by Dana Taylor
So long 2023! It was….fun. My intuition told me it was going to be a challenging year. The winter atmospheric rivers that roared through the Santa Cruz mountains made simple things like getting to the grocery store and safely home again a major accomplishment. By the end of March living on the edge of a river had gone from charming to alarming. Without solid plans, but with faith in my heavenly guides and earthly friends, I moved my belongings into storage, and lived in several locations over the ensuing months. I had many adventures along the way, with old friends and new. As I look back on the year, one of the highlights was finding my way to Spiritual Awakenings International (SAI).
SAI was founded in 2020 by Dr. Yvonne Kason and Robert Bare, two people well-known in the community of Near-Death Experiencers. (See my review of Lessons from the Light by Dr. Yvonne Kason.) They felt led to provide a global community for people who’ve experienced a variety of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs). From the Spiritual Awakenings International website:
“Spiritually Transformative Experiences” is an umbrella term for a broad range of spiritual and paranormal experiences of consciousness, that all tend to cause a spiritual awakening and gradual expansion of one’s range of consciousness. All types of STEs tend to transform experiencers’ values in a more spiritual direction and propel an increased desire to be loving, ethical, and of service to others. Dr. Kason defines Spiritually Transformative Experiences into 6 major sub-types:
- Mystical experiences;
- Near-Death Experiences (NDEs);
- Other Death-related STEs such as: Deathbed experiences/End-of-life experiences; Death-Watch/Shared-Death experiences; and After-Death Communications;
- Psychic/intuitive and out-of-body experiences of many types;
- Kundalini / Spiritual Energy Awakenings
- Inspired creativity