Steve Taylor - Waking From Sleep: Why Awakening Experiences Occur And How To Make Them Permanent

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starring Louise L. Hay & Friends
(available as a 1-DVD program and an expanded 2-DVD set)
Watch the trailer at: www.LouiseHayMovie.com

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starring Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
(available as a 1-DVD program and an expanded 2-DVD set)
Watch the trailer at: www.DyerMovie.com

***

AWAKENING TO THE SECRET CODE OF YOUR MIND:
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All of the above are available at your local bookstore, or may be ordered by visiting:

Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com
Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au
Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Hay House South Africa:www.hayhouse.co.za
Hay House India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Copyright 2010 by Steve Taylor

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010922254

ISBN: 978-1-4019-2870-4
Digital ISBN: 978-1-4019-2948-0

13 12 11 10 4 3 2 1
1st edition, December 2010

Printed in the United States of America

To Pam

From the Editor: To our North American readers, please note that for the most part, we have maintained the British style of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax of the original text in order to preserve the editorial intent of the author, who hails from the United Kingdom.

This book has had a long life in fact, I began developing its basic ideas and writing a first version as long ago as 1996. That was also when I first began to collect reports of awakening experiences. I would like to thank all of the friends, acquaintances, students and strangers who have provided the reports I have used in this book, including: Janice Hartley, Valerie Massey, Sandy Geddes, Paul Heaton, Liesbeth Coomans, Duncan Heath, Colin Stanley, Mark Sullivan, Mary Gant, Tony Wright, Richard Arkwright, Carrie Mitchell, Pamela Smith (my wife), Dave Brock, Melford Bramble, Kevin Hinchcliffe, and Tony Lomax and Ken Garrod at the Buddhist Society of Manchester. There I would also like to thank the spiritual teacher Russel Williams, who has been the source of many experiences of satsang for me over the years. Several of the experiences Ive quoted were given me by my students at the University of Manchester CCE, whose names I unfortunately did not keep a record of. So, in lieu of personal thanks, I would like to offer collective gratitude to all of the students who attended my courses on the psychology of happiness between 2005 and 2009.

I am also grateful to Paul Marshall (author of Mystical Encounters with the Natural World), who closely read the manuscript and made many helpful suggestions, and to my agent Bill Gladstone, for his enthusiasm and help. Thanks also to Mike Daniels, Les Lancaster and everyone else involved in the transpersonal psychology courses at Liverpool John Moores University. But most of all, Im grateful to my wife Pam, whom coincidentally I met the very same week I began this book, 13 years ago.

Steve Taylor

Im 22 years old. I left university a few months ago and have a temporary job at the local social security office, processing benefit claims from people who are too ill to work. Today Im reading through the file of a 22-year-old girl who has died of brain cancer. I read the letters from her parents: the first one explains that shes had to leave her job and wants to claim sickness benefit; the second, a few weeks later, says that her condition has deteriorated quickly and she probably wont be returning to work. Then there is a final letter, from this morning, saying that she has died. The case shocks me, partly because the girl was my age and lived quite close to me. I feel as if I should know her but dont recognize the name. Reading the final letter from her parents is heartbreaking and I feel almost like crying. But at the same time it makes me realize how lucky I am to be alive myself. It could easily have been me; its really just a matter of luck that it wasnt. It makes me realize that you can never take life for granted, that an illness or an accident can take you away at any moment, and because of that every moment is precious.

That feeling of freedom and gratitude is still inside me when I leave work. I usually catch the bus, but today its warm and sunny and I decide to walk home. As I walk along the busy main road I look up at the sky, at the gigantic foaming white clouds with the smooth blue spaces between them and sunlight spraying across them. It seems so beautiful that I cant turn my attention away, and as I carry on looking the scene becomes even more beautiful. It seems to have taken on an extra dimension of reality: I can see more detail and perspective, the spaces between the clouds seem fuller and deeper, and the clouds themselves seem to have an intense presence that wasnt there before. The whole sky seems a fantastical landscape, full of bizarre shapes and beautiful colours. The white of the clouds and the blue of the sky are the purest and most perfect colours I have ever seen.

Now I have stopped walking and Im so amazed by the beauty that I dont care that passing drivers must be looking at me and thinking Im mad. Theres a feeling of ecstasy building up inside me, as if the energy inside me is moving softly and slowly and intensifying. And now as I gaze at the scene something else happens: I can sense something beneath the clouds and the sky and the sunlight. The apparent separateness between them dissolves away. They are not separate things but expressions of the same force, a kind of ocean of radiant energy which underlies them and flows through them. They are all one, and the force that makes them one is so harmonious and benevolent that I feel that the world is a miraculously beautiful and meaningful place.