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Spiritual ascension (or spiritual awakening) is one of many major topics out there which can become confusing very quickly. Everyone seems to have a different understanding of what spiritual ascension means. The plethora of information out there doesn’t help: it can make you quite disoriented in a short amount of time. Personally, I believe that almost all definitions of spiritual ascension are right because it is an exquisitely multi-layered concept and experience that cannot be shoved into a box that easily.
That being said, it does help to categorize and label the different aspects of spiritual ascension so that we can understand them better – and that is my intention for this article.
What I am going to share below is based on my own experience, insight, and observation of myself and other people. You’re welcome to redefine or add to this list however you see fit in the comments.
What is Spiritual Ascension?
Spiritual ascension, also known as spiritual awakening, is a natural evolutionary process which involves the process of shedding the old self and experiencing an inner rebirth. Many people speak about spiritual ascension in terms of being “upgraded,” “rebooted” or being elevated in vibrational frequency. All of these terms are a way of referring to the inner evolution and expansion of the mind, heart, or soul. As the name implies, spiritual ascension is about reaching new heights and transcending old limiting habits, beliefs, mindsets, and ways of being.
Spiritual ascension, however, is not all angels, unicorns, and roses. It is often accompanied by severe and shocking shifts that result in what is called the Dark Night of the Soul. (I elaborate on these dark experiences in my book The Spiritual Awakening Process.)
5 Types of Spiritual Ascension
Spiritual ascension (or spiritual awakening) is mentioned a lot in spiritual circles. Everyone has a slightly different definition. But every interpretation can, more or less, fit into the following five categories:
1. Awakening of the Mind
This type of awakening comes when you experience a major epiphany or sudden mental realization. This deep understanding does not necessarily translate to integrated experience, but it does feel like an astonishing flash of ‘enlightened’ perspective that can help you mentally understand life.
How to know if you have experienced one: Have you ever experienced that sudden ‘click’ when a piece of information/word/synchronicity falls into a larger puzzle? This is called a mental awakening. And often such realizations stay with us, motivating and inspiring profound changes in our lives.
2. Awakening of a New Personality
When mental awakenings are consistent and go deep enough, over a period of time they can result in the development of a new personality. This type of transformation and ascension involves cutting away and moving past old limiting and toxic patterns and developing qualities such as self-acceptance, empowerment, and understanding. While this type of awakening isn’t as deep as say, a soul awakening, it is nonetheless still vital on the spiritual path.
How to know if you have experienced one: Think back to the kind of person you were one to three years ago. Are you still pretty much the same person? Or have you made some major life-enhancing positive shifts? If you think you’ve changed (in a good way), you’ve likely experienced a personality awakening. This type of awakening is caused when previously repressed, ignored or shunned parts of the personality have been integrated to create more wholeness.
3. Awakening of Spiritual Energy
‘Spiritual ascension’ can sometimes refer to awakening spiritual energy within the body and energy field. When life force energy (commonly referred to as qi, prana, or kundalini energy) is awakened, major changes can occur on the physical through the spiritual levels. Ancient practices such as tai chi, yoga, meditation, and tantra, help to awaken this energy, but sometimes life force energy awakens spontaneously. This sudden activation is called a Kundalini Awakening, which enters the realms of the soul and total awakening (see the next two types below).
How to know if you have experienced one: An awakening of spiritual energy can feel mild all the way to extreme. (And when I say extreme, I mean intensely overwhelming and often too much to bear.) Common signs of an awakening of spiritual energy involve feelings of enhanced vitality and energy on the physical level, energy rushes, tingling and electrical feelings throughout the body, changes in sexual libido, sharpened awareness, and feelings of cosmic interconnectedness. Negative symptoms can also arise (for the uninitiated) such as mood swings, mania, physical hypersensitivity, insomnia, seizures, loss of appetite or overeating, extreme and scary altered states of consciousness – just to name a few.
4. Awakening of the Soul
Soul awakenings can be brief and sudden, or long and drawn out. Brief soul awakenings are often referred to in Zen Buddhism as ‘Satori’ which is the experience of seeing into one’s true eternal nature. This glimpse of enlightenment is often short and doesn’t last very long (one moment to a few days). On the other hand, long-term soul awakenings are experienced as a deepening of contact with one’s Soul. This could involve consistently uniting with one’s soul purpose, spirit guides, or higher self and thereby understanding and beginning to experience oneself as Eternal and Limitless.
How to know if you have experienced one: Have you ever had a moment in which you felt the division between yourself and the World disintegrate? Have you ever shifted from the ego-perspective to the universal-perspective? Have you experienced any moments where you’ve felt deeply aligned with your life purpose? These are all signs of a soul awakening. Developing virtuous qualities such as compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, and unconditional love also accompany soul awakenings.
5. Total Awakening (Enlightenment)
Enlightenment, or total ego death, is a rare experience in which the ‘self’ dissolves and all that remains is Unity With All. This state is called by many names: Oneness, moksha, non-dual awareness, Buddhahood, illumination, and so forth. Such an intense state of being can arrive spontaneously or through years of spiritual study and discipline – but in both instances, total awakening is a gift of grace, it isn’t something that we can “achieve” in the normal sense of the word. When enlightenment occurs, there is an experience of being both nothing and everything all at once; it is a state that transcends thought and the mind itself, it is a Mystical Awakening. The ego is finally seen, understood, and overcome, and all that remains is the Pure Awareness, Presence, Love, and Truth.
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As we can see, spiritual ascension comes in many different shapes and sizes, with the ultimate form of ascension culminating as Total Awakening, self-realization or enlightenment.
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Many people get confused on the spiritual path, so I hope this article has helped to provide more clarity and mental awakening. ;)
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I’ve now had four spiritual shifts. My first one I experienced was awakening of the soul when I was a teenager. It was as though the world doubled in size and I was the only one that could tell the difference. The next three would be awakening of the mind which gave me wonderful and tangible insight to others around me. I’ve only met one other person that’s had a spiritual shift. How many shifts or repeated shifts can one person have?
Since my birth I every 7 years have had an awakening of sorts. huge turmoil , many close figures change, life in general changes. This is my 49th year. I have studied on chakras and spiritual maturity and kundalini awakening( which it sounds like that was an experience about at my 14-15 year and it was very dramatic . I assumed it to be the christian idea of being saved at the time.It seems very young for the kundalini awakening I have started to study Buddhism because I am going through something and I am having somewhat of a struggle grasping onto it. my peer group is beginning to change among other things that normally happen at my 7 th year but this is more. thats what brought me to your web site
Hello, as I read down through this. It feels as though I have been experiencing this over the past year. I mean ALL OF IT. Which would have to be a gift of Grace. I just quit cigarettes. I’m grateful it’s not too late.
But choices I’ve made. I hope u believe. I’m trying to understand but I’m struggling. Why me is all I’m asking. I can relate to all you have listed.
I had a spiritual awakening about 20 years ago in the form of a high labido. My husband of 30 years left me. I wasn’t looking for another man, I was and still am looking for God or Higher Power or whoever you call God. Men have been emotionally abusing me ever since because they think I want them. I just recently learned from your website that this higher labido is a spiritual awakening. I’ve been looking for God for a very long time. I know God is with me, but I’m not sure what to do with this sexual energy. And sex doesn’t take the energy away as in human sex. Helpful advice is welcome.
I’m not sure whether I’ve had mind awakenings, although intellectually I must have figured a few things out – that there is the soul, that wants to soar and bloom, the heart and the soul know what to do if you listen and that are the source of the true self and true life and connect us to our inner child and dreams, that nature has infinite balancing intelligence (it is the body, the instincts that we need connection to), that magic is real when aligned with nature and that the wild can help the imagination go wild and be liberated, that the imagination should be free and amazing and has creationist power, that following your heart is the truest centre of human being and following your heart makes life a dream come true, that life is complex and mad but is actually meant to be simple and profound when we embrace the tantric erotic spirituality, the inner child that we all are and love and dreams and heart and soul and nature. Follow what sets your life, your soul on fire. The experiences I have had have been Kundalini orgasmic energy rushes, spirit animal of the serpent claiming me,… Read more »
what is your opinion about suicide? what happens one kill himself? can he simply vanish?
I think all this stages come together, all is one, no division..to bad this stage doesnt last or return and you have no power over when you will experience another glimpse if it again. How to live on after that is a tough question? Noone uderstands your experience and the system is not made in a way to have a lifestyle of freedom and to be able to live acording to your new beliefs. You can live as an enlightened beeing only if you dont have to work or spent time with other people on lower frequency that pin you down to where you came from – oblivion of who you really are.
I think all this stages come together, all is one, no division..to bad it doesnt last or return and you have no power over when you will experience another glimpse if it again. How to live on after that is a tough question? Noone uderstands your experience and the system is not made in a way to have a lifestyle of freedom and be able to live acording to your new beliefs. You can live as an enlighten beeing only if you dont have to work or spent time with other people on lover frequency that pin you down to where you have came from and pin you down to the beginning of oblivion of who you really are.
I’ve been through all these stages, and it has been quite the experience At first, I started getting strange thoughts and feelings of hatred for everything in general. I always felt angry, restless or lost and confused. Partially because I felt as if I had been living a lie. At one point, I started to lose faith. What was once anger and restlessness turned into sorrow and exhaustion. I losing everything I once cherished and feelings of extreme hopelessness and sadness were taking over me. I started having huge mood swings, chronic nightmares and unexplainable fear. I spiraled into depression. Somehow, I fell into a state of emptiness and complete apathy. I was completely lost, no sense of direction and sudden lack of motivation. I always had some sort of a phantom pain, be it a migraine that wont go away no matter how many pills I take and left me hyper sensitive to stomach cramps that prevented me from moving. Everything became meaningless. I felt as if I had nothing to live for anymore and became dangerously suicidal. As I moved on from this stage, I was back to being sad and depressed, but this time it was much… Read more »
Dear Sol and Luna…
Thanks a lot…you both share an amazing truth…
May God always bless you both…