Awakening to the 5th Dimension Episode 3: Dark Night of the Soul

Ever felt like you're spiraling into an abyss of despair and loss of meaning? Has your soul ever been shrouded in darkness, causing emotional turmoil and ego dissolution? Welcome to our enlightening discussion on the Dark Night of the Soul. This transformative episode is an exploration into this potent spiritual and emotional journey. Through my personal experiences, I provide insightful coping strategies that helped me navigate through this profound internal upheaval. We break down five key characteristics - intense despair, loss of meaning, emotional turmoil, ego dissolution, and spiritual crisis, and delve into the importance of this process as an opportunity for ego transcendence and spiritual growth.

Journey with us as we further navigate the Dark Night of the Soul, examining the value of connecting with those close to us, the healing power of self-care, the importance of shadow work, and the freedom that comes with expressing our emotions. This isn't just about surviving, it's about thriving. We'll discuss the transformative power of surrender, mindset shifting, engaging in rituals, and finding meaning in our experiences. We round off with a deep dive into the significance of being open to alternative therapies and holistic approaches such as past lives and energy healing. This episode is a treasure trove of spiritual insights that will assist you on your path of self-discovery and spiritual awakening. Buckle up and tune in for an enlightening adventure!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the Mindset and Manifesting podcast, or welcome back if this is not your first time listening or tuning in. In today's episode we are continuing or I'm continuing this series on Awakening to the Fit the Mention the Journey of Self-Reflection. This is episode 3 and I'm going to be talking about the Dark Knight of the Soul, specifically defining what it is, and then talking about some coping strategies and insights for getting through some of the darkest phases. The Dark Knight of the Soul is a pretty profound and challenging spiritual and emotional experience that plays a pretty significant role in the Awakening process. The term Dark Knight of the Soul has been used by mystics, poets and spiritual seekers to describe this period of time of intense inner turmoil, despair and an existential crisis. Really, it's often associated with de-transformation and personal growth.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Here I'm going to give you an explanation of the Dark Knight of the Soul and its role in the Awakening process. Let's see 5 characteristics. There can be intense despair, loss of meaning, purpose in life, emotional turmoil, ego dissolution and a spiritual disorder. Intense despair is characterized by intense feelings of despair, emptiness and a sense of profound spiritual and emotional emptiness. It can feel like a deep and prolonged depression, but it often goes beyond psychological distress. It's not just like your standard depression. There's a lot that occurs with the Dark Knight of the Soul. There's a lot that comes up where you begin to question everything, question life, the meaning of life. Lots of emotional turmoil, trauma, things like that, maybe things you've tried to suppress. There's just so much that can come up with the Dark Knight of the Soul. The loss of meaning is another characteristic. During this period. We may experience loss of meaning, purpose in life, questioning everything, beliefs, values and significance of your existence. This sense of meaningless can be overwhelming.

Speaker 1: 3:53

I'm trying to think back to my Dark Knight of the Soul. I was dealing with anxiety and depression for 40 plus years. I was used to these patterns. With that feeling, the Dark Knight of the Soul, for me, was way different and more intense than what I had experienced. I was dealing with depression. Growing up, I literally questioned everything. I remember there were moments where I was literally entered into this void state. There was this bird's eye view of life and everything, existence, everything. Again, look at it from that bird's eye view and absolutely nothing made sense. It was as if nothing was real. That can cause some emotional turmoil.

Speaker 1: 5:11

It's common to experience intense emotional turmoil, things like grief, anxiety, a deep sense of isolation. We end up sometimes confronting a lot of times confronting unresolved emotional wounds, and facing our deepest fears On the Awakening Journey. It's really the purpose of the Dark Knight of the Soul for all of this stuff to come up for us to question everything and experience this, to wake up, expand our awareness and then really kind of catapult us into the Awakening process. So, ego dissolution the Dark Knight of the Soul often involves this sense of ego dissolution where your identity and your self-concept that you once held of yourself, these things you thought that you once knew, suddenly disintegrate and things just don't make sense, these things you thought you knew. That can be kind of terrifying. You lose this kind of sense of your identity, who you thought you were, what you thought you were going to be, etc. Who you are to other people. And again it can be, it can be terrifying, but it's, you know, it's, it's crucial in this journey, alright. And then finally, next characteristic kind of again they're like, I would say, five kind of distinct characteristics.

Speaker 1: 7:11

The spiritual crisis so many of us, you know, go through this dark night experience and feel disconnected from you know our spiritual beliefs disconnected from, like, a higher power, and that in turn can end up leading to, like this whole, this reevaluation, right, of one spiritual path you know, say for, say you were atheists or say you were, you know, in the, you were part of the church, any church, it doesn't really matter, right? And because the dark night, this whole really doesn't discriminate, you know, on, you know, religion or anything like that, if you're gonna go through this awakening process and go through this dark night of the soul, you know it doesn't matter what religion you are, and again, you can be it. It can cause this reevaluation of one's you know, beliefs or spiritual path, etc. Again you begin to question everything. Alright, now let's talk about the role of the dark night of the soul in the awakening process. So there's ego transcendence. Okay, the dark night of the soul really is an opportunity for the transcendence of the ego, right? It challenges, it challenges the attachments and identifications you know that one has with self-image, beliefs, external identity, all of that, right? So by facing the disillusion of the ego, okay, it allows us the opportunity. Opportunity to move forward, you know, to a, or move toward, rather, a more authentic and spiritually aligned self.

Speaker 1: 9:33

Do I sound like I'm out of breath. I'm out of breath, I don't know why I'm sitting here and I'm like why am I so out of breath? I've just been sitting here in my office, alright. Spiritual growth. So, again, the dark night of the soul can lead to significant spiritual growth. No matter where you are like in your spiritual beliefs, going through this dark period can really lead to significant growth. No matter which kind of route you take in your like, in your beliefs, in your what, what you decide to study, kind of on this spiritual path, going through this process, you experience growth and awakening, right.

Speaker 1: 10:36

So some individuals may be led down a path of learning about like shamanism, right? Or let's see, like I don't want to say Hinduism, oh, I should know this, but this is not an avenue that I've really gotten really into. But, oh, I can't even think of it. Is it Hinduism? No, that's considered a religion, right? Oh, my goodness, okay. So yoga, shakti, kundalini, energy, that that's group of like study. I am so sorry, so sorry that I am butchering this but again, that is not a path. That is my, that, where I have been led down, but I don't do yoga. I, my Kundalini has been awakened within me. I'm very familiar with that, the chakras and things like that. But as far as some of the, you know what, I'm gonna look it up since I'm at my computer. All right, hindu, yeah, hindu philosophy at theology, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:32

So, so, no matter what path you go down, right, hindu philosophy, shamanism, the some of the more esoteric things, like you know, our multi-dimensional or interdimensional beings, right, like our guys and aliens, things like that, right, there's so much, so much knowledge out there, so much to take in. So there are many different paths that you can go down on knowledge, that you can acquire experiences that you can look into, etc. When you experience the spiritual growth and begin to awaken and then expand your consciousness. Alright, so, this spiritual growth and awakening and thank you so much, by the way, for just kind of allowing me to kind of stumble sometimes, right, and be completely authentic when I'm sharing information I make notes sometimes, but, you know, sometimes I think about things along the way that I haven't made notes on and I just kind of get through it. So, anyway, this spiritual growth and awakening often precedes moments of really profound insight and clarity. Okay, you know, we can emerge from the experience with a deeper sense of connection right to our true selves, like our higher self and this higher transcended reality.

Speaker 1: 14:30

Alright, then there's the purification and the healing that occurs Now. This intense or the intense like emotional turmoil and suffering during the dark night of the soul can lead to like this purification and healing. Now I talked about in the last episode about doing the shadow work right. So doing this shadow work right in conjunction with the dark night of the soul, you may get all of the like, the purification and healing, or the bulk of it, done in one dark night of the soul. You may go through more than one dark night of the soul. But I said in the last episode, if you go through it more than once, it gets it's less and less, it's less and less intense the more often you go through it. Right, I don't think I've ever heard of anybody going through it. You know like a dozen times. You know maybe a couple times, two or three times. I think I went through two, if I remember correctly. I think I mentioned the last episode. I think I've gone through two. The second one was less intense.

Speaker 1: 15:58

Alright, so purification and healing. So it really forces us to confront unresolved issues, traumas and suppressed emotions and through this process of healing, or through this process, healing and integration can occur. Alright, and then we have we're often experienced a shift in values. So this dark night of the soul often prompts the reevaluation of our values and our priorities. Right, as we face our own darkness, we may start to place greater importance on things like love and compassion and inner peace rather than material success and external validation.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Alright, and then what often occurs is we gain greater empathy and compassion, right, because this experience of suffering, you know, through this dark night of the soul, can cultivate empathy and compassion for others. Right, we're going through so much and so much as being dredged up and really this process of awakening is really bringing us back to source and unconditional love and non-judgment, right, and when you learn to look at everything as being connected, you get to a place where you don't judge anything. Right, and of course, that leads to unconditional love. Alright. So you know we greater empathy and compassion, you know. And then you know, as we confront that pain and that vulnerability, our own pain of vulnerability, you know it can help us to become more understanding and compassionate towards the suffering of others. Alright, then we've got transcendence and dualistic thinking, okay. So the dark night of the soul challenges dualistic thinking, right, and the judgment of good and bad. It really invites us to embrace the paradoxes of existence and then see beyond you know the polarities and gain a deeper connection, right, a deeper connection to the universal or the divine. And you know it often leads to a greater sense of unity, consciousness and the realization of suffering. It's just part of the human condition, alright. So obviously the dark night of the soul is not comfortable, it's not a pleasant experience, but again, it's necessary, right. Just consider it a necessary stage in the awakening process. Again, it's profound and it's transformative, right, and ultimately leads to higher states of consciousness, self-realization and a more meaningful, authentic life. So, although it could be a challenging period, right, you know most individuals emerge from the really challenging period to find a profound sense of inner peace, purpose and spiritual awakening.

Speaker 1: 20:11

Now let's talk about some coping strategies and insights for getting through some of the darkest phases of this period. Alright, self-compassion is one. So just practice self-compassion. Treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding that you would offer to a friend, you know, going through a difficult time. You can seek support, reach out to a therapist, a counselor or even a trusted friend or family member. You know, talking to someone who can offer guidance and a listening ear can be immensely helpful.

Speaker 1: 20:56

I will say, though, sometimes on this journey, finding someone to talk to right, sometimes talking to those close to us can be a little bit challenging, because this journey is not easily understood. You know, often this awakening process is darken up the soul, you know by individuals who aren't going through it themselves. Right, they may not be able to understand how to really help you, but still, right, if you feel like reaching out to a friend or family member, by all means do that. Just find somebody to talk to. If you can, alright then, and accept the experience. Right, just accept that this dark night of the soul is just part of the journey and it's a process of transformation and it's not going to last forever.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Mindfulness and meditation help, or mindfulness. Mindfulness and meditation can help to stay grounded in the present moment, right, it can also help you navigate some of the difficult emotions without being overwhelmed by that. And then self care Alright, so self care is really important, okay, so prioritize that. Engage in activities that nourish your body and soul, things like exercise, a healthy diet, adequate sleep, you know, staying hydrated, things like that, things that really again help you to take care of yourself. That's really really important. You know, going through this process, you can also find creative outlets Things like writing, art, music, et cetera to express your feelings and experiences. Right, because creative expression can provide an emotional release. You know, some of this stuff we talked about in the last episode, right, doing the shadow work Because again, doing the shadow work really is, and the dark map, the soul, just kind of go hand in hand, alright.

Speaker 1: 23:39

And then accepting your emotions right, allow yourself to fully experience your emotions without judgment. So it's okay to feel things like anger and sadness or confusion. Alright, just be patient. Be patient with yourself, because healing and transformation take time. Right, trust the process, have faith that you'll emerge from the darkness that you're experiencing stronger and wiser. It is part of the journey, right. Some of us some of you have carried so much have experienced things like trauma, maybe abuse. Right, these certain conditionings in life that we take on that have to be shed, they have to be let go. Right, have to learn to observe them. Let them go and just integrate these aspects of our soul that really sort of kind of fragment out when we experience things like trauma. Alright.

Speaker 1: 24:59

Connecting with nature is also something that could really work for you, right, spend time in nature. Grounding is so important. I mean, we are electromagnetic beings, so grounding into the earth is really powerful. And nature, spending time in nature can have a really calming effect, a calming and grounding effect. It can provide solace, right, and a sense of interconnectedness. And then, let's see, got a few more. So, surrendering and letting go, so just surrender to the process, let go of the need for control, resistance. It can actually intensify the suffering. So allowing the experience to unfold is really essential, alright. And then shift your mindset from seeing the darkness as some sort of curse or something is wrong with you right, to viewing it as an opportunity for growth and transformation. And accept the uncertainty, right, embrace the uncertainty of the journey. It's okay to not have all the answers, to know how long the dark phase will last.

Speaker 1: 26:28

A few other things we could do Richels and ceremonies right. Engaging rituals or ceremonies, the whole personal significance, right. These can provide a sense of meaning and connection to a higher purpose. You know, perhaps you're somebody that might, you know, find crystals fascinating. Or, you know, maybe like sound baths, right. Or developing a ceremony or ritual where you are immersing yourself in, you know, periods of maybe listening to really beautiful sound bowls or angelic, you know music, or even again going back to things like shamanism, right, shamanic journey right. Or even something as simple as you know and this ties into self-care, right. But taking you know taking baths right, things like epsom salt baths and maybe throwing in some essential oil or something, right. What's just something that holds personal significance for you. And then when you can get into that space, like, for instance, in a bath, right, and you're just relaxing and kind of opening yourself up to this connection right To a higher purpose, you can do that in the bath, right. Maybe your ritual is going out into nature and spending time in nature and meditating and grounding Any type of ritual or ceremony that holds significance for you and that really helps you to kind of tap into that higher connection and purpose and then find meaning right.

Speaker 1: 28:41

So seek meaning in your experience, sometimes a dark face. This can lead to profound insights and personal growth. Stay open to support, be open to alternative. Or you know holistic therapies, things like energy healing, acupuncture, holistic nutrition right. There's a lot of different approaches.

Speaker 1: 29:06

Even at the beginning of my awakening back in 2019, I wasn't at a place then where I was really kind of into really believing in things like past lives, or like the idea of having guides, right, or energy, really about being sensitive to energy or the fact that everything is energy right, I mean, I had heard about different types of concepts like that, but they didn't really resonate with me. I didn't believe in certain things at that time and now I'm pretty much open to everything, like there's nothing that surprises me anymore about the types of information and support that is out there to help us on our journey. Because, again, we really created all of this. Prior to incarnating, right, we decided, okay, I'm incarnating on this beautiful planet, this school, this playground, so I can go through these experiences and I can learn from them. Right, to experience expansion, right. So there's so much out there that, if you're open to it, what happens on this journey is that the things that are for you to assist you on your journey, you will find them where they will naturally show up in your life.

Speaker 1: 31:04

Ah, let's see Mind-body practices. Oh, couple more notes and that's the end of my notes. Alright, mind, body practices so you can explore things like yoga or Tai Chi, you know, or somatic therapy I talked about these things in the last episode To connect with the mind, like. So you develop this mind body connection and then that can help to release stored emotional tension. So, again, for me, what really helped me was regular massage, like I was getting massages. I started out weekly for probably a good year and then, you know, I went to like every other week and as soon as I. There are a couple things that need to shift in my life right now because the well, if you guys watch my YouTube channel, you know that I had a full-time position that ended in June, right, and that was that was a pretty decent sized financial hit for me. So as soon as I can recoup some of that, then the first thing I'll be doing is regular massage therapy.

Speaker 1: 32:41

Again, it is so important and for me, adding in sacral therapy and then I would do lymphatic massage as well, those things really helped me tremendously and even with some of the stored trauma that I had from the abuse that I experienced, like sexual abuse growing up, the, the sacral therapy was really helpful for me in that regard and really releasing all of that I had. Again, I had already done so much of the work because I had done my shot of work, I'd gone through the dark night of the soul. But then the massage, or when I found sacral therapy a couple of years ago, that was without going into too much detail it really helped to kind of release a lot of trauma and from my body I would all of the trauma right between the massage and the sacral therapy, the trauma from my body, and really kind of opened me up to a lot of things that that I wasn't able to experience because of that, that trauma that was being stored.

Speaker 1: 34:11

Alright, last thing is to stay flexible. So be flexible with your spiritual beliefs, right, because, again, this is a time of exploration and questioning, so it's okay to adapt your beliefs to match your evolving understanding, right, I mean, I'm evolving all the time in my understanding of different things. Some things will resonate at specific points on, you know, on your journey, right. So, yeah, just stay flexible if you can. I would highly recommend that.

Speaker 1: 34:47

Alright, so it's important to remember that the dark night of the soul, again, it's a profound and transformative journey, right. Again, it can lead to a deeper understanding of yourself and the universe as a whole, right. So, again, while the experience is challenging, right? You know many of us find that, again, it ultimately leads to a greater sense of purpose, right? Self-realization and spiritual growth. So if you find yourself struggling to cope, again, consider seeking professional help or support right from spiritual or psychological guides or healers, you know, and especially if you can find somebody experienced in navigating these experiences, that could be very, very, very helpful. Alright, so that is it for this episode. Thank you so much for joining me today and let's see next week. Our subject is going to be the illusion of separation, so I will see you guys in next week's episode. Alright, you guys have a great day, evening, afternoon, wherever you are in the world. I'll see you next time by now.