In this article I have begun to share with my readers some thoughts about the stages of spiritual development. Being called to holiness, I believe that it is important to know the stages that we must go through in order to achieve the personal holiness which life is meant to help us develop. I am suggesting that the stages of spiritual development are akin to the stages of consciousness development.

The first stage of spiritual development requires that we move away from being self-centered to becoming other-centered. To have any sort of relationship, whether with God or another person, we have to be other-centered. Self-centeredness gets in the way of any true relationship.

We know that about the age of two, another spiritual passage beings in earnest. The infant’s mind begins to emerge as something separate from its physical/emotional being. The use of symbols begins about the age two. At this time the child develops a magical consciousness. The magical thinking typical of this level includes the polytheistic world of gods, demons, fairies, and other creatures that inhabit the young child’s inner world.

In terms of spiritual development, in this second stage the tendency is to see and think about God as someone who can rescue us from the challenges of life. It is hard for a person, in this stage, to separate their idea of God as being the one who makes all things in life happen and the one who can change all things in life. At this stage, people tend to ask God to rescue them from the more serious challenges of life instead of asking God to help them live-through and nobly deal with the challenges. Since God is seen as all powerful, He should be able to rescue us from the difficulties and struggles of life. Unfortunately great disappointment can result when a person discovers that God is not a life-saver or rescuer.