Living in the hallway is a metaphor for people who are content living in the default mode. They settle for a mediocre existence and fail to explore the infinite possibilities of consciousness. Are you living in default mode? Learn how to overcome the obstacles to spiritual growth and live life to its fullest.
Do you ever feel like your life could be more meaningful and fulfilling, and you know there must be something more? Are you missing out on one of the greatest opportunities life has to offer?
The Analogy of the Mansion
What does that mean? Well, think of your mind as a mansion with many rooms. Each room represents a higher state of consciousness, filled with deeper insights, perspectives, and experiences. But if you’re only living in the hallway, you’re missing out on all the treasures that the other rooms have to offer.
The mansion represents the vast potential of the human mind, while the hallway signifies the limited consciousness we commonly experience in our waking, dreaming, and sleeping states. The rooms inside the mansion represent the higher states of consciousness that we can achieve to live a fulfilled life.
So, what’s inside the rooms of a mansion built of consciousness? Some rooms contain heightened awareness, perception, and sharper focus. Other rooms give us access to deep inner peace and tranquility where your mind becomes still, and your thoughts become clearer. Still, other rooms open gateways to other higher states of experience and open to the infinite wisdom within your soul. These rooms hold access to intuition and spiritual gifts of the higher self to gain profound insights.
Living in the Hallway of a Mansion
The hallway represents the three default forms of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and sleeping. These states of consciousness are natural and necessary to give our consciousness a home on this plane of existence. These states are the default modes, but we don’t have to be confined to them.
We are designed to grow beyond the default settings. By expanding our awareness, we can gain access to higher states of consciousness. Sadly, many people spend their whole lives in the hallway and never open the other doors in the palace of their minds. They have good excuses. The doors seem to be locked, so they are easy to overlook because most people lead busy lives.
However, the keys to these locks are in their possession. All they need are the right tools for spiritual growth. If you don’t take the keys and open them, you will miss a lifetime of opportunities.
Overcoming The Obstacles to Spiritual Growth
Humankind has been pursuing self-discovery and an understanding of consciousness since the beginning of time. This exploration has led humankind to a deeper understanding of life and the universe beyond.
Unfortunately, some want to misuse our natural desire to seek spiritual understanding. Pursuing spiritual development has two main obstacles that can hinder our progress.
The Obstacle of Organized Religion
One of the greatest obstacles to spiritual growth is organized religion. While religion can provide a sense of spiritual fulfillment and a community of believers, it can also limit the scope of our understanding of consciousness. The secrets in rooms of a mansion of consciousness threaten their control of your mind.
Organized religion often teaches its followers to believe in a particular dogma and suppresses independent thought. This can lead to a narrow-minded and insular approach to one’s spiritual life, ultimately hindering one’s understanding of consciousness. These false beliefs about spiritual reality lead to bias and prejudices based on sectarianism and hate.
The Obstacle of Commercialism
Another obstacle that hinders our pursuit of understanding consciousness is commercialism. Modern society has commoditized almost everything, including spiritual practices that have existed for centuries. Many have capitalized on people’s desire to explore consciousness, using it to sell everything from “enlightenment retreats” to mindfulness apps. This commercialization can create a false perception that exploring consciousness is only for those who can afford it, leading to unhealthy thinking and an unhealthy mindset.
Those who control the cultural narrative don’t want you to open the doors to these other planes of awareness. They can’t control you with propaganda if you think rationally.
“If these distracted times prove anything, they prove that the greatest illusion is reliance upon the security and permanence of material possessions. We must search for some other coin. And we will discover the treasure-house of education has stood intact and unshaken in the storm. The man of cultivated life has founded his house upon a rock. You can never take away the magnificent mansion of his mind.” — John Cudahy
Organized religion and commercialism are the two main obstacles to spiritual growth. They both lead to unhealthy thinking and values. This harmful programming prevents us from accessing higher states and installs harmful ideological ideas and values that are harmful to everyone.
Opening The Rooms of a Mansion of Consciousness
To overcome the obstacles of spiritual growth, we must recognize and challenge them. We should strive to explore our consciousness without the limitations of organized religion and the commercialization of spirituality. We can do this by taking an independent, open-minded approach and seeking diverse perspectives. By doing so, we can expand our understanding of consciousness and develop a more profound connection to ourselves and the universe. There are some practical tools you can use to open these rooms.
Some people are born with the natural ability to access these rooms of higher states of consciousness. They are the Sages, Gurus, and Enlightened Beings. You have the same rooms available if you choose the path of spiritual development, which enables you to open the doors of awareness. Living in the hallway gives you access and opportunity, but where do you start?
Assess where you are now and what tools are available. Some techniques, like Japa Meditation or Transcendental Meditation, require personal instruction. However, you can learn many other forms by reading a short script. We have several of these forms of meditation here on our site.
Tools for Spiritual Growth
Thankfully, there are some tools that we can use to overcome the obstacles to spiritual growth.
Spiritual Journal
The first tool we recommend is a simple handwritten journal. Your handwriting contains the key to other techniques. All you need to do is start writing. It’s a place to write about your experience.
Many people start by recording their dreams or dream fragments. You’ll soon discover themes and patterns that help you understand your subconscious mind. The journal is an asset to almost every spiritual practice. Many people feel it’s your best life coach.
Meditation Scripts
Start with the two-step beginning meditation script. It’s so easy. Children as young as two years old can do it. But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it isn’t a powerful mind hack tool. It helps you to quiet the internal dialogue and allows you to rest. You’ll feel the effects immediately. The next step in the meditation progression is mindfulness meditation. This process builds on the foundation of the beginning meditation method. It enables you to bring the silence of meditation into action.
After you are comfortable with mindfulness meditation, you will be ready for some interesting variations of this method. Forest bathing builds on the foundation of mindfulness meditation, taking the mindfulness process into nature.
The forest bathing technique is the cornerstone of the Japanese wellness system. In addition to forest bathing, tree grounding is also possible.
You can learn these tools for spiritual growth from articles on this website. This suite of meditation techniques will help you open the rooms of a mansion inside your mind.
The Shamanic Journey is another process you can learn from a book or CD. Some people refer to it as a guided meditation or creative visualization. This process is humankind’s first spiritual technology; you can find it in many indigenous cultures around the world. We recommend Sandra Ingerman’s book, “Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide Paperback — 2008, by Sandra Ingerman.” It comes complete with a CD, including drum tracks.
Critical Thinking Skills
People overlook the importance of critical thinking tools. They don’t think they will need them for the spiritual journey. But this is not the case; you need good critical thinking skills to make good decisions in all areas of your life.
Learning to engage your analytical abilities will help you avoid some of the biggest traps. They will help you solve many of life’s issues. All it takes is a small amount of time and attention. They are easy to learn and easy to use. Once you use them, you’ll find applications in almost every area of life.
We have a suite of critical thinking skill articles that are all you’ll need to enhance your analytical thinking capabilities. You’ll want to add these tools to your reading list in the future.
Start with the free logic and rational thinking skills training module. It will help you understand the difference between rational and magical thinking and show how people confuse and misuse deductive arguments to sell ideas and ideologies. It also explains the correct forms of deductive and inductive logic.
Next is a module on the most common logical fallacies people use in religion and politics. You’ll use this module to spot errors with TV broadcasts that pose as news but are sources of propaganda.
Last but not least are the spiritual axioms. These easy-to-use axioms help you sort out the facts from fiction. You’ll use these every day as well. When you read them, you’ll see what we mean. You’ll see how they apply directly to the issues dealt with today, like the pandemic endemic situation with COVID. These are life-changing issues that require sound judgment.
Four Main Categories of Tools for Spiritual Growth
Here are some links to all four major categories of these cognitive technologies.
What we like about them is that they work regardless of your philosophical or religious beliefs. They are processes anyone can use. We use the analogy of baking a cake to describe them. All you do is follow the recipe. When you combine ingredients in the right way, you get something delicious.
In Conclusion
Exploring consciousness is a journey that can provide us with a deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. However, we must be aware of the obstacles that hinder our progress, including the limitations of organized religion and the commercialization of spirituality. By confronting these obstacles, we can embark on a journey of self-discovery unhindered and free to explore the true nature of our consciousness.