In February this year, in my Executive-MBA class at Columbia Business School, I decided to conduct an experiment.

I read the students a passage from Jacques Lusseyran — a French boy who lost his eyesight in an accident and then discovered an inner light that guided the rest of his life:

“I still wanted to use my eyes. I followed their usual path. I looked in the direction where I was in the habit of seeing before the accident, and there was anguish, a lack, something like a void which filled me with what grownups call despair. Finally, one day, and it was not long in coming, I realized that I was looking in the wrong way. It was as simple as that…I was looking…too much on the surface of things.

“Immediately…I was aware of a radiance emanating from a place I knew nothing about, a place which might as well have been outside me as within. But radiance was there, or, to put it more precisely, light. It was a fact, for light was there. I felt indescribable relief, and happiness so great it almost made me laugh…I found light and joy at the same moment, and I can say without hesitation that from that time on light and joy have never been separated in my experience. I have had them or lost them together. I saw light and went on seeing it though I was blind.

“There were times when the light faded, almost to the point of disappearing…When I was playing with my small companions, if I suddenly grew anxious to win, to be first at all costs, then all at once I could see nothing. Literally I went into fog or smoke. I could no longer afford to be jealous or unfriendly, because, as soon as I was, a bandage came down over my eyes, and I was bound hand and foot and cast aside. All at once a black hole opened, and I was helpless inside it…Anger and impatience had the same effect, throwing everything into confusion.

“But when I was happy and serene, approached people with confidence and thought well of them, I was rewarded with light. So is it surprising that I loved friendship and harmony when I was very young? Armed with such a tool, why should I need a moral code? For me this tool took the place of red and green lights. I always knew where the road was open and where it was closed. I had only to look at the bright signal which taught me how to live…there were two possibilities [open to me]: to reject the world — and that meant darkness, reverses — or to accept it, and that meant light and strength.”

Then I paused, preparing to invite them to share what inspired them about Jacques’ story. 

But then a voice within me whispered, “Hitendra, why do you assume Jacques found something quite special within himself that none of your students are accessing? Maybe there are a few Jacques right here in this class!”  

I felt called to put out a probe on my students’ own inner lives.

So I told the class we’ll do an instant poll. I asked them to all close their eyes so they would not be influenced by how others were responding. Then, when their eyes were closed, I asked them to raise their hand if they, too — like Jacques — from time to time feel the presence of a nurturing, guiding light within them.

I had expected 5, perhaps 10 of them to raise their hands.

Instead, all 70 of them — 100 percent — raised their hands. I was stunned.

These were not seekers who had signed up for a spiritual retreat. They were business executives pursuing an MBA. And yet every one of them recognized, when asked in a safe space, the presence of something luminous within.

“Thank you for opening my eyes to what you all are carrying within,” I told the class. 

“You and I, we will be together here in class today, and gone tomorrow. But this inner light you possess—this is your true teacher, your true guide. Our goal this semester will only be to get you in close contact with it. It knows you, it watches over you, it guides you. ‘Armed with such a tool, why do you need a moral code?’

There is today a growing hunger for what we might call a “science of the soul.” People across generations and cultures are seeking more meaning and purpose in their lives, and a direct personal experience of the divine. They are questioning inherited ways of being. Boundaries between faiths, cultures, and nations are beginning to dissolve. Pew Research reveals more than 80% of Americans believe in a higher power, and more than 80% believe that beyond the body and mind, they are a spirit or soul. Many who have left organized religion are not abandoning the sacred, but seeking it in more personal ways—as a felt experience.

I’ve witnessed this so often in keynotes, workshops, rooms full of hard-charging professionals. The moment you create the invitation, people light up. They want to go deeper — into their inner life, their purpose, the quiet voice they’ve been ignoring amid the noise.

And yet, most coaching and leadership development still operates on only two dimensions: body and mind, rarely touching the third — the soul — where our deepest clarity, courage, and purpose reside.

This is what led me to partner with John Schuster — a dear friend, seasoned executive coach and author of Answering Your Call — to create Coaching from the Mystic Core, a new coaching program for coaches, leaders, and changemakers ready to guide people from being goal-directed to soul-directed.

If you’re intrigued about what the Mystic Core is, within you and within those you lead and coach, and how you can help people live and work from the very soul of their being, join John and me for a free webinar, “The Soul Beneath the Skill: A New Frontier in Coaching”. We’ll be doing a live 45-minute session where we’ll share more about the Mystic Core and the coaching program and do Q&A. 

“The Soul Beneath the Skill: A New Frontier in Coaching” · April 22 @12:00–12:45pm EDT · Complimentary & open to all. Register here.

To the mystic in you,
Hitendra

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