Speaker 1: There is a most curious and often overlooked aspect of
Speaker 1: spiritual awakening that deserves our careful attention, and it is
Speaker 1: this awakening is not merely a shift in understanding, not
Speaker 1: simply a change in belief or perspective, not just an
Speaker 1: intellectual realization about the nature of reality. No, genuine spiritual
Speaker 1: awakening involves the body, the physical organism, in ways that
Speaker 1: are quite unmistakable, often rather uncomfortable, and sometimes genuinely alarming
Speaker 1: if one does not understand what is occurring. You see,
Speaker 1: we have been educated to think of spirituality as something
Speaker 1: that happens exclusively in the realm of the mind or
Speaker 1: the soul, something quite separate from the physical body. The body,
Speaker 1: we are told, is merely the vessel, the container, the
Speaker 1: temporary housing for consciousness. Spiritual work, according to this view,
Speaker 1: concerns itself with thoughts, beliefs, realizations, states of consciousness, while
Speaker 1: the body simply carries on with its biological functions, largely
Speaker 1: irrelevant to the spiritual process. But this is a profound misunderstanding,
Speaker 1: one that stems from the very dualism that spiritual awakening
Speaker 1: itself dissolves. The truth is that you are not a
Speaker 1: soul or a consciousness. Inhabiting a body, you are a
Speaker 1: psychophysical organism, a unified field of awareness and sensation, thought
Speaker 1: and feeling, mind and matter. And when a transformation occurs
Speaker 1: at the level of consciousness, when awakening happens, the body
Speaker 1: does not simply remain unchanged passively hosting a new understanding.
Speaker 1: The body itself undergoes transformation, sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic, but
Speaker 1: always significant. Now what precisely happens to the body during
Speaker 1: spiritual awakening, Well, let me begin with something that nearly
Speaker 1: everyone who undergoes this process experiences a kind of energetic reorganization,
Speaker 1: a shift in the way energy moves through the physical organism.
Speaker 1: You may feel sensations of heat or cold moving through
Speaker 1: your body in waves. You may experience tingling vibration, a
Speaker 1: sense of electricity running along your spine or through your limbs.
Speaker 1: You may feel pressure in particular areas, especially around the head,
Speaker 1: the heart, the solar plexus. These are not imaginary sensations,
Speaker 1: not psychosomatic symptoms in the dismissive sense of that term.
Speaker 1: They are the felt experience of actual changes occurring in
Speaker 1: your nervous system, your endocrine system, your entire energetic structure.
Speaker 1: The ancient traditions understood this quite well. They spoke of Kundalini,
Speaker 1: of chi, of prana, of the subtle body and its
Speaker 1: channels through which life energy flows. And while the language
Speaker 1: they used was metaphorical poetic, the phenomena they were describing
Speaker 1: are quite real, quite physical, quite capable of being felt
Speaker 1: and observed. What is happening in essence is this The
Speaker 1: body is learning to process and conduct a higher intensity
Speaker 1: of awareness, a more refined quality of consciousness. It is
Speaker 1: rather like upgrading the electrical system in an old house
Speaker 1: to accommodate more powerful equipment. The wiring must be rewired,
Speaker 1: so to speak, the circuits must be strengthened, the capacity
Speaker 1: must be increased, and this process of rewiring, of upgrading
Speaker 1: it produces sensations, sometimes intense ones. Moreover, as consciousness refines,
Speaker 1: as awareness becomes more acute, you often become far more
Speaker 1: sensitive to everything. Foods that you previously consumed without difficulty
Speaker 1: may suddenly cause discomfort or illness. Your body may develop
Speaker 1: strong aversions to substances that dull consciousness, alcohol, certain medications,
Speaker 1: highly processed foods. You may find that you require less
Speaker 1: food overall, or that your dietary preferences shift dramatically towards simpler,
Speaker 1: more vital, more natural sustenance. This is not arbitrary. This
Speaker 1: is your organism recognizing that it is being asked to
Speaker 1: maintain a higher level of functioning a greater degree of sensitivity,
Speaker 1: and therefore it becomes more selective about what it will accept,
Speaker 1: what serves this heightened state, and what interferes with it.
Speaker 1: The body develops a kind of wisdom, a discrimination that
Speaker 1: operates beneath the level of intellectual decision making. You do
Speaker 1: not decide to dislike certain foods or substances. Your body
Speaker 1: simply rejects them, and you feel the rejection as nausea, headache, fatigue,
Speaker 1: or simple aversion. Sleep patterns often change significantly during awakening.
Speaker 1: You may find that you need far less sleep than
Speaker 1: you once did, or you may go through periods where
Speaker 1: you require enormous amounts of rest. You may wake frequently
Speaker 1: during the night, not from anxiety or disturbance, but from
Speaker 1: an excess of energy that makes deep sleep difficult to sustain.
Speaker 1: Or you may experience the opposite, a profound exhaustion, a
Speaker 1: need to withdraw from activity and simply allow the body
Speaker 1: to process the transformation that is occurring, dreams often become
Speaker 1: more vivid, more significant, more clearly remembered. This is because
Speaker 1: the boundary between waking consciousness and sleeping consciousness becomes more
Speaker 1: permeable during awakening. You are not simply turning off consciousness
Speaker 1: when you sleep and turning it back on when you wake.
Speaker 1: Consciousness is continuous, and you are becoming aware of it
Speaker 1: in states where previously you were oblivious. Your dreams may
Speaker 1: carry profound insights, clear guidance, symbolic communications from the deeper
Speaker 1: levels of your being. The breath, that most fundamental of
Speaker 1: bodily functions, often transforms as well. You may notice that
Speaker 1: your breathing becomes deeper, slower, more deliberate, without any conscious
Speaker 1: effort to make it so, or you may experience periods
Speaker 1: where the breath becomes very rapid, almost panting, particularly during
Speaker 1: moments of intense realization or energetic release. The breath you
Speaker 1: see is intimately connected to the state of consciousness. It
Speaker 1: is not merely a mechanical function for delivering oxygen to
Speaker 1: the blood. It is a bridge between the conscious and unconscious,
Speaker 1: between the voluntary and involuntary, between the mind and the body.
Speaker 1: There are also often unusual physical sensations in specific areas
Speaker 1: of the body. Many people report pressure or activity at
Speaker 1: the crown of the head, sometimes described as a feeling
Speaker 1: of something opening, expanding, or a tingling or buzzing sensation.
Speaker 1: This corresponds to what the traditions call the crown chakra,
Speaker 1: the point at which individual consciousness opens to universal consciousness.
Speaker 1: Whether why you believe in chakras as literal energy centers
Speaker 1: or understand them as useful metaphors, the sensations are quite
Speaker 1: real and quite common during awakening. Similarly, the heart area
Speaker 1: often becomes a focus of intense sensation. You may feel expansion, warmth, pressure,
Speaker 1: or even pain in the chest. This is not cardiac distress,
Speaker 1: though it can certainly be alarming if you do not
Speaker 1: understand what it is. It is the heart center opening,
Speaker 1: expanding its capacity for love, for compassion, for connection. The
Speaker 1: physical heart and the emotional spiritual heart are not separate things.
Speaker 1: They are two aspects of the same reality, and when
Speaker 1: one transforms, the other transforms as well. The eyes often
Speaker 1: change in noticeable ways. Many people report that their vision
Speaker 1: becomes clearer, sharper, more vivid, colours appear more saturated, more beautiful,
Speaker 1: light seems more luminous. This is not a change in
Speaker 1: the optical apparatus itself, though sometimes even that changes. It
Speaker 1: is a change in the quality of seeing, in the
Speaker 1: way consciousness meets the visual field. You are seeing with
Speaker 1: less mental filtering, less conceptual overlay, more direct perception. Some
Speaker 1: people also report that their eyes become more sensitive to light,
Speaker 1: particularly to artificial lighting or screens. This can be inconvenient
Speaker 1: in our modern world of constant illumination, but it is
Speaker 1: simply a reflection of the overall increase in sensitivity that
Speaker 1: a company is awakening. The organism is recalibrating to a
Speaker 1: more natural, more subtle, more refined way of functioning. Emotions
Speaker 1: may become far more intense during the awakening process, or
Speaker 1: they may become far more subtle. You might find yourself
Speaker 1: crying more easily, laughing more freely, feeling joy and sorrow
Speaker 1: with an intensity you have never experienced before. This is
Speaker 1: not emotional instability, though it may be mistaken for such.
Speaker 1: This is the heart becoming permeable, the armour of protection
Speaker 1: and numbness dissolving, the full range of human feeling being
Speaker 1: restored after years of suppression and control. Alternatively, some people
Speaker 1: experience emotions becoming far more quiet, more spacious, less overwhelming.
Speaker 1: The dramatic peaks and valleys begin to smooth out. This
Speaker 1: is not numbness, though it may superficially resemble it. This
Speaker 1: is equanimity, the ability to feel everything without being controlled
Speaker 1: by feeling, to allow emotions to arise and pass without
Speaker 1: being swept away by them. The voice often changes as well.
Speaker 1: It may become deeper, more resonant, more naturally authoritative without
Speaker 1: any attempt to make it so, or it may become softer, gentler,
Speaker 1: more melodic. This is because the voice is an expression
Speaker 1: of consciousness, and as consciousness transforms, the voice naturally transforms
Speaker 1: with it. You are speaking from a different place within yourself,
Speaker 1: from a deeper center, from a more authentic source, and
Speaker 1: this is audible to those who listen carefully. Many people
Speaker 1: report changes in their sense of time during awakening. Time
Speaker 1: may seem to slow down dramatically so that moments become vast, spacious,
Speaker 1: rich with detail and presence, or time may seem to accelerate,
Speaker 1: with days and weeks passing in what feels like moments.
Speaker 1: This is not merely a psychological effect. This is consciousness
Speaker 1: shifting its relationship to the temporal dimension. Experiencing time directly
Speaker 1: rather than through the filter of mental abstraction and anticipation,
Speaker 1: the sense of physical boundaries often becomes more fluid. During awakening.
Speaker 1: You may feel as though your body extends beyond your skin,
Speaker 1: as though you can feel the space around you the
Speaker 1: energy field that surrounds you. Or you may experience moments
Speaker 1: where the boundary between self and environment seems to dissolve entirely,
Speaker 1: where you are not sure where your body ends in
Speaker 1: the world begins. This is not hallucination. This is a
Speaker 1: more accurate perception of reality, a recognition that the skin
Speaker 1: is not actually a firm boundary between inside and outside,
Speaker 1: but rather a permeable membrane, an interface, a place of
Speaker 1: exchange and continuity. There can also be periods of physical
Speaker 1: discomfort or even illness during awakening. Old traumas stored in
Speaker 1: the body may surface to be released. Emotional patterns that
Speaker 1: have been held in the tissues may come up for processing.
Speaker 1: You may experience pain, tension, fatigue, or various symptoms that
Speaker 1: have no apparent physical cause and for which medical examination
Speaker 1: reveals no pathology. This is what some traditions call a
Speaker 1: healing crisis, a necessary purification, a clearing out of accumulated
Speaker 1: debris to make room for the new way of being.
Speaker 1: It is crucial to understand that these symptoms, while real
Speaker 1: and sometimes distressing, are not signs that something is wrong.
Speaker 1: They are signs that something is changing, that transformation is occurring,
Speaker 1: that the body is adapting to a new mode of functioning.
Speaker 1: The temptation, of course, is to resist these symptoms, to
Speaker 1: try to make them go away, to medicate them or
Speaker 1: suppress them, or interpret them as illness requiring treatment, But
Speaker 1: often the wisest response is simply to allow them to
Speaker 1: be with them, to give the body the rest and
Speaker 1: the space it needs to process what is happening. This
Speaker 1: is not to say that you should never seek medical
Speaker 1: attention or that all physical symptoms during awakening are purely spiritual.
Speaker 1: Use common sense. If something is seriously wrong, get it checked.
Speaker 1: But also consider the possibility that your body is simply recalibrating, rewiring, transforming,
Speaker 1: and that this process may produce sensations and symptoms that
Speaker 1: are temporary and ultimately beneficial. The relationship to physical pleasure
Speaker 1: and pain often shifts during awakening as well. You may
Speaker 1: find that you are far more present to physical sensation,
Speaker 1: far more capable of actually feeling the body in its
Speaker 1: full vividness and intensity. A simple meal becomes a feast
Speaker 1: of flavors, A warm bath becomes an exquisite pleasure. The
Speaker 1: feeling of sunlight on your skin becomes almost overwhelming in
Speaker 1: its beauty. At the same time, you may become far
Speaker 1: more sensitive to physical discomfort or pain, not in the
Speaker 1: sense of suffering more from it, but in the sense
Speaker 1: of being more acutely aware of it. The difference is crucial.
Speaker 1: Before awakening, pain is usually accompanied by enormous amounts of
Speaker 1: mental resistance, fear, story making, projection into the future. During
Speaker 1: and after awakening, pain is simply sensation, intensely felt, but
Speaker 1: not elaborated upon, not resisted, not made into something more
Speaker 1: than it is. Sexual energy often undergoes significant transformation during
Speaker 1: spiritual awakening. For some sat people, sexual desire diminishes or
Speaker 1: disappears for a period, as the energy that was flowing
Speaker 1: into sexual expression is redirected toward the process of transformation.
Speaker 1: For others, sexual energy becomes far more intense, but also
Speaker 1: more refined, more conscious, more capable of being directed and
Speaker 1: used for purposes beyond mere physical gratification. The traditions speak
Speaker 1: of transmuting sexual energy, of raising it up the spine,
Speaker 1: of using it as fuel for spiritual development. And while
Speaker 1: this can be misunderstood and practiced in unhealthy ways, there
Speaker 1: is genuine wisdom here. Sexual energy is life energy, creative energy,
Speaker 1: the most powerful force in the physical organism, and during
Speaker 1: awakening this energy is often re organized, refined, put to
Speaker 1: use in new ways. Movement and gesture often become more graceful,
Speaker 1: more fluid, more naturally coordinated during awakening. This is not
Speaker 1: the result of practice or training, though these may help.
Speaker 1: This is the result of consciousness moving through the body
Speaker 1: more freely, less obstructed by tension and resistance and self consciousness.
Speaker 1: You move from your center rather than from your head.
Speaker 1: You inhabit your body more fully, rather than treating it
Speaker 1: as a tool to be operated from a distance. Some
Speaker 1: people report spontaneous movements occurring during meditation or quiet contemplation
Speaker 1: creas as they are called in the Yogic tradition. The
Speaker 1: body may shake, twist, stretch, make sounds, perform moodras or
Speaker 1: symbolic gestures, or without any conscious volition. This can be
Speaker 1: quite startling if you do not know it is a
Speaker 1: natural part of the process. These movements are the body's
Speaker 1: way of releasing stored tension, processing blocked energy, re organizing
Speaker 1: itself for the new way of being. The immune system
Speaker 1: often strengthens during awakening. Old chronic conditions may clear up,
Speaker 1: Illnesses that you have lived with for years may suddenly resolve.
Speaker 1: This is not magic or miraculous healing in the supernatural sense.
Speaker 1: This is simply the body functioning more efficiently when consciousness
Speaker 1: is no longer creating constant stress and resistance, when the
Speaker 1: organism is allowed to operate according to its own wisdom,
Speaker 1: rather than being constantly overridden by mental tension and emotional suppression. However,
Speaker 1: there can also be temporary periods where the immune system
Speaker 1: seems to be compromised, where you catch every passing illness,
Speaker 1: where you feel weak and vulnerable. This too, can be
Speaker 1: part of the process, a kind of purification, where the
Speaker 1: body is clearing out accumulated toxins and patterns, and during
Speaker 1: this clearing it is temporarily more susceptible to illness. Patients
Speaker 1: and self care are important during such periods. The sense
Speaker 1: of being grounded in the body often increases dramatically during awakening,
Speaker 1: before awakening, many people live almost entirely in their heads,
Speaker 1: barely aware of the body except when it demands attention
Speaker 1: through hunger, pain, or fatigue. After awakening, there is a
Speaker 1: natural descent into the body, a coming home to physical sensation,
Speaker 1: a recognition that consciousness is not located in the head,
Speaker 1: but is distributed throughout the entire organism, indeed throughout the
Speaker 1: entire field of experience. This grounding brings with it a
Speaker 1: sense of stability, presence, realness that may have been lacking before.
Speaker 1: You feel more here, more solid, more genuinely present in
Speaker 1: your own life. Paradoxically, this grounding in the body often
Speaker 1: accompanies the realization that you are not the body, that
Speaker 1: your essential nature is consciousness itself rather than the physical form.
Speaker 1: But this is not a contradiction. It is the natural
Speaker 1: result of truly inhabiting the body, rather than using it
Speaker 1: as a mere vehicle. Aging itself may appear to slow
Speaker 1: during awakening, or at least the experience of aging may transform.
Speaker 1: This is not to suggest that awakening makes you physically
Speaker 1: immortal or reverses the biological clock in some magical way,
Speaker 1: but there is often a vitality, a youthfulness, and a
Speaker 1: liveness that persists regardless of chronological age. This is because
Speaker 1: you are living from your essential being rather than from
Speaker 1: identification with the aging body, and this shift in identification
Speaker 1: actually affects how the body functions and maintains itself. What
Speaker 1: all of these physical changes point to is a fundamental truth.
Speaker 1: You are not a ghost in a machine, not a
Speaker 1: soul trapped in flesh, not a consciousness observing from behind
Speaker 1: the eyes. You are an embodied awareness, a conscious body,
Speaker 1: a unified field of being that includes both the physical
Speaker 1: and the transcendent, both the temporal and the eternal. And
Speaker 1: when awakening occurs, when you recognize your true nature, the
Speaker 1: body naturally reflects this recognition, transforms in response to it,
Speaker 1: reorganizes itself to accommodate the new understanding. The body you
Speaker 1: see is not separate from consciousness. It is consciousness in
Speaker 1: a particular form, consciousness manifesting as flesh and bone, blood
Speaker 1: and breath, sensation and movement. And when consciousness awakens to itself,
Speaker 1: when it recognizes what it truly is, the physical form
Speaker 1: through which it is expressing naturally changes to align with
Speaker 1: this recognition. This is why genuine spiritual awakening always involves
Speaker 1: the body always produces physical effects, always manifests as transformation
Speaker 1: of the entire organism, and not merely as a change
Speaker 1: in belief or understanding. You cannot awaken while leaving the
Speaker 1: body behind. The body must come along for the journey,
Speaker 1: must participate in the transformation, must itself be enlightened, liberated,
Speaker 1: recognized as sacred. So, if you are experiencing unusual physical
Speaker 1: sensations during your spiritual journey, if your body is see
Speaker 1: seems to be changing in ways that are strange or uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: or simply different from what you knew before, do not
Speaker 1: be alarmed. This is natural, This is as it should be.
Speaker 1: Your body is waking up along with your consciousness, reorganizing
Speaker 1: itself to accommodate a new way of being, transforming itself
Speaker 1: to embody the truth that you are coming to know.
Speaker 1: Be patient with the process. Give your body the rest
Speaker 1: it needs, the nourishment it requires, the gentle attention it deserves.
Speaker 1: Listen to its wisdom, trust its intelligence, allow it to
Speaker 1: guide you in what it needs, and recognize that these
Speaker 1: physical changes, however uncomfortable they may sometimes be, are signs
Speaker 1: of grace, evidence of transformation. The body's way of saying
Speaker 1: yes to the awakening that is occurring,