Can Spirit Guides Give Bad Advice?

image - bad spirit guide “Do spirit guides ever give bad advice or the wrong advice? I did what (I thought) they were saying I should do and it ended up being a mess. Now I’m afraid to trust them…”

The questioner didn’t give me any specifics about her situation, so I’ll adapt a few other people’s stories as illustrations — one of them being mine.

I recently went through a frustrating situation that speaks to this (which I’ll tell you more about in detail in just a minute) but let me go ahead and give you my short answer up front.

In my experience, it’s not so much that spirit guides can or can’t give “bad” advice — it’s that we sure can do a lousy job of employing them properly and/or interpreting their messages:

hearing what we want to hear
interjecting our own will (even though our judgment may be flawed)
believing their will can precede ours
making bad decisions
needing to learn things the hard way
and taking the wrong actions

Bright Shiny Object Syndrome
You are distracted on your quest for treasure, and veer off the map to pick up another glittering gem that just happens to be close enough to your path that you think… “Oooo! Not exactly what I’m after, but it’s right here. What can it hurt?”

(Retail stores very craftily tap into the emotion of this kind of opportunity by placing items in the check out line that you didn’t come in for, didn’t need, and didn’t know to want until you saw them — they call them impulse buys.)

When close enough ends up closer to wrong…
Last fall, my friend Jeff received some divine guidance about relocating to Hawaii and starting his own business. He had a reading with Colette Baron-Reid (we’re big Colette groupies — love her!) and she confirmed this. When I met Jeff in November, I also picked up that he was going to move to Hawaii this year as part of a major life change, and that in addition to (or prior to) launching his own business, there was also a job opportunity working for someone else (an older female) in a similar field. But I definitely got Hawaii from his guides, in a big way. Multiple psychics kept confirming this for him — the job description, generally; and the location, very specifically.

So, in December, pretty much out-of-the-blue, he was offered a position working for an older man in a very similar capacity — but in Arizona. It had to be the correct path for him to take, right? It was SO similar to what he wanted to be doing… only the location was really “off.”

Everyone involved was a great person — but the job started elusively shifting and changing the moment he took it. He stuck with it thinking “But it’s almost perfect. Surely moving to Hawaii will be so much more challenging — this is Right Here! Maybe I can change my original plan to accommodate the easier and seemingly more immediate path…”

Logical Override
In the Angel Therapists’ community we refer to this as logical override — letting the ego-driven thinking mind deconstruct the clarity of our intuition with its “practical” fear-based arguments.

Jeff’s career detour quickly deteriorated with unforeseen blocks and complications — and it all felt awful — stress, discomfort, anxiety. The body is a powerful and accurate divination tool.

He ultimately had to course correct, to realign with his original intention to move to Hawaii. This seemingly more monumental move unfolded effortlessly — and quickly — in a comparable amount of time. He experienced instances of divine timing all over the place… and he leaves for Hawaii in less than a week.

And he feels good — invigorated, excited, enthusiastic. The right decision or action feels right.

Lost

A few weeks ago, I completed production on the latest version of my class on Talking to Your Spirit Guides. Although the information in the lectures did not change much at all, the quality of the recording was a tremendous improvement — and the guided meditation underwent a HUGE transformation. I was very proud of the results and wanted to make the upgrade available to everyone who had already taken the class. Especially since I received such great feedback about the attunement portions of my workshops, with many requests to record them.

I talked to my spirit guides about potential courses of action to take regarding my meditations:

getting the new version to existing students
marketing the classes
and producing more guided meditations on a variety of other topics.

My guides gave me very brief, succinct, simple, clear, common sense advice:

Give the spirit guide attunement away — to EVERYONE. The easiest way to make sure anyone who wanted to download could do so — plus, a free preview would help to authentically market the full course.
For several days there were 222’s everywhere, which I interpret as additional confirmation of the guidance to involve others. I had planned for months to offer an affiliate program, as soon as I felt that the product was top-notch.
Last but not least, immediately begin writing and recording more, while my creative momentum was high. I began writing new meditation scripts, on a variety of topics — I was effortlessly downloading (channeling) them, like a court reporter, pure transcription… I had five new scripts in various stages of completion, with two of them ready to record and mix over the next two or three days…

And then I… lost my freaking mind, apparently, and wandered way off course. Got completely lost, spent two weeks working on unnecessary tasks that were not part of the original plan, and ultimately, after stressing myself into a frenzy, ended up having to revisit The Art of Surrender (yes, AGAIN!) and undo everything. Retrace my steps backwards — a LOT of steps in both directions, just to get back to Step One.

But, hey — change your mind; change it back. Abort when it’s warranted — when it’s clearly not working.

It was exhausting. But I can not blame it on my guides. If I stuck to the simple, obvious, next, straightforward steps — I would have uploaded the meditation preview, stuck the link in my free resource Contacting Your Spirit Guides, and posted on the blog telling all subscribers to check it out.

… Then, proceed with the new recordings…

Which is where things stand today. But let me tell you the ridiculous tangents and detours I went off on first/instead.

I am very willful. I am very aware of my free will. I am very aware that I am the authority of spirit manifested in my life. I am very aware that I’m driving the car and my guides are, at best, big mouthed passengers and back-seat navigators. I don’t pray to my guides. I don’t beg them to do things for me. I don’t even ask my spirit guides what I should do — I tell them what I’m planning to do and let them weigh in.

I decided to segment my lists — a tedious activity that is unlikely to interest anyone here, except maybe those of you who are internet marketers — let’s just say it was serious overkill in getting the word out about my meditations.

Bright Shiny New Marketing Lists
I decided while I was at it to build some entirely NEW lists. Guys, there are quite a few of you, I am happy to say, but the size of my list and how quickly I can build a new one meant that I TRIPLED the expense of my monthly business overhead in twenty four hours. For NO reason other than I could. (I am very proud of the fact that I have run my own business for five years on a tiny overhead budget.)

Once I had new lists, I “decided” I needed new publications to serve them and spent days coding email newsletter templates — which is like the most aggravating activity for any designer on the planet. And to top it off, there were technical issues with the list management service that put the most serious problems entirely outside of my ability to control or fix.

Brick wall, after dead end, after briar patch, after muddy ditch, after locked door… Let me tell you one thing I absolutely know to be true:

Solutions (good solutions) are NOT complicated. The set backs and the blocks — not to mention, the body stress that goes along with it — are sure signs that you are NOT engaging a good plan.

Did it positively affect my income? No.
Were more people reached? No.
Did it get me NEW readers? No.
Did it cost me more money? Yes, I was going to spend three times the amount of money to run my business, with no effect on the bottom-line. STUPID.
Did it create more work? YES, like… to infinity!
Did my actions fulfill the intentions I had set with the advice of my guides? NO.
Did I need to learn some lessons from this? Yeah, apparently I did.

If you can’t find any other philosophical distance to maintain your sanity, the perspective of a necessary lesson will usually work when all other answers to Why Me? don’t suffice.

There’s a piece of marketing wisdom I learned several years ago (can’t remember who said it) that has broader application:

“There’s no such thing as a failed marketing campaign, only useful data about what does NOT work.”

So, my spirit guides clearly did not give me bad advice, right?
Well, that’s the most interesting observation of all. During the course of this series misadventures — all along the way — I was telling myself that my guides had told me to do all this. I kept prompting them for additional input, at each hurdle I encountered because of my (ill-advised ?) detours, and they kept trying to help me — with MY crazy-assed course of actions, not theirs — for awhile…

I called Jeff to tell him about my meltdown and what was going on and the first thing he asked me was “What are your guides saying about all of this?”

My guides aren’t saying jack. They stopped talking a while back. As a matter of fact, they had me pull over and drop them off. They said “Pick us up on your way back to Grounded, dude.”

When your guides go quiet on you — especially after you’ve been asking them the same thing over and over again — chances are they’ve said all they have to say. They’ve already given you the best advice they have. You’ve probably been asking repeatedly, because you’re not getting the answer you want. There’s something already laid out there, before you, right in front of your face. Once you get it you can move forward again.

The lesson may not be fun; it may not be easy.

Most of the significant things we learn, we learn the hard way.
Slade's signature
image credit Lupinthe3rd via Creative Commons on Flickr

February 22, 2009 | by Slade Roberson | Filed Under Spirit Guides

Free resources for Shift Your Spirits readers:

Comments

8 Responses to “Can Spirit Guides Give Bad Advice?”

Ashwin on February 22nd, 2009 8:16 pm

I love the car analogy with you driving and the spirit guides as your big-mouthed passengers. Its kind of a funny visual too.

I get of course verryyy frequently too. Its like I am looking for excitement or something. Nice article Slade, thanks!
Laurie Brenner on February 22nd, 2009 11:14 pm

Slade:

We must be on parallel paths, the difference being, I have just opened up to consciously listen to my guides. For the longest time, I chose to ignore them. (Religious conditioning and all that rot) And boy are they big-mouthed as well!

I woke up the other morning to at least three distinct voices speaking, each after the other. The personality differences were amazing. And I haven’t even tried your spiritual attunement thingy you mention. But I have been meditating nigh on 36 years so…. One of my guides sounded like someone who was a Ringmaster or something with the touch of humor there. Quite the character. Another one sounded like a female version of Teal’c (from the Stargate series) with the stiff and formal speech. Talk about a variation there! Wow!

I, unlike you, have not previously made any substantial nor sustainable dollars online yet though I know it is my destiny to do so - at which time I will quit my life-sucking job and work from home.

And like you, I too learn things the hard way. I am so capable of pushing something so hard that I smack my face on the closed vault door until I am blue in the face. You would think that at 55 one would learn by now, ay?

I am a hard cord DIY’er, having designed and built my own house (though my husband did most of the building) without ANY construction experience whatsoever (either of us).

It’s taken me basically two years to figure out this internet thing (and I am just getting the marketing part). I remember the first attempts at even buying a domain name and figuring out the process of creating a web page, coding the nameservers, understanding a “HOST” account and learning small bits of html and php. I know enough now to code my own affiliate links. I learn more daily.

I learn best by doing, not by listening, so unless my guides put something in my way, I’m going to keep on keeping on. They know this already. I was born under the sign of the Ram. When sheer butting the mountain with the head doesn’t work, I remember that I am surefooted and can just climb over the sucker!

In any case, sorry for the rambling. I so look forward to my Sunday Shift Your Spirits and am so grateful for your authenticity and openness. This is where our success lies!

Interestingly enough, I did a reading with Collete Baron-Reid, albeit by email, and I’ve been avoiding what I need to do: write the third book. She told me it was that book that would have the tremendous success that would bring interest to the other two.

Oh, well, but there are several in the wings - which one to write?

Like you, I feel as if I am channeling when I write. Oftentimes when I go back to it I wonder who wrote that? I have no recollection of what I have written and the voice sounds so much better than I think I do.

Something happens when I write. I watch a movie and then I just transcribe. Especially with a story. With non-fiction type writing I find that I have two bad starts, but on the third it’s like the plug fully nests in the socket and I am off and running.

Don’t mean to take up so much space in your comments section, but you know how we writers are. Much like our back-seat passengers, once a pen or a typewriter hits our fingers - we can never shut up!

Blessings Slade - I thoroughly enjoy your writings!

Laurie J.
Char Marie on February 22nd, 2009 11:29 pm

Hi Slade.. I love this column today, very much! It is one of your best ones.

In reading it I remember you writing something about “what if step b is all there is needed” (or close to that). I think sometimes we do not trust what we hear or guidance we receive because it seems impossible at the time to be so easy, and also because of external things.. voices of doubt, fear and too much darn LOGIC!

When we give energy to all that “in the middle” stuff… we are not looking at our vision, or honoring the “yes you CAN” we may hear very very strongly. And boy sometimes, wow.. people LOVE to say “yes you CAN’T.”

I have a story similar to your Hawaii story… I remember at the time thinking my guidance “could not possibly be…” if it was currently not possible in the physical world.. but what I did not pay attention to was that things energetically were moving behind the scenes and I was to trust in that. Thankfully, I did that like your friend. Once I honored the “seemingly impossible” it all literally began to show up in my life, the places, people, names, towns… and there I was suddenly, literally, living my dream.

It was, and is.. a very amazing adventure.

Thank you for putting your experiences, ideas and advice to words and speaking freely which gives others permission in a way, to speak. That is a huge gift.

Have a happy Sunday!
c.koo on February 23rd, 2009 3:56 pm

Slade,

Thanks for re-linking to “The Art of Surrender”
Slade Roberson on February 25th, 2009 8:11 pm

Thanks Ashwin!
I’m glad there’s not a hidden camera in my car.

Laurie,
Congratulations on having opened up to your guides. Very cool. And good for you in entering the blogosphere and teaching yourself to create your own economy — it’s a very empowering and practical set of skills to learn. You might benefit from reading one of my blog marketing tutorials.

And thank you for looking forward to my posts each Sunday — I love hearing that!

Char Marie,
One of your favorites, really?! I’m glad you told me that, because living through it in order to write about it felt like I’d thrown time down a black hole. Very cool that it spoke to you.

c.koo,
You are welcome. I don’t know how many times I’ve said it (especially in the comments) but The Art of Surrender is the ONE post that I revisit again and again. You’d think since I wrote it, I’d be really “good” at surrendering — I am NOT!
Quia on February 25th, 2009 11:30 pm

Hi Slade!

Can I just say that I found your latest post HIGHLY amusing and EXTREMELY accurate! How thick-headed we can become when we want something (or are absolutely, positively, 100% certain that our “hi-ho-silvering” is extremely accurate)! I too have found myself beating my head against the proverbial wall, fussing and mucking with stuff, trying to get it “right” because that is what my “guidance” said do. How quickly we forget that when there is struggle and strain, that is our warning light going off saying “WRONG WAY!! Turn back now or go through hell and back again if you proceed forward.” ;o)

I think it’s our subconscious/societal/slightly ingrained jargon of “no pain, no gain” that we keep slipping into, causing us to break through the warning barricade and go forth…into stress, frustration, and despair. And funny thing is, that after we lay there bruised and battered, waiting (begging) for reinforcements to come, is when we finally lower our own internal barricade to let the truth of the matter (and our real guidance) flood in. AND that’s when we find ourselves kicking ourselves in the proverbial ass and dragging ourselves back to square one. :o)

I can totally empathize with Jeff. My previous job seemed right along those lines. And although the first part felt like a breeze and “close enough,” the signs of distress/resistance appeared very early on. Sometimes you think you are doing the “right” thing, following the “right” guidance…and sometimes there is static on the line, you got it all wrong, and now it’s time to find the escape hatch!

I guess it all lies in the art of surrender AKA the art of allowing. If you are in “allowance” you are in flow. If you are paddling against tide, current, undertow, whirlpool, gravel, rock, mountain (you get the picture) that is a clear sign to let go of the oars and let the river take you to safety. If nothing else, your arms won’t be tired ;o)… and maybe you’ll finally be able to enjoy the ride.

Thanks again for writing such a relevant post!!

Q
Bob Makransky on February 27th, 2009 5:05 pm

Very right on, Slade, especially that part about wearing your guides out with the same questions over and over. Spirits get bored too! A couple of comments:

Spirits don’t see “happenings” or “events” so much as potentialities. They can see how things are flowing, but not precisely what will happen (although sometimes the probabilities are pretty certain to them). I was with my teacher once healing a man who was dying, and both he and I channeled that the man would live. But he died. I asked my teacher why the spirits had “lied” to me like that, and he replied that they had their reasons.

Sometimes the spirits have out-and-out lied to me, usually to encourage me to make an ass of myself. That’s part of the learning process. But sometimes they don’t have any better idea of “what” will happen than you or I do. They’re not omniscient - they just have a better handle on what’s going on than we embodied humans do.
Anna Conlan on March 1st, 2009 7:31 am

Great stuff, Slade. This has to be one my favourites as well…so many lessons in this which speak to me right now….

For example…….

In my enthusiasm, I often jump ahead to step five in my business plans before I’ve even finished step one, and then when I ask my guides what to do now; and why I’m not seeing results yet…, like you, I get silence, OR the message they gave me in the first place before I started doing tasks which aren’t creating results.

If there’s one thing I’ve been learning lately from my guides about taking action, it’s that sometimes it’s just best to complete the task in hand -the next, quickest, most accessible one that will create results, without thinking too much about what you need to do tomorrow or the day after.