“Remember, being never happens comfortably, otherwise it would have happened to all. Remember being cannot happen conveniently, other wise everybody would have been without any problem.” Osho, “Intimacy”
When I started to wake up, I had no clue what was going on. I thought I was going crazy and I could find no one to help me. I ultimately resorted to reading hundreds of books and ended up writing this book (now in Substack form).
So if you are waking up, watch out for the following barriers that might stand in your way. They are the four main reasons it’s so difficult for us all to wake up.
Reason 1. Misdiagnosis
As you wake up, you might think there is something wrong with you, particularly since you no longer feel the same and can’t understand why. You may turn to your spouse, friends, family members or perhaps seek therapy.
Very rarely will you be told that you are waking up. And even more rarely will you be instructed on how to navigate this amazing life experience. Instead you will likely be told one of the following:
Your body is out of balance, so do more exercise, sleep more and change your diet.
Your mind or perspective is confused, so change your thoughts or beliefs (e.g. via therapy).
Your energy is distorted, so engage in energy healing like Reiki or meditation.
Unless you have a highly self-aware therapist, you will not be told that you are completely normal and that you are simply evolving, as all humans do. Even if you are told you are experiencing an existential crisis, the solutions offered will often be superficial.
Because of this misdiagnosis you might end up in therapy for years or take more drastic steps like consuming pharmaceuticals. Most likely you will do what I did, and stumble along trying out a variety of things like meditation, breathing and yoga. Slowly you might piece it all together and might find an enlightened master who will acknowledge your reality and take you under her wing.
Reason 2. Lack of information and teachers
The second reason we are slow to wake up is because of a lack of information. Before I began waking up, I had never even heard of awakening or the extensive wisdom literature!
As a child in a strict Catholic family, I never learned about consciousness. My parents, teachers and peers likely had no idea since they did not know about psychology or even self actualization. My therapist was just trying to help me cope, not evolve and most of the popular books were about positive thinking.
Not in my many years at school and university, did any of my teachers or professors tell me about the human mind, my conditioning, my programming, or the process of awakening. This travesty is described here, in one of my favorite books:
“We can ask ourselves: “When was I ever trained in the techniques of emotional self-healing? When I went to school, did they teach me courses of consciousness? Did anybody tell me that I have the freedom to choose what went into my mind? Was I ever taught that I could refuse the negative programming? … We’ve all been unwittingly programmed without our conscious assent. Out of our confusion, ignorance and naivete, we bought in to the negative programs. We let them run us. But now we can choose to stop. …We can choose to be more aware, more conscious, more responsible and more discerning.” David Hawkins “Letting Go”
As for guides, over the last three thousand years only a few men and women have achieved a state of full awareness or enlightenment. This includes Jesus, Buddha, Ramana Maharshi and several others. Although today there are many, more, including Rupert Spira, Eckhart Tolle (“The Power of Now”) and Byron Katie (“Loving What Is"), these folks are still rare.
Luckily there are more and more philosophers and quantum physicists who are researching consciousness. Indeed they gather each year at a conference on Science and Non-Duality (SAND) to discuss the overlap of metaphysical and modern science.
Psychologists are also expanding the science. Theses include Carl Jung, John Welwood and several depth psychologist who suggest that psychological and spiritual development go hand-in-hand. Human evolution requires both.
Other teachers like Bruce Lipton, Joe Dispenza and Greg Bradden focus on the unconscious mind, embrace the idea of awakening and investigate things that are beyond the mind. Importantly, like me, they recognize the limits of the thinking mind and instead turn to methods such as meditation and hypnosis.
Reason 3. Lack of capacity and skills
Until very recently we humans did not have the mental capacity to wake up. Although mystics have been trying to teach us how to wake up for centuries, most of us have simply been at a very low level of awareness. It’s an evolutionary thing.
Author and researcher, Dr. David Hawkins (“Power versus Force”) discovered that over history humans are slowly becoming more aware. He developed a scale consciousness (from 0-1000) and discovered that the current level of humans on the earth is around 200 (mystics measure 600 plus). In part this is because as a species our primary focus for the last few thousand years has been on basic survival.
Indeed, most of us can’t even define what consciousness is, as described here:
“And what is consciousness? This question cannot be answered. The moment you answer t, you have falsified it, made it into another object. Consciousness, the traditional word for which is “spirit”, cannot be known in the normal sense of the word and seeking it is futile…[however] Although you cannot know consciousness you can become conscious of it as yourself. You can sense it directly in any situation, no matter where you are.” Eckhart Tolle
Related to capacity is the fact that waking up requires many skills and the integration of learning that can take many years, as described here:
“Our nervous system and subtle circuitries of the body need time to build the strength and refinement necessary to carry higher energies. This is especially true now that we are evolving into ascension and taking our whole body into the light.” Joanna Cherry
Having said that, the sages and mystics have all said that all human beings have the capacity, but need to transcend the barriers in order to bring their minds to a pure unconditioned state.
Reason 4. Your ego will sabotage you
The most significant reason we find it difficult to wake, however, is the very condition that we are trying to transcend! The ego.
As you will see my next few essays, we humans all suffer from an “egoic-state of mind.” This state of mind vehemently refuses to allow us to wake up and will do everything it can to keep us asleep.
Although I discuss this in detail below (and how to get around it) it’s critical to know that as long as we are in that ego-state, our mind will actively reject anything that involves waking up. In other words, to the egoic-mind, waking up seems like death so it will endlessly fight it.
Conclusion
If you are waking up, the best way to overcome these four barriers is to recognize them and tackle each one. Here are my suggestions:
Trust yourself and listen to your body and your feelings.
Find specialized books and experts on consciousness.
Be gentle and patient with yourself.
Find others who are waking up and share experiences
Don’t let your ego stand in your way.
Stay tuned.
In my next entries I talk about:
How does our society keep us asleep?
What is the ego and how does it work?
How to transcend your ego?
Thank you for joining me.