On my personal journey, I have had various experiences that gave me a clear picture of what the inner process of becoming one with God looks like.
Similar experiences have often been described by Christian and Buddhist mystics.
Nevertheless, I have not found such a clear description of the entire process anywhere.
What I was allowed to experience is surely only the first round of a spiral path that continues infinitely. I am by no means a holy or particularly good person.
All these experiences were given to me by the grace of God.
I am convinced that God gave me these experiences so that I could pass them on and help introduce a balanced mystical practice.
By “balanced,” I mean a practice that is oriented toward love for others.
Some mystical paths get lost in the pursuit of mystical experiences and forget that there is only one true goal - to grow in love for others.
I once had a dream of a conversation with Sun Myung Moon about this.
The dream was very vivid, colorful, and sharp - like dreams only rarely are. I was lying on the floor next to him and said: “You don’t care much about consciousness development, do you?” He answered: “No, only about true love!” Then he stood up and taught me something about family relationships.
This dream clearly reminded me of the proper focus - that mystical practice is not an end in itself.
It must help us realize true love in our relationships. Mystical practice must therefore be possible within the everyday life of families and in modern society.
The Importance of Stillness in an Overstimulated World
On the other hand, mystical practice is also a remedy for our information-overloaded, virtualized, and media-dominated lifestyle.
At the same time, mystical practice is also a remedy for our information-saturated, virtualized, and media-dominated way of life.
We humans need a counterbalance that brings us back to stillness and reconnects us with ourselves.
First, we must relearn how to endure stillness without constant stimulation - only then can we learn to enjoy it again.
Sometimes people try to inspire young people toward a religious life with lots of entertainment and music events. That’s good in principle.
But I’ve also found that especially young adults are deeply grateful when someone shows them a path into depth - a tangible connection with themselves and a personal relationship with God. That must never be missing.
Phases and Phenomena
In the following, I will present the phases of the inner path in a structured way.
While phases follow a chronological order, phenomena can occur during various phases and cannot be assigned to a specific time.