Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Through the ages the Higher Self has been given many names: the inner self, soul, Christ-consciousness, Buddha-nature, Spirit and authentic self. Most of all, our Higher Selves have been thought of as the deepest, most divine essence within us.
Yet despite all of these words, many of us still struggle to understand the Higher Self and its role in our lives. In other words, how can we transform this topic from an intellectual concept into a feeling that we experience?
What is the Higher Self?
You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself. Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.
― Alan W. Watts (The Book)
I want to share with you a story:
Once there was a Great Ocean. All of existence was birthed from this Great Ocean, lived off this Great Ocean, and returned back to this Great Ocean. As it was in the beginning, millions upon millions of tiny rivers sprung from this Great Ocean. Each river snaked across the land like delicate veins. But one day a great drought came. No one saw it coming. The scorching sun dried up each snaking river so greatly that they all turned into lakes. No longer were they connected to the Great Ocean, so they felt great loneliness and isolation. As time went by, each little lake became more and more depressed, forgetting the Great Ocean.
One day, a shaman came to drink from one of the lakes. He noticed that it was depressed. “Why are you so sad?” he asked. The lake, despondent and gloomy responded, “Because I am nearly dried up and there is little water left. Time is running out. Soon I will be gone forever.” The Shaman peered intently at the lake and laughed hysterically. “Silly lake, don’t you know that you are connected to the Great Ocean? Although you change, you are changeless. Your water evaporates and returns back to the Great Ocean. It is then reborn, repurposed, and redistributed. How can you live or die? You are birthless and deathless. You are in all things. You are all things.”
***
This story is the best way I can think to describe the Higher Self.
We are all like the lakes in this story. We believe that we are separate, isolated and cut off because of the ego. But something within us (the Shaman) continuously drives us closer to the truth through the voice of intuition, instinct and deep knowing. Eventually in life we have an illuminating moment of self-realization or remembrance: that we are rivers which are connected to the Great Ocean. The river represents the Higher Self. The Great Ocean represents Spirit, Source or Oneness.
Therefore, our Higher Selves are the embodiment of Spirit expressed through our human vessels. Our Higher Selves are our wise, all-knowing, unconditionally loving, creative, whole and liberated centers. Our Higher Selves represent our most authentic state of being beyond our conditionings, our fears, our limiting beliefs, our wounds, and our ego fixations. Our Higher Selves flow unhindered and effortlessly — but they can be blocked, repressed and denied. This is where the problems begin.
How to Experience Your Higher Self
I first encountered my Higher Self during an intensely traumatic shamanic experience. In this encounter, I lived through what felt like hell. All of my deepest fears were exposed and laid completely bare in front of me. For about an hour or more I experienced waves of the purest forms of anxiety, paranoia, terror, insanity, and loneliness imaginable. Despite constantly feeling on the verge of madness, I managed to surrender and accept what was happening. This shamanic experience awakened me to the existence of my Higher Self, or what I prefer to call “Divine Nature.”
Thankfully traumatic experiences aren’t the only way to reconnect with your Higher Self though! Other people encounter the Higher Self during activities such as meditation, fasting, wilderness retreats, dreams, visions, or even near death/out of body experiences. For everyone the situation or technique is different — there is definitely no one “prescribed” way to experience the Higher Self.
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Below I’ll share with you some simple ways to experience your Higher Self. But first, I want to share some benefits with you. In fact, I prefer to think of these “benefits” as “semi-permanent to permanent shifts of being” depending on how strong the encounter is:
- Lowered or completely diminished anxiety
- Lowered or completely diminished depression
- Openness and receptivity to life
- Creativity and inspiration
- Enhancement of intuition and personal gifts
- Greater tolerance and patience
- No longer fearing death
- Developing a mystical perception of life
- Cultivating unconditional love for self and others
These “benefits” touch only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to experiencing your Higher Self! Because the experience is so individualized and personal, we all taste different benefits to varying degrees.
Here are some tips and questions that might help you tap into your Higher Self:
- Discover the face of your Higher Self — what does it look like or resemble? You might like to use visualization or self-hypnosis to help you with this.
- What does your Higher Self feel like — e.g. what emotions, or physical sensations arise when you embody it?
- What message/s does your Higher Self have for you? You might like to explore automatic writing, dream analysis and even the use of oracle cards.
- Make time for silence and contemplation every day. Start with a minimum of 10 minutes daily. You can use this time to meditate, or to simply revel in nature and the wonders of existence. What feelings or thoughts do you have during this time? You might like to record them in a journal.
- Explore what things you can surrender or let go of. Introspect and examine what beliefs, ideals, assumptions, and/or conditionings are causing you to feel separate.
- In what ways can you accept and love yourself (and others) more? The more love you feel, the more life expands, and the more deeply you can embody your Higher Self.
- Try non-resistance (“going with the flow”) for one day. Allow everything to happen as it happens, including your thoughts, emotions and external circumstances. How do you feel?
- Discover who or what your Spirit Guide is. Spirit Guides are powerful interdimensional beings that help us to connect with truth, courage, wisdom and love.
- Find your soul place. We all have at least one soul place on earth. A soul place is a special site or spot where we experience unique feelings of belonging, empowerment and energetic rejuvenation.
Learning to connect to and embody your Higher Self can completely transform the way you perceive yourself, other people and life forever. For me, the experience was so profound that I’ve never looked at myself, or life, the same way ever since.
Have you ever “met” your Higher Self or embodied it? What was it like for you?
Beautiful analogy about the Great Ocean. I posted a comment on another higher self article here several weeks ago, so I must be thinking about this topic quite a bit, because just yesterday as I was cat napping, I had a dream (or more like an astral projection dream where my body was sleeping but my consciousness/mind was wide awake and fully alert) where I came to visit ‘myself’, or my Earth self I guess. Hard to describe, but there I was, a large ethereal golden white glowing image of what I pretty much look like now, but giant sized hovering a few feet below the ceiling (and I mean out of this world kinda BIG, but still able to fit into my “physical room” space). I was mostly female looking, but also gender neutral at the same time. I distinctly remember my giant arms being folded, and the Earth me thinking “hmm, there I am, this is so real I can reach out at arms length and touch her floating up there…” She was smiling down tenderly at me with sparkly eyes. And I remember waking up and thinking wow, there I am, in all my spiritual glory, how cool…it was accompanied by a very peaceful feeling. Anyways, I thought I would share my experience as it has helped me so tremendously whenever I come across others’ experiences to help me piece together and understand my own. Thank you guys for having this space available for others to learn and share.
I went through the death of my higher self! Screw the spiritual awakening – free will doesnt exist in this world! Best regards
feel at times the small quiet guide has always been teaching me. Especially since childhood, way before school at 4 years old. Theres more. This Elder Brother walks behind me at times and enters my being. And more I once years ago went to see a new age therapist regarding past lives. Initially she asked me to picture the colours until I was flooded in purple light as I walked down a pit into a garden. I did so and shifted full of pulsing purple and asked what did she wish to know. Then she freaked out terminating the session. She did not make eye contact and said reverentially , humbly othat she was honoured to be in the prescence of an earth angel. Please ..what do you think? I am aware of preserving my initial perceptions of This Place first encountered as a baby and preserved with vairious success throughout my life …i am 64.
Eventually over the decades each moment of altered perception, however far apart in Time can be joined up. This is reassuring. Likewise guiding inner advice can be seen as not rare anomalies but a norm. We are indeed in a web of energy. We do at times transcend our cognitive restraints. The Ego is also a Bardol, an island of perceptive limits in which we manage the dream, the infinite, a concensus reality. Culture and Words are intangible entities existing in concensus reality. As such so much of what we create, from a home or pets or gardens or government are projections of this world view.
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I came across this article after I wanted to do a grounding visualisation for the first time. The description said I should find the energy from the earth and the heaven, and it made me wonder, what heaven really meant. Whatever the common notion is, it never appealed to me.
Anyway, knowing that I can believe there is a Higher Self and the Spirit terrifies me and emboldens at the same time. More importantly, it reminds me of my philosophy professor deriding Hegel for writing about Spirit and what not (I believe it was Hegel).
But, beyond all the religious teachings and cultural interpretations, as an empath, I had always sensed ‘god’ and spirit and my own higher self. But along the way, I lost touch with them all. Their glimpses would pass me by at times, someone would remind me of their existence but I would think, I must be barking mad!
Now, I have reached a point where I must embrace my powers as an empath. And I must reconnect with the Higher Self and the Spirit. This article gives me the strength to believe that I am not abnormal to search for them. That means a lot to me, at least for now..
I like so much the story of the ocean!
I have to say that I’m so intrigued about your experience.
I’m glad you liked the story Mati. :)
Yes, one hell of an experience!
I had a hellish experience, in a hellish place, for a couple of years. Discovering that my progenitor hexed me. And that It was common for him to do this to people. Even perhaps before that my mother be born.
One of the hexes, isolates me and make that people can’t see me like I am, interfering with fake impressions and emotions.
Even with oracles is very difficult to break that barrier.
Once I could leave that place, and other things happened, I could connect with myself very very deeply, even remember lost things of my childhood. That and much more other things helped me alot.