Your spiritual source is the supply of infinite love, wisdom, and energy in the universe. For you, source may mean God, Goddess, universal intelligence, the Great Spirit, the higher power, or your true essence. However we conceptualize it, it can be found here and now within each of us, in our inner beings.

You can think of contacting your source as connecting with your higher self, the God-like being who dwells within you. Being in contact with your higher self is characterized by a deep sense of knowingness and certainty, of power, love, and wisdom. You know that you are creating your own experience of life and that you have the power to create the experiences most important and necessary for your own learning process.

We have all had experiences of being connected with our higher selves, although we may not have conceptualized it in that way. Feeling exceptionally high, clear, strong, "on top of the world," or "able to move mountains," are indications of being connected with your higher self; so is the experience of "falling in love" . . . when you feel wonderful about yourself and the world because your love for another human being is causing you to manifest as your highest self.

When you first become consciously aware of the experience of your higher self, you will find that it seems to come and go rather sporadically. At one moment you may be feeling strong, clear, and creative, the next moment you may be thrown back into confusion and insecurity. This seems to be a natural part of the process. Once you are aware of your higher self, you can call on it whenever you need it, and gradually you will find that it is with you more and more of the time.

The connection between your personality and your higher self is a two-way channel, and it's important to develop the flow in both directions.

Receptive: When you quiet your personality during meditation, and come into a "being" space, you open the channel for higher wisdom and guidance to come to you through your intuitive mind. You can ask questions and wait for answers to come to you through words, mental images, or feeling impressions.

Active. When you are experiencing yourself as the cocreator of your life, you make choices about what you desire to create, and channel the infinite energy, power, and wisdom of your higher self into manifesting your choices through active visualization and affirmation.

When the channel is flowing freely in both directions, you are being guided by your higher wisdom, and based on that guidance, you are making choices and creating your world in the highest, most beautiful way.

Almost any form of meditation will eventually take you to an experience of your spiritual source, or your higher self. If you are not sure of what this experience feels like, don't worry about it. Just continue to practice your relaxation, visualization, and affirmations. Eventually you will start experiencing certain moments during your meditations when there is a sort of "click" in your consciousness and you feel like things are really working; you may even experience a lot of energy flowing through you or a warm radiant glow in your body. These are signs that you are beginning to channel the energy of your higher self.

Here's an exercise in creative visualization that will help you tune into the feeling. You might wish to do this exercise regularly at the beginning of your meditation periods:

Sit or lie in a comfortable position. Relax completely... let all tension drain out of your body and mind ... breathe deeply and slowly . . . relax more and more deeply.

Visualize a light within your heart-glowing radiant and warm. Feel it spreading and growing-shining out from you farther and farther until you are like a golden sun, radiating loving energy on everything and everyone around you.

Say to yourself silently and with conviction, "Divine light and divine love are flowing through me and radiating from me to everything around me."

Repeat this over and over to yourself until you have a strong sense of your own spiritual energy. If you wish, use any other affirmations of your own power, light, or creative ability, such as,

God is working through me now.

I am filled with creative energy.

The light within me is creating miracles in my life here and now.

Or use whatever phrase has meaning and power for you.