Soul Out of the Box — Awakened Experience
What does it feel like to be an evolved person awake to one’s true person?
I can write about the theory of this awakened consciousness.
I know the signs that a person has arrived like a deep love for all (including the jerks) and a sense of oneness with everything.
But as for my journey towards this lofty goal, don’t ask me. Try interviewing the Dalai Lama or Jesus.
I feel like a kid on stage waiting for the performance to begin; I peek through the curtain at the audience.
I catch a glimpse of that world through the corner of my eye.
I aspire to more fully gaze at that non-physical world before I die.
Here’s what I see. In the sphere of eternal consciousness there is
1. A thin veil between this world and the next.
We are eternal beings and the next world is a heartbeat away.
The Scriptures report that we are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses”.
Studies of near death experiences by Psychiatrist Bruce Greyson, in his book “After”, demonstrate that we continue to an afterlife. And this place, though largely shrouded in mystery, is not restricted for a few special people or one religion.
Here heaven is not experience as a gated community just for Christians of a certain brand. Nor do we purchase the entrance fee by becoming “born again”. All who leave this physical life enter this realm of love, light, and make an honest review life was lived on earth.
But while we walk on this earth our ancestors are with us all the time.
You may want to read the articles written by my wife Dr. Kristine MacKain on her experiences with ancestors around the time that her mother passed away. https://readmedium.com/fc03106a367b
2. A consciousness that is present with us right now
Another word for consciousness is Soul. That true self does not have to be imported from some far away spiritual realm. It’s an integral part of our physical brain but does not go to dust when we die. It’s like saying my desk is made from oak but it also belonged to my grandfather. It has both a physical history as well as a non physical destiny.
Soul is what we are right now. It’s just that our minds are too constricted with self-created narratives that keep us from realizing our true selves.
The key to a soul experience is to get over that self. How then do we feed a soul and starve an ego?
3. Experience the soul with the eye of the heart
It’s that interior dwelling that some refer to as the Soul or what Thomas Merton calls the “True” self.
This awareness is quite distinct from my once head-oriented dogma-bound beliefs.
Authors like Cynthia Bourgeault refer to this capacity as “Seeing with the eye of the heart.” It is the same place that I point to when I ask my patients, “What does your inner wise person tell you about this challenge you face?”
To me, the heart is not the physical organ nor is it our emotional self. Rather, it is a level of consciousness beyond our five physical senses. It is that reliable inner GPS that makes connection with the transcendent world outside of our skin as well as deep within our psyche.
The shift to my inner awareness occurs in a number of ways.
When I stop to contemplate the hundreds of cottonwood trees that border the river where we live, I experience the Eternal. I get a hint of the transcendent when my dogs intuitively know what I am feeling. They respond in a way that seems to mirror my innermost thoughts. I also approach awareness when I transcend some of my ego identifications. “I am a psychologist” is slowly being displaced by “I am” especially now that I am retired. In moments of blissful connection with the Source of all being in my pre-dawn meditation, my self is expanded to access the depths of love. This is a place of awareness beyond all feelings and thoughts.
Such experiences confirm for me the phenomena of panentheism, God in everything which is very different from pantheism or Divinity is everything.