adolescent experiences had cemented in me the belief that there could be no spiritual growth without suffering. With the ‘way of the cross’ weighing heavily on my mind, it took me quite some time before I could accept that planet earth was never intended to be a vale of tears – and that life on it could, ideally, and in accordance with my higher spiritual purpose, be experienced as a joyful adventure rather than a painful one. Asking my guides for help brought with it an assurance that I would be nudged along paths that would be rosy rather than thorny or that, even if the thorns couldn’t be completely removed, their sharpness would be dulled.
In the early stages of my adult consciousness of guides, such as Margaret Anna, I wanted to know all about them. That was also true of people I met. We’re so used to placing everything in boxes and labelling them that it was understandable that we’d want to do the same with our guides. I expected to have the type of communication we have here on earth, with questions fully answered in a straightforward manner, when I asked them. I expected to learn intimate details about my guides that would fit in with my own experience of people.
The reality could not have been more different. Sometimes I’d get some information – such as a name or names – but more usually what I got was doled out in a meagre sort of way. Eventually I came to realise that our guides were – and are – seeking to help us grow out of confined, literal, black-and-white patterns of thinking. When I obsessively tried to personalise my guides, I wanted to bring them down to my level in a literal way. They were, however, seeking to help me to raise myself to their level and, in the process, to see myself in a much more expansive way than I had been used to. The ironic thing was that, once I understood that, the labels weren’t important and so became more readily available.
During one of his meditations, a man named Donald was given the name ‘Beelezebub’ as that of one of his guides. To say that he was taken aback would be a major understatement! His understanding of the name was that it belonged to the Prince of Devils – Satan himself, the ultimate personification of evil. Did that mean that he himself was irretrievably caught in the grip of darkness? Yet the only feeling coming to him from the guide was one of great love. When he accepted that Beelezebub was only a name – in fact, a rather nice-sounding one – and that he was being guided not to take up positions on the basis of his conditioning and absolutist tendencies, he had no difficulty. He even learned to play with the name, when he wanted to – and call the guide ‘Beeleze’ or ‘Bub’. Guides don’t mind what they’re called.
That story brings up a commonly asked question. How can we be sure that it is our guide or guides communicating with us, and not some less-evolved or mischievous spirit? Shebaka had a good answer to that question.
He said, ‘If you make a conscious decision to ask your guides for help, they will see to it that no other spirit can communicate with you without invitation on your part. Remember that you make the decision. If you don’t ask for their help, the guides cannot impose themselves on you. That’s the nature of love; it never seeks to possess or impose. There’s no limit to the amount of help available to you; if there is a limit, it will have been set by you.’
In that context, I think it’s good to remind ourselves that when it comes to material problems, such as difficulties with plumbing, electrical gadgets, cars, computers and so on, we have no hesitation about asking for help from those whom we regard as experts in their particular fields. It’s surely obvious that the same thing applies in asking for help from the experts in spirit. I doubt if few of us could say that we don’t need it.
Working with groups
When I did individual ‘readings’ I needed to get direct information and to trust that whatever I received was in the best interests of the people concerned. Apart from one case, which I described earlier (about the imminent death of a woman’s mother) I don’t remember ever getting information that I would be hesitant about passing on. I stopped doing individual sessions after about eighteeen years, as I wanted to devote more time to working with groups and to writing. Apart from the fact that I no longer had the energy to cope with the insatiable demand for individual consultations, I believed that in the long run it would be far more helpful for people to find ways of getting their own answers rather than coming to someone like me for them.
In the group situations we attempted to find the style of communication that suited each person. For example, we considered how impressions normally came to each individual in the group. Questions like these were relevant: Do you tend to get visual images easily? Do you operate more on a feeling level? Are you comfortable with ideas? Do you understand things better when you write them down? Do you find that you just know things at times without having to go through a logical process to work them out? The answers to questions such as those showed how the participants’ guides would tend to develop communication with them through their particular styles.
I mentioned earlier that the three most important elements involved in achieving direct communication with guides were relaxation, patience and trust. Of the three, I regarded relaxation as being the most difficult. Any form of anxiety, for example ‘trying too hard’, creates a blockage.
Suppose you have a problem, or a decision to make. You decide that you’re going to ask your guides a direct question about it. You sit as comfortably as you can. You have arranged to have no interruptions, and then you ask your question. You find, though, that random thoughts keep intruding. What about this, that or the other? Did I forget to do something that I should have done? What time is it? Should I have collected my son from school? What should I have for dinner? The list goes on.
How do you stop that from happening? It’s very difficult to control our thoughts by consciously trying to do so. Instead of trying to brush them aside, try observing each thought as it impinges on your consciousness. Hold it steady, without reacting to it in any way – even if the thought itself is disagreeable. After a little while it will fade away. Repeat the process for other thoughts as you become aware of them. Soon you will find that the thoughts are no longer crowding in on you, and that your mind will grow still. Then you’re in a better position to ask your question.
A colleague in my first work assignment had a stock phrase that he occasionally trotted out: ‘Resist not evil, says St Paul.’ It stayed in my mind because it struck me as incongruous that St Paul could have said something that seemed to be incompatible with Christian teaching. (I seem to remember I found, when I looked it up, that the statement was attributed to Jesus, rather than Paul.) With the passage of time, and in my more awakened state, I realised that what was meant was that resistance always reinforces; by fighting against something – such as an emotion like fear – we feed it and strengthen it. When we take up fixed positions on right and wrong, good or bad, we get lost in a tangle of wasted energy and our minds can’t reach the stillness they crave.
So the relaxation bit works, your mind is still and you’ve asked your question. Now be patient and see what answer comes to you. It will probably appear in a form that best suits your style. Trust it, if you can, and see what happens.
In my workshops we usually found that looking at the participants’ auras individually was interesting and informative. I simply asked one participant at a time to sit against a white or brightly coloured wall; the rest of us looked in as relaxed a way as we could at his or her forehead and then let our eyes drift around the body.
Nearly everybody in my groups was successful at seeing auras – if not immediately, then at some point during each course. Most were able to see colours; others could only see white light around the person under scrutiny. It was exciting when people saw shapes of light moving around the person. Usually, spirit guides show themselves in that way. We did lots of experiments in communication; for example, we accessed past lives and got information that was usually very relevant to the present lives of the people concerned. Most of the participants gained confidence in their own styles of communication. We had great fun, too!
Given
