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Why do some people who experience the worst that life has to offer respond not by breaking down but by shifting up, into a higher-functioning, awakened state? And perhaps more importantly, how can we emulate their transformations?

Over many years of observing and studying the phenomenon of life changing awakening through extreme suffering, psychologist Steve Taylor coined the term “transformation through turmoil (TTT).” He calls individuals whose struggles lead to a dramatic shift into a new, expansive identity “shifters” and in Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation (New World Library, September 7, 2021) he shares dozens of amazing stories of individuals who “woke up” to profound transformation following bereavement, deep depression, suicide attempts, addiction, military combat, imprisonment, or other intense encounters with mortality.  We hope you’ll enjoy this Q&A with Steve about the book.

Tell us about the title of your new book Extraordinary Awakenings and what inspired you to write it.

It’s a book about the amazing transformation that can occur in the midst of intense suffering and trauma — for example, soldiers on a battlefield, the inmates of prison camps who are on the verge of starvation, people who have been through periods of severe addiction, depression, bereavement, and so on. These are what I call ‘extraordinary awakenings.’ They are extraordinary in two ways: first, because they occur in such unexpected circumstances, and second, because they have such an amazing effect. People feel completely reborn, as if they are different people living in the same body. In my role as a psychologist, I’ve been researching cases of extraordinary awakenings for 15 years. I wanted to share some of the amazing cases I’ve collected, and also explore what we can learn from the cases and apply to our own paths of development.

The book examines a phenomenon you call “transformation through turmoil.” Please tell us more about that and how it compares to “post-traumatic growth.”

Transformation through turmoil is an extreme and dramatic kind of post-traumatic growth. It’s a more radical change, which often happens instantaneously, in a single moment of transformation. You could also describe it as a spiritual awakening. People shift into a much more intense and expansive awareness. They feel a sense of wellbeing, and a new sense of meaning and purpose. They feel intensely grateful for things they took for granted before. The world seems more real and beautiful. They feel more connected to other people, and to nature. It really is as if they’ve woken up, as if a veil has fallen away and they’re living in a much fuller and more intense way.

What are some examples of the types of turmoil the shifters you write about experienced before their awakenings?

There are six main types of turmoil I cover in the book: warfare, incarceration, bereavement, encounters with death, addiction and intense depression and stress. Incarceration was such a major area that I had to divide it into two chapters, the first looking at historical examples from soviet gulags and prisoners of war, and the second dealing with contemporary prisoners in the US and the UK. In the chapter on encounters with death, I looked at what I called ‘intense mortality encounters,’ when people are diagnosed with cancer, or have serious injuries, and also at near-death experiences, when people die for a short time before being resuscitated. I also found a connection between suicide and transformation. Sometimes people undergo extraordinary awakenings when they are seriously contemplating suicide, or after a suicide attempt.

What is the most common type of severe trauma that humans experience and why does it have so much spiritual potential?

Bereavement. All of us go through bereavement, and many people do go through transformation as a result. It is usually the more tragic and unexpected bereavements that are the most transformational. For example, I tell the story of a woman who had an extraordinary awakening after her husband died in a car crash, and another who had a similar experience after a close friend was murdered. When we go through bereavement, everything changes. It’s like an earthquake, disrupting our whole lives. Everything which seem secure and stable is thrown into disarray. And when the ground settles again, the world seems like a completely different place.

You say in the book that embracing challenges in our lives is a way that we can apply the principles of “transformation through turmoil” to our lives. How so?

The cases in my book show that challenges can help us to grow. They can even lead to spiritual awakening. So rather than avoiding challenges and crises, when they occur in our lives we should look at them as an opportunity for growth. We should trust in the massive reserves of resilience that are inside all of us, even though we’re not normally conscious of them. There is a positive side to all seemingly negative events in our lives. The important thing is to respond to them in the right way, in order to harness their transformational potential.

Steve Taylor, PhD, is the author of Extraordinary Awakenings and many other bestselling books. He’s senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University and the chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. Steve’s articles and essays have been published in over 100 academic journals, magazines, and newspapers and he blogs for Scientific American and Psychology Today. Visit him online at www.StevenMTaylor.com.

Adapted from the book from Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation. Copyright ©2021 by Steve Taylor. Printed with permission from New World Library.

I recently saw a psychic who was pretty accurate. During the reading, she told me something that totally blew my mind, however, and I'm having a hard time sorting it out. She told me that I'm not really from this planet - that I'm from another star system, and this is my first incarnation on Earth. She said that I'm a walk-in who entered this body when I almost died as a small child. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! She said that this is why I have lots of psychic experiences and am interested in psychic and spiritual matters. This freaked me out so much that I went to another psychic and asked her about it, and she confirmed that it's true! Is this possible? Have you ever seen this before?

- Barb

Dreamchaser:

Oh boy, here we go!

First of all, no one is from Earth; everyone is from a different planet. Now, some people have the belief that we all come from some other star system, and that is where our souls began. There is even some study that suggests our bodies are composed of the same materials stars are made from, which supposedly validates the idea that we originally came from the stars and/or other planets.

I have been told by a UFO and alien expert that my son is from another planet, and since he chose me as his mother in this life, I must be from there as well - wherever THERE is. I think that what you believe about this subject is what you believe.

Obviously our souls didn't start on planet Earth. We all know this, for we had to start SOMEWHERE. When they have to come up with a name for our Source, most people say we came from Heaven, but where is this Heaven place? Everyone looks UP when they refer to Heaven, so I don't think it's all that far-fetched to believe we all started on a planet that is out there somewhere.

I have also had experiences with people who say they are walk-ins. I won't speak against another reader's reading, so if you were told you are a walk-in and you believe that, then that is that.

For our readers who have no idea what we're talking about, a walk-in is a soul on the other side who doesn't want to go through the whole process of being a baby and growing up through childhood in order to experience human life. That soul would like to just jump into a body at a certain age and go from there.

When a person that is living on earth REALLY wants to die or leave this planet, sometimes that soul and the soul of the walk-in will make a deal. The soul will leave the body, and the walk-in will step into the body and take it over. When this happens, the body keeps on living but everything seems different.

On top of all the ideas above, when we have a spiritual awakening, everything seems different. You see the world differently, you feel differently, you like different things and pretty much EVERYTHING about you is different.

So please, my dear readers, do not assume if you are changing completely that you are a walk-in. Also, when a person has a spiritual awakening, that person naturally becomes very interested in spiritual matters and paranormal phenomena.

Barb, the bottom line for you right now is that you are healthy, happy and whole. Am I correct? You like what is going on in your life, and you feel good about yourself.

I say sit back and enjoy the ride. Use your gut to gauge what is good for you versus what doesn't feel right. Know that if you are happy, you are in the flow.

I wish you continued growth and knowledge!

*****

Astrea:

To recognize an alien so readily, those psychics you visited must be a lot more knowledgeable about alien phenomena than I am. I have interviewed people came from different star systems in THIS life, but I haven't seen many who have had past lives in other galaxies.

In thirty years of doing readings, I think I've only met two people who could say that they came from another planet or a galaxy far, far away, and that this was their first human incarnation, though I suppose it's possible that could be part of your own past life history.

Walk-in energy is usually very scattered and dramatic. It doesn't seem likely that any walk-in would seek someone with alien energy, for in general, walk-ins are lazy and don't want to make much effort in order to experience being human. So if you do have alien energy, it would be harder for a walk-in to feel at home on Earth in your body.

Instead of being a walk-in from another planet, you could have an entity trying to take you over, but again, those spirits generally try to pick an easy target - otherwise it's just too much trouble. Also, if you have a spirit trying to walk in and take over, that entity would strongly discourage you from getting one (let alone two!) psychic readings. Further, a psychic would have to be pretty clueless not to spot something like that right away.

Such an entity would certainly not want someone to know it was there, and after the psychic pointed it out to you, it would almost surely want to leave you. As a rule, no matter where they came from, attached entities do not like to be outed. People who have amnesia sometimes had walk-ins leave unexpectedly. (You know who and where you are.)

Has anyone ever suggested to you that you could be an Indigo or Crystal child? Many of those folks say that they come from other galaxies and star systems, so that could explain the psychics' feelings about you.

Most Indigo and Crystal children are born with their brains on such a different wavelength from their parents' and prior generations' that I could see how a psychic might mistake your personality for being alien. These children are born with an unusual sense of peace and love that many humans don't seem to have in their DNA.

Are you a more peace-loving person than most other people around you? Do you have a desire to change or save the world? Without knowing your age or exact birth information, I can't tell for sure, but from reading your question, I got from you an overall sense of peacefulness with life that most human beings have yet to develop.

If you are one of these children, then you have a big job ahead of you, and you need to get busy! I'm hoping to see some wonderful changes in the world during my own lifetime, so I wish you the very best of luck!

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.