Step-by-step practices for cultivating spiritual awakening, from a renowned psychologist who has studied the phenomenon in hundreds of people

For many, the word enlightenment conjures visions of a meditating monk or a solitary guru perched on a remote mountain peak, but those popular images don’t always reflect reality. Psychologist Steve Taylor has devoted his career to investigating the process of enlightenment — or awakening, which more accurately captures the original meaning — as both a scientist and a spiritual seeker. In his research, he has found that spiritual awakening is more common than generally believed and that it sometimes occurs spontaneously, outside the context of religion or even traditional spirituality.

In his trailblazing books The Leap (2017) and Extraordinary Awakenings (2021), Taylor discussed case histories of dozens of people who have experienced mystical shifts in consciousness. His follow-up, The Adventure, is a practical and experiential book based on his research. It poses a crucial question: Can humans awaken through their own individual efforts? The answer is a resounding yes. The Adventure offers specific practices for catalyzing spiritual transformation, along with guided meditations, contemplative exercises, lyric poems, and inspirational stories.

The Adventure outlines how to:

• recognize and cultivate the eight defining characteristics of wakefulness, including presence, acceptance, gratitude, and disidentification from the ego
• use everyday life — the challenges of home, workplace, and relationships — as spiritual practice and doorways to enlightenment
• maintain gratitude, compassion, and equanimity in the face of challenges
• transcend “thought chatter” and the restless mind to move toward increasing heights and depths of spiritual awakening

Taylor leaves readers with an intriguing possibility: that each individual awakening is a forerunner of our collective awakening as a species, foretelling a momentous change in human consciousness. The adventure is just beginning.