Awakening Survey

I conducted a survey asking some long-standing spiritual friends for their Awakening experience. 21 women participated and 16 men. Dependent on the particular question, we had 36 to 37 respondents. Most of the respondents are in their 40s and 50s, with a few in their 60s and 70s and some in their 30s. There was no ‘scientific’ selection of the participants. Many of these people crossed my path over the course of my 12 year awakening journey and left a mark one way or the other. I consider these friends all my peers. Some have been mentees or clients at some stage, but each of them quickly moved on along their own path. In my experience there is no hierarchy when it comes to spirituality. Some folks have been at it a little longer; some are temporarily a bit more in tune with Oneness than others; some have already found what they set out to find while others are still searching. Yet, we are all the same, or as one survey participant put what she saw it in her vision, ‘We are like snowflakes uniquely different on one level, yet all the same on another.’ Anyone who sets out on a quest for a world beyond the ‘me, myself and I’ qualifies to be part of this Awakening survey.

Question 1: Describe your spiritual journey

a)    Spiritually curious 

b)   Awakening—On a quest that is beyond myself 

c)    The journey is finished—I am blessed with purpose and peace of mind—I am centered in the Self

d)   All of the above—a little bit of everything

e)    None of the above. These answers don’t resonate/don’t make sense.

The responses were split fairly evenly between ‘Awakening’ (13) and ‘A little bit of everything’ (14); 5 respondents felt the quest had come to an end for them, while 5 participants couldn’t resonate with the offered categories. One respondent explained his ‘none of the above’ answer in the following way:

 I am not on a spiritual journey and never have been, even though some fourteen years ago I would have said I was on a journey and a hardcore seeker.  Ultimately, everything is spiritual so if you single one thing out over another (what we all tend to do) you will “search forever and never find.” In other words, that which is always present (not lost) cannot be found. 

It’s ok! I conducted this survey for all the folks who are searching for the Beyond, just as my friend who couldn’t resonate with any of the answers did 14 years ago. So what if the perspective changes once we have reached the imaginary mountain top. The status of our quest moves from the desire to break free to the realization that we already are.

Question 2: Was there an awakening moment that launched you on your path?

Only one respondent fell into the traditional enlightenment category in which he described his ‘I’ perception disappearing from one day to the next. For most, awakening is a series of ‘cracking open’ events as one respondent described this experience so well. Still 22 (out of 37) participants remembered one particular event that towered over everything else. The catalysts of awakening are numerous, illness, drugs, passing of a loved one, divorce, addiction, lost twin love, guidance of a guru, discovery of metaphysical talents, near-death experience, dramatic revelation, satori moment, and kundalini awakening:

One respondent put her awakening experience in the following way: ‘The floor actually seemed to fall out underneath me, landing exactly where I had always been but with no perception that there was a separate me doing it.”

One respondent experienced a vision of Oneness involving food: ‘I saw a hamburger, and was shown how it is filled in different countries, even a German one. I got it, there is one base, the core, and different religions add to it. There is only one God. Boom, after this thought I was filled with such peace, light, it’s beyond words. I just knew that it was our Divine Home. It lasted only a short while.

One respondent had a major spiritual break-through during a near-death experience as a child. In her words, ‘The Angels have been with me since and have been guiding me in my choices. I was 3 years old when this happened but not until my teens did I become fully aware that no one I ever met saw what I saw. So I thought for a while that something was wrong with me and I became silent.’

One woman had a major awakening break-through around the passing of a loved one. ‘My greatest healing revelation came about 20 years ago. I was talking to a close friend on the phone. At the time his wife and my friend as well were near-death and we were supporting each other. At the moment of her transition we both felt her presence and out of nowhere I had a revelation and a profound clarity that ‘I’ was not this person. At that moment all guilt, shame, feelings of failure and every conscious belief vanished from my mind.’

One participant was catapulted to new heights of Consciousness with the help of a guru. In her words, ‘I visited Sai Baba’s ashram, spending 4 months with him. I quickly experienced complete and inner renunciation.’

One participant had a major break-through moment while acting. In his words, ‘I lost myself in a character far from the role I had been playing my entire life. This fragility scared me and for years I questioned what I felt.’

Another friend’s awakening journey started when he was smoking marihuana: ‘I thought I was going to die, but it was my Awakening and now nothing can stop me.’

And as already mentioned, awakening can happen with soul-wrenching losses as well. ‘I have always been very connected with my Angelic team and Spirit. However, a lifetime of living with fearful abusive humans assisted in shutting a lot down. When my dad committed suicide in 2011 was a huge cracking open moment. I began to reconnect with spirits of those who had left form very intensely at his time. I also went through another big Ascension launch in 2012 when I finally gathered up the courage to leave my painful and abusive 20 year marriage.’

One respondent experienced a revelation while working his shift. ‘After having been involved in a Christian cult for 35 years which is now in the process of imploding, my path led me to A Course in Miracles soon thereafter while still driving a San Diego city bus, I was commissioned by a dramatic revelation.’

Question 3: Did your Awakening journey coincide with a healing journey?

a)    No

b)   Yes, please share 

The overwhelming majority (26) reported awakening as a healing journey, while 8 respondents said ‘no’, with a couple sitting on the fence regarding this question. Lots of trauma was reported that needed to be worked off, as well as addiction, diseases and near-death experiences.

Question 4: Do you have a spiritual ‘talent’

(Empath, Psychic, Medium, etc.)

a)    No 

b)   Yes, please share 

The majority of respondents reported having talents that are hard for the scientific folks to get their arms around; 10 people, in contrast, felt that they had no special talent. The list of talents is impressive and would fill pages. For illustration purposes, I again share a few quotes below. There was in fact a time when I researched these phenomena. I wanted to know for sure whether there is a metaphysical world beyond our scientific understanding of reality. Now that many of these mystical occurrences have happened to me or to my friends in my presence. I no longer feel that we have to prove anything. Rather, oneness is a reality that our scientific community is waking up to instead.

Almost everyone in the survey professes to be an empath. As one woman put it, ‘I feel everything 100 percent or more, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I am too easily drained by negative people. When you love, you really love and when you break, you are really broken.’ Several men claimed that their empathic abilities made them quite outgoing, ‘I always say the right thing at the right time.’ ‘I always bump into people I know, or that are ready to connect with me.’ ‘I can have conversations with people and make them calm and feel easy.’

A few participants minded the expression ‘talents’ and claimed that everyone has access to these metaphysical abilities. One woman described her abilities in the following way: ‘There was not one singular definite awakening experience for me. I was born awake to more than my ‘singular’ self and perpetually throughout my life have experienced medium-ship, multi-dimensionality, lucid dreaming, visions, clairvoyance, clairaudience, empathic and healing abilities, and a connection to God, the Source, Jesus, and so forth. I can not describe as ‘talents’ more that these abilities are natural and inherent within Consciousness, as part of the expanded individuated experience that everyone has the capacity for at some point. The ‘spiritualized ego’ loves to weave an inflated identity through our attachment to such phenomena.

Mediumship is the ability to connect with departed beings. One other woman claimed that this ability is ever-present for anyone bold enough to reach out to this energy. ‘I am a psychic medium but I will never say that it is a talent or a gift because it is a natural use of our senses open to anyone, the only thing is one has to let go of conditioning and beliefs about it and have no fear.’

A number of survey participants professed to be clairsentient, clairvoyant, and clairaudient. My phone conversation with the woman from the UK who could feel what was going on in my body was a great example in this direction. Several clairvoyants in our survey see the future in dreams or visions. One woman gave the following example of what it means to be clairaudient, she said she was getting ready for work on a Saturday and heard the word ‘traffic’ loud and clear. Later that day she was caught in traffic wherever she went whereas traffic ran smoothly in the opposite direction.

This group also had many healers, Reiki masters, tarot readers and one sorcerer. Several women professed that they can see the auras of people. A number of women woman from Northern Europe reported the ability to see and communicate with nature spirits.

Question 5: Are you a light-worker? (Raise humanity, help humanity, spread the light?)

a)    No

b)   Yes; in what function?

Twenty-six respondents classified themselves as light-workers (or at least aspiring to be) while 10 said ‘no’.This group of people has many professions and callings in which we have the opportunity to make people’s days, such as care-taker of the elderly, therapist, social worker, author, minister, coach, teacher, healer, medium, psychic, and many others. All of them can bring a lot of ‘good’ and light to the people they work with with the help of their many spiritual talents.

Question 6: Do you consider yourself devout? 

a)    No

b)   Yes, what holy Institution do you appeal to?

Just as was the case with the somewhat opaque expression light-worker in question 5, most respondents struggled with the religious association of the word ‘devout’. We only had two respondents who were devout practitioners of Christianity and Islam. The majority of respondents answered ‘no’, yet 16 respondents felt devoted to more spiritual concepts instead (guru, nature, Oneness, God, all faiths, life, Wakan Tonka, love, Universe, light).

Question 7 What is your favorite ‘centering’ activity (meditation, yoga, art, music, prayer, etc.)?

All survey participants recognized the need to stay centered. Just like in question 4 though when I asked for the ‘talents’, the responses ranged all over the place. I list them below in no particular order:

Meditation, affirmation, mantra, music, prayer, talking to Guides, chanting, singing, composing, poetry, writing, painting, art, dancing and silence.

Yoga, crystals, tai chi, martial arts, love making, conscious breathing, swimming

Nature, being with animals, gardening, earthing, life, folding laundry, woodwork, healthy eating, cooking, sun bathing 

Spiritual conversations, alone time, people, spiritual lectures, mindfulness (witnessing thoughts), lying flat on the ground