What Awaits Us Beyond Christian Deconstruction?
A Sad Man in Paradise
In August of3 I was on a long-anticipated trip with my wife and some of our dearest friends when I received disappointing news. In hindsight it wasn’t anything terrible, but it sure hurt my ego.
For the first hour or so I was angry about the news. Then I realized I was actually just really sad. I find sitting in sadness is generally a bit easier than sitting in anger; so that was a positive. When I’m angry1 I definitely feel the need to “do something now.”
But sitting in sadness isn’t a blast either. Especially when you’re supposed to be having fun.
So I was on this incredible trip in the middle of paradise with a handful of my favorite people in the world and I was pretty bummed. I knew that at some point I’d need to do something, have some sort of response, even if it was internal rather than external, but for the moment I just felt stuck in my sadness.
My insides felt sad.
But I remembered a go-to phrase that I’d picked up a few years before: a bad day for the ego is a good day for the soul. And so I said to my wife: I just want to have a high-consciousness response.
What is a high-consciousness response?
I wasn’t sure.
But I knew it probably wasn’t one of my go-to responses for situations like these:
Dumping all of my sadness (and probably still a bit of anger) on the individual I felt was responsible for making the decision that led to my feeling this way.
Disparaging the “other” who was involved in the situation.
Complaining incessantly to anyone and everyone who’d listen.
Instead I just said to my wife, and to the Universe, a few times each day “I just want to have a high-consciousness response,” while otherwise enjoying the beautiful environment and the wonderful people I was with.
The trip was still a peak experience, and it provided a sort of cushion to insulate and allow me to just be still and sit with these deep emotions.
But upon returning home and facing reentry to daily life I still felt pretty down.
And so I went to my library and scanned the shelves. My eyes landed on a book I’d purchased eight months earlier on the recommendation of Scott Britton called Higher-Consciousness Healing by Tara Springett.
I began reading the book that night and found some immediate comfort.
Within a few days I was so pleased with Tara’s work that I ordered all of her books, but there was one particular title that stood out…
Mediocre Title, Life-changing Material
The Stairway to Heaven: Nine Steps of Consciousness from Unawareness to Full Enlightenment.
I recall the first night I began reading the book. I could feel almost immediately that my life was about to open to entirely new realms, but I had no idea the power and insight that would be revealed in the coming months.
I’d been searching for a resource like this for over five years.
What is Consciousness?
In 2018 I had first learned about consciousness as defined as a scale or framework of human spiritual development. The word “consciousness” had been pretty nebulous to me up until that point, with varying meanings depending on context. I understood the basic definition of the word to mean “awake.”
But awake from what?
And I intuitively understood that greater consciousness meant greater love, and that this was somehow the key to meaning. The key to understanding what our lives are about.
There were various scales of consciousness I’d encountered previously such as Spiral Dynamics and the Integral work by Ken Wilber, but I’d always found those frameworks to be a bit too academic. I could never quite access them in a way to determine exactly where I was or what I should be doing in my day-to-day life to move to the next level.
Tara’s book was immediately different.
She begins by defining the nine stages of consciousness. Then she helps the reader identify where they are along the spectrum of stages, explaining that we may have some variance and movement between stages depending on context.2
From there Tara helps us see what actions and behaviors will lead us through the stages as we progress to our highest self possible. She also gives examples of what each level of consciousness looks like in others, in the world, in religious and spiritual systems, in relationships, at work, and even with kids and parenting.
Tara is a Buddhist but she approaches the topic in a style that is inclusive of all belief-systems, even if you’re in the “I don’t know” camp.
So what are the levels?
The nine stages of consciousness are ordered like a stairway with two flights of steps and one interconnecting step in the middle. It is possible to recognise these nine stages in every person, in every culture throughout history, in every organisation and even in every moment of one’s inner experience. Here is a first short overview of the stairway of consciousness:
Step 0 – Innocence: Passivity; little motivation; lack of awareness; sense of relative harmony; pleasure and trust; the individual says, ‘I belong to my group’.
Step 1 – Dominance: Wish to dominate others if necessary in a ruthless way; anger; greed; the individual says, ‘I want it and I want it now!’
Step 2 – Obedience: Submission and adherence to moral and social rules for the greater good of all; hierarchical structures in groups of people; self-denial and judging of others; the individual says, ‘I do what is expected of me.’
Step 3 – Ambition: Rational world-view; creating a successful self-image; materialism; competitiveness; the individual says, ‘I want to achieve more than anyone else.’
Step 4 – Sharing: Search for compassionate relationships; exploration of one’s emotions; egalitarianism; living in harmony with nature; the individual says, ‘I am close to others and to nature.’
Step 5 – Responsibility: Taking full responsibility for every single problem in one’s life; keen interest in personal development and following one’s vocation, the individual says, ‘I realise my dreams for the best of humankind.’
Step 6 – Love: Making altruistic love and spiritual development the most important aims in life; the individual says, ‘I send love to heal the world.’
Step 7 – Bliss: Realisation that one’s true nature is blissful loving space; development of supernatural powers; withdrawal into spiritual retreats; the individual says, ‘My true nature is spiritual bliss.’
Step 8 – Enlightenment: Infinite love, bliss and wisdom; seeing oneself as divine and the world as a paradise; the individual says, ‘I am love’.
We all must go through each of these steps, in this exact order, and there’s no skipping a step, no exceptions.
All of us (unless you’re a self-realized being) start at zero. Most of us enter the dominance stage around ages 2-3 ,and then enter the obedience stage around age 4. (Some people never leave the dominance stage and many of these folks end up in prison or politics.)
How Does This Relate to Christian Deconstruction?
What soon became apparent to me is that many people working their way through deconstruction are doing so because they’re moving beyond the obedience stage, which is where most churches are at today.
And once we outgrow a stage we can no longer stomach the institutions of that previous stage. We must move on. We must seek out other individuals and organizations that fit our new, higher level of consciousness.
In a future post we’ll explore what a higher consciousness faith or church might look like, but for today I have one take-away for you regarding that topic:
No matter how lost or disconnected you may feel in your deconstruction journey…YOU ARE EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE.
Moving beyond the simple obedience-level Christianity was an important step in your spiritual development. And from the perspective of growing into higher levels of consciousness, even if you find yourself identifying as an agnostic or an atheist, that’s OK.
Wherever you are, that’s OK. Every stage is needed. Every stage is neccesary.
Sort of like the awkward, difficult teenage years between childhood and adulthood, it’s all a necessary part of developing into who you will one day become, whether that’s in this life or beyond.3
The important thing to realize and accept is that we’re each moving towards something greater, and that we must be open to that greater thing that awaits us.
I see a lot of people get stuck in Deconstruction. I’ve actually watched them argue to hold onto the pain and suffering born out of their experiences with low-consciousness Christianity.
And that’s fine too.
But all I’d say in response is you have important work to do at the higher levels. We need you. Look around. All of humanity needs you.
And while I’ll have much more to write on this topic in the coming months, I’ll begin to wrap-up by telling you this: what I’ve discovered as I’ve explored the higher stages of consciousness has blown my mind. There are powers and abilities in this world that will shock you. In fact, they will be too much for some of you to believe, at least at first.
And so to circle back to the title of this post: What awaits us on the other side of Christian deconstruction?
A LOVE and a DIVINE PRESENCE that is beyond our wildest imaginations.
A Bad Month for the Ego = A Good Year For the Soul
In the months that followed my late-summer disappointment I was led along a path that has answered most, if not all, of the questions I’ve been chasing after my entire adult life; about the Divine, about the meaning of this life, and about how we should live.
Now I have a whole new set of questions.
And as I reflect back on my one request of “I just want to have a high-consciousness response…” I’m in awe of the response that I myself received.
Tara’s book changed my life. You can order your copy here. We’ll go deeper on many facets of this topic in the coming months. I hope you’ll join us and please invite any friends or family members who share these interests.
Reorder: Higher-Consciousness Christianity currently has a small audience of only a few hundred readers. If you feel this topic is helpful or important please join our mailing list as we explore these important insights.
What questions do you have about this topic? Let me know in the comment section so I can reply…and so we can cover them in future posts!
Hope you have an awesome week ahead!!❤️
I’ve received two helpful reframes on understanding and dealing with anger: 1) Anger is the body’s way of giving you energy to take action. And 2) Unfortunately no one I know, especially me, does their best work while angry.
For instance we might operate at a higher level of consciousness when surrounded by our loved ones in a peaceful environment than when dealing with a frustrating situation on a Monday morning. And that’s ok, as long as we can begin to be aware of it.
We’ll soon dive deep into what happens on the other side of death based upon many amazing reports of those who’ve experienced it.
Great read and love seeing Tara in here! She’s a hidden gem for sure
Welcome back!