I can’t quite believe that I’ve never written about spirit guides. The subject comes up A LOT in my life. But, as it turns out, when I sat down to write today’s post, originally planned to be a short but informative piece on how our spirit guides can change as we evolve, I realized that I’d never addressed the subject at all. My bad, people. I shall make up for this oversight forthwith (as in, today, y’all).

Are spirit guides real?

Yes.

Ah, you want more information than that? Well, then I suggest you ask a better question. No, I’m not being difficult, I’m just being all spirit guidey. Just like the Law of Attraction (actually, because of it), they will make you define and refine your question until you’re clear about what it is you’re actually looking for. Annoying, I know… So, what is it that you really want to know?

What are spirit guides, exactly?

Now, you see? That wasn’t so hard! Let me start off this explanation by telling you what spirit guides are NOT. Spirit guides are NOT dead people, related to you or otherwise. They’re not really people, at all. Or entities. Or angels. Or aliens. Although, it’s totally ok if you think that they are.

When we connect with what we consider to be our “spirit guides”, we are simply connecting with and translating non-physical energy. Think of it like having access to a Universal Database, where all information and wisdom is stored (and yes, I do mean ALL, not just information gathered by humans, or Earth, or this dimension.) As you raise your vibration, you get access to higher and higher levels of this Database. Which levels you have access to has nothing to do with your worthiness, level of education, intelligence, or devotion. You always have access to the highest level of information that you’ll be able to understand. Higher levels of vibration come with more clarity, bigger perspectives, and deeper abilities to understand Universal Knowledge.

When you connect with this energy, your brain has to translate the information and input you get into something you can understand. Often, we decide to interpret this energy as guides, as people or entities or angels who can speak to us. And there’s nothing wrong with that (see below). But really, it’s all just a big pot of energy soup. Conscious, loving and wise energy soup, but soup all the same.

Do your guides have names?

When asking about their spirit guides, a lot of people will want to know if their particular guides have names. And there are a lot of people out there who will oblige. But truthfully, naming your guides is for YOUR benefit, not for theirs. You can choose a name for your guides (I do, I find a name that represents – to me – the energy I’m feeling). So, asking someone else to name your spirit guide is like asking someone else how chocolate cake tastes. It will be their interpretation, not yours.

Assigning a name and physical attributes to the frequencies you’ve been able to connect with will make it easier for you to find that energy again. It’s a bit like tagging the energy – you label it and give it a symbol that helps you focus on that particular frequency again. It also makes it all seem more personal.

But they, themselves, don’t have names. They are not people or entities. Going back to the database metaphor – it’s like naming certain files or directories. The data doesn’t care what you call it, but doing so certainly makes it easier to find your way back to places you’ve previously visited.

Do each of us have our own spirit guide?

This one is going to be hard for some of you to hear, but, no. You don’t have your own, personal, butler in the sky. You do have your own, personal interpretation of energy that you’ve accessed. Think of it this way: When you access the database, you do a search using very specific criteria. The database then spits out a result. This result is unique to you, because your search criteria was unique to you. So, the way the data is presented is your manifestation, while the data itself is not and is accessible by anyone.

What about channeled entities like Abraham?

Abraham has pretty much said exactly what I’ve said – that they are a constantly changing stream of consciousness that Esther named “Abraham” because that name most closely resembled the energy she was perceiving. Most people think that “constantly changing stream of consciousness” means that there are a bunch of souls up there, like a group of experts or professors, who take turns “speaking” depending on which question was asked. I, personally, find the database metaphor more accurate (it holds up under more conditions. Oh, and my guides, including Abraham, agree. So there). “Abraham” is kind of like a specific search engine – a portal that represents a certain frequency, through which answers can be accessed. That’s right, I’m saying your spirit guides are pretty much like Google. Once you know the web address (the name, the symbology, the physical representation of a person), you can access that search engine over and over again.

And yes, another person can learn that web address. By listening to a lot of Abraham Hicks, I was able to identify how that frequency feels and access it myself. Incidentally, it’s very interesting to experience Abe “raw”, and see which parts of the translation are Esther Hicks and which parts are, um, original (although, I suppose that totally “raw” isn’t possible, since I’d still only be experiencing MY interpretation…). The first time I disagreed with something Esther said, I panicked a bit (because Esther’s translations have been so important for me) and went directly to the source. It turned out that the way I was interpreting Abe fit for me, while the way she was interpreting that particular bit fit for her. It was a huge lesson in how the same core bit of information can be interpreted very differently and not be “wrong” either way.

Can guides change?

Yes. Guides can definitely change. I have gone through 2 complete spirit guide overhauls in my life, with access to the third group being granted just a few weeks ago. My first guide, whom I named “Michael”, was with me in my teens and twenties. He was the gentle spirit (or search engine) who guided me through my fears of being crazy (you’re getting information from where now?!), who patiently answered the same questions over and over again as I tried to trip him up, and who finally got me to accept that the information I was getting wasn’t just coming from my own mind. And yes, you’ll notice that I’m describing him as a person. Even though this is “just” data, this type of data is full of love and compassion. The reason we personify this stream of consciousness, is because the only way we can even begin to comprehend the complexity of this information is to translate it with more than one sense. These guides feel a certain way. They have personalities of sorts. Accessing this data is more like getting a full body, multisensory download than reading a computer screen.

On my flight back from Peru, after having spent a month intensively working with a Shaman (and therefore having radically changed my vibration), I was presented with a new guide. Because he seemed a bit cold and distant, I named him Alistair. The proper demeanor was due to my inability to, at first, fully comprehend this energy, however, and I later interpreted Alistair as warm, loving and incredibly accessible. Alistair explained that I could talk to Michael anytime I wanted, but that it was as if I’d just graduated and gone on to a new grade, taught by a new teacher. I now have a more in depth knowledge of what happened – my new, higher vibration gave me access to a higher frequency, which, because it felt different, had to be interpreted as a new guide. The old guide, or information, if you will, was a part of the new guide. It was all still in there, I simply had access to more.

After a little while, Alistair was joined by the spirit or energy of Ayahuasca (a master healing and teaching plant which shamans use and which I had used in the Rainforest), Abraham, and several others who would pop in. In other words, I had access to all kinds of datasets at this frequency, which my mind interpreted as different “guides”. I began to trust the information I was receiving from my guides more and more and came to rely heavily on them for guidance and support. They have NEVER steered me wrong.

About three weeks ago, I lay down to meditate and met a whole new guide – Elijah. I have to tell you, this guide is almost impossible to describe in words. I have never felt such unconditional love, such warmth and compassion, such support. The only word that comes close is intimate, but not in a sexual way. This is spiritually intimate. The next night, a second guide showed up – a powerful shamanic healer and teacher. He doesn’t speak much but I can feel him chanting over me, supporting me powerfully, when I’m releasing something. I have a strong feeling that I’m going to learn a great deal from him.

How can you “meet” your guides?

So, now that I’ve shattered all your illusions about guides (buwahahahaha!), I’ll get to the question you’ve been wanting the answer to all along: What can you do to connect with your own search engine/portal/ok fine, spirit guides? It’s actually quite simple (remember, simple doesn’t necessarily equal easy):

1. Start meditating regularly. You can’t even begin to “hear” or access this non-physical information if you can’t stop the ruckus in your mind. Also, the higher your vibration is when you connect, the better the information you receive will be. Just because you’re translating non-physical energy, doesn’t mean it’s enlightened energy. Just saying.
2. After meditating for a few minutes, ask a question. Make it a simple one, not something you NEED to know the answer to RIGHT NOW! This neediness will make it much more difficult for you to receive an answer.
3. Relax and open your mind. Remember that the frequency of a question and the frequency of the answer are not the same. As long as you’re focused too much on the question, you can’t hear the answer to it.
4. Be ok with NOT receiving the answer. Again, neediness will not get you what you want. And if you’ve noticed that receiving information this way is much like manifesting then, congratulations, you’ve really been paying attention. It’s exactly like manifesting. That’s because it IS manifesting (just like everything. Duh.)
5. Allow the answer to come in whatever way it wants to. Do your best not to censor anything you receive. You may not get the answer you’re looking for, or in the way you’re looking for it. It could come in as a thought, as a “voice”, you could see a vision with your third eye, or you could actually see something with your physical eyes. The answer could come to you a day or two after you asked the question, in a book, a song, a blog post or a seemingly unrelated conversation. Let it come in whatever way it can.
6. Choose to accept the information as truth. In order to build trust in what you receive, you’re going to have to operate on a bit of faith for a little while. This means that you choose to accept the answers you get as truth, and then see what happens. Write them down, check them out, but act as if the information was correct.
7. If the info you got wasn’t correct, go back and check how it felt when you received it. Where you hunting for signs? Did you, in your urgency to get an answer, choose to interpret something as a sign, even though you weren’t intuitively led to do so? Did you censor the information? Or were you, perhaps, not connected to a high frequency?
8. If the information was correct, notice how you felt when you received it, what you did to connect, and how it came to you. As you receive more and more “hits”, your ability and trust will grow.

It’s like learning to swim

Learning to connect with your “guides” is a bit like learning to swim. You can study theory all day long, but you’re not going to actually learn to tread water unless you jump in the pool. You learn by doing, by practicing and by trial and error. But remember, just as babies instinctively know how to swim, so do we know how to translate energy from the non-physical. We do it all day long. So don’t overcomplicate things. Don’t expect Jesus to appear, arm and arm with the Buddha, waiving a big old flashing neon sign reading “We’re Your Spirit Guides, Homey!” It’s going to be a lot more subtle than that.  Just like with any manifestation, you can only receive what you’re ready for. This means that it has to feel almost normal, like no big deal. Spirit guides tend to appear more like a whisper than a shout, especially at first.

Bottom line

I’ve always said that anyone can learn to connect with their guides. A friend of mine recently pointed out that me saying this is like an elite athlete telling people that “anyone can complete the Ironman”. Ok, I admit, it’s taken me A LOT of hours and A TON of effort to get to this level (don’t worry, though, it’s not hard work, I honestly can’t help myself). And, I’ll concede that maybe not everyone will be willing to put that kind of time and effort into their abilities. But getting messages for yourself, at least to some degree, doesn’t require nearly the commitment and investment that channeling for others takes. A bit of asking and allowing will get you there. Why not give it a try? You might just “discover” the next Abraham. 😉