Guiding Spirits

"Spirit Guides,” (or guiding spirits) “are entities from “other planes of existence,” says Ted Andrews, author of several "spirit guide" books including How to Meet and Work with Your Spirit Guide. (2006) People like Ted write books to help others meet these guiding spirits just as they did. Having a spirit guide is a little like having a "guardian angel" only he is not there to guard you, but to guide.

You might simply dismiss this notion thinking that these people are just imagining something outlandish, lost in their own little world, but people who say they make contact with such beings of the spirit world insist that spirit guides are not imaginary, (after all, they talk to them,) or that they are evil, (because they are nice and are here to help humanity.) Ted is one of many who believe that the spirits who guide him and give him wisdom are helpful beings from the some other plane of existence, who come to us to help humanity evolve. Spirit guides sometimes go by different titles. They get called names like light-bearers, aliens, angels, poltergeists, ghosts, totems and even sometimes demons, but whatever you call them they are all the same kind of experience, and like Ted, many people have encounters with beings of this sort, because they want to.

So, are they real?

New Age source, crystalinks.com, refers to spirit guides as being both “physical and non-physical beings.” The word on the street about it is that these entities present themselves to help, teach, advise and coach humans on the path to heavenly, spiritual enlightenment.

People who encounter such beings usually do so when they engage in occult practices like certain kinds of meditation, seances, necromancy, channeling, hypnosis, aura interpretation, dream alchemy, ouija boards, tarot reading and even when they are involved in the use of certain drugs. These being are not always nice either. People who have engaged in these things, who encounter and have engaged "spirit guides" tell of having difficulty when they want to stop. They say that they have found themselves becoming tormented or controlled involuntarily by the spirits.

Ex-channelers, for example, report that these entities first appear helpful, come only come when invited, or sought after., but things change as times go by. They report that these entities do have a mind of their own and that they are often happy to make demands of you, interfere with your life. Some will even take over your mind and body, ultimately your very soul.

So make no mistake, the occult is dangerous to your spiritual well being. Many people who start down this path eventually find themselves torn between two worlds struggling between regaining sanity and losing their minds, in a battle with spiritual forces beyond their control. They find themselves dealing with spirits that are anything but holy.

Many have escaped only because someone told them about Jesus.

People like Joanna Michealson, Ray Yungen and Sharon Beekmanhave escaped the occult and lived to tell about it because somewhere along the way they heard the gospel, put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and escaped Satan's snare. We do not have to be snared though. God tells his people not to believe every spirit, and warns that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (1 John 4:1-4) In other words, God warned us in the Bible about "spirit guides."

The scripture says, “Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world." Paul the Apostle knew this. He knew that even those who had believed upon Jesus, could be vulnerable when he wrote, “For even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you let him be eternally condemned!" (Galatians 1:8) Spirit guides may very well be angels who preach 'another gospel.'

A lot of time, contact with the spirit world begins by meditation techniques being used. But even simply trancendental meditation is to be considered dangers. Most books that advocate meditation make a disclaimer that a person should receive training from a “qualified teacher” rather than just meditate using an “on your own” technique.

Make no mistake here either, meditation used to alter your state of consciousness and make contact with beings like spirit guides is not the same thing as "meditating" on God’s word, and yet there are "best-selling authors" left and right who are bombarding churches and Christians with the message of meditation and even luring them into having hopes that by meditation they can have some kind of mystical experience and some say, even "feel” the presence of God.

But Christians do not walk by "feel", they walk by faith.

It would be wise, as we hear from these voices about all about the positive effects of meditation, prayer positioning and prayer breathing techniques, to consider what God's word has to say on such matters. In addition to the scripture there are also testimonials from the practitioners themselves as well as documented clinical literature that tells of people suffering from meditation-related problems.

One study, published in the International Journal of Psychotherapy, March 2000, (Meditation: Concepts, Effects And Uses In Therapy) demonstrates that “side-effects” are often reported when these techniques have been used clinically. These run the gamut from mild to serious, but include uncomfortable physical sensations, mild feelings of detachment or depersonalization, depression, relaxation-induced anxiety and panic, confusion, and disorientation. This is just from meditation. Add some spirit guides, you encounter during meditation, speaking to you or through your voice, who take over and control your body, and you will have some psychiatrists to support financially. Some people would even call symptoms of that nature, being demon possessed.