Keep in mind Rip Van Winkle? crystal energy of us in the American English speaking part of the planet who passed our high college years in the 1950s to 1970s do recall him. He was the man who slept for 20 years in a hollow in New York. We knew him in our English Literature class.

For the younger generation who know nothing about Rip Van Winkle, here is a incredibly brief summary. He was the principal character in Washington Irving’s story “Rip Van Winkle.” He was a Dutch American who did not want to work for a fee. He just wanted to play. One day he was lost in the mountains of New York as it was then ahead of the American Revolution and got into the corporation of the ghosts of Henry Hudson and his crew. He drank their drink and fell asleep. He woke up only right after 20 years, with a long beard and an aged man. He goes back to his village only to discover it was no longer the exact same as he left it. America was now independent from Wonderful Britain. Just after some looking he found his loved ones.

The explanation why I started with the story of Rip Van Winkle is simply because he illustrates the person who sleeps for lots of years, who is awakened only right after sleeping these lots of years, that is, in his physique, the physical life.

In the spiritual life, like Rip Van Winkle most men and women are asleep and unless somebody wakes them up they will continue on sleeping spiritually, probably for the rest of their life. Some of them will wake up only in eternity.

Here are three techniques to know you’ve had a spiritual awakening. If you have not gone via these three ways, this means that you are nonetheless asleep, that is, spiritually, like Rip Van Winkle physically, and it is time for you to wake up.

And that is the difference amongst spiritual awakening and physical awakening. You cannot know that you are physically awake if you are asleep. You cannot know that you are awake when you are still sleeping. But you can know that you have not however awakened spiritually. How? By reflecting on your life, whether or not any of these methods are present in your life. If they are not but present, then it means that you have not yet awakened spiritually. Knowing this you can now desire to awaken spiritually. And desiring to awaken spiritually is the step prior to really awakening spiritually.

Thankfully, the ways to know we’ve had a spiritual awakening are equivalent to the strategies to know we’ve had a physical awakening.

The 1st way to know that you are physically awake is by becoming aware of your surrounding, at very first indistinctly, then little by small, far more distinctly.

Even before you open your eyes you can know that you are currently awake, that you are nonetheless in bed, that it is late in the evening or early in the morning, and so forth.

Even so in spiritual awakening you are conscious of the spiritual realities around you. You are conscious that you are in a globe of spiritual as nicely as physical realities. Again, as in physical awakening, this awareness is at first indistinct, but as time goes on and as you proceed in our spiritual journey this awareness becomes clearer and clearer.

This awareness of spiritual realities around you could outcome as a consequence of a dissatisfaction with your present job, of a failure in company, of a loss of a loved a single, of a joyful encounter with a beloved. What ever it is that triggers this awareness, you are produced conscious that not only physical, visible points surround you but also spiritual, non-visible things, like enjoy or worry, inner peace or turmoil, joy or confusion.

Have you had this expertise? If you have, then you have begun to awaken spiritually.

In physical awakening, following being conscious of your surrounding the natural thing to do is to open your eyes and you see factors about: the fading darkness or the onrush of sunlight, the furniture around the area, the light switch, the door, etc.

So also in spiritual awakening you open your spiritual eyes and perceive the spiritual realities about you: the strivings of human beings to enhance their lives and seek ultimate happiness, the crimes committed in the search for some kind of satisfaction, the exultation and joys of those who succeed in their endeavors, the struggle between excellent and evil occurring just before your quite eyes.

Do you perceive these spiritual realities around you? Beneath the stories of sordid crimes and wars, of natural and man-made calamities, do you see the mighty spiritual forces claiming for your attention? Do you see the ever escalating hordes of human beings who are digging deeper into poverty and homelessness? Do you see the couple of elite masters of this planet earth who continue to acquire resources beyond their consumption and just waste them away? And do you see these events as portion of a spiritual battle in between the invisible very good and evil forces of the universe, beyond psychological, sociological, economic and political things? Do you see the forces behind our planet leaders which push them to dominate peoples and exploit them? If you do, you’ve had a spiritual awakening.

Thirdly, in physical awakening right after you are aware of your surrounding and immediately after you open your eyes, you act. You get out of bed, go to the wash space, etc., preparing yourself for the work of the day.

So also in spiritual awakening, right after you are aware of your spiritual surrounding and following you see what is happening spiritually around you and all over the planet, you act. You prepare for the spiritual work ahead of you. You do not sink into hopeless resignation, thinking you can do nothing at all since of the enormity of the spiritual forces about you. You act due to the fact you are convinced that the Spirit in you is mightier than the thousands of issues about you.

You act but you do not do so rashly. You do not go into battle unprepared. So also in spiritual warfare you place on the shield and weapons of a spiritual nature, absolutely ready to vanquish the enemies.

Are you struggling with spirit energy to make this planet a greater spot for you to reside in, even just in your corner of the planet? If you say, Yes, then you are acting and you are spiritually awake.

The three ways to know whether you’ve had a spiritual awakening is by 1) being aware of the spiritual realities around you two) opening your spiritual eyes to the events of spiritual forces around you three) acting spiritually in your corner of the globe to make it a better location to live in. If this has occurred to you, you know that you are spiritually awake and you can now help other folks to wake up spiritually.