Written by Kirsti Formoso, MSc. Transpersonal Psychology, BSc. Psychology

mond meditating with light and shadows symbolising integration of light and dark life after spiritual awakening

For many on the spiritual path, we are searching for a spiritual awakening. An ultimate revealing of divine truth. A moment where something fundamental finally clicks. But what happens after that awakening? What happens once the insight arrives? And what does life look like after enlightenment?

In this article, I explore what it truly means to be spiritually awake. This journey will be different for everyone, with some people experiencing an after-glow for several weeks or years. For others, their journey is more bumpy, and their spiritual awakening leaves them confused, distressed, and wondering why on earth they spent so many years trying to get here in the first place.

Whether you're just starting out, wondering if the end goal is worth it, enjoying the after-glow of your awakening experience, or desperately seeking answers for why your awakening has left you feeling desolate, this article will support your journey forward.

This article focuses on what tends to unfold after an awakening experience. If you’re looking for a broader psychological and spiritual exploration of spiritual awakening itself, including its stages and common misunderstandings, I’ve written about that in depth in A Psychologist’s Guide to Spiritual Awakening Stages.

person in water at sunset symbolising presence of spiritual awakening

INTRODUCTION TO SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Spiritual awakening is a journey that involves self-realisation, personal transformation, and a profound reverence for the absolute truth and pure consciousness. It’s a unique and ongoing process that can be triggered by various factors, including spiritual practices, spiritual curiosity, and a desire for spiritual enlightenment.

Spiritual awakening takes many forms. Rather than being a single obvious event, it is more an unfolding, an evolution, or a transcendence of the egoic identity. It's a profound process that reveals our true nature and sparks inner transformation, leading to a deeper understanding of the spiritual journey and its significance in our lives.

In this respect, there is no after spiritual awakening. Spiritual awakening is a process that is ongoing throughout our lives.

THE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING PROCESS

The spiritual awakening process is cyclical. The various stages we go through can be thought of as an arc or a story with a beginning, middle and an end. But there is no end, we just start the cyclical journey again. this time from a higher consciousness, with greater insight, depth and understanding.

This process is ongoing, a journey or an adventure to what is true. And like all journeys, it has its ups and downs, its highs and lows. Spiritual seekers often experience a range of emotions, from fear and anxiety to joy and excitement, as they navigate the spiritual path and confront their own nature.

It includes inner turmoil, higher consciousness, and a deeper sense of connection to the physical world and divine presence. It requires patience, spiritual guidance, and a willingness to let go of previous perceptions and egoic mind patterns.

The process can be influenced by spiritual practices, such as meditation and mindfulness, which help cultivate conscious awareness and inner peace. But the most profound waypoints on the path are spiritually awakening experiences.

And it's this that I want to address today.

SPIRITUAL AWAKENING EXPERIENCES

Spiritual awakening experiences are those experiences along the spiritual path that cause a shift in our perspective. Sometimes they are the trigger that inspires our spiritual journey. Once on the spiritual path, they tend to be more frequent and come in various forms.

Spiritual awakening experiences generally fall into five categories;

Psychic
Mystical
Encounter
Unusual death-related
Enhanced “normal”

You can read more about these experiences in my article on exceptional human experiences. Here, I want to talk about life after a spiritual awakening experience because these experiences profoundly change us. And the more profound the experience, the more we need to understand what happens after spiritual awakening.

This article focuses specifically on life after a mystical or non-dual type of spiritual awakening experience.

MYSTICAL AND NON-DUAL SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Mystical, non-dual, and Kundalini awakening are a specific type of spiritual awakening that has a profound effect on us. In transpersonal psychology, these experiences are marked by:

Feelings of oneness or unity
Positive feelings like love, joy, and ecstasy
Noetic insight
Ineffable
Transcendence of time and space

The feelings of oneness and unity arise as the ego dissolves momentarily. These spiritual experiences peel away the layers of Maya, or that which we are not. For some, the experience is over within minutes, for others, it can last a long time.

Related reading: How Long do Mystical Experiences Last?

neuron symbolising spiritual awakening transformation

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

For some people, external life after spiritual awakening doesn't change much; it's their inner life that changes. This was my experience. Nothing looked any different on the outside. But my brain was completely rewired. Some people picked up on it, but it was subtle. And there was no changing career, partner, house or anything like that.

But I was prepared, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I had done a lot of work on myself by the time I had my profound, extended mystical experience. I'd already experienced many shifts in my perspective on reality. I'd been on my path for over twenty years. And still, it took me seven years to fully integrate the experience.

Life after spiritual awakening depends a lot on your spiritual awakening experience and the context. For some people, spiritual awakening comes as a complete surprise; they were not looking for it, they didn’t ask for it, it just happened. This unpreparedness can affect how it pans out, how we process it, and how we integrate the experience.

For others, who have been preparing for years and sometimes even decades, it’s a smooth, enjoyable experience, a reward for years of dedication. And still for others it comes as the great cosmic joke, for what they were searching for was there all along; they just couldn’t see it, and life after can be a little amusing.

SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE

Spiritual awakening usually ushers in some kind of perspective change. It can be a small insight, such was the case with my first mystical experience, where I knew that;

“The world is a benevolent place and it is us that make it not so.”

This small shift in perspective came with a profound sense of unconditional love and joy. It wasn’t just words; it was a deep knowing that forever profoundly changed how I see the world. This noetic insight paved the way for my second mystical experience, and with it came a complete overhaul in perspective. But as I mentioned before, not a lot changed on the outside.

In contrast, for many people, their shift in perspective is so profoundly different from their pre-awakening perspective that they no longer seem to fit in their lives. It feels as if their life is at odds with who they are now. Their partner, friends and career are in stark contrast to their new identity.

This complete shift in values, beliefs, perceptions, and perspectives can lead people to make rash decisions about big life matters like marriage, divorce, career, and home. These are matters that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Some can be irreversible. And what might feel like a great decision at the time can feel like a mistake several months down the line when the after-glow of awakening has worn off.

Any big life decisions should be given careful consideration. Perhaps it is right for you to leave a job that doesn’t support your new values and seek out new friendships that reflect your new emerging identity. But often we’re tricked by the ego into thinking we’re too special or spiritual for our old life, friendships, and careers. And before we know it, we’ve thrown it all away.

Take your time, marinate, process, and integrate. And know that you are never too spiritual for anything.

SWEETS FOR THE EGO

This is a warning. And it's a warning especially for anyone who has had a very profound spiritual awakeing of any length of time.

DO NOT LET YOUR EGO TAKE YOUR SPIRITUAL AWAKENING FOR ITSELF

Because it will, if you give it the chance. There is nothing more your ego would like than to crown itself special, chosen, the next great guru or even Jesus. This is classic spiritual bypassing.

Just because you're awakened, and you've had this profound enlightenment, does not mean that you are not still in the clutches of your ego. And the ego is cunning.

And most of all, it is cunning after spiritual awakening because it is after spiritual awakening that it is at its most vulnerable and has the most to fight for. Be warned!

Live from awakened consciousness, not from ego, and don't confuse the two. Stay grounded and humble, and know that you have just started a new journey.

Autumn forest symbolising transformation after spiritual awakening

SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IS THE BEGINNING

Many spiritual seekers spend their whole life searching for spiritual awakening, thinking it's the end of the path or a destination. Spiritual awakening is not the end of the path; it is the beginning of the path. I'm sorry to be the one to break this news ;)

It's really not about the awakening itself but what we do with it that counts. How we integrate it, how we live what we have learnt or seen, and how we manifest the divine, the sacred, and the love in this physical world.

AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT CHOP WOOD

There is a Zen saying;

“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

Today, you often hear; before enlightenment, do the dishes, after enlightenment, do the dishes. This spiritual teaching informs us that after spiritual awakening, nothing changes. Your life isn't miraculously fixed; bills still need to be paid, and difficult work colleagues still turn up for work.

Daily life continues as usual with all its ups and downs, challenges and joys, but your experience of it shifts. The “mundane” tasks are the same, but there’s an awareness, presence, or clarity after awakening that changes the quality of life.

QUANTUM CHANGE

While life on the outside doesn't change, miraculously, after a spiritual awakening, parts of our psyche can be changed forever. Miller's 2004 research documents the dramatic effects of mystical experiences and how they alter one's psyche forever. Miller noted that following a mystical experience, people's core values, priorities, and even their identity had shifted.

Perhaps the most profound transformation that Miller discovered was the abrupt ending of many of his participants' addictions and mental health problems. This post-spiritual awakening effect is now well-documented in psychedelic research and therapy.

A 2025 meta-analysis of psychedelic studies found that people who had more intense and profound mystical experiences during treatment tended to see greater improvements in mental health issues (like depression and anxiety) and addiction.

This research shows that life after spiritual awakening can be profoundly different in a positive way. But that's not the whole story. Because for some people, life after a spiritual awakening comes with challenges.

CHALLENGES AFTER SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

While a spiritual awakening experience, such as a transcendent non-dual or mystical experience, is marked by effortless joy, bliss, and ecstatic feelings, for many, the after-glow is more of an aftermath. It can take months or years to properly integrate a spiritual awakening. And sometimes that time is disruptive, disorienting, and lonely.

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

As they are catapulted back into their egoic programming with their noetic insight, it's all too much for the egoic identity to reconcile, and once again, they are taken prisoner by the ego and cut off from the divine love they know exists.

This lack of connection, beauty, and divinity is often felt as a vacuum, an unbearable emptiness, as if you've been stripped of all that gave you meaning and purpose.

This fall, often called a dark night of the soul, can be the most painful and excruciating of all post-spiritual awakening experiences. And without support, a dark night of the soul can sometimes last decades, as Saint John of the Cross documented.

SPIRITUAL CRISIS

While a dark night of the soul is a stripping away to emptiness, a spiritual crisis is the opposite. People in spiritual crisis after a mystical or spiritual awakening from meditation, shamanic experiences, and psychedelics often feel total overwhelm.

Overwhelming transpersonal experiences like visions, ego dissolution, and past-life memories disrupt daily functioning and can mimic psychosis, but carry the potential for profound healing, creativity, and psychological renewal if properly supported rather than pathologised.

KUNDALINI AWAKENING

Some people's spiritual awakening takes the form of a kundalini awakening. This is a special type of mystical experience that is accompanied by physiological symptoms. Kundalini awakening is challenging and can last several months or more.

This time after the initial awakening, it can be very destabilising, and continuing everyday life is not easy. If you are going through a kundalini awakening, more support can be found here.

LIFE AFTER A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

A 2025 research paper investigating support needs following near-death experiences, which usually include some sort of non-dual awakening, suggests that relationship strain and life disruption often occur before positive integration. They found that 70% of people experience religious or spiritual belief changes, while about 22% experience relationship difficulties or break-up and many experience career and social difficulties.

If you’re navigating challenges after a spiritual awakening and would like a grounded space to explore them, I offer one-to-one mentoring sessions. These sessions weave together psychology, mindfulness, and spiritual wisdom, helping you integrate and live from your deeper awareness.
Learn more ➜

MENTAL HEALTH AFTER SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

In 2021, I conducted a research study investigating well-being following mystical experiences. We used a mixed methods design, which means participants filled out a questionnaire, and then we interviewed them.

Looking at the psychedelic literature, we expected to see a strong relationship between increased well-being and the profoundness of mystical experiences. But our results didn't return such clear-cut benefits.

This just goes to show that sometimes the spiritual awakening process can be a bumpy ride. And like the near-death experience research demonstrated, there's often a period of adjustment following a mystical experience.

CONFUSION AND DISORIENTATION

Many of our participants experienced confusion and disorientation. Their experience was not only at odds with their understanding of life and reality, but now, their life was at odds with their experience.

Our perception of reality shifts, and old structures of meaning no longer hold true for us. Often, we have to re-evaluate what we know to be true.

The ego death that many people experience during spiritual awakened consciousness can strip away our sense of identity, our social connections, and our beliefs and values.

LACK OF PURPOSE AND MEANING

Many people find that they are no longer interested in the things that interested them before. Musicians stop playing their instruments, and artists stop creating. People sometimes lose all purpose and meaning in their lives as the old beliefs, values and frameworks fall away.

Things can feel meaningless as we wonder, What's the point of it all. As we start to see things from a more non-dual perspective, the drives of the ego seem to vanish. Nothing seems to matter anymore.

EXISTENTIAL CRISIS

The meaninglessness of ordinary life, the dissolution of ego-driven purpose, and a deep void where old identities and motivations no longer hold can create an existential crisis.

People find themselves in psychological distress, questioning the meaning, purpose, or value of their own existence and life in general. They are faced with an apparent absurdity or lack of inherent meaning in the world, which leads to feelings of anxiety, disorientation, despair, or emptiness.

LONELINES ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH

Many of my clients talk about loneliness on the path after spiritual awakening. These experiences often don’t have many places to land, and we can find ourselves in situations where even our ‘spiritual friends’ don’t get it.

I remember times when I felt lonely when I was going through my extended mystical experience. On the one hand, I felt lonely because no one around me saw the world as I did. My perception was at odds with everyone, and this put me in a world of my own, which was a lonely place.

It was also lonely to know there is only one. When you experience non-duality, and you realise you are the only thing that exists in the vastness of infinite consciousness, it is lonely. It is too much for the egoic program to comprehend. But it is the reality. Oneness is all that exists, and you are that oneness. But when your ego gets a hold of that, that is the ultimate loneliness, and existential crisis can follow.

DEPRESSIVE FEELINGS

Of course, all of this can lead to depressive thoughts and feelings. A mystical or non-dual experience is a spiritual high full of love, effortless joy, connection, unity, and noetic wisdom, but for some, it signals a crash, a desperate desire to hold on to or get back to that state. But instead, the loneliness, confusion, lack of meaning and existential crisis leave them with feelings of depression and darkness.

If you’re navigating challenges after a spiritual awakening and would like a grounded space to explore them, I offer one-to-one mentoring sessions. These sessions weave together psychology, mindfulness, and spiritual wisdom, helping you integrate and live from your deeper awareness.
Learn more ➜

meditation for integrating spiritual awakening

PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION AFTER NON-DUAL AWAKENING

Spiritual awakening experiences change our perception of the world, of ourselves, of what we know reality to be. And for this reason, they can be challenging, destabilising, and disorientating. Often, people experience emotional upheaval as unresolved issues surface, and letting go of old stuff that no longer serves becomes crucial.

This is an opportunity to grow, evolve and transform. These experiences are blessings, don't overlook them or be attached to them, but instead use them to pave your spiritual path. Spiritual transformation begins with enlightening experiences but is consolidated in the integration.

INTEGRATING SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES

Whether you're experiencing an after-glow or an aftermath, the research is clear. Integration is fundamental to personal transformation following a spiritual awakening.

Integrating spiritual experiences into daily life can be challenging, but it’s a crucial part of the spiritual awakening process. It requires a willingness to change, let go and make sense of unusual experiences. We have to learn to find ways to apply the insights and wisdom gained from these experiences to our waking lives.

We have to learn to live what we experienced. We have to reconcile that which we know ourselves to be (truth, love and light) with the everyday lived experience of moving through life with a fully intact ego.

As we integrate these experiences, we begin to experience a deeper sense of inner peace, and our connection to the world around us becomes more profound. We start to see the world in a new light, and our perception of reality is forever changed.

WHAT IS THE NEXT STAGE AFTER SPIRITUAL AWAKENING?

There isn't one! That is your ego asking this question. The ego is driven, always searching, looking for more. Not appreciating and honouring what it has found, it continues its search, keeping you busy and distracted in an endless search for the next stage, the next thing to entertain itself.

It will pull you away from this insight and out of mystical consciousness faster than you can say 'ego'. Don't be tricked. Be here now, in this stillness, and honour your non-dual altered state of consciousness.

LIFE AFTER SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

The spiritual awakening process is a journey of self-discovery and growth, allowing us to connect with our own being and universal consciousness. We start to see the world as a precious and interconnected whole, and our role in it as a human being becomes clearer. As we navigate this journey, we begin to experience intense feelings, profound sense, and a deeper meaning in life, which can be both exhilarating and challenging.

Honour your blessing and work to integrate your insights. If you are experiencing the more challenging aspects of life after spiritual awakening, I highly recommend finding a practitioner who can help you work through them. If you would like to know more about working with me, you can find more information here.

Whatever unfolds or arises, stay grounded, stay humble and remember the path is ever evolving and changing, and you are never at the end of it. Returning to love is never-ending.

Life After Spiritual Awakening: What Actually Happens and How to Navigate It