Building Spiritual Rapport

I want to start this essay with a story about a spiritual friend of mine, a true spiritual brother who was the first person who spoke to me about the power of spiritual rapport.

Rapport is a connection so deep that it ignites a profound trust, and in this bond, miracles become possible. He had studied with a teacher who believed that once rapport was built between two people anything could happen.

As I remember, the teacher was able to have someone lie straight as a board suspended between two chairs with their head resting on one, and their heels on the other. The teacher had explained to the person that this was possible for the human body, and the person trusted so much that they could do it.

Trust is the key to spiritual awakening and growth too, because our path progresses through our relationships. If I look back at my spiritual path I can see the major transformations that occurred, and they were all initiated and often facilitated by someone else.

Some of the people who played a major role in my spiritual life were teachers, but many were friends, colleagues, and even co-workers. What they all had in common was that we had connected in some unusual way. I felt a soul level connection with them and because of that I was available to be influenced by the wisdom of their soul.

Let me share another story, this time about my supervisor when I worked many years ago as an engineer. I was not happy with my work. I didn’t want to be an engineer, but I hadn’t admitted it to myself.

One night my boss and I were working late on a project. Just before we left for the night we sat down to have a coffee. We got along well and started chatting, until suddenly she stopped and looked at me.

I hadn’t said anything that might have shifted her mood, but she looked at me with deeply compassionate and caring eyes and said, “You know, you don’t have to do this.”

In that moment she reached through my self-denial and told me exactly what I needed to hear. She gave me permission to feel what I was already feeling and I knew that I would leave that career.

Somehow, perhaps without even knowing it, my boss had allowed some deep wisdom in her to speak and make contact with the truth in myself. I left engineering a few months later, and soon after met a spiritual teacher and joined a spiritual community that would change my life forever.

The soul level contact that is made through spiritual rapport allows the truth within us to connect with the truth of another. When truth meets truth, a depth of wisdom arises that is almost impossible to ignore. These connections change our lives.

If you look at your own spiritual path you will find a trail of encounters where someone touched you so deeply that you saw the truth for yourself. These moments ignite growth in our lives. This is the power of spiritual rapport.