This area of my website is dedicated to providing some perspective for those going through difficult spiritual awakenings. The drop-down lists for this section have content about important issues that may occur, especially in sudden awakenings.
Spiritual awakening is not always straightforward and well-paced. Mine wasn’t. Though dedicated spiritual practice may support an easier unfolding, this is not always the case. There are factors beyond any human capacity to conceive and control. There but for the grace of God go I, is the vulnerable truth underneath the ways we attempt to chart these things socially, scientifically or through elaborate spiritual philosophies.
Obsessive use of meditative disciplines or perennial study of scripture and philosophy will never bring forth this wonderful realization, this truth which is natural to awareness, because the mind that desperately desires to reach another realm or level of experience inadvertently ignores the basic light that constitutes all experience. ~ Tilopa
Along with support from my lineage and spiritual community, I was very fortunate to receive painstaking and efficacious healing support from Charlie Morris during my energetic awakening. This healing allowed my awareness to ground and take root into my life in a more balanced way, along side of the lineage teachings and practices I have been blessed to receive. Some of the pages in this section contain dialogues I shared with Charlie during my healing, because they get to the pith of what happened outside of any particular lineage framework.
There is a real need for cultural sensitivity to this level of energetic-spiritual awakening and healing work. For example, the widely recognized teacher Adyashanti discussed this issue during his visit to Asheville, NC in April 2010. He stated, “There are spiritual casualties.” He went on to quote research that approximately 25% of people in mental health facilities are in some form of spiritual awakening emergency. One of my good friends on Facebook recently posted this quote from Adyashanti’s book, The End of Your World (Sounds True, 2008):
Before I go further with this, I want to add something that may apply to some people. There are some people who have had extraordinarily difficult times in their lives – who have experienced traumatic events that may have caused an even deeper grasping at this root level of being. For these people, the grasping at the level of the gut may be reinforced as they come closer to a deeper stage of consciousness. If this is the case for you, it is important not to force anything. You may need specialized help to deal with this aspect of awakening; it may be necessary to find some way to address the deeper sense of trauma you are experiencing before you will be able to let it go.” (pages 152-153)
This was exactly the case for me, the traumatic events from my childhood, and even past lives, were still buried deep inside my energy body. All the therapy, meditation, retreats and practices I had done up to that point just scratched the surface of it. My life circumstances and karmic unfolding brought me to a situation that was virtually untenable, it was intractable. It was a dark time, yet I was awakening and all my efforts to practice were not keeping up. One of my best friends told me to call on my angels, to call deeply in my heart for help. I recognized my own plight and prayed for help.
I was fortunate to receive in-depth direct assistance with a skilled healer, within the backdrop of caring within an extended spiritual community. Many others are not in such a fortunate position. I hope what I can share here may help others both directly and indirectly-fostering greater support for these kinds of energetic shifts within our culture.
I have an article about the lives of sages that I first wrote in March 2011, I still consider it unfinished. This article is the gist of what I am pointing to by fostering advocacy for spiritual awakening within our culture. There are still many poignant ways where the ultimately healthy work of stepping outside of the fractured dreaming process of our world, our society or “samsara,” can be a risky proposition. It can be pathologized, viewed as crazy, and not met in a respectful way. Spiritual recognitions, behaviors or speech which are lauded in an ashram setting, at a retreat or in the Himalayas of India, would be viewed 180′ differently in a social or corporate setting. How then as a society do we support the safe and healthy spiritual unfolding of our individuals, which ultimately stabilizes our civilization and global community?
The Stream of Life 