Stages of Faith, Stage 6

The last blog talked about the young adult phase where breaking free from external authority to rely on one's inner authority is established.  Many people do not make it to this phase and stay in the previous adolescent phase where authority is based on external authority which typically comes from one's family and religion.

Stage 6 (Fowler's Stage 5) is the Conjunctive Faith.  At the time of his writing of the book, in the 1970's (the book was published in 1981), he found Stage 6 a difficult one to explain since it wasn't real common.  This is the stage where there is a "knowing" about life that is very complex.  It moves beyond Stage 5's either/or thinking.  Stage 6 is where many sides of a situation can be seen simultaneous to each other.  A feature of this stage is that the individual is willing to let reality speak its word regardless of the impact of that world on the security or self-esteem of the knower.

This means there is an ability to be in reality about your life's circumstances (including difficult things going on in your life) along with being willing to work through your past--even if its difficult.  This means that denial is less apt to be present in your life.  You just want to accept and be present with whatever life is bringing you.

Unlike during Fowler's day, I believe that many of us are in Stage 6 now.  Many of us have been and are delving into our inner world and sorting through our past.  Many of us are choosing to be in reality about our life circumstances and not sugar coat it into something that it is not.  Many of us can see the complexities of life from many angles.  I am so excited that so many of us are on this beautiful journey of Stage 6 together because it means that we are creating a critical mass into a new way of Being in the world.

How do you move into Stage 6?

First off, you have to already be in Stage 5 where you have established an internal authority for yourself.  Then, you have to be ready to make an honest evaluation of your life--the good, the bad, and the ugly included--and work towards forgiveness of self and others and acceptance of all there is.  This doesn't mean you won't have days of irritation, upsetness, and wishing things were different.  This means that you are willing to do the inner work needed to move forward differently.  Doing the inner work means you can then accept your external world.  This in turn allows you to see things in complex ways.

If there are traumatic and difficult things to work through, you need to confront them and move through them.  This is best done with a professional.  If there are less traumatic and difficult things to move through, you must be willing to be with yourself and allow all of the emotions, feelings, outdated beliefs, and sensations to bubble up to the surface so you can be with them, witness them,  accept them so the body can let them go.

Meditation is a good way to do this.  It can be very helpful to sit quietly with your spine straight in a chair or on the floor in the lotus position.  Focus on your breath, 3rd eye or heart.  Whenever your mind wanders, go right back to your breath, 3rd eye or heart.  Doing this will put you in a very relaxed state so that your body can release tensions and stress.

Another helpful thing to do is to relax (either in a meditative pose or laying down) and to pay attention to your body.  Pay attention to which areas of your body feel more tense, emotional, or stressed.  If you have many areas, pick the most obvious area or, if you can, focus on everything that is stressful all at once.  Keep a pinpointed focus on the tense/stressed area.  If your mind wanders, bring it right back to the tense area.  As you stay with the tense area, you may feel grief.  Stay with the grief.  As you stay with the grief, you may cry or it may dissolve. Or you may see an image (without trying to) in your body.  Stay focused on it.  If you're able to, merge with the image.   Stay with the image until it transforms into something else.  Keep staying with whatever you're experiencing until the area feels clear.

If you feel resistance, this is normal feeling at times.  Just be with the resistance until it clears.  If it won't clear while you're focused on it, go back to it each day until it does.

Doing this every day, is a good way to keep yourself as clear as possible internally so that you can feel mostly good about yourself and your life (no one does so perfectly).  Some days will be very good while others may not be since this is how life is--there are good days and not so good days.  Acceptance of these variations is the key to true wisdom.

Healing process to help move into Stage 6

• Ask your Higher Self (HS) to direct and your optimal spiritual team to assist (spirits in the other realms/dimension that are more advanced than our human existence and have contracted to assist you in this lifetime).  Ask for an energy of protection and energy of invisibility so only those spirits and guides that are optimal can participate and see in.
• Ask that all the work done is throughout your soul's history and beyond, all levels of your Being (your mind, emotions, and body) and all grid systems/energy fields that effect you using non-linear time to process.
• Ask that an energy comes into the aura (the egg shaped energy field around you) and etheric body (the blueprint of your mind, emotions, and body) to release grief including the beliefs that cause it.
• Ask that your spirit guides (with your HS directing this) "rewire" the energetic brain to create detachment from difficult circumstances from the past creating an emotional release.
• Ask that energy comes into the 3rd eye and brain shifting thoughts and emotions to life giving, positive ones.
• Ask that a structure locks in these positive thoughts and feelings.
• Ask that an infusion of light comes in so you can hold energies of higher consciousness and higher vibration.
• Ask that a strengthening and stabilizing energy comes in for optimal health and vitality so that your body accepts all positive changes as a positive with your HS deciding what that is.
• Ask that all grid systems/energy fields that effect you are restructured and recalibrated into the pattern that reflects the work you did today throughout all time and space and beyond, all appropriate dimension or until no longer needed.
• Ask that a no time, no space cocoon (kind of like a caterpillar cocoon) goes around you (you are asking that your brain moves out of linear time into what most of the universe contains--non-linear time) for a fast processing and upgrade of your energy system.
• Thank your HS for directing, your optimal spirit guides for assisting.  Thank them for continuing to assist throughout completion of this process and beyond with your HS directing it.

This is a good exercise to do regularly for awhile since these types of releases do not happen overnight.  It takes patience and tenacity to work through your inner world.

We are living in an era of great promise and potential!  Each of us doing our inner work and moving into higher consciousness helps all of us since we are all energetically connected.  The more of us doing this work together, the more we reach a critical mass where a collective shift can occur to move us collectively into unconditional love and acceptance.

You are a Divine Being having a human experience.  Keep reminding yourself of this to activate the knowing of who you truly are (a Divine Being) and create new, exciting possibilities for yourself and humanity.

Maureen Higgins owns Wings of Freedom, an alternative counseling and coaching business. She helps people be their best selves and recognize they are part of the Divine. Maureen has developed numerous energetic healing systems you can learn through her classes. Some of them are turned into audios that clear your energy field like a one-on-one session. Visit her site to try the free sample “Activating your Divine Light Codes. https://www.schoolforhigherconsciousness.com/energetic-healing-audios. Maureen is proud to announce her new website School for Higher Consciousness

Stages of Faith - Stage 5

The last blog talked about Stage 4 which is the adolescent phase where teenagers are trying to figure out who they are and how they are perceived.  This is a time of experimentation which can be quite challenging and create difficult drama that needs to be worked through later in life.

Stage 5 (Fowler's Stage 4) is the Individuative-Reflective Faith (typically 20's but can be much later if at all) - To move to Stage 5, reliance on external sources of authority must be interrupted.  Some young adults will move to the opposite stance of their parents or those they previously thought were authority figures.  This allows them to move away from external authority being in charge of their lives to an internal authority.  A new sense of self is developed during this time frame which is critical to being a mature adult.   This includes thinking in a whole new way meaning a new value system emerges based on their own inner truth.

If this stage happens naturally in your 20's, then the transition from Stage 4 to Stage 5 is relatively smooth since you're recently on your own.  Its a natural progression into your own way of thinking about your life and the world.  If it doesn't happen during this time frame, major life events can prompt you into Stage 5 such as a divorce, death, loss of something important to you such as a valued job.  If a crisis pushes you into Stage 5, it can be a rough ride into a new perspective and sense of self since you've already based your relationships and your roles on your previously held viewpoints which are based on the "group think."  Extricating yourself from this can be painful and challenging and take some time--perhaps up to seven years.

If you find yourself still in Stage 4 and want to move to Stage 5, how can you do this relatively painlessly if you're now in your later years?

A big part of this is being open to change and being willing to look at things differently.  You may need to see a therapist to do so since therapy helps significantly with looking at old outdated viewpoints and finding new ways to view self, your family, and your world.

Another thing to do, which I've found extremely helpful, is to ask for a perception and attitude adjustment or change that will move you into alignment with your Higher Self (HS) creating your own internal value system.  Meditating with this as the intention allows the brain to get out of the way so that a new insight can drop in from your HS.

To meditate, sit quietly in a chair or in a lotus position on the floor and focus on your breath or bring your attention to your heart or 3rd eye.  You may find your brain ruminating and going over the grocery list as you meditate but keep bringing your focus back to your breath or your third eye or heart (which ever method makes you feel more centered).  Some days you may have great success keeping your brain out of the way; other days you may not.  That's okay.  That's normal.  The more you do it, the more results you'll get.

Healing Process For Moving into Stage 5 and Preparing for Stage 6

• Do the healing processes given in the previous blogs on Stages 1 - 4.  Wait a few days or more inbetween each healing process/each blog exercise given unless you have done a lot of energetic/healing work already geared towards raising the vibration/consciousness of your physical body
• Ask your Higher Self (HS) to direct and your optimal spiritual team to assist (spirits in the other realms/dimension that are more advanced than our human existence and have contracted to assist you in this lifetime).  Ask for an energy of protection and energy of invisibility so only those spirits and guides that are optimal can participate and see in.
• Ask that all the work done is throughout your soul's history and beyond, all levels of your Being (your mind, emotions, and body) and all grid systems/energy fields that effect you using non-linear time to process.
• Ask that a white energy comes into the aura (the egg shaped energy field around you) and into the etheric body (the blueprint of your mind, emotions, and body) "waking you up to new beliefs about yourself, your family, your work, your culture, and your new role in life."  Ask that as many vibrations/energies come in as needed to begin the process of what has been asked for.
• Ask that an energy comes in to break down the barriers of who you think you are.
• Ask that an energy comes in to revitalize the area(s) in your life that have been traditionally challenging.
• Ask that an energy of invigoration comes in to activate a positive direction for this challenging area(s).
• Ask that a new energetic structure comes in to lock-in and activate the positive energy and direction.
• Ask that a positive energy comes in to clear out thoughts and fears that do not fit with this positive direction.
• Ask that your brain creates new pathways and and pleasure points for a happy, creative, fulfilling life based on your soul/HS's best and optimal life.
• Ask that a strengthening and stabilizing energy comes in for optimal health and vitality so that your body accepts all positive changes as a positive with your HS deciding what that is.
• Ask that all grid systems/energy fields that effect you are restructured and recalibrated into the pattern that reflects the work you did today throughout all time and space and beyond, all appropriate dimension or until no longer needed.
• Ask that a no time, no space cocoon (kind of like a caterpillar cocoon) goes around you (you are asking that your brain moves out of linear time into what most of the universe contains--non-linear time) for a fast processing and upgrade of your energy system.
• Thank your HS for directing, your optimal spirit guides for assisting.  Thank them for continuing to assist throughout completion of this process and beyond with your HS directing it.

It is important to become the master of your own life.  We are moving into a new era/portal of change so its never been more important than now to do so.  Not only do you want to be the own master of your life/your reality, you want to create a totally new reality for yourself that is NOT based on the past.

Allow your Higher Self to guide you towards what this means for you.  Allow your Higher Self to let go of the past as you know it and create an optimal present and future that hasn't been thought up by your brain before--something new, fulfilling, and life changing.  Only your own Higher Self can bring that forth for you.  The time is NOW to do so.

After all, you're a Divine Being having a human experience.  You have all the makings of a wonderful new life!

Maureen Higgins owns Wings of Freedom, an alternative counseling and coaching business. She helps people be their best selves and recognize they are part of the Divine. Maureen has developed numerous energetic healing systems you can learn through her classes. Some of them are turned into audios that clear your energy field like a one-on-one session. Visit her site to try the free sample “Activating your Divine Light Codes. https://www.schoolforhigherconsciousness.com/energetic-healing-audios. Learn more about learning energetic healing at  School for Higher Consciousness

Stages of Faith - Stage 4

The last blog talked about Stage 3 which is the concrete thinking stage (age 6 or 7 to 12) where people get stuck in their own narrative based on what appears to be "real" and what seems to be "make believe."  If any traumas or difficult situations happen to you during this stage of life and you haven't worked on healing them, you may find yourself stuck in this kind of thinking today.

Stage 4 (Fowler's Stage 3) - Synthetic Conventional Faith (age 12 to 18 or 19) is the abstract thinking stage where new insights, anxieties, and commitments are forming.   Teenagers are still guided by their parents belief systems and those of their peers.  Their own beliefs and knowings are not quite formed yet.  At this age a person's identity is forming where they ask themselves, who am I?  How do others see me? What do others think about me?

Many people get stuck in this stage.  I call this the "sheep mentality" type of thinking.  This is where you follow what others think without really questioning whether it makes sense to you or whether it is really kind to others or self.  If you're "stuck" in Stage 4, you will continue following your parents religious beliefs and the beliefs of those considered authority figures including the beliefs of your peers.  This would indicate that a "locus of control" has not yet been developed which means an internal feeling that your personal choices can effect your life path does not yet exist.  You would probably believe that the trajectory of your life path is up to other people's decisions and external events.

What keeps someone stuck in Stage 4?

The teen years is when many traumas and difficulties take place due to raging hormones, more risk taking, and experimentation with drugs and alcohol.  These create the perfect scenario for devastating events and inner conflict.  Almost everyone can come up with at least one event that is super hard during this time period in life. Its a time of much doubt and inner conflict even without difficult external circumstances.  Its also when many people have their first feelings of love where the heart is hurt or broken.

If you haven't worked through these challenges, they still reside within your mind, emotions and body even if you're unaware of them.  They stay put like an invisible undercurrent controlling how you respond to life even though your'e unaware of what is driving the behaviors.

Breaking out of Stage 4

The main goal of breaking out of Stage 4 is to be your own expert and to find your own answers.  This doesn't mean you don't ask for other people's opinions.  Its good to seek the council of others so you can look at all angles of a situation.  However, all decisions should come from your own inner wisdom and inner council.  Even if you decide, later on, that you made an error, this is how we all learn and grow so there are really no true errors.

Healing Process to break out of Stage 4

• Ask your Higher Self (HS) to direct and your optimal spiritual team to assist (spirits in the other realms/dimension that are more advanced than our human existence and have contracted to assist you in this lifetime).  Ask for an energy of protection and energy of invisibility so only those spirits and guides that are optimal can participate and see in.
• Ask that all the work done is throughout your soul's history and beyond, all levels of your Being (your mind, emotions, and body) and all grid systems/energy fields that effect you using non-linear time to process.
• Ask that an energy comes into your brain disengaging you from viewpoints that are not in alignment with your own truth which is aligned with your own Spirit/HS.
• Ask that an energy comes into your aura (the egg shaped energy field around you) and etheric body (the blueprint of your mind, emotions, and body) focusing on your third eye (between your eyes that is considered your intuition) and brain increasing discernment and focus on what is best for your optimal growth.
• Ask that an energy comes into your medulla (the hollow in the center of your neck where your skull and neck meet) and up to your frontal lobe (a part of your brain) to activate expanded awareness and direction.
• Ask that an energy comes into your aura and etheric body releasing old relationship hurts and problems not fitting our new awareness and direction.
• Ask that points of light form a grid that becomes a part of your etheric body to release your brain's attachment to old emotions and the physical constructs that go with it.
• Ask that a beam of light goes into the liver to transmute old self judgement and anger at self.
• Ask that a rectangular energy goes around you representing "death of the old" so that your past can fully transform via this energy.
• Ask that your HS connects you to your "future self" where you are fully confident, discerning, and within your power which is aligned with your most mature and loving self. 
• Ask that a strengthening and stabilizing energy comes in for optimal health and vitality so that your body accepts all positive changes as a positive with your HS deciding what that is.
• Ask that all grid systems/energy fields that effect you are restructured and recalibrated into the pattern that reflects the work you did today throughout all time and space and beyond, all appropriate dimension or until no longer needed.
• Ask that a no time, no space cocoon (kind of like a caterpillar cocoon) goes around you (you are asking that your brain moves out of linear time into what most of the universe contains--non-linear time) for a fast processing and upgrade of your energy system.
• Thank your HS for directing, your optimal spirit guides for assisting.  Thank them for continuing to assist throughout completion of this process and beyond with your HS directing it.

As you move out of limited thinking and believing that other people hold the answers to your life, remember that there are no real errors when you make your own decisions.  Its all about learning and growth.  How can you move into true wisdom without learning from your own decisions?

Also remember that you are a Divine Being having a human experience.  You are not your experiences.  All experiences are part of an interesting adventure here on planet earth.  Remember to enjoy the ride!

Maureen Higgins owns Wings of Freedom, an alternative counseling and coaching business. She helps people be their best selves and recognize they are part of the Divine. Maureen has developed numerous energetic healing systems you can learn through her classes. Some of them are turned into audios that clear your energy field like a one-on-one session. Visit her site to try the free sample “Activating your Divine Light Codes. https://www.schoolforhigherconsciousness.com/energetic-healing-audios. Learn more about learning energetic healing at  School for Higher Consciousness

Stages of Faith, Stage 3

This is the third writing on Fowler's "Stages of Faith."  I find his work important because it tells us that, if we have difficult circumstances during the childhood years and don't heal from it, we may become "stuck" back in time and still operate, in some ways, like the developmental stage we're stuck or anchored in.  This effects our relationships, our thought processes, our beliefs, and spiritual consciousness.

Stage 3 (Fowler's Stage 2) - Mythical-Literal Faith (age 6 or 7 to 12) - During this stage the child has concrete thinking so can construct an orderly, linear and rather dependable world.  They spend time sorting through what is "real" and what is "make believe."  They can still have creative play but want to make sure that what is real is backed up by concrete facts.  One of the greatest gifts of this stage is to narrate one's own experiences.  It is also the stage where industry vs. inferiority is internalized keeping a glass ceiling on what we can accomplish in life if we lose confidence during this stage.

If you have a trauma or have very stressful and difficult experiences during this stage, and do not work them through, you may lack the ability to go beyond the 3 dimensional world of the here and now and move into the unconscious of your psyche and the world of Spirit.  You may stay within the concreteness of your stories.  You may base your life on your roles and what is expected from you based on childhood expectations.  Your description and view of God may be that of a person who can relate to you and you to them.  God may be considered a parent figure who knows best.

A big part of healing is going within your unconscious beliefs, patterns, and emotions.  This is most easily accessed by paying attention to your physical body since everything you haven't worked through is held within it.  If your thinking is too concrete and can't go into the abstractness and complexities of the feeling life within, then it remains unaccessed and stuck.

What do you do if you're stuck within this concrete stage?

Nothing is truly "stuck" unless you decide it is so.  To get through the limitations of being developmentally stuck within Stage 3, you need to realize that you are stuck and realize that your beliefs are limited and based on old stories.  Of course we are all limited and stuck within some sort of old story even if we are beyond this stage.  The difference is that the stories within this stage are more literal and concrete--more organized within the context of the culture and family we grew up in.  Keep in mind that a small part of each of us may be stuck within this stage--its just a matter of degree.

Healing process to help move beyond Stage 3

• Ask your Higher Self (HS) to direct (your spirit that never dies), your optimal spiritual team (guides from the higher realms, angels--however you view helpful Beings from a realm or dimension beyond here) to assist.  Ask for an energy of protection and invisibility so only those spirits and guides that are optimal can participate and see in.
• Ask that a vibration comes in to release your "ancestral pronouncement of truth" that is outdated and no longer serving you.
• Ask that a vibration comes into your brain to heal your brain's attachment to the ancestral heritage that is not based on your soul's truth and knowings.
• Ask that a vibration of healing light comes into your heart to heal ancestral wounds from seven seven generations back.  Ask that this healing goes seven generations forward in time.
• Ask that your brain is "energetically rewired" for universal heritage.
• Ask that you're energy field is disconnected from the lower realms (vibrations that are more aligned with hate than love) that are keeping ancestral patterns in tact.
• Ask that an energy comes into the 6th chakra (eyes) and 7th chakra (top of head) for trust and acceptance of the universal plan that is propelling you into a new exciting life.
• Ask that your energy field opens up into new "magical territory" so that you are aligned with new information, feelings, and emotions that will help you create a life of richer and deeper meaning.
• Ask that a strengthening and stabilizing energy comes in for optimal health and vitality so that your body accepts all positive changes as a positive with your HS deciding what that is.
• Ask that all energy fields/grid systems that effect you are restructured and recalibrated into the pattern that reflects the work you did today throughout all time and space and beyond, all appropriate dimensions or until no longer needed.
• Thank your HS for directing, your optimal spirit guides for assisting and thank them for continuing to assist throughout completion of these processes and beyond.
• Ask that a no time, no space cocoon goes around you (you are asking that your brain moves out of linear time into what most of the universe contains--non-linear time) so that you can have a fast processing and upgrade of your energy field.

We all have bits and pieces of ourselves stuck somewhere back in time.  Some of us may have larger pieces of ourselves stuck back in time.  This is human but we are working at going beyond the current human mode of operating so we can raise our consciousness.  

Raising our consciousness means that we recognize that we are not our experiences.  Our bodies may think we are our experiences but it is not true.  We can retrain our bodies to let go of the past and claim a magnificent present and future.  

Let's all join hands and create an optimal personal and collective shift where we know we are Divine Beings having a human experience.  Let's all feel the intrinsic happiness that goes with this deep truth and spread this truth to all we know.

Maureen Higgins owns Wings of Freedom, an alternative counseling and coaching business. She helps people be their best selves and recognize they are part of the Divine. Maureen has developed numerous energetic healing systems you can learn through her classes. Some of them are turned into audios that clear your energy field like a one-on-one session. Visit her site to try the free sample “Activating your Divine Light Codes. https://www.schoolforhigherconsciousness.com/energetic-healing-audios. Learn more about learning energetic healing at  School for Higher Consciousness