BY Elizabeth Wallmann-Filley
Many people are searching for change in their lives. They want to have more loving relationships, greater financial freedom, better health, etc. They want to change what is. Simply put, this kind of change means to modify. Changing dress size or jobs can feel very good, even successful yet be temporary or unfulfilling. What about allowing the birth of something brand new? Not conceived. This is what’s known as transformation.
A Transformative experience encompasses a broadened shift in consciousness. It can happen as an end result of an accumulative effect of intention, or as a seemingly instantaneous event. Transformation is a kind of rebirth. It is characterized by:
1.) A break from the ordinary, which seems to precipitate shifts in consciousness.
2.) A change that is beyond a simple matter of modified thinking processes. It appears connected to the major areas of ones life.
3.) Seems to tap into the place where thoughts and perception are formed. One could say at the “core belief system level”.
4.) An expanded consciousness with completely new reference points. The poet Rumi illustrates this concept perfectly in A Worm’s Awakening:
This is how a human being can change:
There’s a worm addicted to eating
Grape leaves.
Suddenly, he wakes up,
Call it grace, whatever, something
Wakes him, and he’s no longer
A worm.
He’s the entire vineyard,
And the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks,
A growing wisdom and joy
That doesn’t need
To devour.
5.) The “new reference point” emulates a broader perspective and reflects elements such as inclusivity (verses separateness), cooperation (verses competition), and unification (verses divisions). Actions are taken in service of the greater good (verses special interest). Acquiring a transpersonal self is common. Below are two examples of a transformative experience which include the development of a transpersonal self:
John Newton 1725 – 1807 British Poet, author of Amazing Grace, and former slave merchant
John Newton’s awakening appeared to be in one night. As the story goes, while on route with a “harvest” of slaves in a ship bound for market, he awoke in the middle of the night. John Newton wrote the words to the poem, Amazing Grace, on a napkin. In the morning he turned his ship around and freed the slaves. In addition, he completely changed his life and fought to abolish slavery until his death.
Edgar Mitchell Apo1lo 14 Astronaut, Engineer, Scientist, Founder of IONS, International Speaker
Edgar Mitchell was trained in conventional science and formal materialism. While in flight to the moon, there was the detail of flight and maintenance to keep his mind in his “ordinary” states of consciousness. It was only after lift off from the moon, when many of the duties of fight where no longer pressing, did he have a chance to reflect.. He looked at earth and saw it with no boundaries, boarders, or barriers. He experienced the awakening that we are all really one. From this point his life radically changed and has spent the rest of his life broadening the foundations of science. The Institute of Noetic Science was formed.
The important element of Transformation is that people experience themselves changed in fundamental ways. There are feelings of completeness, unity (oneness) and profound ease. People who have reported a profound Transformative experience seem to illustrate generosity of spirit and a deep reverence for life. They tend to emulate compassionate action towards the greater good.
Below are 13 keys to help you invite a transformative experience into your life.
1.)Question! The word question comes from the Latin word “quarrier” (to seek), which is the same root as the word for quest. Good questions can be very useful guideposts. The most useful questions are open-ended; they allow for the fresh, unanticipated answers to reveal themselves.
2.)Recognize that any external transformation will first arise internally. Are you having a lot of conflict in your life with others? There is an ancient Indian metaphor which says, if you find yourself cutting up your feet on sharp rocks as you walk barefoot, stubbing your toes and bruising your heels; you can pave the earth or make yourself a pair of sandals! This is also true for financial abundance. You won’t cure the experience of poverty by simply acquiring more money. Poverty begins with a belief in appearances and of “need”. The sandals you make are the foundational thoughts of “plenty” in the here and now. As Wayne Dyer states: “Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now; you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice on the way to someplace else. Your completeness must be fully understood by you – first”.
3.)Shift ordinary thinking through “entering the gap” (Deepak Chopra), which actually moves you into pure consciousness. Collapsing our thinking expands our consciousness. You can do this most easily in two distinct circumstances: when in meditation or crisis.
4.)Momentarily suspend the need to know through clarity of being. This can be accomplished through becoming grounded and living in the present.
5.)Become willing. If Transformation is what you want, than look directly at why you want that experience. What is unacceptable? Have you done every “thing”; you can think of to try to alter the reality you have? Are you at a place, inside, where you recognize that you are powerless, in your conventional ways, to have an impact on that which you want transformed?
6.)Recognize that something greater than who you are right now, will be the transformer. In other words, give up the need to do the transforming. You will become the transformed. You will be acted upon, by that which you do not (currently) know. This is what makes transformation so magical and mysterious
7.)Use repetitive self-inquiry: Come to know your wants, desires, and, goals. These illuminate intentions.
8.)Look closely at your self-talk. Shift thinking from self devaluing to life promoting messages. Learn to celebrate your humanity.
9.)Habitually confront inner conflict and make a choice. You can compromise, decide to take the “softer” way, develop a “higher” perspective, or simply do a cost/ benefit analysis. The point is to confront the conflict mechanism. The mechanism is more problematic than the specifics of the conflict. It guarantees removal from both creative thinking and “Knowing”.
10)Refuse to participate in sending erroneous information (mixed messages).
When you’re angry, be angry; when afraid, embrace the fear. The nice thing about emotional states is that they lack permanence, if you let them. Remember, the natural order is evolution. We eventually learn to handle the complexities of life. Situations that use to baffle or frighten will cease as your capacity broadens.
11.) Maneuver yourself into a position of looking (being the witness). Then use
the necessary tools to expand perception. Expanded perception means to move into the unknown. This is really allowing discontinuity in your ordinary consciousness. In addition, avoid the classic “Post hoc fallacy” {If B follows A, A caused B} which characterizes “need to know” and closed (circular) thinking.
12.) Closely examine any anger, fear, and “hurts” from the past. This can be
easily done by making a list. As you examine “what was done to you”, ask yourself, in what ways have I participated in the pain? Notice the wording here. I am not saying, “How did I create this?” The reason for this wording is that sometimes we take responsibility for things that are not ours – such as someone else’s choices. What you can own is what you do with the circumstance. If someone stole from you, and you are angry, you don’t want to say to yourself, “I chose to be stolen from”; or “I chose to be connected to that circumstance”, unless you REALLY KNOW this to be true. Look at this situation deeply. Maybe the pain now is that you have not found a way to honestly (heartfelt) forgive them their sickness; maybe your anger is because their stealing from you engendered fear for your survival, or maybe you’ve been blaming yourself all along, and it is time to forgive yourself. The point is examine, look closely, and identify what you are holding onto and why.
13)Choose to release it. This can be ceremoniously or straightforward and simple.The point is to give what you have “up”, or, if you like, take it back. I heard someone say that the way they forgave their father was to go to his grave a say, “I take back all my curses of you. I choose to release you now”.
Each one of us can have a transformative experience which shifts our lives into unimagined fulfillment and joy. It is our current consciousness which is the midwife of the new. The greatest challenge is to birth the un-tethered self.
Elizabeth Wallmann-Filley is an educator, counselor, and healing practitioner, with more than 25 years experience in the fields of Hypnotherapy, Energy Medicine and Psychology, and Life Coaching. She has given presentations and workshops in Europe and international conferences coast to coast. Elizabeth is an active member of the Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology (www.energypsych.org), the Institute of Noetic Sciences (www.noetic.org), and the International Association of Reiki Practitioners (www.iarp.org), as well as The American Counseling Association and The Hypnotherapist Union (Local 492). She is the host and producer of a local TV show: “Conscious Living”, airing at 9:00 PM on Channel 12, Tuesday and Saturday in the Anchorage, Alaska area. For more information, contact (907) 275-3397.
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