By George A. Boyd ©2015
Many people do not believe in God, because they have never experienced this Divine Being directly. Like discovery of the Soul, the encounter with God also appears to pass through several stages. These are summarized below.
- Atheism – No other essence other than the brain and the universe that can be known through astrophysics is evident to you, and you do not believe that God exists.
- Agnosticism – You have no experience of God, but you notice that others seem to have experiences that indicate to them that God is real. You entertain the idea that God may exist, but you maintain the belief that until God reveals Himself, you will continue to hold an agnostic belief about God.
- Mystery – You have an experience that you cannot explain within the parameters of science or what you have previously known in your life. These experiences can include consciously journeying out of your body (astral projection), suddenly feeling one with the universe (a peak experience or mystical experience), or feeling the infilling of God’s Light in your heart (anointing with the Holy Spirit). You cannot deny this experience: it may lead you to quest for an answer or explanation, or you may consider that you went temporarily insane, and you will seek to suppress the experience.
- Encounter with Spiritual Grace and Power – You experience this when you spend time in the Presence of a highly spiritually advanced human being—a Master or Initiate. You sense great Light emanates from them, great love and purity pervade the space around them, and you sense a powerful presence within them. Their words seem to come from some deep reservoir of wisdom. They have penetrating insight and knowledge. You leave their company touched and moved: you see something of your own spiritual potential mirrored in them.
- Numinous encounter – You experience a numinous encounter in meditation: here you may behold an angel or a radiant Ascended Master, who tells you about God. Through what they describe to you, you sense something of this Divine Being, and sense that this Being is at a deeper level of the Great Continuum of Consciousness.
- Faith and dialog – At this stage you come to believe in a form of God, and you pray to this Being, and listen for the Divine to answer your prayers. You may begin a question and answer dialog with this Being through the cord of faith and remembrance. This is the level people experience when they adopt religious faith.
- Mystic union (Samadhi) – At this stage, your attentional principle, your spirit, or your Soul enters into the Presence of God at one level of the Continuum, and you directly encounter this Being. Here you can verify that God exists—at least this form of God you have directly encountered. As you progress on the spiritual path, you encounter even greater forms of God beyond this first encounter.
- Empowerment – When you reach this stage, God empowers you with Light to teach, initiate, or guide others. This is the stage of spiritual Mastery. You dwell in the Presence of God. You know God’s will. You become the conduit of God’s love, wisdom, and Grace.
If you have gone through the barrier of mystery, and have begun to experience the Superconscious mind, you will ultimately directly encounter the forms of God on the Great Continuum of Consciousness. People believe in God, and pray to this Being; those that learn the key techniques of transformational, spiritual, and attentional meditation can actually ascend into the Divine Presence—and ultimately become a conduit for Divine Grace and Love.
We teach these methods through which you can experience Soul Realization and God Communion in our intermediate courses—the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program and the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation. If you persist in your meditation using these methods, you will discover God in the many ways that the Divine appears on the Great Continuum, and ultimately, you will rise into your own state of Mastery and Empowerment.
