October 27, 2019
What is Transformation
Transformation happens in all kinds of ways: suddenly; suddenly after a long period of preparation; slowly and steadily; over time with many twists and turns; out-of-the-blue followed by a period of consolidation. There can be many small transformations that add up, or it can happen in a single event that comes on like an explosion. A transformation can confirm what one believes or it can lead to a radical change in beliefs. Transformations happen to the young, the middle-aged, the elderly—and sometimes during the dying process. They happen to those of every religious persuasion and to those without religious belief.
Given this wide range of situations and conditions, what is the common core of transformation? For me, the essential element is a shift in perspective that leads to a significant expansion in how one understands oneself and the world. Although transformations might include challenges in the future, they bring with them greater clarity about who one is and what life is about. Transformation is a life-change that involves some combination of increased wisdom, greater compassion, inward peace, an enhanced ability to love, an expanded commitment to truth, a greater concern for justice, and/or a more frequent experience of joy or bliss. On the other hand, transformation is not primarily about getting physically healthier, a career advancement, financial success, or an emotional or psychological improvement. All these things might be good, but usually occur at a different level than transformation. And a significant life change that results in increased selfishness, self-centeredness, greed, cruelty, or unconsciousness is not transformation.
If it is beginning to sound as if transformation is rare, let me rush to say that millions upon millions of human beings have had transformative experiences, going back as far we can into the mists of history. They have happened to people like you and me while praying, meditating, listening to music, or immersed in nature; they have been triggered by the extreme conditions of war, near-death experiences, severe crises, or the use of psychoactive drugs; they have happened to those participating in extreme sports and risky adventures; they have happened to people at the moment of hitting rock bottom or to those caught up in exhilaration. Just having a dramatic moment is not enough, however, (no matter how powerful) to be a transformative experience. After such moments, there must be a consolidation of what has been learned that leads to a change in one’s life and actions. There must be consequences in one’s life for it to be a true transformation.
The actual experience
There are countless examples of transformations in human history, and some of them have changed the course of history. Some of the most famous examples led to the founding of the world’s religions: an unknown carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, was baptized, went to the desert, and emerged to change the world; Siddhartha Gautama sat down under the Bodhi tree and emerged the Awakened One, the Buddha, and provided a path to transformation for billions; Saul of Tarsus was struck by a vision as he was persecuting Christians and became the driving force in Christianity’s worldwide spread; Mohammed, an uneducated organizer of trading caravans was praying in a cave when he heard a voice, and upon responding became a different man and the founder of the world’s second largest religion; Moses had two dramatic transformative experiences, the first of which led to the escape of the Israelites from Egypt and the second to the formulation of the core principles of the Jewish religion. We don’t have a clear idea about a single founder of Hinduism, but the tradition is built around methods of transformation and millions upon millions of Hindus through the centuries have permanently left home and family and set out as sannyasins in an attempt to radically transform themselves. And although Confucius did not seem to have a single dramatic moment of transformation, the heart of his teaching, which has affected billions of people, was that each of us should make major efforts throughout our lives to transform ourselves into persons who manifest the virtue of jen—humaneness, kindness, goodness, and compassion.
But do not let all these ancient examples lead you to think that important transformations occurred only in the past. On the contrary, they have been dramatically important throughout history. In just the 20th Century alone we have the reports of many people who had a powerful impact on the world who had sudden transformations such as Mahatmas Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Ramana Maharshi, Bill W (the founder of AA), Dorothy Day, Eckhart Tolle, and Byron Katie. We also have many reports of more gradual but no less dramatic transformations of world-influencing figures such as Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Father Thomas Keating, George Gurdjieff, Carl Jung, the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Ram Dass, C. S. Lewis, Pema Chodron, and Martin Luther King, Jr. These are only a few of the many examples that could be given, but enough to demonstrate the impact on our world today. These examples also highlight the fact that after a significant transformation, other people are often drawn to those who have experienced them. People gather around them, listen to them, and seek their guidance. The presence of a transformed person is infectious, and others are often transformed themselves by being around them and listening to their words.
Transformation in you and me
I could list many more famous examples—great saints and sages, philosophers, scientists, artists, and extraordinary athletes—who have reported transformative experiences. But so have many “normal” people, people like you and me. Here are a few examples of ordinary people who had a sudden, dramatic, unexpected moment that set in motion major life changes.
While on vacation in Cypress, Muz Murray was looking at the sea and suddenly, without warning, everything changed. He reports that in an instant, the world was new:
One evening in Cyprus I was looking at the sea in the afterglow of sunset, having just finished a meal in an old Greek eatery on the shore. I was feeling very tranquil and relaxed. I began to feel a strange pressure in my brain.
I felt a thrilling liquidity of being and an indescribable sensation—as if the whole universe was being poured into me, or rather, as if the whole universe was welling out of me from some deep centre. My “soul” thrilled and swelled and kept expanding until I found myself among and within the stars and planets. I understood that I was the whole universe!
Wave upon wave of extraordinary revelation swept through me, too fast for my conscious mind to record, other than the joy and wonder of it.
Every cell in my expanded body … seemed to record and intuit everything that occurred, registering it like the film in a camera. I was shown that every cell had its own consciousness which joined with mine. The whole of humanity was the same: each individual believing in his or her separate mind, but in reality still subject to a single controlling consciousness, that of Absolute Consciousness Itself.
The awe and wonder of the things experienced were beyond my imagination. It could not have lasted more than a few minutes, but it was enough to change my whole life. All the following week I walked about in great happiness.
C. G. Price, a farmer in England who was in financial difficulty, was focused on nothing in particular except spreading straw for his livestock, when, suddenly:
I seemed to be enveloped in a cocoon of golden light that actually felt warm, and which radiated a feeling of Love so intense that it was almost tangible. One felt that one could grasp handfuls of it and fill one’s pockets. In this warm cocoon of golden light I sensed a presence which I could not actually see, but knew was there. My mind became crystal clear, and in an instant of time I suddenly knew, without any doubts, that I was part of a “Whole.” Not an isolated part, but an integral part. I felt a sense of “One-ment.” I knew that I belonged and that nothing could change that. The loss of my farm and livelihood didn’t matter any more. I was an important part of the “Wholeness” of things, and transient ambitions were secondary.
These examples suggest the emergence of a different kind of consciousness during transformative experiences. The great British writer who explored this topic in depth, Evelyn Underhill, said that what happens is that the “hard separateness” of “I, Me, Mine” dissolves (the ego identity that is responsible for the separation we usually feel from the larger reality). In other words, during a transformative experience the individual ego identity lessens or disappears and there is an experience that other people and things are not as separate as they seem while in ordinary consciousness. At the highest reaches of this experience, there is a sense of unity—a sense of oneness with humanity, with all that is, with Being Itself.
One of my favorite expressions of this kind of experience is that of astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who was trained as an engineer and scientist and was a member of the Apollo 14 mission. Mitchell was traveling back to earth, having just walked on the moon, when he had an experience that was an “ecstasy of unity” which nothing in his previous life had prepared him for. After this experience he came to see his trip in space as a “sacred journey,” saying: “Suddenly there was a nonrational way of understanding that had been beyond my previous experience.” Mitchell, in his own words:
As we left lunar orbit to head home, my work was done. So I had three days to relax and enjoy the view. The spacecraft was rotating every couple of minutes to avoid overheating in the intense sunlight. I could see ten times as many stars as you can see from earth, so the view was spectacular. With the rotation, I would see the earth, moon, and sun pass by the window every few minutes. The immensity and serenity of the universe struck me in an entirely new way, out there, suspended between the great blue jewel of earth and the dusky moon we were leaving behind. The setting was perfect. I suddenly sensed the profound consciousness of the universe—how it is completely interconnected and aware—an absolutely indescribable awareness. My life was changed forever.
One more example: Jayne Smith’s transformative experience occurred during the birth of her second child. There was a serious problem during labor and Jayne’s vital signs stopped. She reported afterward that: “All at once … I was standing in a mist, and I knew immediately that I had died.” She continues:
I started pouring out these enormous feelings of gratitude. … My consciousness was filled with nothing but feelings of gratitude because I still existed and yet I knew perfectly well that I had died.
While I was pouring out these feelings … the mist was being infiltrated with enormous light and the light just got brighter and brighter and brighter—it didn’t hurt my eyes, but it’s brighter than anything you’ve ever encountered in your whole life.
At that point, I had no consciousness anymore of having a body. It was just pure consciousness. And this enormously bright light seemed to cradle me. I just seemed to exist in it, and be part of it, and be nurtured by it, and the feeling became more and more and more ecstatic, and glorious, and perfect. And everything about it was—if you took the one thousand best things that ever happened to you in your life, and multiplied by a million, maybe you could get close to this feeling, I don’t know.
But you’re just engulfed by it and you begin to know a lot of things. I remember I knew that everything, everywhere in the universe was OK. … Somehow it was all a part of the perfection.
And the whole time I was in this state, it seemed infinite. It was timeless. I was just an infinite being in perfection. And love and safety and security and knowing that nothing could happen to you. That you’re safe forever. And that everybody else is to.
It is important to emphasize again that the above experiences did not constitute transformations, but were sudden, dramatic experiences that opened the door for each of these people to glimpse a much broader perspective. But such a glimpse is not enough. After these moments, much work is required to consolidate what has been seen before a real transformation is accomplished. Such experiences are very important, though, if we will allow them to open our minds and hearts to the possibility of transformation, and then do the work necessary to live into its fullness.
Reflection: Feel your way into what it would be like to experience what these people experienced. Now think of moments in your life that might help you get a sense of what they describe. Your moments might have been less dramatic, but most of us have had times when our experience opened out into to a broader perspective. Think of those times in your life, and follow the path they and the above examples suggest toward the possibility of a transformation in yourself.
Have a good week,
David