Four Stages of Spiritual Development

There are generally four stages of spiritual development. All stages in our spiritual journey are at the right time necessary, but at other times they can cause spiritual stagnation, becoming yet another form of attachment.
At the beginning of our spiritual journey, we like to look at all different forms of spirituality, different methods of practice to see which suit us best right here right now. But if we became attached to this stage, it becomes spiritual materialism, which stems from greed or fear of true commitment to working within. This spiritual materialism can end up draining our energy, time and resources outwardly without much internal growth.
When we first became aware of all the areas that we have been in denial of, revealing our hidden pain, this is a necessary awakening stage. But if we get obsessed about our own pain, we lose sight of the journey.
The next stage of empowerment, gaining power of intention, power of healing, power of energy and mind, it is also easy to endlessly play with becoming more energetically powerful, or experiencing that blissful, estatic state, and forget about our true spiritual journey.
There are also practitioners who try to slip the becoming aware stage and the becoming powerful stage, and try to go from being unaware to emptiness. Many meditators do this. They may lose a lot of time getting no where.
This is why it is important to have a teacher who have walked this path, and can shine light on our obsessions, our attachments, our blind spots along the way.