Chapter 20

A SCHOOL FOR PROPHETS AND GUIDES

"I cannot think of permanent enmity between man and man, and believing as I do in the theory of rebirth, I live in the hope that if not in this birth, in some other birth, I shall be able to hug all humanity in friendly embrace". Mahatma Gandhi

I hope I have inspired you to begin looking deeper into your inner mind. I hope you may even wish to journey within and explore your soul memories, to gain access to your higher mind, and to discover your soul's destiny. But before you do, there are some specific recommendations I wish to make. Psychic development is not an end in itself - it is just one step toward spiritual growth. There are many other steps and many other paths to self-betterment.

The goal is to become a whole person, mentally, physically, and spiritually. When you set your goals and ideals in life, please include steps to help all aspects of your growth. Continue your education. Strengthen your character. Integrate your personality. Volunteer for community work, join a health club or fitness center. Build a healthy mind and a healthy spirit.
Age regression and channeling are doors to the New Age just as the ships of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries opened the way to the New World. Then, as now, some people have fears and doubts of the unknown and the unexplored. Today we smile to think of the absurdity of the belief that ships would fall off the edge of the world; we grin at the legends on the old maps that say of the uncharted, unknown seas, "Out here be monsters." But there was a time when both were common fears.

Go With Care

There are valid concerns about conducting age regression and channeling experiments, or doing any other kind of soul exploration, in safety. Evil exists. I have not found it; I have not looked for it. As you continue the work, as you look deep within yourself, you reach out to light; then you will learn and grow in safety. A few people fear the idea of exploring their inner minds. And that is a valid concern for them, although it reminds me clearly of my youth. The Red Cross offered free swimming lessons near our home. My mother had a great fear of drowning, so she said on numerous occasions, "Don't go swimming until you know how to swim." The only problem with her admonition was that later in life both my brother and I almost drowned because we had never learned to swim. She wouldn't let us go until we knew how, and we never learned how because we never went.

Learning is a better solution to ignorance. Just because we don't fully understand something doesn't mean we should reject it. Rather we can learn and grow to understand. Yes, there are cautions and obstacles to soul exploration. The biggest problem, as I see it, is the ego. In regression, a person with a powerful past, for instance, may wish to recapture that time again. But people cannot ride on yesterday's glory, nor are they locked into yesterday's tragedies. The person who boasts, "I am the greatest," is as out of balance as the person who whimpers, "I am less than nothing."

The goal of regression work is to balance the extremes and build our humanity. Ego can be a stumbling block in the area of channeling. The goal here is to detach who you are from what you are doing. But even more important is to ask why you want to do it. Do you want to channel to help mankind, to learn and grow, to become a more whole person, or is it just to impress the people at work with your new hobby? To help detach the ego, take neither credit nor blame for information you may channel. The information can be evaluated and weighed by intelligent and neutral people to determine its value. Prophecy of future events can be filed to see if later it proves correct. Not all channeled material is accurate, any more than all news on television or in newspapers and magazines is accurate.
Channeling can be as clouded as a news story. The same words, images, and events are usually interpreted differently by different people. There is a need for proper preparation in both regression and channeling experiments. I have previously written of the preparation for regression work. I believe it is mandatory for vessel and guide to work together many times before channeling experiments are conducted, for a number of reasons. First, both people more clearly understand their roles; second, both build trust by working together on easier projects (like age regression); and third, both will have a strong foundation in case something unusual should happen.

This lesson was brought home to me as recently as July, 1986, when I worked much too soon with a new student, Roger Hunt. We had worked together only twice before. In our first session we went through the chakra opening process. In the second we went through the Cayce levels but without attempting a reading. In our mutual eagerness we went too fast. Roger was very willing, but still had doubts as to whether he was ready and able to channel. If we had had a stronger foundation, we could have avoided an experience that frightened him. As it was, while he was in a trance I could see he was processing a lot of feeling and emotion. But he did not speak. Then, after a few minutes, he asked for help to come back to familiar reality. I gave appropriate suggestions; he followed them and returned without panicking. Here is what happened, as Roger wrote it himself.

AN EXPERIENCE DURING A READING July 5, 1986 Independence, Virginia

The induction into the hypnotic state proceeded as it usually does for me (although I did notice that the images during this stage were not as vivid as they sometimes are.) At the point in which I would normally see the opening into the Hall of Records, I instead saw nothing at first; then, at the place where I would expect to see the entrance, there was instead a black cat. He looked like a house cat in size and appearance at this point. At first he seemed to take no notice of me. Then, as I drew closer, he looked at me and made a gesture which was threatening to me in some way (I don't recall, or didn't notice at the time, exactly what he did.)
At first I remained where I was, in a state of fear but not wanting to leave. The cat then seemed to become huge, larger than a tiger, though he still resembled a pet cat in appearance. He opened his mouth and snarled at me (silently), and his fangs were large and white. This seemed to go on for some time, and to be repeated a number of times, as in a nightmare. The cat may also have threatened me with his claws - or at least I was afraid he would do so. (This is not a clear memory.) Finally, I overcame the paralysis of fear that had rooted me to this spot, and I fled.

I found myself in a dense wooded area of pine trees. There was no undergrowth, and the light was very dim - due to the thickness of the trees overhead and also, I think, to the fact that it was getting near twilight. My feeling was that I was lost; it was as though I had gone for a walk down a valley, and returned by mistake up the next valley over, near familiar territory but unable to get there before dark. This was frightening, but there was another emotion present too. This emotion might be described as feeling that I didn't want to leave, and also the feeling that there was a way home, but I was temporarily unable to find it. The feeling was confusing and contradictory. I could hear the guide (Henry) speaking to me, but it was an effort to answer. After a bit I was able to speak, and I prayed to be brought home. I believe my prayer was something like, "Father, take me home."
The guide then directed me to see the Light, and I followed the Light out of the realm I was in and back to my body. (This coming out was similar to the normal exiting stages I go through at the end of the readings. When I awoke I related what had happened. My belief is that this incident happened as a way to emphasize that I should be certain I am prepared for the Work I am to do in this way. I had been thinking long and hard about what exactly I should and could do with my abilities in this area; and I think this incident happened so as to underscore the importance of becoming balanced and comfortable with the Work and its unfolding. I am inclined to think that the reading that day, had I been able to give one, would have been "clouded" by the doubts I was having, and thus would have been unhelpful to the subject. The incident then prevented a bad-quality experience for all of us by not letting it go forward to that point; and at the same time, it caused me to focus on this element as the cause, with the idea of then resolving it. A third possible cause would be to help the guide to clarify skills needed to handle unusual or unexpected occurrences during readings, or at least to bring them into conscious awareness.

Subconscious Protection

The subconscious protects the subject, so I have never had anyone become permanently lost in an altered mind state. Nor have I ever heard of a case in which this happened, but it is only wise to include proper and ample preparatory working and communicating together. Roger's self-doubts projected themselves as frightening visual images. He did not describe them as he was viewing them; if he had I would have given appropriate suggestions. In this case we decided to build a much stronger foundation by working together on easier projects first.

Two weeks later we did, in fact, do a regression session. It proved to be one of the most interesting, fact filled sessions I ever conducted. Roger's case is unusual. Neither Daniel nor Eileen experienced anything like it in the beginning sessions. Nevertheless, I could observe strong effects during their first sessions and both of them describe intense experiences. But they persisted in the work and the difficulties lessened. Some people experience unusual reactions as the chakra centers open. For instance, in Eileen's early sessions, the crown chakra remained open, and she found the sensation very uncomfortable. Though not quite "returned" from her hypnotic state, she was able to motion to me that the center was open, and I could relieve her discomfort by putting my hands on her head and giving her suggestions to close the chakra.
Other people have strong reactions to the experience of traveling through the levels and layers of the mind. Still others are concerned about the validity of the information they channel, wondering if it is contaminated by their conscious minds. To me, these obstacles are like tests to see if the person really wants to continue with the work.

Channeling and Prophets

In Biblical times channelers were called prophet or prophetess. Today other words would be vessel or trance psychic. When I work with people to develop their ability to channel I look first to see how strong is their desire to be of service to others; then I gauge their desire to seek and to be open. My "training program" requires inner exploration and spiritual disciplines developed through working alone with hypnosis tapes and with me. Our developing relationship of trust and compatibility is of utmost importance. There is a mutual learning and growing together, as we totally and absolutely trust the process.

In a hypnotic state, a vessel opens to a different reality, or an altered consciousness, and like a vessel, a container holds water that can be shared with many who are thirsty. In the same way, a vessel holds spiritual nourishment which flows through and is communicated through this altered consciousness. The information or guidance does not originate with the vessel or myself, but is simply channeled from a higher source. This source has been called higher beings, angelic beings, extraterrestrials, collective unconscious, Akashic Records, ascended masters, etc., but it is all one in accessing the same source.
The subjects I work with become able to channel past, present, or future information. The vessel often prays to be guided by God in order that the highest of energy sources be channeled through his or her being. A vessel is a messenger of soul guidance, opening to innermost light and sharing with those who ask.

The Guide's Job

Other synonyms for the word guide are conductor, facilitator, and anchor. As a guide, my job is to be a spiritual partner, counselor, and stabilizer. My major qualification as a guide is to be an experienced hypnotist. I have undergone years of apprenticeship and study. I am sensitive to the needs of the vessel and the group, and this is balanced with the strength and knowledge to take charge for the entire session. Like a teacher in a classroom, I accept my role of being in charge. As a guide, I find I need to curb a new vessel's enthusiasm to overdo and overwork. The soul needs time to assimilate information, just as the body needs time to digest food. The vessel and I prepare in advance with exercises such as hypnosis, age regression, and chakra attunement exercises. A mutual relationship of trust develops naturally between me and the vessel.

During this time, and continuing throughout the actual session, I offer emotional and spiritual support to the vessel. Actually, my job is to be for the vessel the link with earth reality. For each vessel I develop individual approaches to the process. I do not necessarily memorize a specific formula of words, but rather develop a manner of opening to the right words at the right time. The session begins before the channeling itself actually begins. I strive to be responsive to the needs of the vessel; reassuring before, during, and after the session; and to assure the personal physical safety of the vessel and the correctness of the purpose of the session. I see to it beforehand that there will be no startling interruptions like the doorbell or telephone. My real attitude is one of respect for the source and the information. The vessel and myself take neither credit nor blame for information that comes through. I simply support the natural process of what is happening without judgment.

The vessel and I work together, and learn more with each session, and refine our techniques and procedures. For example, after each beginning session, I listen carefully to how the vessel describes the experience. Then in subsequent sessions I apply the vessel's own words and images in the accessing process.

Guiding in a Group

If there is no one else to run the tape recording equipment, I do this work as well. However, in some group sessions, I ask someone else to change the tape at the appropriate time. In addition to working with a vessel, I monitor the entire group when other people are present. In a group session, I ask those present to formulate and/or write their questions beforehand. All questions are valid. During the session, I allow appropriate time for everyone to ask questions. I strive to orchestrate a harmonious group experience. In the event of an animated response to a question, I make sure that the clip-on mike on the vessel's body remains unobstructed through the session. Other than this, I do not make any movements near the physical body of the subject so as not to disrupt the energy flow of the chakra system. When all people have asked their questions, and near the completion of the session, I ask the source for any additional information which may be given at that time.

The Dream of a School

My vision is to see schools formed specifically to teach people to channel and to be guides. I hope the name, "A School for Prophets and Guides," is not too presumptuous. Perhaps the textbook could be called A Guide for Guides. Perhaps we need to define the role of guide. The time is early yet for an official school to begin. But you can begin now on your own. Find other searching souls and questioning minds to work with you. This is easier than you think. Go to classes in related topics in your area and start talking to the people there. You will discover that there are many, many other people searching for the answers to the secrets of eternity. You are not alone. If there are no yoga or meditation or psychic development classes in your area write to the Edgar Cayce Foundation or a similar national organization. Most of all, you need to begin - right where you are at. This work is a creative journey into your inner mind. It is an adventure into self-discovery, and no one else can do it for you. Does exploring new dimensions seem like a risk? Then consider taking a risk. Risk like this evokes courage and maturity and can bring healthier self-esteem. However, if your inner guidance says no, then don't try to push the river of your soul; there are no shortcuts to maturity.

My quest has been, and still is, unveiling the mysteries of the mind, unlocking the secrets of the ancients. In my search I have gained knowledge and experience. Through persistence and perseverance I have received spiritual guidance. My goal is now to inspire you and encourage you to explore the richness and magnitude of your own mind and soul. Reading about new things gives you knowledge. Working with and applying your knowledge builds wisdom. There is far more depth to the human mind than we can possibly imagine. The best way to learn more is to search, experiment, and explore for yourself.

The joy of exploring past lives is not just looking for patterns of problems from the past but in looking for the wonderful gifts of the past, gifts from the soul, those wonderful talents we have deep within us that we may not know about or understand. We have all heard of Mozart, who had a prodigious gift for music before he could talk. Or the brilliant children who enter college at 11 or 12. Where do these things come from? What about my friend who in his subconscious explorations discovered an unsuspected talent for mechanical things; he is now happy in a job he once scorned in his father's garage. How do we explain these things? There are benefits from understanding. This isn't an intellectual study we're doing. It can bring benefit into our lives as we fine tune the gifts we have and use those gifts to help others. The ancients hid the secrets of the universe in men's minds. Now is the time to bring them out of hiding. And please - write and share some of your discoveries with me.