Why is the spiritual journey scary?

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For two reasons. First, it affects your entire notion of what it means to exist. We are born human in this physical world, learning that there is an entire world out there that is not physical really throws one for a loop.

Second, the deeper you get into spiritual reality, the more spiritual reality starts to ‘colonize’ your material life. We spend most of our lives getting to a place where we feel like we have control, earning stability, and spirituality starts to assault that control, and worse, if it isn’t assaulting that sense of control, then you’re not really doing it right.

There is a part of the journey called the Dark Night. This typically happens with a breathtaking quickness after you achieve a really high point. The thing about both the extreme highs and extreme lows is that reality itself seems to lessen, starts to look even more illusory than normal. So they’re actually extremely close to each other, but it seems to take most of us by surprise.

You’re conjuring up energy, talking to spirits, doing whatever it is the journey has taught you. Things are working, you feel it’s only a matter of time before you ‘break through’ to a truly different kind of reality rather than this mixed up one you’re forced to make concessions for at the moment. Mundane existence loses its appeal.

The Dark Night has already started, you just don’t realize it yet. The spirits stop cooperating, and the spiritual starts jumping into your normal life. You get your wish, but it’s not what you thought it would be. You question your sanity, the emotional high you were just riding not even a day before has plummeted into the worst low you’ve ever experienced. If you’re not careful, you’ll stop caring about maintaining your mundane existence and will take it out on the people around you, losing you friends and even your job.

I’ve been through dozens of these, and they never get old, managing to provoke catharsis in another part of my brain each and every time. The key is to remain mindful, take care of yourself, and get back to basics. Don’t force yourself to feel bad because you deserve it, but allow the negativity to wash over you and do its job. You’re not seeing this right now, but the very negativity is training your brain to see with even more clarity than you did before.