Inner Teachers - Interview With An Angel

This entry was taken from the text of a book that I first read in 1997 entitled, Interview With An Angel by Steven J Thayer and Linda Sue Nathanson.  This is one of those books that can be read over and over and with each reading one will have deeper insights into themselves and the world around them.  I plan to have three blog entries from this book over the next week.  This entry I chose because of the interest in mediums and channelers in books and on the Net.  I too have experience in this area and find this an explanation of the phenomenon that is close to my own thinking.  Linda is the one who interviews and records Steven while he is in trance.  The one who speaks through him goes by the name of Ariel.  Now for the first entry:

Inner Teachers

Linda:  What are the advantages and disadvantages of learning through another person's inner teacher?

Ariel:  The question itself points out once again the human minds judgemental operation, which we do not have.  To fragment or partition or label knowledge or aspects of reality into positive and negative, good or bad, advantages or disadvantages is purely human.

The path of growth within this marvelous learning opportunity that you call being human ultimately comes to a single point of  focus.  This focal point is the direct, personal, experiential knowledge of what you call God.  It is not the understanding of what other people have found or what other people have written or even what you have read or heard from sacred text that you call scriptures.  The direct task, the most important task of any soul traveling through the journey of a human experience called life is personally from an area that you refer to as your heart to know God deeply through communion.

Some people will have the great fortune to encounter that communion experience directly.  They will come to know God through what you called an inner teacher or inner guide or even through the communion experience with celestial energies that you might call from your human perspective, a being outside of yourself.  This is indeed one of the most profound ways to refine the depths of the experience of knowing and understanding God.

Different growth steps along the way will allow a person to encounter what you have labeled in your world, a higher self, a higher sense of self, inner wisdom or inner knowing.  There are many different words to describe the phenomenon of experiencing and understanding yourself and the universe in which you live that extends beyond the definition of the separate, distinct thing that you think you are.

In  some cases the experience can extend beyond the higher self to other celestial beings such as guardians, spirits, angels and deities that are perceived by the person as being separate and distinct and coming from outside the person.  And again, appreciate that this inside and outside distinction is unique to the huamn mind or in the reality there is a continuum that you call God which does not have such distinctions.  But that is something you cannot grasp with your mind.  It is in essence, incomprehensible to you.

Finding someone who will awaken your inner knowledge by using his inner knowledge to help and support you in your quest is often a wonderful transitional step.  And while the knowledge does not come from your own direct experience, once heard it can have a deep, deep resonance within you.  It can awaken and kindle the flame of inner spiritual knowledge and although it came through anothers spirituality, openness, or the communion that another being has mastered, the information itself can provide a tremendous opportunity to awaken in you deep soul level knowledge and growth.

However, it is but a temporary stepping stone.  For the true quest on the spiritual path and the spiritual growth within the soul's journey of a lifetime is to find that knowledge directly.  It is the main theme and thesis of each of your religions, although it is often not practiced.  It is easy to get stuck, to become complacent and to be lax at doing what is often very difficult inner spiritual work.

Within the framework of the organizations that you call religions is the invitation to use religion as a support tool as you journey along their prescribed path.  Religion is a path designed to give you first, the intellectual understanding of what you seek and second, deep inner spiritual understanding by direct knowing, by the direct communion experience.

When following the path of religion, souls often become complacent with the intellectual understanding that religion offers and thus do not find for themselves the deep inner communion experience that they seek.  They in essence, stay complacent with the knowledge gained from the deep communion experience of others who have gone before them.

Relying on others inner knowledge which they gain from their higher self or from what you label as spirit or an angel can also become a place to be trapped, to become complacent and to rely solely on the efforts of others and not be spurred on by the knowledge gained and the resonance attained to complete the task of finding the connection and the communion for yourself.  For no matter how good that knowledge gained through the skill and the compassion of anyone who conveys it to you, it always falls short of that which you can attain through inner knowing yourself.

In that same vein, there is a calculated and misunderstood risk that these very words that we are speaking now could become for some a crutch upon which to rest.  But we also know that the words that we speak will awaken many a heart, will inspire many a soul to complete the personal growth that they have embarked upon through the journey of their lives.  There is nothing done from this realm that is extra and there is nothing done that is without full understanding of what will transpire.  So, we take no risk in conveying these words through you.