Many of us have experienced the 11:11 phenomenon—seeing the number 11 repeatedly as we go about our daily lives.

I started seeing it two years ago—on clocks, cars, receipts, phones, bank statements…everywhere.

The craziest time was when I was looking for an apartment to rent. I saw my dream place online, and was amazed when I arrived to apartment number 11, with a postal code of 1011, and the rental agent told me I could move in on the 11th. When the day arrived, the moving company was due at 10 a.m., but they were late—arriving, you guessed it, at 11:11 a.m. When this happened, my intuition told me, “This is no coincidence!”

I had to discover what it all meant.

I turned to the Internet for answers and found dozens of tantalizing theories. I noticed that they all had a spiritual context, underpinned by the promise of something mystical and magical. This made perfect sense—I was a “spiritual” person living a spiritual life, so of course the Universe was sending me signs. I just had to decode them.

I fizzed with excitement when I learned that 11:11 might mean I was about to meet my twin flame. But when my elusive twin didn’t come skipping over the horizon, I chose to believe the theory that 11:11 meant I was going through a period of accelerated spiritual growth. I put all my hope in this beautiful concept, blindly using it as a spiritual life raft in dark times.

I also read that 11:11 is the doorway between the third and fifth dimensional worlds, so I focused intently on this idea during meditation, waiting for that mystical inter-dimensional shift to occur. The number also held the promise of activating and upgrading my DNA, bringing me closer to spiritual awakening. So, I closely monitored all those delicious body tingles, energy surges and blissful feelings I often felt, waiting for the 11:11 spiritual awakening prophecy to come true.

But nothing happened.

The more I explored the 11:11 phenomenon, the more confused I became. It was so easy and tempting to cling onto these seductive theories—perhaps my angel and spirit guides were trying to contact me, or perhaps 11:11 was reminding me that I was a light-worker. Every theory held the promise of impending happiness and spiritual fulfillment.

I had no doubt that the phenomenon was real, but after two years of seeing 11:11 every day, none of the promises made by any of the theories had materialized.

Something deep inside me began to stir, telling me that I was somehow missing the whole point.

I felt strongly that maybe, just maybe, the answer lay not in finding the right theory to believe, but in exploring why I had chosen to believe any of the theories in the first place. I realized that my beliefs were telling me something about myself, and they were pointing me toward a deeper truth.

At that time, I was working with a fully-awakened and experienced spiritual teacher. I told him that I was frequently seeing 11:11 and struggling to find the deeper meaning behind it. He replied, “We see what our ego wants us to see. We believe what our ego wants us to believe.” He reminded me to breathe into the present moment and let go of my ego story, because problems can’t be solved with the mind—they can only be resolved through conscious awareness.

So I breathed into the moment and connected with stillness as the deeper truth slowly blossomed up from inside me, crystallizing into perfect clarity in the form of three realisations.

Firstly, I realised that whilst the 11:11 phenomenon is certainly real, I had unintentionally used it as an ego projection.

My ego had grabbed onto those exciting theories, using them to create all sorts of beliefs and ideas about myself, spinning a web of illusion to keep my attention away from my authentic self. The theories that had captivated me most simply revealed my deepest egoic desires and beliefs. They showed me what I yearned for, what I dreamed about and what I gave special meaning and attachment to.

Approaching 11:11 from the place of ego and its beliefs had only served to inflate my spiritual ego, taking me even further away from the spiritual fulfillment that many of these theories promised.

Secondly, I saw how my ego had used 11:11 as a way to place all my happiness in some projected future moment, which was totally dependent on certain things happening in my life.

But life only ever happens now, in this ever-present moment. If I continued to believe in my ego stories about 11:11, I would always feel dissatisfied, unfulfilled and lacking. I would look to 11:11 and other beliefs for the promise of a better future. It had been an ego trap, keeping me out of the present moment and focused on chasing fantasies of future happiness. In believing 11:11 theories, I had been resisting myself and the present moment, pushing myself even further away from my authentic self.

As I slowly exhaled and allowed these two realisations to sink in, they weaved gracefully together into the third realisation, which showed me the true significance of 11:11.

In order to find the happiness and spiritual fulfillment that my ego desired from 11:11 theories, I had to let all of them go.

In letting go, I felt a deep sense of freedom, which brought an even deeper sense of peace.

So, for me, 11:11 is a powerful reminder to breathe into the present moment and connect to conscious awareness; to let go of my beliefs, desires, attachments and illusions; to let go of trying to give 11:11 meaning and significance.

The deeper, fundamental truth is that everything I was ever chasing is already here, inside me, in this present moment of conscious awareness. When I fully embrace and surrender to the present moment without resistance to myself or life, I realise that I already am the love that I wanted from a twin flame. I already am everything I desired from 11:11 theories, and 11:11 can’t give me anything because I already am everything.

In letting go of the need to believe in 11:11 theories, I realized that I already embodied everything that they had ever promised.

Author: Georgi Bond

Image: Wikipedia

Apprentice Editor: Elizabeth Gottwald; Editor: Emily Bartran