Apotheosis and Realness: The Path to Integration

by Oli Anderson, Transformational Coach for Realness

Apotheosis is the path to wholeness and trust.

What does it mean to achieve apotheosis?

The word itself is Greek in origin and means to become divine or to reach the highest possible state of being but it pops up in various schools of thought and throughout human history:

In the ancient myths, heroes like Hercules achieved apotheosis by ascending to godhood; in philosophy, apotheosis can be seen as the peak of human potential and growth; in spirituality, apotheosis is often framed as ‘enlightenment’, union with God, or ultimate self-realisation. I like to call it ‘Wholeness’ or ‘Realness’.

Despite all these ‘common’ usages of the word true apotheosis it’s often misunderstood in a world saturated with self-help quick fixes, magic bullets, and pseudo-spiritual fluff (aka Spiritual Bullsh*ttery) – it’s even less rarely attained (mainly because our culture encourages to get lost in the Ego instead of growing REAL).

But what if it wasn’t some unreachable, mythical state? What if apotheosis was simply the natural result of stripping away all that is unreal and returning to REALNESS?

In this article, we’ll break down what apotheosis really is, how it relates to trust, integration, and wholeness, and why most people never reach it. Most importantly, we’ll map out a practical framework for putting ourselves on a real path to apotheosis – not as a mystical fantasy, but as a real, lived experience.

Let’s dig deeper and climb a little higher:

Why We’re Not Already There: The Problem of Fragmentation

Apotheosis – just like your REALNESS – isn’t something you need to gain; it’s something you need to tune back into and remember.

In other words, it’s your natural state when you strip away everything that isn’t real.

The reason we don’t already live in this state is fragmentation – the core wound of the human condition which is caused by SHAME causing us to become disconnected from the TRUTH and, thus, to deny ourselves, the world, and reality (because of the great Shadow Dance between the Ego and the Shadow Self).

This fragmentation happens on multiple levels:

Egoic Distortion – We don’t see reality as it is because we project fears, past wounds, and conditioned beliefs onto the world, distorting truth and taking us deeper into the Void.
Emotional Resistance – We suppress, deny, identify with, or dissociate from emotions instead of integrating them, leading to psychological suffering (because we end up clinging to ego and taking ourselves out of the flow of life instead of remembering that emotions are e-motion, energy in motion and moving forward).
Physical Disharmony – Our nervous system, posture, breath, and lifestyle keep us locked in stress and reactivity, rather than openness and trust.

Like I said, the root of all this is one thing and one thing only: Shame – the primal sense of being separate from wholeness/Truth/God.

This is the “Fall” that they speak of in the Bible, the original split, and the reason we seek but never find (because think that our realness is something that we have to ‘achieve’ when, really, it’s received).

Apotheosis, then, isn’t about ascending – getting to some imaginary ‘higher’ place or being ‘better’ or ‘more’ of something – it’s about integrating.

It’s about removing the emotional and mental blocks to realness so that trust, flow, and wholeness can be experienced fully in our REAL NATURE.

Let’s break down exactly how to start doing this:

Step 1: Dissolve Shame (The Original Source of Fragmentation)

To reach apotheosis, you must remove the fundamental distortion between you and yourself and between you and REAL life: the belief that you are inherently flawed, separate, or unworthy.

Shame isn’t just a feeling – it’s the source of the EGO and the Ego is just a lens or filter through which you interpret reality. When you carry shame, you don’t experience life as it is – you experience it through the filter of your own perceived defectiveness in an attempt to keep the Ego where it is (because you think it protects you from shame – when, actually, it’s the thing that sustains it – and keeps the Shadow Self at bay).

The key is to see shame for what it is: an illusion – it is learned, not fundamental to your nature or the way that you were born to be (whole). The truth is that you’re already whole. You’re already real.

You’ve just been conditioned to believe otherwise.

How to start dissolving shame instead of being driven by it:

Radical honesty: Notice where you hide, perform, or edit yourself to be ‘acceptable’ – that’s shame in action and it’s stopping you from growing and flowing with life.
Compassionate witnessing: Instead of running from painful emotions, sit with them. Let them be seen. Shame cannot survive exposure – as soon as you look at it, it starts to dissolve.
Return to the body: Shame is stored in the nervous system. Somatic work – yoga, breathwork, movement, shaking, vocal expression – helps to release it and puts your nervous system in a state where you can receive and embrace wholeness rather than perceive ‘threats’ everywhere – internally and externally – and remain ‘stuck’ in fragmentation.

Once shame is seen through, your foundation starts to shift: instead of operating from the identity you created to survive the dreamworld of the Void that your shame pulled you into, you begin operating from wholeness instead.

This is the first step towards apotheosis because the core problem is always shame.

Step 2: Trust Reality (Stop Resisting Life)

Apotheosis is not about controlling life but about fully participating in it and having a relationship with it.

Most people are trapped in a mindset of force – trying to manipulate outcomes, control the perceptions of others, and protect themselves from uncertainty (even though uncertainty is actually a gift that can lead you into your realness).

The truth is that our real power as human beings doesn’t come from force – which is always ego and the illusion of separation and stasis. It comes from flow.

Flow happens when you accept and trust reality instead of resisting it.

When you let go of the need to manipulate, control, or make things happen, you become an active participant in life’s natural interplay and can exist as your real, interdependent self.

How to start building trust in a real way:

Stop intellectualising everything. Reality isn’t something to figure out – it’s something to experience. Over-analysis blocks trust because it makes you act like you can figure everything out (which no real human being can – the idea that we can is just a belief of the Ego…which is unreal).
Release attachment to outcomes. When you trust, you no longer grip onto specific results. You act, but you don’t force. This is because you don’t need specific outcomes to fill the Void inside yourself – instead, you just want outcomes that allow you to express more of your realness or to take you deeper into acceptance.
Practice surrender. Surrender doesn’t mean inaction – it means letting go of resistance or trying to force actions that are purely motivated by ego. It means that you do your best and let go of the rest (leave it to life).

When you trust fully, you stop living in fear (because trust is the opposite of fear – see my book on the subject: Trust: A Manual for Becoming the Void, Building Flow, and Finding Peace).

When fear dissolves, you start to feel something else: a deep, natural interconnection with everything.

This is a second step towards apotheosis.

Step 3: Transcend the Ego Without Denying It

The Ego itself is not the enemy because it’s totally unreal (it’s just an illusion that you buy into) – the problems start when you believe you ARE the Ego.

Thoughts, emotions, and sense of self are all part of your experience – but they are not you because you are the one experiencing them.

Apotheosis doesn’t mean destroying or ‘killing’ the Ego (an impossible task that many victims of ‘Spiritual Bullsh*ttery waste their lives trying to fulfil) – it means seeing its limits.

Once you realise that your thoughts, fears, and identity constructs are just mental formations, you no longer take them so seriously and can step back and experience life instead of just filtering it through concepts and interpretations.

How to put the Ego in the backseat and your REALNESS in the driving seat:

Observe your mind like a scientist. See your thoughts as clouds passing by then let them. Learn to step back and observe instead of react to everything.
Detach from identity roles. You are not your job, past, or labels. You are the awareness behind them.
Embody presence. Stop living in abstraction and conceptualisation. Get into your body, your breath, and direct experience.

Once the Ego stops running the show, something shifts:

Instead of being trapped in the FILTER – you begin experiencing life in an unfiltered and real way.

This is the third step towards apotheosis.

Step 4: Master the Mind-Body System

Apotheosis isn’t just an intellectual or spiritual pursuit – it’s physical because your nervous system determines whether you feel safe, present, and open, or reactive, anxious, and closed off.

Most people live in a sympathetic-dominant state – wired for survival, stuck in fight-or-flight mode most of the time, and unable to fully trust (because you can’t trust if you see ‘threats’ everywhere).

To reach apotheosis, you must shift into a balanced state where your body and mind work with you, not against you. This involves regulating your nervous system so that your parasympathetic nervous system can take over when it needs to (not all of the time, just so you can feel safe and relaxed when need be).

How to start balancing your nervous system:

Breathwork: Slow, deep breathing shifts your nervous system into trust because it activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Start with 4-7-8 breathing (inhale for 4-seconds, retain for 7, and exhale for 8). Always breathe through your nose as it releases nitric oxide which dilates your blood vessels and carries more oxygen through your body.
Somatic work: Stretch, shake, or move to release stored tension and to become more present in your body (yoga is also amazing for this – especially yin yoga if you’re trying to regulate your nervous system)
Exercise regularly: Strengthen resilience by teaching your system to regulate under stress.

Once your body stops signalling danger and threat where there is none (including in relation to your own inner emotional state because of shame), trust becomes effortless.

And when trust becomes effortless, we align ourselves with our REAL LIVES>

This is the fourth step towards apotheosis.

Step 5: Die Before You Die (The Ultimate Surrender)

The final step is the most difficult but also the most liberating:

To reach true apotheosis, you must surrender completely. You must die before you die – meaning, you must let go of everything you are clinging to, including your own identity (in the form of the Ego).

This is what Jesus demonstrated in his final moments: total, unshakeable trust in God, even in suffering – this is the moment the Ego fully dissolves, and what remains is pure, unfiltered reality.

And at this level, life is no longer something you do – it is something you are and you get a real taste of WHOLENESS.

We might not reach the state of apotheosis that Jesus reached, but we can take steps into deeper wholeness every day.

Final Thoughts: Apotheosis is Real

Apotheosis isn’t just a myth – it’s not an unattainable ideal: it’s simply the process of stripping away everything unreal until only REALNESS remains.

And the truth is that real always works.

Stay real out there,

Trust: A Manual for Becoming the Void, Building Flow, and Finding Peace is a book about learning to return to your realness by cultivating trust in yourself and trust in life.

It contains practical exercises and dedicated meditations (Transformational Bridges) to take you DEEP in knowing yourself and life.

This book will answer many of the questions you have growing REAL and flowing towards wholeness. It covers everything from shame to addiction to the unconscious mind and synchronicity (and way more).

Download EGO/SHADOW/TRUST - a free guide to transformation that will walk you through the vital stages of Awareness, Acceptance, and Action with practical strategies to implement right away.