How to Connect With Your Mystical Companions
Part Five
You’re Never Alone — Meeting Your Spirit Guides
Looking behind the veil to connect with spirit guides
Sinking into more profound meditative prayer is required to lift the veil between the world of ordinary reality and the one of mystical reality. This is sometimes called a “subtle” or awake dreaming state of awareness.
Ken Wilber writes about the three states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, sleeping) that he says corresponds with the three realms of being (gross, subtle, causal). He says, “This means that each time you are in a different state of consciousness, you can ‘see’ a different world or realm. For example, when you are in a dream state, you see a dream world, a subtle world of images and visions and archetypes; in the waking state, you see the sensorimotor world of rocks and rivers and houses. Each of the three states shows us a different world or realm.”
When in a subtle, awakened state of consciousness, you are in a dream state except that you are awake. You are not unconscious or zoned out. You are super awake! John, author of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, writes about being in this awakened, subtle consciousness: “I became in spirit [literal translation] on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, ‘Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches” (Rev.1: 10). Remember, “spirit” in the New Testament refers to a deeper state of consciousness. (See my book Is Your God Big Enough? Close Enough? You Enough? for a full explanation of this.)
This awakened awareness allows you to listen from more than ordinary, everyday awareness. As you learn to access it, you can do so, to some degree, instantly at any time, anywhere.
There are various ways to move into this meditative prayer state, all involving a shift from a busy mind to a still one. Move into quiet mode. Become mindful of your breathing. Go for a walk in nature. Listen to music that touches your inner self. Use audio tracks with binaural beats to help move you into deeper states. Enjoy movement and dance. Light a candle. Say a prayer. Surround yourself with meaningful objects or icons of Jesus or the saints with whom you want to connect. Perform a sacred ritual.
This state is sometimes called a “trance” in the New Testament. Paul says, “While I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw Jesus saying to me,’ Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly” (See Acts 22:17-21).
The same word is used by Peter when he says, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance, I saw a vision, an object coming down like a large sheet lowered by four corners from the sky” (Acts 11:4). From this came the critical information that shaped the future of the young Jesus movement by dismissing the idea of clean and unclean foods.
You only want guides of the highest truth and love
You don’t want to invite weird friends to the party! However, meditative prayers immersed in Jesus and God’s presence do not need to worry about negative energies becoming attached to them.
The most profound wisdom for Christians (and, in my opinion, for others, too) is having at least one master of spiritual enlightenment such as Jesus and Mary. These beings of light are incredibly attentive to the spiritual needs of humanity and act to inspire and motivate our spiritual growth. Other spirit companions may be those enlightened in a particular area.
A spirit guide is a reality shaped by you and God in co-creation for your benefit. For instance, the divine reality of the spiritual master, Jesus, will come to you in any form that connects with you. You shape the form such as the traditional appearing Jesus, a feminine form as Christ Sophia, or in Eastern, Western, African, or any other cultural appearance. Appearance is only for our benefit. The reality of the presence of the being of light is what transforms us.
The most helpful spirit guides are evolved beings who are wise, compassionate, and often amusing.
SEVEN STEPS TO CONNECTING WITH YOUR SPIRIT COMPANIONS
Here are seven sequential avenues for initially connecting with your spirit friends based on my experiences, those of John C. Robinson, clinical psychologist and interfaith minister, and George Worley, ICN board member and professional hypnotherapist.
1. Become aware of your breathing to help move your mind away from thinking. Feel your breath entering your body.
2. Drop your awareness from your head down to your heart. To help with this, you can tap down from your head to your heart, place your hands on your heart space, or also think of someone you love. Then release them to focus on your heart space when the love is beginning to flow. Feeling love flowing from your heart is the most accessible way to enter this mystical, relational state.
3. Sense God’s presence in this intensified consciousness of love. God is with you to support and surround your experience. The love you feel in your heart is both your love and God’s love. God is love — and this is the Inner Face of God Being You. This is how God’s presence feels in the language of your mystical heart space.
4. Reflect on who you would like to meet and talk with. You may be drawn to a spiritual master such as Jesus or Mary, a spirit companion, a deceased friend or relative, or other beings of light and love.
5. If you are not drawn to any spiritual being in particular, you can do this: See yourself in your favorite resting place in nature. See a path leading up to where you are and notice someone coming up the path, too far away to identify. As they get closer, you recognize them as the guide you have been waiting for. Seeing in the eye of your mind and with the feelings of your heart isn’t just playful fantasy. Instead, it creates a space for non-physical beings to enter and participate in the conversation with you. The key is to let this picturing process happen spontaneously so that new information comes through.
6. Now begin the conversation. Assume your guide is present. Greet your spirit friend. Call them by name or ask their name if you don’t know it already. You might say why you want to meet. Ask how the other feels about it.
Learn about your spirit friend by asking them questions. Trust the first image, words, or feeling that come to you when you seek your spirit companion and talk with them. The first response is nearly always the most relevant. The more you know about your guide, the easier it is to feel close. When I feel any distance with Jesus, I think about his life and what he taught and did. I immediately feel heart-to-heart with him.
Bring up whatever you like with your guides.
7. When the conversation feels finished or has given you all you can handle, feel free to end the encounter. Say what it meant to you, thank the other, and say goodbye for the time being. Continue to sit quietly. Reflect on the encounter or review what you have journaled. What did you learn? When you feel complete, return to everyday consciousness, and resume the rest of your day in the glow of your luminous conversation.
If you like, you can practice with a recorded, guided form of this meditation below.
More thoughts about initially connecting with your guides
Those who don’t see a vision of their spirit friend or hear an audible voice sometimes think they are not connecting with a guide. However, visionary experiences are the exceptions. Instead, this is usually a more internal knowing. We call it “spiritual knowing.” Spiritual knowing is not based on what we already know but on what we are about to know. Let go of any preconceived notions of what this should feel like or precisely who you need to meet as a spirit teacher, healer, and guide.
Our spirit teachers don’t always appear fully formed and coherent in our life. Treat your guide just as you would a new friend in the physical world. It takes time to get acquainted.
Become as close to your spirit companion as you wish. You may find that you want to be touched by this being of light and love. Ask for that. Be aware of sensations anywhere on your body when you do. Share your feelings. If you feel love, say, “I love you.”
Some find it helpful to record what they experience and learn in a journal. The first conversations you have are often the most significant for your life.
Many spirit teachers have a sense of humor, especially Jesus.
Hanging around those who see or sense other people’s spirit companions can give you a head start. Those in WeSpace groups can develop that awareness and introduce others to their guides.
The languages our divine messengers use to talk to us
There are five primary ways we receive messages directly from the presence of God, Jesus, and our guides, or while in their energy fields.
1. Hearing words sounds like someone talking in your mind (audible words are much less common). This voice will never be negative, condemning, or harsh. The tone of this voice is almost always even and calm.
2. Visions arrive as images or scenes in your mind. A picture appearing in your mind’s eye is most common with people who tend to be visual in their lives. These are often faint, fleeting impressions rather than full blown open-eyed images. They can be symbols that hold a deeper meaning, such as colors, a nature scene, or an object. Freely welcome and embrace both the symbols and their deeper meaning.
3. Emotions give you spiritual knowing that comes from feelings. This is one of the most common ways we receive messages from spirit friends. These are promptings from deeper, non-ordinary, subtle states of consciousness.
4. Body sensations are forms of physical feelings that communicate spiritual knowing. An itch here, or a tingle there. These could include the sensation of someone touching you, warmth, cold, wind, vibration, pressure, sensing physical growths, or other bodily feelings.
5. Gut instincts are the intuitive ability to sense something. These are like a download that occurs in your gut and is recognized by your mind within a few seconds. Thoughts begin to appear in your head. They may seem random or coming from nowhere and have the “quality” of a memory. You should notice any messages that appear in this way because they come from deep within, unfiltered by a busy mind filled with negative messages learned from your childhood and culture.
All of these forms of spiritual knowing can be from your inner, awakened consciousness or the means of communication from a divine spirit guide presence speaking to you through our embodied ways of knowing. Or some of both!
Trust the first word, image, words, feelings, sensations, or intuitions that come to you. They are usually the most accurate because we haven’t had time to run them through our filters like we do as we begin to think about them.
You can talk to your guides anywhere, anytime with anyone!
However, it all works best when we are regularly with others who, along with you, transmit both healing energy and spoken descriptions of what has emerged within them, even on the subway! We hear all the time from WeSpace participants how profoundly transforming this collective experience is. Join us in a WeSpace group to be with others on the journey. We normally meet on Zoom, not the subway. You are not alone!
Practice the 7 steps now with this guided meditation, voiced by Martha O’Hehir:
**Feel free to pause this meditation at any point for more time in any step.**
Next week, ICN Board member and transpersonal hypnotherapist George Worley will share about his experience working with spirit guides in his own life and professionally.