In the last installment of our transfiguration discussion, I described how any living being is one great interconnected organism, conducting life-generating force through its every cell–be it a microbe, a plant, an animal, an insect, a human, or a planet. This interconnected network is conducting living-light energy and promoting the evolution of every single living organism within its larger context, whether we are conscious of it or not.

But our level of consciousness does determine how much of the generous flow of life force we actually receive from this energy network. If we’re not consciously connected with it, we are doomed, like fish out of water, to struggle for basic sustenance. To exacerbate matters, when we cut ourselves off from the conducting network, we consequently also harm all the organisms and living systems that we interact with. Our lack of support triggers the demise of our fellow organisms, and that negative ripple effect triggers a continuous downward spiral into collective non-viability.

We are all dependent upon each other to maintain life-generating conductivity. Our failure to participate, to help conduct positive energy, causes all living things around us to degenerate. For example, when we cut down trees, we receive less oxygen, robbing ourselves and other oxygen-dependent organisms of our most basic sustenance. When we pollute the air, we breathe in unnatural amounts of carbon monoxide, which causes system-wide disease. When we spray methane gas on the plants we eat, we feed ourselves the very toxicity we have introduced to the earth, creating cancers instead of bringing nourishment.

The result leaves humankind gasping for life. However, our culture is so far removed from unity consciousness, from honoring the true source of our health and happiness, that we are like fish out of water, flapping and struggling and gasping for air, feeling that something is missing but not sure what. What is missing, of course, is the ocean.

How do you show someone who is hypnotized that he is hypnotized? You can’t. You can only present information and exercises that may help to dissolve the mental lull. Just as some are more easily hypnotized than others, some are more receptive to coming out of it than others. This is what the art of transfiguration offers – an opportunity to awaken from the hypnosis!

The process is purifying. It lifts the veils of misperception, clearing the way for true perception and self-actualization. When the hypnosis is broken, you can see for yourself what life is made of, you can recognize that you are designed to be a vital part of a much larger network, and you can start to reconnect with it. Seeing is the biggest leap, because with sight comes understanding, with understanding comes resolve, and with resolve comes the courage to defy the herd mentality that has led us astray and journey back to the Source.

So the goal is reconnection. Reconnection brings deep healing and, ultimately, full self-actualization: full awareness of what’s real, of what we are made of and capable of, and the ability to act accordingly. There is nothing more life-affirming than to awaken to the beauty and power of this living-light network. It’s like flipping a switch and awakening from a nightmare of doom and gloom to a whole world of possibility. This is the purpose of the art of transfiguration. Transfiguration is not an end unto itself. It is a pathway out of hypnosis to clarity.

This is why I have been like a dog with a bone on this topic. I feel this awakening from the nightmare is the most essential undertaking for us all now. If we don’t wake up, we’ll spend the rest of our lives in a losing battle with disease, weight gain, mental illness, and countless other modern ailments. We’ll forever be like fish out of water, gasping and flailing about on the floor of a boat, when all we ever needed to do is jump back into the water, which is all around us!

Transfiguration is not about becoming someone else or turning into something else. Rather, it’s a way to return to our natural element, to reconnect with the Source, to tap into its healing energy and wisdom. The goal of transfiguration is to awaken from hypnosis, to begin to feel whole again, and ultimately blossom into a full human being.

From this perspective, you can see yourself more clearly; the impulse to judge and blame falls away; forgiveness of others and of yourself comes more easily; and you calmly see the difference between the way you used to perceive the world and how you see it all now. You become, in a word, sane.