Spiritual growth is not a religious concept but rather the process of becoming aware of your inner consciousness or being, which transcends the usual boundaries of your mind and ego to realize your divine nature. In this article, I will share with you 10 stages of spiritual growth and their characteristics.
These stages of spiritual growth reflect the evolution of consciousness, where the starting point is a contradiction with your old beliefs, and the final point is the unification with the Divine.
I must say that these stages of spiritual growth do not divide people into castes, do not underestimate or exaggerate the importance of any of the living souls embodied on Earth. Each spiritual path is unique and therefore should be equally respected. Every experience is spiritual because we are all incarnations of the Divine spirit on Earth and we all are moving to the same destination.
Therefore, when reading this article, please keep in mind that being on stage 1 or stage 10 doesn’t make you more or less spiritual than others. As long as we are moving along the spiritual path, we are all equal.
10 Stages Of Spiritual Growth
Stage #1: Collision
At this stage of spiritual growth, you discover spiritual knowledge that contradicts what is generally accepted in society and takes you beyond the usual worldview. You are faced with the choice of either not believing, being skeptical, pushing away these contradictions, or being interested, and trying to learn more to better understand.
At this stage, you get rid of old beliefs that limited your perception of reality. You start questioning everything you believed in. You may start questioning religion, social norms, and rules.
And the more clearly you realize that you don’t know anything for sure, the more opportunities you have to successfully pass this stage of spiritual growth. During this stage, your spiritual growth accelerates. You begin to realize that many relationships and desires have lost their relevance to you.
As your old comfortable worldview fades away, you move beyond the dualistic perception of the world, and the reality you live in.
At this stage, many people discover that most of their attachments and possessions are just illusions. This discovery can frighten you so much that you may want to return to your old beliefs and comfortable “Matrix” life. But if you overcome this fear, you can make a huge leap in your development to the next stage of your spiritual growth.
Stage #2: Knowledge
At this stage, you show interest in different areas of spiritual knowledge, you expand your spiritual horizons and want to share your new discoveries with others. At the same time, you begin to feel like most people don’t understand you, it becomes more difficult to communicate and understand others. But as you progress in the field of spiritual knowledge, you begin to distinguish people by their level of development, by their level of understanding of life.
You discover that there is something else beyond the material world, and you start seeing life as an opportunity for development. And after a while, you decide to engage in spiritual practice, apply your knowledge in order to change your life, evolve yourself, and engage in self-development.
One of the main insights you may discover at this stage is that you are no longer feeling like a victim. Now you start seeing that each life event, each situation (even the most negative one), each person is an opportunity for your spiritual growth, self-development, and personal evolution. You realize that difficulties are powerful sources of insight and inner transformation. It is by overcoming difficulties that we tap into our inner power and become much stronger and wiser.
At this stage, you stop avoiding difficulties but welcome them. Now you are clearly aware that the more difficulties you overcome, the faster you move along the path of your spiritual development.
Stage #3: Practice
At this stage of spiritual growth, the use of spiritual knowledge in practice begins. You begin to study the movement of energies in your body, engage in meditation, do energy work, learn to scan and balance your chakras.
As a rule, at this stage, people use basic spiritual and energy practices to improve their health and life quality.
Stage #4: Choosing the Direction
After a series of failures to achieve your goals, you begin to realize that there are more powerful factors in your life than your own energy system and your own will. You begin to notice your ups and downs on the energy plane. You learn to use your time and energy efficiently.
In the end, you realize that you need to choose a new direction for further development, as your previous values are gradually being questioned. It all ends up with the old values being revised, and you have to make a choice of your future direction. In connection with this choice, a new system of values is chosen and new goals are set.
Stage #5: Spiritual Collapse
At this stage, all ideas about what is important, what is necessary, and what is not, collapse. You begin to understand the illusory nature of this world. You realize that all forms and states are temporary. You feel frustrated that the directions and goals you have chosen don’t deliver the results you expected. You start re-thinking the meaning of everything. You begin to feel the presence of Higher forces and start to notice their impact on the world and your own life.
Stage #6: Observation
You become independent and free in your spiritual views. You begin to understand the paradox of life, the unity of opposites, the oneness of spirit and matter. You stop looking at the world from the perspective of your personality and become an observer.
You return to an understanding of the value of spiritual knowledge in your life and begin to realize that the world is harmonious and its functioning is not subject to the ideals of only one group of people but develops dynamically, periodically changes its structure, and even the direction of its development.
Such an observation leads to a deeper understanding of the harmony of the world. And most importantly, even if there is another spiritual collapse or the collapse of another ideal happens, you are no longer lost, but accept as it is with deep awareness.
Stage #7: Full Acceptance
This stage of spiritual growth is characterized by the fact that you begin to accept everything as it is, and become grateful for everything that happens to you. You calmly accept everything that happens, without tormenting yourself with expectations and suffering from disappointments.
In the end, it becomes clear to you that the main Teacher is your Life. Now you feel God in everything and everyone around you. You realize that there is a combination of the Will of God and the Will of Man in every event and every situation. You feel that you are about to merge with the Divine, and you begin to prepare yourself for this significant spiritual discovery.
Stage #8: Conscious Aspiration
By this stage, you have already learned how to see the sacred meaning of everything that is happening. When this skill is fully developed, a Conscious Aspiration is born. You are not looking for any knowledge, esoteric secrets, secret techniques, but you are looking for the very Essence, the Holy Spirit of the Creator, because at this stage you fully realized its significance and power.
Stage #9: Dedication
At this stage, you feel that you are ready to meet the Creator. When you are ready, your human consciousness meets God and you experience the state of Supreme Bliss. Your heart chakra is fully awakened and you start radiating Divine unconditional love.
You feel a powerful impulse of spiritual energy, which remains in your consciousness forever. Since this moment, you begin to receive information directly from the Source – the Consciousness of God. This can be perceived in different forms, such as knowledge, sounds of higher spheres, Akashic Records, or prophetic dreams. However, the main thing is that you become receptive to information from above and begin finding the answers inside yourself.
Stage #10: Divine Unification
At this stage, you merge with the Creator. Your will begins to coincide with the will of God. Your main actions and aspirations are to serve the evolution of people’s consciousness and to spread unconditional love to the world. You become a vessel and vehicle for Divine Love.
You are aware of your divine mission and reveal your unique abilities to realize it. You begin to conduct the Highest Divine energies, radiate love, open spiritual paths to people, and assist others in their healing journeys. Everyone who comes in contact with you changes forever. You become a tool for expressing the will of God on Earth.
This stage could be considered the final one. However, in fact, this is the beginning of a Completely different spiritual and physical existence and development.
The Bottom Line
There are many different interpretations of the stages of spiritual growth. The above stages of spiritual growth are purely advisory in nature. You may be at different stages in different aspects of your life. The purpose of these stages is to help your understanding of the processes that you’re facing on your spiritual journey, encourage you to move forward, and avoid steep turns on the way.