Authors: Michael Newton
People want to know if their guides always come whenever they call for help. Guides are not consistent in the manner in which they choose to assist us, because they carefully evaluate how badly they are needed. I am also asked if hypnosis is the best way to get in contact with one’s guide. Naturally, I lean toward hypnosis, because I know how potent and effective this medium can be to obtain detailed spiritual information. However, hypnosis by a trained facilitator is not convenient on a daily basis, where meditation, prayer, and perhaps channeling with another person would be. Self-hypnosis, as a form of deep meditation, is an excellent alternative and may be preferred by those who have a fear of being hypnotized by others, or don’t want the interference of a second party in their spiritual life.
Regardless of the method used, we all have the capacity to send out far-reaching thought waves from our higher consciousness. Every person’s thoughts represent a mental fingerprint to guides marking who and where we are. During our lives, especially in periods of great stress, most people feel the presence of someone watching out for them. We may not be able to describe this power, but it is there nonetheless.
Reaching our soul is the first step on the ladder of finding our higher power. All lines of mental communication we use to reach a Godhead are monitored by our guides on this step. They, too, have their guides further up the ladder. The entire ladder serves as one unbroken conduit to the source of all intelligent energy, with each rung being part of the whole. It is essential for people to have faith that a prayer for help will be answered by
their own higher power. This is why guides are vitally important to our spiritual and temporal lives. If we are relaxed and in a state of concentrated focus, an inner voice speaks to us. And, even if we didn’t initiate the message, we should trust what we hear.
National surveys by psychologists indicate one person in ten admits to hearing voices which are frequently positive and instructional in nature. It is a relief for many people to learn their inner voices are not the hallucinations associated with the mentally ill. Rather than something to be worried about, an inner voice is like having your own resident counselor on call. More often than not, these voices are those of our guides.
Guides assigned to different souls do work together relaying urgent mental messages for each other. People unable to help themselves in critical situations may find counselors, friends, and even strangers coming to their aid at just the right moment.
The inner strength which comes to us in our daily lives does not arrive as much by a visual picture of actually seeing our guides, as from the feelings and emotions which convince us we are not alone. People who listen and encourage their inner voice through quiet contemplation say they feel a personal connection with an energy beyond themselves which offers support and reassurance. If you prefer to call this internal guidance system inspiration or intuition, that is fine, because the system which aids us is an aspect of ourselves as well as higher powers.
During troublesome times in our lives, we have the tendency to ask for guidance to immediately set things right. When they are in trance, my clients see that their guides don’t help them solve all their problems at once, rather they illuminate pathways by the use of clues. This is one reason why I am cautious about client-blocking during hypnosis. Insight is best revealed with a controlled pace relative to each person. A concerned teacher may not want all aspects of a problem uncovered at a given point in time for his or her student. We vary in our ability to handle revelations.
When asking for help from your higher spiritual power, I think it is best not to demand immediate change. Our success in life is predicated on planning, but we do have alternative paths to choose from to reach certain goals. When seeking guidance, I suggest requesting help with just the next step in your life. When you do this, be prepared for unexpected possibilities. Have the faith and humility to open yourself up to a variety of paths toward solutions.
After death we do not experience sadness as souls with the same emotional definition as grief felt in physical form. Yet, as we have already seen, souls are not detached beings without feelings. I have learned those powers who watch over us also feel what I call a spiritual sorrow when they see us making poor choices in life and going through pain. Certainly, our soulmates and peers suffer distress when we are tormented, but so do our guides. Guides may not show sorrow in orientation conferences and during soul group discussions between lives, but they keenly feel their responsibilities toward us as teachers.
In Chapter Eleven, we will get the perspective of a guide at Level V. I have never found a person who is a living grade VI, or master guide, as a subject. I suspect we don’t have a whole lot of these advanced souls on Earth at any one time. Most Level VI’s are much too involved with planning and directing from the spirit world to incarnate any longer. From the reports of the Level V’s I have had, it would seem the Level VI has no new lessons to learn, but I have a hunch a still-incarnating soul at Level V may not know all the esoteric tasks involved with master level entities.
Once in a while during a session with a more advanced soul, I hear references to an even higher level of soul than Level VI. These entities, to whom even the masters report, are in the darkest purple range of energy. These superior beings must be getting close to the creator. I am told these shadowy figures are elusive, but highly venerated beings in the spirit world.
The average client doesn’t know if spiritual guides should be placed in a less than divine category, or considered lesser gods because of their advancement. There is nothing wrong with any spiritual concept, as long as it provides comfort, is uplifting, and makes sense to each individual. Although some of my clients have the tendency to consider guides god-like-they are not God. In my opinion, guides are no more or less divine than we are, which is why they are seen as personal beings. In all my cases God is never seen. People in hypnosis say they feel the presence of a supreme power directing the spirit world, but they are uncomfortable using the word “God” to describe a creator. Perhaps the philosopher Spinoza said it best with these words: “God is not He who is, but That which is.”
Every soul has a spiritual higher power linked to its existence. All souls are part of the same divine essence generated from one oversoul. This intelligent energy is universal in scope and so we all share in divine status. If our soul reflects a small portion of the oversoul we call God, then our guides provide the mirror by which we are able to see ourselves connected to this creator.
THERE are two types of beginner souls: souls who are truly young in terms of exposure to an existence out of the spirit world, and souls who have been reincarnating on Earth for a long period of relative time, but still remain immature. I find beginner souls of both types in Levels I and II.
I believe almost three-quarters of all souls who inhabit human bodies on Earth today are still in the early stages of development. I know this is a grossly discouraging statement because it means most of our human population is operating at the lower end of their training. On the other hand, when I consider a world population beset by so much negative cross-cultural misunderstanding and violence, I am not inclined to change my opinion about the high percentage of lower level souls on Earth. However, I do think each century brings improvement of awareness in all humans.
Over a number of years, I have maintained a statistical count of client soul levels in my case files. Undoubtedly, the figures are weighted to some extent at the lower levels because these subjects were not selected at random. My cases could be over-represented by souls at the lower levels of development because they are the very people who require assistance in life and might come to me seeking information.
For those who are curious, the percentages by soul level of all my cases are as follows: Level I, 42%; Level II, 31%; Level III, 17%; Level IV, 9%; and Level V, 1%. Projecting these figures into a world population of five billion souls would be unreliable, using my small sample. Nevertheless, I see the Possibility we may have only a few hundred thousand people on Earth at Level V.
My subjects state that souls end their incarnations on Earth when they reach full maturity. What is significant about the high percentage of souls in the early stages of development is our rapidly multiplying population and the urgency babies have for available souls. We are increasing by 260,000 children per day. This human necessity for souls means they must normally be drawn from a spiritual pool of less advanced entities who require more incarnations to progress and are, therefore, more available to return to another life.
I am sensitive to the feelings of clients whom I know to be in the early stages of development. I cannot count the number of times a new client has come into my office and said, “I know I am an old soul, but I seem to have problems coping with life.” We all want to be advanced souls because most people hate to be considered a beginner in anything. Every case is unique. There are many variables within each soul’s character, individual development rate, and the qualities of the guides assigned to them. I see my task as offering interpretations of what subjects report to me about the progression of their souls.
I have had many cases where a client has been incarnating for up to 30,000 years on Earth and is still in the lower levels of I and II. The reverse is also true with a few people, although rapid acceleration in spiritual development is uncommon. As with any educational model, students find certain lessons more difficult than others. One of my clients has not been able to conquer envy for 850 years in numerous lives, but she did not have too much trouble overcoming bigotry by the end of this same period. Another has spent nearly 1700 years off-and-on seeking some sort of authoritative power over others. However, he has gained compassion.
The next case represents an absolute beginner soul. This novice shows no evidence of having a spiritual group assignment as yet, because she has lived too few past lives. In her first life she was killed in 1260 AD in Northern Syria by a Mongol invasion. Her name was Shabez, and her settlement was sacked, resulting in a terrible massacre of the inhabitants when she was five years old.
Case 20
Dr. N: Shabez, now that you have died and returned to the spirit world, tell me what you feel?
S: (shouts) Cheated! That life was so cruel! I couldn’t stay. I was only a little girl unable to help anybody. What a mistake!
Dr. N: Who made this mistake?
S: (in a conspiratorial tone) My leader. I trusted his judgment, but he was wrong to send me into that cruel life to be killed before my life got started.
Dr. N: But you did agree to come into the body of Shabez?
S: (upset) I didn’t know Earth would be such an awful place full of terror-I wasn’t given all the facts-the whole stupid life was a mistake and my leader is responsible.
Dr. N: Didn’t you learn anything from this life?
S: (pause) I started to learn to love … yes, that was wonderful … my brother … parents … but it was so short …
Dr. N: Did anything good come out of this life?
S: My brother Ahmed… to be with him …
Dr. N: Is Ahmed in your present life?
S: (suddenly my subject rises out of her chair) I can’t believe it! Ahmed is my husband Bill-the same person-how can …?
Dr. N: (after calming subject, I explain the process of soul transference to a new body and then continue) Do you see Ahmed on your return to the spirit world after dying as Shabez?
S: Yes, our leader brings us together here … where we stay.
Dr. N: Does Ahmed emit the same energy color as yourself or are there differences?
S: (pause) We … are all white.
Dr. N: Describe what you do here.
S: While our leader comes and goes, Ahmed and I… just work together.
Dr. N: Doing what?
S: We search out what we think about ourselves-our experience on Earth. I’m still sore about us being killed so soon … but there was
happiness … walking in the sun … breathing the air of Earth … love.
Dr. N: Go back further to the time before you and Ahmed had your life together, perhaps when you were alone. What was it like being created?
S: (disturbed) I don’t know… I was just here .. with thought.
Dr. N: Do you remember during your own creation when you first began to think as an intelligent being?
S: I realized … I existed … but I didn’t know myself as myself until I was moved into this quiet place alone with Ahmed.
Dr. N: Are you saying your individual identity came more into focus when you began interacting with another soul entity besides your guide?
S: Yes, with Ahmed.
Dr. N: Keep to the time before Ahmed. What was it like for you then?
S: Warm … nurturing … my mind opening .. she was with me then.
Dr. N: She? I thought your leader displayed a male gender to you?
S: I don’t mean him… someone was around me with the presence of a … mother and father … mostly mother
Dr. N: What presence?
S: I don’t know … a soft light … changing features… I can’t grasp it … loving messages … encouragement
Dr. N: This was at the time of your creation as a soul?
S: Yes … it’s all hazy … there were others … helpers … when I was born.
Dr. N: What else can you tell me about the place of your creation?
S: (long pause) Others … love me … in a nursery… then we left and I was with Ahmed and our leader.
Dr. N: Who actually created you and Ahmed?
S: The One.
I have learned there seems to be a kind of spirit world maternity ward for newborn souls. One client told me, “This place is where infantile light is arranged in a honeycomb fashion as unhatched eggs, ready to be used.” In Chapter Four, on displaced souls, we saw how damaged souls can be “remodeled .” My conjecture is these creation centers described by Shabez have the same function. In the next chapter, Case 22 will explain more about spiritual areas of ego creation where raw, undefined energy can be manipulated into a genesis of Self.