What happens when we equate spirituality and consciousness?

I came across a chapter in Hal and Sidra Stone’s book, Embracing Our Selves that stopped me in my tracks. (Actually there are quite a few of those moments reading this book, but I digress.)

The Stones’ are the creators of Voice Dialogue, a powerful process to become aware of all the different selves we carry around inside us, along with a way to communicate with them and come into our aware ego. Their pioneering work is in fact a whole new vision of consciousness.

(It’s a different, though similar process, to “parts work” that some of you may be familiar with and I use quite often.)

Why Does This Distinction Matter?

For those of us on some kind of spiritual path or open to the awakening going on at this time on the planet, I think this distinction between spirituality and consciousness is important to bring out. It’s not something that I really thought of in this way before.

We often speak of this new age as an awakening of consciousness or we talk about raising our consciousness. And because many of us within this broader movement are spiritually oriented, I think we viewed these two things as one and the same.

“Raising our consciousness” equates with becoming “more spiritual.” Or when we speak of this awakening on the planet, we see it as a spiritual awakening.

There are charts to show us the frequency levels of different emotions and we’re  told to aim to live in the so-called higher energy/frequency ranges of joy, love, gratitude. There’s a whole lot of effort going into being positive and naming different energies as positive and negative. And the aim is to not let those “negative vibes” come anywhere near you. Those higher energy states are synonymous with being “more spiritual.”

Being raised as a good Catholic girl and leaving that behind in my 20s to explore a broader spiritual path, I can say I’ve been on this road for a long time now. In reading these ideas from the Stones’ work, I can see that I did equate the new age that is being birthed as a spiritual rebirth. And in many ways it is.

But I’ve also long been out of synch with the whole notion of labeling certain emotions/energies as good and bad. It just never made sense to me.

What is Spiritual Bypassing?

The first time I heard the words “spiritual bypassing” I think I laughed out loud. It felt so perfect. That refers to the idea that you don’t want to own your so-called negative qualities; far better to ignore them, talk yourself out of them or try to get rid of them. Or, you  “forgive” them in others because it’s “negative” to even feel anger or jealousy.

From my own experience, this just shoves these deeper into our subconscious and they rule our lives underground. Unless we look at and embrace all our behaviors, feelings and emotions, we cannot transform them.

I’ve written before about the need for us to embrace a both/and paradigm as we move into this new age. It’s not about either/or any longer.

The shift to higher consciousness is opening up to and loving all the parts of who we are, not just some of them. And it’s directly connected to us embracing both our masculine and feminine energies within us as well.

So along comes this book chapter and my mind opens up again. This explains my reluctance to jump on the “only allow good vibes” bandwagon. It reveals what I knew about this connection between spirituality and consciousness but hadn’t put into words yet. (Don’t you just love it when that happens?!)

What do you think of these passages from the book?

I’d truly love to start a dialogue with you here.

“Spiritual energies, the longing for higher meaning and a higher purpose in life, are real and legitimate. Personal psychological work alone cannot satisfy these needs. Higher meaning and purpose are only found in spiritual experience.”

“…growing numbers of consciousness seekers see the experience of these spiritual energies as being identical with the evolution of consciousness. In our view, consciousness and spirituality are not identical. The evolution of consciousness requires an awareness of energy patterns and direct experience with them. Spiritual energy is only one system of these patterns, albeit a most influential one.” (italics mine)

“For the spiritually oriented person, this differentiation between spirituality and consciousness often does not exist. If the spiritual process is considered identical with consciousness, obviously no reason exists for discovering the disowned energy patterns that are not spiritual. There is no basis for dealing with repressed instinctuality, power and emotions.”

Here’s the crux of it

We try to “rise above” our “repressed instinctuality, power and emotions” rather than actually acknowledging and experiencing them.

“The primary challenge of spiritual development is not spiritual development, per se, which is relatively easy to facilitate and discover once someone is ready. The real challenge, from our perspective, is the ability to disengage awareness from the spiritual value structure with which it has been identified. Only then can the aware ego embrace both the neglected and disowned selves and the spiritual/transpersonal energies so meaningful and nourishing to all of us.”

“The danger to an individual when these spiritual energies are first experienced is the potential split between spirit and matter. These energies are so seductive that many spiritually identified people lose their connection to earth, to instinct, to their physical bodies. Our challenge is to learn how to live in spirit on the earth and avoid splitting spiritual energies away from life. They are here, with us throughout our life, in all our relationships, in all our actions.” (italics mine)

From Embracing Ourselves pgs 225-228

Do you live in your head a lot?

For those of us who feel very connected to our spiritual path or that part of our life and we live up in our heads a lot, this is especially important. It’s very easy to check out and not be fully present inside our body. The idea that somehow the spiritual aspect is higher or better is not a truth. It’s only one part of our totality as a human being.

We’re here on the earth to experience all the parts of who we are. And through that we can evolve our consciousness into an aware ego state where true choice resides.

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What does this bring up for you? Share your thoughts below.

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PHOTO: Carina Nebula Details: Great Clouds

Credit for Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)  Credit for CTIO Image: N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley) and NOAO/AURA/NSF

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Helping women understand how your masculine energies are set up to be your inner partner and support team for your feminine power, creativity and leadership is my own calling. When you’re ready to stop the internal battle between your male and female selves—that you probably don’t even know you’re waging—click to know more about my Make Peace With Power ~ Leadership Playground coaching program.

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