Formative Experiences

Posted on December 22, 2017 by george_oss

A formative experience is one that shapes identity, life narrative, and your sense of the world—whether it is safe or threatening; whether you are an effective change maker in your life or you are largely at effect of your circumstances. There are seven major types of formative experiences:

Trauma – This is an event, or series of events, that take place where another person, or a catastrophic natural phenomenon, harms you, and teaches you that other people, or the world is not safe. The psychological repercussions of this event include lasting fear and vigilance towards any similar occurrence. You feel a need to protect your body, family and loved ones, and your possessions from a re-occurrence of this event. If another person has perpetrated this event, and you assess their motivation to be malevolent, trauma can also spur anger, rage, and a powerful drive for revenge.
Acknowledgement – This is an experience when someone truly sees you, hears, you, and lets you know you are known. Acknowledgement is the key to you owning your authentic Self; it gives you permission to be who you are. When you are acknowledged, you feel loved and known—this can be a very healing experience, which can help you rebuild your self-esteem.
Successful performance – This is the first time you do something on your own. Think back to when you first rode a bike or a car on your own, or first gave a public speech. Successful performance builds confidence, a sense of competence and efficacy, and expands your capability. Successful performance enhances your self-esteem and brings healthy personal pride.
Spiritual awakening – This typically have this experience during a mystical or peak experience, or a near death experience, where you discover you are a conscious essence beyond the body, and you awaken as your attentional principle, your spirit, or your Soul. Spiritual awakening introduces you to the immortal principles within yourself—and if you do not slam the door shut out of fear—this deeper aspect of yourself will reveal its gifts, and bestow upon you an intuition of a greater purpose or mission.
Academic or vocational calling – This occurs when you read something in a book, watch a video, hear a lecture or attend a class, or observe someone perform the actions of their career, and you realize that this topic or career you are encountering or witnessing is what you want to study and do in your life. This discovery of your academic or career track happens when you recognize this is what you genuinely want to do. Excitement and enthusiasm mark this discovery: it makes you want to learn all you can about this topic or this career.
Awakening of faith in God – Faith arises when you encounter a universal or cosmic being that appears to you to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, and you choose to establish a relationship with this being. Encountering this being awakens feels of reverence, devotion, awe, humility, and love for this being. Those who follow religions and spiritual groups in which there is a ritualized tradition of worship develop faith. Faith shapes their whole lives through inculcating moral values, encouraging specific prayers and meditations, and encouraging the practice of ceremonies or rituals that deepen identification as a member of that group.
Transformation – There are two types of transformation: personal and spiritual.

Personal transformation is a radical change in your personal life or circumstances that you attribute to the guidance or coaching of another person or a miraculous, supernatural phenomenon. You can also initiate personal transformation through your choice to establish new habits, to operate from an alternative mindset, and to do things in a new and better way.
Spiritual transformation takes two major forms: rebirth and movement into a new state of being.
Rebirth is a change of perception of who you are. Rebirth occurs when you receive an attunement—receiving the Holy Spirit, Shaktipat, or Light Immersion—that brings your attention into union with a spiritual essence. Depending on the attunement you receive, this spiritual essence can be your spirit, a nucleus of identity, or an ensouling entity. In rebirth, you experience that this essence is your true nature. The rebirth experience can also be generated when you listen to the retelling of a mystery tale, or you receive formal diksha—the conveying of meditation instructions that enable you to gain union with a spiritual essence.
Movement of your spiritual essence to a new state of being, which is called Initiation or Samadhi, occurs when your Soul—or other spiritual essence—progresses along its track into a new nodal point. This unfolding bestows new knowledge; new love, understanding, and virtue; and awakens heretofore dormant abilities. [We teach you how to generate spiritual transformation in our intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation, or the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.]

These formative experiences become a permanent part of your life story.

If you have one or more traumatic experiences in your life, your life story may have to do with how you are coping with the aftermath of that experience, or how you have learned to overcome it.
If it is acknowledgement that changes your life, you may be on a mission to acknowledge, validate, and empower others. Many therapists, counselors, healers, and coaches trace their choice to enter a helping profession to their own experience of being truly loved, known, and accepted.
If successful performance has changed your life, you may be an advocate of performing successful action and establishing a track record of success. You may believe that you can set goals and achieve whatever you visualize. You may have gone on to achieve career and life success and wealth through implementing this key life strategy.
If spiritual awakening has dawned in your life, you may have completely transformed how you live, how you see the world, and to what you now commit your life. Spiritual awakening may radically transform your priorities.
If you have had clear insight into your academic or career calling, you typically have followed that lead to gain the education and training that enables you to do that as your life’s work.
If you have had the awakening of faith, you may have felt led to join a religious or spiritual group, which has instilled new values and reformed your character, shaped your beliefs and behavior through adherence to the principles of your faith’s scriptures, and inspired you to attempt to commune with the spiritual being your worship through prayer and meditation.
If you have undergone personal transformation, you have undergone changes that have completely revolutionized your life.
If you have undergone spiritual transformation, your worldview, and every aspect of your Soul—or other spiritual essence you are transforming—has expanded into a deeper, wiser, and more loving state of being.

It is important to reflect upon what were your formative experiences, and how they have shaped who you are today. Some people have several formative experiences. Some have only one. A few people have never had one of these major formative experiences.

What formative experiences have you had?
How did this experience impact your life? Affect your spirituality? How is your life or spirituality different?
Have your formative experiences had negative consequences in your life? How?
Have your formative experiences produced positive outcomes in your life? In what ways has your life been improved or enhanced?
If you had not had this formative experience, how would your life be different?
What new strengths or abilities have come to you as the result of your formative experiences?
What new insights did your formative experiences provide for you?
How have your formative experiences influenced your relationships, your career, or your life direction?

Formative experiences can be a powerful catalyst for change and growth. However, in some cases, when these experiences are negative, they can cast a shadow upon everything in your life. How you use the opportunity a formative experience provides you can open your life to new possibilities that make all the difference in your life and spirituality.

May you be rightly guided to utilize these experiences to gain maximum benefit.

Awakening Inner Gifts

Posted on December 15, 2017 by george_oss

By George A. Boyd

Q: I was wondering if you would be able to tell me which abilities my Soul has on the Temple of Art Subplane? Also, you mentioned something in a previous talk about past-life abilities coming up. Do you have any idea what these could be, artistic or otherwise?

A: In one of the Mudrashram® Correspondence Course lessons, there is a listing of different art forms that are encountered in this Subplane of the Abstract Mind Plane. Perhaps even better than my doing a reading for you, however, would be for you to interface with your Soul and let it show you.

I would start by encountering each of these art forms. For example, you could go to a local museum to see paintings and sculptures, read a collection of poetry, listen to a variety of different types of music, or watch a show on dancing—or investigate these things through videos on the Internet. See if you experience a desire to express yourself in this way. The objective of this exercise is to trigger your native genius for art.

There are seven major ways you will uncover an artistic gift, or other ability your Soul has developed:

Random or chance discovery – You discover the gift through coincidence or a serendipitous encounter. You stumble upon the gift. For example, I was talking to a friend in 1980, and our conversation turned to past lives. She asked me, “Who do you think I was in my past lives?” I responded, “you were this, you were this, and you were this…” I had this inner exact knowing that I had never realized I possessed. I have since concretized this gift as the ability to do past life readings for others, which I have done since 1983.
Academic or vocational discovery – You take a class in school that lights you up inside, or you take a course at a vocational school or on the job training that makes you feel you were born to do this. I had this feeling when I took my first psychology class.
Inquiry – You actively ask your Soul to show you its gifts and abilities. You establish a question and answer dialog with your Soul.
Internal discovery – You meditate on the levels of your Superconscious mind and you encounter an archetypal form in the Temple of Art that represents your gift.
Interest inventory – You take an interest and aptitude test to discover what interests you and what might be one of your strengths, where you might have existing skills and strengths. These tests are available online and at the counseling office of your local college.
Asking for guidance and revelation – Here you might ask God to reveal your gifts. You could also go to a reader to tell you what these gifts are—someone who has the ability to recognize an archetypal form that represents a budding gift. I use this type of reading when I do my seed thoughts for meditation reading, for example.
Spontaneous expression – Your Soul will just start doing the gift. For example, a visual artist will start obsessively doodling and drawing. A musician will start sounding out tunes on a piano or a guitar. A graphics artist will fool around with a graphics or paint program on their computer.

The sign you’ve kindled your artistic gift is that you’ll start imagining and thinking about what you want to create. You’ll find your unique artistic voice.

Past life abilities do not always have a place in your current life. Let’s say, for example, that you built outrigger canoes in a past life. You would have no place to use that skill in your current life. If you did go to the small island in Indonesia where you used this skill, the impressions of this skill might come back to you—you just wouldn’t have a use for it in modern Detroit, Michigan.

But other skills that you developed in past lives, you might continue to explore. For example, if you played a primitive three stringed instrument in a life you had in Africa, you might be attracted to play a guitar or vina in this life.

The Soul has a native genius. You bring out that genius through practicing the skill until you are proficient, and you develop a habit. Then you can innovate. Then you start gaining insights that enable you to do the skill at an advanced level. Finally, this gift becomes fully integrated into the Soul, and you can use this ability to express your Soul’s intent and vision fully.

There are many other areas that your Soul can express its gifts, in addition to artistic genres. Here are just a few examples:

Leadership
Military strategy
Public service
Diplomacy and negotiation
Teaching
Counseling
Therapy
Coaching
Business management, sales, and entrepreneurship
Meditation and stress reduction
Martial Arts
Yoga
Sports
Scientific disciplines
Research
Medical and Healing Arts professions
Philosophy
Psychic Intuitive Arts and Metaphysical Counseling
Ministry

Ask your Soul to show you its gifts and abilities in the area of art and each other area in which it has gained proficiency in this and other lifetimes. Examine the zone it has opened so far—so if your Soul has opened the Biophysical Universe, the Abstract Mind Plane, the Psychic Realm, and the Wisdom Plane in the Planetary Realm, you would inquire as to which of your gifts you have activated so far in each band of the Continuum that your Soul has brought into the sphere of its opened consciousness.

Realize that many of these gifts may be in a rudimentary or incipient stage of development. But once you realize that the gift is there, you can begin to actively develop it.

Gifts do not normally spring into full bloom like Venus rising from the foam, but if you have either started them in your current life or a past life, you may have already developed some proficiency with this ability, and you will develop it from there. But other gifts, once you discover them and become aware that this ability is part of the repertoire of skills your Soul must use to enact its Purpose, you will start from the beginning—and with much study and practice, you will hone this raw talent into an instrument through which your Soul brings forward its clearest vision and deepest passion.

How Do I Know My Life’s Purpose?

Posted on December 8, 2017 by george_oss

Q: How do I know my Soul’s purpose for this life?

A: There are two type of purpose: Extrinsic (Expressed) Soul Purpose and Intrinsic (Innate) Soul Purpose.

Your Intrinsic Soul Purpose includes the tasks your Soul has come to accomplish on its Aeonic spiritual journey. These are shown as archetypes in your higher unconscious behind your Soul. We do a reading called a Soul Purpose Reading to find these archetypes to you and to show you what your Soul is called to uniquely bring forth as its service and ministry to humanity and the other Kingdoms of Nature.

Your Extrinsic Soul Purpose isn’t something someone reads for you; rather, your own Soul reveals it to you. It is that aspect of your Soul’s Aeonic Mission that is expressed in your current life. Some of the ways you discover your Soul’s Expressed Purpose include:

You are led to read certain books. These books just jump out at you. You feel fascinated and have to read them. They reveal to you key ideas that construct the core philosophy of your life, show you the way forward for your career, and help you resolve pressing problems that are obstacles to you moving forward.
You experience fascination with a particular academic subject or topic. For example, you might read a college catalog, and you feel a strong desire to take certain classes, to explore certain majors, or study a subject in greater depth.
You discover your artistic gifts. After exposure to different art forms, you find one that speaks to you and you want to practice it more. With further practice, you expand your talent and become proficient in that art form.
You happen upon your authentic career. You find a career that is interesting, enjoyable, and truly engages your faculties. You feel you are making a difference. You want to go to work each day to move forward with this project in which you are engaged.
You uncover the facets of your Soul’s ministry. These are helping modalities that you feel called to learn and use to help others. They include healing, counseling, therapy, doing readings, teaching, guiding, or initiating. In these modalities, your Soul is directly expressing its gifts in you after preparing your personality through education and training to be its instrument.
You are shown you need to take initiation into a spiritual Path. You may have a strong attraction to a spiritual teaching if you were initiated into it in a past life. You may be called to embark on a new spiritual Path you have never experienced if it is part of your Soul’s spiritual destiny and helps you express its Soul Purpose.
You are guided to carry out discrete sequences of actions that actualize your Soul’s Purpose. Here you concretize the aspects of the archetypes of your Soul’s inner work that appear as thrones, stars, and your Crown of Purpose in your higher unconscious. Your Soul directs you and you follow its guidance to complete aspects of development that enable your Soul to express its work. For example, if your Soul’s work was to be a chief executive officer, you would need to learn and practice each of the aspects of that role—leadership, strategic planning, management, selecting optimal staff, communicating, accounting, and controlling business outcomes to actually function as a CEO.

We encourage you to think about those moments in your life when your Soul pointed you in a particular direction, led you to explore and study certain topics, or gave you the conviction that a particular course of action was the correct next step. By the time your Soul takes the Third Planetary Initiation, it begins to develop a posture of more clearly directing your personality to work on its core service and mission.

For those of you who want to explore the different levels of purpose in greater depth, we recommend you take The Purpose Workshop, which everyone can take without any prerequisites in the Public Webinar section of our website. Go to the Public Webinar Access Page and click on the Public Webinars tab to see the list of available webinars. You will be asked to sign in—if you are not yet a member, you will be asked to register to create a membership page for you—and then you can view it in your membership area.

Please see Tips for Navigating this Website to understand the ins and outs of finding your way around here!

The Seven Distortions of the Psychic Realm

Posted on December 1, 2017 by george_oss

Q: What are some of the challenges aspirants face in the Psychic Realm?

A: The Psychic Realm is called the world of illusion. Seven major misrepresentations of perception and knowing contaminate the spiritual teachings that come from the Psychic Realm.

These illusions distort the Soul’s clear vision and lead to misapprehension of the working of the laws of the mind, and promote irrational thinking and false beliefs. These seven distortions are briefly described below.

Solipsism – In this view, only the Self and its mental content is real, and is the only creative force. This ignores the natural events of the world, the actions of other people, and spiritual agencies that operate independently of the Self as causative factors. This leads aspirants to profound narcissistic absorption, and creates genuine distress when their efforts at creation do not bear immediate fruit or when others do not acquiesce to their every whim.
Amorality – In this perspective, there is no good or evil, only undifferentiated Oneness. This leads the aspirants who experience this distortion to abide in peace and sublime detachment. Holding this point of view suppresses their ability to act on truth, to stand up for what is right and just, and to honor your values and integrity. [We are reminded that if anything is fine, and there is no good or evil, then criminals will rule and anarchy will prevail.]
Omnipotence – From this standpoint, it appears that whatever aspirants intend or wish will magically and miraculously manifest. This leads to unrealistic notions about the Laws of the Universal Mind, the Law of Attraction, and the purported “motivations of the universe”—that they only exist to instantly fulfill their every desire. If this instant manifestation does not occur, then aspirants blame their thoughts and emotions, which they believe are in some manner blocking or hindering these beneficent forces.
Present time absorption – In this distortion, aspirants keep their attention focused on the “eternal now.” By keeping their attention fixed in this altered state of consciousness, they neglect the adoption of appropriate orientation to their temporal experience. They abandon the immediacy of the experienced present in the Conscious mind; shun the storehouse of lived experience in the reservoir of memory in their Subconscious mind; and neglect the future orientation of Metaconscious mind that enables them to plan and set goals. These other three temporal orientations play important roles in adult functioning and in promoting personal growth—continuously abiding in the perspective of the eternal can effectively shut down personal functioning.
Magical and paranoid thinking – When aspirants operate from this mindset, they run the risk of generating irrational thinking through transcending grounded awareness, suppressing reason and reality testing, and re-identifying as a spiritual essence. Belief in conspiracy theories, spiritual fantasies, and the content of unfounded channeled messages readily promote paranoia and delusion in those who do not take the time to examine these warped ideas to discover in what ways they introduce distortion and untruth.
Glamour – This distortion occurs when aspirants misunderstand the phenomena of the Psychic Realm, and they tend to over-value, exaggerate, and idealize the content that comes from this band of the Continuum. Glamour also idealizes and makes people larger than life—actors and sports stars become “celebrities,” famous and gifted people are viewed as infallible gods and goddesses.
Warped notions of transformation and ascension – In this distortion, aspirants come to believe that the misalignment of one of their vehicles of consciousness in the Psychic Realm is “ascension.” They use Kriya-like practices such as the Merkaba method to create “transformation,” which creates spiritual imbalance, and generates perceptual illusions and cognitive delusions. Some who perform these unbalancing practices come to believe they are “the Christ” or a “Master,” even though their Soul’s spiritual evolution is far below the station in which the Masters genuinely dwell.

We encourage aspirants to examine themselves to determine whether any of these distorted viewpoints are operating in them, and to root them out.

Aspirants will benefit from reading our book, The Psychic Realm: Finding Safe Passage through the Worlds of Illusion for guidance on how to combat these illusions.

If you have been exposed to the charismatic and visionary teachers that dwell in this realm, or channeled teachings that arise from this Band of the Continuum, it is likely you have been exposed to one or more of these distortions. We suggest that it will be valuable for you to remain vigilant, as it is very easy to slip into these seductive mindsets that abandon reason and personal responsibility, and promote irrationality and delusion.

Reflections on Enlightenment

Posted on November 25, 2017 by george_oss

Q: What is enlightenment? It seems every group has their own description of what enlightenment means, and it is confusing.

A: There are many definitions of enlightenment. It may be helpful for us to break enlightenment down into its component parts, so you can understand what it happening.

Enlightenment is a state experienced in the Superconscious mind. In it, you transcend the personality and your attention becomes completely absorbed in a spiritual essence. In Mudrashram® we look to your union with your ensouling entity at the cutting edge of spirituality as the natural nexus of enlightenment; in other groups, they may define this enlightened essence as a nucleus of identity, spirit, or ensouling entity outside the cutting edge of awareness.
In enlightenment, you experience Gnosis. This is a state of identification when the God Atom in the core of the Soul awakens, and you identify as that inner Divinity. You are conscious that you are one with the God Immanent, the Presence of God within your Soul (Atma Samadhi). In groups that teach you to identify with another spiritual essence, you experience a similar state of Gnosis for that spiritual essence.
In the ecstatic state of enlightenment, your illumined mind (Buddhi) turns on so that it reveals every level of your Superconscious, Metaconscious, Subconscious, and Conscious mind. It reveals the seed atom in which your Soul is reflected and all of the content at each level of the mind. In groups that lead your attention to focus on another spiritual essence, there is a similar multi-dimensional insight that is kindled.
In this state, the highest octave of will within you is switched on, and you become aware of all of the latent powers of your Soul. If you are meditating on another spiritual essence, you will experience the abilities (siddhis) that are anchored on that part of the Continuum.
In enlightenment, you experience the relative omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence that are present in your God Atom—or in another spiritual essence that other Paths use for contemplation. This is a state beyond time and space, beyond body and universe—you feel a sense of ecstatic god-likeness.
In the enlightened state, your ego boundaries temporarily dissolve and you experience yourself as the God Atom within your Soul. You may feel that a veil has been rent, and you are finally at one with the true core of you—your ego and personality are revealed to be vehicles for the Soul’s expression—and you break your identification with these personal integration centers for the period you are in the state of enlightenment.
For many people, the Kundalini Shakti will be fully raised into the God Atom with in the Soul in the state of enlightenment. When this occurs, the personality shuts down and you experience the Soul in its primordial light. When Kundalini drives enlightenment, you experience is an ineffable state; you are unable to speak. It lifts you into a mystic state, which dwells far beyond the ability of reason or intellect to penetrate. It grants you ecstasy, conveying the highest bliss and joy. [The awakening of the Kundalini is not required to experience enlightenment, but when your enlightenment experience combines Kundalini awakening with attentional union and identification, it is much more profound.] In other Paths, Kundalini is raised to activate other spiritual essences, which similarly intensifies the experience.

There are a number of misconceptions of enlightenment, which we would like to briefly address.

Enlightenment requires that you transform a spiritual essence to a particular state on the Path. For example, some traditions teach that attainment of the 7th chakra on a Supracosmic Path or awakening of the brain chakra in the First Cosmic Initiation convey enlightenment. Actually, you can experience enlightenment at any stage along the Path on which your spiritual essence unfolds.
Enlightenment occurs after only years of meditation. You can experience the enlightened state relatively early in your meditation career if you use selected meditation tools effectively. There are teachers who specialize in training you how to enter the state of enlightenment—they report even novice meditators are able to enter this state.
Once you become enlightened, it is permanent. It is only permanent if you do not ever separate your attention from the Divine Atom within you—most people who experience the enlightened state of mind spend time in this ecstatic state, but return to normal awareness again.
The awakening of the Kundalini is required for enlightenment. As we have said before, if you reach the state of enlightenment and your Kundalini concurrently awakens, you will have a much more powerful experience, but it is not required.
Enlightenment means realizing you are Brahman. In Vedanta and Advaita Jnana Yoga traditions, enlightenment is defined as identifying with Brahman. We suggest that this is an enlightened state, a state of Samadhi, but enlightenment is normally associated with the God Atom within the Soul or other spiritual essence—the God Immanent—rather than the Soul of the Universe, or God Transcendent, like Brahman.
You cannot attain enlightenment unless you maintain the highest standards of virtue and purity. Keeping the heart, mind, and body pure will certainly help your meditation, but it does not guarantee enlightenment. We suggest facility with meditation combined with the Grace of God and the Masters plays a greater role in attaining enlightenment than holiness—spiritual literature abounds with stories of rakes and scoundrels who had an enlightenment experience despite being sinners. Indeed, the enlightenment experience inspired them to change their behavior and dedicate themselves to God, which ultimately transformed them into saints.
You can only become enlightened if you receive an attunement from a Master. The granting of Light Immersion or Shaktipat can trigger enlightenment, but many people experience the enlightened state without this Omnific Attunement.
Taking a psychedelic drug can make you enlightened. Some people, in the proper setting, have touched the state of enlightenment during their drug experience. People have reported these experiences with LSD, peyote, mescaline, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and other hallucinogenic drugs. These drugs take you on a passive astral journey, where you have little control over the depth to which you travel in your mind or the locations you visit, so while some individuals have had enlightenment experiences with these substances, the vast majority of people do not.
Once you attain enlightenment, you have completed your spiritual journey—there is no higher state to attain. When you become enlightened, you gain the relative enlightenment available in the nodal point where your Soul dwells. The Soul—or other spiritual essence—still must complete the remainder of its spiritual development to rise to Mastery and Liberation. Many misguided individuals, having an enlightenment experience, have concluded they were Buddha or Jesus Christ. We point out that Buddha and Jesus transformed their spiritual essences to the highest state of development on many bands of the Continuum. Look in the Hierarchy—they are there. Look at the stage of Perfect Master or Sat Guru on Transcendental Paths—they are lineage holders among the long line of Masters who bring the Light anew to those of each generation.
Only my Master is enlightened. Enlightenment experiences can be had at each level of the Continuum—Subtle, Planetary, Transplanetary, Cosmic, Supracosmic, and Transcendental. They can be had on each of the active Supracosmic Paths and on each of the Transcendental Path. They are not the exclusive province of any Path or lineage.
When you become enlightened, you become an empowered teacher. Empowerment means that the Divine anoints you to minister, guide, teach, and initiate at some level of Mastery on the Continuum. Some rare individuals have become enlightened concurrently when they were anointed, but most individuals have an enlightenment experience way before they ever ascend into the presence of the Divine and they are empowered to operate as an Initiate or Master.
Enlightenment ends the necessity to reincarnate. Freedom from birth and death occurs when you complete your spiritual development, not when you discover the God Atom within the Soul. The necessity from physical embodiment is attained upon union of the Soul with the Monad after completing spiritual work at the Subtle and Planetary bands of the Continuum (the state of the Planetary Adept); from astral embodiment, with the liberation of the Astral Soul in the Brahma Jyoti after completing both the Transplanetary and Cosmic legs of the spiritual evolutionary journey; and from causal embodiment, at the Mahatma stage on the Bridge Path.

We invite aspirants and disciples—from whatever spiritual tradition you adhere—to contemplate these benchmarks that are required to enter the state of enlightenment. We also encourage you to examine whether you may be clinging to some of these misguided notions, and to jettison them.