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.

(To create a new vision with community, take a look at a special community event geared towards letting go of the past as you know it and creating a new and optimal present future for self and humanity.  This special event will be on December 21, 2012 in Minneapolis, MN at the Calhoun Beach Club.  For details see www.communityforhigherconsciousness.com.  Registration is under the "events" tab. Hope to see you there!)