Spiritual Awaking

A spiritual awaking can be confusing and a hard to understand process that can affect your entire life. I have spent the last ten years trying to understand precisely what has happened to me, and how to personally deal with the effects of a spiritual awaking. I would like to share with you my experience, how it caused me to search for answers, and ultimately lead me to the path I am currently on. Hopefully, by sharing my experience, you too can learn more about your waking, what maybe you should do to understand it, and ultimately not make the same mistakes that I did. I want you to know that if you are feeling lost or broken, there is relief ahead.

What is a spiritual awaking?

I am not the kind of person who normally talks about spirts or awakings or those two words together. What I have come to realize over the years is that many cultures throughout history have called this experience by many different names. In today’s culture we call it a spiritual awaking, but in past cultures, you may have called it the path to enlightenment, the call to adventure, or maybe a call to shamanism or even a shamanistic initiation. Whatever you want to call it, it consists of the search for knowledge that is beyond what is typically sought after in life.

In most peoples lives success and happiness come from socially created norms. The typical story is to have a good job, get things, get married, have kids, retire, watch your kids grow and do the same thing as you. The cycle goes on and on and makes sense for the success of our society. Having kids not only contributes to the next period of life, but also provides a market for sales, purchases, workers, and a growing and thriving economy. The problem with this cycle, however, is that it doesn’t produce lasting happiness. The result is that many people search outside themselves for meaning and get involved in churches and religious organizations to find the truth. Many religious groups provide that sense of belonging and fellowship that many of us desire, but for some of us, we still seek answers that others are unable to provide to us. These questions are beyond religious texts or philosophies. The thing we seek is the truth and wisdom that can only be found from within. Sometimes realizing this can take time but ultimately that’s where the path brings us to.

My Path to Awaking

My path started in 2006 when I was in the military and working long days and focusing on my career that I had recently just started. I was a pretty hard-core Christian but recently started to read a book that a friend provided me which challenged a lot of my current beliefs. One night I experienced what is called Sleep Paralysis and had my first Out of Body Experience. After that experience, I was never again the same.

Without getting much into my personal experience, I would say that the experience itself was remarkably close to many experiences described in esoteric works as well as shamanism. The reason for this is that many of these experiences are universal in themes and often express the same context across all cultures and time. Because of that, there seems to be a lot of credibility to the experience itself. I am not sure if me questioning my current belief systems was what started me on the path but whatever it was, like it or not I was on my way.

Since my first experience, I have spent years studying Buddhism, Hindu religious practices, the occult, alchemy, lucid dreaming, shamanism, research into consciousness, and more. What I have found is that the answers that I was seeking were not written in books but in diving deeper into myself as well as learning from others in the community who have had these experiences. It took me about nine years to come to that conclusion by reading countless books, being involved in many groups, taking part in religious organizations and more.

Awaking Is Unique to Each of Us

A spiritual awaking is unique for all of us, but there seems to be a common theme in them. We are searching for answers to the meaning of life, what happiness or being content in life is all about, what we can do with the tools and skills we have on earth or in this reality until we pass on, and what passing on is all about. These questions are often answered by religious groups as spending our time worshiping a God or deity where we get something back in the end. The path that I am talking about doesn’t give you anything back besides internal understanding that is unique to you.

Most people that I have discussed spiritual awakings with often find themselves confused like I did and often still are. What we are confused about is that in today’s society we often expect some result from being on a path, as though there is some end goal to this experience. That is simply not how this works. Once you are on this path there is no end to it, it’s a lifelong path, it doesn’t provide you with absolutes, and there is no winners or losers. There is simply you, being you, doing you, and that’s it. You may learn things along the way, but there is no end to the learning.

Feeling lost?

If you feel as though I didn’t really answer anything, well that’s okay. There are tools and skills that can be used in order to find maybe some of those answers that you seek and often a great tool to use is to talk to people who have started their path and are continuing to grow from it. Every person’s path is unique, and it’s important to remember that when taking advice but connecting with others is an excellent source of knowledge that can help you figure some things out. You can speak to some of these remarkable individuals by joining Taileaters.

My life has changed thanks to the awakings that I have experienced. I continue to learn more, share with others, and to do my best to understand what I am learning. My ultimate goal, however, is to help and serve those who are going through this same experience as I have. I hope to connect with them by building a community around the experience itself where they can join together and commune with each other. Hopefully helping them to experience the divine soul inside each and every person.