People often ask, “How do I move beyond mere intellectual knowledge about God and experience God?” Put another way, “If God is real, how does the Divine communicate with me?”

Paul Smith, author of Integral Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve, offers a path to an ever-deepening experience of God. By focusing on four centers of spiritual knowing that God has gifted us with, Smith says we can move beyond mere intellectual knowledge about God and experience a real relationship with God—the same type of relationship Jesus had with his Father while on earth. Like Jesus, through quiet meditation and times of being alone with God, we can experience direct and divine Presence in our lives.

The four spiritual centers Smith suggests we focus on as an entryway into a deeper experience of God are these:

• The Heart. The heart is the radiant center of the loving presence of God. When we focus on being present to God and ourselves in our heart-space, we can experience a deep connection with the energy of love found there. Some say our soul is a small glowing light in our hearts. The warmth we feel when we place our hands on our chest near our heart is literally the Light of Christ within us. It’s not so much being aware of your heart, but being aware from your heart. In the heart, we experience the Divine love of the Beloved.

• The Gut.  Have you ever heard someone say they have a “gut instinct”? It’s true, because the gut is the source of intuition, creativity, and courage. It’s the place of our True Self in God—where we realize we are made in the image and likeness of the Creator.  It’s like a spiritual womb where God is constantly creating us. There we can access our deepest identity of God Being One within Us. We might say we’re pregnant with God and God’s incarnating the Divine in and through us.

• The Feet.  Like the roots of a tree that dig deep into the soil, our feet are the part of the body that grounds us. When we place our feet flat on the floor and notice the strength and stability they provide, this grounding draws us back to the present moment. In spiritual practice and throughout a busy day, we sometimes fly high off into the clouds. By focusing on our feet, we reconnect with ourselves. Placing our feet on the floor or earth brings us back to the here-and-now. We literally, “Find our feet.” We can then draw the energy from the earth up into the rest of our body to recharge ourselves.

• The Mind.  The typical language of our head is thought. The head is probably the most familiar to all of us. But to experience deeper spiritual knowing we have to reach deeper than just our normal, mental thoughts. We need to clear our minds to be open to receiving God’s wisdom. The best way to do that is to first access the heart-space. Getting in touch with the radiating heart-energy of warmth and love can produce deep peace. We can then move from the heart to the head with a clearer mind because of the power of the radiating heart. It’s as if the mind is a glass filled with water, calmed by the connection with the loving heart. When the mind is cleared, God’s wisdom can speak to us. We might hear a simple loving word or phrase. An image or metaphor may arise. We can even enjoy a gentle and loving conversation with God, all of which, if grounded in love, we can trust is a gift from the Creator.

To experience the mind-body-spirit connection, click on the link below and enjoy a twelve-minute guided meditation.

Open your heart, feel your gut, find your feet, let your mind connect with your heartspace.

Experience God’s wisdom as your mind, body, and spirit connect with the Divine.

Mind-Body-Spirit Meditation Link

—brian j plachta
brianplachta.net