Mystic: Path of a Listening Heart: Shadow Selves Returning Through Spiritual Presence and Mystic Listening

Most of the shadows of this life are caused
by standing in one’s own sunshine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am reminded of an image and inner vision that I have experienced, especially during meditation. I see shadows moving in and out and around me, and I wonder what these shadowy figures are. When I reach out to touch them, I experience that they are “Me’s” – lost selves -- separated by excessive levels of pain from past events and circumstances. They are moving – sometimes running -- around, trying to get my attention – wanting to come home – back to conscious contact with me. And I feel a sadness, an emptiness, and a different type of loneliness.

I sense that I lost selves when I experienced massive abandonment and separation – emotional pain. And I have experienced the regaining of lost selves when my God’s Presence was restored to my mental processes.

There are wonderful treasures of selves and spiritual enlightenment hidden within these shadows. We must connect with a higher Presence of loving Light in order for our darkness to be changed into this spiritual enlightenment – the restoration of our lost selves.

This conscious experience of our shadowy selves can be a wonderful gift of awakening and spiritual enlightenment. But first it may produce a terrifying sense of hopelessness and loss. In any case something will change – as our shadowed selves step back into consciousness, and once again – become Light.