QUESTION 11: HOW CAN I CONTACT PEOPLE IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM?
Earlier you outlined how we can use meditation to obtain information from the spiritual realm. How do I use meditation to initiate contact with identities existing in the spiritual realm? Can I even initiate contact, or is it more that I need to open myself up and wait for the identities to contact me? Are there rules of engagement? What’s the go with direct contact?
THE GUIDES RESPOND:
This is an interesting question all round. It’s interesting to you because you wish to learn about the possibility of having experiences beyond what are normal in human life. And it is interesting to us because we are also always seeking to extend our experience and knowledge. Without new contacts, without new experiences, knowledge doesn’t expand and growth doesn’t take place.
On these grounds it might be thought that no one would seek to avoid new contacts. Yet this isn’t the case. While making new contacts was essential to you during your early years, because it helped you learn skills, such as how to talk and how to behave in conformity with your community’s norms, by the time people become adult they have set situations they prefer to spend time in and established ways of interacting with others. In general, after human beings reach adulthood they become quite conservative in who they seek out for personal contact. So being open and inviting unknown identities into your awareness is a significant step. No one does it lightly. There has to be a deeply felt need that drives you to move out of your established patterns of behaviour, out of your comfort zone, to seek contact with what can quite accurately be termed the unknown.
To be motivated to initiate contact with any spiritual identity you require a need of some kind. Often it is a question you want answered. Or it may also be an experience you want to have—such as the desire to interact with the Divine, on which we commented previously. It could be said that you seek contact because there is something in it for you, something sufficiently important that you are encouraged to break through the psychological factors that hold you back from initiating contact with the unknown.
An unsolved question or need commonly provides the impetus to seek contact. It is a set pattern that everyone who wishes to contact those existing beyond the physical shares this motivation. However, what happens next, how actual contact occurs, has no set pattern. One reason is because different people have different levels of prior experience. For some contact is established quickly and easily. Others who have little prior experience (we’re referring to past life experience) will have to work hard to develop their communication skills—because establishing a line of communication between yourself and non-embodied spiritual identities is a skill that must be learned. Everyone also has their own innate propensities, which take the form of preferences and previously developed abilities. So communication will always occur in a way that fits with what you already know, what you can already do, and what you feel comfortable engaging with.
For example, in times long ago, when human beings lived off the land by harvesting plants, fishing and hunting, they were highly attuned to the natural world. People were also brought up to believe that everything in the world, animate and inanimate, was filled with spirits. Accordingly, when communications with spiritual identities occurred, the spirits were thought of as taking the form of nature spirits and animals which possessed powers beyond the human, from whom human beings could learn. This is the basis of shamanic interactions with those in the spiritual realm. In more recent times religions have taught people to conceive of spirits as angels, deceased saints, and human-like gods. In order to open up a channel of communication with spiritual identities you need to have a clear idea of what the spiritual is to you. After all, if you doubt the existence of spirits, or what is more common, if you doubt that you have the ability or the right to converse with spiritual identities, that doubt is a barrier which will stop you from achieving communication.
So to initiate contact you require, first, a question or need, and second, a context for thinking about the spiritual realm. We suggest that a metaphor for the spiritual realm appropriate for the modern age is that of vast, open interstellar space. Interstellar space is mostly empty, with stars, solar systems and galaxies a long way off. Similarly when, during meditation, you first cross the threshold and look out, the inner realm appears black, vast and empty. Extending the metaphor, many television shows have been produced according to the premise that interstellar space contains non-human species, technologies and civilisations, each of whom follow their inclinations and strive to achieve their own goals. We offer the idea that spiritual space echoes interstellar space precisely because it is similarly filled with non-human identities who are focused on living their own experiences, who have their own modes for interacting, who set their own goals, and who follow their own inclinations. The comparison could even be extended to include the notion that just as the starship Enterprise is an interstellar explorer, boldly going where no other human beings have gone before, so you are potentially a spiritual explorer, going where you have not been before—at least, not in this life.
The final point we would make in relation to this metaphor is that the interstellar explorer doesn’t pre-judge what is found, and certainly doesn’t try to fit non-human beings into a religious schemata, adjudging this being an angel, that a demon, that a god. Rather, interstellar explorers adopt more of an anthropological approach, being curious regarding what non-human beings are and how they live. In just the same way, you are best advised to be open-minded in your spiritual explorations and not squeeze what you encounter into pre-formed schemata. You should certainly not jump to judgemental conclusions.
So then, with your personal question or need identified, and given you now have a contextualising metaphor to hold in mind that encourages you to sustain an open attitude towards the spiritual realm, we return to the question: how do you actually make contact? For the reasons we have already outlined, we repeat there is no set way that contact with spiritual identities is made. However, we can offer some examples.
In the case of our scribe working on these pages, contact was initiated via writing. To contextualise this, an extensive history exists of people using automatic writing to communicate with spiritual identities. This is done by the individual projecting a question, clearing his or her mind to establish a quiet, meditative state, and waiting for an answer to enter the subconscious part of the mind, which in turn stimulates the motor system, whereon the response is automatically written. Other people use Tarot cards or cards marked according to some other occult system as a way to communicate with spiritual identities. Throughout history, tea leaves, sticks, dice and all kinds of objects have also been used. In each case, the individual has to establish a quiet meditative inner state so the spiritual identity’s subtle communication may be heard. In each case, intent initiates contact.
Our scribe’s process is a variation on these practices. At first, as he edited a colleague’s written channelled communications, he intended to make contact by deliberately opening himself up to guidance from those who had initiated his colleague’s writing. Gradually, as responses to his questions about editing came to him via dreams and subtle impressions while working, he became convinced that spiritual identities were available for personal contact. After almost four years of this process, he had opened his mind sufficiently, and sufficiently tuned in to the requisite energy level, that a subtle stream of thought became apparent to him. Thus contact was established. Contact continues, as the existence of this text affirms.
Other people use prayer to open themselves up and tune into contact. Still others use chanting, drumming or dancing. Some ingest psychedelics. Others use trance, lucid dreaming, out-of-body travelling, or develop their extra-sensory perceptions. Common to every one of these practices is that practitioners learn to enter a quiet, meditative inner state. So it can be said that meditation underpins all communication practices, even those that are outwardly noisy and full of physical movement.
Accordingly, with regard to the question of how meditation may be used to make contact with spiritual identities, the answer is that you must find a practice that suits you and your sensibility. Whatever practice you are drawn towards, it will appeal because it fits with skills you have previously developed and because it suits your social conditioning, psychological temperament and life situation. So feel free to look around. But don’t over-think your choice. Select a practice not by thinking about it but in silence. Then you will feel the subtle—or perhaps it won’t be subtle at all—push towards the practice that is most appropriate for you.
Throughout everything you do, your inner attitude is crucial. You need to be wary of the tricks of your gloopy self. In spiritual teachings practitioners are warned against allowing their ego into what they do, to be wary of powerful traits such as vanity, arrogance or lust for power. We prefer the more general term of gloopy self to that of ego, because in fact all kinds of psychological traits come into play in spiritual endeavours, just as they do in everyday life.
One reason is that when you draw on an ability you developed in previous lives, it is highly likely that negative and self-limiting traits are also associated with that ability, due to their being generated at the same time as the ability and so become embedded in it. Consequently, they will seep into whatever activity you are using the ability for in this life. This often occurs without your being aware of it. So we advise you to keep watch on your inner state.
In particular, be aware of agitation, of lines of thinking and feeling that depart from a quiet inner state. Don’t ignore or suppress them, because that would merely allow them to run rampant at a sub-conscious level. Rather, give them attention. Detach from them, observe where they go inside you, what they ignite, and what behaviours they trigger. You will learn much about yourself if you are able to follow linked agitated emotions and thoughts. Especially be wary of feelings and thoughts that rise either during or after your spiritual journeying. They will taint your attitude when you make contact with spiritual identities. An agitated state will likely cause them to withdraw until you have inwardly sorted yourself out.
The question was asked if you should initiate contact, or if you should instead create an open inner state, then wait for spiritual identities to contact you. The fact is either can and does work. If you have a question, do what you can to find the answer. Initiate what contacts you need, with both human beings and spiritual identities. Make the most of whatever opportunity is available to you. On the other hand, sometimes spiritual identities initiate contact without you feeling you asked for it. This may be because your life plan includes such contact, which means you agreed to it between lives. As a result, your spiritual you planned the contact, and the situation is just that you at your human level aren’t aware of the plan. Additionally, sometimes soul friends initiate contact to help you in trying times or when you are struggling to make a crucial decision. Such contacts also occur with the agreement of your spiritual you, because those making contact are your friends, and friends help each other out when one is in a bind. So even contacts that seem not to be initiated by you almost always involve your agreement at a spiritual and pre-life level.
Finally, the question was asked if rules of engagement apply to interactions with spiritual identities. Yes, absolutely. Being humble and grateful, and not falling into the trap of assuming you know more than you do, is always helpful. So is being curious and questioning what is happening. We don’t mean being sceptical, although a pinch of scepticism is useful. What we mean by suggesting you keep questioning is to think about whatever you find from a variety of perspectives. Don’t take anything at face value. Try to understand how a single event, perception or piece of knowledge fits into a wider context. Keep trying to fill in the gaps in your understanding. Shine a light into what you haven’t perceived, and never settle for easy explanations. Subtle experiences are always complex from a human perspective. So constantly push and probe. And maintain awareness of your inner changing states, sustaining a self-critical attitude.
These aren’t rules in the human sense of rules you must conform to or else you’ll be punished. These are rules in a much more open sense, that you need to learn to work with to maximise your opportunities. At times you’ll certainly make mistakes and screw up opportunities. But that happens during any learning process.
The difference between making mistakes in the human world and making mistakes at the spiritual level is that the human world can be brutal on those who make mistakes, but those in the spiritual realm will never punish you for your errors. What happens instead is that the mistake goes into the box with everything else you learn through life, good and not so good. Learning contact by contact, experience by experience, you’ll consolidate your knowledge, grow more capable, and become ever more able to handle whatever comes your way.
