Today, I just want to share some thoughts I have about being a spiritual teacher and coach. Since my guidance is to strengthen “my inner observer,” I’ve had the opportunity to watch people interact with the information that comes through me, without emotions getting in my way. I thought I’d share my observations, as it might help someone out there choose between content and marketing/appearance/perception.

Even though I implicitly have followed my guidance to make the teachings I share accessible to as many people as possible, I have never hid the facts that I am a transchannel first and have received over 20 years of training from a Native American Moon Woman. Even though I rarely present myself in either context, I am fully capable of pulling in messages from the highest guides on the Spiritual Planes and have done for many, many years, and continue to do in my private spiritual practices, high ceremony. Just because I neither overtly nor covertly advertise these gifts doesn’t mean I don’t own them. Just because I rarely don my feathers and turquoise jewelry doesn’t mean I don’t have ceremonial garb. What it does mean is that I am very conscious that in order to broaden my outreach, I have to appeal to the most people. That means I spend a great deal of time just talking to people, listening to their dreams for themselves and their families, and translating what I know and the information that flows through me into something that people can hear.

Several weeks ago I had a great discussion with my friends on my regularly scheduled Friday night program, The Exchange on ACIM Gather (http://www.acimgather.org) on this very topic. We used the example of James Arthur Ray who marketed himself as a water pourer for Native American Sweat Lodges, using words like “Sacred” “Secret” “Ceremony” “Hidden” “Deep in the Jungles of South America.” His marketing piece on his website made it seem that he had both knowledge and standing in the Native American world as a ceremonial/lodge leader. This indeed was not the case, and several people died and were injured in Sedona, AZ as a result of Mr. Ray’s attempts to lead a ceremony he was unqualified to supervise.

How do I know this? First, in the Indigenous world no one markets their work. Someone’s knowledge base and abilities are confirmed by others and shared by word of mouth. For example, no one ever says, “I am a Medicine Woman.” Others might call someone a Medicine Woman, because she helped them in some way. It is in fact the community that gives credence to the notion that someone connects to Creator in a good way and is helpful. What a bona fide Native American teacher/ceremonial leader will do is share with you who their Elders are and what lineage supports them. That is the acceptable credential in that world.

Second, I have written Mr. Ray several emails and contacted his supporters on Facebook asking them for information about Mr. Ray’s lineage and Elders so that my Elders can connect with his and help correct Mr. Ray’s behavior. No one has ever responded, and it is my contention that they don’t respond because they can’t respond. It is my belief, unless Mr. Ray and/or his supporters give appropriate information to me, that Mr. Ray does not have a lineage in the Indigenous world and that no Elders take responsibility for his behavior. He, therefore, is not in fact a water pourer, has never gone through extensive training and supervision as a water pourer, and had no business taking anyone, let alone dozens of people, through a sweat lodge ceremony.

The sad thing to me is that somewhere along the line Mr. Ray seems to have started to believe his own marketing hype. I really feel that he saw himself as a ceremonial leader, even though he patently was not. Also, if his many emails are any sign of where he is at, he does not take personal responsibility for what happened in the Sweat Lodge in Sedona. Taking responsibility is key to good Medicine work. In the Indigenous world until Mr. Ray makes right, he will never have any good connections, either in the Spirit World or with the People.

So, please be aware, when you are looking for a teacher, that in many spiritual disciplines there are mentors and lineages. The teacher is only as good as the lineage that stands for him or her. So, do due diligence and find out what is standard practice for a teacher in the discipline you are thinking of studying, and only study with someone who has a great lineage and the fruit from that tree.

The second part of my talk with you today is more personal. I have had the opportunity to share teachings on several fronts over the last six months and watch what people do with them. It’s been quite enlightening.

One of the first things I noticed is that who starts applying the teachings will often surprise you. I’ve been watching two young gentlemen who are around 23 years of age, for example. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on chat with the youngster who is heavily attracted to Indigenous teachings and wants to be a healer. Although he’s had some Ah Ha! moments over the course of the last year with me, he continues to walk into karmic lessons (lessons learned through suffering). This last set of lessons I’m watching him in has to do with how he chooses teachers. I’d like to share my observations of his walk with you.

On the one hand, I have been sharing foundational teachings and healing work with this young man all along. I have even put him in touch with my “Auntie” (my Native American teacher), as a first connection to my lineage. I drove over three hours to Alabama to attune him to Reiki, when his teacher of choice fell through. On the other hand, he went to a few sweat lodges with water pourers I know in Alabama and eventually decided to present his Medicine gifts to the couple and request to be taught by them. He even moved to their property and works full time on the property for a barely habitable, poorly-heated room and very little board. After being there since November, the couple has not responded in an appropriate, timely manner to his request for teachings. I doubt that they ever will.

Then, I watched the other young man. I met him because he was a friend of my roommate of 20 plus years, and they went into business together. By profession, this young man is a hairdresser, and he loves to help people. On its face, I would have never thought that this man would connect with my teachings. But, he has. He’s hungry for the teachings, applies what I’m sharing with him, accepts me as is, and shares the teachings and opportunities to work with me with his friends. He has made so much progress in the last few months that I can’t wait to see what he manifests next.

Another person I was observing is the only person I ever apprenticed in over 20 years. I really like this lady and connect strongly with her vision of helping animals. I know that she is new to the spiritual path, and often that means that the bells and whistles being marketed are attractive. But, I was totally flabbergasted when she emailed me to say that she was not going to participate in the teachings at this point. I know for a fact that she spent considerable money, that she did not have, to attend a weekly workshop on creating abundance. Since she told me that she is processing negative emotions and suffering while doing this, I know that she either isn’t applying good abundance teachings, or appropriate truth teachings aren’t being passed along. What is even more on point is that the process I offered to share with her, for free, has a huge track record of effectiveness in helping one manifest what delights, without processing negativity or suffering in any way.

Where I went in my thinking is that people are attached to how they receive the teachings. They want to be in control of how the teachings manifest for them. I knew this, as my Reiki Master told me this over 20 years ago when we discussed the attunement process. My Reiki Master did a traditional style attunement because people who researched Reiki usually had some idea of what that process was like. My contention was that the attunement was sealing an energy transfer that had already occurred, so it didn’t matter how one attuned a student but that one did enough for the student to believe something happened. Even though my Reiki Master agreed with me, he contended that appearing to do the attunement in the “right way” perhaps was a part of building that belief.

In the instances above, I have been guided to offer a life line to three people. Let’s say metaphorically that I offered a white life line. One of these folk didn’t care what color the life line was, so he took it and pulled himself up. One of the people said, “I want a red life line. If it isn’t red, it’s not Native. So, I don’t even see the white life line, even though it’s laying right in front of me.” Unfortunately, unless the Universe intervenes, this guy is in a vibrational morass that could be very challenging to overcome. In the case of the apprentice, she said, “I see the white life line. I’ve seen others pick it up. I’ve even picked it up every once in awhile and then put it down. But, pulling myself up with the white life line means I’m going to have to give up suffering and change some things in my life. I think I’ll try this other life line. They are in a healing center. The way they market their work sounds good. Their terminology sounds really spiritual. They have techniques.”

To round off this discussion, I would just like to say that my training as a healer tells me to be unattached to people’s process and results. I was trained to hold the space for miracles to occur but not to put my details on what someone else’s miracle would look like. As my Elders say, “Healing for some people is a miracle cure. Healing for some people will be happiness in spite of disease or disability. Healing for others might be a good death.” So, even though some part of me feels emotional as I watch people move in and out of the teachings, I work on being as detached as I can.

When it comes down to it, I can only give you one good piece of guidance on this topic. It’s not original to me. In fact, it’s something I picked up by studying Jesus’s words in The Bible. “Look at the fruit on the tree.” Do your research. Find out not only how a person acts in class but how they treat family members and business associates. If his/her fruit uniformly is tasty all of the time in every season, you might want to try it. If it’s not, there are other trees out there. Finally, if you do try the fruit of someone’s tree and see that it is seasonal or not to your taste, you can always find another tree. Ultimately, all paths go one place — they uncover our complete awareness that we are always connected to All That Is. That is God’s promise and our salvation.