Are You Awakening? Signs, Stages & Spiritual Insights

By Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
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Spiritual awakening is often described as a profound shift in perception, where the illusions of self and the world begin to unravel. For many, this process feels exhilarating yet confusing, as familiar concepts of identity, purpose, and reality start to dissolve.

If you’ve begun questioning who you truly are, noticing the unreality of reality, or feeling an inner pull toward deeper truth, you may be stepping onto the path of awakening. But what does awakening truly mean, and how can you recognize its early signs without getting caught in traps of spiritual ego and spiritual illusions?

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Are You Awakening? Recognizing Early Signs

The initial stages of awakening often manifest subtly, yet persistently. A common entry point in Buddhist thought is stream entry, or sotāpanna, the first of the four stages of enlightenment. Stream entry marks a shift in perception: one begins to see through the habitual patterns of mind and personality. In practical terms, this might show up as a heightened awareness of your thoughts and emotional reactions, a growing sense of interconnectedness with others, or a persistent curiosity about the nature of suffering or reality.

Some early signs of awakening include feeling restless with conventional life, experiencing spontaneous insights or intuitive knowing, having shifts in perception, and a growing sense of meaninglessness in everyday pursuits or hobbies. Many people also notice subtle spiritual experiences, such as intuitive guidance, synchronicities, or even temporary abilities like heightened perception or “channeling”.

While these may indicate an awakening, these phenomena remain part of conceptual reality—they are just an early step on the way towards full enlightenment. Even though they can be fun and fascinating, they may also become traps. So at this stage, it's really important to stay humble and nonattached.

The Four Stages of The Awakening Process

Buddhist teachings provide a clear framework for understanding awakening through four stages. Let's explore these stages using modern language and experiences.

Stage 1: Initial Awakening and Seeing Through Identity
The first stage begins with an initial awakening—often sudden or spontaneous—that reveals a glimpse beyond the self-concept or personal identity. This is when we start to see through some aspect of the personality and recognize that much of what we take as “me” is constructed. While this stage can feel liberating, it can also be disorienting, confusing, and full of subtle illusions. Early spiritual experiences, intuitive insights, psychic phenomena, and siddhis (spiritual powers) may appear here, but they are still part of conceptual reality and can distract from deeper understanding if clung to.

Stage 2: Awareness of Attachment and Aversion
In the second stage, we become increasingly aware of the mind’s habitual patterns of attachment and aversion. These mental processes, once unconscious, are now seen as sources of suffering. This stage involves learning to let go—gradually releasing the grip of craving, resistance, and emotional reactivity. Although this process can be painful, it is also deeply transformative. By the end of this stage, many external events lose their power to destabilize inner peace, and a growing clarity and resilience emerge.

Stage 3: Dissolution of Boundaries and Experience of Nonduality
The third stage brings a radical shift: boundaries between self and other begin to dissolve. Life is experienced more directly, free from constant labeling, conceptualization, and control. With continued honest observation, the remaining aspects of the self are seen through, including spiritual awareness and the "I am" sense—the physical sense of being a separate “me.” Many describe this as the fading of the bodily “knot” or tension associated with identity. Here, nondual awareness or a sense of oneness emerges. Suffering is increasingly seen through, and freedom deepens.

Stage 4: Full Awakening and the Transcendence of Self
In the final stage, the physical sense of self is completely gone, and the illusions of separateness and suffering are fully recognized as having never truly existed. This stage represents complete liberation—a realization that self, suffering, and attachment were always mental constructs. It is not an attainment in the usual sense, but the natural recognition of what has always been.

These stages are not linear or rigid; they provide guideposts rather than a strict roadmap. What matters most is integration: processing trauma, engaging in shadow work, and ruthless questioning of personal beliefs.

Are You Having Awakening Experiences? Watch Out for Fun Traps

Early awakening often brings experiences that feel extraordinary—intense intuition, vivid insights, channeling, or other so-called spiritual powers. These phenomena can be exhilarating, providing a sense of wonder and possibility. It’s easy to see why they are so enticing: they feel pleasurable, impressive, and even validating, giving the ego a subtle boost. In many ways, they can feel like proof that you are “advanced” or on the right track. And that's partially true.

Yet this is precisely why experiences like these are traps. Spiritual experiences, no matter how compelling, are still part of conceptual reality. They arise and pass like all other phenomena and are not owned by anyone. No experience, no matter how mystical, can create lasting satisfaction. Attachment to these experiences or identification with them can inflate the ego, steering you away from deeper awakening rather than toward it.

The key is critical thinking (or inquiry). By observing these experiences without clinging, by questioning their source and their permanence, we begin to see them as empty—just like everything else. They can be useful teachers, showing us the Infinate’s capacity for creativity, but they are not evidence of progress or selfhood.

Awakening is not about collecting experiences or powers. It is about recognizing that no experience can be owned, and nothing can provide the deep, unshakeable contentment that lies beneath all phenomena. The more we let go of attachment to extraordinary states, the more we discover that satisfaction and freedom are not found in what arises or appears—they are found in the simplicity that lies within it.

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Shadow Work for Early Awakening

An essential, yet often overlooked, component of awakening is shadow work: the conscious exploration of repressed emotions, unresolved trauma, and hidden aspects of self. Trauma can obscure our innate contentment and hinder our ability to see through the illusions of mind. Without processing these layers of pain, spiritual experiences can feel superficial or even destabilizing. Our integration stumbles and we can easily end up deeper in illusion than ever before.

By engaging with shadow work exercises—acknowledging difficult emotions, understanding personal patterns, and cultivating compassion for oneself—awakening becomes grounded and integrated. This inner work clears the path for a natural contentment that is not dependent on external circumstances or spiritual phenomena. In other words, awakening is not really about mystical experiences; it is the realization of the enduring peace inherent in all experiences.

Practices to Support Early Awakening

While awakening is ultimately spontaneous, certain practices can support discernment and integration:

Mindfulness and Meditation: Observing thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations with curiosity helps one distinguish between ego-driven impulses and genuine insight.
Journaling and Reflection: Writing about inner experiences clarifies patterns and reveals recurring themes in your awakening process.
Ethical Awareness: Aligning actions with compassion and integrity strengthens clarity and reduces the power of attachments.
Shadow Work Prompts: Engaging with past traumas, confronting fears, and exploring suppressed emotions prevents spiritual bypassing.
Guidance from Teachers or Communities: Nonjudgmental mentorship or spiritual communities can provide perspective and support.

These practices help anchor awakening in lived reality, preventing early experiences from becoming egoic distractions.

Awakening Is About Seeing Through Self

Awakening is ultimately about seeing through the self, or recognizing that what we identify with—the personality, desires, and even spiritual experiences—is impermanent and constructed. Early awakening invites us to notice how the mind creates narratives of identity and how clinging to these stories fuels suffering. In Buddhist terms, understanding the impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anatta) of all phenomena helps dissolve attachment to conceptual frameworks.

Even moments of spiritual insight, channeling, or mystical awareness are viewed through this lens: they are temporary phenomena, a test along the awakening path, but not the goal itself. True contentment arises from direct experience of nonduality, beyond concepts, labels, or extraordinary abilities.

Integrating Awakening into Daily Life

Early awakening often involves an “up and out” process, where awareness expands rapidly and the sense of self loosens. This can feel exhilarating, but it can also bring buzzing energy, anxiety, restlessness, or even physical discomfort and pain. Spiritual experiences and abilities can amplify this effect, leaving the body and mind unstable. So, integrating awakening into daily life often requires grounding—practices that help anchor awareness in the body and the present moment.

Grounding helps:

Regulate the nervous system and reduce overwhelm.
Bring awareness back to the body when experiences feel “out of control.”
Balance frenetic energy with practical, lived reality.

Some grounding practices to consider include:

Body Awareness: Simple practices like feeling your feet on the ground, gently stretching on the ground (preferably outdoors), or touching and tapping areas of the body can settle excess energy.
Physical Movement: Walking, yoga, dancing, or other forms of exercise help circulate energy, release tension, and reconnect with physical reality.
Sensory Engagement: Touch, taste, smell, and sound can anchor awareness. Cooking, gardening, or listening attentively to music are simple ways to ground yourself.
Mindful Daily Routines: Eating foods like root vegetables, meat, or heavy foods, showering, or cleaning can keep you centered in ordinary life.
Creative Expression: Drawing, writing, or playing music channels subtle energy into tangible forms, providing a stabilizing outlet.
Water Practices: Grounding through swimming or standing under or in streams of moving water can move the energy along.

If you're already over-energized:

DON'T Meditate. Meditations can easily activate stored energy (especially during an awakening), and lead to worsening of energetic imbalances.
DON'T Do Breathwork. Breathwork is great for opening. Once you're already open, it now a matter of easing flow.

Over time, grounding allows spiritual experiences to be integrated in a way that nurtures insight without causing anxiety or overstimulation. Ultimately, awakening is not just about expanding awareness—it is about bringing that awareness fully into life in a functional, healthy manner.

Final Thoughts on the Question: Are You Awakening

So, are you awakening?

By cultivating awareness, processing inner material, and gently observing experiences without attachment, you can navigate the early stages of awakening with clarity and discernment. Your path is unique, yet it is guided by apparent rules and insights that increase clarity all along the way.

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