The following quotes are excerpts from “Transitions: Pathways to the Life and World Your Soul Desires” by Bonnie Hutchinson.

At a friend’s home, I picked up a little book by Michael Mirdad called “You’re Not Going Crazy . . . You’re Just Waking Up: The Five Stages of the Soul Transformation Process” and began to flip through it. I had to stop flipping because my friend and I were having a conversation, but I didn’t want to put the book down.

For the next week, I raved about the book to everyone I met. “Somebody’s written a book that describes the exact process I’ve experienced in the last year,” I would bubble. “It talks about disintegration, when everything falls apart, and then a stage where you feel kind of empty and dazed. There’s a stage I can’t remember the name of but I know it’s the one I’m in now. There are two stages after that where you rebuild and create a new life.”

The next week I was at my friend’s home again, and asked to borrow the book until I purchased my own. I looked at it again and learned that the first stage was actually called “Dismantling” not “Disintegration” (the experience felt like disintegration to me!), followed by Emptiness when you feel lost, depressed and maybe in shock.

The third stage – the one I knew I was in but couldn’t remember the name of – was Disorientation. The fact that I couldn’t remember the name “Disorientation” seemed appropriate! I also read about the stages of Rebuilding and Living a New Life.

I read and re-read the little book, using it as a guide to help me move through my soul transformation process. I bought multiple copies to give to people I knew, and still keep at least one extra copy on hand to lend to people until they are able to buy their own.

Michael Mirdad’s five stages of soul transformation – dismantling, emptiness, disorientation, rebuilding and living a new life – happen during the neutral zone of transitions. The first three stages allow us to release illusions, behaviours that try to pump up ourselves, old fears and false beliefs and anything else that’s toxic. That release allows us to re-fill our lives with more love, peace and purpose in the last two stages. We let our “old self” die so a “new self” can be born, a new self more in tune with our divine nature.

Not every transition results in soul-level transformation, but every adaptive change and every transition has the potential to foster a deep level of transformation. Whatever the depth, any transition can result in new perceptions, a new identity, and new ways of being in the world.

NOTE: I’ve told the story of discovering Michael Mirdad’s wonderful little book that describes the exact soul-level transition process I was experiencing at the time. I’ve also appreciated other Mirdad books about soul evolution. His book, “Healing: Heart and Soul“, goes into greater depth about the five-stage process.