Getting to Spiritual Enlightenment

The expression "Spiritual Enlightenment" has been used often in reference to personal spiritual development. What exactly is meant by this term however has been vaguely defined. My research on the topic has found it linked to some of the following experiences:

1. A connection to a higher self

2. A connection to an inner knowing

3. A connection to spiritual energies or beings beyond one's self

4. Altered states of consciousness

5. Out of body experiences i.e. astral travel, remote viewing etc.

6. An greater intuitive awareness

7. An enhanced energy state in the body

8. Precognitive or other clairvoyant experiences

9. Extrasensory perceptive experiences

10. Hypnotic experiences

In this article I aim to propose a new experiential definition of Spiritual Enlightenment that is not only accessible to everyone but which also provides a road map to achieving this sought after state of being.

In order to achieve this goal I wish to examine the word "Enlightenment" itself from a strictly literal standpoint. To be "Enlightened" can be taken to mean the following:

1. To feel "lighter" as in more buoyant or less weighted down.

2. To feel or perceive oneself as being "lighter" as in brighter, more luminescent, or more radiant.

3. To be brought "into the light" thereby making things clearer or more visible.

In other words we can distill, from these literal definitions the experiences of a) Buoyancy, b) Luminescence and c) Clarity. For the analysis that follows I now propose an experiential definition of "Enlightenment" which embodies these three qualities of being.

According to this definition one can be said to be "Enlightened" if they are experiencing these three qualities simultaneously. Whether this is possible and whether this corresponds to what one might subjectively describe as being "Spiritual Enlightened" however remain to be determined.

I also wish to put forth the hypothesis that the simultaneous experience of these three qualities of "Enlightenment" can be used as a starting point in our search for what one might subjectively describe as "Spiritual Enlightenment". In order to assess this latter hypothesis I wish to digress for a moment and discuss a matter that is often missed in the discussion of Spiritual Enlightenment. That is, that in order to be searching for it we must already know, at some level within our being that a) it exists and b) what the state actually looks like.

This can be readily seen by the fact that we may feel, say in our current state, that we are not yet enlightened. This means that within us we have a "set point" (i.e a set point is like the desired temperature setting in thermostat which lets the furnace know whether the desired temperature has been attained or not) with which we compare our current state of being and which tells us whether or not we are there. Hence, in order to know that "we are not yet there" we must at some level harbor the knowledge of where "there" is.

Although we are not completely conscious of what "there" looks like we strangely know what "not being there" looks like. Having said that, it follows that an individual will "know" when they are there, or at least are getting there. With this in mind we created a tool that helps individuals move in the direction of our definition of Enlightenment (i.e. buoyancy, luminescence and clarity). We then asked individuals to assess whether this felt like what they would subjectively describe as a state of Spiritual Enlightenment.

This tool is called the Mind Resonance Process