© 2004 Doreen Heyne
© 2004 The Urantia Book Fellowship
During most of my research on the subject of illumination and transformation I found that great spiritualized minds think alike; there was more harmonized thinking than there were conflicting views to resolve.
Before I discuss illumination, transformation and enlightenment, I would like to consider wisdom, the seventh mind adjutant spirit gravity circuit; for wisdom is essential for awakening. We do not gain insight and wisdom from others, but from our own soul where God speaks to us saying, “This is the way.” [UB 34:7.8] A Mighty Messenger says concerning wisdom, “While we do not really know, we conjecture that there can never be a limit to intellectual evolution and attainment of wisdom.” [UB 55:6.5]
All religions recognize that wisdom is “the greatest good,” and that those who acquire it receive it abundantly, for knowledge only informs us, whereas wisdom transforms us. Wisdom explores and reflects on the nature of life, as when a person recognizes there must be a better way to live and strives to find it. Wisdom recognizes the mind can be controlled, transformed, and transcended, and this leads to love, happiness, altruism and liberation. It naturally finds expression in the compassionate service for others and leads us to live more harmoniously. Wisdom leads you to penetrate the nature of reality, recognizing your limitations, into the infinite mystery of our universe. Wisdom is everywhere, every person, situation, experience; but in silence is the wisdom that is beyond words. Father Thomas Keating said, “Silence, is the language God speaks and everything else is a bad translation.”[1]
A pupil asked a great teacHer, “How do I find wisdom”? The teacher answered, “By good choices.” “And how do I make good choices?” asked the pupil. “From experience,” said the teacher. “And how do I get experience?” asked the student? “From bad choices,” said the teacher.[2]
Truth brings to the wise person exactly what the wise person brings to truth. We interpret according to ourselves, what we understand and who we are. As our universal consciousness is born, our personal self-consciousness dies. “But it is experience in and with the human religions that develops the capacity for subsequent reception of increased bestowals of divine wisdom and cosmic insight.” [UB 100:6.9]
One definition of “Illumination” is inward enlightenment. It does not mean perfection or power, only the process of awakening. It unfolds gradually by spiritual discoveries. I read that, “it is like two electric wires brought together to produce a spark and at the point of junction, it is the meeting of the lesser and the greater, (divine and human) which always expands the lesser. It is a flash of energy awareness. As you gain realization you discover the goodness of the world as an inner experience, and the world in the good.”[3]
Enlightened persons show sensitivity, gentleness, simplicity, and humility. They cannot endure conflict within their personality. They cannot practice criticism and intolerance. Realization demands no change in others, only in yourself
Those God-knowing men and women who have been born of the Spirit experience no more conflict with their mortal natures than do the inhabitants of the most normal of worlds, planets which have never been tainted with sin nor touched by rebellion. Faith sons work on intellectual levels and live on spiritual planes far above the conflicts produced by unrestrained or unnatural physical desires. The normal urges of animal beings and the natural appetites and impulses of the physical nature are not in conflict with even the highest spiritual attainment except in the minds of ignorant, mistaught, or unfortunately overconscientious persons. [UB 34:7.7]
There are many questions as to what are the longterm and short-term effects? Is this experience the same as “being born again”? What is the process? What are the results? I will address these and other questions through some of the experiences of those who have been through this state of profound insight into the nature of the universe or absolute truth.
Jakob Bohme, a German shoemaker, said in 1575, “The illumination of spirit was shed upon me, and I stood in the presence of a divine being. By a miraculous light I saw God.”[4] He was able to recognize God in everything, plants, grass, creatures, etc. In his second illumination his spiritual sight began to expand revealing to him divine truths. “My whole work on earth is nothing else but an instruction how man may create a kingdom of light within himself so open your eyes and see the world is full of God.”[5] His writings have inspired and influenced luminaries such as William Blake and Emanual Swedenborg, among many others.
There are two realms of reality: the inner and the outer. The inner is not limited by space, time, or psychological laws, so it is timeless and eternal. At the core of our being is pure consciousness or spirit soul, the divine spark. When the mind is still and clear we can get glimpses of our core. “The kingdom of Heaven is within you,” St. John of the Cross wrote, and no faculty of science can hope to reach it.”[6]
The Christian contemplative, Thomas Merton, left a wonderful description of how other people appeared to him when he awoke from his vision. “Then it was as if I suddenly saw the sacred beauty of their hearts, the depths where neither sin nor desire can reach; the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way, there would be no reason for war, for hatred, for cruelty, we would fall down and worship each other.”[7] “The discernment of supreme beauty is the discovery and integration of reality: The discernment of the divine goodness in the eternal truth, that is ultimate beauty. Even the charm of human art consists in the harmony of its unity.” [UB 2:7.8]
What does it mean to discover pure consciousness? Is this the recognition of the inseparability of spirit and material mind manifesting the unity of the inner and outer, personal and transpersonal, sacred and profane, God and self? What did Jesus mean when he said, “I and my Father are one”? The composer Johannes Brahms would sometimes receive his music from divine inspiration. “I immediately feel vibrations that thrill my whole being, spirit illuminating the soul power within, and I realize at such moments the significance of Jesus’ supreme revelation, ‘I and my Father are one.’ ”[8] Measure by measure the finished product is revealed to him.
How does one get to this place in consciousness? You get there by realizing you are there already and accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. That is where peace lies as well as grace, ease, and light. All things material will pass away, cycles will come and go. Enter the state of nonresistance. To live in the moment is the best moment.
The material mind dislikes the present moment, because it has no control over it. We can condition our minds to establish new mind patterns that allow us to live in the presence of God. Our future is created out of the present moment. The material world as it appears to us now is a reflection of the ego. Our collective reality is largely a symbolic expression of fear and negativity accumulated in the collective psyche. When we free ourselves from our ego delusion, the inner change will affect all of creation; perhaps a shift in the consciousness of the planet.
Matter and spirit and the state intervening between them are three interrelated and interassociated levels of the true unity of the real universe. Regardless of how divergent the universe phenomena of fact and value may appear to be, they are, after all, unified in the Supreme.
Reality of material existence attaches to unrecognized energy as well as to visible matter. When the energies of the universe are so slowed down that they acquire the requisite degree of motion, then, under favorable conditions, these same energies become mass. And forget not, the mind which can alone perceive the presence of apparent realities is itself also real. And the fundamental cause of this universe of energy-mass, mind, and spirit, is eternal—it exists and consists in the nature and reactions of the Universal Father and his absolute co-ordinates.” [UB 133:5.9-10]
Enlightenment consciously chosen means to relinquish your attachment to the past and future and live in the now.
Is becoming more compassionate, honest, humble, and charitable a sign of healthy spiritual transformation? Could it be brought on by lack of oxygen in the blood? What about carbon dioxide increase? That only produces experiences which are limited, confused, and disorganized. What about near-death experiences? Well, the mechanism that produces those experiences would happen to all people under the same influence if it were deprivation.
When endorphins are released in the brain or morphine is taken, a feeling of bliss and euphoria occur, but it does not explain why so few people have near death experiences when the endorphins are raised. You don’t become enlightened through “out-of-body” or psychic experiences, but it does give you a glimpse of the state of liberation from the body.
Yvonne Kason, M.D. states that this transformative energy or force is almost always symbolized by light or fire.[9] Some of the signs are sensations of energy, heat, light, inner sound like buzzing bees or the roar of a waterfall, all pervasive luminosity, or white light. For some, like Paul of Damascus, it was instantaneous; for others it was over long periods of time, or perhaps only one experience. Transformed people usually have a far more spiritual focus and ethical conviction, and are involved in altruistic and humanitarian endeavors.
Albert Einstein wrote in The World As I See It, “I maintain that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest insight to scientific research.”[10] Many who have studied and experienced cosmic consciousness hypothesize that perennial cosmic consciousness would represent the next major evolutionary step for the entire human race. Science might someday come to recognize this energy as the biological-psychological-spiritual mechanism for spiritual transformation experience.
In “blinding flashes of light,” detailed plans for many inventions were received by Nikola Tesla, the greatest inventor of the 20th century. He realized his abilities and ideas came to him from a reality beyond the physical. THe Urantia Book indicates, “the creative human imagination is comparatively time free.” [UB 12:5.5]. The more we identify with spirit, the less responsive we are to time and space.
The Indian Yogi, Gopi-Krishna, said after many years of study observing the transformative process, that “Kundalini” or spiritual energy, in varying degrees can leave you more intelligent, perceptive, with expanded consciousness, peaceful, and so on. He said that although some people think the transformative experience comes with a lack of oxygen in the brain or overactive imagination, it actually leads to greater insight, self understanding, clarity, self realization, and creativity.[11]
A Catholic Saint, Hildegaard of Bingen, was divinely inspired in 1098 to write books on natural history, medicine, and morality; She also painted and composed music. She wrote that she constantly experienced a vision of what she called a reflection of the “living light.”
A pilot study described in A Farther Shore showed the following about individuals who experienced spiritual transformation or awakening:[12]
Yeats describes this experience in “Vacillation.”
Have we concentrated too much on developing our logical mind, while allowing the spirit consciousness to atrophy?
In Essential Spirituality, Roger Walsh asks, “What happens to us when we get stuck in attachments and cravings that satisfy our emotions and not our soul? We fall into illusion and forget our spiritual nature. Attachments swell, satisfactions shrink.” He does not say we should give up the pleasures, only the attachments to them. “Enlightenment or realization destroys the cravings otherwise we would suffer from divine homesickness and discontent.”[13]
Ramakrishna’s personal experience was, “As hunger and thirst arise spontaneously, so does longing for God. It is simply a matter of time. Yearning for God cannot arise until one has to some extent satisfied the desires of social existence or has seen through them and been freed from them. The constant quest for egocentric pleasure not only defrauds you of your birthright, but mere pleasure seeking inevitably produces suffering for yourself and others.”[14]
No one knows when, why, or how the light comes. It may come when you begin to discover the realization of the reason for living; maybe through perseverance and effort. It is not discovered through the senses, nor the intellect but only through communion with the spirit. Light enters and in a second is gone, but the consequences are profound and lasting. It is a certainty and you cannot convey it to any other person. Don’t hope or wonder or wait for it. If you desire it, it will never happen.
It happens through the natural process of worship and wisdom otherwise it is hallucination, not illumination. “In knowledge alone there can never be absolute certainty, only increasing probability of approximation; but the religious soul of spiritual illumination knows, and knows now.” [UB 102:2.4]
It takes a lot of courage to live up to your convictions. When you discover truth it may bring you enlightenment, but along with it comes responsibilities. As enlightenment increases, the desire to share it increases, and that becomes very difficult as many have discovered when we found THe Urantia Book.
Thomas Troward said, “We touch the face of God when we reach that indescribable reciprocity of feeling by which we instinctively recognize something in another, making it kin to ourselves. When the individual conscious mind comes into direct contact with universal mind, cosmic intelligence becomes individualized and individual intelligence becomes universalized. The two become one. I am the person that thou art, and thou art the person that I am.”[15]
The composer with his unfinished symphony, the artist with his unfinished canvas, the poet with his unfinished verses, the scientist with his unfinished experiments—each one exhausted their ability to proceed without help, all sincerely looking for a solution. A surrendering of self then leads to a divine cosmic light (intelligence) which begins to reveal to them the answer.
Without consecration and perseverance there can be no illumination.
Most of the spectacular phenomena associated with so-called religious conversions are entirely psychologic in nature, but now and then there do occur experiences which are also spiritual in origin. When the mental mobilization is absolutely total on any level of the psychic upreach toward spirit attainment, when there exists perfection of the human motivation of loyalties to the divine idea, then there very often occurs a sudden down-grasp of the indwelling spirit to synchronize with the concentrated and consecrated purpose of the superconscious mind of the believing mortal. And it is such experiences of unified intellectual and spiritual phenomena that constitute the conversion which consists in factors over and above purely psychologic involvement. [UB 100:5.4]
Doreen Heyne found The Urantia Book in the mid 1980s, and is currently serving as Secretary-General of The Urantia Book Fellowship. She divides her time between New Jersey and Florida and her passion is to strive to be a better human being through loving service.
Roger Walsh, Essential Spirituality. (John Wiley & Sons, 1999), p. 44. ↩︎
Roger Walsh, Essential Spirituality. (John Wiley & Sons, 1999). ↩︎
Carol Dommermuth-Costa, Nikola Tesla: A Spark of Genius. (Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Company, 1994). ↩︎
Dan Millman and Doug Childers, Divine Interventions: True Stories of Mystery and Miracles That Change Lives. (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1999). ↩︎
Dan Millman and Doug Childers, Divine Interventions: True Storiesof Mystery and Miracles That Change Lives. (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1999). ↩︎
Roger Walsh, Essential Spirituality. (John Wiley & Sons, 1999), p. 8. ↩︎
Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life (Bantam, 1993) p. 311. ↩︎
Lucinda Vardey, God in All Worlds: An Anthology of Contemporary Spiritual Writing (Pantheon Books, 1995). ↩︎
Yvonne Kason, M.D., Farther Shore: How Near-Death and Other Extraordinary Experiences Can Change Ordinary Lives. (DIANE Publishing Co, June 1994). ↩︎
Albert Einstein, The World As I See It. (Citadel Trade, Reissue edition July 1993) ↩︎
Gopi-Krishna, Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man. (Shambhala, 1997). ↩︎
Yvonne Kason, M.D., Farther Shore: How Near-Death and Other Extraordinary Experiences Can Change Ordinary Lives. (DIANE Publishing Co, June 1994). ↩︎
Roger Walsh, Essential Spirituality. (John Wiley & Sons, 1999), p. 179. ↩︎
Swami Chetanananda, God Lived With Them: Life Stories of Sixteen Monastic Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna (Vedanta Society of st Louis: 1997). ↩︎
Thomas Troward, The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. (1904) ↩︎