Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings
Last September, Beyhan Mutlu was out on a forest walk after a drink with friends, when he came across a search party looking for a missing person. He decided to help, and for several hours wandered through the woods until some search party members began calling out his name, "Beyhan Mutlu".
His answer to the call was almost poetic in its simplicity; "I am here."
This is one of many real-life stories of its kind and is a great metaphor for a kind of non-dual insight. When a spiritual seeker recognises that what they are looking for is what they already are, the search is over with the realisation ***nothing was ever lost***.
When someone accidentally joins their own search party, they probably experience some embarrassment and sense of having wasted everyone's time. Nondual realisation however is often accompanied by a profound experience of peace, aliveness or even bliss.
I've personally witnessed this at several workshops like Headless Way(there is one happening tonight 🙂 )
People may report a sudden realisation that totally reorganises their perception of self. Sometimes it's a very quiet experience, occasionally it's more dramatic, with weeping, energy movements, and even a cessation of conscious thought.
Equally fascinating, these experiences also can occur spontaneously to people who previously had no interest in spirituality or meditation whatsoever.
Together with Dr David Luke (of DMT entity fame) Jessica Corneille has been studying Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings and offering a counter-narrative to mainstream psychology that often pathologises them.
In their upcoming talk, they'll present their research on the varieties of these experiences, their well-being implications, and how these compare with other altered states, such as those produced by strong doses of psilocybin and DMT.
We'll even consider how these experiences could lead to a more compassionate and united world.
I'm expecting a fascinating and enlightening evening and hope you can join the search party. 🙂 Dec 8th at 7pm UK time.
