Initiation is the process of which a human being becomes spiritually awakened and develops a clear understanding and direct experience of the higher spiritual realities which create and guide human life.
So, we need to develop the organs of spiritual perception to perceive non-physical realities.
This path has changed from ancient to modern times, and the reason for this change is two fold. Theres an evolution of human consciousness, and it has evolved over time and is structured differently today than ancient times.
This is the change of the structure of the human energy body. These subtle bodies have particular energy centers ( chakras etc).
The changes in consciousness are always linked to the human energy body and vice versa.  Every thought, emotion and action will activate particular energy  centers within us. Once you become aware of these, you become aware that you’re shaping your destiny. So, we want to be aware that acts of consciousness affect the energy field and vice versa.
As we look at the history of spiritual development, there is a profound difference in the state of human consciousness in ancient times and modern times.
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A basic concept that humans incarnate into the physical world as an essential part of our spiritual development. Why do we go through a human experience in a physical body in a physical world? The most important thing is that when you have true spiritual experiences in higher worlds, you’ll notice that these worlds don’t have solid boundaries like in the physical world. Here, humans can’t interpenetrate walls, however in spiritual worlds you can.
In this physical world we can develop a sense of our separate self, while in the higher worlds it’s quite difficult because you get closer to unification to the ONE. The unified source of all creation. Here, things are differentiated from each other. and we develop independence and a true freedom in the physical world. This is the balancing act of the human . Understanding that we do come from a unified source, but at the same time, we are here to develop a separate individual consciousness and to be able to hold in balance our freedom with the aspects of love that come with the unity of the ONE.
By incarnating into the density of the physical world, we begin to crystalize our individuality, and in Christian esotericism its called the “I AM” self-awareness. This level of perceiving ourselves as separate beings has developed strongly over the last couple thousand years.
Heres how consciousness and initiation has changed since ancient times.
In ancient times there was a type of effortless clairvoyance. To be able to perceive non-physical realities. They had these organs of perception that were natural to humans at that time. But through evolution, we have lost direct perception of spiritual realities through the development of our logic. linear thinking.
In the Indian systems the physical world seems to be an illusion, while the spiritual world was home. The whole act of separation from the one, and many people have difficulty being here, compared to being unified with the divine sources. This is non-dualism.  Focusing on the original unity, the essence of all creation and beingness. Advita tradition focus on the unity. These schools teach with action you generate kharma with each physical action, and that kharma binds you to the physical world.
In ancient times, the physical world was strange and foreign while the higher realms seemed like home. This has direct correlation to the lack of individual self-awareness as we are today. At that time, humans identified in group consciousness. Family or group name first and individual name second. Like in China. The Group identity being paramount.
Also in ancient times, political and religious leaders derived their authority from the One Thing, claiming that they were the vehicle of a higher spiritual being that acted through them. Buddha changed this.
When humans wanted to undergo processes of spiritual initiation, a human needed to join one specific organization and pledge allegiance to one teacher for the rest of their lives. Like a guru. This guru has the power of god over the student, and was the authority over the student.
Indigenous cultures used psychedelics like ayahuasca, peyote, and San Pedro to expand the human life body, activating the human energy centers away from the body to perceive the higher spiritual dimensions. When you work with the plants you get a sense of what it’s like to experience these higher realities. This used to be a natural faculty in ancient times, but as you can tell now these medicines are resurfacing to establish balance of the R and L.
As we contracted the subtle bodies, this gave us the capacity to become more self-aware. As we spread out we become more unified with our environment.
contraction = physical brain for modern thinking.
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Shift to modern times.
Modern humans have become increasingly self-aware to the point of egotism and self -centered and self absorbed, but a very clear movement. The task is to awaken a spiritual consciousness in the self awareness we’ve developed.
Difference today is  that we need to look at the process to bring together the unity of all living beings, with the reality of our development of the individual self. This dual nature of the human is something that is summarized by the Rosicrucians who named our race the “ Spirits of Love and Freedom”.
Love is the power of union, pulling us together with others, while freedom is the power of independence as autonomous human beings. The gift and challenge is to alchemically merge love and freedom. Unity and separateness into a new dynamic. This is the purpose of our evolution here.
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Principles
  1. What is the basis of all existence? What you find in physics and spiritual traditions from all over is the world is that the foundation of all of creation is consciousness. From a spiritual perspective this field can be called the mind of god. You can look at this from a physics perspective or a spiritual one and it’s all the same. It’s the complete field of consciousness thats the background of all things. In science we have a very materialistic view of the world, looking for smaller and smaller pieces of matter, but they will never find it. So, it’s important to understand that there’s consciousness embedded at every level. This means that everything can be communicated with. This is shamanism, if you can shift your awareness to its level.
  2. In the beginning of the book of genesis it starts “let there be light”. In Quantum Physics light is the foundation of existence. Energy cant be created or destroyed, so it can be transmuted. This energy is the universal consciousness field. Consciousness and light are two sides of the same coin. We see great awakened masters the have these auras of light around their heads of bodies. Its quite literal. Higher states of consciousness emit more light. When you experience this inside of yourself its consciousness, when it’s expressed externally it appears as light. The same essence. Ones internal while the other external.  Moving our perception from the physical plain, to quite literally the physical body of god. Individualize this into our own body during our life time.
  3. All of creation is the body of god. So different dimensions are different levels of function or activity of the god head. Part of initiation is to experience this at different levels of creation. In India, they talk about the 5 doshas, which the human spirit core or Atman works. Physical body is the sheath made of food because its a detachment from physical plane, food from the mother, and it builds our body. When the child is born it eats for oneself and is taken and creates the body. Like in Christian doctrine the cosmic christ spirit is unified with the entire world, they teach this essence is in our wine and bread, this is my blood and body you eat so remember me when you eat and drink. It’s the primal memory of where we come from.
  4. Ether plane by the greeks. Etheric life force in the east called Chi or Qi or Prana. This is pure dynamic life force which animates the physical body. Everything you eat, drink, think, breathe makes your body. Ancient Egypt they had Neters “conscious force of Nature”. Hanum is a ram haded never sitting at a potters wheel shaping the wheel into the perfect human being. All the different subtle bodies of the human being are sheaths for the spirit core to act through that are detachments from the spiritual planes, or levels from the existence around us. All based on the Universal consciousness field. Finding balance between the divine source and us having individual existence in the world. Divine unity that all things came out. Before differentiation, the 10,000 things from the Chinese, differentiated aspects of existence.
  5. Pattern behind creation which is sacred geometry. Unified source takes on the qualities of the manifest world. Power of the mind, creating effects through thought forms, that allows us to understand things and take action on things. Separate thought forms are created and moved into density and manifest into different spiritual beings.