Ram Dass said,

"The spiritual awakening we’re experiencing is leading us to a deeper understanding of our true nature and our purpose here on Earth.

Welcome to The Soul Podcast. I’m Stacey Wheeler.

I ended the last episode talking about the idea that human’s have demonstrated a spiritual side for nearly 80,000 years. Spiritual belief comes in many different flavors. There is no general consensus about what is real. But it’s clear that at the core of the human experience is the desire (or even need) for spiritual exploration. Spiritual belief seems to grow at times and shrink at times in different cultures around the globe. 

The Enlightenment, which lasted from around the late 17th century to the late 18th century, is seen as a period of significant intellectual and cultural transformation. It led to a shrinking of traditional spiritual beliefs in favor of reason, science, and individualism. Much of this was a response the abuses of the catholic church and the executions they committed in the name of God. You can hear more about this in the episode History of the Soul - The Soul Goes Underground from September 2, 2021. (I’ll share a link)

Though during this time, the reduction in spiritual belief was mainly driven by the intellectuals of the time. As far as we can tell, the average person remained a state of spiritual belief. Today is similar. It seems that the idea of simply being the body is an intellectual exercise. Sometimes our brain gets in the way of our deep knowing. But there are signs the deep knowing is emerging. 

Eckhart Tolle said,                                                                                                                    "There is a shift happening in human consciousness, a shift from the head to the heart, from ego-based living to soul-based living.” 

Today, many people are recognizing that spiritual belief is massively growing. Topics like near-death experience, spiritual exploration and the use of psychedelics have recently been discussed in such main stream spaces as the NY Time, National Geographic, VOX, The Guardian, and are frequently covered in Psychology Today.  Spiritual ideas which seemed hippie, “woo-woo,” and “out-there” only 20 years ago, are now part of the cultural conversation. There’s a shift happening. We are in a state of spiritual awakening. But what exactly is this thing we call a spiritual awakening? 

For most people, the spiritual awakening happens at a point of stress. We reach a breaking point of sorts. Things are happening which require us to change. For most of us it is something personal: A death of a loved one, A loss of a job, or another major life change. We are forced to shift. We make a change and try to make sense of our life when things beyond our control force us to re-evaluate out reality.

Today there is massive turmoil happening. Through a global health crisis and massive political unrest, we’re all at a point of stress. We’re all forced to re-evaluate our reality. As we do this, a great awakening is happening as more people find their spiritual core. In a sense, we are coming back to ourselves. 

Let me explain. You see, there are stages of spiritual awakening. 

It starts with unconsciousness. At birth, we are without ego. As time goes on the ego is developed. We are highly dependent on other for survival, and we instinctively do what is needed to get what we need for survival (food, attention, affection, connection). By adulthood our ego is fully developed. We believe that we are the body. We forget that we’re the witness, not the body.  We have a deep entanglement with ego. Awakening begins when we start to break from the ego. This can be triggered in countless ways, such as those I mentioned earlier. 

In the second stage we enter the Dark Night of the Soul. The things that happen in our lives trigger us to question the reality of our existence. This often leads to us questioning the reason for our existence. This is a massive spiritual shift. We find ourselves in a space of spiritual evolution. Our beliefs are challenged and many of them changed. We start to see ourselves as more than the body. 

This leads us into ego awareness and for many, ego death. This is a dissolution of our tightly held beliefs of who we are.  Stories the ego has constructed over our lifetime are challenged. We start to recognize the observer self; the one watching the journey of the human body we’ve been until now. The Journey through ego death is recognizing that the story we’ve told ourselves is not the core of our existence. 

Now, this stage and the next are sometimes in opposite order… 

But another stage in this process is the search. This is where a quest for understanding begins. We try to unravel the mysteries of our existence. We often turn to new sources for guidance such as; reading, teachers, new ideas or old ideas you may have shunned. We start to ask the big questions of life. Many people start to meditate at this point. You may experience an eagerness for knowledge and change. This opens a series of new doors in our journey as we now find ourselves challenging or casting away old beliefs. We enter a (sometimes) life-long re-evaluation of much of our belief system and the way we see our role in this life. And we may move forward and backwards in our progress as we move to a life of alignment.

In time we enter into the emergence of the authentic self.

This is a profound shift. The old facade begins to crumble, and personality evolves to reveal the more genuine self. The inner child may emerge here. Changes in friendships, lifestyle, career and other priorities often change here. Old wounds and traumas may emerge and lead to a need for acknowledgement and release. A purging process occurs. A deeper intuition usually occurs at this point, as our egos recede. The ego has stood in our way much of our life. We’ve used it to filter the reality of the world. In the process, we let it filter the reality of ourselves. As the ego recedes, our deeper, more intuitive self emerges. It’s been there all along, hidden beneath layers of fear, insecurity and need for acceptance (among other things). 

Now we are in a life of alignment. There is no perfection, only continued growth. We no longer seek happiness, we seek balance or raised vibration. We understand that as our vibration raises, happiness finds us.  

There are many signs of the spiritual awakening.

Increased Popularity of Mindfulness and Meditation

Mindfulness and meditation have become mainstream practices, widely adopted in various settings, from schools and workplaces to healthcare. This widespread adoption reflects a collective search for inner peace, self-awareness, and spiritual growth.

Renewed Interest in Psychedelics for Spiritual Exploration

As mentioned earlier... news articles on once woo-woo topics are shared in mainstream places. 

Growth of Holistic Health and Wellness

The holistic health and wellness industry has seen significant growth, with more people turning to practices like yoga, energy healing, and alternative medicine. These practices often emphasize the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit, reflecting a broader cultural shift towards integrating spiritual practices into daily life.

Rise of the "Spiritual but Not Religious" (SBNR) Movement

Many people are identifying as "spiritual but not religious," seeking spiritual fulfillment outside the boundaries of organized religion. This trend suggests a move away from traditional religious structures towards more personalized and eclectic forms of spirituality.

More and more, the world of capitalism evolves to make the world a scary place. 

​Matt Haig, a British author known for his reflections on mental health and the human experience wrote, 

"The world is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn’t very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more?”

And it’s true. The media and commercial interests often use fear and negativity to get us to act. Their way of being makes the world seem worse than it is. Watch the news for 20 minute. You’ll quickly start to believe the world is a terrible place. Then turn it off and step outside. When we experience the world directly, we see it is much more peaceful and balanced than the news portrays.

Is it any wonder a spiritual emergence leads to a closer connection with nature? Being in nature is so much more peaceful than being in and around technology, indoors. In this process our need to please others, or fit into a certain mold starts to fade away. Decisions about what we wear, what we drive and how we live are driven from inside, not outside. This is why we see many who go through spiritual awakening downsize their lives. When we find internal acceptance, external acceptance matters much less. 

Marianne Williamson said,

"A great spiritual awakening is occurring on the planet, and it’s happening because more and more of us are waking up to the truth of who we are."

I’ve shared four quotes from prominent people, all recognizing the same thing. This great spiritual awakening has been emerging for several years and is continuing to grow. 

Are you feeling it? Are you experiencing the effects of the spiritual emergence? 

Maybe you’re overwhelmed by the realities of the world today -like so many others. Embrace the spiritual emergence. Turn down stream and let go. 

When we realize we can’t change the world, we start to understand what we can change… ourselves.