The ability to do sustained inner work on yourself requires that you first reach union with one of the immortal principles of consciousness within you—the attentional principle, the spirit, and the Soul. You learn this aspect of inner work in meditation.

While psychotherapeutic and hypnotic work requires your ability to isolate your attention and focus it, it does not require that you gain union with one of your immortal principles. The deeper integrative work of psychotherapy leads you to gain union with the Self and to activate its abilities—but excluding transpersonal psychotherapy modalities, activating your immortal essences is not required for these types of psychological intervention.

Inner work typically addresses physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems. The deeper component required to do inner work may also require absorption and focusing of your attention, and experiencing union and identification with one or more of your immortal essences.

This ability to do inner work appears to progress through eleven stages.

1. Fully embodied egoic stage – You experience physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems, but you have no apparent means of resolving them. You may seek help at this stage, but it may be difficult initially for you to benefit from psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, or meditation, because you may have difficulties focusing your attention on your subjective experiences.
2. Relaxation stage – You are able to release tension in your muscles. You may have some success letting go of pain in your body. You learn to relax. You may take up stress reduction modalities like Hatha Yoga or Tai Chi.

This ability to relax may take the edge off of your emotional issues, and may make your mental problems seem more manageable. After some practice of relaxation and stress release, you may be able to collect your attention and become established in the state of mindfulness.

3. Cascade of thinking stage – You are able to process your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems using sustained attention to the selected levels of the Conscious mind where you can become aware of them arising in the present time.

These practices of monitoring the sensations, feelings, and thoughts arising in the present time are called Vipassana—Physical Vipassana monitors the sensations arising within your body awareness center; Emotional Vipassana, the emotions bubbling up in your feeling center; and Mental Vipassana, the thoughts surfacing in your mental center.

You are able to benefit from psychotherapy and hypnosis at this level. You may, however, experience difficulty moving beyond the cascade of body sensations, feelings, and thinking at this level, so you are unable to penetrate more deeply into the levels of your mind beyond these centers of the Conscious mind.

4. Initial contemplation stage – You are able to move beyond the initial processing of your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems at these levels of your Conscious mind. You are able to consciously direct your attention along the thread of consciousness.

At this stage, you are able to focus your attention at discrete focal points and contemplate the contents arising. At this stage, you have your first experiences of meditative absorption. You are able to enter more profound states of hypnotic trance and clearer insight in psychotherapy at this stage.

5. Inner awakening stage – As your attention continues to travel along the thread of consciousness, you encounter one of your immortal essences—your attentional principle, your spirit, or your Soul. After gaining union with this essence through repeated meditation sittings, you may eventually come to recognize this essence clearly and identify with it.

At this stage, you come to recognize your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems arise within the strata of the mind—but you discover that who you are, is separate from this content. You cease to identify yourself with illness, emotional complexes, and your problems—you have them, but you are not your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems.

6. Transformational stage – At this level, you begin to travel through the inner Planes as your attentional principle; open the channels of the Nada as your spirit; and unfold your Soul through transformational meditation. You may learn a variety of techniques to work on your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems as your awakened spiritual essence.
7. Illumination stage – At this level, you begin to activate your Illumined Mind. You experience a downpour of intuitive knowledge, which enables you to get to the core of your mental problems. You gain understanding, insight, and wisdom.
8. Compassion stage – At this level, you acutely feel your own suffering and the suffering of others. You are empowered to send the Comforter to heal deep emotional pain and resolve emotional issues.
9. Healing stage – At this level you have the ability to send the Light of Healing, which helps dissolve physical symptoms.
10. Inner Guide stage – At this level, you gain the ability to lead the attention along the thread of consciousness to unite with the attention principle or the spirit, and to assist these essences travel along their pathways.
11. Thaumaturge stage – At this level, you are able send attunements to unfold the Soul, and move it from nodal point to nodal point to Mastery and Liberation.

True meditation emerges at stage four. The ability to move your attention and contemplate is prerequisite to inner awakening.

You awaken your spiritual essences at stage five. This level marks the point where you shift from becoming identified with physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems—and realize you are a conscious spiritual essence.

Conscious inner work becomes possible at stage six. At this point in your inner journey, you discover can work on your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems without relying upon others to guide you in working with them. You gain the ability to initiate process meditation to work on your emotional issues, to modify limiting and dysfunctional beliefs through affirmation, and to use autohypnosis to promote healthy behavioral change.

Stage six also marks the beginning of transcendence meditation, where you start to transform and awaken the powers of the Soul. When you embark on this deepest level of work, you actively accelerate your spiritual evolutionary potentials and ascend to Mastery and Liberation.

In stages seven through eleven, you become empowered to give attunements that resolve your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems; facilitate attentional absorption and awakening of your immortal essences; and support inner work and transformation.

We teach stage four in our introductory meditation class, the Introduction to Meditation Program. We review the technique of attentional movement and contemplation in our intermediate meditation classes‐the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and our by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program—and additionally teach you core stage five and six methods.

Access to stages seven though eleven of inner work, which enable you to utilize the higher levels of attunements, inner guidance—and ultimately, Thaumaturgy—occur as a result of transformational meditation. Transformation activates all of the dormant powers of your Soul and progressively leads you to spiritual Mastery.