Wow, what a change of mind I’m going through.
I don’t know where to begin. I’m in this zone of spiritual quietness of thought and stillness of emotions, which I called a “dark night.” (1)
While in it, I’m experiencing a few changes of mind on a very basic level.
—> I can’t let the opportunity pass by to point out to you what I said a while back that realization is just normal seeing from a higher – or deeper – level, midwifed by bliss. I’m illustrating that at this moment.
I’m seeing from a deeper level. The experience is just normal at this level, but may be perceived as a “realization” when I find myself in my earlier state again.
Remember: I’m an Ascension ethnographer. I write an ethnographic narrative – in-the-moment awareness of self. <—
The change of mind occurred as a result of adding a footnote to an article describing the 1987 vision. In the article I said:
“The experience was not enlightenment. It was a teaching about enlightenment. I had been given a glimpse of God’s great Plan for life….” (2)
Yaaaaaahhhh … no. I can’t make that statement in good conscience any more.
I know why I say that. An enlightenment experience happening to Mrs. Beckow’s little boy, Stephen? Preposterous. Presumptuous. Next, please.
I used to call it “a fourth-chakra event,” dodging the bullets of criticism which I projected would fall upon me.
But it was an enlightenment experience. I was drenched in bliss all through it and for two days after. Bliss of that intensity is an 8th-9th dimensional experience:
Steve: The space that I call transformative love, what dimension is it?
Archangel Michael: It is the seventh dimension.
Steve: Then what dimension is bliss?
AAM: It is between eight and nine. (3)
Here I run into deficiencies in enlightenment theory contemporary to when I was writing the article (mid-1990s).
We didn’t discuss the dimensions then. We talked about the world of the devas, the causal planes, etc. It was all very fantastic and glamorous.
We didn’t discuss chakras as portals either. Yes, it is said in classical theory that a fourth-chakra experience is enlightenment – spiritual awakening to Hindus, stream entering to Buddhists.
Here Sri Ramakrishna describes it:
“The Kundalini, when awakened, passes through the lower centres and comes to the Anahata, which is at the heart. It stays there. At that time the mind of the aspirant is withdrawn from the three lower centres. He feels the awakening of Divine Consciousness and sees Light. In mute wonder he sees that radiance and cries out: ‘What is this? What is this?'” (4)
The “awakening” and “sees the Light”: This is the beginning of enlightenment.
Contemporary theory, as far as I’m aware, also doesn’t describe what happens inside the higher dimensions which we enter into when the fourth chakra triggers the opening of the hridayam (heart aperture, pinprick of light).
We don’t remain outside the hridayam. We enter into the heart. On one occasion I was inundated with a tsunami of love inside the heart. On another occasion I was swept into an inner chamber where shone the Self.
The words are tumbling out of my mouth.
So I have to come out of the closet and say, yes, OK, alright already, I did have an enlightenment experience (the vision) in 1987. Acknowledging that one, I have to acknowledge two others (the heart opening and the sight of the Self).
OK, get it all out. I also experienced seventh-chakra enlightenment or Brahmajnana, but it was truncated. (5) I simply watched the golden river of the kundalini pass over me and into the seventh chakra.
And I had a truncated seventh-dimensional experience of the Oversoul in a Vipassana meditation retreat in March of 2011. (6)
There.
***
Eeeek, I feel exposed!!! I’m triggered! Vasanas going off. My bells are ringing!!!!!
I’m going to be charged with bragging. I’m becoming like my Father! Who do you think you are? You pip-squeak! Go eff yourself. Get outta here. Punk.
Heart pounding.
Coming out of the closet is frightening. Usually we try to enhance, build, and glamorize our image, not walk out of the dressing room naked.
Thoughts flashing through my mind. Coming clean is like cutting yourself off at the knees. Sharing a withhold hurts for a minute and brings relief for a lifetime; keeping a withhold satisfies for a minute and hurts for a lifetime. On and on the thoughts go, like ticker tape.
Phew.
I’m shaking. I had a lot invested in never saying I had an enlightenment experience, in “keeping my head down, my guard up, and my nose clean,” as my Dad would say.
I can’t believe how much I just wrote. When you come out of the closet, the words pour forth in a stream.
Well, I may be in what is darkness to the mind and emotions, but it’s by no means darkness to the Self.
Footnotes
(1) “Like a Dark Night of the Soul,”
(2) “The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment – Ch. 13 – Epilogue,” August 13, 2011, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2011/08/13/the-purpose-of-life-is-enlightenment-ch-13-epilogue/
(3) Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, Jan. 20, 2016. [Hereafter AMM.]
(4) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 499.
(5) Steve: [Emptiness of mind] was followed next by what appeared to be the kundalini completing its circuit at the seventh chakra. Is that in fact what happened?
Archangel Michael: Yes. …
Steve: Hmm, interesting! Ordinarily you would experience Brahmajnana at that point but I felt that it had been muted, toned down.
AAM: When you use the term “dramatic enlightenment experiences” [as I did earlier], you are talking about Nirvana. You are talking about the unity of all with One.
It is not to say that you will not experience that, but you cannot (well, you can if you wish; it is a choice to) simply remain in that state of unity, of One, or be fully conscious, in service, in action….
So, it is a toning down, if anything. It really is the middle ground. …
You know that enlightenment is right there in front of you. It is yours to access. But if you are in service, you will not choose to live there. …
You can think of it as keeping two feet firmly on the ground. (AAM, Feb. 14, 2012.)
(6) Steve: I had an experience at a meditation workshop [in March 2011] in which I felt regal. It was a partial experience. Can you tell me what that part of me was that I accessed?
Archangel Michael: … Your Highest Self, your Oversoul, is very regal.
S: So that was an experience of the Oversoul.
AAM: Yes. (Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, Sept. 13, 2011.)
Arcturians: Seventh [Dimension] is your Oversoul. (Arcturians in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Suzanne Lie, March 17, 2013.)