My guest this week is psychologist Dr. Steve Taylor, author of the new book, The Adventure: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Awakening (affiliate link).

Topics we discussed included:

• The practical components of “enlightenment” or “spiritual awakening”
• Commonalities across different spiritual traditions
• The unease and anxiety created by a sense of separateness from the world and others
• The fundamental background unease humans tend to feel
• The hijacking of spiritual awakening by the ego
• Aligning yourself with the organic impulse toward growth and greater awareness
• The process of waking up and transforming through intense suffering
• The naturalness of waking up, which often happens spontaneously
• Disidentification with the thought mind as the first step in spiritual awakening
• The difference between identifying vs. deidentifying with a worry
• The power of emptying one’s mind
• The relative amount of time spent in absorption, abstraction, and awareness
• A “gentle mental nudge” to spend more time in awareness
• Accepting your non-acceptance and embracing your imperfections

Steve Taylor, PhD, is the author of many 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.

He blogs for Scientific American and Psychology Today.

Visit him online at his website.