Dr. Neil's Spiritual Awakening to Non-Duality
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You may have heard about spiritual awakening. Do you know someone who is living it? Join us as Dr. Neil Schuitevoerder describes the lived experience of an advanced stage of human consciousness and shares insight for seekers of all traditions. Dr. Neil will speak from the direct experience of Being, Brahman, Sunyata, or Pure Consciousness as he transmits Non-dual Reality to you -- non-dual space/time, non-dual thinking, non-dual love, the non-dual body, and his yogic abilities to travel the cosmos, move through the bardos and, at the same time, live as a psychologist, husband, father, and grandfather. His experience dispels many myths about awakening. He will be interviewed by his partner, Dr. Connie Zweig, author of Meeting the Shadow, Romancing the Shadow, Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path, and the award-winning book The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul.
Dr. Neil's Spiritual Awakening to Non-Duality
Enlightened Perception: Expanding the Senses in the Subtle Bodies
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Dr. Neil describes how, since his unity with everything has stabilized, the sensory perceptions of his astral, mental, and celestial bodies have clarified. Each of them works differently. With nondual awareness, he is in union with everything but can separate himself out to see through walls, communicate with deceased people and masters in higher planes, and explore the galaxy. He emphasizes that these are not siddhis, or yogic powers, but the natural result of his expanding awareness of Oneness with the subtle realms.
Greetings. Welcome to the podcast. Today we're going to talk about enlightened perception. What happens as our consciousness evolves to our senses? How do we perceive things differently? Does perception change as we awaken? Okay, Dr. Neil.
SPEAKER_01So I get feedback from people who say, how can you know these things? How can you say you see these things? That's because with awakening, there is and there are different levels of awakening. There are the senses grow, different senses become available. So for example, if I'm looking at a tree right now, I notice that I'm in this body, and I'm in the tree, and I notice they all the devas and the angels and the beings that are manifesting the tree, just like there are a host of beings manifesting this body. So that's visible to me. So perception in a fundamental way is built on this sense of unity and separateness from the unity, the ability to be separate and observed.
SPEAKER_00So you're in union and separate at the same time.
SPEAKER_01Correct. And that's the only way that perception works because otherwise you're you're just one, you're just a unified being.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I always wondered. It's like a blob. Everything becomes a blob. How do you make boundaries?
SPEAKER_01Right. Where should I begin?
SPEAKER_00Um well, how did your perception evolve personally for you? How did this unfold?
SPEAKER_01Well, I'd like to go back to Dr. Mitt, the man who used to do readings for the pendulum and would look into my soul and tell me things that were about my soul, about my body. And so I became aware that there are different levels of perception that are possible with uh focus. And so um I began to do the same thing, which is use a pendulum and ask questions. So, and I got answers, yes, no, maybe, uh, or various things and that opened me up to the possibility of visually looking at things and seeing things.
SPEAKER_00So it started visually, it started with what you call knowing.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it's uh well no knowing is uh an enlightened state, it's a state of non-duality. There's no subject or object in knowing, and there's no process, it's just the state of the divine. The divine knows everything, is everything. So knowing manifests it through the divine as the knower. The knower separates itself from the objects of knowing and is able to perceive them in different ways.
SPEAKER_00And then what happened with your other senses?
SPEAKER_01Uh well, the visual one is the primary one, but auditory also woke up, and and uh sensational feeling woke up as well.
SPEAKER_00So these senses woke up to the themselves and and so you so the for the visual sense, you're looking first at the subject-object in duality. Correct. You're looking at me or at the bed behind us or at the screen in front of us, right? And then what happened?
SPEAKER_01Well, let me describe my present experience, it'll be a little bit easier to relate this. So I'm subject to object, I'm looking at a war here. There's the sense of self, and there's the war as an object, and then I'm one with the war, and I'm not separate from the war, and I'm looking through the war, I'm seeing the studs and the internal mechanisms of the war, and uh that's a subtle vision, and now I'm looking through the wall to what's outside of the war, um, and and so I'm seeing boats because I'm living with in a harbor, so I'm seeing boats here, and uh I'm seeing people in boats with not with the physical eyes, but with the astral eyes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, talk about the astral eyes.
SPEAKER_01So the astral body, which is the subtle body, has eyes and ears and feelings as well as the physical. So, for example, um a friend of mine, Barbara, died about a year ago. And she's living on the mental plane, one of the astral planes, and uh we can talk to each other uh because there's a common feeling thought capacity to communicate. Um, and I can see her on the on the astral plane, in the mental plane. Okay, but we're confusing those two planes, so there's astral eyes, astral eyes, seeing seeing the boats outside, and if I expand my awareness to the mental body, so I'm seeing the whole city in Los Angeles here, and it's one unified city, and if I expand it to the to the heart chakra or the heart level, it's not the actual chakra, but it's the level of the body, so I can see the uh the world, the planet, both from the center of the planet and looking at the planets, and I can see these enlightened beings who are sending love and and well-being to the planet and from the outside as well as from the core.
SPEAKER_00So if you go to the astral body, you have astral eyes, and are there other senses with the astral body?
SPEAKER_01Yes, all five senses exist. So, for example, if I go to see my mother who passed away about a year ago, is it about a year ago? So uh we can talk to each other, so I see her visually, I can hear her, I can communicate through thoughts and feelings, uh, we can have a conversation, and uh that's because I'm I'm one with the astral field, so I'm not separate from the astral field.
SPEAKER_00So I think the union or what the the oneness, the unity is often thought of as just on the level of consciousness, which is kind of abstract. But what what you're describing is it's actually part of the material body and all of the subtle bodies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so my physical body is here in this room, my physical body is the size of this room, my physical body is huge, much bigger than this room. My physical body, in fact, is everywhere, it's non but unbounded. Um, and you know, and I'm one with everything on the physical plane. So that's the sense and the experience. The physical body contains the entire cosmos, it's all inside of me.
SPEAKER_00So we did a podcast about that, and then your astral body emptied out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then you know, I found at one point that the physical body was full of everything, and then um it emptied out, it became transparent, became empty, and I left the physical body and went to the astral plane and was visiting different people and places on the astral plane, and eventually I got to realize that I am one with the astral plane as well as the physical plane.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the visiting it was no longer an accurate description. You weren't traveling from here to there, right?
SPEAKER_01It was all in you, it's all in me, and same thing for the mental plane, the Buddhic plane, which is the heart plane, the atomic plane, which is the throat plane, and the celestial planes, which are the adna, this awareness.
SPEAKER_00So, what can you see or taste or smell or feel with the mental body?
SPEAKER_01Well, the mental body um works on thoughts. So when someone is operating in the mental body, is either conscious of it or out of the out of the physical body, out of the mental body is creating thought forms, kind of like you know, the little clouds that you see in the comic strips above, you know, there's a there's a thought in a form. So you know, so the mental body is um is creating all kinds of uh thought forms that communicate with somebody who could pick up those thought forms.
SPEAKER_00And is that you? Can you pick them up?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So what sense are you using in your mental body?
SPEAKER_01It's an interesting thing because it's visual, it's auditory, because it translates into the words that are expressed, and it's tactile, it's feeling. So you know, so it has those are the three primary senses that are awake. My sense of taste is not fully awake, and the sense of smell is not fully awake yet, but those those other senses are are all awake.
SPEAKER_00And so if your sensory system in the mental body is communicating with Barbara, who's not on the physical plane, she's on the mental plane. She is. What's the sensory experience like of that?
SPEAKER_01Well, energetically, I feel her presence. So there's a feeling level, just like there's a feeling level, sensation in the physical body. There's a feeling level of Barbara. In fact, now we're talking about her, she's kind of she's here with us. So, and she's inside of my consciousness, not separate from my consciousness. And she's saying that she loves me, and I love her too. Okay, and that's what when I say she's saying it, she's thinking it, but it comes, it's translated into uh vocalization.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so if if it's the same nature or consciousness of everything that's in your body, and you're not separate from it, is that also true in all the subtle bodies? So is everything in the astral plane, in your astral body, in the astral plane, the mental plane?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I used to see this as I am one with everything in the physical plane, and that was everything. So that awareness of being one with everything felt like everything, felt like you know, there was nothing outside of me. Uh, everything was one with me, was inside of me. Well, actually, not either inside or outside, but with with was me.
SPEAKER_00Has that changed?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I became aware that there are other planes besides the physical one. There's the astral plane, the mental plane, the Buddhic plane, the active plane, and the celestial where the gurus and the enlightened beings and the gods and the devas live. And it's possible to actually be talking to them on that plane. So it's quite important to actually perceive them inside of oneself or as part of oneself and communicate with them.
SPEAKER_00And so, how do you experience that? So I know you have a couple of teachers on the celestial plane.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I say Swamiji is one of my teachers. I wouldn't say gurus, I say teachers because I don't really have gurus. Um we're in conversation quite often. So we talk to each other.
SPEAKER_00Um so the celestial, your celestial body is connected with him. He's on the his con he's dead, his consciousness is on the celestial plane.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_00And what's the sensory experience of that communication?
SPEAKER_01Well, the it's the communication is verbal, so it's listening, the communication is visual, so it has a form that's emotional. Communication is content, is content. I could see his enlightenment, like he's he's connected with other great beings. Uh he's invisible, he's um visible to me.
SPEAKER_00Does he look like he did when he was alive?
SPEAKER_01Well, he's had many lifetimes and many and been reincarnated many times. And so what I'm experiencing is what I'd call the soul, not necessarily the physical form or the form that I knew him with the last.
SPEAKER_00Ah, so how do you recognize him if it's not a visual likeness?
SPEAKER_01Recognition happens on different levels. So on an astral level, there's a feeling, so a sensation. So every person gives off an aura. So you your aura is my field right now. I'm feeling your aura. So the same thing applies on the uh with people who passed on. So they they have an aura, they have an energy field, and one can connect with it as long as one is able to emulate it and is able to focus on it.
SPEAKER_00So, are there other masters you connect with on the celestial plane through your celestial senses?
SPEAKER_01Yes, there's one on another planet in another galaxy. So, in other words, when you get beyond time space, there is no um separation. So there's one that has been with me through seven lifetimes, and uh he's been guiding my consciousness and uh helping me unfold.
SPEAKER_00And so, what's the sensory experience of connecting with him?
SPEAKER_01Well, it's it's symbolic right now because um on his planet, he is the leader, so the political and the spiritual are combined, they're not separate kind of like what what was happening in Tibet with the government and the spiritual head with the Dalai Lama. So he's the head of the planet and uh, yeah, he's a male.
SPEAKER_00Is he human?
SPEAKER_01No, he's not a human being in the same form as us, but there are many beings in many different dimensions, so uh, and he's able to communicate with me, although he generally refers me to other people for things he's he's a very enlightened and very aware being.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so we've kind of gone up the planes physical, emotional, mental, heart, planet, universe. And it seems like what happened for you is that each one kind of emptied out. You experienced emptiness, physical emptiness, mental emptiness, astral emptiness, and then they and then something kind of turned and came back into your body with the oneness on these different planes. First, it was going out, and then there was this turn. A friend of ours called it the 180, and it and consciousness started to come back in.
SPEAKER_01Right. So the first wave looks like like this: the first wave and wave inwards. I'm with my body, I'm aware of the physical body, I'm aware of the empty mind, I'm aware that the ego is dissolving or dissolved, and that this mouth is speaking without any permission on my part. The words are coming out without any kind of thought behind them, and then I'm kind of conscious there of the emptiness that there's an emptiness uh beyond the ego. I call it the first emptiness, and uh, and that emptiness expands its awareness or expands awareness to looking at the galaxy, which I seem to have spent some time doing and seem to be a part of my awareness. And the galaxy is uh is me, and I am also observing it at the same time, so it has a sound to it, a rumbling sound, and it has a visual aspect to it, and it has a astral aspect to it, and energetic, and it has a feeling, it's a feeling of love to it. So, you know, um and behind the galaxy is myself, or behind this oneness with the galaxy is the sense of self that is empty, that is beyond time and space. So when one gets to a place of being beyond time and space, there's nothing there, it's empty, so it's the source of all, but it's also empty, which is paradoxical, but that's its nature, and the it's empty potential, empty fullness, empty void, yeah. It has all those vacuum state, all those qualities, and and its great gift is the fact that if one is one with that aspect of the divine, um, then anything in the cosmos is available to one's perceptions because one can actually go into time and or space, to a point in time or space, and be there without limit. So there's no I can be on another in another galaxy on another planet with a being who's superconscious, because there's there's the capacity to move from that emptiness, from no time, no space, to a point in time and space.
SPEAKER_00So before we close, I want to make a distinction with cities or yogic powers, because some people will be hearing this and thinking that you have yogic cities. Um and it sounds to me like what you're saying is that this is all possible because everything is consciousness or emptiness or Brahman or whatever we call it. And that you because you are all of your in all of your bodies identified with that, everything is available to your perception. But for someone who has a different kundalini process, let's say, opens the sixth or seventh chakra, but doesn't actually have that grounding, they could have some of these experiences in an isolated way, right? That would it would be a different kind of um evolution of perception.
SPEAKER_01I'm not sure what your question is.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think there's a risk of people hearing this podcast as, oh, he has cities.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. So what's the difference between someone who has superpowers, which the uh teachers warn us against focusing on, and somebody who's awake and has superpowers or super abilities? Um the difference is do you are you one with the object of perception? Do you get to a point where you're one with them either because you're observing something first as duality, and then you go to monism or oneness, or because you're in oneness and then you actually separate yourself and you have a sense of duality. So, you know, cities from that level are actually very positive because they actually help you to be more conscious and more aware of the fact that the universe is one being. One, in fact, one of 50, let's see, one of 53 beings, our universe, and you are one with that being, you are an aspect of that being, you are a manifestation of that being. So that's the difference between cities that are separate and that take you away from that connection, and cities that are an expression of that, or on the other hand, can lead you to that.
SPEAKER_00Okay, and do you have any sense of where your extra sensory experience is going from here?
SPEAKER_01Seems to continue to unfold all the time. So first wave was inwards to Brahman and emptiness and the divine, and the second wave was back into the physical body where everything was in my physical body, and uh, and then the next wave was that I am one on not just on the physical plane, but the astral, mental, the buddhic, the i think these planes. I'm one on with the plane, which is divine creation. So we'll see. Maybe I'll get to a place where it'll turn around again and there'll be another wave of some other manifestation. I don't believe there's any end to consciousness or development of consciousness or perception. Now, perception is uh it's really just about being able to separate yourself from the oneness that you know and experience something that's there on you know whatever level it is.
SPEAKER_00Okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much.