One of the most important teachings I have received in my own path is discernment, and the more I walk through different spiritual spaces, ceremonies, altered states of consciousness, and channeling practices, the more I notice that this is actually not a lack of openness in people, but rather a lack of grounding in how we stay connected to ourselves while we are open.
Because somewhere along the way, many people learned how to open, how to receive, how to connect, how to channel, how to perceive more than the ordinary mind allows, but not necessarily how to stay rooted in their own inner reference point while all of that is happening. And especially in modern spiritual culture, where receiving “messages” has become almost normalized, there is very little reflection on something very simple but very essential: just because something is experienced in an altered state, does not mean it automatically becomes truth that we have to live by.
Discernment is the ability to perceive, understand, and judge situations clearly, to notice subtle differences, and to sense what is coherent versus what is projection, suggestion, fear, emotion, or symbolic expression. And when we enter altered states of consciousness, the entire structure that normally supports our perception softens, which means we suddenly feel more, sense more, imagine more, and can experience visions, archetypes, emotional releases, intuitive impressions, and sometimes very vivid encounters that feel absolutely real in the moment.
But feeling real is not the same as being true, and that is exactly where discernment becomes not just helpful, but essential.
This is not about rejecting intuition or dismissing spiritual experience. It is not about closing down or becoming overly rational. It is about learning how to stay rooted in yourself while remaining open to whatever arises, without immediately handing over your inner authority to the experience itself.
And this is something I have witnessed many times: people receiving powerful insights in ceremony or in altered states and then immediately restructuring their entire lives around them. Relationships end overnight. Careers shift instantly. People suddenly take on identities, roles, or spiritual callings with absolute certainty, or begin channeling without any real grounding or integration. There is often a strong sense of “this is true, this is what I must do,” before the experience has even had the chance to land in the body or be reflected upon in ordinary consciousness.
And I think one of the missing teachings in all of this is digestion. We speak so much about awakening, activation, downloads, messages, visions, expansion, and spiritual connection, but very little about integration, embodiment, and especially about the capacity to pause before something becomes identity or action.
Because not everything that arises in altered states is meant to become belief, behavior, or truth that we immediately live by. Sometimes the psyche speaks symbolically, sometimes trauma is expressing itself, sometimes longing takes shape, sometimes archetypes appear, sometimes intuition is present, and sometimes unconscious projections become so vivid that they feel like external reality. And sometimes there are experiences that feel genuinely transpersonal or deeply spiritual in nature. But discernment asks us not to collapse all of that into immediate certainty.
A simple way to understand this is to notice how we normally relate in everyday life. If someone tells you something about yourself, you do not automatically take it as truth. If someone says “you are like this” or “this is what you should do,” most of us have an internal process where we check, we feel, we question, we compare it to our own experience, and we decide whether it resonates or not. There is a natural filtering process before we internalize something as our own truth.
And yet, in altered states or in spiritual or channeling contexts, that filter often seems to dissolve. Something is said by a guide, a presence, a teacher, a plant medicine experience, or an inner voice, and suddenly it carries absolute authority. It is received without the same level of inner questioning that we would normally apply in everyday reality. And the question is: why do we do that? Why do we bypass the very same discernment we naturally use in ordinary life, just because the experience feels expanded, sacred, or beyond the rational mind?
I don’t think this is because people are naïve. I think it is because altered states increase suggestibility and decrease internal separation, which can create a sense of merging with whatever is being perceived. In those moments, the boundary between “I am experiencing something” and “this is objectively true for me to act upon” becomes much thinner, and without awareness, we can easily transfer authority outward, into the experience itself, instead of staying anchored in our own center while relating to the experience.
And yet, in my experience, there is a very clear difference in how things land over time. What is aligned tends to settle. It becomes quieter. More grounded. More embodied. It creates clarity, humility, steadiness, and a deeper connection to life and responsibility. It does not need urgency to prove itself, and it does not collapse when it is not immediately acted upon.
Whereas experiences that are rooted in inflation, projection, dissociation, or spiritual identity often create urgency, grandiosity, dependency, confusion, or a sense of becoming “special” in a way that pulls us away from ordinary grounded life.
A mature spiritual path is not about believing everything that arises. It is about learning how to stay open without abandoning yourself in the process.
For me, discernment always begins in the body. When I receive guidance, whether through ceremony, a spirit animal, a guide, or any expanded state of consciousness, I give it time to land. Not just intellectually, but physically, emotionally, somatically. I listen for what happens underneath the intensity, because sometimes something can feel overwhelming or even frightening, and the immediate impulse is to resolve it by assigning meaning too quickly.
Often, the more honest practice is to stay with it before turning it into truth. To let it move through the system. To let the body respond without rushing toward interpretation. And then I return to simple but very honest questions, like: does this leave me more grounded or more uncentered, does this bring me closer to life or further away from reality, do I feel more embodied or more fragmented after this experience.
And I also feel it is important to say this clearly, especially in spaces where everything can easily become “sacred”: not everything we perceive in altered states of consciousness needs to be taken literally, and not every guide, presence, or intelligence we encounter is automatically benevolent or aligned in the way we assume it is.
Discernment is not something that happens after spirituality. It is part of it. And in the end, the deeper question I keep coming back to is very simple: can I stay in relationship with what I am experiencing, without immediately giving away my inner authority to it, and without losing myself in the process of opening?
Because that, to me, is what keeps spirituality grounded, embodied, and real.
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