The Field of Awakening is a retreat environment where participants experience direct connection to universal energy through practices centered on silence, expanded consciousness, and the cultivation of what teachers refer to as becoming a "broad channel." One participant's documented experience shows the tangible shift from ordinary mental activity to a state of energetic receptivity where the individual becomes a vessel for universal intelligence rather than a separate self generating thoughts and actions.
The Field of Awakening, facilitated by the Oneness Movement through teachers Sri Preethaji and Sri Krishnaji, is a retreat space designed to catalyze direct experiences of consciousness beyond the thinking mind. Rather than a lecture-based learning environment, participants enter a field of carefully held energy and silence where transformation occurs not through intellectual understanding but through direct exposure to states of consciousness.
The term "Field" here refers not to a physical location alone but to an energetic and conscious environment maintained by experienced facilitators. This field is said to operate on the principle that consciousness can be transmitted and that individual nervous systems can recalibrate when placed in proximity to coherent, awakened states. The work emerges from the Oneness tradition, which teaches that isolation—the sense of a separate self—is the root of suffering, and that reconnection to universal wholeness naturally dissolves this illusion.
Silence at the Field of Awakening is not passive emptiness but an active, intelligent medium. In ordinary waking consciousness, the mind generates a constant stream of thought, narrative, and self-referential activity. This mental noise, while seemingly normal, obscures the deeper frequencies of consciousness that exist beneath thought.
When a participant enters deep silence—whether through guided meditation, stillness, or simply being held in the energetic field of awakened beings—the thinking mind begins to quiet. As mental chatter subsides, sensitivity increases. The nervous system becomes capable of registering subtler dimensions of experience: the texture of energy flowing through the body, the vastness of awareness beyond personal identity, the intelligence moving through all things.
For the participant described in this experience, silence appears to have functioned as a clearing mechanism. By stepping out of habitual mental patterns, he became available to a fundamentally different mode of consciousness—one less interested in defending a separate identity and more open to serving as a channel for larger intelligence.
A core teaching in the Oneness tradition is the distinction between living as a "narrow" consciousness (identified with ego, personal preferences, and separation) versus a "broad" consciousness (aligned with universal flow and intelligence). The shift from narrow to broad is not metaphorical but is understood as a neurological and energetic reorganization.
When someone becomes a broad channel, according to this framework, the individual no longer experiences themselves as the author of thoughts and actions. Instead, they perceive themselves as a conduit—a space through which universal intelligence, energy, and wisdom flow. This is not dissociation or loss of consciousness; rather, it is an expansion of identity from "I am this small self with these limited resources" to "I am a channel through which something vastly larger moves."
The participant in this account reportedly experienced this shift for the first time at the Field of Awakening. The description suggests a qualitative change: a move from generating experience through individual effort to receiving and channeling experience through alignment. In this state, energy flows without the obstruction of personal agenda or defensive patterns. Actions arise more spontaneously and intelligently because they are no longer filtered through a narrow self trying to control outcomes.
Energy, in the context of the Oneness Movement and similar traditions, refers to the felt, living intelligence that animates consciousness and matter. It is not abstract or theoretical but something participants report experiencing directly: as warmth, movement, expansion, clarity, or aliveness in the body and subtle bodies.
At the Field of Awakening, energy appears to function on multiple levels. First, it is the medium through which transmission occurs—awakened nervous systems emit frequencies that coherent beings nearby can entrain with. Second, it is the substance of transformation; as energy blocks (held tensions, defensive patterns, trauma imprints) are released, consciousness naturally expands. Third, energy is the vehicle for channeling universal intelligence; when someone becomes a broad channel, it is energy that flows through them, enabling clarity, healing, and aligned action.
The experience of becoming a broad channel for the first time typically involves a noticeable shift in felt experience. Participants often report that the body feels more alive, that perception sharpens, and that a sense of burden or effortfulness lifts. The paradox is that by releasing control, more effective action becomes possible.
One of the distinctive features of the Field of Awakening model is the role of the facilitators themselves. Sri Preethaji and Sri Krishnaji, as awakened beings, are understood to maintain and transmit coherent states of consciousness to participants. This is not a belief system but an operational principle: a person in a state of deep coherence and awakening naturally influences the nervous systems of those around them, much as a tuning fork vibrates nearby objects into resonance.
In this held field, a participant's own defenses and habitual patterns can relax more readily. The nervous system no longer needs to generate its own safety or clarity; it can absorb and align with the safety and clarity of the field. This allows layers of contraction and defense to unwind. Insights that might take years of individual practice can arise spontaneously. States of consciousness that seem impossible under normal conditions become accessible.
The participant described here appears to have benefited from this phenomenon. Placed in a coherent field maintained by awakened teachers, surrounded by others in similar states, his consciousness reorganized. The narrow, separate self quieted enough for a broader, universal consciousness to be felt as primary. The shift was direct, not gradual or theoretical.
A first-time experience of becoming a broad channel can be disorienting in ways that are ultimately liberating. Many participants report that the sense of isolation—the feeling of being a separate consciousness trapped inside a body, having to figure out life alone—dissolves. In its place comes a lived understanding that they are not separate from the intelligence moving through all life.
This is not just a philosophical shift. When consciousness expands beyond the boundary of personal identity, basic functioning changes. Decisions flow more easily because they are no longer agonized over by an anxious small self. Relationships deepen because the person is no longer primarily defending their image or getting their needs met through others. Creativity flows because it is no longer blocked by self-doubt and the need to be recognized. Energy that was bound up in maintaining isolation becomes available for genuine aliveness and service.
For the person whose journey is documented in this video, the first time of experiencing this shift likely marks a turning point. The memory of what it felt like to be a broad channel becomes a kind of template. Even when the state subsides—as it typically does in ordinary life—the nervous system retains an imprint. Further practice and return to the field can deepen and stabilize this expanded state until it becomes a natural baseline rather than a special experience.
If the description of becoming a broad channel resonates, several paths forward are possible. The most direct is participation in the Field of Awakening retreats themselves, where the conditions for such shifts are deliberately cultivated. More information is available at ekam.org/foa.
Alternatively, practices that quiet the thinking mind and deepen sensitivity to energy can support this development independently: meditation, breathwork, body awareness, and conscious presence. The key principle across all approaches is reducing the noise of the narrow self enough for something larger to be felt and channeled through.
It is also worth noting that experiences of expanded consciousness, while genuinely transformative, are not the goal itself. Rather, they are doorways. The real work is learning to stabilize and embody these states in everyday life, allowing universal intelligence to flow through ordinary actions, relationships, and service. That integration is where the lasting transformation occurs.
