Monthly Archives: September 2022

Signs of Spiritual Awakening

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd © 2022

Q: People in recovery speak of having a spiritual awakening. What are some of the changes in character that go along with this?

A: We see a shift into the expression of spiritual emotions:

  • Patience
  • Forgiveness
  • Humility
  • Asking for help from God and the Holy Spirit
  • Gratitude
  • Awe and wonder at the beauty and majesty of Creation
  • Inner quietness and peace

When the negative patterns that comprised their addiction and their negative character traits are worked out—through their twelve-step program or psychotherapy—these inner emotions emerge. When the darkness is removed, the inner light that was hidden behind it comes forth.

You can evaluate whether you are having a spiritual awakening through examining whether you are experiencing these states or not. If these emotions do not arise, you are having an inner experience; it just might not be spiritual awakening.

Another marker that accompanies spiritual awakening is spontaneous love, caring, and compassion that you feel towards others. You see the beauty, the goodness, and the potential in others, and you wish to support them have their own spiritual awakening and to blossom into what they can become.

We encourage you to reflect on these spiritual emotions and to find their wellsprings in you. Notice what blocks it from expressing through you: work on these issues until you resolve them—then spiritual awakening will arise in you.

Those of you who are working on your recovery from addiction and are working on your 11th step may find our book, Meditation for Recovery: Key Techniques for Maintaining Sobriety, Sanity, and Serenity, helpful in activating your spiritual life.

If you are serious about getting to the bottom of your addiction, you may wish to take our Addiction Recovery Coaching Program, which will help you uncover the patterns that keep your addiction in place and begin the process of transforming them.

Intensity of Identity

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd © 2022

We can characterize the state of identification as having different levels of intensity. At greater intensity, the state of identification is strongly defended and anchored; at lesser intensity, there is a greater ability to detach or dissociate from that state of identity.

We can describe seven orders of identity:

  1. Egoic role, such as a job title or life function [like being a parent]
  2. Unconscious personification of a life issue, or subpersonality
  3. Personal integration center, such as the ego or the Self
  4. Archetypal identification center, such as a spiritual seed atom or form
  5. Superconscious integration center, such as a nucleus of identity
  6. Immortal spiritual essence, such as the attentional principle, spirit, or ensouling entity
  7. Empowered spiritual essence, such as found in Initiates, who gain Mastery and the Divine empowers them to guide, teach, and initiate others

These orders of identity can be assumed with different degrees of intensity, as we explain below.

Level one – The identity state is assumed casually and has little importance to you. You might be a member of a club or social group, but have no great interest or allegiance to being a part of the events they hold or places they visit.

Level two – The identity state takes on an enhanced significance or importance to you. You consider yourself a member of the group and you want to contribute: you may donate money, volunteer your time, or participate in planning.

Level three – The identity state becomes linked to your core sense of identity or status, and you cling to it and defend it. You become a parent: you defend and protect your spouse and children. You establish a company: you pay special attention to your reputation and the way your brand is perceived.

Level four – The identity state becomes strongly linked to your sense of personal survival, and you develop several layers of defense mechanisms to not allow anyone to threaten what you consider to be of the highest importance in your life. When this identity state becomes distorted, this intensity level appears in personality disorders, anxiety, and depression.

Level five – The identity state becomes linked with your spiritual survival or salvation. At this level, you may identify with an archetypal identification center, a Superconscious integration center, or an immortal spiritual essence, and cling to it to make sure that it does not become sullied with karma or sin. When this level awakens in you, you may find yourself dissociating from personal identification and keeping your attention focused on essences within your Superconscious mind.

Level six – You assume the identity state in an ecstatic mystic trance and you gain union and identification with a form of the Divine. The Yogi who unites cosmic consciousness with Brahman experiences this state as the highest enlightenment and bliss, and is fully convinced that he or she has reached the summit of spiritual attainment.

Level seven – The essence with which you identify is liberated into its origin, and you glimpse Satchitananda, the source of the mighty force that animates each spiritual essence that is sent into Creation. At this level, you experience your ultimate state of identification.

Intensity levels one through four are associated with the personal identification orders one to four. Intensity levels five through seven derive from spiritual identification orders five through seven.

The energy and focus required to maintain union with a state of spiritual identification are much greater than that which is necessary to assume states of personal identification. For this reason, when people draw upon elements of their spiritual and religious identity, the intensity with which hold their sense of who they are is much stronger that their personal forms of identification.

Archetypal identity, when it embraces racism and hatred, creates turmoil in the society through the beliefs and actions those who identify with these numinous ideas of the collective unconscious. When religion guides the hand of politics, it may impose an intolerant and authoritarian regime upon those it governs. When mystic trance influences group behavior, it may spawn fanaticism and create dangerous spiritual cults.

Examining your identity states

We invite you to explore your identity states with some questions designed to have you look at these aspects of your mind and spiritual nature:

  • Which of the orders of identification have you experienced?
  • Which of these orders of identification are core to the way you know yourself in your current life?
  • Have the orders of identification with which you most strongly identify today changed over time? How did you experience these orders of identification differently in earlier periods of your life?
  • What identity states do you currently hold within intensity level one?
  • What identity states do you currently hold within intensity level two?
  • What identity states do you currently hold within intensity level three?
  • What identity states do you currently hold within intensity level four?
  • Do you embrace any spiritual identity states with intensity levels five, six, or seven? What are these identity states?
  • Do you experience any distortions at intensity level four that are contributing to personal stress, conflict, and misery? What are these patterns that arise? What are they trying to tell you? How do they impact your ability to function in your adult roles?
  • Do you experience any distortions that stem from archetypal or spiritual identification? How do these influence your values, beliefs, emotions, and behavior?
  • Which identity states bring undue stress and unhappiness in your life or waste your time? Which could you jettison?
  • Which identity states contribute most to your sense of meaning and purpose?
  • Which identity states seem fleeting and ephemeral? Which are lasting—an identity state you will maintain for your entire life?

As you gain greater understanding of your identity states and the intensity with which you hold them, you will intuit what is most important to you and who you are at every level of your mind, personal and transpersonal. We encourage you to study your identity states to gain the insights that will support your positive change and growth.

Tracks Across the Unconscious

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd ©2022

Q: How can I move beyond the unconscious mind? It keeps holding me back from transcending into deeper states of meditation.

A: There are seven major methods for moving through the unconscious mind. If you imagine that these tracks across the unconscious mind are like pathways through the centers of a form, we can visualize these tracks as follows:

  1. Base of the spine – This is the track of the Kundalini Shakti. When the Kundalini moves through the unconscious band of the mind, it can generate spontaneous emergence phenomena. This typically occurs when the Kundalini is drawn up into union with cosmic consciousness in the First Cosmic Initiation or with a Supracosmic seed atom, when an individual’s cutting edge of spirituality is Planetary.
  2. Navel – This is a vocal track, where you give a voice to the issues in your unconscious mind. This is done in dramatic forms of psychotherapy like Primal Screaming or Psychodrama. This speaking from the issues in the unconscious mind has been called abreaction or catharsis, and produces a release of pent up emotions.
  3. Solar plexus – This is the breath track. This uses techniques like Rebirthing or Holodynamic Breathing to move attention across the unconscious, which brings about insight into the issues and facilitates emotional release. When this Breathwork culminates, it permits breakthrough into the Superconscious mind.
  4. Heart – This track employs mantras to move attention across the unconscious. Commonly, simple mantras like “OM” or “I AM” are utilized. This grants full awareness of the issues that dwell in the unconscious mind.
  5. Throat – This track gives rise to glossolalia, which are mantra-like syllables of an “unknown tongue.” Christian Charismatic sects activate this track to move attention across the unconscious into union with the Moon Soul or Christ Child nucleus of identity.
  6. Point between the eyebrows – This track makes use of Tratakam, which leads attention along the thread that passes through the unconscious mind. This practice ultimately results in consciously crossing the entire zone of the unconscious, which we call Yoganidra.
  7. Brain – This track visualizes the unconscious as a series of layers, resembling a mandala. Using Vipassana to focus on each successive layer and releasing the energy contained within it allows the meditator to sink down to the very core of the unconscious and then transcend it.

Different meditation and psychotherapeutic techniques appear to access these tracks:

We teach Opening, moving attention over the boundary of the unconscious and observing the content in our intermediate mediation classes—the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. This moves attention along the point between the eyebrows track.

In the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation, we teach Yoganidra, which moves attention much deeper on the point between the eyebrows track, and the Rebirthing Breath, which moves attention along the solar plexus track. More than simply dipping into the unconscious like in Opening, Yoganidra moves attention to the other side of the unconscious mind.

We discourage our students from using the base of the spine track that spans the unconscious, which pushes Kundalini beyond the cutting edge of spirituality. This readily produces emergence phenomena, which students have difficulty integrating.

We do not specifically teach abreactive methods, which arise from the track across the navel, for this is the province of psychotherapy. This giving a voice to the issues of the unconscious, or acting them out, needs to be carefully managed.

One of the techniques arising from the I AM meditations of the Second Planetary Initiation is using “I AM” as a mantra to move attention along the heart track through the unconscious mind. We teach I AM meditation to our students who are taking the Second Planetary Initiation. Those who have unfolded their Soul’s spiritual evolutionary potentials to this level or beyond can readily use this application of I AM meditation.

Yogi Preceptors and their advanced disciples commonly use the “OM” mantra to unite attention with cosmic consciousness, and then explore the track of the unconscious behind it, which separates this nucleus of identity from union with Brahman.

Some of those receiving the infilling of the Holy Spirit demonstrate glossolalia. We do not specifically train people in this method: it appears as a special gift of the Holy Spirit.

We teach a mandala method in our intermediate meditation classes to explore individual issues; this method can be readily adapted to identify the layers of the unconscious mind that separate you from liberation.

We suggest that you learn to move your attention using the methods of tracks (3) solar plexus, (4) heart, and (6) point between the eyebrows to help you consciously transcend the blockages of the unconscious mind you are encountering in your meditation.

Why People Might Not Be Aware of Their Soul Purpose

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd ©2022

Q: Why am I having problems knowing my Soul Purpose?

A: Genuine knowledge of your Soul Purpose only truly comes when you experience a re-integration around the Soul. There are seven steps to this maturation process:

  1. You are only aware of the ego
  2. You are aware of the ego, plus you interact with elements of your lower unconscious or Shadow
  3. You are aware of the ego, plus you experience that your conscience criticizes and corrects your ego’s behavior, words, and beliefs—this appears to be the stage where the inner critic emerges
  4. You activate the Self, which begins to overrule the ego’s octave of desire-driven behavioral will and instead implements a goal-directed behavioral plan
  5. You are aware of the Self, plus you begin to interact with archetypal elements of the middle unconscious—the zone of your unrealized personal potential—and the higher unconscious, where you interface and dialog with elements of the Superconscious mind
  6. You experience inner awakening of your immortal spiritual principles—the attentional principle, the spirit, and your ensouling entity
  7. You connect with the Soul, and it begins to direct the Self and the ego to carry out its Soul Purpose

You can begin to accurately discern your Soul Purpose at levels 6 and 7:

At levels 1 to 4, there is no awareness of Soul Purpose.

At level 5, revelation and intuition intimate elements of your Soul Purpose, but you may not understand the cryptic or symbolic communication that arises from this level. As a result, you may experience distortion of what your Soul is trying to show you.

At level 6, when you awaken your attentional principle and spirit, you can begin to commune with the Soul and get its direct guidance. Jnana Yoga methods like Reflective and Receptive Meditation allow you to directly connect with the Soul and receive guidance from it.

Level 7 typically dawns when the Soul ascends to its Crown of Purpose, which for many people, occurs when their Soul takes the Third Planetary Initiation. At this level, the Soul enacts its purpose through your personality, and is actively guiding you about what you need to do.

A Transpersonal psychotherapy, Psychosynthesis, has methods to progressively lead people from level 2 to 5 through a gradual integration process. This ultimately results in a re-integration around the Soul.

In Mudrashram®, we teach Centering Methods to activate levels 4 and 5, and the Rainbow Technique to work with elements of the unconscious mind. For level 6, we train you in the Awakening Meditation coupled with Mantra Yoga, Nada Yoga, and Raja Yoga to activate your immortal spiritual principles. We give you a transformational mantra to bring your Soul to the level of the crown of purpose, which enables your Soul to begin to directly your personality and carry out its Soul Purpose—and move beyond into yet higher octaves of spiritual development.

We teach these methods in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.