OPRAH: What about this dark night of the soul you speak about -- you
know, everybody's heard that phrase, the dark night of the soul. There are
people who have that dark night and kind of abide in that space and they
never really get past it. But the dark night of the soul is there for what? REV.
BECKWITH: The dark night of the soul, there's a couple of stages to it. The
primary dark night of the soul is when you're losing your identification with
your previous identity. OPRAH: Yeah. REV. BECKWITH: But you don't yet
have an identification with what's new emerging. You're in - OPRAH: That's
good. REV. BECKWITH: -- the dark. You don't know. REV. BECKWITH:
You knew this is who you used to be. OPRAH: Yeah. REV. BECKWITH: But
you're not that anymore. But who you're becoming, you're not that either. So
it's dark. It's really -- and sometimes it's excruciating. Sometimes it's a lot of
fear. A lot of disconnect. And I tell people that when you're going through that.
I tell them to ask this question: If this experience were to last forever, what
quality would have to emerge for me to have peace of mind? OPRAH: Oh.
REV. BECKWITH: So if you ask that question, oh, if I -- if this particular
experience was gonna last forever, I would need -- I would need some
strength. I would need some -- some peace. I would need a little bit more --
you know, name whatever quality. And what happens is when your attention
starts focusing on that quality, rather than resisting the dark night, then the
process is speeded up. And your identification - OPRAH: You move
through it faster. REV. BECKWITH: You will get through it faster.