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Public Library Article

Title: How does the SM process relate to other kinds of spiritual development?
Suzie St George © 2003 Spiritual Metamorphosis

There are many different understandings of what "being spiritual" actually means. This article is written to clarify our particular position on this matter, and to help readers appreciate the form of spiritual development offered by the Spiritual Metamorphosis Process, and its place in a spectrum of other approaches.

There is general acceptance that spiritual activities, and spiritual development in particular, connect a person to higher forms of consciousness and invisible energies. But the more important question - and one not generally considered by those who are drawn to this work - is: what would does one hope to achieve by cultivating spirituality? Here unanimity tends to dissipate.

For some spirituality is close the religious version of godliness - the desire of individuals to be close to the Godhead through cultivating forms of behaviour assumed to be more in alignment with God's desires and godly attributes: being more loving, more just, more compassionate, more tolerant, more courageous, less 'sinful.' The current interest in ethics tends to fall into this category: right behaviour is godly behaviour.

For others, spirituality is the cultivation of a relationship to God through evolving the inner self's perceptions so that there is greater awareness of divine wisdom and love. Such seekers do not desire to behave like God, but to experience the love and light of God. They seek bliss and insights of a higher order.

Third, there is the understanding that the human mind, like that of God, creative. For those individuals who find their spirituality in creative expression, the desire is to express in this world a higher order of consciousness derived from their personal connection to Spirit. These ones speak in the words of the poet Rilke: "What will you do God when I die? When I your pitcher broken lie? I am your garb, the trade you ply...." This form of spirituality is natural to great artists, visionaries, scientific geniuses, and pioneers of new social thought.

New Age philosophies come close to creative spirituality in that they stress that consciousness creates reality: those who seek a more comfortable, more blissful and godly world must create it through positive thought and learn to clear their consciousness of negative thinking. When spirituality and metaphysical knowledge conjoin, we have a version of creative spiritual expression for ordinary people. You and I can create 'heaven on earth' through harnessing the invisible powers of mind, heart and higher self. Healing of personal wounding is a major component of this kind of spiritual upliftment, and the skills of healing are part of one's spiritual tool kit.

All these forms of spirituality - along with a host of others not defined here - are entirely valid and, of course, not mutually exclusive. One tends to blend and evolve into others. However, in general, the form of spiritual development a person will find most rewarding is dependent on the outcomes they desire at a particular stage of their development. In short, one should seek out that education most appropriate to the outcome one senses one most needs at the time.

The Spiritual Metamorphosis Personal Growth Process most directly relates to the third from of spirituality, creative spiritual expression, because it focuses on how a person real-izes their soul's intention in life. This is a complex, multidimensional and dynamic form of spiritual endeavour. It deals with issues such as personal dreams, heart connection, mental focus, physical capacity, and the use of all one's resources to achieve one's idea of earthly heaven. However, unlike 'positive thinking' approaches, it also addresses where limitations will inevitably occur and how to work through these without denying them. Learning to use soul energy in the discomforts and limitations of everyday life is central to this process.

Student of this process need to accept that their grander spirituality encompasses all aspects of their lives equally. Soul energy touches the trivial, the mundane and the uncomfortable as much as the grand, the elevated and the blissful. This Saturnian emphasis on restriction is apparently at odds with the intention to experience spiritual bliss and insight, but in fact the strengthening and purifying process ensures that ' bliss' does not slip away in the abrasiveness of life.

From a healing perspective, the process takes one step further than the spirituality of positive thinking in that it directly addresses why an imbalance in creative consciousness affects the soul's capacity to create 'heaven on earth' even when wounds have been healed.

For this reason, Spiritual Metamorphosis is essentially practical. While it produces many insights, moments of great expansion and deep peace, it is primary promise is the enhancement if one's ability to turn the limitations of earthly existence into balanced self empowerment at every level: physical, mental, emotional and higher self. Through this empowerment your personal heaven on earth is made possible - not perfectly (because imperfection is part of the balance required for learning here) - but sufficiently.