Q: How does spiritual development impact my daily life experience? On the other hand, are there ways that it does not change or impact my daily life?

A: There are seven major ways your spiritual development influences your human life.

1. Anchoring of abilities in your physical brain – these abilities, called gifts, enable you to make a connection with an ability in your Superconscious mind and channel it. You can consciously ask that it be turned on, and it operates. An example is a musician can tap into his musical gift when he is going to play music or when he is teaching someone. [Two other types of higher abilities are only accessible in either an altered state of awareness or are channeled through your attentional principle or spirit—these two types of abilities are not accessible in your waking awareness.]
2. Channeling guidance – Some people can use the cord of faith anchored in their ego [this is a part of your Conscious mind] to ask a higher aspect of their mind [Self or Soul] or the Divine to help them solve problems, to cope with the stress of life, and to help them resolve issues. People typical invoke this higher aspect of their own nature—or the Divine as they can conceive it—through questioning or prayer, and listen for the response.
3. Behavioral plan – In this type of connection with the higher mind, you are shown all of the steps necessary for you to achieve a goal. In the Conscious mind, you are capable of making one action at a time. Showing you each sequence of what you need to do to accomplish the goal, and the part you will do today, breaks down a project that may seem overwhelming into manageable pieces. For example, if you have to clean your house, you’ll focus on the task you need to do in each room and finish it [For the bathroom, this might look like: clean the sink… clean the toilet… clean the tub… clean the corners…]
4. Stress reduction and relaxation – When you meditate, you enable the body to relieve stress, promote relaxation, and soothe your emotions. During the period you are meditating, this effect is pronounced. Many people report that this state of calmness and poise lasts well after their meditation session is over.
5. Dialog and inquiry – Since the rational mind, which is the primary mental faculty of the Conscious mind, has only the information of the senses, its emotional experience, and its ability to infer [analogical reasoning] and to reason [deductive reasoning] to determine what is real and what can be believed, much of what the Soul and spirit experience are outside of its ability to know. For this reason, there is often a lively dialog between reason and the Soul. What the Soul experiences seems like complete fantasy to reason; in those individuals who establish a link with their reason, there is a rebuttal of reason’s doubts, and giving reason exact knowledge of what is in each higher vehicle of consciousness and what this vehicle of consciousness does. In this way, the mental function of the Conscious mind comes to appreciate the operations of the higher aspects of personal and transpersonal nature. As this dialog ensues, there is a lessening of doubt and an increase in trust and acceptance of these higher intellectual and intuitive faculties. [Think of the way you might trust a plumber to do his job, when this is not an area you know much about.]
6. Comforting core suffering – At the core of human life are the painful, shameful, and fearful issues that make up the psychological component of destiny karma. This is the aspect of human life that experiences frustration, suffering, anxiety, and depression. While meditation allows you to monitor and release this core of dysphoric feelings, using techniques like process meditation or Vipassana, these feelings come back until you ultimately resolve them. Invoking the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is one of the few remedies that enable you to cope and carry on when you are yet laden with these emotional burdens.
7. Ecstatic movement and speech – Those that do Kundalini Yoga, sacred dancing, and tantric practices report they experience the movement of inner energy that automatically repositions their body into different postures [martial arts stances or hatha yoga poses are common], places their hands in mudras, or has them spontaneously utter mantras or glossolalia. This occurs in those who actively awaken their Kundalini, or those who passively receive Shaktipat from an advanced disciple or Initiate empowered to send this attunement.

The experience of the Soul is outside the life matrix that you experience in your daily life. While there is some interface between them, the great majority of what the Soul experiences and its activities take place outside of your daily, conscious awareness. For you to become aware of what your Soul experiences and what it does, you need to move your attention to the level of your mind where your Soul dwells—this is the key function of meditation: to allow you to go where it is and gain direct knowledge of this immortal aspect of your nature.

Your life matrix—the conscious and unconscious aspects of your mind that you experience as part of your human life—has the following 13 components:

1. Infra-conscious – these are the centers below waking awareness that comprise the states of hypnotic sleep, dreaming sleep, sound sleep, coma, and death. Elements of hypnotic and dreaming sleep sometimes persist when you awaken, so you have some recollection of your experiences in these liminal states.
2. Waking state of awareness – this is the seat of your attention when you are not in an altered state of awareness induced through meditation, psychotherapy, hypnosis, or psychoactive drug use. This is your immediate perception of the environment around you, the people in the room, the objects that are relevant to the task you are currently doing. In the Light Sitting, when the Masters guide you back to “your moment,” they are asking you to return your attention to this ground state.
3. Movement awareness center – this is your present time experience of your movement and body position. The experience of “living your life” is intimately tied to what you are actually doing moment-to-moment. In the Light Sitting, when the Masters guide you back to “your life,” they are asking you to move your attention to this center.
4. Immediate sensory experience – this is your present time experience of each of your peripheral senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. These senses give their moment-to-moment report to a center we call the sensorium. [Neurologically, this perceptual matrix appears to correspond to the thalamus.] The sensorium has an energetic link to each higher order of sensation—astral sensing, attentional sensing, attentional principle sensing [meta-sensing], spirit sensing [heart-sensing], higher mind sensing [global intuitive or Buddhic sensing], and ensouling entity sensing [core sensing]. We teach you how to access this thread in the Vision Workshop.
5. Deep body awareness – this is your present time awareness of what you are experiencing inside your body. Focusing attention on this center reveals your moment-to-moment experience of your muscles, connective tissues, joints, bones, organs, glands, nervous system, circulatory system, lymph system, immune system, and reproductive system as their chemical and electrical signals reach the hypothalamus and cerebral cortex. In the Light Sitting, when the Masters guide you back to “your body,” they are asking you to move your attention to this center.
6. Feeling center awareness – this is your present time awareness of your emotional reactions to your experience. Focusing attention on the feeling center is a common technique used in psychotherapy. This center is intimately tied to your memory: most of your emotions are tied to particular memories of incidents you have experienced.
7. Mental awareness – this center has three major functions (a) volition, this is the seat of the egoic octave of will, which governs individual behavior; (b) analogical reasoning, which meditates your ability to compare objects and ideas and understand metaphors; and deductive reasoning, which operates your ability to test reality and to analyze the salient information about your present time experience.
8. Conscious Egoic complex – this is comprised of (a) the Egoic integrative function, which establishes your connection with each of the other vehicles of your Conscious mind; (b) a desire/goal organizing matrix, which organizes the areas of your life into specific areas, and establishes an identity state or role for each one; and (c) a remembrance of your key achievements and challenges in your life, which we call your life narrative, or personal story. This is your conscious experience of your life and is part of your zone of liberty.
9. Unconscious Egoic complex – this liminal zone of your Conscious mind consists of (a) the layers of your psychological defenses, which cover up your deeper painful and shameful issues; (b) your shadow, which contains your deep, unresolved issues [this is the core of your personal suffering and pain], (c) your Egoic seed atom, which is a center that tunes up as your Soul evolves—experience of this center reveals a world of child-like wonder and delight; and (d) your subtle egoic identification with higher spiritual essences [for example, if you are a Christian, you might establish a link with your Moon Soul nucleus of identity; a Yogi might similarly identify with the cosmic consciousness nucleus of identity].
10. Interface with the Subconscious mind (Preconscious) – this is your connection with the Subconscious mnemonic/temporal zone. You actively use this conduit to recall specific information or events. You passively receive impressions from the Subconscious mind in the state of reverie.
11. Subconscious life narrative – this is your identification with the events of your life, starting with your first conscious memory, when you first experienced you were the actor in your life. This is not part of your conscious life experience, but you can access this band in meditation and hypnosis.
12. Standpoint of eternity – this is the view from your Soul’s perspective, which beholds its past lives, conception and embryonic development, birth and the experiences before your first conscious memory, your Subconscious life narrative, the recording of your experience in the present time, and the “bubble” of your Conscious mind experience. You are able to visualize your life helix from this viewpoint. This is not part of your conscious life experience, but you can access this band in meditation and hypnosis.
13. Wave of the present time on the Akashic Records – this is the point where your Soul’s thought and intention enter and shape your human life. This center is on the fifth Subplane of the Abstract Mind Plane in the Superconscious mind—your life experiences are also recorded at this level in the Etheric Book of Remembrance, which is called the Akashic Records. This is not part of your conscious life experience, but you can access this band in meditation and hypnosis. Process meditation, in particular, is keyed to this level. [You experience the Soul is creating specific experiences in your life at this level.]

Much of the experience and activity of your Soul, spirit, and attentional principle is outside your conscious awareness. You can visit their world in meditation, but unless you keep your attention fixed upon these essences, you are only able to glimpse their world of beauty, wonder, and Omnific Power and Grace during the lyrical interlude of meditation.

But even a little time spent in their realm will sustain you, renew you, inspire you, uplift you, empower you, and turn your life into a channel for some of its gifts. As you deepen your communion with these essences, your gratitude, humility, and joy will grow—and you will know, with every fiber of your being, that you have found a treasure beyond compare.

Those of you who may wish to learn about meditation in daily life, to make your life more functional and serene, may wish to acquire our book, Applications in Meditation in Daily Life and Education.