Here is a list of what it is that happens for a person who is awakening to the truth of who they are and how life works. The steps that go from awakening to functioning as a conscious creator.

Initially, people feel something. It is an experience of something invisible; they’re feeling something that is new, exciting and unfamiliar. It can happen when they visit Sunrise Ranch, and often does. They can experience it in their classroom at school when they understand something new for the first time, in their family when they have a heart-opening exchange, or when they’re walking out in nature and see a rainbow, a butterfly, or a beautiful vista. They feel something that’s grander than the everyday experience that they’ve had. And it moves them. They feel something and then might say, “I want that; I know that feeling.” Or “I need more of that in my life.” So at first, it’s a feeling.

The second thing they do is look for it. They look for where else they can get that feeling, not because they’re greedy but because they liked it so much and they know it was real. “I know it’s out there. I’m going to go looking for this. I’m going to look for it in the eyes of the people where it happened before. I might take another walk in nature to see if I can experience it again.” So first they feel it and then they go looking for it. Have you ever done that? “I wish I could get that feeling again,” and you go looking for how the heck that happened, trying to re-create the experience. I know I have done that more than once in my life.

So they feel it, they look for it, and the third thing they do is they find it. They find it in a configuration of people. They find it in a place where it seems consistent. At Sunrise Ranch, people who visit often ask, “What is this place? I’m finding something here I can’t explain, but I know that I’ve been looking for it.” And sometimes they think it’s you, and sometimes they think it’s the land. We just had a large number of people here for the Arise Festival, many of whom traveled a long distance for the second or third time because they had that experience the first time they were here. They felt it, they went looking for it, and they knew they’d found it here, so they came back.

Number four: They decide to participate in it. “I know this is real for me, so I’m going to do whatever you’re doing that’s creating it, because I felt it. I looked for it, I found it, and I want to do it with you. So I’m going to now participate in whatever it is that you’re doing that is providing this experience, because you’re not all that different from me; and if you can do it, perhaps I can too. You are also a human being who’s making different choices and having a different experience than I have known, and I want to participate in it with you.”

I’ve had that experience. I’ve even done things I’ve never done before in my life because I knew the person who was doing it was having an incredible experience and I thought, “I’ll try that.” It took a little bit of courage to do something different from what was familiar for me. I changed the way I was with other people and I learned a lot as a result. I found myself participating in something exciting.

So let’s review. A person who is awakening feels it. They look for it. They find it. They participate in it. The next step: They create it.

I’m going to create this with you. I’m participating in it, and I realize I’m vital in this. And it’s now different and more complex and more wonderful because I’m participating in it. I’m owning the fact that I’m creating it with you. This is a real possibility. This isn’t like some great vacation. This isn’t just a matter of luck. I am a creator of it with you. And so here is this answer to my prayer; here is this dream I’ve been dreaming coming true. I can create this with you!

Next: Protect it. When you have a sense, as a creator, that you’re creating something that’s magnificent with another human being, there is this compulsion to protect it—not in the sense of keeping it to yourself, but knowing there’s something sacred and holy about it, something that you know is precious to you. So you have a new awareness.

What I am creating is important to me, and I want to make sure that we will have a safe place to do this. I won’t do anything to violate it, because it means a lot to me. The container and the people in it and the atmosphere all matter. I felt the atmosphere, then I met the people, then I created it with somebody, and it all matters; and how am I going to participate in it and keep it going if I don’t have some interest in protecting it? It’s yours, it’s mine, and we are going to protect it together.

We don’t do that by keeping all the weird people out, because when you showed up someone might have thought you were a weirdo—and you probably were. You were different from the rest of the people with whom you began to associate. You didn’t even know you were capable of creating what you were experiencing. When you walk into a situation where people have been creating it, it’s new to you. It feels odd. Of course it is. And that’s normal. But now you want to protect it because you know how life-giving it is—how it’s you and it’s me and it is amazing.

The next thing—we’re on number seven: You want to make it available to people. You want to share it and invite others to know it too. You’ve just had this incredible experience and you’re standing in the middle of your creation, feeling I could share this with the world! Because there are probably millions of people hungry for this invitation. There are millions of people suffering and you can share that there is another choice. You want to make it available to all who have forgotten they can create and all who are hungry for this experience you felt, and found, and have now created.

This is a vibrational experience. It doesn’t require you travelling the world, while that may be the path you take. You can raise the vibration in your own life experience based on what you have touched. And when you do, you are connecting with people around the world who are doing the same. And the greater number of people doing this together, the more it is magnified. The world can feel it and begin to take steps one through seven.

Knowing this dynamic progression and the possibility it brings is my responsibility. I am called to bring a clear invitation to those who are longing for step one, to feel the wonder. That responsibility is also in the hands of anybody who’s gone through the progression. Of course, this calling is not just mine. Wherever I am, I live in the reality that people are coming into my life, looking for it, finding it, and longing to participate in it. Other people are trying to destroy it, even in sacred places. Gossip, discouragement and judgment tear at what has been created, so protection is important. People spend their life looking for this, and we have the chance to let them know what is possible.

Martin Luther King gave a speech, which became famous and was subsequently known as the “I Have a Dream” speech. I also had a dream that I would someday find a place where all people were paying attention spiritually, so they could participate consciously as a human being in the creation of a new world. I had a dream that no matter where you came from, there would be enough substance in a place where you would remember who you are and be able to come back home to your own soul, your own heart, your own vibrational connection to who you are. Martin Luther King did all seven steps that I talked about. He felt something else was possible, found it and eventually invited the world, because he created something and he didn’t stop. His dream was about equality. Here are some of his words:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”…

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character….

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

And the last part:

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                 Free at last! Free at last!
                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

My dream is that we are free from the belief that this is not possible; that we actually know that what we do in our living, as a creator, makes it possible for the world to be really, truly holy. I am interested in remembering those seven steps and assisting others in going all the way through because I protect the creation of holy space and invite others to know it. I know what it means to be responsible for the world I’m creating with you, so that when someone comes to me and touches what they’ve been looking for, they touch not only a creator but a protector and a radiant magnifier of this experience.

Here are the seven steps:

Feel it.
Look for it so you can feel it again.
Find it.
Participate in it.
Create it.
Protect it.
Offer it to the world.

There are people in your life who are walking through those steps. Let us welcome them into the creation of a new world as we do this together.