You have come to the right place if you are interested in growing spiritually but just have not been able to find the right information you need. To begin with, we will discuss the "Path" to give you an orientation of just where you might be.
When one is on the path, one goes into many different areas or levels. For those who have been on the path in former lifetimes, when they continue their journey, they will often go on what is known as "the Grand Tour". This means that they will resume their spiritual journey with a review of where they've been, often beginning with the occult area. The length of time one spends on the "Grand Tour" might be a few weeks, months, years, a lifetime, or perhaps just a few days. It depends on how much one remembers from past lifetimes.
After the Religion level, the next step on the path is commonly known as THE OCCULT which can cover such things as ritual magic, astrology, fortune telling, ouija, crystals, pyramids, witchcraft, ESP, mediumship, UFO's, etc. This level can last many lifetimes.
The next step after the occult is the Spiritual or Self-Development level. This level concentrates more on the mental or mind areas and covers various methods for clearing out the negative, troublesome programs in one's mind that have accumulated in this lifetime and possibly in previous ones. On this level one encounters groups such as Scientology, Knowledgism, Dynamism, and Identics to name a few. It is on this level where the real spiritual growth work begins. The problem in this area is cults and many practitioners became gurus. This is a problematic area because one can get stuck in it for many lifetimes or one might have skipped the Occult gradient and sooner or later will have to make up that step before being able to continue on the path. This problem occurred with Scientology which concentrates on the mental or spiritual aspects of the being. Many Scientologists skipped the occult area and got involved with Scientology. However, after the Church of Scientology splintered, many of its members found themselves interested in the Occult and were soon involved with pyramids, crystals, etc.
On the Spiritual Level one will experience various degrees of spiritual growth. Usually such growth is accompanied by what is known as an ASCENSION state. This is a state where for a short time, one becomes super aware and understands people and situations on many levels at the same time. It is a very powerful state, often temporarily accompanied by psychic phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, out of body experiences, etc. The Ascension state usually, but not always, occurs after one has cleared out a significant amount of negative energy, or it will happen when one graduates to a new plateau of development. Contrary to what some believe, the Ascension state does not crash and burn, or disappear, due to overt acts, etc. The Ascension state is merely an entry point to a new plateau of spiritual beingness and eventually settles out. The psychic abilities, etc. experienced, may or may not remain present, depending on the person, but the new level or plateau continues indefinitely. The ascension state will replicate when a new plateau is reached or a significant amount of negative energy has dissipated--or when in the company of a group of like-minded individuals studying basically at the same spiritual level.
In many spiritual development groups, when the Ascension State has occurred, it might be mistaken for some kind of advanced spiritual beingness such as, for example, O.T or Operating Thetan in Scientology. This belief is not correct and it does not take years and years of study at the cost of thousands and thousands of dollars to achieve it. All it takes is the willingness to continue progressing along the spiritual development level, studying and clearing out the negative programming and energy that has been accumulating in this lifetime as well as in previous ones. The process is not difficult but one must be willing to face the overt acts or so-called sins, etc. that one has committed for it is only in this way that the Ascension State can be achieved.