Spirit guides

Introduction

Spirit guides are said to be spiritual beings who are there to help peopl. They can be seen in meditation, or "felt" and are used by mediums and in mediumship circles. They do not exist physically, but rather are said to exist on a spiritual plane that is of a purely energetic nature. Their reside is in the Spirit World although they are said to almost always be around the particular individual with whom they are acquainted. They can:

• give supportive advice to the individual (whilst they are in meditation)
• help mediums if a spirit is having difficulty communicating with the medium
• help the 'newly-dead' whose passing to the Spirit World was recent
• give advice and suggestions to souls deciding on the type of experiences or lessons to be learned in their next lifetime they are preplanning
• act as friends for lonely or special-needs or psychic children - 'invisible' or 'imaginary' friends
• be supportive during traumatic situations or times of grief over the recent death of a loved one
• be good fun in adventures in meditation
• give psychic healing (as in psychic surgeon healing) to people, through the medium channelling them - the psychic surgeons - to his clients

Do they come in all shapes and sizes?

Animal spirit guides are called 'totem' or 'power' animals

 Anyone can be a spirit guide. Essentially, spirit guides are beings the individual admires or likes or who thinks of them as a role model. They may be based on an actual person whose character is likeable and admirable, they may be dead relative, they may be characters from stories of films, or they may even be a dead pet! However, these beings are there to help and are never evil, benevolent entities that wish to do harm.

Characters from favourite stories or tales - 

Spirit guides may depict themselves as anything, such as the following:

A spirit guide can present itself as a fictional character, like Fox Mulder

Merlin the Wizard (from King Arthur)

Legolas the Wood Elf (from the Lord of the Rings)

Katniss Everdeen (from The Hunger Games)

The Doctor (from Doctor Who)

Fox Mulder (from The X Files)

Pegasus the Winged Horse

Professor Lupin (from Harry Potter)
Luke Skywalker (from Star Wars)

Deceased persons -

A spirit guide can also depict itself as the person's aunt, uncle, friend, brother, sister... anyone, but usually a grandmother or grandfather

A dead pet that may have passed away recently or years ago 

Dead spouse - including those that may have died during childbirth or were stillborn

Family members from previous lifetimes potentially

Other forms

Spirit guides may also appear as:

• Native Americans
• Tibetan monks
• Aborigines
• A tribal elder - a shaman

 Psychology of spirit guides

Spirit guides will :

• Always be helpful and loving
• Be positive and non-judgemental
• Be caring but honest in their approach
• Not overload the system with information that the individual cannot handle
• not give unnecessary information
• Usually speak the same language as the individual
• Look good and perhaps attractive
• Not always be a gender - some may be female, others male and still others neither 
•  Try not to give away too much in order for the individual to find things out for themselves
• Never have an agenda other than to help with the spiritual development of the person

 The role of the spirit guide in mediumship

According to Contacting the Spirit World - by Linda Williamson p.138 "When you start sitting in a development circle you will no doubt be told that you have various guides with you. Monks and nuns are particular favourites and, of course, there are inevitable Native Americans and Chinamen. These descriptions give rise to derisive laughter in sceptics, but as a medium myself I do see such figures. In fact, I am aware of a nun who works very closely with me. So I do believe that there are beings on the astral plane who undertake the task ... of working with mediums in this way. As to the exotic costumes - they may have been Native Americans, Chinamen or whatever when they were on earth. We are told that many guides are drawn from races that, when on earth, had much spiritual wisdom and a natural aptitude for communication with the spirit world. ... The dress in which we see them is a form adopted for our benefit rather than theirs. They come from a dimension where the concept of personality no longer applies but, like an actor donning a costume in which he will be recognised, they show themselves to us in a way that we can accept. A guide may just as easily have been an English person but mediums are taught to expect Native Americans and the like, so that is the form they obligingly adopt."

Critical questions

Q1. Williamson seems to state that she does "see such figures" as monks, nuns, Native Americans and Chinamen and, furthermore, because she is "aware of a nun who works very closely with me" she believes that spiritual guides do take the form of monks, nuns and the like and consequently, she does believe that"...there are beings on the astral plane who undertake the task ... of working with mediums in this way". This seems to mean that the evidence for the existence of spirit guides dressing up in this way resides in visually seeing such entities (in mediumship and psychic circles, this is 'clairvoyance'. In mainstream society, however, these visualisations are interpreted to be more mental images that are seen in the head or mind). Does this mean that "seeing is believing"? Not at all; the "spirit guides" may just have been visualised or imagined entities or archetypes constructed and role-played by the individual's (in this case, the medium's) subconscious mind. Or there may be some other sceptical explanation that can explain it. 

Q2. When Williamson states that spirit guides "...come from a dimension where the concept of personality no longer applies but, like an actor donning a costume in which he will be recognised, they show themselves to us in a way that we can accept." it does not mean that the spirit guide no longer exhibits a personality. Although it may be difficult to measure as such, the personalities and characters (as well as the voice of the spirit guide) can and does differ. A medium, for example, can have multiple spirit guides in their lifetime, who are all different characters to each other. Some may have a subtler way of helping the medium whilst others are bending-over backwards almost to help the medium. They can be insensitive and rarely come to the aid of the medium when in need of help, or they can appear to be continually at the medium's side. Different spirit guides appear to exhibit different character traits such as these - and others - depending on the sort of personality they have and, spiritually speaking, on what errand they are assigned to and and just how much help they had previously arranged with the medium's soul before present incarnation to give. 

Fig 1a) Is a spirit guide really Legolas?

Q3. When Williamson says that "A guide may just as easily have been an English person but mediums are taught to expect Native Americans and the like, so that is the form they obligingly adopt", she seems to imply that the spirit guide is a sort of shape-shifter in that one spirit guide can choose what guise that take when they are assisting the medium. Therefore, could it be that:

ai) if the spirit guide (and spirit guides in general) does exist, if it chooses a particular guise (e.g. a deceased great grandmother) for assisting one individual, the same same spirit guide can assist (well, in its 'spare time' of course!) another person, under a completely different guise or form (e.g. a Tibetan monk)? (See Figures 1a and 1b)

aii) If what is being asked in Q3ai) is what happens, does the spirit guide have any sense of ethics? Why should a spirit guide take the form of a person's deceased great grandmother whilst helping that person and, for someone else they take the form of a Tibetan monk? The spirit guide is surely being deceptive to both parties in leading them to potentially believe or think that their spirit guide is its particular guise - is it really possible that the spirit guide could have been - or is - someone's deceased grandmother whilst at the same time they are also really a Tibetan monk for someone else? Is the spirit guide a boggart and so is using this sort of deception to "help people"? (See Figures 1a and 1b)

b)Williamson seems to suggest that since "A guide may just as easily have

Fig1b) Or is the spirit guide really Katniss?

been an English person but mediums are taught to expect Native Americans and the like, so that is the form they obligingly adopt", she is falsely stating that ALL mediums are "taught" to expect to have Native Americans etc. as spirit guides. This is wrong. Perhaps it was how she was taught, but if that was so she cannot generalise from that for all mediums when mediumship circles are done by different people, so are done by different people; and therefore the development circles are done in different ways, leading to unique mediumship development experiences. What lead her to that conclusion, anyway? She has not seen how all mediums at development circles work, nor what types of spirit guides their circles' members have had.

Q4a. When Williamson says that "A guide may just as easily have been an English person but mediums are taught to expect Native Americans and the like, so that is the form they obligingly adopt.", this supposed phenomenon can be easily explained sceptically, through Psychology:
i). If a person has an affinity with Native Americans, they are going to be amongst the types of people who will discover that they have a Native American as their spirit guide.
ii) If a person believes that Native American spirit guides are the only valid genre of spirit guide, if they come across spirit guides professing or appearing to be some other sort (e.g. Tibetan monk), they may subconsciously or consciously disregard these entities until they come across one that is a Native American, with which they are happy.
iii) If a person only wants a spirit guide that is, for example, a Native American, should they come across other spirit guides of theirs that are of a different sort (e.g. an elf), they may subconsciously (or consciously) reject the other spirit guides and in doing so may, even deliberately, cause themselves to forget (and by that, is meant that they cannot remember at all) about the other spirit guides, until or during the period when they come across a spirit guide that they are happy with (the Native American spirit guide, for example).

Spiritual guidance

Read the following extract, taken from medium, Rebecca Rosen, from p.135 Chapter 5 from her book Spirited : "... Spirit guidance is available to us as soon as we ask for it, and once we know how to tap into it, Spirit will begin to deliver us powerful messages. Like many in my line of work, I use the word signs to describe how Spirit communicates with us. ... Especially when we're faced with challenging times, feeling hopeless and lost, these signs offer proof that there's a plan at work around us and that we're on the right path."

         Some examples of instances involving "signs" are when someone comes across a pure white feather on multiple occasions, following the death of someone close (most frequently perhaps in cases where a parent lost their child at a young age). This is usually attributed to an angel being close by, and also that the child is still being looked after, but by angelic beings in the spirit realm.

Rosen tells us that "... spirits won't barge in and offer you guidance unless you ask them to. You have to invite Spirit in. ... Without permission, they won't tell you much - beyond popping in and saying "Hi," they'll keep their opinions to themselves." The same goes for spirit guides. Spirit guides will only help an individual if they are open to their guidance and want their help. If they do not, the spirit guides will not help the person (although they may perhaps subtly without the person's awareness, but as they deem fit). Although it should not be generalised too much, since it only comes from one person, but what Rosen says may help shed some light on mediums. If "communication with the dead" relies on the medium being in a particular state of mind (i.e. meditative and therefore receptive and open), this is during the period of time when the medium opens themselves up psychically to the spirits that may be present. In this state, they can "pick-up" on the spirits where they are. But in everyday life, whilst doing mundane activities in which the medium is not in such a receptive or meditative state, they can psychically close themselves down, thus resulting in the medium behaving like any normal person and not picking up on spirits that might be in the room. The medium must intend to pick up on spirits that are present, in order to channel them. Is it possible that this could this also explain spirit possession? Is it that spirit possession only occurs (if at all) if the medium invites the spirit into themselves? Of course, spirit possession may just be 'role-playing' on behalf of the possessed individual, which gets a bit too full-blown and leads to the person forgetting how it started and resulting in their genuine belief that they are possessed by a spirit. It may just be a means to gain attention from others.