Discernment on the Spiritual Path: How to Protect Yourself in Unknown Territory
There's an interesting phenomenon at play these days...
In much of our lives, we've learned to discern truths from untruths, to question new information and check it against our trusted guideposts -- be those scientific findings, published books, educational institutions, non-profit research groups, church leaders and religious texts, or other authorities.
Everyone will have different guideposts, which can clearly lead to conflicting information and cultural clashes. But still, people do tend to have their own ways of knowing what to believe.
But in one area, I've seen perfectly thoughtful and sane, people become completely bamboozled.
Spirituality. Especially any spirituality that might have a "woo-ish" leaning.
It's only been in the last 50 years or less that we've seen a mass exodus from organized religious institutions, in the West at least. And people simply haven't figured out their guideposts.
It's almost as if, when someone says they have a direct channel to spiritual wisdom, people simply believe it. They have no existing guideposts to check this new information against.
What's especially fascinating to witness is how people will struggle to integrate every new spiritual teaching into their personal cosmologies. If it got published, it must be valid. And if it's channeled information from spiritual beings, then surely it's true!
Oh the existential crises this approach to spirituality leads to! It breaks my heart.
But it's not all that difficult to shift our relationship with incoming spiritual teachings, new teachers, different approaches...
Let's begin by remembering that everyone is working with their own set of human filters, and whatever teachings they offer have arrived through those filters. (And of course, some people are just liars.)
You have filters too. The more conscious you become of your own filters, the better able you’ll be to identify the filters in others. Question yourself. Look at your shadow. Celebrate your wisdom. Then extend the same grace to other teachers you feel drawn to. (And disentangle from those you’re not drawn to—you don’t need to listen to everyone.)
You can also learn to identify and trust our own inner guideposts with greater clarity. For me, this is often a somatic experience—while the brain can argue for the validity or falsity of just about anything, the body will tell you what actually resonates with truth.
As we travel deeper into spiritual territory, this phenomenon—the task of filtering spiritual truths from the messy soup of information out there—takes on an even more challenging dimension: direct experience with "spiritual" beings.
When we open our intuition and are able to communicate with the spirit world more clearly, we still need to remember that not everything we encounter is pure love and light.
Many people have the tendency to assume that because an entity or being is not embodied, because it resides in the spirit worlds, it knows more than they do.
And even more bizarrely, there's a tendency to assume that these beings always tell the truth.
I remember a woman telling me once that her friend talked with Jesus. Of course, I know this is possible. Jesus is a powerful and loving energy that appears to many people.
But in this case, "Jesus" was telling her friend to hurt himself. To make decisions that he never would have chosen for himself.
I was shocked to hear that they were confused about this--they were actually questioning how to follow Jesus's guidance even though it didn't feel right.
Hopefully you're tracking here and realize that this entity was not Jesus.
Yes, disembodied beings might seem super spiritual at first simply because their existence is so different from ours. But there are all types of beings out there, and they're perfectly capable of lying in order to fulfill their own agendas.
So how do you know if a being is a loving guide or just someone pretending ?
There are a few tips I offer my students:
Let your body be your guide. Cultivate an unshakable faith in your own body's ability to tell you what is right for you. (Yes, this takes practice, but everyone can learn to do it.)
Start with a trusted ally. This is a spirit helper that you trust beyond any doubt. It may be a power animal, well ancestor, or other deity. To help alleviate any confusion, I recommend meeting this ally in the presence of skilled teacher or healer. This might be during a healing session, a personal mentorship session, or a group class. Once you have your ally, you ask them to check out anyone new you might want to communicate with.
Learn more about the types of beings you might be encountering. We co-exist with land spirits, nature beings, spirit guides, ancestors, ghosts, angels, demons, and more. The more you learn about the non-ordinary realities around us, the more potential you have to see the truth when encountering new entities.
Develop highly attuned psychic protection skills. You can prevent and eliminate so many unwanted encounters simply by maintaining a good energy hygiene, spiritual sovereignty, and a vibrational state that does not invite them to communicate with you. Again, we can all learn how to do this work.
Though the spirit worlds are as full of diverse energies and intentions as our ordinary reality is, we can all learn to navigate them with greater skill and ease.
Stepping outside of mainstream or established religious belief systems isn't easy. Most of us will encounter confusion, dark nights, and more on our paths. But being able to cultivate a personal cosmology and inner guideposts to support your journey is such a gift. May you be blessed upon your path.
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