In his book, How to Know God, Deepak Chopra (2000) presents a model of consciousness development that is based on our biology. He says that we construct our image of God through the veil of our own biological and psychological responses. We respond in a way that reflects our current level of conscious awareness. God is experienced and conceptualized differently as we grow, mature, and expand our awareness. Our view of God matures just as all of our life views mature. By understanding how the individual views God, the spiritual counselor will be more prepared to evaluate the client’s stage of growth, maturity, and consciousness development.

Chopra says that we, as a species, possess a variety of biologically based reactions or responses to life events. Our reaction to life tells us about our current level of consciousness development, and this level will determine how we view God. For example, we can meet a life event and react to it, we can run from it, or we can use our intuition to try and understand it. A person who reacts with a fight or flight response will see God through that particular veil of understanding. A person who uses intuition as a response will have a different view of God. Chopra notes that "God, it turns out, isn’t a person; God is a process. Your brain is hardwired to find God. Until you do [find God], you will not know who you are" (2000, p 14). His stages of consciousness closely parallel Fowler’s Stages of Faith. As we review each of these stages, reflect on how they present a worldview that corresponds to our human development model.

Chopra (2000) also believes that reality is made up of three zones or layers. The first is the material reality, which is the world of physical objects. The second is the quantum domain, the world of mind where matter turns into energy. This is also referred to as the nonlocal domain. The nonlocal domain is the realm described by quantum physics where two events can happen synchronistically without directly influencing each other. The third zone is the virtual domain or the world of spirit, which is a place beyond time and space. The third domain is a world of awareness, the ‘place’ where the universe comes into being. God ‘lives’ in the virtual domain, and humans ‘meet’ God in the quantum domain. This means that God and humans meet on common ground, the world of intelligence or consciousness, the realm of pure potential. Mystics who directly experience God are simply individuals who have learned to navigate successfully through these realms.

Chopra believes that proof exists for this place beyond material reality. His belief is based on the fact that prayers are answered. He says that prayer is "a journey in consciousness – it takes you to a place different from ordinary thought," (2000, p. 18). He also says that "we have an outline for the entire spiritual journey in our hands: the unfolding of God is a process made possible by the brain’s ability to unfold its own potential" (p. 25). We can see the entire spiritual journey stretched out before us by attending to the evolving viewpoint of God, and all we need to do is to be open to our unfolding process.

Our movement into the quantum or nonlocal domain allows us to share in God’s omnipotent presence and potential, which is the goal of life. We develop the capability of expanding our consciousness and growing into this omnipotent potential. We will use Chopra’s explanation and description of the expansion and growth of consciousness as a framework for the transforming nature of consciousness development (Chopra, 2000).

Why do we need to entertain this view? Whether we believe in God as myth or God as fact, entertaining this view helps us understand ourselves at much deeper levels, and it allows us to heal ourselves and enter into a life of greater purpose and deeper meaning. It also helps the spiritual counselor understand others on a much more profound level. Refer to Appendix D, God is as We Are, for a brief overview of each of the following stages (Chopra, 2000).

Chopra (2000) begins his discussion with reference to the biological aspects of each stage of God awareness. The first stage is characterized by our biological fight or flight response. When we live out of this biological process and see our world in terms of it, we hold a worldview based on survival. When we attempt to relate to the unknown at this stage, we do so through fear and devotion to its awesome power.

This God is the primordial, unforgiving, vengeful, yet protective, parent God who is jealous, quick to anger, judgmental, and sometimes merciful. We meet this God often in the Old Testament. When we view God at this level of awareness, we think of him as the God who does not prevent senseless tragedies, and we fear his fickle wrath. We see God as either vengeful and punishing or awesome and unknowable. When tragedies occur, we turn to God and ask Him why He makes the choices that He does. We believe that God controls our life (Chopra, 2000).

In this worldview, the individual’s focus is survival of the physical body. The individual is the good or bad child of the fickle, sometimes vengeful, sometimes generous parent God. The individual tries to cope by being obedient. He hopes that by being obedient, he can bring about the protection of God. In good times, he feels safe, and in bad times, he feels threatened and abandoned. The individual fears God and gives devotion to gain God’s favor. The biggest hurdle the individual must overcome at this stage is the fear of loss and abandonment, and the biggest temptation that the individual must face is to refrain from becoming fickle and tyrannical like the God he sees. By tyranny, we are referring to the temptation to resort to irrational, aggressive, tyrannical anger as a response to the difficulties of life (Chopra, 2000). Note that one’s relationship to God parallels one’s relationship to others and to all of life.

At this stage, the individual seeks to fulfill ego demands and lives in a world of competition and ambition. The driving force is to win. When we view God through stage two eyes, we see a God based on our biological reactive response. The reactive response is one step up in development from the fight or flight response. We wish to acquire things in life that we desire, and we react to these biological and emotional needs. This stage is about gaining power in one’s life in order to move beyond survival. God possesses the power, and the individual wishes to possess some of that power. When we are at this stage of consciousness development, we view God as omnipotent, just, rational, and organized. When God punishes, the punishment is for a rule that has been broken, thus we understand the relationship between cause and effect (Chopra, 2000).

Awe is the approach we use when seeking God at this stage, because God can strike us down if the rules are not followed. The challenge in life is to maximize achievement and conquer challenges. Everything is external to self and focused on the outer world. The hurdle we face is to not fall prey to guilt or victimization. If we fail to achieve after working so hard, it is easy to feel like we have done something wrong or that we are a victim of circumstances. Often what moves the individual to the next stage is a failure in life that forces him to seek inward for solace and understanding. Guilt and addictions are some of the temptations and hurdles at this stage. Accomplishment is the greatest strength (Chopra, 2000).

At this stage of development, the individual discovers that peace can be found by simply turning to the silence one feels within oneself. When one turns away from the needs and desires of the outer world, she moves to a worldview where inner peace becomes the greater desire. The relaxation response is the way to achieve this state. At this stage, God is described as detached, calm, silent, meditative, and understanding. The individual uses the mind to turn inward to experience itself. This marks a transition from the physical realm to a place that transcends the physical, and the individual encounters the silent witness and finds a way to center and be still. God is no longer understood as dangerous, because the individual has found a safe peaceful, place within (Chopra, 2000).

The goal at this stage of consciousness development is to find inner calm and let go of chaos and turmoil. The challenge is to stay engaged yet detached. The greatest strength is autonomy. The individual is at peace with who she is, and she knows herself in relation to the rest of society. The biggest hurdle to be overcome is fatalism. By fatalism, we mean that once an individual feels autonomous and free, there is a risk that this freedom will leave her feeling isolated and purposeless. Since she is no longer fighting and scratching to survive, then she looks at life and asks, ‘What is the point? How can I do anything that has meaning?’ A greater and more expanded view of the world presents new challenges because it asks the individual to question life’s purpose. One’s ultimate influence on life seems to be small and pointless, and the individual must face and resolve this dilemma (Chopra, 2000).

The individual has turned inward and found her autonomy. She is free of social pressures, but this leads to being isolated from others. The temptation is to become introverted, and the goal is to be able to detach from the outer pleasures yet not be driven by the addictions of life. This clearly reflects Fowler’s Individuative-Reflective stage of faith (Chopra, 2000).

This stage heralds the birth of the viewpoint that God is wise, understanding, tolerant, forgiving, nonjudgmental, inclusive, and accepting. This is not a God of thought, but a God of intuition. The individual views life from a deeper perspective that Chopra calls ‘second attention.’ The subconscious mind is brought to the foreground, and the individual begins to explore subconscious and unconscious processes. At this point, the imaginative and intuitive self begins to evolve, and we enter into the true world of the transpersonal (Chopra, 2000).

As we reach into the transpersonal, we meet a God of wisdom. The goal is to learn to trust this level of second attention by identifying with the knower within. One finds God through deep self-acceptance and begins to make peace with the shadow or unknown and unacceptable parts of oneself. The goal is to develop clarity of vision, and the aim or challenge is to go beyond duality, the paradox. Insight is the strength that the individual gains by using the intuitive powers, and delusion is the hurdle that one must overcome. By delusion, we mean that we are still influenced by our past, and we may still hold onto childhood hurts and emotional wounds. We need to clear out these past issues that still haunt us. This stage parallels the generative stage where paradox is resolved, and it clearly reflects Fowler’s Conjunctive stage of faith (Chopra, 2000).

In Chopra’s stage five, the intuitive response becomes so powerful that it develops into a co-creative power. Our needs flow into our life with seeming ease, and events are guided by one’s own intentions. God is unlimited creative potential that is abundant, open, generous, and willing to be known. God shares its power with creation, and the individual becomes a co-creator, which represents the state of being in alliance with God. Of course, with creativity comes responsibility for the creation. Intention is the key principle that moves us into a co-creative alliance with God. Individuals dream great dreams of accomplishment, and through their power of intention and alliance, they bring these accomplishments to fruition. This requires a deeper, more profound trust and ability to remain detached from the outcome. Ambiguity and uncertainty are not threatening because of this deep inner sense of trust. These individuals live and breathe their inner dreams into existence (Chopra, 2000).

Creativity means purposefully carving out one’s own destiny. It means moving from imagining in the mind to having that imagination manifest. Co-creation and intention are the prime words, and inspiration or bliss is the method. By allowing oneself to follow one’s bliss or inspiration, and by having a deep and abiding trust in the Divine, one’s life becomes magical. The individual sees the grace in all things. The goal is higher consciousness, and to achieve this, the individual must align with the Creator. The individual’s strength is his imagination and his risk is too much self-importance, meaning that he can become caught up in the miracle. When he forgets that it is by resting in the heart and alliance with the Divine that makes creativity possible, he may think it is all about himself and his own power, which can halt his progress. The danger is solipsism, or the belief that only you are real and all else is your creation. This happens when the boundaries of self, other, and the universe are blurred, and the individual loses sight of these boundaries. We are all co-creative, but co-creativity exists in harmony with others and all that is. It is not the seat and center of all that is. Solipsism refers to the belief that everything around you is a creation of your own mind, a mirage that does not exist without your presence (Chopra, 2000).

When we move into stage six consciousness, full-blown miracles can occur. The ecstatic state is possible, and we have now fully engaged ourselves in the consciousness of the mystic. Our view of God at this stage is transformative, mystical, enlightened, beyond all cause, existing, healing, magical, and alchemical. This is the God of the quantum world, a God behind everything, where existence is vibration. According to quantum theory, everything that exists in this world, all matter and energy, is at its heart only vibration. The mystic knows and experiences, by direct observation, this quantum conscious understanding (Chopra, 2000).

Prayers have the power to heal instantly. Life is an ever-forming miracle. Conscious invocation has the power to manifest miracles. The individual enters into the enlightened state of awareness, and love is the manifested beingness. The individual finds God through grace, as God is inescapable, constant, and ever-present in the mystic’s life. Aspects of duality, such as good and evil, have been transcended, and liberation is the goal of life. The biggest hurdle for the individual is false idealism. One may be tempted to make miracles to prove the existence of God to others. Holiness is what makes a miracle miraculous. Illusions are not miracles. The mystic works the miracles of alchemy, but this alchemy is for transforming the Soul, not for turning lead into gold. The temptation at this stage is to martyr oneself for the sake of others’ freedom or to die for one’s faith as proof of one’s passion and belief. However, if one martyrs oneself, then she cannot move to the last stage (Chopra, 2000).

This God can only be experienced by going beyond experience. This God can only be known by forgetting everything. At this stage, God is unborn, undying, unchanging, unmoving, unmanifest, invisible, intangible, and infinite. The individual who meets and knows this God experiences unity. "Objectively this state goes beyond miracles in that the person does nothing to affect reality except look at it, yet in that looking, the laws of nature shift more profoundly than in miracles" (Chopra, 2000, p. 161). We are talking here of the mystical ecstatic states of being.

The individual recognizes self as Source, I AM. The One becomes All. The way the individual reaches this state is by transcending illusion. It means maturing into union with the Divine. The challenge is to be self, as boundaries and resistances dissolve. Being is the goal, if we speak of goals. Desires become preferences, but one preference in life will usually look just as acceptable as another. The biggest hurdle at this stage is duality. Once an individual has experienced her first flash of unity, it does not last. The individual soon slides back into the dual viewpoint and then must regain, once again, that sense of union. It takes practice and effort to live in this state permanently (Chopra, 2000).