Step 1: Competing consciousnesses
You have within you two competing ‘consciousnesses’ – one is your Personality or ego, the other is your Higher spirit and its Composer function [look at the Model for the definitions].
In every day life, the ego wins and the stronger your personality the more ego wins to the point where many people receive very very little input from their Higher spirit even of the invisible kind. There can often be a sort of mournful desperate feel about someone in this state – it is very lonely being egotistical.
To obtain a spiritual experience the personality or ego has to relinquish control over the will and hand it over to the composer. In a sense we have to squash the ego, whether this is temporarily or permanently.