IN THE LAST SECTION of this spiritual primer I spoke at some length about the importance of deep breathing. As I said there, breathing is important to the grounding process (i.e., it helps keep your consciousness firmly in the 3-D world), it can help with energy generation, and it encourages subtle and positive shifts in consciousness. Don’t forget the lessons on breathing. Good breathing practice is important at all levels of spiritual awakening and empowerment and is something you should practice on a daily basis.

Now, once you have deep breathing and grounding under control, and once you have practiced and built it into a daily routine, the next step in the process of opening up to the higher realities is to learn to trust.

More specifically, the next step is to learn to trust in the spirit world and the consciousness behind creation.

Even more specifically, the next step is to learn to trust God. The bottom line is, if you are going to make any forward progress at all, you are going to have to be able to trust in God, Spirit, your spiritual guide network, the efficacy of the spiritual realm, and the general love that is behind and beneath all manifested creation. Not only this, you are also going to have to trust in your ability to control "things" as you begin to navigate the spiritual halls of consciousness. Trust that God is love, trust that Spirit doesn't wish anything bad to happen to you, and trust that you have the ability to find your way through to "the other side" under your own steam and guidance.

Trusting is really very important.

I can't underline it enough times.

Like the issues of hatred and anger mentioned earlier, if you don't trust, you won't be able to wake up.

Why?

Well, you can understand why if you consider the ugly way that spirituality has been taught to us. As infants, children, teenagers, and even adults, we are all taught to fear and distrust the spirit realm. If we are raised in western religious traditions, we are told awful stories about our failure in The Garden and an abusive, judgmental, and punishing "father" in heaven. We are told stories about demons and devils and hell and purgatory. We are told lies about a violent and hostile spiritual realm. Not only that, we are repeatedly reminded of our insignificance by these traditions. We are told that, in the grander scheme of things, we are less than nothing - throwaway souls fit for annihilation in the fire if we don't "perform" according to the rules. It is a terrible story of our utter spiritual incompetence which, in addition to scaring the bejesus out of our inner child, diminishes us to the point of insignificance and virtual spiritual non-existence. It diminishes us so much that even the idea of confronting our inner divinity terrifies us. We build a thick wall between our waking consciousness and The Waters, and spin circles out of a deep fear of moving forward and confronting our awesome glory.

It's a terrible condition to be in especially as we approach 2012 because as we approach 2012, the wall that you have built up to protect your fragile sensibilities, and to avoid activating the deep fears implanted by the dogmatic systems of this earth, is going to be torn down bit by bit. As the "walls come tumbling down," and as "The Veil" crumbles, you are going to be forced to confront not only the truth about yourself, but also the awesome reality that is the consciousness of your glorious Spirit. It is going to be a surprise especially if you haven't prepared, because if you haven't, when you meet up with The Waters, all the demons, devils, ghosts, and googly-men that have been put into your head by the priests, pundits, and peanut heads of this world are going to bubble up to greet you and you will experience them as if they are real. When that happens, you are going to have to trust. You are going to have to remember that what you see is mere illusion, figments created by your powerful spiritual consciousness. Imaginary, yes, but potentially terrifying, I admit. Dragons put there to keep you far away from the meniscus and firmly fetal on the "outside" of The Waters of Creation.

Obviously, that's not where you want to be.

You want to get "to the other side"

So trust.

That's the key.

Trust in the love of God, trust in the magnanimous character of Spirit, and trust that the universe isn't out to get you. It's easy. All you have to do is overcome decades (and multiple lifetimes) of indoctrination. But you'll do it! You'll be fine. And if you fail the first time, don't worry. Just try again. There's no real time limit here. As long as you're working on it, you'll be fine. You have got all the time in the world.

Now, for those of you who consider yourself outside of the influence of traditional religious dogma, don't think you're off the hook. Just because you weren't raised in such a background, just because you renounced the twisted beliefs at an early age, doesn't mean you are immune from the dogma or fear. Not only may the fears have been stored deep inside your mind while you were pre-verbal (and therefore they exist even though you are now unaware), or in another lifetime (deep inside your genetic code), there are other sources of fear that have nothing to do with religious sentiment. The truth is, scientists and others of a more rational persuasion can just as easily be terrified of The Waters of Consciousness as any fundamentalist Christian ever was.

The truth is, as born and/or bred atheists, we are also taught to mistrust and even fear the spiritual worlds.

The truth is, as atheists, we are taught to be judgmental and dismissive towards spiritual experience.

As atheists, we are told that the spiritual world is for children, for animists, for primitives, for schizophrenics.

As atheists, we are told that the rational people, the smart people, the "above the curve" people have no use for primitive animisms or pantheistic spiritualities. These are relics of our bygone days as superstitious hunter/gatherers, we are told.

As atheists we are told that spiritual sentiment is a sign of a weakness that should be dominated and suppressed, overcome and controlled by the rational mind.

We must rise above, we are told.

Of course, after hearing all these things from our parents, professor priests, and colleagues, we either turn our back on spirituality altogether, telling ourselves that we are "better" than all that, or we maintain a professionally safe "academic" interest. We keep The Fabric of Consciousness, the water beneath the meniscus, at arm's length. If we consider spirituality at all, it is only on the surface. We objectify it, poke it, prod it, observe others experiencing it, but never really get very close to it ourselves. After all, what would our colleagues think?

The fear is different, you see, but the result is the same - fear and avoidance.

Now of course, these are only two examples "at the extreme." Raw religious fears and deep scientific prejudices are only the opposite sides of a continuum of spiritual anxiety that causes us to build a wall between our little ego, our little "I," and the much bigger "I" that exists on the other side of the meniscus. There are other ways that we can be taught to fear the spirit world. In fact, there are many combinations of beliefs and many subtle ways to diminish you in all the spiritual systems of this world. The sorry state of things is, no extant belief system is immune.

Now, if the thought of this makes your head spin, don't worry. Thankfully, we do not have to rehearse all the errors. We can just forget them. Ignore them! Like I said earlier, no matter what your fears are, it's relatively easy to traverse to the other side despite the darkness heaped on the confusion piled high on the misdirection.

All you have to do is trust.

The key is trust.

If you can trust, you'll be fine.

If you can trust, you'll skip right through.

Trust, trust, trust.

Trust is the key.

Unfortunately, besides this admonishment to trust, and the reminder to breathe deep and visualize what you really want, there isn't much I can do to prepare you. When the time comes, it is a simple choice that you will make. You will either trust and move forward or cave to your fear and move back.

Simple.

Just remember, whatever happens, don't kick your self!!

If you fail the first time (or the tenth time even), it's no big deal!

Everybody falls. It's nothing to be ashamed off!

If you fail, simply try again. Take as long as you want to compose yourself, and simply try again. Keep at it and one day soon the truth is going to smack you in the forehead like yesterday's raw fish and you'll realize that you are the one manifesting the situations that trigger your fear. When you realize that, the scale will tip and you'll be through. As long as you don't give up, your day will come. Until then, don't worry yourself about it.

Have some fun.

Take some playtime.

You will get through.

I promise you.

Just remember your spiritual practice! When you do come to the point where you have to confront your demons, whatever they may be, remember to breathe.

Inhale,

Exhale,

Be calm,

Trust.

Remember!

In this Great Awakening process that you are now undergoing, there is nothing to fear.

Remember!

You are like a fish in the water, so trust.

Frankly, it is good advice wherever you happen to be on your own path of awakening. Even if you don't think you have these big dogmatic fears that I've talked about, it is worthwhile cultivating trust. After all, we are still at the start of the process. We're still rubbing the sleep from our eyes. As a species, we haven't even begun to fully open. By the time we are finished, by the time you are finished this Great Awakening process, you are going to have an entirely new perspective on just about everything you've ever known. You'll be saying goodbye to a millennia of nonsense and saying hello to a glorious new vision of reality and self that does not include space for hierarchy, division, hatred, fear, or diminishment. The intellectual, emotional, and spiritual shift will be huge so even without the big dogmatic fears, chances are that at some point you're going to be asked to take some pretty big leaps. When the time comes, when you face that chasm of credulity, if you want to keep moving forward and not get "turned back," the key will be trust.

Trust me.

This path you're on, this path of global awakening, this path of personal spiritual empowerment, leads not to damnation or madness but to total spiritual awakening and a personal and collective transformation unlike anything the world has ever seen.

It's a good thing that we're doing here.

We're leaving behind the old, ugly world and creating a new one. There's nothing to fear. Embrace the awakening.

Trust is the key.

Ignition

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
- Winnie the Pooh

So far in this book we have talked about trust, breathing and right thinking. These are the proper foundations for your awakening. Once you have practiced these things for a bit, and they have become a habitual thing, then it's time to consider "starting the engines."

Thankfully, like all things spiritual, starting the engines on your physical body is not that hard. In fact, when you're ready, when you're trusting and breathing, when you're thinking nice thoughts about everything and are at peace with an emerging new vision of reality that doesn't include all the hierarchy and rejection, poverty and suffering, war and chaos of the old way of thinking, then "starting the engines" is quite easy. When you're ready, and, of course, only you know when you're ready, all you have to do to get yourself rolling on The Lightning Path is set your intent. All you have to do is simply "decide" that you want to awaken. Then, when you have decided, will it to happen.

Willfully draw yourself up.

Willfully awaken.

It's easy, and contrary to what you might have been told, it is not a mystical process.

Simply intend and make it so.

What else is there to say about it?

Just do it.

Do it like you do it every morning. Drag your tired body out of bed and drag your consciousness back into your body. It is totally within your power and capability.

Say to yourself (often and with conviction), "I wish to wake into full consciousness as fast and as safely as possible." Then, when you have vocalized your intent, simply stretch, yawn, rub your eyes, and struggle your way up to full consciousness - just like you do every morning.

That's all there is to it.

It is not hard.

It is not rocket science.

It doesn't require a convoluted thesis and it is very effective.

Simply intend yourself awake.

Simply say, "I wish to wake up."

Now, I know it might sound crazy to you right now.

I know it might sound like hocus pocus nonsense, but it's not. Intent, otherwise known as will, is a critical component of everything you do. From getting up in the morning, to cooking breakfast, to going to work, to loving your kids, INTENT is key. When you think about it, the only thing you don't need INTENT for is dying. Dying is the only thing that happens without will. For everything else, intent is important. In fact, it's so important, so basic, that you'll find that this "intent" thing works amazingly well, especially with something as easy and well practiced as waking up to your full consciousness. A little bit of intent, a little bit of effort, some good guidance, and there you go.

It is totally within your power and capability to do.

So intend, intend, intend.

Say, "I will to move forward" and don't take no for an answer. Don't give in to fear, don't give into any ideas about your own insignificance or unworthiness, don't listen to anything about your "sin" or your icky karmic debt, and don't be fooled by scientific prejudice. The deep Waters of Consciousness are real. They lie just beneath the surface of your "normal" reality. So, breath, trust, think nice thoughts, and intend yourself awake.

Repeat after me with conviction, "I wish to wake up."

"I'm ready to wake up."

"I wish to wake up."

Keep an open mind and keep any fear you may have controlled.

Breathe and embrace the morning.

Follow the advice in Part One of this book and you'll be surprised just how fast you'll find yourself waking up.

It really will be a glorious personal transformation and empowerment - a truly great awakening!

It's true.

You'll see.