You are a spiritual being having a human experience. Maybe I heard this sentence for the first time from Wayne Dyer when he appeared on PBS or read it in one of his many books.
I kept observing this sentence and then allowed it a place on top of my head like thick, curly hair or a kitten who curls up there or a ball cap or knit hat.
The message made a little sense to me, yet not really. I mostly felt like a fumbling, bumbling, terrified, goofy, pretending to be happy, falling, floundering, standing up, running away, and wanting to hide human. I was having a human experience. The idea that I could be a spiritual being mystified me and catalyzed an intellectual inquiry. Questions chased themselves around my mind like a cat chases its tail for the fun and frustration of it.
Then I noticed moments of quiet rapture while witnessing a deer in the woods, a butterfly, the sky, a tree, the moon, and stars. The chattering voices in my head stopped behaving like bumper cars at the county fair. I experienced all my body senses-touch, sight, taste, smell, inner sensations, including a tingling shower of chills.
Ah, here IT is! I was experiencing the thing sage humans often point to, but it has no name. Many people give it names: Bliss, Wonder, Awe, Consciousness, Spirit, Inner Invisible Experiencer, True Self, Witness Self–and then I gave it a name-Inner Quiet Charlotte. Ah, so this is the spiritual thing; direct experiences of being fully alive, aware, and awake; not just from black tea with cream.
These moments began to accumulate as I learned to lean into them. Moments expanded to invisible hours.
I remember receiving clear internal messages at 20 years old. During autumn semester of my junior year, I lived abroad in London, England. My roommate and I walked along a sidewalk of a small town in the Lake District in autumn.
“Your grandfather is dying.”
I stopped. My roommate stood still and looked at me. Neither of us had spoken. I began to weep and said to her, “My grandfather, my mother’s father, is dying.”
She hugged me and believed me as I cried. Without any earthly evidence I, too, believed this download. A couple weeks later I woke up in the middle of the night and knew in my bones, heavy heart, and soul that he had died. I noted the date. A month later when I returned at Christmastime to my parents’ house, my mother confirmed what I already knew. My grandfather had died on the exact date I had woken in the night.
Vivid nighttime dreams became guides to deeper truths, an intuitive place I now give myself permission to visit. I began to trust the messages, the incoming, slow content emerging from quiet places inside of me.
A week ago, I visited the town where I grew up. I drove by what had been my parents’ house. I observed the tall oak tree and prickly bush near the front porch were gone. The new owner raked leaves in the front yard. A fresh stain of royal blue on the house brought me fully into the present. I parked my vehicle and walked the pathways of the college campus. I had carried a backpack as a student and a professional black bag as a part-time faculty member. I experienced ethereal wisps of memories flow through my mind and being. No longer triggered by traumatic memories in any of these places, I felt an overwhelming gratitude, an overflowing of Love.
I believe I had a direct experience of inner and outer transformation. The deep work of healing I have been doing in the mountains of North Carolina became a foundation for what genuinely astonished me. I had not anticipated the depth of peacefulness and ease in my body, heart, mind, and soul.
I believe I can claim I had prolonged experiences of being a spiritual being as I walked, ran, sat, and stood in familiar places. In the final scenes in the movie, “What the Bleep do We Know?” the main character portrayed by Marlee Matlin, walks with a radiant light beaming from her and glowing all around her. Her character came to mind as I, too, observed a profound wholeness and a transcendent embodied wellbeing.
Urgent questions beg to be answered as if for the first time: How do you want to live while you are still alive? Who do you want to be while you live? Do you now know why you are here? Are you forever connected to eternal energy?
How do you know you are a spiritual being having a human experience?
What direct experiences of life right now demonstrate this truth for you? Are you curious about having direct experiences of being a soul in a human body? How do you connect to faith or energies so much bigger than your earth guide only? Have you had a near-death experience that allowed you to access this truth? What are you learning about life, faith, transformations, and transcendence?
The founder of Cherish Your World, Laura Staley passionately supports people thriving by guiding them to a holistic transformation of space, heart, and life. Laura is the published author of four books including Live Inspired which reveals the brave and deep work of self-discovery and her new book of short writings and poetry Abundant Heart: Thoughts on Healing, Loving, and Living Free where with her characteristic grace and candor, Laura shares thoughtful-sometimes comical reflections on healing, loving and living free as inspirational pathways for experiencing a soul-centered, fulfilled life.
