God Shock

There is a phenomena that happens upon awakening, something often called “God shock.”

See, we’ve all heard the spiritual truths like we’re all one, there is no separation, God is infinite, and so on, but the direct experience of it is infinitely more profound than a simple conceptual understanding. In fact, I’ve never heard a person who awakened say, “This is exactly what I expected it’d be like.”

The direct experience of the infinite bliss can be so overpowering that the desire to speak ceases for words can not convey what’s being experienced, nor is there really a desire to do so. The idea of speaking seems almost absurd and fruitless.

For example, Ramana Maharshi, after a sudden and unexpected Enlightenment, was mute for two years until encouraged to speak. He took no care of the body at all.

His student, Nisargadatta Maharaj, wandered off on foot to the Himalayas upon awakening in search of eternal life, but eventually came back home to Bombay upon the realization of the futility of his quest and the realization that his life was already eternal.

Dr. Jill Taylor, a scientist who studied brain malfunctions and then had a stroke herself, was featured on Oprah just the other day. Her story of her experience of losing her sense of separate self is incredible. While this isn’t exactly the same process as enlightenment as I’ll point out below, the experience is strikingly similar.

(Click here for the original web page containing the above video.)

Note that in Jill’s experience, she literally loses the capacity to separate and language, while in the spiritual pathway, there is still the capacity to discern and differentiate while simultaneously experiencing the Oneness. Enlightenment isn’t about brain damage the way a stroke is. Pick your favorite enlightened person such as Jesus Christ, the Buddha, Krishna, Adyashanti, Eckhart Tolle, or anyone else and notice that they can experience the Oneness and still differentiate on some level between the body they have and the outside world, even if it ultimately is recognized to not actually be a genuine separateness.

As David Hawkins explains, “It appears that as consciousness evolves, it seems to remain at a given level for variable periods of time that are described as periods of ‘ripening’, realignment, and readjustment through the more advanced energy field. There is a necessary realignment with the functioning and location of the body and the resumption of physiological functions, as well as the capacity to speak and communicate.”

Personal Experience

For “me,” this has begun in occasional spurts, as if I get tastes of it, but it hasn’t full on happened yet to the degree that it has in the above examples.

When talking to people, I basically humor them and, for the sake discussion, pretend that there is an “Ariel” they’re talking to. Speech has to be almost translated though because most of it sounds like jibberish to me.

For example, here is a good example from a while ago when I was still taking yoga:

“How is your body feeling?”

It’s not “my” body, nor am I the body. So that gets translated into:

“What sensations do you observe happening within the body you are using to flow through the physical world?”

Then the response is something like:

“There seems to be a warm sensation permeating the shoulders of this body.”

But no one talks like that so the response ultimately gets translated into:

“My shoulders feel warm.”

There can be a slight delay between hearing words and understanding them due to this translation process that naturally must occur.

Sat-chit-ananda

Within the stillness, everything that happens arises spontaneously and automatically on its own. Creation simply happens without cause.

Abiding in this state is called sat-chit-ananda, or silent bliss. It is a direct experience of non-duality where physiological functions can come to a halt and the desire to move or speak is relinquished as the inner silence pervades all.

Samadhi

There is also a state of consciousness called samadhi whereby All That Is merges with All That Is. (as if this was possible.. haha) There is no ‘knowner’ or ‘known’, but knowingness itself. There is no  ‘creator’ or ‘created’, but creation itself. It all merges into one.

This natural state of ego transcendence is first achieved in meditation with eyes closed, then progresses to where it can be maintained with the eyes opened, and is finally brought into one’s normal “real life” existence outside traditional meditation.

Be Prepared

I tell you this not to scare you, but to inform you that there are many notable changes that occur upon awakening and for the seriously committed spiritual aspirants, it is helpful to be aware of this and have friends or family around who know what you’re up to and are aware of what may happen so that they can help out just in case.

While it really doesn’t matter if the body eats or not, nor is there a personal “me” to make any decisions as to what happens, eating and bathing arise on their own accord as necessary and there really is no problem, but to the external world, it may seem as though something has gone wrong.