In everyday life, people routinely speak of a “career path” (or “career track”) typically starting with formal education and advancing through various jobs and training toward positions of greater responsibility, influence, and compensation. Others speak of being on a “spiritual path,” which also entails growth from an elementary level of insights and practices to ever richer apprehension of spiritual values. In truth, whatever we choose to call it, we are all on a path of living, a distinctly unique individual track on which we travel or make our way through the complex, sometimes enormously confusing and even confounding abundance of life in the world.

Admittedly, some tracks are narrow, with rigid boundaries of beliefs about what is possible, what is right and acceptable, what is healthy, and so on, while some other paths are more open, unrestricted, and inclusive. The process of individual human evolution takes a person from the limitations of largely egocentric thought and behavior to a more universal, generous, and generative connection with life as awareness expands to appreciate and incorporate what we are calling Singularity. This growth takes place in the stages known as higher states of Consciousness that I have been describing over the course of the last three chapters.

Most, if not all, genuine education produces this broadening, deepening effect. “Formal” education aims for it directly, but the education we gain through travel, relationships, work, and reflection on our experiences are often even more invaluable to our personal development and our capacity to understand the world as well as our fellow humankind. These factors may (and should) change our perceptions by expanding the wisdom that comes from the constant and steady intellectual and emotional growth that can (and should) evolve in us through age and experience.

Could we, as humans stay the same? No, today you are not the same as you were yesterday. Perhaps you learned something, encountered someone or something that has opened your eyes to new possibilities or uplifted your spirit, given you new information or renewed hope. . . . Your vision has changed. The color of your glasses has been, so to speak, modified, or cleared, or transformed in what we would consider a “positive” direction. Nor is the world ever the same, because you are here. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is famous for saying that one may never step in the same river twice; yet by stepping in the stream, you yourself have actually changed it. Your existence and your thoughts and activity have altered the continuous currents and eddies of the river waters as they flow downstream.

Overall, it is within the range of possibility for any human being to rise to higher states of Consciousness. The journey of evolving into higher states is not strictly for certain “special” people—it is the birthright of every person born in a human body. Growth is natural to life. The fastest way to strengthen the ability to experience Singularity is by favoring experiences of greater and greater wholeness. By fathoming the field of Pure Consciousness or Singularity, Consciousness itself becomes more and more what we experience and know ourselves to be. That this results in growth towards higher states of Consciousness is not theoretical, but has been the experience of millions of people around the world.