The Spiritual Meaning of Illness – Steve Pavlina

Several days after I posted the 2024 Intentions video, I succumbed to an illness – fever, aches, pains, chills, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, nausea, etc. At Rachelle’s suggestion I took a COVID test – and tested positive. Whoa! This was my first time getting COVID (as far as I’m aware). I’ve been vaccinated and double-boosted, but my last booster was about 18 months ago. I guess I’m boosted now. 😷

While meditating on the meaning and purpose of this illness, I tried to tune in and communicate with the Spirit of COVID directly. This resulted in a fascinating dialogue, including the invitation to co-create this new video with COVID. I was feeling a little better at the time of the recording but still had a mild fever of 99.0º.

This may sound odd, but I dare say that I enjoyed having COVID – and not in a masochistic way. On a physical level, the symptoms were about what you’d expect, but since I spent more time interfacing with the experience at the spirit level, I related to it more meaningfully and purposefully. COVID’s visit was surprising at first, but it didn’t feel unwelcome or threatening. As I got extra rest and let my body recover, another part of me was fully engaged in listening and dialoguing. And that aspect of the experience was deep, rich, and even beautiful.

I realize now that I related to COVID much like a psychedelic experience. A psychedelic journey can create physical symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, or vomiting, but that isn’t the real purpose of it. Similarly, I recognized that COVID didn’t just randomly show up to make me sick. I could put my focus (and thereby my intentionality) on the physical aspects, but I wasn’t limited to that framing. I saw that the symptoms were there to get my attention and to encourage me to physically rest, so I could focus on the inner experience of it and communicate with it.

COVID not only had a personal message to share with me, but it also invited me to channel a message to share with everyone. I included both in the video. COVID’s message to all starts at 10:05.

With this video I focused on fairly tight editing to make it efficient to watch, creative use of B-roll, integrating sound effects, a little humor, and some modest use of visual effects. None of the B-roll I used included sound, so all the sounds were added separately.

Enjoy the video! I also invite you to share your feedback in the YouTube comments.

The next video will be about my experience of going to see Depeche Mode in concert on December 1st while a bit shroomie. 🍄