On June 30th, 2011, I had the deepest spiritual experience in my life to that point. Although it only took five hours, I had just completed the most emotionally, physically, and spiritually challenging process of my life. As it unfolded, I felt excruciating physical pain at a level I’d never before experienced. The depth of my emotional and spiritual anguish was so profound, I moaned and wailed in ways I had never imagined possible.

As the first part was completing, I thought well that wasn’t so bad and then I was immediately plunged into the next, which was exponentially more challenging. At one point I felt like I was being squeezed through the eye of a needle. As this was happening, an awareness struck me like a thunderbolt: release all baggage now and pass through, or hold on, be stuck, and die. Even as I released everything, I still thought I might die.

Now I felt completely liberated, lighter on every level of my existence than I’d ever before experienced. More connected to myself and God. I could feel a love originating from within me whose sole focus was me. I was crying and laughing at the same time. It was so far beyond anything I could articulate with words. It still is.

I remember thinking: this must be what unconditional love feels like.

As I opened my eyes, I saw and experienced an entirely different world. I could see God as streams of light moving through and animating everything. In front of me, the light was expressing as a coffee table. In front of and below me, it was a rug. Beneath me, it was a couch. Across the room, it was expressing as the form of my friend I’d asked to witness me through this process. I could see the streams of energy running through her form. Towards her right foot the light turned dark. We spoke our first words to each other in more than five hours when I asked her . . .

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Spiritual mastery is name for the structure that opens a pathway to the experience of the embodied Divine Mystery, which is already within every human being. This structure supports you in discovering, experiencing, embodying, and integrating who you really are on every level of your body, mind, and life.

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The illusion of separation is the belief or experience that we are separate from God. Separate from each other. Separate from ourselves. All human pain and suffering arise from the illusion of separation. Separation is a fundamental artifact of being a human being. It’s not a mistake that’s been made. In fact, separation is one of our greatest gifts.

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Separation shows up in many different ways from feeling abandoned or forgotten about, to feeling cut off, to feeling as though God is punishing us. Cut off from God. Cut off from others. Cut off from ourselves.

The illusion of separation is the source of that deep inner ache we spend much or all of our lives trying to solve, consciously or unconsciously. For some this ache expresses as a deep inner sadness that only finds its way into experience, or rises to the level of a felt emotion, in moments of silence and being present with one’s own self. As a result of the intensity of this discomfort, a sustained effort to stay busy and avoid being quiet inside persists, until exhaustion or an inability to stem the tide of this unpleasant encounter begins to dominate.

It is only once we are silent inside and allow the darkness of separation to descend around and in us, that we are we able discover the opportunity to peel back this most impactful of illusions and begin living our lives from a fundamentally different perspective. Until we take this step, we are destined to remain trapped in separation. Everything we endeavor to create by thoughts, intention or action remains imbued in separation, forever reinforcing and amplifying the illusion of separation. The illusion is our human birthright. It is a gift forever secreted away on the other side of a door we can’t open, until we approach the indwelling of silence and presence that comes from allowing the emotional discomforts and anguish of our separation to express fully.

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We all go through different developmental stages as human beings. Initially, following birth we’re not very mobile. Later we crawl, and then we walk. For some time after we’re born, we’re not capable of communicating using mature language.

Every step in our development as babies, toddlers, teens, and beyond, is experienced differently for each of us, even though there are a specific set of developmental steps we all go through. While there are expected timelines for how long it might take to do this or that, especially as babies or toddlers, we all go through whatever we need to, in order to work through each developmental stage.

We are becoming who we really are as we work through the psychological, linguistic, and bodily developmental processes as human beings, expressing the various potentials of our genetic and environmental influences.

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So, it is with the spiritual journey. The spiritual analogue is consciousness: the dominant perceptual view through which you live, interpret, and experience your life.

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The control myth is the belief that with more effort through acquiring, refining, and expressing personal power, desired outcomes can be accomplished and experienced. It leads to believing or acting as if this statement is true: if it is to be, it’s up to me.

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Personal power (or in the case of stage one, the lack of personal power) plays a huge part in our spiritual development and growth as human beings. Our desire to secure and express personal power results in the exploration of control. It’s from this dynamic that the control myth originates.

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The control myth comes to us from the illusion of separation. And just as with all aspects of the illusion, the control myth appears to be describing what is actually real. There are plenty of examples of how control is a valid, productive approach to life.

Like so many other aspects of our developmental journey, the artifacts of the illusion of separation are valid until they’re not anymore.

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Eventually the control myth gives way and is replaced by an experience of resonance. All expressions of resonance are byproducts of experiencing the embodied Divine within.

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The tension between what is True and what is being experienced can become even more uncomfortable when we turn our attention to the practical circumstances of life. Specifically, whether your body, mind and life are being experienced in Resonance.

It’s one thing to look at the perceptual views associated with the different stages of consciousness or the process for letting go of the control myth. It is quite another when it comes to the pragmatic question of how to restore your health on whatever level (physical, mental, spiritual, relational, financial, etc.). What are we to do with these essential aspects of our lives? Is this where spirituality and “reality” fail to sync up?

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For many people, the answer to this question is a resounding “yes!”

What good does it do if I am a child of God – or an undistorted expression and extension of the Divine, if I’m unable to affect a different experience of health (or any other expression of Resonance: wealth, etc) in my life or the life of someone I love?

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Have you ever wished for the answers to all of life’s questions, available whenever you request the support?

A compass to point you towards true north: no matter how far off the path you think you may have wandered, no matter how on point you think you are. A compass that is always available to guide you and ensure you stay on the most resonant path as you move forward through whatever phase of life is unfolding for you right now.

The compass exists and it’s in you. It’s in everyone. The compass I’m talking about is your body, specifically the physical sensations of divine resonance expressing themselves in and through you right now.

Your body is an intuitive guidance system. It contains within it not only the expression but also the experience of Divine guidance. We’ll explore how these sensations work and you’ll learn how to open this internal compass, so it can become a meaningful reference and resource for you.

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If the structure of spiritual mastery and the resulting experience of the embodied Divine Mystery is to be meaningful to all aspects of our human experience, it must eventually support an experience of resonance in the outer dynamic.

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Is there some aspect of being not supported by the Divine? Some aspect of you that is beyond the reach of Divine expression?

Stage one offers an opportunity to fully explore this theme: that there is somehow an aspect of the cosmos, world, or you either beyond the reach of, or forgotten about, or abandoned by the Divine. Stage one provides a mirror for the integration of the disempowered separate self. It’s also the necessary developmental pathway to becoming identified with the empowered separate self.

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Stage two offers a powerful playground to fully explore this theme: that you can create whatever you need or desire. Stage two is a perfectly polished mirror to explore the infinite power of the mind and the creative exploration of the empowered separate self.

In stage two the one thing we’re exploring is whether it’s possible to create and experience resonance through the projections of what the empowered separate self imagines the divine connection to be; of creating an experience for which there is no inner foundation or reference.

Stage two is the necessary developmental pathway to becoming identified with the whole self.

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Now that we’ve explored how to live in the mirror, the inevitable question arises: “How can I amplify the experiences I’m beginning to have of the embodied Divine Mystery, and begin to integrate them more fully into every aspect of my being and life?”

The answer lies in spiritual practices, but not just any practices. If we are to gain embodied knowledge, they must be practices that lead us into the experience of who we really are—of the concert hall and all its extraordinary experiences and expressions. The six practices of spiritual mastery offer you a structure for predictably experiencing and integrating the embodied Divine Mystery.

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To include these in their entirety requires another volume. However, I want to share a vision of what is to come and their role in supporting your further integration as we bring our time together in this volume to a close and prepare to open for the next: Amplifying Resonance: The Six Practices of Spiritual Mastery.

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