Many people have profoundly deep spiritual experiences yet don’t share them for fear of being considered different, or even “crazy”. A participant in my Divine Human Program just told me that after one of our classes, she had several days of great existential experiences, including feeling timelessness, seeing luminous light beings around everyone, and great waves of bliss and love. Yet she hadn’t shared it right away, even in a deeply spiritual setting, for fear of being judged, or perhaps even more painful, her own fear that it may not be “real.”
Personally, after 23 radio broadcasts on World Puja network, I am just now sharing my stories of spiritual awakening and realized how important it was not to just present where I am now, but where I was and how it all started for me.
My Spiritual Awakening
Shortly after my father succumbed to lung cancer, I went to a gathering where a spiritual teacher from India was chanting on a video in Sanskrit. I couldn’t understand a word and started to become frustrated. But every time her eyes met the camera, I got butterflies in my stomach, like when you are in grade school and the boy you like passes you a note. It was the same when I met her in person. Being near her, I felt all tingly.
Within a few months I attended an intensive, where the guru bestows the blessing of “Shaktipat”— awakening the dormant spiritual energy “coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine”. They described many different ways this could happen, but nothing did. Except that I felt giddy in love.
I went back to Washington, DC where I practiced law and entered a kind of lucid dreaming state. “Then I saw her face… and I’m a Believer!” (this part you really should listen to the audio!) A beam of light came from between her brow, or Third Eye chakra representing the inner vision, and zapped me in the same place between the brows, and I slipped into the deepest meditation and remembered nothing else.
When I awoke hours later, I felt entirely different, like my whole life had changed in that split second transmission. I felt brand new, totally alive, and beyond excited about what else was possible on this path I just discovered. Kind of like discovering the world was not only not flat, but it wasn’t the only world! There were endless unexplored realities brimming with adventure and I had just started the trek. This was a classic Shaktipat awakening.
No Words or Context
Aside from the fear of being judged, part of the problem with sharing these spiritual experiences is there are very limited words to express these new subtle realms and energetic experiences. It is almost necessary to create a new language, which is why many spiritual paths and traditions seem to have their own code words that newcomers can’t understand at first.
It can also be such new territory that there is no context for the experience. For example, a well-known Indian spiritual master, Muktananda was meditating and began to become very heated. Internally, it felt like a fire was lit in his abdomen. He was burning up. So he opened his eyes, and he perceived his hut was on fire. He ran outside, and the fields surrounding him were all ablaze. He ran screaming FIRE! FIRE! And it took a long time for the villagers to cool and calm him down and convince him they were safe. But he still could not make any sense of what had happened.
Lo and behold, the house he was recuperating in had a small obscure book which opened to a page describing exactly the meditation he just experienced! The purpose was to ignite the fire of yoga within, and burn away all impurities. This was one of his final initiations in his journey of enlightenment.
He vowed to write down all of his experiences, especially the really strange and intense ones, in a book entitled the Play of Consciousness, so that others on the path would find comfort and explanations for these out-of-the-box events. It is also why many teachers encourage satsang, or being in the company of those who seek the truth, so that you are supported along the way.
Validation
Many times what I find I offer my students is validation of these spiritual experiences. They tell me their stories of trippy meditations, of miraculous energy healing, and of amazing connections with Spirit. Nearly every single person — man, woman and child — that I have worked with will describe a situation that they haven’t told anyone else ever.
Experiences of expansion beyond the body, tingles all over, and being bathed in great Light. Tales of feeling kitty footsteps across the bed after their cat crossed over. Or feeling the fur cuddled against their arm. Hearing their departed dog barking. Or seeing a cougar in their cage weeks after transition.
Each person’s rational mind invariably kicks in, doubting it even as they speak, wondering if they really witnessed these phenomena and secretly hoping for validation. Because somewhere they know what they felt, saw, and heard but don’t know who to share it with that will truly listen without judgment. And perhaps will even acknowledge a similar strange spiritual experience.
Permission
The best part about sharing these spiritual stories may be that it gives someone else permission to be who they are. To stop playing small and doubting themselves. To claim their light and connection to Spirit, and all the wonderful mystical mysteries of life.
So, I invite all of you to come out of the “spiritual closet” and share those zany, wonderful, magical mystical experiences you haven’t shared with anyone. Yet. You are in good company. You are in satsang here, in the company of the truth seekers. Who knows who you may inspire and empower? Blog on!
If you’d like to go deeper into your healing, manifesting and awakening journey, I’d love to help, 
Thank you for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading it.
Whenever you look at it, visualize your needs, and make them known to the Universe.
The survival of the soul through the change called death is on the verge
of being openly acknowledged by scientists and scholars of academic
circles. There is a wonderful science fiction story ‘ a John Collier story ‘ that brings this idea home.
Two True Stories of Spiritual Experiences literally “Out of This world”
“I was twenty-two years old, and it was the early nineteen seventies.
A book landed in my lap about the soul, reincarnation,
our Companion/Creator, and gratefully, the pieces fell together
as was planned, I’m sure.
Suddenly, there was nothing more important to me
than restoring the missing link with my Father/Creator.
So one day, armed with some suggested head, neck, and
breathing exercises that would only require a few minutes of
concentration, I embarked upon my first effort at meditation.
I would talk to my Creator in prayer, and then listen for Him.
I was simply happy to finally have a direction in life,
which was now and for the first time,
to say hello to my Creator and thank Him
for choosing me to be a part of this whole Eternal plan and clan,
and to see if there was anything I could do for Him.
I sat in my best comfortable attempt at a lotus cross-legged position.
Now, I cannot hand you my experience,
that being the pure and sincere intimacy through which my mind
and heart traveled for thirty or forty minutes or so, but trust me,
my Entire heart was in it.
So if He had Anything to say,
there was nothing more important to me
from the tips of my toes, to the torch in my heart,
than to tune in.
And I waited . . .
and heard nothing; nothing at all.
Eventually I prayerfully said my good-byes to a voice I never heard and opened my eyes. I felt inwardly good, unfolded my limbs, stretched out on the bed, and was smiling now with eyes closed, basking in the comforting thought that I had the rest of my life to learn how to hear God through meditation. I was proud of my first effort and enjoyed an afterglow
of inner satisfaction . . .
When suddenly
there was a “pop” sound/sensation in my head
(and the following is as best as I can describe the event).
I am instantly taken on an ever-tightening Spiral of Flashing Light,
moving at a tremendous speed,
seemingly upward, yet inward
and I am inside what I can only describe
as a tiny diamond Fire Spark of Divinity
(and God knows I was not in control of the steering).
Now, folks, when the I within the spiral comes to a stop,
how do I say this, except to say that,
“O Lord, I am not worthy”
was the only all-consuming feeling and thought I could muster from
within my very nicely crumbling, overwhelmed, and grateful being,
for I was held in the Infinite Presence of the Face of God,
beyond the scope of anything we have ever dreamed of,
and there are no words to capture the indescribable
divine wonderment of the creative source of all life.
It’s all way too big for any of the boxes
we have sought to put our Creator in,
so I can only humbly,
and do so now in the name of peace,
assure you,
We are in Unfathomably Good Hands.
I don’t know how long I was “there.”
I was looking into forever and stripped of my Timex.
When my eyes opened, I had returned as me, in this body, in this world,
and I also understood clearly,
I was not of it.
None of us are native earthlings; but rejoice,
we get the best of all worlds.
(Afterward, I did recall that while I was in that Presence, it felt as though I was in some sort of an invisible, spherical, almost egg-shaped protective energy bubble that seemed to have provided me safe passage and kept me intact, as it were, though nothing . . . could ever be the same.
Implications that I would like to point out:
I would say that I went from the consciousness of material solidity (the physical body, the earth, and the awareness of myself as the human I am) and spiraled into the realm and throne of our Divine Source,
in maybe five seconds!
(And God knows that traveling at the speed of Light eliminated any chance of me screaming for help.)
To me, that’s an intriguing thought that begs contemplation in terms of the supposed reality we find ourselves in. It seems as though time and space are conceptualized tools of measurement at our disposal. They allow us the opportunity to experience and express our divine self through the vehicle of the evolution of an individual soul destined to be co-creative companions to the Creator.
Wonder how we’re all doing?
I would say divinely well, regardless of appearances.
I saw God,
though Not as a man,
as this experience is apparently only made possible by accessing
the spiritual dashboard of Our Piece of the Spark and Spirit of Life.
And trust me, it’s the best piece you’ll ever have.
Also, in an effort to further convey the experience to the reader,
I feel that the phrase “I saw God” should be worded differently.
“The Presence gave me sight of the Truth of Itself,”
and the little eyeball orbs we are used to using here
had no meaning there, and were knocked out of commission
in favor of absorbing the Light of the Divine Force of Life and Love.
And I was totally humbled,
but not because God wanted me to feel humble
(nope, that was all my idea),
but because I found it impossible to not melt
before such as is our Father and Creator.
(I doubt you will do much better, but you won’t care anyway.)
By the way, you will find there are no “questions” floating around your mind at that moment
(in case you are saving up a good one for when you see Him next).
All there is really is one Way Big Answer.
It has never happened since (never needed it to), and I have always been amused at the fact that it occurred only on my first attempt at meditation, and only when I had finished that effort. My word for that is . . .
cute
(and I know where my sense of humor came from).
Another implication I draw from the experience is that our religious dogmas and doctrines most often do not support the possibility of any direct approach for us to experience our divine self, plus we have generally accepted that our invisible God is also unknowable and consciously perceived as a separate entity from us. And “as you believe, so shall it be done” is again applicable to what we do or don’t experience. We have many self-imposed boundaries that we might do well to drop from our minds and hearts, but that is forever up to each one of us and the paths we choose.
I just wanted people to know, you always have options
that you may have not even known existed.
So thirty-seven or so years have passed without ever hearing any information about anyone seeing God lately. Then just recently, I stumbled upon a Hebrew word, the Merkabah, via the Internet and YouTube. You may search “merkabah” for yourself to retrieve the relevance I found to the above “true story.” But suffice it to say, I was pleased to have found such information.
We know not of what brilliance we proceed from
unless we care to seek and know of such stuff.
And what Father would hide from His children?
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Pretty simple and direct,
with no qualifying time frame given for such endeavors.
It’s always totally up to us
to seek whatever we will, whenever we will.
Also for the record, I am not suggesting in any way
that the purpose of anyone’s life
should be to have a face-to-face meeting with God.
The experiences we seek are those that the soul outlines
before arrival and extension into this place.
They may have the appearance of something far removed from
spiritual endeavors, and yet be the perfect path for the soul.
But I am sure it will Never hinder the progress of any soul
to wear the face of God that we have been given
in a manner that promotes compassion, mercy, forgiveness,
and goodwill toward all man.
And I was going to stop right there,
but I find I must share one more wonderfully true story.
Let this be for
. . . those who have seen their beloved pass from their view . . .
. . . those who lie ill and are without hope . . .
. . . those who are afraid of their human mortality . . .
. . . and for those who long for peace with life . . .
The following is my best description of
a very personal and a most remarkably true event.
Several months had passed since I took that spiral staircase journey to God.
I am asleep in my bedroom (3–4 am).
I wake up facing the wall to my left, and I raise my head.
Compelled for some reason to turn my head, I look then to the right,
and there, a few feet from my bed, is a Light.
Not a light bulb, nor light coming thru the window.
It was a Light from a different dimension
(Light, that of itself, was alive!)
that just opened up in the middle of my small bedroom.
And I was just about to release an audible “huh?”
When the Light Speaks,
“Be Not afraid; it is I, Peter.”
I barely had time to blink or feel the fear that was just readying to rise
when the voice slowly spoke again,
“Be not afraid; it is I, Peter.”
But this second time the voice and words seem to come from literally everywhere inside me and around me.
I was immersed in their energy and sound,
and I subsequently found myself to have departed from this earth entirely.
I was a Light just like Peter.
I was following behind him, not on legs, however, as I had no human body.
I was more like a
Living Light-filled Expanding Orb of Consciousness,
for lack of better words,
and all of me was totally sobbing with joy!
And I mean, soul-deep sobbing over and over again exclaiming, “It’s so Good to be Home again!” and nothing had ever felt better, truer, and more Real.
Freed from the earth, and finally, Home Again!
YES!!!
We were moving in what felt like a diagonal slant upward direction.
I saw nothing and no one else.
And the further we proceeded, the larger I kept expanding,
all the while filling up even further with a joy that was truly indescribable
and so intense!
Incredibly, in just seconds, it felt as though I had swelled to hundreds of miles in every direction!
(Could there be too much of a “good thing” because I was losing control?)
I was trying to now “hold on” to my (already way the heck out there) boundaries.
I was like a gigantic balloon and my fingertips (that did not exist, though I was trying to use some form of that thought) were stretched to the max and now failing in their effort to contain the now-impending explosion of nuclear joy!
Yikes!?
And as strange or humorously stupid as this may sound,
I was suddenly afraid of “blowing up”!
OK, sure, with Joy Beyond Comprehension,
but still,
I’m feeling like this balloon is going to burst and
Pop! goes the ME-zel.
I stop.
(Apparently fear acts like a brake, even there.)
Peter now stops and turns to me and says gently and with assurance,
“Come, it’s just a little further;
you’re almost there,”
but I reply, “I don’t know how!”
Now is that hysterical or what?
But I really was occupied with the whole “holding on” to some kind of boundary idea, and I feel apologetic (as your brother) that I wimped out at the last moment, a hair’s breadth from certain changes to my ego that I sensed might render me void of any chance of retaining a relevant first and last name, leaving me likely speechless and more likely, me-less.
But Peter knew where I was at before I did, and then warmly confided to me “Just wanted to show you, so you know.” And just as suddenly I was returned to this world; me, my body, the room, my bed, and I was delightfully intact with a whole new understanding of the truth of our soul and of our home not being of this earth, but in that of the infinite ether of spirit.
I slid out of my bed and knelt in profound gratitude and thanked my Father and my brother for this most blessed moment of my life. I knew that all of us—, you, me, your family, friends, neighbors, every one of us—are actually together forever. That was a very reassuring thing to know with absolute certainty at the young age of twenty-two.
This was not a near-death experience; I was simply taken and returned. It was the coolest trip of my life, and the awe and preciousness of it remains with me always. To say I am grateful is an understatement. For those that may wonder if this divine soul-snatcher is the same entity as Peter the disciple of Christ, the topic never came up He never said he was, so I cannot tell you he was, and nothing like that mattered at the time anyway, though “within me,” I do know him to be that brother and your brother. But I would have been equally glad for the lift, no matter the name he gave. It was the coolest trip of my life, and the awe and preciousness of this gift remains with me always.” Sincerely, James Francis
Here is what came from within me, my experience shared honestly.
How do you get good at something? You practice it over and over until you have mastered it. Your soul is going to live over and over again until you have mastered the mind and the body. You chose to be a human on this planet in this life, out of all possabilities. The whole meaning to life is love. You started off as a single energy living multiple lives, jumping from one life to the next, gaining knowlege and experience that leave accumulated emotional imprints on your soul. There is no right or wrong only choice and we must learn from all of our choices . Cause, effect, balance, and karma, every thought and every action you have or do has an equal reaction. Your thoughts have an impact on your body and can manifest your realities.
We are all connected, we are all one, from all life in all infinite possible realities and possabilities. We are all here to experience life together so one day we can all love each other with our pureiest intention. There isn’t one way to look at life there is an infinite amount. Time and space is only constrained to the body and mind, this is why time consistently goes forward. Your body is unique to you and what you put in it becomes apart of you, all the way down to the energy of the molecule and that molecules current energy state. If there is an infinite amount of possibilities then there is an infinite amount of Souls so what is the purpose if I really don’t matter in this endless ocean of life? The answer is, this is your perception, this is your reality, this is your time, and this is your life, and you are here and now alive. So make the best use you can of life, because you are special and you are one of a kind, even when things get tough, all are here for you just reach out, and remember don’t worry because everything is going to be okay. I Love you.