© El Collie 2000
Chapter 9
SPIRIT VISITATIONS
"For most of my life I have been conscious of two worlds, two aspects of reality. One is the so-called normal
world, revealed to us through our five senses... The other is a super-sensory reality, a metaphysical world of
light and energy and essence, home to Intelligences more evolved than our own in many cases." -- David Spangler
Once, during the most intense phase of my awakening process, I was on the phone with my sister, who lives out of
state from me. She knew that I was going through something mysteriously powerful, and that for long hours while
Charles was at work, I was at home by myself. With great concern for me, she exclaimed, "You shouldn't be
alone with this!" "I'm not alone," I told her. I had never felt so un-alone in all my life
She did not seem to understand, and continued to protest that I needed someone to watch over me during the day. With absolute conviction, I repeated, "I'm not alone." This, beyond anything else, has been the most joyous realization that Kundalini has bequeathed to me.
Mystical awakening brings us into the presence of the Divine. We have direct experience of what we may call God, Goddess, or spirit entities. Through the lens of altered consciousness, even the ordinary world shows itself to be dynamically alive, and amazingly permeated with powers and principalities. All spirits are energy, and all energy is conscious. Everything in creation is alive, everything is sentient; there is no dead matter nor isolate being in existence.
As awareness expands, we find ourselves audience to unknown atmospheric forces or hierarchies of fantastic beings. Various psychic entities make appearances through dreams, visions, voices, or other paranormal means. Many of us encounter etheric spiritual masters, deities and Light beings in these same ways. We come to know, as the writer Jay G. Williams has said, that "beyond the metaphors of human imagination, in the heart of reality, the angels do sing."
Those of us who are in the process of spiritual opening often have a vivid sense of the presence of our guardian angel or spirit teachers. According to Charles Breaux, who became clairvoyant in the course of his Kundalini awakening, every soul "has at least one spiritual tutor, commonly referred to as a Spirit Guide." He has found that "most people have several of these teachers and that we receive new teachers as we evolve."
Whether or not we are directly aware of them, these spirits have always been available to humanity. Thaddeus Golas, author of The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment, reminds all seekers:"You're never alone -- there are many beings aware of you at all times, loving you, ready to make you feel it whenever you are ready to open up to it, taking care to see that you don't get in too deep, encouraging you to love yourself."
All religions and legends of world mythology recognize other world beings. Angels, archangels and devils or demons appear in the Bible and in Hebrew scripture. In the Koran, Muhammad is said to have taught jinn (disincarnate beings) as well as humans, just as Buddha purportedly taught in the deva-loka as well as on earth. In her book Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Sourcebook, Paula Gunn Allen says that numerous kinds of beings who inhabit the Beyond have been depicted on ancient rock drawings, particularly those scattered throughout the Americas: "Some possess a human form; others look more like geometric figures. There are beings with wings, beaks, horns, tails, three fingers, snouts, scales, feathers, talons, claws, lots of eyes, no eyes, many arms, more than two legs -- in short, beings of greater variety than we ordinarily imagine." Direct encounter with these astral entities can be hair-raising, especially for those who previously believed such creatures were nothing but superstition.
Angelic spirits often appear in human form as strangers who mysteriously materialize to lend help. Spirits can take the guise of animals as well. Charles once noticed a grey dog standing outside the gate to our yard. Although he'd never seen this animal before, he didn't think much of it at first, since there are a lot of dogs in our area. But then he noticed the dog in the yard across the street had seen it too, and was staring at it intently. Charles suddenly realized something peculiar about this: none of the neighborhood dogs were barking, as they always do when an unfamiliar dog is in their territory. The grey dog wasn't a dog...
On several occasions, when someone has been directing angry thoughts at us, a bee or wasp pops out of nowhere inside our house. Twice when this happened we realized they were demonic spirits since they appeared to us in winter, when natural bees and hornets are hibernating. Both times, we shortly thereafter received nasty letters from a relative projecting bad feelings on us.
There are a lot of misconceptions about the spirits. A very conscientious woman wrote and said to me: "Although I have visions of wolves, birds, etc., I am very reluctant to regard these as medicine-animals or spirit allies because I feel I am appropriating a spiritual tradition to which I have no right. I am white. My race has nearly destroyed everything the First Nations held dear and sacred, so I do not feel I have a right to use their sacred traditions. Is there another way of looking at these guides?"
This woman also told me that she was a practicing Wiccan. Witches traditionally had animal-spirit allies, known to their persecutors as "familiars." The early church took familiars quite seriously; the presence of a spider or fly during an Inquisition trial was taken as damning evidence that the defendant was indeed a witch. The association of the black cat with witches is a holdover from the knowledge that many pre-Christian European healers worked with spirit helpers.
The spirits who are willing to assist us reveal themselves to us when we are ready. The idea of separate sacred beings for different religions is mostly a man-made distinction. The beings themselves are not in competition or opposition to each other; they all serve the same indivisible Whole. This understanding has helped me to integrate my own strange assemblage of holy assistants.
Of course we would not feel right about imitating sacred rites from unfamiliar traditions or about pretending to be who we are not. But unless we are otherwise inner directed, all that is required is a receptive and reverent attitude. Being respectful is of far more importance in this regard than being of a particular nationality or race.
Before my Kundalini awakening, I had only marginal interest in the Hindu, Tibetan and Native American traditions or in Goddess worship. But the spirits and symbols that have been presented through my personal Kundalini experiences have come from these varied traditions. (This is not to say that I therefore absorbed these traditions; I was only given a bit of needed guidance from these particular spirit teachers) Goddess connection, which was weakest of all for me before this all started, is now the most powerful to me. In Shaking Out the Spirits, Bradford Keeney tells of his visions and dreams of an eagle and other Amerindian totem animals, which disturbed him greatly since he had been Christian all his life. The many indigenous holy people from whom he sought advice told him essentially the same thing: There is no need to abandon your religion; just expand it to include the new truths and sacred experiences that come to you.
Sun Bear, who was a powerful medicine man, found that in his worldwide travels the spirits from all areas and traditions were eager to appear and communicate with him. He said these higher beings exist to help mankind, but for a very long time they have been waiting around with nothing to do because humans had shut down psychically. (Sadly, because so many venerable wisdom-traditions were forcibly supplanted by Western beliefs, until very recently, most Amerindians have been as closed to spirit-guides as were whites.) Except for a very sensitive few, most people could not perceive these otherworld beings or ask for their help (and they cannot intervene in our behalf unless invited).
In a conference, Bonnie Greenwell disclosed that altered states, alternate dimensions of consciousness, and
contact with spirit guides and beings from other planes of existence are among the most life transforming experiences
for those who have them, prompting them to redefine who they are and their role in life, their relationship to
the planet and the cosmos, and their spiritual path. Depending on one's level of psychic receptivity and upon the
nature of the spirit involved, contact with beings from other dimensions (including departed loved ones) can at
times be startling and obvious, as when a figure suddenly materializes in front of us, or other times appear in
a more subtle manner and rationalized away. The more tenuous contacts may at first escape our notice. Synchronistic
sounds and sights from the environment, such as blinking lights or inexplicable noises, or even seemingly ordinary
intrusions like the sudden call of a bird or a siren in the distance can actually be communication attempts from
spirits. Ethnopsychologist Holger Kalweit points out that ancient societies who lived close to nature found their
spirit advisors "from the plant and animal kingdoms and from elementary phenomena such as lightning, thunder,
rainstorms, the sun, the moon, various planets, and also from a great variety of nonmaterial entities." Spirits
in the modern world can manifest through electronic equipment and other man-made things. Absurd as it may seem,
some beings even use the telephone to try to make contact. Although they rarely are able to make themselves heard
vocally this way, they can make the phone ring (and it may seem that no one is on the other end of the line). I
knew a woman who received such phantom calls (which the phone company was unable to trace) for several years. An
excessive number of "silent" messages left on answering machines can be a sign of these "telephoning"
spirits. Spirit Helpers
During the apex of my Kundalini awakening, I received inward instruction and sometimes saw visions of spiritual
teachers (including a Tibetan monk and a Native American shaman). The information I received from them was always
benevolent and helpful. Sometimes, a voice would respond when I asked questions, and sometimes I was answered through
a simple form of spontaneous sign language that operated through my own hands in a way similar to the mudras. I
was taught disciplines and concepts foreign to my prior spiritual path. During a very intense phase, I saw and
heard a Tibetan lama who guided me through an advanced form of meditation that I never would have been interested
in (nor would have had the patience to attempt) before. This kind of unexpected intervention is not unusual for
those in Kundalini processes. The deities and sacred icons that appear in dreams or visions may arise from a different
culture or context than one's past religion. I know of several people of Jewish heritage who found themselves being
drawn to Jesus through visions and dreams, and of Christians receiving messages from Hindu or Buddhist figures.
Helping figures may appear to us in human form, or they may be amorphous, often announcing their presence through emanations of light. For some, these masters and avatars appear only at times of greatest difficulty in the process. For others, inner guides and spiritual teachers may accompany most of the process, and may be accessible for years, or for the rest of one's life.
Spirit help is never extended against our wills. I received a letter from a man as follows: "I have read about people being forced into Shamanic initiation by the sort of spirits shamans deal with. They cause a Shamanic illness, which can only be cured through Shamanic means. These shamans are then forced to practice shamanism the rest of their lives in order to remain well. I do not want to be a slave to any animal spirits forcing me to interact with them. Do you have any information about this?" I told him that from all I have studied of shamanism (and through my personal experiences), I interpret the call somewhat differently. A Shamanic calling is of a different order than demonic possession, in which lower entities can force the individual to be at their disposal. It is my understanding that a shaman works with spirits from the higher planes, and is not involved with destructive forces in the way a sorcerer is.
The Shamanic calling is not to enslavement on any level, but rather a consecration to service. Shamans are intermediaries between humans and the spirits, and in this capacity they bring blessings and healing to their earthly communities. I believe that while those of us who receive the calling may have no interest in or desire for this "assignment," on the soul level, it is exactly what we came here to do. The messenger spirits come to assist us in fulfilling this mission, not to coerce us into doing something that is against our deepest will.
Most of the Shamanic literature I've found stresses that a true Shamanic calling cannot be refused without peril to oneself. This is not because the spirits refuse to respect our decision and are malevolent and spiteful. It is because the call is our soul mission -- our reminder of what we came here to do -- and to refuse it is to reject our own spiritual path. In nearly all the cases I am familiar with, the person who is receiving a Shamanic calling through sickness (or other life-disrupting experiences) has not consciously asked for this to happen. Often, they have very negative feelings about it during the early stages and want to rid themselves of it. Being a shaman is not easy, even in cultures where this vocation is wholly acknowledged and welcomed by the populace. The Shamanic path requires a great deal of integrity, faith and self-sacrifice, and often entails more personal suffering than other spiritual paths. Despite this, in my view, it is a great honor to be called to this ancient and sacred tradition. The spirits join us in a sacred partnership but do not expect us to prostrate ourselves to them. As the shaman Malidoma Some says, "You don't worship spirit, because you are also spirit, and spirits don't worship one another. What makes you different overall is that you are locked into temporality. You have a body, like a piece of cloth that is decayable." Yet after this mortal body is shed, we join the unencumbered spirits in the ethereal realms.
The messages conveyed by such beings can be enigmatic and terse. One man repeatedly heard a voice proclaim: "The times will take care of themselves." This was frustrating to him, since he could not understand what it meant. Don't expect to be able to identify your spirit guides by their exultant messages. Some guides are pretty down to earth. For over thirty years, a Japanese guy has been popping up at intervals in my dreams, usually as a teacher. The first time he showed up, I thought, wow, a sage I can ask for advice! I asked him for guidance, expecting him to tell me something really profound. He said, "Get a job." (I did.)
The spirits may offer us gifts and power objects, which seem strange by modern standards. Several years into her dramatic Kundalini awakening, a woman named Rachel began receiving guidance from an entity that appeared to her as a nature sprite. Rachel was told to go out into her yard and dig in specified places, to precise depths. This went on daily for some weeks. Each of these expeditions unearthed some natural treasure, usually in the form of rocks or bones. One of these artifacts was a fist-sized piece of polished jade!
The Abenaki author Joseph Bruchac says in his tradition the spirits called Mannogemassak fashion magical stones
(sometimes in the shape of an animal) "as special gifts to those humans who have won their favor." The
mischievous sprite, whom Rachel called "Grumble", performed numerous poltergeist tricks which startled
people who came to visit her. Objects in her home would mysteriously move or vanish altogether. Though some of
her friends were alarmed by these paranormal antics, Rachel was never afraid. To the contrary, Grumble evoked her
childlike delight, and often made her laugh.
Mysterious Allies
As with other aspects of awakening, contacts with beings from other planes are looked upon unfavorably by those
who do not understand such things. Profound encounters with illuminating beings may be dismissed as mere dreams
or imagination. Human spiritual advisors whose wisdom comes from religious dogma rather than through personal experience
may take a particularly dim view of visitations by strange spirits. It can be especially disheartening when well-intentioned
family or professionals insist upon medication or other treatment to terminate these experiences. (On the other
hand, some people suddenly opened to perceive otherworld beings are so distressed by their encounters that they
ask to be drugged.)
In Rachael's case, her neighbors were so taken aback by her harmless digging rituals that they called the police to investigate. Some people -- doctors and laymen alike -- fervently believe that hearing voices or seeing transcendent beings is always a sign of mental aberration. The person in transformation can easily find himself labeled schizophrenic because of his mystical experiences. And of course, there are those who warn that all visions and voices are the work of Satan. Rachael's friends tried to procure an exorcism, but she would have nothing to do with it. "Grumble is a part of me, " she explained years later. "If they were going to get rid of Grumble, they'd have to get rid of me, too."
Which leads to the question: Do these beings exist in their own right or are they merely aspects of our private psyches? If we delete merely, I think the answer is: Both. In a world where we have been conditioned to demand either/or distinctions, this answer can be difficult to accept. Yet for those of us experiencing a fuller range of awareness, it is obvious that the world is more complex and multileveled than the yes/no, right/wrong binary system to which we've been expected to confine ourselves. There are schools of metaphysics that claim that any event or relationship, worldly or otherwise, is simultaneously a counterpart or enactment of one's inner qualities and conflicts. This is the principle of: As above, so below. There are theories of psychology that espouse similar interconnections, regarding both subjective and objective experiences as meaningful expressions of the individual's mental and emotional development. I.e., what we see (or pay most attention to), or what we get ourselves involved in, is in some way a reflection of our personal psychological state. In this sense, everything in our experience can be both real and representational. Things actually happen, yet the way we experience these things also reveals something about ourselves.
This is a far cry from declaring paranormal or magical phenomena "imaginary" and therefore valueless. To me, the most peculiar thing is not that some of us have met with inhabitants from other planes, but that in the history of the world, only fairly recent Western thought has insisted upon such a sterile, materialist and so-called rationalist belief system that it excludes most of what has been central to life in nearly every culture. In our modern paradigm, everything that cannot be "proven" by limited mechanistic means is expelled from the realm of possibility. But this rather arrogant infatuation with our technologies is beginning to wear thin, even amidst the scientific community. Quantum physics has discovered the world to be more elusive and elastic than we had dreamed. Perhaps instead of asking if spirits are real, we should be asking if the Western model of reality is real. And instead of asking if our experiences are real, we should be asking ourselves if they are significant. Bradford Keeney, whose implicit trust in the spirit messages he received led him on a miracle-filled journey of pilgrimage, has observed that "Whether one believes one is encountering 'spirits,' 'walking dreams,' 'dreams,' or 'unconscious imagery,' is less relevant than respecting the learning and guidance coming from such experiences."
Throughout the world, institutional Christianity has played a heavy role in repressing all but its own select pantheon of heavenly saints and angels as spiritually valid. But at least the Church recognizes and grants approval to spirit contacts when they come in the form of apparitions of the Virgin Mary or visitations by Jesus Christ.
Mystics have always been somewhat of an embarrassment to whatever religion has borne them because they frequently
encounter all nature of supernatural beings, regardless of their particular tradition's doctrine about such things.
In his global study of shamanism, Kalweit mentions several cases in which Shamanic initiates from aboriginal cultures
found themselves in spontaneous contact with spirits known only to their ancestors. Because Christian missionaries
had long ago stripped the tribespeople of their native traditions, these newly developing shamans felt wary and
resistant to the unfamiliar spirit guides. The spirit entities caused lots of trouble for them until they finally
relented and accepted these beings as valid messengers from the Beyond. In one case, a Native American man had
a vision in which Jesus told him to stop following the white man's religion.
Thumps in the Night
Hearing the spirits requires stillness, an inner listening, rather than attempts to imagine something or spout
truths. I hear spirits talking to me within myself -- from what the Cree call the achimoona, "the sacred place
within." Spirits also speak in visual and other kinds of metaphors. When I was feeling very unsure of myself
while writing this book, the spirits gave me a welcome literary critique. I had been struggling with a particularly
difficult chapter for weeks, but the more I worked on it, the more it seemed to be getting tied up in knots. After
a day of marathon writing, I took a nap. While in the hypnogogic state, I distinctly heard the turning of pages.
I thought perhaps it was Charles reading a newspaper in the dining room. The sound of rustling pages shifted and
became the beating of wings. They seemed to be flying down the hallway toward our bedroom; the next thing I knew,
the wings were flapping inside my head. This was so startling I almost pulled myself out of the trance. Then I
remembered that noises of this sort were not uncommon to Kundalini. This knowledge gave me the courage to stay
with the experience for awhile, curious to see what might happen.
The next thing I heard was the blast of a horn in my ear, so loud it hurt my eardrum. This was immediately followed by another horn, more melodic, that sounded like a saxaphone playing a short rift from within my stomach. My solar plexus vibrated with the musical notes, which I found both exhilarating and amusing.
Then I heard the bleating of a lamb -- a sweet, touching sound.
At this point, I awoke from the trance. It struck me that I'd never heard anyone describe this kind of Kundalini experience before. I wondered if there might be some significance to the specific sounds I'd heard...
As I reflected on this, I realized I'd received an audio-telegram from the spirits. The sound of beating wings had been their signature, and the rustling pages were my book. The message, as best as I could translate it, was as follows:
1. The book was in the hands of the Spirit. (This came as a relief to me, as I had from the start envisioned the book as a consecration to the Spirit, but sometimes I felt it was wandering in other directions.)
2. I was honking my own horn too loud.
3. It was good for me to sound my horn, but I needed to play it with feeling (from my guts).
4. My intent was pure and blessed by Christ consciousness (the bleating lamb).
All of these points were relevant for me. I'd feared I was straying from my heart in some of what I'd written, but the lamb was reassurance that I was on track. I was also concerned about putting too much autobiographical material in the book, but sound of the the saxaphone indicated it was okay to play my song, as long as I watched my tendency to sound like I was bragging (an overcompensation for having long done the opposite and being so self-effacing people took it as invitation to treat me like a second-class citizen). A little modesty was in order.
Some of the more playful astral beings may resemble children or animals. Some make sounds. I encountered one friendly being that made a staccato noise like a Geiger counter. This critter was not visible to me, but I could track it's whereabouts in my house by hearing its crackling noises. It would jump from one area to the next at lightning speed. I would hear it at the far end of the house, then a second later, it would be right behind me. It was quite a considerate spirit. The first time it made its audio appearance right next to my face, I told it that it was scaring me and asked it to please back off a bit. Thereafter, it always kept a respectful distance from me. It was my uninvited guest for several weeks, until a friend who also heard it became worried and wanted to do a ceremonial magic rite to banish it. I wasn't sure about the necessity of banishing, but to humor my friend, I agreed. Either my friend's spell worked or the crackling entity didn't want to hang around where it wasn't wanted. Either way, that was the last I heard of it.
The very idea of any kind of spirit entities give some people the willies. Once, while visiting my friend Andy, we heard a shrill whistle at the far end of his house. "What's that?" I inquired.
He said his three housemates thought it was coming from the basement water heater, but he wasn't sure. The noise was intermittent; sometimes it would sound several times a day, sometimes several days would pass in silence.
"It could be a spirit," I ventured. I had barely spoken when a sharp whistle emitted from directly below the kitchen table where we were seated.
We both froze. After an instant's pause, Andy said in a feigned casual tone, "It's probably just the water
heater." I stared at him. We both knew there was no way it could be the water heater, but we let the subject
drop.
Hostile Encounters
Paula Gunn Allen remarks that many spirit beings "are reasonably friendly or neutral toward humans who venture
among them, but many are unfriendly indeed." Among Native Americans (and other indigenous peoples) she says
that "Supernaturals are treated with enormous respect and approached with great caution and reverence because
they are not controllable by humans, whose powers are always less than theirs." She warns that "Western
neo-Pagans, generally unaware of the perils of exchanges with the spirit people, take real risks courting their
attention." Taking a cavalier attitude toward the spirits is a big mistake. Guardian spirits reside in sacred
places -- in areas known as power spots, in places where spiritual ceremonies are conducted, and in burial grounds.
Disturbing gravesites or sanctified areas can provoke the wrath of the protecting spirits.
On the day I read Joseph Bruchac's assertion that "bad luck has come to both the white and Indian communities alike as a result of those ancestors [whose graves were unearthed] not being placed back to rest," there was an article in the newspaper about a 5,000 year old Ohlone burial site uncovered during excavation from a California housing division. The archeologist hired by the builder gave assurances that the remains had been removed to a safe location... "Safe" by what criteria?
Bruchac also tells of special places in Hawaii where ignorant toursists -- despite posted warnings that removal of the rocks is illegal -- pocket sacred stones for souvenirs. Every year, says Bruchac, "the park service in Hawaii receives more than a ton of such stones sent back in individual packages, carefully wrapped by those who purloined them, usually with maps drawn to show just exactly where, please, the stones should be replaced. The letters which accompany those returned rocks usually contain catalogues of the misfortunes which befell those who stole the stones."
Aside from the guardian spirits who will retaliate against desecrators, there are bad news spirits who are simply demons. Saints such as the remarkable healer, Padre Pio, although blessed by spiritual protectors, have had innumerable run-ins with these nasty denizens of the underworld. I know from personal experience that these unevolved entities exist, some of whom are outright destructive. Some of these entities resemble human figures, while others seem protoplasmic. Some appear as nebulous forces such as sudden strong winds, eruptions that may shake the house, shadows, etc. I once was approached by a malefic entity that exuded a putrefying stench. I somehow intuitively knew that this entity was an astral vampire. Years later, when I retold this incident to a man who was a long time student of the occult, he informed me that esoteric lore describes vampires as always having the foul odor of rotting carrion.
Demonic beings are generally distinguishable from spirit guides and deities. Some people prefer to call demonic spirits "negative energies," and perceive them as such. These entities are conscious, and in their own right, intelligent, though the form in which they appear to us can vary from ghoulish apparitions to miasmic forces, or simply a sudden feeling of something sinister in the air.
Demons often appear grotesque or feel ominous in some way. I feel a definite cold draft or chill when such entities are present. I believe this is because these beings are energy-draining. Beings from higher planes radiate rather than absorb energy from us. Frequent these higher beings are seen surrounded by light, or as luminous clouds.
The strangest dark entity I ever came across personally was some kind of astral mollusk that awoke me in the night. It came sailing at me from out of nowhere and forcefully (and, it seemed, deliberately) collided with my neck. It made a squishing sound on impact, and I actually felt a very cold, wet, slimy sensation of the thing's body slathered against my skin. Instinctively, I tried to grab it off me, but when I reached for it, my hand felt nothing. Puzzled, I fell back asleep. The next day, I awoke with a severe sore throat that lasted for about a week.
If these entities speak to us, another tip off is the content of the messages. The lower entities are crude and nasty in what they say. They may "advise" us to do harm to ourselves or to others. Regardless of who these entities claim to be, and whether they communicate to us through a voice, automatic writing, or other apparently supernatural means, Roberto Assagioli advised that we examine them "with much discrimination and sound judgment, and without being influenced by their uncommon origin or by any claim of their alleged transmitter." In his book Psychosynthesis, Assagioli went on to warn that "No validity should be attributed to messages containing definite orders and commanding blind obedience, and to those tending to exalt the personality of the recipient."
The late Phoebe Bendit, a psychotherapist who devoted many years to parapsychological research, warned that while rare, "there are independent entities which can disguise themselves in the form of divine beings, saints, or Masters, and who may try to mislead or 'tempt' the student at this level." While trickster entities will easily lie about their identities, and misrepresent themselves as light-bringers with names like "Eternal Brotherhood" or "Intergalactic Oneness," two ways to double-check a supposed higher being is to mentally shine the Christ light on the entity, or by calling upon a genuine saint or deity to inspect it. If the spirit is what it says it is, it will be able to withstand these tests. If not, it will vanish.
Whether through naiveté or over-zealous enthusiasm for their work, these tests for authenticity seem to be unknown or ignored by many channelers. Channelers should be suspicious if an entity tells them they have been chosen as sacred message-bearers because they are superior to other human beings in some way. Spiritual messages delivered by higher beings never pander to the ego. Most importantly, higher beings never instruct us to do anything dangerous or hurtful (and imagining ourselves better than other people, is hurtful both to them and to ourselves). Our spiritual guides may be quite strict and demanding, and they may ask us to risk ourselves in new ways. But they never push us toward self-aggrandizement, debasement or perversion. Trust your instincts with this. If for any reason you feel nervous or uneasy around a spirit, tell it to take a hike.
Some authorities erroneously claim that malevolent entities or voices are never experienced during a Kundalini awakening. For those who have only had contact with the illumined beings (or with none at all), the idea that spirituality is protection against lesser entities may be reassuring. But such assumptions are hurtful to those whose experience includes these negative contacts. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that spiritual awakening may encompass high as well as low encounters. I would be more concerned about the absence of encounters with higher entities than the presence of demonic beings for those who have been opened to such realms. Yet even here, generalizations can be damaging. If the individual is stable and able to deal with her experiences, regardless of their nature, I wouldn't worry.
Demonic entities don't flock in legion to individuals with expanded consciousness, nor does the perceiving of such an entity mean that something diabolical is happening to us. Like spiritual guides, these lower beings coexist with human life, even though few people are aware of this. At a point in her own awakening, Irina Tweedie was able to see dark shapes attached to people or following them around. She also saw Devas and angelic spirits glowing and dancing about. We live amidst many types of consciousness in both the organic and psychic realms.
I don't want to prescribe all-purpose ways of dealing with disturbing entities because I doubt there is such thing as correct protocol in these matters -- or if there is, I don't have the wisdom to offer it. The classical admonition to psychics is to avoid apparently unfriendly entities by simply ignoring them. If they can't be ignored, telling them to leave is usually sufficient. One woman who is psychically awakened says that whenever she senses such entities in the vicinity, she mentally warns them, "Don't even think about it!" This scares them off. "Whenever you meet such a being in the subtle realms, " advises author and counselor Nathaniel Altman, "you need to follow your intuition regarding its intent. If you have any doubts at all, speak from your innermost being, 'If you come in the name of God, you are welcome. If not, please go away.' This should be followed with a prayer to God for protection and clarity." If the beings seem persistent or troublesome, a more forceful approach may be required. In the story of his own transformation, Brugh Joy tells of bellowing "Get out!" at a threatening entity. (It did.)
The use of incense discourages "bad" spirits, as does the burning of sage and cedar in "smudge" purification rites of Native Americans. Sunlight disperses them, so open the window blinds if they are haunting dark rooms indoors. Beautiful music will help to drive them away as well.
I have found in my own experience that even the most frightening or evil-appearing entities respond favorably to honesty and genuine appreciation of their powers. High or low, I am truly awed by these beings and I don't hesitate to communicate this to them. I don't try to flatter a hideous apparition by pretending that I find it beautiful; rather, I compliment it on its unsurpassed, magnificent ugliness. Horrible entities not only know that they are horrible; they generally enjoy being horrible. At any rate, their characteristics are not their fault; this is just their nature, the way they were made to be. (And like anyone else, they want to be respected for exactly who they are.)
Calling upon help from on high (from the Goddess, Jesus, spirit guides, a beloved guru, etc.) is another effective way to deal with threatening entities. Once, when I was in the hypnogogic state between sleep and waking, I was accosted by a bevy of demons that scrambled all over me. I could feel them pawing at my astral body and chattering away while I lay in bed, fully aware of my situation, but unable to move. With all my will, I fought to awaken. Then I mentally surrounded myself with light. Too tired to do more than this, I lapsed back into a twilight state. Again, they attacked me, but they had changed form. I could tell they were the same entities, but this time they manifested as a swarm of buzzing flies, dive bombing my head and face. I called upon the late Neem Karoli Baba (a Hindu saint) for help, and suddenly all was peaceful and still.
In my personal experience, there has always been a reason for the appearance of entities, no matter how unevolved or frightening they may seem. They are invariably messengers of some kind, and if I am attentive, I usually get a sense of what it is they want or what they've come to reveal to me. After I receive the message, I thank the being for coming to me. If it is a disturbing entity, I then tell it to "return to your rightful place in the universe" and reassure it (demons have fears too) that the light will guide it home and it will be safe.
I have on occasion felt the presence of beings (not necessarily malevolent) who were trying to use me as a channel. I have no interest in mediumship, and I mentally make this clear to them. I tell them that I won't voluntarily be an instrument they can speak through, but if they have something they want to say, I'm willing to hear it directly. Then I can decide whether or not I want to convey their message to others. (So far, this stipulation has always caused them to retreat.)
One very interesting phenomenon Bonnie Greenwell has come across in her practice is individuals whose Kundalini
rose after they had been contacted by aliens or had UFO abductee experiences! In a few cases, the individual had
already been in a Kundalini process when the alien contact occurred. (There have also been many reports of spontaneous
Kundalini awakenings in the wake of NDEs.) Greenwell speculates that as our consciousness expands, we become receiving
stations, able to detect communications from a much broader range of Intelligences in the universe.
The Little People
Nature spirits, or Devas, are a class unto themselves. They are deeply distrustful of mankind, and may be sullen
or angry, but are not inherently malicious. A.E. Powell says that "They will also sometimes masquerade in
thought-forms that men have made, and think it a great joke to flourish horns, to lash a forked tail, and to breathe
out flame as they rush about." However, Powell (a theosophist whose source of information was secondhand reports
from other psychics) is mistaken in so many of his commentaries that I question this one as well. I suspect that
these "thought-form devils" were, in fact, appearances of fauns.
Robert Ogilvie Crombie (a.k.a. "Roc"), one of the original members of the Findhorn community, said that his first encounter with a faun came after he had been meditating under a beech tree. He felt his identity merge with that of the tree; then the faun appeared. The faun was greatly startled to realize Roc had noticed it.
"I don't believe it," it told him. "Humans can't see us."
Roc replied, "Oh, yes. Some of us can."
He later encountered the king of the fauns, the nature god Pan, who grilled him to test his prejudices: "Did
not the early church take me as a model for the devil? Look at my cloven hooves, my shaggy legs, and the horns
on my forehead."
To which Roc responded, "The church turned all pagan gods and spirits into devils, fiends, and imps."
The first time I clearly saw one of these earth elementals was after my Kundalini arose. One afternoon, I glanced out the window to my backyard garden and saw a figure of what looked like a stocky, greenish colored nine-year-old child perched high in the walnut tree. I looked away, then realized this was extremely odd. I immediately looked again, and the "child" was gone. Those with a tenacious Western mindset may find this anecdote silly and inconsequential. We are socially programmed to weigh everything from a strictly utilitarian standpoint. Unless the green elemental endowed me with impressive powers or gave me information, which was to my advantage in everyday life, what good was it? One might as well ask what good is seeing a rainbow. For those of us who have been permitted glimpses into other worlds, the privilege of perceiving these wondrous beings is good enough.
There are a lot of make-believe games done in the name of conjuring spirits by people who would keel over if a real spirit appeared. This is beyond stupidity; it's dangerous. Spirits are real and the entities who are most likely to be attracted by brazen invocations are not the ones you want hanging around. Calling upon spirit allies in the form of "power" animals has become popular in the seminar circuits. This is often done without respect or understanding of the spirits. I've heard of workshop leaders instructing participants to choose their animal guides or even to pick an animal ally for another participant. Our allies don't function like mail order brides. They come to us in our dreams, visions, or life experiences, not from our preferences.
If I were to select my own guides, I probably would have chosen a dolphin or a deer. Years ago, a woman who claimed to be able to see people's animal guides by touching their foreheads told me mine guide was an elephant (probably because my name is El). My ally spirits do not include any of these animals. Instead, I have been repeatedly visited by a tiger, turtles, snakes, and other creatures. Charles has some of these same allies, including a bear, which appeared when he and I were together in one of my dreams. Other people's allies can make themselves known to us in various ways. Whenever I was in contact with Glenn Morris, his black Ninja spiders would materialize (as actual spiders) in my house.
For those who have never before realized how vast and innumerable are the inhabitants of the universe, becoming aware of entities from other realms may be initially alarming. It may be especially difficult to accept these experiences as something more than fantasy when you alone have witnessed them. I've been fortunate in having plenty of validation in this regard. Throughout my life, though I've never made any attempt to conjure or otherwise solicit these metapsychic beings, I've had so many interactions with them that I am convinced of their reality. Also, quite a number of my encounters with spirits have occurred in the presence of one or more other people, who also saw, heard or felt the entity.
Beyond this, many of us have come to regard the entire debate between internal and external as a dualistic illusion. Spatial location and origin loses relevance at more encompassing levels of awareness, as does concern over how much we are creating and how much we are simply participating in any of our life events. Whether the spirits ultimately come from inner space, outer space, or somewhere beyond our comprehension seems to be missing the point. What is more important to me is the opportunity for heart and soul communion with these magical beings, and through this, my reconnection to the majesty of existence.