Barbara notes, “In the fall of 1994 when this picture was taken and while living in San Francisco, I experienced a Spontaneous Awakening of Light (SAL). Its liquid, vaporous, seemingly electrical quality flowed up my body through my feet with the force of a fire-hose — twice in the same day. The effects were immediate, complete with psychic phenomena, enhanced intuition and empathy, and continue to this day. For someone who dismissed new thought ideas as airy-fairy, it was a life-altering spiritual awakening. The joke was on me, and happily, things have not been the same since. At the time, my professional background had been in public service. I headed an office as a field representative for a senator, was deputy chief-of-staff for a lieutenant governor, and was the director of community and governmental relations for a major university.
“My journey was not consciously within a particular spiritual/religious framework nor specifically guided by a cleric or guru, and I was not trying to make something happen — hence the spontaneous in the term Spontaneous Awakening of Light (SAL) that I use in my writing. (As noted in research and writings on kundalini, the SAL process is facilitated from within as one is guided to integration.)
“I read incessantly for years in order to understand what was happening to me. The authors of these books became beacons for me as they broadened my perspective and enlightened my psyche so that I might formulate a path in harmony with Spirit. (Catholic in upbringing and heritage, I left it in my youth. Later in my experience I saw how it influenced my psyche and how this impact could not be ignored. More about this in The Bliss Papers teaching entitled “Pick a Path”).
“I designed this site to help those of you who may be struggling to make sense of your own spiritual experience — no matter what your religious background, or lack thereof. My intention is to speak to you in common language, guided by my own experience of a SAL and all that I’ve read and intuited. These teachings are meant to assist anyone in their spiritual awakening process. Although each person’s spiritual journey and awakening is unique, becoming an integrated human being, and its requisite stages, are the same.
“(As mentioned earlier, a SAL simply brings on an accelerated, facilitated awakening that has attributes particular to it: in its experience you are spontaneously, sometimes abruptly, “opened up” all at once with physical and psychic side-effects that continue for an extended period of time.)
“I hope you take the time to browse through the entire site, because I know it contains some things that you will find helpful. May peace be with you and radiate throughout our world.”
Barbara Atkinson currently lives on the central coast of California.
