An Example of Spiritual Awakening

When God/Spirit/Source decides to set off the Alarm Clock of Spiritual Awakening, events start popping up everywhere. There are signs and symptoms aplenty, but what are such Spiritual Awakening experiences really like?

For me, metaphysical exploration was sparked when I was nine. There was a children’s book called The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes that introduced me to the world of magic and possibility. So what if it was about witches? I was neither amused nor scared by the idea: my immediate response was “…and your point is…?” I knew there was magic in the world, real magic. I just had to find it.

I grew up in the Original Hippie Universe of Woodstock, the Beatles and the Summer of Love. Still, I was only in my early teens then, and couldn’t really take my place in the World of Wonders. Yes, I got a set of Tarot cards when I was eighteen, but at that point nearly everyone had a deck. It was fashion and grooviness, not a statement of philosophy.

But it was a seed planted. And the great Spiritual Awakening came in three waves: in 1989, 1991 and 1994.

The first of my Spiritual Awakening Experiences came in 1989 with my first bout of breast cancer. Unexpected, nowhere in the family, and yet — there it was. Simultaneous with the moment I heard the words “malignant” out of the doctor’s mouth, was the immediate thought: “I won’t die of this.”

I had no logical reason for this Knowing. It was just there. And it was the first time Spirit burst into my mind, giving me an expanded level of consciousness, if only for that moment.

I got through the “cancer dance,” as I called it, and accepted that I was supposed to be here for something important, though I had no idea what it was.

Meanwhile, I started exploring the idea of past lives. Had I been here before? If this life isn’t all there is, what came before this?

Two years later, the second of my Spiritual Awakening Experiences entailed the surfacing of memories of a life as a World War One pilot. Though I knew nothing about the period, one trip to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York brought me face to face with planes I knew I had flown, and a door was blown open in my mind and heart with a soundless explosion. I was someone else before I was me.

Once more, Spirit was saying “there’s more to life than what you think and see right now.”

A three-year search for the memories and meaning brought forth by that encounter found me in contact with past life regressionists, ghost whisperers and too many inexplicable coincidences.

Synchronicities were constant and unnerving.

One by one, all my assumptions about the world were dismantled, as spirituality took pride of place.

And finally, in 1994, I found myself able to do hands-on healing, speak to the dead, and connect with angels and guides — with no training whatsoever. The third of my Spiritual Awakening Experiences was the loudest, the hardest to ignore — and the one that had me say “okay, I accept it; there is another road I want to walk, another way of viewing the world I want to master.”

Spirit had claimed me, and said, “Hello, you are part of our Working Team now. We’ve given you abilities and gifts that are to be put into Service in the world. You can no longer ignore that you are part of a Greater Whole.”

This triplicate of Spiritual Awakening Experiences made my life changes both unavoidable and intensely welcomed.

At that point, life became a tornado of mind/body/spirit expansion. Anything that occurred, positive or negative, was distilled through a new filter of expanded consciousness.

There was a great deal of dismantling to be done; my rewiring by Spirit entailed loss, loneliness and complete ruthlessness when it came to being honest about who I was and what I needed to change.

Yet through all of it was a knowledge that this was only for my betterment — that if I could get through this radical spiritual surgery I would come out on the other side whole, awake and aware of my place in the world.

Now, decades later, the metaphysical dance continues. My life is profoundly changed. Because I was willing to go through those ordeals, I am a teacher, a counselor, a healer, an inspirational voice. I truly am living my bliss.

Is it all perfect? Far from it. No one is ever “complete” with their Divine Adventure until they’re out of the body at the end of their present incarnation. But my lively encounters all bring with them the opportunity to refine my purpose, create my passion, and, perhaps, be present and instrumental in someone else’s Spiritual Awakening Experiences.