We are so limited by language. What we call the unconscious is really full of consciousness. What the unconscious is lacking is our awareness. Awareness and consciousness are two entirely different things. Awareness comes from our energetic body. Consciousness comes from our Dreamer or Soul.

Part of a spiritual path is expanding your awareness deeper and deeper into the unconscious so as to unlock its secrets and its power. Deep in the core of your unconscious lays the diamond of our Essential Self. The Essential Self contains the purpose of this lifetime. It takes much diligent work with self, often many years, however when you connect to your Essential Self and unlock your purpose for this lifetime, you make a significant leap in your spirituality. I often tell my students that it is at this point that you truly begin a spiritual path.

What stops you from unlocking the unconscious? Between your awareness and the unconscious lays the subconscious. Unlike the unconscious, the subconscious is a negative force. The subconscious contains all of your repressed and suppressed pain, emotions and negative experience. The subconscious effectively blocks you from the unconscious.

The subconscious begins to form at a very early age. When one is unable to handle an experience, for example if a 2 year old is sexually molested, a chemical reaction occurs in the brain in an attempt to block the experience out. This mechanism is called repression. The experience is repressed - forced out of our awareness. It is pushed deep into your psyche. As the repressed experience has no place it can go, it begins to accumulate below our awareness. As negative repressed experiences accumulate the subconscious is born.

The subconscious also expands later on in life when you have experiences you could handle, however because they are painful you choose to hide them from your awareness. This is called suppression. You suppress experiences you don't like and push them into your subconscious. Each time you do this the subconscious grows, making you more disconnected from your unconscious. Repression is a natural mechanism of the brain when it cannot handle an experience. This often happens at a young age. On the other hand, suppression occurs when we choose to avoid, deny or push away and experience so as to hide it from our awareness.

To advance spiritually, you must begin to move your awareness into your subconscious. As you do so, you release the energy behind the painful emotions and experiences you have repressed and suppressed. This is called the healing process. It can be painful. However, it is always good to remember that no matter how painful the healing process is, the pain cannot hurt you.

As you release the energy of repressed and suppressed emotions and experiences, the subconscious shrinks and you unleash the power of the unconscious. Your Essential Self begins to shine through into your life. This is when the potential for co-creating your reality begins. You begin to co-create your life along with your Essential Self.

It is possible, although never fully, to move into your unconscious without dealing with your subconscious. It can be done through meditation and certain esoteric processes. What you do is to tunnel holes through the subconscious into your unconscious. However, even when you connect with the unconscious and aspects of your Higher Self, it will always be polluted by your subconscious. Many fall into this trap. They try to get to their unconscious without dealing with the subconscious. They often get lost in fantasy and become ineffectual in life.

By avoiding the subconscious many people become infected with the spiritual disease I call Spiritual Split. They love to run off into energy, but their daily life is a mess. They try to go higher and higher in their meditations, but their life vibrates lower and lower. They have failed relationships, difficulties with job and career and lack in their life. Their psyche becomes split between their spiritual and daily life.

Part of spiritual evolution is personal empowerment and dominion. You must be able to bring your spirituality down to your daily life. You must be able to handle life, relationships, career, security, and so on. Spirituality is meant to empower these things. But many attempt to use spirituality to escape from life. To be effectual in life you must go through the healing process.

Another difficulty in clearing out the subconscious that is prevalent today is the use of psychotropic drugs. In the past 20 years new drugs have been developed that help people cope with their subconscious without the feeling drugged side affects of previous drugs used for depression and anxiety. The help in dealing with life these new drugs have given some people has been close to miraculous.

However, in a spiritual context these drugs make it difficult to clear out the subconscious. To clear out the subconscious you must be able to intimately feel what is suppressed so that you can process it through and clear it. Psychotropic drugs are intentionally created so that one does not feel so intimately, what is in the subconscious. When one comes off the drug, they often find that their demons are still alive and well in the subconscious. The drug is a chemical form of suppression. It does not heal the subconscious.

During my apprenticeship with Unseen Friends (non-physical beings), they would often say to me, "The biggest blocks to spirituality are avoidance, and denial." Spirit cannot help you when you are in avoidance or denial. You are given free will. If you use your will to avoid and deny something, whether it is too painful or because you do not like what you see, you make it impossible to receive help. Spirit will not cross your line of will.

Do what you can do accelerate your healing process. Leave no rock unturned in your subconscious. This is the part of spirituality that is no fun. However, if you stick it out and do what you need to do to heal, not only will you realize many reward in your life, you will be able to excel in ways you would have never believed possible. Spiritual enlightenment is so much more than you could ever imagine. Bring the subconscious into the light. It is well worth it.

Kristopher Raphael is Co-Founder of The Toltec Mystery School. First brought out of secrecy and into awareness by Carlos Castaneda through stories of his interactions with the nagual don Juan Matus, powerful Toltec teachings are now accessible to sincere seekers of personal transformation and evolution.

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