The Quickening. Gregg Unterberger

Seven days later, one of my best friends would schedule their surgery in an attempt to survive a life-threatening cancer. Ten days later, the woman I had been dating for five years, the woman I thought I was destined to marry, would send me an email telling me the relationship was over.

      The barricade was broken; the car was plunging.

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       What Is a Quickening?

      “Tones and sounds will be the channel through which the coordinating of forces for the body may make for the first of the perfect reactions . . .”

      Edgar Cayce reading 758-38

      One way in which the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “quickening” is as an entering “into a phase of active growth and development.” It is a fourteenth-century word that shows up in the King James Version of the Bible in Psalms as a prayer in a moment of desperation: “quicken thou me according to thy word.” (Psalms 119:25) Basically, “Hey God, hellooo! I’m dying here. Throw me a bone. I need some help, and it better be soon: I’m talking pedal to the metal.” Curiously, I was doing some research into the readings of the American psychic Edgar Cayce who also talked about a quickening of the spirit, a sudden acceleration or growth spurt.

      You may have heard of what is referred to by psychotherapists as a “breakthrough session.” A quickening may be but another name for this term, which is used by therapists to describe when their clients suddenly take a giant step forward on their healing journey. The inference being that after a certain amount of volition is built up, unconscious resistance to an uncomfortable truth or clarity is “broken through.” A little “death” takes place of an old subjective reality that makes room for a new way of thinking or being.

      After the dream of my Prius plunging over the edge, I was propelled into another stage of my spiritual growth. My relationship was at an end; I was powerless to stop it. I had to die a little . . . no, I had to die a lot that day. I died to the idea of becoming that woman’s husband. I died to the idea of a future with her. I died to the idea that since I was a therapist or spiritually awake that I could save the relationship. Not that I wanted it, or welcomed it at the time; to the contrary, initially I fought it. Eventually, the dream led to a return to therapy, a willingness to reach out to others for help in a way heretofore unknown to me and a re-thinking of what I wanted in a partner at this stage in my life. In the therapy business, there’s an old saying that, yes, the truth will set you free, but not before it sends you to hell first.

      It was a pretty toasty time for me for a number of months.

      Sadly, most of us go along the spiritual path slowly, if with any speed at all. More often, we stay largely asleep until the next catastrophe slaps the hell out of us and—if we are lucky—we awaken to the next level. No doubt you could point toward moments of your own where life dealt you a violent change in circumstances that knocked you off your feet, only to find yourself suddenly propelled forward (a life-threatening illness, the sudden loss of a loved one, a crisis of faith in your belief system). This is Saint John of the Cross’ “dark night of the soul.” Neurosurgeon and mystic, author of the best-selling Proof of Heaven, Dr. Eben Alexander, has called these moments, “the gift of desperation.” These catastrophic awakenings might be called spontaneous quickenings. We didn’t choose them, at least not at a conscious level. They happened to us.

      Happily, some quickenings may be ultimately exceedingly positive, while at the same time, life-changing. The American psychologist Dr. Abraham Maslow wrote at length about peak experiences, which he defined as euphoric, ecstatic experiences filled with a deep sense of unity and interconnectedness. Maslow believed that, if integrated, these experiences have life-changing, long-term effects. However, it seems to me that these transformative experiences are seen largely as either a result of painful life circumstances or the grace of God—either of which is seemingly beyond the control of the individual.

      Now, you may be saying, not so, there are spiritual disciplines that with practice can lead to these quickenings. To be sure, yoga, meditation, tai chi, among many other forms, may gradually lead to these kinds of awakenings.

      But when I was fourteen years old, I studied transcendental meditation. I was the youngest in my class, surrounded by hippies and intellectuals in a college classroom. I think everyone was touched by my dedication. The dudes with the long hair and the love beads told me that if I learned to meditate I would see heavenly lights and hear the angels sing. Frankly, that is why I took the class. I wanted to hear God speak. I wanted colors and lights and spiritual revelation. But here was a typical meditation session from inside of fourteen-year-old Gregg’s head:

      “(Repeating the mantra himself) Om, Om, Om, Om, Om, Om, Home, Home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play . . . Range . . . a range is an oven . . . I wonder what Mom is going to cook for dinner?”

      I kept going to my TM® class anyway and dutifully received my sacred word, my mantra. But the angels weren’t singing and the lights weren’t lighting and apparently God was taking a meeting with the Holy Ghost or something, because I sure didn’t see Him.

      Now, I know that meditation is a spiritual discipline and that it takes time and effort to catalyze those peaceful moments, the “gap between the thoughts” as Deepak Chopra likes to call them. I also know that learning to watch thoughts is essential to developing mindfulness—being fully present in the moment—which I value very highly. I also know that for me, breakthrough experiences came only after years of meditative practice, and even then only sporadically. I can hardly endorse these more typical approaches if you want to move forward rapidly.

      Now, before you send me hate mail, I am not suggesting that you give up meditation or yoga or tree hugging or whatever spiritual discipline you ascribe to. I won’t give them up either; if you must know, I am especially fond of Sequoias. And by the way, Ponderosas, though scratchy, are quite nice, and you needn’t worry, their bark is worse than their bite.

      But I am inviting you to consider that in this day and age, technological advances and psychological research are leading us to more than just a better Xbox, brain scan, smartphone, or anti-depressant.

      What if there were new approaches that could greatly enhance your spiritual awareness? What if there were breakthrough techniques that could save you years of meditative practice? What if I suggested that the traumas of your childhood that block you from your full potential might be resolved in months, not years of therapy? What if I told you that you could consciously recognize your karmic issues from other lifetimes? What if you could resolve issues directly with loved ones that have passed on, without the aid of a medium? What if you could meet Jesus or the Buddha directly? What if you could experience the oneness of the Universe? What if I told you that you could touch the Face of God? What if I told you that the kinds of experiences that saints, poets, and geniuses have had are yours for the asking? What if I told you that you could leap ahead on your spiritual journey into an entirely new way of being in the world?

      It boggles the mind.

      But I have seen it. I have lived it, and I have watched countless clients and workshop participants have these kinds of experiences. They are the result of specific techniques, deliberately applied in specific settings resulting in real, demonstrable life changes. These quickenings are not wishful thinking. They are reality.

      By far, the three biggest impediments to utilizing these techniques are as follows:

      1.People are ignorant of these techniques.

      2.People believe they are too good to be true.

      3.People believe that profound spiritual experiences can only be catalyzed through years of hard work.

      Let’s address these one at a time. First, the answer to ignorance is education. The book you hold in your hands can be the doorway to opening your