and was now living abroad. She had trained as a healer and was now working in the psycho-spiritual field. Once some light is brought to bear on ourselves we may put it aside for a while, but when something is revealed it cannot hide away indefinitely.
Self-deceptions and making excuses create conflict in the energy field of the individual, and bring obstacles to inner peace. Wellbeing, both spiritual and physical, seems to depend on a commitment to the truth and, as they say, the truth will set you free. Telling the truth about an experience is an essential part of any psychotherapeutic process, and is equally relevant to spiritual wellbeing.
If confronting one’s truth is essential to the spiritual process, it may necessitate asking awkward questions. This might have the effect of making the person feel vulnerable and uncertain. So what can be done to assist the process? In obvious cases of life changes, such as physical disabilities or abuse, change will be enforced. Equally, changes that are encountered in spiritual development can be every bit as difficult and often need huge adjustments for the individual. For some people this may necessitate psychotherapy or other expect guidance.
Before he became Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama was kept in wealth and privilege away from any pain or evil. One day whilst on a ride outside the palace he encountered, for the first time, beggars and disease. His previous vision of the world was shattered and, such was the shock, he renounced all the joys, pleasure and privileges of his birth, and drifted around for years as a poor monk. So great was his dramatic experience, it altered his perception of the world forever. After many years, he became spiritually enlightened. Will our greater knowledge of the world bring about our enlightenment?
Do we want to stay in the dark? Do we want to live a life that is born out of some mis-placed belief? And go to war on that basis. It’s madness. What of beliefs, God the universe and everything? That G word that causes so much problems to so many. Charles Hartshorne - a Harvard professor broke from his theological contempories by suggesting that to understand god not as a complete and perfect being outside the universe but rather as a god that was becoming more perfected in the very process of the universe becoming. He said that, a god that is actually developing as the universe itself moves forward in time. We are part of God so to speak and so in some fundamental way participate in God self-development. This opens the door to God not simply as an object of distant worship but as an intimate subject in whose ongoing creative self-development we can each participate.
Spiritual experiences are seen across different cultures and backgrounds, advancing the theory that there might be not just a perennial philosophy but also a perennial experience that is present with peoples of all religions and cultures. Is this then a ‘built-in’ human state that mystics and spiritual teachers down the ages have discovered? There is another possibility that many mystical writers hint at but rarely make explicit, and that is, instead of the notion that we can have a direct relationship with God, we go one step further and suggest that our true authentic self, our life force, highest Self or soul energy is God already? Could this then be described as not so much perennial philosophy, but a perennial Self, present within us all? And, if this is the case could we, by uncovering, acknowledging and attuning to it, obtain some form of spiritual Self-awareness, with some possibility of gaining complete ‘union’ with God, or whatever description you wish to use for the ultimate energy in the universe?
Our awareness of the world has been radically altered in the last hundred or so years; for example, when we first saw our planet Earth from space in the 1960s, or when the big bang theory opened up different possibilities for the creation of the world. Steven Hawking propounds in A Brief History of Time: So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really self-contained, having no boundary, nor edge, it would have neither beginning nor end, it would simply be. What place then for a creator?
In a chapter from A New Renaissance entitled ‘Reinventing the Human Species, Frank Parkinson writes: If everything that exists in our universe today was once contained in a primeval dot of energy then the timeline of our self leads back to the moment of creation. We not only have God within but also are still in some significant sense within God.
To some this concept may be sacrilegious, but why are we so afraid of our possible power? This concept was echoed in the now famous speech by Nelson Mandela, quoting from Marianne Williamson: ‘Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.’ Revealing our power might be seen as arrogance and be threatening for some; however, as Williamson continues: ‘as we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others’. Our presence is our energy. It is our response and our being. Are individuals, and that means you, ready to take on that responsibility?
Some form of unconditional love is to be found through all faiths around the globe. Does this concept hold the key to the perennial energy? If so, contemporary spiritual development that actively uses this concept as part of its development process could have many advantages, cutting across the dogma of religions into the experience of spirit, for and by the individual. Unconditional love is a very particular energy. In this state of Heart we are in perfect balance, unaffected by negative emotions and we lose our fears. It energetically allows us to cross over the bridge to higher energies, higher perceptions and love beyond measure. In the Heart, or unconditional loving state, we are free from the chains of the past; the energy dissolves away all those things that stop us becoming the best we can be. We are in a state of acceptance or, as mystics call it, surrender. This is not a passive or negative acceptance but one born through love.
The astral energies built up over thousands of years are powerful, full of humanity’s fears, desires and woes. The concept of astral energies is not un- similar to Rupert Sheldrake’s notion of the morphic field A morphic field is a place where information is sorted where informational memory or habits of past forms and structure reside and influence the form and content of the present. These morphic fields or astral energies are built up during our lifetimes from emotional and continuous thought. They can, if given enough energy create an entity or thought form in themselves. These, as any healer knows, are very difficult to dislodge. Fear-based astral energies can perpetuate though families and societies and are still very much present in our world. Our task must surely be to clear them. Fear, in all its guises, must be addressed for us to move into a better world.
Fear can be perpetuated throughout societies and is still being used to imprison whole populations of peoples. Commonly used by leaders of all kinds is the fear of hell, the fear of abandonment, the fear of financial collapse and the fear of death. Fear stops us, it distorts our thoughts and it makes us ill. Our fears resonate out into the atmosphere and are held in the astral planes. Just as through dubious hypnosis people can be drawn into ‘false memories’, which have nothing to do with them but feel so real, so we can be drawn into negative states which may or may not be anything to do with us personally. Energetically, if we have little or no fear, this negative magnetic force cannot attach itself to us. The challenge for us all, each and every one of us, is to consciously engage our will in intentionally dissolving fears. Through our dreams, hopes, and positive desires and, most importantly, the things we do, think and say, we can create a more productive and better world.
Knowing and working with unconditional loving energies is right and good, however, this does not mean guides, deities, gods or space men will rescue you! The age in which we now find ourselves is a grown-up one. It is the age of responsibility and growth, the like of which we have never seen before. The opportunities this could bring for humanity are endless and wonderful, if, and it’s a big IF, we can stop apportioning blame on our leaders, politicians, priests or parents, and instead embrace and take responsibility for our own energies.
We have come to a time when this progress must accelerate very quickly indeed if we are to meet the extraordinary events, discoveries and knowledge bombarding us from all areas. How can we do this? No real spiritual progress occurs until the energy of the individual is cleared and resonates a truly loving state. Energy is not something to which you can pay lip service. It is not something through which we can earn ‘brownie points’. The intent has to be completely genuine to engage the energy. Only by embracing the knowing that we must do this, for and by ourselves, can we reach inside the depths of our being. Also, when acknowledging the difficulties that our mind-sets, prejudices and fears manifest, wherever they emanate from, can we ensure that they are completely eradicated? This unfoldment of self, bit by bit will clear away the ‘veils of illusion’ that all mystics down the ages have known, and consequently this will bring a clearer resonance of energy to ourselves. One light in the darkness can assist others to see their way forward.
In these changing times we increasingly need to acknowledge and build bridges between science and spirituality. Research into quantum theories is revealing some connections between the two areas. Dean Radin who has carried out many years of Psi research, including for the US Government, says in his book Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality:
… the fabric of reality suggested by quantum theory and the observations associated with psychic phenomena bear striking resemblances. They are eerily weird in precisely the right way to suggest a meaningful relationship.
For thousands of years we have been searching for truth, visions of utopia through different ideals and philosophies. Could it be that the resolution of humanity’s problems lies not in the hands of any philosopher or particular political persuasion, religious leader, or ideal, no matter how good. Each regime, each philosophy, each faith has been called into question or disappeared, coming and going, age after age. A new leader, a new idea comes along and we are told it will be our salvation, but very soon the new ideas fade, and then another prophet in the guise of the next new man or woman at the top arrives and the whole process begins again. Equally, it could be reasoned that the new age and contemporary spiritual Self-awareness is another idealistic concept. Giving power to the individual, for instance, may just be another spiritual concept. So are the new spiritual concepts any better than the religious models of the past?
Science loves structure, models and paradigms. Some scientists also acknowledge that uncertainty and anxiety are necessary consequences of a creative universe. Many people are mistrustful of uncertainty as it can open a Pandora’s box that seriously calls into question a model of reality, which may have taken hundreds of years to establish. There are strands of science that still completely ignore or even scorn any investigation into intuitive psycho-spiritual areas. Equally, those on the spiritual path often ignore or scorn science. In both cases this is a myopic view. Perhaps one of the most enlightened people living today is the Dalai Lama. In his book, The Universe in a Single Atom, he relays his exploration into science. If this enlightened and highly spiritual man takes the time to investigate scientific areas, who are we not to do the same? Perhaps it is understandable that science on the whole ignores any psychic work, intuition, and spirituality, when part of the process of this development often brings up fears and uncertainties with no definitive models. Nonetheless, recent discoveries in science are also drawing us away from former beliefs. It might be argued that any movement, group or organization, after a time, often creates its own bias and structures. So is the modern spiritual movement in as much danger as any other movement from creating, structures and building up doctrines?
In the word of one of my students: The strongest feeling was being connected to my own greater guidance. Is this ‘greater guidance’ an authoritative voice? It is easy to find authority in academia by the papers that are published. Nonetheless, if you wrote 100 papers on spirituality, or for that matter intuition, it might not necessarily mean you were a more spiritual or intuitive person, or indeed have had a spiritual or intuitive experience yourself. You might have much diverse information about spirituality but, if you have not realized it yourself, can you legitimately be called an authority? And even if you have had such experiences can you be an authority for anyone else’s spirituality?
Kierkegaard gave us the notion that each of us requires individual self-awareness and each of us is unique. So would this not mean that uniqueness demands different solutions to different problems for different people? If each moment in time is unique, and each person brings their individual perspective, experience, needs and desires, there is unlikely to be an effective spiritual model, map or guide that suits each and every individual. This suggests the necessity to be open to applying different ways of learning for different phases of psycho-spiritual growth with different people. A programme without any form would be hard to practice, so rather than using any programme as a set model, it might be used as a kind of scaffolding which is movable and flexible to the needs of the individual. This mutable approach does not necessarily mean a complete lack of structure as some focus at various times can assist.
Self-development infers some form of better state or person. Kant says that the aspiration to become a better person is ‘our duty’, and ‘the achievement of the highest good in the world is the necessary object of will determinable by the moral law’. He sees this as only being possible through ‘the observance of the soul’ and argues that ‘the moral law commands us to make the highest possible good in the world the final object of all our conduct’. These are commendable sentiments, but with so many interpretations of what might constitute a ‘better person’, where does that lead us? Could it be, for instance, that a better person may not be just one who does good deeds but one who lives by their truth?
Change often involves difficulties and real transformation is often simultaneous with crisis. Crisis can, and does, bring in new ways of living and thinking that might not otherwise have been discovered. How many people would consciously put themselves into a position of crisis? Life itself tends to implement change if our world has become stagnant and we need to grow. Growing pains occur as a necessary part of our transformation. Recent scientific paradigms are embracing and even assuming unpredictability, as chaos, to be an inherent cosmic expression that is deeply embedded within the core of reality. Spiritual Authority and Education
Group input is thought to assist experiential learning, whereby the student brings real issues in which the whole group can contribute. This takes courage on the part of the individuals, and requires a sense of adventure for their own journey. As Abraham Maslow says ‘One cannot choose wisely for a life unless he dares to listen to himself, his own self at each moment in life.’ The decision to ‘dare’ to look at oneself, no matter what that will reveal, is seen as one of the most important elements towards advancement, and one that cannot be stage-managed. Gaining spiritual truths by way of experience stands at the heart of contemporary spiritual development. So where does this leave the spiritual teacher? Indeed, is there any need for one if knowledge is within us all? Where should we go for our learning? Could we just stay at home and meditate?
Psycho-spiritual learning requires openness and transparency however, how can we expect students to find their own authenticity if the facilitators have not implemented theirs? ‘Transference and counter-transference are often just as present with the teacher as the student. To counterbalance this in spiritual Self-awareness it might be appropriate if the facilitator were required to develop their spiritual self-awareness. Despite the growing interest in implementing spiritual programmes into higher education there seems to be very little work in the spiritual education of the teachers involved. Psychic, healing and spiritual development groups, as well as institutions of education, need leaders who have themselves undergone a deep inward spiritual journey. Working for and by the individual has its many critics, seeing it as self-indulgent. Having models, formulas and structures is the way most educators have worked for a very long time. Perhaps now is the time for change.
People do bad things sometimes; most often it is because they feel threatened, they are fearful and hurting, or that they have issues from the past which have wounded them and, like any other animal when wounded, they fight back. Any therapist knows that if you say to anyone ‘you made me do this’ or ‘you made me like that’, the response will always be a defensive one, and the person will just not hear it. As adults, no one makes us do anything. We do things that are born from our mind-sets or beliefs, and because we are hard-wired to do them. Let us then begin to unravel the fixed wiring of our being and start today to be the best we can be. Research has shown that the ‘soul’ or ‘inner’ essence is not so much developed from reason or logical faculties; it is found by contacting our inner core spiritual Self and authenticating this knowledge by actualizing it in our real lived world. In this sense it might be is seen as a ‘living education’.
Within many countries that have a multiracial population, moral ethics may be conflicting. It makes sense to include different faiths and beliefs in education, however, can any of their ideas give us an authentic spiritual experience that we can use within our individual lives? Religions, some of which are hundreds or even thousands of years old, would probably argue that their faiths hold all the keys. If this is the case then why is there such a growing desire for spiritual experiences outside a religious structure? It could be argued that there are many roads to God, or even that all roads eventually lead to God or spiritual enlightenment. The framework of an established religion might give people safety by following a well-trodden path, yet some of these well-trodden paths have incorporated hatred and fear. Safety is important, but it could be argued that any movement or change is likely to disrupt the individual’s life, so any change of self may never feel safe In the past, for many, it was felt that there was only one true way to God. In the present climate, to believe that one way to God is the only way, seems myopic, limiting, and possibly simply wrong. For all its faults, our modern world does at least allow the possibility of autonomy, which in spiritual terms means individuals, can find their own way to God, giving them their own authentic experiences of spiritual truths.
Future Possibilities The whole area of contemporary spiritual education is still forming, and evidence suggests several possibilities including education in different faiths, examining the bigger questions of life, moral and ethical issues, and more experiential spiritual learning. What if every teacher, as part of their teacher training, underwent some psycho-spiritual work on themselves? This would then help and support them to feel their individual strength and commitment to truth. To hold a group together requires a developed mind, empathy and heart, enabling learning for, and by, the individual. In short, we need vocational teachers and true visionaries to emerge. For this to happen, our society must realize the enormous benefit of having clear leaders, strong in themselves and open to all possibilities for their students and their clients. Even some basic psychology and simple meditation, implemented in schools, would at least put the children in the mode to look within. If children and their parents understood themselves better, it would be likely to lead to a more rounded and less violent world.
It has been said that vocational teachers are born and not made. This is likely to be true, however, if we provide a good environment and endeavour to cut away the poisons of the past, both individually and globally, there is every possibility that one’s true vocation will appear. Visionaries are not just people with good intention but those who see beyond the clouds, who have an instinctive clarity that is not imprisoned in a box or structure, who are free from fear and have courage to do the right things. These are the people whom society has all too frequently labeled as mad or bad or both, and many throughout history have been put to death, only for their ideas to then be implemented after their death.. Through the lifting of the veils of illusion we can all become visionaries of our own world, which will energetically affect the people around us and, ultimately the world.
Spirituality cannot be measured; for who can judge such a non-definable aspect as the spiritual Self? What exam board, or examining process has the qualification? Maybe only a god can do this, and if that god or some part of divine energy is within us, it is possible that only the individual can be the final judge. What teachers can do is facilitate their students to identify and dissolve the negative aspects of self that cloud the true being and at the same time, help them make a connection with their innermost spirit to illuminate and therefore reveal the way forward.
Some are now calling for ‘evolutionary spirituality’. ‘Evolutionaries’ is a term coined by Carter Phipps. He sees these people as individuals who feel called to illuminate and interpret the many dimensions of the evolutionary universe that we find ourselves living in. People who have begun to internalize the ideas of an evolutionary worldview and authentically question the spell of solidity that centuries of cultural conditioning have cast over our consciousness. To change these cemented structures does not happen in a day, in a moment of revelation or in simple steps or models, it takes time, consideration contemplation, deliberation and introspection. We must however be willing to risk our established modes of knowing. We must find the courage and authenticity to not settle for superficial burst of inspiration or temporary flights of insights but to pursue these ideas all the way to the deepest interiors of the self, where new perspectives take root and new worldviews form.
Psycho-spiritual work may not bring us personally instant love and light and it doesn’t mean we will obtain a life without difficulties, illness or sorrows. Life is likely to continue to present us with challenges, problems to be solved, bereavements to be grieved, and all the myriad experiences an individual may encounter. It may not make the bumps in our road disappear. However, working energetically on in-depth spiritual self-awareness can provide us with a stronger vehicle with which to ride over our difficulties more easily.
Each shift in energy moves out into the greater world. In raising your own frequency of energy you are in fact altering the level of consciousness for all. Also by connecting together in unison of higher energies, we can and will productively create a new story and a better world.