Q: People have been on spiritual quests from the beginning of recorded history and likely before that. But what is it today that describes what people are looking for when it comes to spirituality?
While there are many in pursuit of the enlightenment experience, it seems that more are looking for something on a smaller scale, something that feels more controllable and doable.
So the goal becomes how to help them to achieve concrete results. To help them learn to be in the here and now. I say this with the utmost respect. These are all important steps along the way. To be able to focus the mind. To be able to concentrate. To be able to connect with nature. To be able to heighten the senses. To experience a greater awareness of what is here.
What I’m seeing a lot of is that there is a thirst for special experiences. Unique experiences. Whether that’s an intuitive experience or a connection to nature, or learning a skill that is unusual, such as seeing energy fields or seeing auras. Or, anything similar that allows a seeker to feel that they’ve experienced something greater, and that they have the ability to do more, see more, know more.
Q: So, it’s not so much looking for wisdom and understanding and meaning. It’s looking for something that makes us feel special?
It’s not so much the desire to feel special but rather the need to know that there is something greater. That we have tangibly experienced. So we know for ourselves that there’s something greater. Some might say it’s about, “I need to feel special. I have these great abilities.” But, for most people, they just want to see the man behind the curtain. They want to see Oz. And they don’t care if Oz isn’t particularly impressive in appearance. They just want to know what’s there. That is the most profound beginning of the path—an experience that allows us to know for ourselves. Once that happens, that can become a craving to continue to have those kinds of experiences, to continue to validate that there is more. That we can know more, that we can break through to more.
Q: Is that because there is, in general, more doubting now?
It’s more that there is a vibrational shift that is affecting the planet. Everyone has become clogged with exposure to misinformation. So. there is a greater lack of trust in what is perceived as reality than in previous times. There is a searching for what can be trusted, what can be known.
It is also very common in times of high anxiety and insecurity to look for a parental figure to take care of, to protect, to help. The Christian version would be looking for guardian angels. The eastern version is offering pujas to various gods for protection and gifts and so on. All religions have that. It is a stage that needs to be passed through. Until we reach the stage where we realize there is nothing to protect. There is no one who needs caring for. Once there is a breakthrough to an understanding—Not that I am a piece of God, But I am All-That-Is—then one realizes there is nothing to be lost in the All-That-Is. It can shift energy patterns. Which can change the form. But it is all that is.
Having said all this, it’s also true that many are still interested in the mystical. And to some extent, this has been escalating since Harry Potter, wanting magical worlds, and magical potions. Shortcuts. Escapism from what is hard and seems immovable to something that’s fluid and seems full of possibility. That is the approach younger people are most attracted to. Older people need reassurance. Need to be seen. Need to be given a structure that can work for them individually. There is not really a one-size-fits-all.
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