Spiritual awakening stages & How they impact happiness
Spiritual awakening is a way of you remembering your true nature.
When you are not awakened yet, you are wearing the heavy baggage of the ego. Life feels like suffering because you feel like you have to “fight” against it.
But as you awaken more and more, you realize that all is well. You realize that you are the soul that is free, happy, and liberated. Being on a spiritual awakening journey is like climbing a ladder– beginning from the pits of hell to the kingdom of heaven above.
I remember how dark, empty, and soul-wrenching my life felt before the spiritual awakening journey myself. It wasn’t that my life was necessarily bad– I was blessed in so many ways but it was easy to find things to worry and be upset about back then (e.g. like a constant shame around myself for being a “failure” and comparing myself to others in my entrepreneurial journey).
But through finally hitting a wall and having multiple ego deaths, I finally realized that I was going through a spiritual awakening journey.
And just like waking up from a dream full of nightmares, it gets better as the journey of awakening goes. The life you live in becomes less scary, dreadful, and fearful. You know that despite how intense and cathartic the awakening process can feel, you know it will clear up for the better. The end result is you becoming happier, more fulfilled, more alive with every spiritual awakening stage.
So in this blog post I want to share with you, from my own lived experiences, of the stages of where one can be on a spiritual awakening journey and how each of the stages can impact your state of being.
Victim consciousness
This is the stage before awakening– where one has not been aware of who they actually are at all.
This is the stage where we feel like we are barely “making it.” Each day feels like a struggle, having to endure one form of pain after another. In this stage, you feel robotic going through the motions of life, like you are chained up to go to a job you don’t like and “slave” your lifeforce away.
It is hard to find a sense of meaning and purpose when you are in this pre-awakening stage. Because other than trying to secure your basic needs, s*x, and/or addictions, there isn’t room for anything else outside of that.
And the truth is, you may even be numb to the fact that you feel empty and hollow inside. And yes, while a few things may give you a fleeting dose of happiness (e.g. getting a raise from your boss or partying with friends etc.), it can feel like reality is a dry, plain, flat land. And you can’t do much to change that.
To some people, being in a victim consciousness makes them go into a hyper-submissive mode; feeling like you have to give your power away to an outside authority in order to be safe, accepted, and loved. To others, they can become hateful and resentful toward others and/or reality.
Common emotions that can be felt during this stage include shame/guilt, hopelessness, and misery. In David Hawkins map of consciousness, victim consciousness lands in the energetic log of 0-75.
David Hawkin’s Map of consciousness
2. Doership consciousness
Once you begin to spiritually awaken from the previous stage, you then enter a new stage where one becomes empowered and motivated to fight for oneself. Now instead of being a victim to what life throws at you, you begin to believe that you can change what you don’t like– whether it is about yourself or your environment.
I call this stage the doership consciousness because the ruling power in this stage comes down to doing. A lot of motivational and self-help guru teachings resonate at this stage. The dominant belief here is that if you “do enough” you will be worthy enough/ be ahead of others. Doing is also what makes the difference between winning and losing, happiness and sadness.
Competition is strong at this stage of awakening. And so, it is easy to compare yourself with others at this stage of awareness. For example, you may find yourself comparing yourself with other women to see who is richer, prettier, more put-together, has more followers etc.
I remember when I was at this stage myself, I felt like I had to be perfect in every way I can be– like being a straight A student achiever when I was at school. And even when I became a spiritual entrepreneur, I felt like I had to prop myself up to be a more high-level coach in order to impress others (and make people want to work with me). All of that showed me how self-image is a huge motivation driver at this stage.
And although the wins and achievements in this stage can make you feel like a triumph, you will find that happiness from these things do not last either. Soon enough after achieving one big milestone, you find yourself needing to pursue “more” to be happy again. And even though one can try to change their mindset about oneself, you may still find yourself struggling with issues like having low self-worth and self-love because you feel as though you need to earn something good to feel good about yourself.
Common emotions that can be felt during this stage include courage, anger, and fear. In David Hawkins map of consciousness, doership consciousness lands in the energetic log of 100-175.
3. Manifestation consciousness
The stage after awakening from the doership consciousness can be pretty life-changing and transformative. This is because now we start to become aware that we are not the only one doing, but that there is the Higher Power involved (call it God/ Universe/ Source).
People usually get into this stage after trying so much but getting hit with things outside of their control. For example, one may be growing and scaling their business but may one day crash down like you cannot do it anymore etc.
For me, I got to this stage when I was trying so hard to make things happen in the early days of entrepreneurship, yet became faced with multiple rejections that caused my ego to die. And so I had to finally let go of what I couldn’t control. I remember how hard this transition felt. It was like a part of me was dying and I didn’t know who I was anymore.
In fact, this transition may even be harder than awakening from victim to doership consciousness because unlike the earlier transition where you are taking in ownership, now you have to give in to something beyond you. It can feel scary, but something deep inside feels like it longs for this stage.
I remember when I was in this stage I began to start asking questions like “who am I? I mean, who am I really– outside of this achiever?” This is one of the most powerful questions that one can ask during this stage of awakening because your whole life, you may have identified yourself with the doer / the achiever. But asking this question of “who am I?” can propel you further into realizing the true potential in you and what you truly came here to be.
After discovering that you are not the only “doer” in this stage of awakening, one now understands that it is more than just action that creates results. Your thoughts, your beliefs, your vibration, and your intentions are also a part of what you create. Common sayings that may resonate with you in this stage are sayings like “the Universe is your sugar daddy” or “you manifest not what you want, but you manifest who you are.”
But similar to the doership consciousness, you can still be led into thinking that your happiness is dependent on what you are able to manifest. One can also get sucked into trying to think positively all the time (out of the fear of sending out “bad vibrations”) that you begin to spiritually bypass and feel like there are unwanted emotions/thoughts that you need to hide under the blanket. All of the things you are trying to manifest, can therefore end up making you feel anxious and discontented, instead of making you feel fulfilled.
Which is the reason why one of the key practices for transcending the shadows of this stage is to accept oneself.
When you can love and accept all things, including your shadows and whatever life brings you, you are able to find peace, joy, and tranquility– not only after you have manifested something but also in the journey in itself. And so instead of hovering around the emotions of pride and courage (energetic log scale of 175-200), one is able to shift to a state of neutrality and upwards (energetic log scale of 300-600).
4. Universal consciousness
When one moves up the consciousness ladder from manifestation consciousness, one begins longing for not just the things that the Universe brings but to know/ to connect/ dwell in the presence of the Higher Power.
This happens usually after you find that no matter how much you have achieved/manifested, it cannot give you the lasting, ever-present peace that you long for. You start to grow a deep spiritual hunger– as in wanting to study spiritual texts, develop psychic senses, and find Truth for the sake of truth itself. This path can feel so rewarding and fulfilling too because now you are doing things not as a means to an end, but for the joy of the discovery in itself.
But no matter how much you seek for Truth, you will realize that all spiritual pathways lead you back to You. At the end of the day, it requires facing the demons inside you so you can alchemize them. Through that, you realize that you have always been perfect, complete, and whole all along. And you see reality to be reflecting that back too.
In this stage of awareness, you are in total surrender to the great doer of all things (Spirit of God). Yes, there is free will but your will is to do God’s will (love’s will). And there is peace in residing in this Divine energy– for the Divine leads you and guides you to what you need, want, and desire moment-to-moment.
This is why you may see buddhist monks meditating and chanting, so they can be one with the cosmic energy. Being one with cosmic energy that is so palpable and real, has been also my experience, especially during a mystical state that I’ve experienced. It’s been said that one person at a cosmic/universal consciousness (energetic log of 700) can balance up to 70 million people below 200. According to Hawkins, it is said to be the way how peace and order is maintained in the Universe.
However, because being with Universal consciousness can be scary for the mind/ego, the mind can throw you off the rails from time-to-time. I know this because I’ve experienced ego purges, despite experiencing ineffable peace and Oneness in some days.
And for that, what I have found to help is to deepen even more into surrender and trust. This is also one of the reasons why the act of creating (art or really anything that excites you) can be so powerful because creative energy is in essence cosmic energy. And for letting the creations come through you requires total trust– by offering yourself as a divine instrument.
And when you are one with the Universal divine energy, you can be of utmost service to others. This is important because only when you are filled with the fullness of the Divine, one can give fully (just like how you can’t save someone else when you haven’t put the oxygen mask on for yourself). And as you are in service to others, your spiritual awakening progresses even further to get to even higher levels. You can call it Christ consciousness– represented by Jesus Christ who is ever abiding in the will of the Heavenly Father and is a pure expression of the Divine.
Obviously, these four stages are an oversimplification of the numerous spiritual awakening stages that one can go through.
In reality, the distinctions between each of the stages may not be as black or white or as linear as mentioned here: for instance, one can hold philosophical beliefs of Universal consciousness but could still be applying brute-force willpower of doership consciousness in terms of work.
And even then, the stage where one is at can vary based on day to day (e.g. victim consciousness can come up even for those who are advanced spiritual seekers). The stages I have described above are for simplicity sake. In reality, no two awakening journeys can be exactly alike– both in timing nor the psychic/physical events that initiate you to awaken further.
A rule of thumb for seeing where you are on the spiritual awakening stages is to assess how much suffering you experience on a daily basis. That is because, we can only suffer when we are only resisting life, because of what the ego is gripping onto.
But as one spiritually awakens and finds the Divine within oneself and others, reality will be shifted. The more we awaken, the more we unlock our true soul potential and also begin to attract opportunities and circumstances that reflect that. Not only that, life begins to shift forth with awe and wonder, even in the little things, with the kind of peace and serenity that you would experience when you are watching the Niagra waterfall.
Overall, know that it doesn’t have to take lifetimes nor ages to move through the spiritual awakening stages I have mentioned above. Personally, it took almost a decade for me to move through the stages above but now in the work I do with my clients, I have got to support clients to shift from victim to universal consciousness, in a span of a few months. If you desire to seek support from me, you can find out here.
But even if you don’t, know that spiritual awakening will happen one way or another, for it is your divine destiny. And the key to keep on awakening is to keep on being open to what’s possible, instead of clinging onto the “benefits” of whatever stage you are in. Openness, curiosity, and love are like the torchlight that lets us see God’s perfect reality beyond the “dream” that we have fallen asleep into. And from there, we see that we are souls on an ever-evolving journey, discovering the Infinite light of the Creator, through a unique path that we have chosen to walk onto.
