Jesus and His WeSpace Group

The accompanying painting, rather than being called The Transfiguration, could be called a dramatic moment in Jesus’ very own WeSpace group! (Matt. 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36) Like our WeSpace groups, this was a small group of followers of Jesus who shared their lives with one another. They also experienced the presence of God along with other spiritual guides.

At the Transfiguration, the most intense part of the mountain top meeting began as two-centuries-dead heroes of the Jewish tradition, Moses and Elijah, appeared in living, visionary color and sound. In their non-physical, but recognizable energy field forms, they were giving encouragement to Jesus. “They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). Jesus needed some help about his upcoming crucifixion which was weighing heavily on him. Who better to encourage him than two dead guys?

What was also interesting is that Peter, James, and John, having been shocked into the visionary subtle realm of awakened consciousness by the powerful spiritual energy floating around them, were seeing Moses and Elijah, too! All the energetic fields were alive with dramatic, life-changing awakening. Then God got personally involved and there was more conversation going on from God to all four of the remaining spiritual beings who were still in their physical bodies.

Keep this mountain top meeting in mind when reflecting about what can go on in a WeSpace group in varying degrees. Jesus could not have given us a more graphic model!

In WeSpace Whole Body Mystical Awakening, we move from our own inner space to becoming aware of the others present in our group. In terms of Integral’s Big Three of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, this is the second person WeSpace of relating to others. We don’t limit our awareness to those physically present, but also seek to become aware of the non-physical presences with us. This could include God’s all-enveloping motherly-fatherly presence, the risen Jesus, and other spiritual guides. We may not often get Moses and Elijah, but we do seem to access some quite interesting saints.

This occurs in what some call subtle, awakened, or mystical consciousness. This awakened awareness allows you to listen from more than ordinary, everyday awareness. As you learn to access it, you can do so, to some degree, instantly at any time, anywhere. Our guides live there and we can learn to visit there while still in this physical body. In the history of the church, there have been millions of reported and unreported appearances and conversations with Jesus and various saints. Every time this happens, in integral terminology, a deeper “cosmic groove” is cut, making it easier for others to access these guides.

"Jesus in Prayer" - image by Dalmo Mendonça

Jesus was Helped by his Guides in Times of Need

When Jesus was exhausted after his vision quest in the wilderness “messengers came and attended him” (Mat 4:11). Facing his imminent crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane, “a messenger appeared to him and strengthened him” (Luke 22:43).

Since the 4th century Latin Vulgate, ἄγγελος, aggelos, which means messengers in Greek, has usually been translated as angels. But “messenger” is more accurate. It is the translator’s decision to turn “messenger” into the traditional “angel” and it is most often translated as “angels” and only sometimes as “messengers.” These translators are trying to make a self-imposed distinction — whether the messenger is divine or human.

The problem is that the Hebrew and Greek texts do not do this – so the translators impose their theology on the text. Some, including myself, think the word should always be translated accurately – that is, as “messenger.” That leaves it up to the reader to decide if they even want to distinguish between heavenly or human messenger. And it leaves people like me (Paul) who want to make clear that in the Bible, all these “angels” are simply messengers or “spirit guides” – human or divine. What if they, like us, were both!

These messengers were normal and meaningful for Jesus. They can be for us, too.

Are Spirit Guides Here Today?

Ten of us (Paul) were having a lovely conversation after dinner with a well-known, brilliant Christian teacher and author. We were sharing childhood stories, and she said she had a make-believe friend that was her closest companion in her early years. His name was Luke and she pretended he was Luke, the Gospel writer. I asked her why, and she said because he said that was who he was. My ears and heart perked up. I said, “What if he wasn’t “make-believe” and “pretend?” What if he really was Luke and one of your spiritual guides? You certainly followed in his footsteps as a teacher and author!” There was silence around the table as everyone waited for her response—and probably a little shocked at my audacity to suggest such a far-out thing to this famous intellectual. She smiled, and I don’t know if she ever pursued it. It is certainly not the norm in her academic setting that anyone would consider such a thing.

Would you consider such a thing as having a spiritual guide? Apparently Jesus did since we have several accounts of that and one detailed example in the center of three of the Gospels.

Our phrase “spiritual guides” refers to spiritual messengers, both non-physical angelic entities and deceased saints in spiritual form. They are part of “the cloud of witnesses” from the other side who are invested in helping others on this side. I like the terminology “spiritual guides” because it takes it out of the realm of the religiously loaded idea of being “saintly” or “angelic” into the realm of those who have gained a certain maturity and wisdom, transitioned to the other side, and available to help guide and encourage us.

These spirit guides have been present down through the ages as well as today. Relating to the saints who have passed on is a part of the majority of the historic Christian denominations (Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Armenians, Copts) —except for Protestants, Charismatics, and Evangelicals!

Why Spiritual Guides?

"Jesus is Here" - image by Dalmo Mendonça

If you talk with other Christians about spiritual guides, you will get a variety of responses. The traditionalist will trot out the usual scare passages from the Old Testament, “Let no one be found among you who ... who consults the dead” (Deut 18:10). The modernist will view this transrational event with skepticism and assume you are delusional. The postmodernist might see this as just a powerful story from which you draw symbolic meaning, but not actually real.

People all over the world have experiences with these spiritual presences, but usually, only if they are open and available to them. If the mind has closed off spiritual guides in skepticism or fear, they’re much harder to sense. With more practice and cultivated awareness, they become more noticeable.

The earliest Christians held many different views about what came to be called Christianity. The first significant controversy between different views was whether the Jewish Christians should welcome Gentile Christians into the Christian fold without becoming Jews. For Christianity to step out of the historic Jewish framework and became a separate movement from Judaism, it took about a hundred years.

As I (Paul) understand it, the most significant, admitted to or not, controversy in Christianity today is around the mystical dimension of following Jesus. Marcus Borg articulated this by saying that, first of all, Jesus was a “spirit” person. By “spirit person,” Borg means that Jesus was a “mediator of the sacred” for whom God was a reality that was experienced. This is his language for what I would call “mystical Christianity.” The framework of numerous beliefs and doctrines and their seeming importance to many Christian groups obscures the mystical heart of Jesus and his call to us. I think Catholic theologian Karl Rahner had it right when he said, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or he will not exist at all.”

What one believes about Jesus is less important than how one relates to him as a spiritual being personally present with us now. This is how one connects to him and merges with him (or his evolved equivalent). Is Jesus a great teacher, a prophet of justice, social, and environmental change, or one who shows us the way to God and how to live? Yes, to all of those. However, I believe, first of all, that Jesus wants to be our guide and friend in mystical communion, which can merge into union. This is Jesus as our transforming friend who is so close that we are one. Everything else finds its most integrated place after that. This makes Jesus the prototype, mystical, spirit guide for me. That does not mean he is the only highly evolved being of love and light. Rather, he is one who has widened the cosmic path for all such high-level guides to do their work in all healing traditions and loving spiritual paths.

Having Jesus as a spirit guide and talking to him does not necessarily mean that you are a Christian. It just means, in my opinion, given the option of the untamed Jesus, that you have excellent taste when it comes to spiritual matters!

You Only Want Guides Of The Highest Truth And Love

You don’t want to invite weird friends to the party! However, meditative prayers immersed in Jesus and God’s presence do not need to worry about negative energies becoming attached to them.

The most profound wisdom for Christians (and, in my opinion, for others, too) is having at least one master of spiritual enlightenment such as Jesus and Mary. These beings of light are incredibly attentive to the spiritual needs of humanity and act to inspire and motivate our spiritual growth. Other spirit companions may be those enlightened in a particular area.

A spirit guide is a reality shaped by you and God in co-creation for your benefit. For instance, the divine reality of the spiritual master, Jesus, will come to you in any form that connects with you. You shape the form such as the traditional appearing Jesus, a feminine form as Christ Sophia, or in Eastern, Western, African, or any other cultural appearance. Appearance is only for our benefit. The reality of the presence of the being of light is what transforms us.

The most helpful spirit guides are evolved beings who are wise, compassionate, and often amusing.

For over 30,000 years in many cultures, a spirit guide has been considered a nature or animal spirit – encountered by a native shaman – to bring healing or guidance into the spirit world. In New Age circles, a spirit guide is often seen as a heavenly being who offers spiritual guidance and cheerful healing energy. This radiant angelic guide is there to bring you whatever you want – like Aladdin’s Genie – no strings attached. This is a bit too removed from spiritual reality.

I find in my life and research that Jesus comes as a loving, hugging, being of love and light, but also as one who is earthy and grounded as a former physical being. He has been wounded and vulnerable like us. He guides us through the darkness. And he sends us out as spiritual guides ourselves to assist others – to heal and bless. Different from many new-age spirit guides or shamans, he offers us a loving family of those on the same journey. Other evolved guides fit this description, too.

Accessing the Presence of God, Jesus, and Your Spiritual Guides

"Jesus Appears" - image by Dalmo Mendonça

Start with Jesus
“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them” (Matt 18:20).

One does not “figure out” or “make up” a guide. It helps to be around Christians and others who regularly connect with their own guides. This can happen in our WeSpace groups. We both have often seen others’ guides in a group when we meet with the group for the first few times. We point them out so the group can get used to the presence of non-physical spiritual entities. A Christian’s primary spiritual guide is usually Jesus. He is the most easily accessed guide in the world because he has been connected with so many times, beginning 2000 years ago after the resurrection and constantly down throughout history to today. The pathway to him is wide open. We suggest you begin with him.

If you have had such an abusive background in the Christian tradition or with male figures that you cannot consider Jesus, then you might begin with Mary. Her pathway is also wide open, with her many appearances and millions of prayers to her. Or choose another saintly guide you feel drawn to who has a tradition of loving care.

Opening up to the friendship of the presence of the Living Jesus is incredible. Jesus is not picky about what you believe about him or God. He comes to angry fundamentalists, traditional evangelicals, evolving postmoderns, believers, doubters, atheists, sinners, saints – absolutely anybody.

We will admit that atheists and Christians in the modern/postmodern deconstructed stage have a more difficult time. They may be intellectually hardened to the mystical and have dismissed the reality of non-physical spiritual beings, including Jesus. Or they may not accept an intimate,2nd-person face of God, feeling all they have left, after extreme deconstruction, is the cosmic, the impersonal.

So, we’d like to offer an experiment. In a quiet moment, allow yourself to move into your heart. Let yourself ask, “If you are there, Jesus, let me sense your presence.” Honest seekers who will allow themselves to go into their heart space with that request are often blown away by what they discover.

"Jesus and John" - image by Dalmo Mendonça

My First Guide Beyond Jesus

For years I (Paul) had a weekly massage from a woman who also did energy healing work. She had guides and I was intrigued when she occasionally talked about them. One day, I asked her, “How would I find out if I had any guides besides Jesus?” She said, “Ask them!” I asked, “How does that work? Give me a starting place.” She said, “Who have you been drawn to as you read and study the Bible. I immediately said the Apostle John.

She said, “Ask him if he would be a guide for you.” This was getting more than my intellectually overgrown mind could take, so I said, “Okay, I will try that out tonight.” She said, “Why not try it out now?” I was caught! So I summoned up my courage, and said out loud, “John, would you be my spiritual guide?” I immediately “heard,” in my head but not audibly, the words, “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me.”

I instantly burst into tears, unusual for the emotionally out of touch, reserved me. I said to him, “I didn’t think you would have time. You must be busy.” His reply was, “Come on, you know the time-space stuff does not apply in my world, only yours.” So began a long, liberating relationship of many years with John. I wrote down what we talked about for several years. Now I mostly enjoy his loving presence and his hand on my right shoulder with occasional brief conversations.

The Divine Feminine

I (Luke) had been open to receiving new guides for a little while. I tried to invite one, which led to a faint sense of presence, but nothing too palpable. I had also been wanting a more palpable experience of the divine feminine in my life as well. Then, right around the time of the birth of my daughter, a strong presence appeared to me in a way that was powerful and direct.

When I described the experience to my wife, she said, “That sounds like Danu.” Not being as well versed in Celtic mythology as her, I had no idea who she was talking about. In a world with Google, mystery can sometimes be a little less mysterious. I found several images and immediately recognized her. I also learned that her name means, “the Flowing One,” and not too much is known about her. Mystery after all. She is the mother goddess, often associated with rivers, fertility, and wisdom. She is a guiding presence, and I feel her hand on my right cheek. She is often portrayed with a triskele, which has become an important symbol for me.

Why Danu? Why a Celtic goddess? Why not someone from the Christian tradition? Someone I was more familiar with? I have some intuitions about why it has been her, but I’m still learning. While we often are drawn to guides we have studied or know something about, sometimes we need a presence who is free of associations and emotional/spiritual baggage. It may not be quite as “orthodox,” but that’s sometimes how it goes with evolving faith.

And I don’t need to know why. The experience of the presence of a guide is not one of rational, cognitive knowing. It is visionary and is often felt with the heart and the body.

I feel her hand on my cheek. I turn to her, “What do you want to say?”

“There are entire worlds to discover. Come, let yourself see. We are simply waiting for you.”

All Images are open-source, used with permission, or created by ICN

WeSpace with Spiritual Guides