Has anyone experienced The Dark Night Of The Soul?

Tell me your thoughts...if you choose to watch

My experience seems more relevant (than my thoughts). It probably isn't, but I like writing, so I hope you like reading, and that my response is in line with your question.

I spent so long in this darkness state I had become inverted. Ten years? Twenty? Possibly even longer. The harder I'd push the world away and the farther, the better. The awful side-effect of this was my emotional body became encased in a dark mirror. An emotional echo-chamber which intensified and reflected back everything I thought, and felt. Negative self talk as most people would consider it to be, doesn't come close to what this was like, in many ways. And it was there for such a long time that I'd become used to it. I could function - if we can even call it that - quite well given its presence...

There was definitely a fear factor involved in those years, but I don't have any fears - it came through as a crystallization - a stagnation, rather than fear. So the video is saying the negative self talk is a side-effect of fear. That's cool, maybe it was the case, but I don't think it matters really, what words are used. To me it was more that my self-image had degraded to the point that there was no point in attempting whatever it was, that would have been something to fear. This may not be an important distinction, but I'm mentioning it anyway.

Last May I got the dark mirror shattered. Haven't had a moment of darkness since then. In this video I am hearing that, there is a different way to have done this. Be that as it may, I am as I am. Last July, all my grief became dissolved and no-longer resides in my being. These might seem like grandiose claims, but I know what I'm talking about. Remember, I'm the observer of the experiencer that dwells in the body. I always was, but I feel completely weightless now in comparison, and expressiveness is effortless.

So my question is. What is coming next? I'm not asking this that you may know or answer, but to express the great anticipation within me, now that the heart is shining and wide-open, feeling like it has never known pain or betrayal. I don't really know what to do with it - with all that freedom, but at least I know what I know, and remember, with quiet reverence, where I've been.

I am love, and without sounding too 'off my rocker', it's like a direct connection with a divine impulse. Creativity has been shown to be my greatest gift. One I need to share, and it heals - we know this - when I create from a state of utterly genuine beingness, which really means, that direct connection is bringing through the greatest essence of the infinite, in complete innocence - without any personality interference.

That, in fact, is part of why I'm even here.

Thanks for reading. Oh, and for your question. :)

@shaelan: That is awesome!
I suggest you listen to part 2. The cocoon.
It will make sense where you are.
I think I am close to entering the 2nd phase myself.

@wiltingflower: These aren't really clearly-defined stages. It's interesting how they pop back and forth as time passes. I don't see this as a temporal thing. It's kind of timeless, like the soul is meditating on the spirit, which is providing impulses to the personality. I've been twelve years trying to "find my way back" so maybe this whole time is, and was, cocoon time. It's been interesting, not always difficult, but certainly left me wishing for a change. For positive times. Free times. Light.

There's this great chasm between where I stand, and the world outside me. Perhaps it's a chasm because I'm so awake, so in tune, and not many others are. I don't think like this though. A divided mind is not resonant with higher energies but it's funny because physical circumstances have an identical condition. That of faraway, of watching the world from miles away. No, I can't get there. And if I could, I would. One day I will again, yes, but is that desire, cocoon time being rushed? The personality yearning for contact (that it doesn't really need)? Or is the condition instead, that I am exactly where I need to be, to do my great work?

It is the later thought which I have most greatly resonated with. That my soul is learning skills by being here now - enduring things here - that it could not get, in this concentration, anywhere else, that there is no such thing in this condition as crystallization, and that without any sense of direction, the intuition will guide. And guide it shall. Like I said before, it's led to the heart, to the innocence, and to the true who am I. Who I am. There is no temporary condition here, except for, maybe all the life circumstance stuff which is just continuous change and adaptation.

The heart - this is the destination. A place to reside in. And one which I call home.

Thanks for reading. :) And for suggesting I watch part 2. I will see about part 3 later today or at some point.

In my opinion I believe that one must go thru the process..to strip the ego bare in order to finally meet the real You. To prepare and embrace the skills that have always been within.To finally listen to your Souls teachings and guidance.
I can only imagine the feeling of being free of all the unwanted baggage. Ridding self of limiting beliefs..
Nurturing the light and love within..

@wiltingflower: It's been said that we spend our lives catching up with where we already are. Yes - conditioning must be dropped, call it what you wish or will, but the ego is in-fact what keeps us in this world. Practice letting go of it for a time may be a good idea. Mental processes bring you back.