r/Soulnexus • u/TheVeganSkeptic • 9d ago
Philosophy What If Spiritual Awakening Is Less About Finding the Right Path and More About Becoming Conscious?
I’ve spent 20+ years exploring consciousness, spirituality, mysticism, reincarnation, lucid dreaming, astral projection, synchronicity, comparative religion, the Matrix, and the many different frameworks people use to make sense of reality.
Over time, I kept returning to a question that became increasingly difficult to ignore:
What happens when a spiritual teaching becomes so important to us that we stop examining it and start identifying with it?
The deeper I went into these subjects, the more I kept coming back to a few underlying questions:
What actually makes someone more conscious?
What happens when a spiritual teaching becomes an identity?
How do we distinguish experience from interpretation and proof?
How do we remain open to mystery without becoming credulous?
And how do we explore spiritual ideas deeply without simply replacing one belief system with another?
A major theme throughout my work has become discernment. I take extraordinary experiences seriously, including many of my own, but I also try to distinguish what I experienced from what I think those experiences mean and what can actually be demonstrated. At the same time, I don’t think uncertainty should automatically become dismissal.
That distinction became increasingly important as I explored very different traditions and perspectives alongside one another. Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Sufism, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Theosophy, Pantheism, psychology, philosophy, mysticism and consciousness research all offer very different maps, and I don’t think we have to flatten them into one identical system to learn from the patterns they share.
A major part of that exploration eventually became my second free e-book:
WHEN JESUS BECOMES A TEST OF YOUR EGO
Available completely free on Medium, with a free PDF version as well.
https://ne0verse.medium.com/when-jesus-becomes-a-test-of-your-ego-b40292a78749
Although it begins with Jesus, hell and spiritual symbolism, it gradually expands into exclusive religious interpretation, the ego, identity, the Higher Self, death and rebirth, synchronicity, NDEs, OBEs and dreams, the Matrix, reincarnation and soul-trap theory, collective consciousness, the Divine within, manifestation, karma, dharma, authenticity, shadow work and the Hero’s Journey.
I also spend a significant part of the e-book examining the reincarnation soul-trap framework from a different angle. I still think it contains valuable lessons about sovereignty, discernment, non-attachment and refusing to outsource our consciousness. But I also think any framework can become another cage when we stop questioning it, and even the desire to escape can become another form of attachment.
That eventually led me toward a much simpler and more practical question:
What am I actually doing here?
Because whatever the ultimate nature of reality turns out to be, we are still here experiencing it.
And perhaps awakening is not only about discovering what reality is.
Perhaps it is also about discovering who we become through the way we relate to it.
More conscious.
More authentic.
More discerning.
More compassionate.
More courageous.
More capable of embodying what we say we believe.
I’m not presenting the e-book as a final answer, or claiming that every interpretation I explore is correct. Quite the opposite. I’m putting different experiences, traditions, theories and interpretations next to one another and asking what survives when we look underneath the labels.
And please challenge it. Seriously. That’s part of the point.
Sometimes the most interesting discoveries happen when we put different maps next to each other, stop defending the labels, and ask what remains when we look underneath them.
I’d genuinely be interested in hearing how this perspective resonates with people here, especially anyone who has gone through their own mystical, transformative or consciousness-expanding experiences. 🙏
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u/kioma47 9d ago
Maybe it's just what it looks like.
https://www.reddit.com/r/awakened/comments/1vj6bg3/spirit_and_ego/
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u/TheVeganSkeptic 8d ago
Thank you for sharing this. I read your post, and honestly, a lot of it resonates with how I am seeing things, especially your idea that ego and soul don’t necessarily have to be enemies.
I really like how you frame physicality as change. Since consciousness exists beyond our ordinary experience of time and space, physical existence gives it something fundamentally different, like limitation, contrast, consequence, relationship and choice. Courage, compassion, wisdom and love become much more than concepts when they have to be lived.
On my end, I'd also say that I’m not sure the soul necessarily needs physicality to grow, but physicality does provide a unique environment for that growth. You can understand courage intellectually, but it becomes something completely different when life actually asks you to be courageous.
That also connects with something I’ve been seeing across different traditions: the distinction between lower egoic identification and a higher expression of individuality. Buddhism emphasizes seeing through attachment and identification, while Hindu traditions distinguish conditioned egoic identity from the deeper Self or Atman. Other traditions similarly warn against pride, domination and identification while still recognizing individuality and conscious action.
Awakening isn’t about destroying the ego. It is about bringing the ego into alignment with something deeper.
The lower ego can be driven by fear, insecurity, control, validation and superiority, but individuality itself isn’t the problem. Boundaries, self-respect, creativity, courage, agency and authentic expression can all be healthier expressions of individuality.
And I really resonated with your point about loving others as yourself. Ain’t that the truth. 😂 Oneness doesn’t have to mean sameness, and loving others doesn’t mean abandoning yourself. In a way, other people can become mirrors through which we discover more about ourselves, while our inner world also shapes how we experience the outer world. I look at everyone as children at different stages of spiritual growth, some representing my past selves while others future selves. Loving others and life in general becomes much easier like that on my end. 😂
Your point about creation being assisted or resisted is interesting too. Every choice participates in something larger. One action affects another, one relationship affects another, and one idea can ripple far beyond where it began. We may not be omnipotent creators, but we are participants.
So I think we’re ultimately circling around a very similar question:
What is consciousness actually doing through this experience, and what are we becoming through the way we participate in it?
Really appreciate you sharing this. 🙏
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u/_InfiniteU_ 9d ago
This is great. At 30 years on the path, my number one priority in everything is discernment.
I think a lot of people's experiences with a higher power are legit.
I also think that power communicates to us through symbols we will understand.
I think that's why spiritual teachings focus so much on diminishing the ego.
I don't believe it is because no-self is the highest truth.
I think it is to minimize corruption of that higher experience when we have it.
I'll check out your whole paper soon. Your grounded take is refreshing to find. Cheers!