Wake Up

Unlocking Christ Consciousness: A Path for Every Soul

• Douglas James Cottrell PhD • Season 1 • Episode 64

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What does it truly mean to embody Christ Consciousness? Dr. Douglas James Cottrell tackles this profound spiritual concept by stripping away religious dogma and revealing the universal principles at its core. This consciousness isn't merely about following Jesus' teachings—it's about achieving a state of complete spiritual awareness and unconditional love that transcends all worldly limitations.

The journey begins with understanding that Christ Consciousness represents the ultimate destination for every soul. Dr. Cottrell explains that this state of being involves loving everyone unconditionally (even those difficult to love), recognizing divine guidance in all circumstances, and maintaining inner peace regardless of external chaos. Through vivid examples and spiritual insights, he illustrates how Jesus embodied these qualities—never harming others out of anger, maintaining divine awareness even during horrific persecution, and recognizing God's sovereignty in all situations.

A particularly illuminating aspect of this discussion explores being "of the world" but not "in it"—enjoying earthly experiences without becoming trapped by materialism or worldly concerns. Dr. Cottrell shares personal anecdotes that demonstrate how adopting childlike consciousness and present-moment awareness creates spiritual freedom. By releasing judgment of others, embracing each moment as sacred, and viewing life's challenges as growth opportunities rather than burdens, we gradually evolve toward Christ-like awareness.

Most powerfully, Dr. Cottrell assures listeners that Christ Consciousness isn't reserved for spiritual elites—it's the birthright and destiny of every soul. We're all progressing along the same path, with avatars and ascended masters simply further ahead on the journey. God provides all necessary lessons, but our pace depends entirely on our choices. Whether you take small steps each lifetime or eagerly "run up the escalator," you're inevitably moving toward becoming a fully self-realized spiritual being—an avatar experiencing divine consciousness in human form.

Are you ready to accelerate your journey toward Christ Consciousness? Visit douglasjamescottrell.com for self-help exercises and resources to support your spiritual evolution.

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Announcer:

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. To learn more about Dr Douglas, be sure to visit his website, douglasjamescottrellcom, where you can download self-help exercises you can do right in the comfort of your own home. And now here's your host, dr Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Hi everybody. This is Douglas James Cottrell speaking, and once again, les and I are here tonight. We're going to talk about another interesting topic or subject what's on the plate for tonight, les?

Les Hubert:

Well, tonight, Dr Douglas, we want to talk about Christ consciousness. What exactly is it, and can anyone achieve it?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, first of all, we should define it before we attempt to say we can achieve it or not. So that's a term like saying you know the universe. What is the Christ consciousness? Well, in a generic way, and so those people who are on a spiritual path, they're attempting to say that the Christ consciousness is a consciousness to be, to say that the Christ consciousness is a consciousness to be loving like Jesus, the Christ, or an awareness to come in contact with the higher dimensions of God Almighty, the angels and all the dimensions in between the earth and the heavens above, in between the earth and the heavens above. It's an awareness, to be totally aware. It's an awareness that you understand the metaphysical aspects of what Jesus did his life, in which he created miracles and did all those things that most prophets and spiritual people have some ability of doing, but he seemed to do them all in a very masterful way. So what is the Christ consciousness? Well, in a generic way, it's an awareness of love.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Unconditional love is what we're attempting to learn in the world, and that's pretty darn hard to do. Loving everybody, including those people who are not easy to love. Learning to tolerate those people who don't believe like we believe. Learning to accept those people who don't accept us and learning to find our way in a world that is mostly dark, looking for light. Jesus was a light, so to walk in his shoes, so to speak. As he said, follow me, pick up your cross and follow me. He meant pick up your life, the difficulties in your life, and follow the way I've shown you by example. You know, some people say to me, when they get to a circumstance, they say what would Jesus do in this situation, when some difficulty has befallen them?

Les Hubert:

Right.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Or some people would say well, this is what I believe Jesus was teaching, or this is what I believe Jesus wanted me to do. Okay, somewhere in there, it's you attempting to follow what you know is right. It's you attempting to follow what you know is right, and the Christ consciousness is a gathering of understanding what is the right way, what is the loving way, because the commandment that he left with us was basically to take care of one another and treat each other the same way we want to be treated. The golden rule, if you will which, by the way, the golden rule is in every of the world's great religions said a little bit differently, but it's there and it's a summary of all the commandments. It's a summary of all the spiritual teachings, it is the mission statement, if you will.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Again, if you go to the different religious doctrines and teachings, you'll find that it's a one or two line about don't do anything bad to somebody else that you wouldn't want to happen to yourself, treat other people like you want to be treated, honor other people like you want to be, etc. Etc. So if that's the case, then the Christ consciousness is being aware and being able to go through difficult times and know that God is with you all the time and that your life is guided from above. And the most important thing is not to do harm to anyone. Jesus never did harm to anyone willfully out of anger. He didn't attack anybody. He didn't beat up anybody. He didn't abuse anybody's power. There's only one time that's recounted in scripture that he got angry, and that's when he went into the temple and he found those adulterers of the temple who were exchanging money.

Les Hubert:

You might say they were doing business there, he kicked them out.

Douglas James Cottrell:

He kicked them out. And I can just see that day. You know they're all there. You know they got the exchange rates going and they're gambling and they're commodying this and they're exchanging money and you know they're making a living off other people's business, whatever they're doing, and they're exchanging money and they're making a living off other people's business, whatever they're doing, and they're in a holy place. It wasn't what they were doing was bad, it's that they were in a holy place, right yeah.

Douglas James Cottrell:

They were adulterating the spiritual sanctuary of the temple. So he walks up. He shows up. He must have been a big guy, right, he was no short guy.

Les Hubert:

He must have been pretty big right.

Douglas James Cottrell:

He was no short, short guy. He must have. He was turning tables on, he was flipping the tables over and he cleared him out of there.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Okay, and I thought about that. You know there was. There were several of them and one of him. So what was going on in the minds of those people? That he, he, he, the money changers? They knew they were in the wrong, they knew he was right and so they fled.

Douglas James Cottrell:

And people who are in the wrong, people who know they're doing something illegal, illicit, you know, naughty, they will run because they know that the person who is standing up for righteousness' sake has righteousness on their side. And that is the only time that I think it's recounted in the Bible where Jesus actually flexed his muscles and basically chased away the bad guy, so to speak. But he didn't do it out of anger, in retaliation to physical pain or attack to himself. He did it because it was an outrageous act of blasphemy and adulterating the temple. Now, later on, when he was arrested, he went peaceably when he was tortured and went through that mock trial, he wasn't angry, he didn't swear and jump up and down, surrendered and he said as the judges said to him one day or at that day you know, we have the power of life and death over you.

Douglas James Cottrell:

And he responded for the first time I think it says it was his first time as trial said no, you don't. God has the power of life and death over me, you don't. So the christ consciousness is to understand that the power of God Almighty, the greater consciousness, is what foreshadows your life, surrounds your life, is how you go through your life, not by circumstances outside of you, not by different people around you or outside of you, but by God Almighty. After all, you ended up in that circumstance by the will of God, not by different people around you or outside of you, but by God Almighty. After all, you ended up in that circumstance by the will of God. If you will, you're in a circumstance that you're there to learn something, if you will, and you're there and saying, okay, how did I get myself here? How do I get out of this? Okay, pray for solutions, for opportunities for people to come to assist you and help you out of it, but you have to get out of this yourself.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Early on, before, there might have been an indication like listen, uh, douglas, you know you're about to get in a little jeopardy here, you know, and you go like I'll be okay. And then, bam. Well, that first step might have been a teeny, tiny one, but it was on a slippery slope. And now you ended up at the end of the first step, the first intention. For instance, you're in battle and it looks like you're going to be killed and you wondered how did I get here? Well, one day you went up to the recruiter's door. You opened the door and you took that step inside and from that moment on, that was the path to end up to where you are now in combat, fearful of your life, kill or be killed, that kind of thing.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So an aware person says, okay, this is the first step. What's the ultimate conclusion? And you don't dismiss that, what might happen? You know your feelings, your intentions. You don't dismiss this as, oh well, that can't happen, that won't happen to me. You say no, no, if I take this step here, I'm about to enter that world. Okay, and then, whatever happens in that world, you're in that world because you've chosen. You took that first step, whether it goes into the business world, whether you become a surgeon and you're, you know, saving people's lives. You got blood all over your hands Somewhere, someplace back in that first step, you went to university and you took a step into becoming a medical doctor or a surgeon. First step led you to ultimately being there with somebody's body there and in need of surgery, and you're on the spot. You can save their life, or perhaps not, but an aware person has realized that first step. Okay, we were going to say something less.

Les Hubert:

Yeah well, I was curious about what Jesus meant when he said you know, it's okay to be of the world, but don't be in the world. Is that what helped him to maintain his level of consciousness?

Douglas James Cottrell:

I'll let you know when we're right back after this.

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Seriously In this day and age. Ready Mm-hmm. 519-471-1110. Call from anywhere in the country If you need more info. I found his website too it's douglasjamescotrellstorecom.

Les Hubert:

So we're back with Dr Douglas. So, dr Douglas, as we mentioned, as I asked you before to be of the world as opposed to being in the world. Is that how Jesus?

Douglas James Cottrell:

was able to maintain his advanced level of Christ consciousness. I couldn't possibly tell you what was in the mind of Jesus or what he did. I can only surmise or answer the question when they interpret the words he was saying. So to be of the world or in the world could be. To be of the world means you're a free spirit, you love the world, and to be in the world means that you're being controlled by the world. You become somewhat of a materialistic person in the world. The world is temporal. Your life here is finite.

Douglas James Cottrell:

To be of the world means you're worldly, you're going to live forever as a, a spiritual being, but enjoy all of the world now. There are many different ways to interpret that, but this just comes to my mind. As you say, to be of the world is to be part of the world and enjoy the world. Be part of the success of the world, enjoy the dominance over the world as a human being, as a spiritual being in a human body, exactly, but don't get caught up in the world. You know, 100 years from now, all the people that are in the world today, almost all of them, will be gone, wow.

Les Hubert:

Yikes.

Douglas James Cottrell:

If you look at the world now, what's really important? This moment that you're listening to this podcast, this moment that you're listening to this podcast, this moment that you're taking your next breath, or this moment there's somebody sitting beside you or you're going to meet somebody and you're going to engage in an interaction with them A comfortable, loving one, or an enjoyable one. That's important. How did you some? Now Nobody's going to remember this moment, true, so it's better to be of the world and, in other words, enjoy the world, because the big um let me call it the big reality is time, your lifetime.

Douglas James Cottrell:

The deception is that you think you have all kinds of time. You don't. You only have this moment. And for whatever time you have in your life, if you strive to enjoy your life like you are when a little kid, if you strive to enjoy your life like you are when a little kid see little kids, they don't worry about mortgages or rent or their education and what kind of job they're going to get, or who said what, or what kind of confrontation they're dealing with, or somebody said something to them or somebody gave them a hand gesture or somebody called them a name. They don't think about that stuff. They play, and that's the secret of spiritual comfort, is to be like little children, is to play. Oh, you want to use my ball and toy? Sure, okay. Want to play? Sure, okay, I got to go home now.

Les Hubert:

Okay, see you Right yeah, they just roll with the punches. See you tomorrow. Yeah, see you Right. Yeah, they just roll with the bunches.

Douglas James Cottrell:

See you tomorrow. Yeah, so to have that kind of, in the moment, childlike consciousness, you're going to be happy, otherwise you're going to be worried about. What did that person mean at the store when I was? Did they overcharge me? Did I get a good value? Why did I have to do this and why do you know who cares? Who cares? And if you ask yourself all that time at the time, right, who cares?

Les Hubert:

so somebody you know, beeped their horn at you who?

Douglas James Cottrell:

cares. Yeah, okay, I remember. And since I was going up the highway and I was going fast and somebody changed lanes and they cut me off in front, I was livid.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You know they should have saw me coming. Why did they cut me off? Whatever? I pulled over, they were now in the left lane. I pulled over to the middle lane and I came up beside them. I I wasn't racing them or anything, I just came up and I was looking over at them. I was thinking you so-and-so what? And I looked at them. They were oblivious to me. They didn't know that they cut me off. They didn't see me. I was in their blind spot and from that moment on in my life, when that ever happened to me, I always say they must be in a hurry.

Douglas James Cottrell:

They didn't see me, I've done the same thing. God bless them, and I step on the brake a little bit and I give them a little distance.

Les Hubert:

Well, that was very Buddhist of you.

Douglas James Cottrell:

A truth is truth, no matter what religion you are. That was a Zen moment, for sure, and it was a revelation to me. When I pulled up beside them, I looked over and I was ready to give them a dirty look and they didn't even know I was there. Yeah, I've been there and that was a wake up for me. I was in the wake up right then and all of a sudden I began to realize.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So now, when people are on the highway and you see those cars ahead, they're starting to change lanes, whatever, and they're doing crazy stuff. Speed up, step on the brake and give them a little room. Yeah, I had the experience once going up the road. It was a snowy evening. There was a little sports car. He was flicking his lights behind me and and I could see him changing lanes as he was approaching my car, I moved over to the right hand middle lane again and they went by me. I said they're gonna end up in a ditch. Okay, 25 minutes later, the lights are in the distance, you know flicking away the emergency lights. Oh no, oh sure, the lights are getting brighter I can see I can see two headlights shining up into the into the sky.

Douglas James Cottrell:

It's at night and, sure enough, here's his little red car over on his side in the meridian. Oh boy, so did I cause that to happen. Was that a prediction or was that just common sense? But when you're out there and you see these things, this is a situation in life where a person who is aware you change lanes, you step on the brake, you give somebody space, you give them a break, so to speak. Maybe they have to go to the washroom, maybe they're in a hurry, maybe they're on their way to an emergency, maybe they've got a family circumstance, you don't chase them and you don't send negative thoughts their way.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Even if they're obnoxious and they're wild and they're reckless drivers or who knows what the circumstances in their life, that's their business. My father once said you know everybody's driving their car. You know, and they're always trying to tell everybody else how to drive their car. Right, they should be over there, they should turn on their blinker, they should do this, they should. And he said well, everybody should mind their own business and drive their own car, but be aware of everybody else's car.

Les Hubert:

Can anyone, Dr Douglas, can anyone achieve Christ consciousness? Is it achievable for just anyone out there, or is there only for a special few that can reach that level?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, we're all going to get there. That's why we're here. That Christ consciousness. It can be reduced to a saying of we are going to become a self-realized spiritual being in a physical form. Wow, we are going to become an avatar, a spiritual being in a physical form, as was Jesus the Christ and others who have achieved avatar status. So yes, we are.

Les Hubert:

So was he sort of a way-shower for us, just like Sai Baba and people like that?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Any avatar in the world. Muhammad was ascended. Moses was somewhat of an avatar, if you will. He had great powers and ability, same as all other prophets. Remember, if you look at all the prophets, modern or historical, they all had communication with God. They all had spiritual healing ability. They all could see the future. They all could prophesize. They had important roles in their lives to live. So are we going to get there? Yes, because it's our destiny. It's why we're here. We're all on the same path. These prophets, avatars, ascended masters and, uh, beings of great awareness, where are they? They're down the path, a little further than we are, that's all.

Douglas James Cottrell:

That's the only difference oh, okay so, yes, we're going to get there because that's where we're headed. We're going to get there because that's where we're headed. We're going to go along kicking and screaming. Sometimes Karma is going to bounce us from one side of the road to the other and the cosmic forces are going to give us a little kick in the pants to get us down the path. We can't stay still because we have to get down the path. Should we be taking our time or does God have control of that? We?

Les Hubert:

can't stay in still because we have to get down the path. Should we be taking our time, or does God have control of that? Or is it something that's just going to happen automatically?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, as we've said before, Les, god provides the university, god provides the lessons, god provides the classes, all the needs that we need to be educated. That's what God provides. It's up to us whether we take advantage of it or not, sooner or later we're going to have to do that, but God doesn't make us do anything.

Douglas James Cottrell:

I once said as a child God must be a patient child or I must be a patient God. Look at all the things we're screwing up, all the time we're making mistakes. You know, I said God must be really patient. So in the end is that God provides everything, all the circumstances, the world, if you will, and we get to choose if we're going to take a few steps forward every lifetime or if we're going to run up an escalator, if we're going to be really desirous to advance spiritually. But God doesn't want us to do anything. God provides everything. It's up to us to want, it's up to us to make that decision through free will and free choice to become a perfect, self-realized, fully realized spiritual being While we're here in the world, that we might go and join the higher dimensions above and become an avatar, a godlike, being fully realized as a soul.

Les Hubert:

That was great. Thank you very much, dr Douglas, for another great podcast and we hope to see you all very soon.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Again, my friends. Tonight we're talking about the Christ consciousness, which is a path, a destination, an end to where you will be at some time in the future. You will become a fully realized spiritual being by going through all the life lessons, challenges and experiences here in the world, learning to love them. And when you love the world so much, when you love everything in the world, that's when you can leave and you will become an ascended master yourself. You are on the path.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You're listening to this podcast. You're listening to us in the wake-up because you've been drawn here. We have some information that might be helpful to you. You're going to add that to the record. You're going to get information and you're going to live your life through all your experiences. But I can assure you you are on the path to becoming an ascended master, whatever that means. Eventually you'll understand everything, you'll be aware and as such, you'll become an avatar, a spiritual being, the most important wonderful spiritual experience you can possibly have as a physical human being. Good night, my friends, until next time. Thank you to all the listeners out there in the Wake Up audience. If you have any suggestions for a future or upcoming podcast you'd like to have Les and I address. Drop us a line at info at douglasjamescottrellcom. Until next time, it's great to see you in the wake-up class. Take care, my friends. God bless.

Les Hubert:

If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you will be notified when a new episode is posted. God bless and produced by Douglas Matthew Cottrell. For more information about Dr Douglas' self-improvement classes, books and other related products, please visit his website at douglasjamescottrellcom. The Wake Up is copyrighted by Douglas James Cottrell 2021, all Rights Reserved.