Wouldn’t it be great if you could determine how far you’ve progressed along the path of spiritual evolvement? While it may be difficult to pinpoint this exactly, the Openhand Foundation presents one take on this question in their documentary film, Five Gateways, produced by Brendan Shoebridge. The foundation is a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom which assists people with moving along their spiritual paths.
The main narrator of the video, Chris Bourne, had a spiritual awakening about a decade ago, after experiencing a car crash which could have been fatal. He describes the experience as feeling as if love was pouring down on him. Since then, he’s been dedicated to helping others discover their inner senses of spirituality. Along with his wife, Trinity, who is also featured within the film, he leads the Openhand Foundation in its activities (which include spiritually focused courses, life coaching and retreats).
Chris outlines five stages of spiritual development, which are, in order: Awakening, Realignment, Transfiguration, Enlightenment, and Resurrection. As we pass through each stage, he says that we become more and more out of touch with our egos and the drama of the modern world, and more in touch with our souls and the natural world.
Anyone can become enlightened in this way—you don’t have to be of a particular religion or live outside of the modern world to begin the process. Throughout the film, Bourne describes his own experiences passing through the five stages; Trinity and Lesley Lord (another colleague) share their experiences as well. Bourne also offers tips on how to catalyze our process at each stage to pass from its exit gate into the next one.
The only downside to having passed through all the stages, or even some of them, is that it can become difficult—though by no means impossible—to live with others, considering the current state of contemporary society. The Bournes both left other partners, and the narrator left another successful career to focus on spirituality. Lord also made the choice to live alone in the country while progressing on her path, since she found interacting with people not pursuing the same ideals quite arduous. Being out of step with social norms can be either a positive or negative thing, depending on how you look at it. However, Bourne says that the current ways of the world are getting stale, and a stir of discontent has started to plant the seeds for a worldwide spiritual awakening. Of course, it remains to be seen whether he’s correct, but it’s an exciting possibility.
To make an educated guess about where you fall on the path of spiritual evolution, watch 5 Gateways here:
[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]by Erica Roberts
image: kevin dooley (Creative Commons BY)
