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Summary

The provided content discusses the concept of the "Dark Night of the Soul," a challenging period of spiritual awakening and growth, and offers guidance on navigating its complexities.

Abstract

The article "Surviving & Thriving a 'Dark Night of the Soul'" delves into the personal and spiritual journey one undergoes during a period of intense transformation known as the "Dark Night of the Soul." It explains the duality and polarity inherent in the universe's creation process and how these forces are integral to personal ascension. The text outlines two types of awakenings—nonduality and oneness, and psychic and subtle senses—and discusses the challenges of low vibrational experiences, including physical ailments and emotional distress. It provides insights into transitioning out of such experiences by allowing low vibrations to heal, gradually raising one's body's vibration, and seeking help from psychic and other healers. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding and embracing the cycle of duality to facilitate spiritual growth and ascension.

Opinions

  • The author views the "Dark Night of the Soul" as an essential part of the spiritual awakening process, necessary for personal growth and ascension.
  • The concept of duality is seen as the foundation of all creation, with both positive and negative polarities serving a purpose in the universe's expansion and in an individual's spiritual journey.
  • Nonduality and oneness approaches to awakening are considered beneficial for reducing the intensity of negative emotions and fostering a higher state of consciousness.
  • Psychic and subtle sense awakenings are acknowledged as valid paths that may intensify duality experiences but do not necessarily reduce negative polarities.
  • The author suggests that the physical body's resistance to change can lead to a prolonged period of adjustment during spiritual awakening, sometimes manifesting as physical illness or emotional turmoil.
  • Embracing and healing lower vibrational emotions with love and compassion is advocated as a method for moving past the "Dark Night of the Soul."
  • The article posits that all negative experiences have intrinsic value and contribute to the creation of their positive counterparts, aiding in the individual's spiritual maturation.
  • Trust in the spiritual path and community, akin to the Buddhist principles of taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, is recommended to navigate periods of suffering.
  • The author emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility in the ascension process, with the individual's vibrational state affecting not only themselves but also the collective ascension of the planet.

Personal Ascension

Surviving & Thriving a “Dark Night of the Soul”

[Updated April 25, 2022] How to see duality & polarity as the process of creation.

by Leandro De Carvalho

Non-Medium subscribers can access this full article here.

CONTENTS

[1] What is a ‘Dark Night of the Soul’? — [1.1] The Ego & Awakening — [1.2] The Duality Cycle & Awakening [2] Two Types of Awakenings — [2.1] Nonduality & Oneness — [2.2] Psychic & Subtle Senses [3] The Low Vibration Challenge — [3.1] Physical Ailments & Being ‘Attacked’ [4] Transitioning Out of a ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ — [4.1] Allowing Low Vibrations to Heal — [4.2] Gradually Raising Our Body’s Vibration — [4.3] Psychic & Other Healers [5] Our Buddha Nature [6] Related Resources

[1] What is a ‘Dark Night of the Soul’?

Duality and polarity (positive & negative) are how the universe creates, expands, and ascends. A “Dark Night of the Soul” experience is an integral part of that process. Knowing that can free us from the emotional depression and despair that often accompanies such an experience.

Dark Night of the Soulcomes from a poem written in the 1500s by St. John of the Cross. For him, the darkness was the “unknowableness” of God. Nowadays, it has many interpretations, mostly associated with emotional depression, despair, and physical suffering.

The large number of “awakened” individuals who express “dark night of the soul” experiences in Facebook spirituality groups surprised me. I feel empathy for these individuals, and that drove me, with the help of my guides, to write this article. Below are some reasons this happens and some Higher Self perspectives on how to address them.

[1.1] The Ego & Awakening

ONE common definition of awakening is a realization that we are not our body, mind, emotions, and ego. Our true self is something deeper than that.

Enlightenment is when you fully identify with your true self and not your temporary 3D ego-self. In that state, you never suffer again. Your body and emotions may suffer, but you are not your body and emotions.

A Radical Nonduality (aka Neo-Advaita) awakening goes even further. From that perspective, awakening (or liberation) is the knowing that nothing is real and nothing exists. There is no you who does or can do anything. And there is no purpose to existence — everything just is what it is as it is.

Richard Sylvester suggests (on YouTube) that often leaves people with a sense that everything is “hopeless, helpless, and meaningless”. Nancy Niethercut, another nondualist, poetically says…

awakening feels like losing your mind… and it is terrifying… as you are a product of the mind stream and this thought stream creates the known or fabricated world, it is like losing all that you know including the idea of a know-er… it feels like you are dying… that your world is dying… that time is dying… and for the very few who fall all the way…. there is not even nothing left

For more on Neo-Advaita, including the rest of Nancy’s poem, see:

The initial stages of awakening are always temporary and far from full enlightenment. As the experience of bliss fades, your ego re-emerges to claim itself as who you are — your identity.

That causes a Dark Night of the Soul. It is an existential crisis of identity. And it appears to be a very common experience.

One way to think of that is when we awaken, it fills our body and mind with oneness/unity and bliss/happiness. But we still have old patterns of thoughts and beliefs in our nervous system. Those old patterns re-emerge, often as fear, anger, anxiety, and other undesirable ego emotions.

They arise because we cannot hold both the new higher vibration and the old lower vibration. Our human nervous system is not capable of that. So they come up for us to make a choice to go high or go low.

The goal is to staying in a higher-self vibrational state as we experience and release the old energies of the smaller-self ego. Of course, that is easier said than done.

[1.2] The Duality Cycle & Awakening

ALL manifest reality is based in duality. We often hear that the Light everyone desires cannot exist without the Dark. They are two sides of the same coin. Only Source (God/All That Is) is beyond duality. (Some higher dimensional beings claim to be beyond duality, but I have my doubts.)

Also, everything in our manifest reality is a frequency of energy, from the smallest particle to entire galaxies. As energy, everything is in constant motion, vibrating between positive(+) and negative(-) polarities, which creates the duality of existence.

By vibrating at different rates (including frequencies, cycles, wavelengths, amplitudes and phases) all the forms of manifest reality create the duality and diversity of existence.

There is nothing inherently good or bad in that process. It simply is what it is. Duality originated in the 2nd Dimension (2D) and some say that manifest reality (the universe and all realities) would not exist if it were not for that duality.

It is not only the source of all phenomenal (experiential) reality, but it is also what drives evolution. One polarity draws us and its opposite repels us. In that way, we learn what happiness is for us and we move toward greater happiness.

Because we are each unique, different polarities draw and repel us. That creates diversity.

Duality, therefore, is normal and is how Source experiences itself, by becoming 2 instead of 1 (in 2D). It is how Source creates or manifests all creation.

Duality is also the basis of “time”. Comparing vibrational changes from one moment to the next that gives us a sense of movement through time. Everything cycles endlessly back and forth through a polarity of vibrations (or frequencies) from one extreme to its opposite, creating time.

We regularly see and experience these cycles in our day and night, in our monthly lunar cycle, in our seasons and years around our sun, in our body’s biorhythms, in the complexity of astrological cycles, and in the many other time cycles identified in different cultures across the globe.

As humans, our ego categorizes some of these opposites as “good” and “bad”, and “right” and “wrong”. Spiritually, we consider “lower” vibrations as bad and “higher” frequencies as good and desirable. But from a higher spiritual perspective, we know everything has purpose and value, and everything exists to support the ascension of the universe.

From that perspective, a lower vibrational experience in the cycle of duality (also known as “vibrational flow”) offers the potential to serve as a catalyst for creating newer and better vibration experiences.

⬇ This diagram is a common way the Dark Night Cycle is described on social media. To me, it should not be a circle, but a spiral that is constantly moving upward (ascending). I see the stages as: — Stage 5 is Awakening — Stage 1 is Releasing the Old Consciousness — Stage 2 as Integrating the New Consciousness — Stages 3 & 4 as Expansion through Practice and then back to — Stage 5 with a New Awakening at a Higher Level than the last one.

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One way of thinking of this is that the lower vibrations connect us to the Earth, to physical reality, to our physical body, and to our individual ego self. Many people also report experiencing demons and evil spirits. Those are lower dimensional Astral forms that are reflections of shadows related to our ego self.

The higher vibrational polarity connects us to higher dimensional Astral forms (such as angels), our Higher Self or Soul Self, and to our collective or Universal Soul.

We need to develop both our positive and negative polarities to embody a balanced awakening in this incarnation.

The universe we experience, both physically and spiritually, is the full duality cycle. It includes every positive and negative duality that one can imagine.

It is also an “infinite universe”. That means there is no limit to the diversity of realities and creations that we can imagine. Through the duality cycle, the universe is always and constantly expanding by creating something new.

There is no end to new creations that expand and ascend the universe — that is what infinite means. Resisting and trying to stop the “new” is one way that we experience portions of the duality cycle as emotionally “bad” or “wrong”.

As our infinite universe is forever expanding and ascending through the cycle of vibrational duality, we are also eternally expanding and ascending.

[Note: The social and environmental sciences know the “duality cycle” as the “Adaptive Cycle”. It is what drives social and natural evolution as our environments change over time — see my article on this linked here and below.]

We commonly say that as we ascend on our path (or cycle) of awakening, we raise our vibration to higher levels. Manay also say, we increase both the “positive” and “negative” polarities in our experience. They each become more pronounced and intensified, because they are “two sides of the same coin”.

But because we are raising our consciousness to a higher level, we can (potentially) manage the higher energy levels that we are now generating and experiencing, both positive and negative.

When we cannot do that for the negative polarities, we end up in an unmanageable Dark Night of the Soul experience.

“Some are afraid of the darkness, others play with it.” — anonymous

[2] Two Types of Awakenings

THERE are two general approaches to awakening: (1) developing non-duality and oneness, and (2) developing psychic and subtle sense abilities.

[2.1] Nonduality & Oneness

Awakening approaches that emphasize non-duality and oneness often seek to reduce the polarity of duality. In particular, their methods reduce the intensity of negative (“bad”) emotions. (Positive psychology focuses on this, as well.)

One way that we do this is by learning to calm the mind in meditation (or similar practices). This approach takes us out of our external body and our personality/ego/thoughts, and places use in our Soul or Higher Self consciousness (there are other terms for this, as well).

By doing this, the meditation practice removes us from the duality cycle, which is strongest in our physical self/reality, and gives us a higher state of consciousness perspective. However, unlike in the first approach, above, this consciousness is more of a sense feeling, and less of a mental understanding.

  • I discuss this approach more below in section [4.1] Allowing Low Vibrations To Heal.

Another way that we change the bad into something that is not bad is to developing a neutral stance in which we transform or transmute what we consider bad into a more positive understanding through acceptance and allowance. This transformation is not done by force, but by first understanding the source of certain belief and resistances that we hold.

With that understanding, we then intentionally let go of those beliefs and resistances that no longer serve us. This also often involves re-interpreting or re-understanding something bad from our past by putting it in a higher Soul or Higher Self understanding.

  • I discuss this approach more below in section [4.2] Gradually Raising Our Body’s Vibration.

With both approaches, bad negative perspectives will gradually become more neutral and less intense in our experience.

[2.2] Psychic & Subtle Senses

Awakening approaches that emphasize developing psychic abilities and subtle or inner senses do not specifically seek to reduce polarity, and may even expand the intensity of the duality because those approaches emphasize creativity, imagination, and intuition.

We invoke various rituals and symbolisms to manage the increased energies released by psychic practices. These include the use of crystals, candles, statues, incense, chanting, prayers, hand mudras, and calling for protection from angels and guides.

These are all used to create a positive (good) and protective bubble around us that keeps out negative (bad) energy. Unfortunately, this does not reduce or remove the negative energies, nor our beliefs in them that encourage their continuation.

For this reason, those who mostly experience a form of psychic awakening are perhaps more likely to struggle with low vibrational, and bad emotional, Dark Night of the Soul experiences. In addition, while we do not deny that psychic practices can help “protect” one from darker emotions, especially when they are more externalized, methods discussed below to address these episodes focus on the non-duality approach because it is more beneficial in the long run.

For more on these two types of awakenings, see:

[3] The Low Vibration Challenge

BOTH general approaches to awakening described above (non-duality and psychic) can cause a difficult period of adjustment as we descend from a purely high vibrational state to a more mixed low vibrational state in the natural cycle of duality.

You can also think of this as temporarily falling out of being “awakened”. As the “Awakening vs Enlightenment” article linked above notes, it is extremely rare for anyone to be in a fully awakened or enlightened state 100% of the time. I have heard that only 5 to 10 people on the planet are ever in that full state of consciousness all the time (out of 7.8 billion people).

Some say the experiences of lower vibrations are more likely to happen when one has more of an “emotional” (or energy body) awakening, without a corresponding awakening in their “mental” (or causal body) understanding of the larger context of what is going on. This article is an example of a teaching that helps bring a mental knowing into our understanding of the awakening process.

by northm4nn

In the lower vibrational state, one feels disconnected from the social networks and support systems they have known. They often feel that their world has “fallen apart” in ways that they cannot clearly articulate. Some describe it as a feeling of being “alienated” from the world, as though everything suddenly seems “fake”. Some even feel suicidal.

These feeling can be extremely intense and professional counseling help may be needed if they are too strong. (I recommend this article and this one if you think your spiritual Dark Night is too strong.)

Sometimes they feel that they have new sensory abilities, but that they are completely out of their control, perhaps even giving one a sense of insanity. Those who identify as “empaths” feel that they are taking on the negative emotions or lower vibrations of everyone they encounter, or the whole world.

Both internal or external events can bring these feeling on. Sometimes there is no obvious source, they just suddenly appear.

  1. When the source is clearly internal (things that have accumulated in our minds and bodies over time) we referred to it as “shadow” work.
  2. When the source is more external (such as taking on emotional burdens from external sources) we consider it a characteristic of being an “empath”.

The disoriented low vibrational state can be short-lived or take many years (or maybe lifetimes?) before returning to a more desired, higher vibrational state. Whether internal or external, short- or long-lived, all lower vibrational states are part of the cycle of duality — of the vibrational ebb and flow of the universe.

[Note that from a Higher Self perspective, the division between internal and external sources is not significant. This is because we create every experience we have. Everything we see and interpret in our universe is a mirror of our internal self, and is a lesson for us to learn more about who we truly are.]

“Those souls that experience the greatest degree of contrast are those souls who are seeking the greatest degree of expansion.” — David Strickel

“Your set of problems are of the most creative kind. They are problems from which great potentials can emerge. Your full energy for work and your creative drive is released, and will be, as you creatively use and understand your problems, but not concentrate upon them, not let them close your eyes to the joys and freedoms that you have. You get what you concentrate upon There is no other main rule.” — Seth (Jane Roberts), The Personal Sessions, Book 2, Feb 26, 1972

[3.1] Physical Ailments & Being ‘Attacked’

We can also experience low vibrations physically, as a chronic illness or imbalance that seems impossible to fix, or as an acute illness or physical problem (like a sudden back ache), that inhibits one’s normal activities.

During a recent challenging back problem I had (brought on by shoveling snow), my guides told me there were three ways to interpret this:

  1. I could see it as an attack by lower 4th Dimensional entities who are trying to keep the Earth from ascending. In this understanding, the Earth and I are the same. If they can keep me in a lower vibration, that helps to keep the Earth from ascending. They use both physical and emotional challenges to keep vibrations low. — The reason they want to stop the Earth from ascending to a higher vibrational dimension or density is because they are afraid that they will lose their power and identity in that process.
  2. Similar to #1, this is one way that those of us in the 3rd Dimension experience the Astral Wars of the 4th Dimension. This is especially true if we believe we are possibly on one side or the other in those “4D wars”. — If we can maintain a higher vibration through a physical or psychic attack, we are supporting those Astral energies that support ascension over those that wish to maintain or lower the overall vibration of the universe.
  3. I could also see this from a more individual psychological perspective, in which the physical ailment is a kind of externalization of the deeper shadow issues, dark memories, and negative beliefs I hold within my psyche that desire to be healed. This is like the “shadow” work discussed above, but it manifests itself as a physical ailment.

From a Higher Self perspective, I was told, there is actually no difference in these three sources. They all come from the same place: the deeper belief systems that we hold.

For me, in particular, my back pain was directly related to the planet’s ascension to a higher density. Because this is something that is important to me, I am accepting a good deal of the planet’s shadows.

I could also see this as an Astral attack. But I feel I am in an excellent position to withstand such an attack because of my meditation practice and high vibrational, positive perspective. Whether addressed as an alien attack or a psychic shadow, the most important thing is to approach it from a solid foundation of Love.

One this topic, Seth says,

“There is no accidental universe. You create the accidents. You create the triumphs. Now, each of you create the ambiguous universe that you live in. And, you project your ideas of reality upon it. Now, this is for you [Ned], if you ever doubted it, so if you think you are being persecuted, you are doing the persecution. You are the judge. You are the person who hunts you down the years and the days. When you realize this, no other human being alive will have the power to hurt you or to hunt you. When you realize your own freedom then you are free.” — Seth (Jane Roberts), The Early Class Sessions, Book 2, ESP class, Nov. 17, 1970

[4] Transitioning Out of a “Dark Night of the Soul”

BESIDES the duality cycle, some other reasons (among many, I am sure) for why Dark Night experiences arise include:

  1. Memories of the negative experiences (physical or emotional) in our lives are held in our physical body (especially in our lower chakras) and in our brain, and as we awaken these shadow memories arise to be healed, because they, too, want to experience the new awakening love energy that we hold, and to be healed by it. (based on Lincoln Gergar)
  2. We cycle back and forth between our outer ego (conditioned memory) and the inner soul and oneness (awakening). So we awaken, then we forget and slip back into ego, then we awaken again, and then we forget and slip back again. The more times we awaken, however, and the more different ways we awaken, the shorter the time becomes when we are asleep in the ego. Eventually, the ego periods almost entirely disappear. (based on Rupert Spira)
  3. Our physical body is not as flexible as the emotional/energy body and our mental/causal body, which is where the awakening experience is more likely to be centered. Thus, our physical body needs more time and effort to adjust to the new higher vibration of the energy body.
  4. “Spiritually Waking Up” is one form of maturity. Two other forms are “Subconscious Cleaning Up” and “Moral Growing Up”. Ken Wilber suggests that each of these is totally separate from the others and we must work on all of them in their own way. Thus, we can have a massive awakening without addressing our subconscious shadows. Those shadows will eventually need to be faced, usually in a Dark Night of the Soul experience.

I address each of these in more detail below. They are also related to the two awakening approaches of non-duality/oneness and psychic/subtle senses, as described above.

Recovery times seem to depend on how well the individual understands what is going on and whether they have the tools or skills to shift their vibration back to a higher level. A teacher or guide, with whom you resonate, can be very helpful with this.

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We also often consider a Dark Night of the Soul experience to be a “transition” and “integration” period — integrating newly emergent perspectives with an older conditioned personality that is resisting them. (There is that resistance, again.)

Another we to think of this is that it is a “creative” process. In this sense, encounters with darker emotions are valuable spiritual and psychological experiences, because they show us more intensely what we do not want. This drives us to seek and “create” what we want.

It might take some time to manifest that creation, depending on how tightly we hold on to the beliefs that are resisting the changes taking place in your lives and world.

All of these things that are of low vibration only exist to inspire positive growth. …Ultimately, positive always prevails. — David Strickel (source)

[4.1] Allowing Low Vibrations to Heal

THIS first method is like the meditation approach in non-duality practices, described above.

While in our lower vibrational state, we typically try to create what we spiritually want when we are feeling completely overwhelmed by what we do not want.

According to one approach, the reason this occurs is that we hold our past karmic experiences as memories in our lower chakras. As we awaken, our spiritual energy (“love”) becomes very strong and enhances everything that we experience. In fact, everything in our life begins flows more freely and powerfully.

In this way, our experience of love is enhanced, which is a key positive experience of awakening. However, any blockages and resistances that still resides in the lower chakras and psyche can also become amplified, including fears, doubts, anger and jealousy.

The major difference is that, as an awakened soul, we use the soul’s “intelligence” to give us a more proper perspective on these more “negative” emotions.

The first step, and maybe the hardest when you are feeling overwhelmed, is to pause and tap into your soul’s awareness (which is usually in the heart center of your chest). Close your eyes and feel your heart, allowing it to expand into the space that surrounds your body.

If this is hard to do, find a meditation to help you with it. (Note that the process described here is based on the teachings of Lincoln Gergar, Channel for Higher Self.)

Once you have reached that state of heart and soul centeredness, then consider that these lower vibrational emotions are memories that we have been holding in our bodies (mostly in the lower chakras, but elsewhere is also possible).

They are arising now because they want to be healed and released by the high vibrational awakening energy in our heart. Those high vibrations are based in love, and the lower vibrations that arise simply want to be healed by that love.

In this approach, the best response is to:

  1. Realize that while we hold these emotions in our body, they are not us. We are more more than our body.
  2. They are also not “bad”. From our higher soul perspective, everything has purpose and value, and that goes for our negative emotions, as well.
  3. From our higher soul perspective, we should embrace the emotions that arise with love and compassion, as that is all they really want. (It can also help sometimes to talk to lovingly them.)

This is difficult at first, but as those lower vibrations heal, their overwhelming effect will be less and less, making this process easier with time.

And, as perhaps an award, when the higher vibrational awakening state becomes dominant again, which will inevitably happen because of the cycle of duality, it will be better than anything you ever experienced before.

The primary requirement to help you through this process is having faith that the “cycle of duality” will eventually return us to that higher vibrational state of love. Remaining in a higher positive consciousness in this way will allow (not force) the lower vibrations to arise, be healed, and be released by your soul’s love. This is how we ascend.

by KELLEPICS

There are gifts and silver linings in every single scenario that you can manifest, and you manifest all of them… — David Strickel

[4.2] Gradually Raising Our Body’s Vibration

This second method is more aligned with the neutral understanding approach in the non-duality discussion above.

The purpose of all negative experiences (lower vibrations) is to help us clarify what we want to create in our life. We do this by seeing what we do not want, edging away from that, and moving toward creating what we do want.

In this way, the duality cycle presents us with negative manifestations that serve as a foundation for building their opposite. The duality cycle is what drives all creation in our manifest reality. Duality and polarity are intrinsic to all dimensions and densities of manifest reality (excluding, of course, the unmanifested Source or God dimension).

Every being and entity in every dimension of reality experiences the polarities of duality in some way. It is perfectly normal. But it does not need to be seen as a source of suffering.

It becomes suffering when we resist or reject things we believe are negative, without recognizing the valuable role they play in creation and how they really are the flow of reality.

Some say that the stronger we resist or reject what we consider bad or negative, the longer it will take for them to be healed.

We overcome suffering when we can see beyond the illusion of positive and negative, and know that all, both positive and negative, is One (is God, Source, or All That Is). Because of that, everything has purpose, and nothing can not have value.

That is the consciousness we need to hold so that we can place lower vibrations in their proper perspective, and learn to honor them, learn from them, and use them to move us forward in our ascension in the higher vibrational end of the duality cycle.

It is a consciousness that is beyond our thoughts, emotions, and even our body. It is the consciousness of our Soul or Higher Self.

Once we have that Soul centered consciousness, then we will see the Dark Night in its proper perspective. That might be enough to embrace and tame the intensity of the experience.

⬇ See this Lincoln Gergar guided meditation video on how to attain a Soul-centered state of consciousness.

If we cannot achieve that Soul-centered consciousness, we can also use tools like Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness. The way this would work would be to identify the low vibration Energetic Frequency level that one is at.

Source

For a Dark Night of the Soul experience, one would mostly likely be at 150 (Anger) or below. Once identified, then the effort is to move up the scale, one step at a time, escalating one’s frequency to 175, then 200, then 250, and so on.

That step-wise progression is considered more effective than trying to jump from 100 (Fear) to 500 (Love) in a single step. Affirmations and visualizations are a common way that we replace lower, undesirable vibrations with higher and desirable ones. We can create these from the words used in the Hawkins chart, or in the chart below that was posted to a spirituality group on Facebook.

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In addition, a simple web search on “how to raise your vibrational frequency” will show tons of free resources on this. Select the methods that resonate the best for you.

If we realize and do this work, knowing that the duality cycle is essentially neutral, then our Dark Nights of the Soul become less and less dark. We can emerge from the darkest night of our soul into the brightest and most expansive imaginable light of our true self.

This is not necessarily easy, but the more awakened an individual becomes, the more possible it is to hold this state of conscious awareness. In fact, one measure of awakening is how much you feel you are in control of your life, and how much you feel others control you.

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The more connected and aligned you are with your Soul (or Inner Self, Higher Self, Consciousness, or Source) the more power you have over your life experiences and the world you create. (Your Soul is always more powerful than your ego self.)

So don’t stop working on yourself — don’t stray from your spiritual path. As you ascend, so will the world.

⬇ A friend of mine in Indonesia posted this video with instructions on how to calm you anxious mind a take “baby steps” toward mind-body balance.

[4.3] Psychic & Other Healers

Seeking external help from psychic, energy, hypnosis, and other alternative healers of all kinds, including meditation and other spiritual teachers, are another way to address Dark night of the Soul challenges.

I have had almost no experience with this. However, I had a remarkable “5D Healing” of a physical issue (and, of course, all physical issues are psychic, as well). I describe that experience here:

[5] Our Buddha Nature

Of all the religious teachings of the world, Buddhism is probably the most associated with the concept of suffering. For Buddhism, everything in our 3rd Dimensional life (and maybe beyond) is suffering. The only way to overcome that suffering is through awakening or enlightenment (they are mostly considered the same in Buddhism).

The Buddha taught that to manage and overcome suffering (our dark nights and shadows) on the path to enlightenment, we must “take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha”. These refer to the Buddha himself, his Teachings, and the large Buddhist Community, respectively. The word “refuge” is translated in many ways, but I think “trust” comes closest.

Thus, this core teaching of the Buddha recognizes the role of suffering, and emphasizes the importance of trusting that we are on the right path through our periods of suffering (the downward spiral of the Duality Cycle).

To help us through those Dark Night of the Soul periods, we take trust (take refuge) in knowing that the Buddha has done this, that there are teachings (the Dharma) that can help us find our own path to full awakening, and that there are others (a Sangha) who are in the same boat as us.

Ultimately, the polarity of life will never go away. We just need to learn that our deeper Soul (our Buddha nature) is beyond that. And the more we become identified with our true self, the more we can celebrate life’s polarities, rather than resist them.

[6] Related Resources

  • For a social and environmental science perspective on how COVID-19 is a global “duality cycle” phenomenon, see:
  • I found this perspective on “suffering” by the nonduality teachers, Simcha Lev to be very insightful…
  • For more on Spiritual Awakenings, see this collection of articles. Note that the articles in this collection are behind the Medium paywall. For paywall-free access to my articles, go to www.AlanLew.com, linked below.

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  • I am not financially affiliated with any of the people or products discussed in this article.
  • I appreciate comments, questions, and typo corrections. - See the About link in my Medium profile for contact information and related articles.
  • Written in collaboration with my Energy Group/Higher Self. This is our perspective of the truth and not the whole truth of reality.

My Medium writings are available “paywall free” at www.AlanLew.com:

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