Yes you captured the Gateway 2 perfectly Ruth (and Lesley) - "a handover to the soul". :wink: I felt I should share something from a biochemistry point of view that really captures what a Gateway is and the essence of what happens as we pass through them. Not only is this spiritual, but it's grounded in science too (although it's not rigid nor dogmatic). The main point we're addressing seams to be the confusion around people experiencing higher Gateways and therefore thinking they might be further along on the path than they are. Plus also experiencing multiple Gateways simultaneously. I'll do my best to shed further light... From a scientific and spiritual point of view we're living in a reality composed of 11 dimensions. It's my direct experiential knowing that we each have aspects of ourselves in all 11, although in human form, it is only really possible to fully activate and experience 7 (there will be exceptions). What is currently real for us is determined by where our centre of consciousness rests. For many that will be in the 1st Dimension (1st Density) - the plane of the physical. In this location, the soul is split into two and fragmented. There's the soul majority - the higher soul (loosely higher self) - like a huge balloon outside of the body 'above' the crown. The lower soul (loosely lower self) is fragmented within the body and therefore greatly diluted by the bodymind's activities and impulses. Even though the majority of the soul rests 'above' the physical human experience, our reality is defined by that aspect of us which 'makes the loudest noise'. This is what draws our attention. Hence our centre of consciousness is drawn down into the lower self. Now there is something called a 'pre-awakening'. This is where the lower self momentarily touches the higher self and receives a short burst of soul light. There's a sudden feeling of being connected and awake. But then the internal efforting to capture that essence paradoxically closes down the connection once more and the person may then spend many years chasing that experience again. There are many 'seekers' in the world who now have an intellectual understanding of awakeness based on a degree of experience but who are really still searching for a level 1 awakened state. At some point there is sufficient surrender that fragments of soul within the lower self are released from attachment to the physical plane (1st Dimension) and then reconnect with the higher soul. There is a lasting physical connection felt as at-one-ment with all things. It can even be so powerful that we feel a constant sense of unity which is often confused as enlightenment. I observe many people writing about enlightenment from this level 1 awakened state which greatly confuses the story for other travelers. So the physicality of Gateway 1 is the relinquishing of sufficient identity with the physical plane that a constant connection to the higher soul happens and remains. It is a linear progression with a definite 'completion'. And like with all such completions, the transition of ones centre of consciousness from one density to another will be quite strongly marked in some way. That's because our experienced reality is shaped by where our consciousness rests. If we've now moved up a frequency, then we'll experience a marked shift on the outside too. Which in turn would be marked by what I've called a 'ceremony' - a defining external experience. Others have written in the past of them as 'initiations'. A person can stay in this place quite some time until the soul begins to reintegrate again internally within the lower self. But then the day comes when we start to listen to the direction of the soul. Not all the time, but with increasing frequency. As this happens, we start to engage with the inner world and the progressive realisation that the outer world is determined by our inner configuration of consciousness. The soul continues to reintegrate inside as the direct result of the increased inner inquiry. There comes a point where enough of the soul has reintegrated, such that the impulses of the soul now take presidence over the ego. We could consider it a bit like an egg timer. The fragmented grains of soul gradually pour from the ego reuniting in the 'other vessel' until the balance switches definitely from one to the other. This is where attachment is relinquished to the emotional plane - Gateway 2. When the balance switches, it's often experienced as a rushing like wave of energy, often with floods of tears (which can last days or weeks). Again it is a very spiritual, yet also biochemical shift. Again there is a linear completion of experience. Our centre of consciousness has now shifted beyond attachment to the emotional plane and consequently there will be a marked external shift - like the breaking down of an important relationship for example (I should add then when I say 'beyond attachment to the emotional plane', I don't mean by denying the emotion. I mean going deeply into it and relinquishing identification with it - so to be able to experience emotional pain fully, but without attachment. Likewise emotional joy such as a blissful state). Now our centre of consciousness moves into the plane of the lower intellect - Gateway 3. Here we're processing subconscious attachments to the 3rd Dimension. These are mental projections of illusionary realities created for us by the constant conditioning of society and our upbringing. That's why just as soon as someone transitions Gateway 2, the tendency is for them to have constant inner child and teenager confrontations. Gateway 3 is very challenging. Essentially we're still acting as a separated self that perceives suffering and 'being done to'. So the reintegration of soul within the lower self generates flows directly into the density and distortion. It's like a roller coaster ride. One moment we're in the darkest depths, the next there's a release and we're riding high again. This process continues to peel away the layers until finally the ego dissolves completely ('ego' means where fragments of the soul identify with the separation and form an identity around it). Once the ego completely dissolves, the lower soul reunites with the higher soul. Higher and lower self become one. There is no longer sense of separation. Whereas before we might have been asking questions of a divinity we perceived to be 'above us', no longer is this the case - we experience ourselves as that divinity. We have stepped out of the whole illusionary reality and become the Seer. This is what's called "Transfiguration". I think there are very few out there who are truly transfigured. So far I've experienced a handful of people come through the Openhand work to that state. Again, it is a profoundly marked event when it happens. Again it is a linear, biochemical process, not to mention divinely beautiful! At this point, the person is now open enough for the higher soul to infuse into the lower being. It starts to rush in, but as with all these transitions, the energy flows to densest environment. This happens because the 'loudest frequency' draws attention to it. And our reality is defined by where the centre of our attention rests. So next, our centre of consciousness is drawn into the karmic plane (the next vibration up). What's happened to the three people I've worked with who have progressed into Gateway 4, is a torrent of karmic regression. This is not just the odd past life memory invoked within regression work. I'm speaking of the torrent of suffering humanity has endured through the eons of our history. It comes back to life in graphic detail and is played out within our consciousness in daily life. Often the experiences are projected outwards onto the people around us. It's like they become the characters in a play which we're now re-enacting. This 'crucifixion' is likely to last several years and will likely be intensely challenging. It will bring you to the threshold of what you imagine is humanly possible to endure, and then take you beyond. But each decent into darkness is balanced by a counterbalancing breakthrough where the expansion and light experienced is simply breath taking. So even though intensely painful, it's a magical process too leading to full enlightenment - the end of identification with the illusion. From a biochemical sense, the soul no longer fragments at all within physical experience. There is complete inner integrity. There is no attachment nor identification. Especially there is no denial of physical experience either. My observation is that some people achieve a kind of 'synthetic' state of enlightenment by subtly denying and then dissolving the quiet pull of the soul that might take them into a potentially challenging sense of separation once more. I observe this happening to many of the so called 'non-dualists'. I see this in a range of spiritual teachings from Tolle to Mooji. Once karma has been fully dissolved, ones reality shifts yet again as the centre of consciousness ascends fully into the 5th Dimension. Now the soul is fully liberated from lower density attachment such that it can flood into the various bodily vehicles of expression. It comes with profound multi dimensional experiences as a way of life. We acquire gifts of beingness beyond human imagination. So to reiterate, whilst each person will have aspects of their consciousness within the higher dimensions and therefore be experiencing these higher planes to varying degrees, there are still these marked 'ascensions' through each dimension as our centre of consciousness shifts higher which happens in a linear way. When we truly start to taste them, I believe we'll see they're pretty unmistakable. It's just that at this time in the collective journey, only a handful have consciously experienced Ascension into the 5th Dimension.